New Avengers Trailer, is Thanos a cool villain?

The new trailer looks cool, but Thanos still doesn't sound interesting to me. Wanting to kill half the universe sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon villain. I think Thor 2 has the worst MCU villain because of that reason (maybe not worse than Luke Cage's second villain, but it's between those two). I'm not into comics, for those who are, what make Thanos a good villain and do you see that thing in the trailers?

Other than that it's looking great. Apparently asking "where is Hawkeye" is some internet thing right now. He's not on the poster or in the trailer. I don't think I've seen Antman either. It would be cool if the Netflix heroes could be in this too, but it doesn't sound like they'll ever intersect. Luke Cage would be way more useful than someone like Black Widow. It's cool that we'll be able to go back to Wakanda so soon. I think Cap or Iron Man are going to bite it in Avengers 4.

Did I just see Cap stop Thanos's fist with his hand?

WTF!!!! Thanos can go toe to toe with the Hulk

i don't think MCU has ever had a truly riveting villain IMHO.

they never allow them to survive more than one film, so how much character development can you really do?

@marcsman:Oh he's totally gonna get smashed like immediately after that scene. That or someone else comes and saves him. Thanos's expression is more of amused surprise at a human not just getting smooshed (given that Rogers is a super soldier) rather than really puttin in an effort. Still, a really awesome sight.

Thanos was interesting for reasons besides wanting to kill half the universe. Killing half the universe is just a thing he does, completely flippantly. I remember two things that were always interesting about him for me personally:

1. He's literally in love with Death.

2. Characters alluding to him having something of a desire to fail, and that being a notable component to his downfall(s).

Besides that, he's a big baddie who's regal and nutso in an endearing way.

Movie looks good! I fully expect a lot of people to die. Very possibly Cap and Iron Man (and Spidey and half the Guardians and T'Challa's posse and Black Widow and Loki etc. etc.). With the Infinity Gauntlet (and gems assembled) you could just bring em all back Shenron style in the second part. Who stays dead though, if anyone at all. Now that's the question.

Does Peter Parker ever not make you laugh?

@marcsman: I'd heard they were gonna make her fill that role. But I'd also heard they're completely scrapping that angle and making his motivations something about overpopulation, so who knows. Didn't she get... kinda blown the fuck up in Thor: Ragnarok though? Maybe that's a part of him wanting to get all the gems together, to bring her back? The MCU is fairly streamlined, so I'd be surprised (granted they even keep the "courting Death" thing) if they introduced the personification of death after already introducing the Goddess of Death.

Man, what if the Fox thing goes through in time for them to throw in the X-Men at the end. Half the universe is disappearing and we see what's clearly the Xavier Institute and mutants disappearing too. I like the idea of the movie just hard cutting to black when Thanos snaps his fingers, but I dunno if it's worth it having that bit of punctuation at the expense of actually showing shit going real bad immediately after it. Waiting a year or two in order to see the fallout from a finger snap might lull the momentum just a bit.

I thought it was a pretty whack trailer to be honest. I thought the first one was way better. I'm still pumped for the movie and what it's already accomplished though. Culmination of a decade's worth of work spanning damn near 20 fucking movies and all that. There's literally never been anything like this so just as an event in cinema, it's preeeeetty exciting. But, I digress.

I don't expect Thanos to be particularly compelling, but they've given him some baller-ass lines. Pretty much everything he says in the first trailer and his "I hope they remember you" in this one are giving me lots of hope he's not just gonna be a big fucking joke of a wasted villain like Ultron.

I pray he kills either Cap and/or Stark. I like both characters and the actors portraying them, but their deaths are the only thing that will truly shake up the MCU in my opinion. I think Thor climbed a lot of people's favorites lists after Ragnarok, but I feel like even his death wouldn't be as impactful as the other two.

I too would love the X-Men and even Fantastic Four (this would be the dopest way ever to announce a new FF with a new cast) to show up at the end, but Feige says there are no plans to bring them into the fold any time soon which is kind of a bummer. I totally get why they wouldn't introduce them yet and I'm cool with it, but I can dream.

@theht: Good points. I just kinda wish they would involve more Elders of the Universe. Also tell more of Thanos' backstory.

The answer to this original question, yes Thanos is one bad ass villain ( even if he is a ripoff of Darkseid)

The first trailer was way cooler.

