Random MCU Mid/Post-Credits Scenes That Make No Sense (14 items)

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  (#4) The Avengers

  • Robert Downey, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Clark Gregg, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cobie Smulders

  The Avengers was the first time the MCU crossed over with itself in full earnestness - and then the mid-credits scene let fans know they hadn’t seen anything yet. The dramatic moment sees the being known as the Other informing Thanos of Loki’s failure and opining that to challenge the Avengers is "to court Death.” The Mad Titan turns around and smiles.

  It’s quite clear that when the Other says “Death,” he’s not referring to the general concept - Thanos isn’t some daredevil looking for a thrill, and the “D” is even capitalized in the official script. Instead, he’s obviously talking about the long-time Marvel Comics character Death, the literal embodiment of mortality and Thanos’s primary love interest. In the comics, Thanos is motivated by little else than his desire to win Death’s affections.

  This plot point must have got dropped somewhere along the way as the Thanos that audiences eventually meet in Avengers: Infinity War has a very different purpose in life - one that is arguably a lot more reasonable than just wanting to hook up with a skeleton.
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  (#9) Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

  • Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Yuen Wah, Ronny Chieng, Zach Cherry, Dallas Liu, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Jayden Zhang, Elodie Fong

  Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ring ends with a series of rapid-fire cameos, some of which make more sense than others. Wong pays off his brief appearance in the Golden Daggers fight club to interrupt Shang and Katy's drinks with friends and officially bring them into the Avengers/Kamar-Taj fold. While that tracks with the ancient magic of Ta Lo and the Ten Rings (seemingly), it's the mid-credits scene that poses way more questions than it answers.

  After analyzing the rings for their power source, Wong consults with Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner for their input. Apparently, the Rings send out a cosmic signal deep into the MCU's cosmos that not even Captain Marvel knows about. That seems to be setting up a cosmic threat that is a couple movies away, but Banner's appearance directly contradicts the growth he seemingly found during the Blip. Banner found a sense of balance with "the green guy" that allowed him to exist with his own own mind in the Hulk's super strong body. In Shang-Chi, Banner is back in his human form, which means Banner discovered a new internal conflict offscreen. It's just too many questions to tack on at the end of a new hero's MCU debut.
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  (#11) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

  • Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Sylvester Stallone, Pom Klementieff, Kurt Russell, Elizabeth Debicki, Tommy Flanagan, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn

  Stan Lee’s cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 pokes fun at a long-time fan theory that he’s been secretly portraying a Watcher this entire time, but it also raises some questions. For one, Lee tells the Watchers about his time as a “Federal Express man,” but that’s a reference to his cameo in Captain America: Civil War - which is set two years after this film. Does that mean Stan the Man is a time-traveler too?

  The last of five post-credits scenes doesn’t clear up the matter of Lee-as-Watcher-informant any more - it only further complicates it. The Watchers silently bail on him as he laments, “You were supposed to be my lift home! How will I get out of here?” Does this mean that the Watchers are in the habit of recruiting informants, shooting them through time and space, and then abandoning them on random moons once they’re done with them? 

  And if so, who’s guarding the galaxy from this group of sociopaths?
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  (#8) Guardians of the Galaxy

  • Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Benicio Del Toro, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Laura Haddock, Sean Gunn, Peter Serafinowicz, Christopher Fairbank

  When Howard the Duck shows up inside Taneleer Tivan’s collection in the post-credits scene for Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s an amusing shoutout to the first real Marvel movie. It’s also troubling for a number of reasons.

  Howard is later shown partying it up in Contraxia and even fighting alongside the Avengers in Endgame, so he’s clearly a sentient being with his own hopes, dreams, and desires - along with at least somewhat of a heroic streak. At the very least, he seems like a creature that would greatly dislike being imprisoned. And yet, when given the opportunity to escape from the Collector’s collection, Howard just sits there, drinks a beverage, and cracks wise. He should be duck-tailing it out of there, but he appears to be in no hurry - and downright chummy with the same guy who just had him locked up for who knows how long.

  And that’s not even getting into the fact that the scene opens with the Collector having his face licked by one of the most powerful psychics in the Marvel Universe. 
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  (#1) The Incredible Hulk

  • Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, Christina Cabot, Peter Mensah, Lou Ferrigno, Paul Soles, Débora Nascimento

  The post-credits scene in The Incredible Hulk features Tony Stark walking into a bar to meet a drunken General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross and ask him “What if I told you we were putting a team together?”

  It was obvious at the time, and even more so in hindsight, that the clip was meant to signal the cohesive nature of the new Marvel Cinematic Universe and hype up the Hulk’s eventual appearance in The Avengers - but it also doesn’t make a lot of sense. Who exactly is Stark trying to recruit here? It’s almost certainly not General Ross himself, and it’s definitely not Bruce Banner either - Ross just spent an entire movie proving how bad he was at controlling the Hulk.

  The only interpretation that really tracks is that Stark is looking to add Emil Blonsky, AKA the Abomination, to the roster, but that would be a terrible choice. And why is Stark doing the recruiting anyway? At this point in the story, he’s not even an Avenger himself and won’t be for several years. 

  In fact, the scene was so incongruous that Marvel Studios later released a One-Shot called The Consultant which explains the entire thing away as a scheme by Phil Coulson. Basically, someone at S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted Blonsky to join Earth’s Mightiest Initiative, and Coulson knew that was a bad idea, so he sent in the one guy he knew Ross would refuse - Tony Stark, in all his smug glory.
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  (#7) Captain America: Civil War

  • Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, Daniel Brühl, Martin Freeman, Alfre Woodard, Jim Rash

  The post-credits scene for Captain America: Civil War features the recently debuted Peter Parker toying around with his new Tony Stark-built web-shooters in his bedroom. He’s astonished to learn that they can project a holographic menu onto his ceiling of all the various options Stark put into his suit - but why would such a function even exist?

  Readers of comics will recognize the moment as a shoutout to the Spider-Signal, an infrequently used part of Spider-Man’s traditional arsenal that is quite frankly ridiculous even in comic book form. But it’s even more ridiculous attached to a piece of Stark technology, especially a suit that audiences later learn comes with a built-in AI assistant that completely eliminates the need for such a gaudy user interface. Why would Stark also take the time to design a flashy menu that must be projected onto a flat surface to work and would surely attract a lot of unwanted attention?
   

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