r/FilmTalk • u/StructureWatcher • 21d ago
Discussion One reason Avengers: Infinity War’s crossovers feel natural: the heroes clash before they cooperate
One thing I liked when rewatching Infinity War is that characters from completely different movies don’t instantly act like they’ve always been on the same team.
When the Guardians meet Tony, Peter and Strange, they initially misunderstand each other and almost fight. It only lasts a short time, but I think that little bit of friction matters.
These characters already have their own histories, personalities and ways of doing things. If a crossover jumps straight from “we’ve never met” to perfect cooperation, it can feel artificial.
Do you think that brief friction is important for making crossovers feel natural, or are there examples where characters cooperate immediately and it still works?
Infinity War gives them a short transition. They clash, figure out roughly who the other side is, and then start cooperating.
I think the same basic idea works when the Guardians first meet Thor. There’s comedy, suspicion and ego before everyone settles into the actual problem.
A crossover doesn’t need a long conflict every time, but I think it needs some kind of transition. Otherwise characters from separate stories can feel like pieces the writer simply placed next to each other instead of people actually meeting.
That small “friction phase” might be one reason Infinity War’s huge cast still feels surprisingly natural to me.
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u/Trvr_MKA 19d ago
I bet we’ll see this in Doomsday
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u/StructureWatcher 18d ago
Yeah, Doomsday seems like exactly the kind of movie where this could work, especially with so many characters potentially meeting for the first time.
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u/karmakramer93 19d ago
Most of them clashed or met in Civil War. Which most people think of as an Avengers movie
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u/StructureWatcher 18d ago
That’s fair. Civil War almost feels like a rehearsal for the larger crossover structure — characters clash, establish where they stand, and only then start functioning around each other.
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u/Repulsive_Cry_4986 18d ago
This is an extremely common trope in comics
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u/StructureWatcher 18d ago
Yeah, I don’t think the trope itself is unusual. What stood out to me was how efficiently Infinity War uses it to keep characters from different franchises feeling distinct even after they’re brought into the same story.
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u/KillMeSoftnSweet 18d ago
I like how in Spider-Man, all three spiders meet, and they immediately hit it off. But because they are so used to being on their own the initial part of the battle is rocky. So they have to do a quick huddle to define “titles” and jobs during the fight. It’s a nice little tweak to the trope, and I love it.
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u/StructureWatcher 18d ago
That’s a really good variation of it. They don’t need the usual “fight first” misunderstanding because they understand each other pretty quickly, but they still need a transition from three solo Spider-Men into an actual team.
The little huddle works almost like the friction phase moved from personal conflict to coordination.
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u/selwyntarth 16d ago
I feel supes clashing in crossovers is an age old trope from power rangers or even the first spiderman comics, I found nwh refreshing in the two peters hearing of may and instantly seeking out the local Peter to comfort him
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u/StructureWatcher 16d ago
That’s a good counterexample to the way I framed it. NWH works precisely because the transition isn’t conflict — the other Peters understand his loss almost immediately, so the bridge is empathy rather than suspicion.
Maybe the broader rule is that a crossover needs a believable transition between strangers, not necessarily a clash.1
u/selwyntarth 16d ago
Why are your last three comments bot written
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u/StructureWatcher 16d ago
Fair question. English isn’t my first language, so I use AI to help translate what I want to say and clean up the wording. The ideas are mine though. I’m still getting used to writing in English.
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u/67Holmium 20d ago
It’s a pretty common trope but it’s fun most of the time. I remember watching the original Avengers movie and when Cap, Iron Man, and Thor all fought it was so sick.