Also, how are you going to cut a trailer for this movie and have Black Panther, star of the most successful solo superhero film in history, not speak so much as a single word?

Not many people spoke, I thought BP was the best MCU movie and I didn't care that he didn't talk in the trailer. I was glad to see his sister in the movie too. I'd like to see her and the other geniuses (Stark and Banner) interact with each other.

@marcsman: He doesn't really stop a fist. It looks more like he stops a hand reaching out to him, and it's taking all of his strength just to do that from the looks of it. And I think someone might have already said it, but Thanos does just look kind of amused by it rather than actually "stopped".

@babychoochoo: Cap and Tony can go IMO. I like them both a lot, but I'd rather see BP and Thor (the new & improved version of him) in the forefront along with Strange and Captain Marvel. I don't really see that happening with Cap and Tony around, at least one of them needs to go, whether it be retirement (old man Cap?) or death. That's especially so with X-Men, Deadpool, Silver Surfer, and F4 on their way back. Tony and Cap have been explored enough. I'd say the same thing about Thor, but Thor 3 feels like the first I've seen what he should be. If they want to trim the fat then get rid of Hawkeye (maybe they did already?), Black Widow, and Scarlett Witch too.

It looked more like a pimp smack

Hard to say based on the trailer if he's a cool villain. If you asked me if Killmonger was a cool villain based on the trailer alone, I'd say he looks like a lame color swapped Black Panther. We'll have to wait until the movie comes out. That said, I don't really mind if he's a saturday morning cartoon villain. At the end of the day it's a movie universe that has been building up to a Dragon Ball Z plot of finding the magic glowing stones for infinite power. I don't really need a tragic sympathetic villain for Super Smash Bros Marvel.

On the bright side, we'll be getting Black Panther fight scenes directed by the Russo Brothers which hopefully means less floaty CGI Black Panther.

@deathstriker: I fully expect that the X-Men and Fantastic Four are being kept in reserve until Marvel Studios feels like it needs a fresh cinematic universe to play in.

I hope Thanos turns out to be a good villain, after all these movies Loki is still the only MCU villain I like.

@aktivity: Loki feels like an antihero to me. He's really only evil in Avengers 1. I think Killmonger is the only great movie villain. Kingpin and Kilgrave are very good on TV.

I'm excited as hell for Avengers 3 but Thanos looks like a giant purple penis.

I have to imagine that's not long after these two movies. I can't see them getting a better opportunity than this to do some sort of reboot on the MCU.

@deathstriker: Considering the high body count to his name, I wouldn't call Loki an anti-hero. His whimsical charming nature makes him fun and likable, but he's a villain who occasionally helps out of self preservation. And is heavily implied in the Infinity War trailers to be aiding Thanos. I liked Killmonger's background, but I didn't care for him throughout the movie.

@deathstriker said:

I think I would put Zemo over Killmonger. They are both sympathetic villains who you feel for and understand their motivations, but the handling of both villains are very different. Zemo has a smouldering rage bubbling beneath his calm exterior, but never really feels cartoonishly evil or relish the violent acts he needs to do to carry out his plans. And he never resorts to getting into a power suit and engaging in hand to hand fisticuffs with the super powered heroes. Kilmonger has the makings of a top tier villain, probably could have been the best in the MCU, but I feel like his backstory and motivations that are rooted in real life racism and modern social issues are undercut with cartoonish mustache twirling in the third act. He seems to relish the power trip a bit too much in the third act for me to feel like he is genuine to his cause.

Yo, what do you think you are watching? I grew up on literal Marvel Saturday morning cartoons with these characters.

It's nice that he's wearing his actual outfit for a few of those shots, I think he looks pretty awkward without the helmet and pauldrons.

@minipato: That was definitely my problem with Killmonger, although I would put Killmonger slightly ahead of Zemo. He is so absent in Civil War, that for a stretch of time I literally forgot he was even in the movie. Hell, you can remove Zemo from Civil War and Cap vs Stark would probably still have happened. His conversation at the very end with Black Panther was the only moment I cared about Zemo.

Holy shit yes, and the Russo Brothers directing Wakanda stuff. And everything else for that matter.

Probably because he had a speaking part in the first trailer and they wanted to showcase some other people in a short trailer from a movie that is crammed full of big movie stars?

Or they're racist, either one of those.

EDIT: Also I think the new trailer is cut pretty well and has me a lot more interested in seeing it than any of the previous Avengers movies which seemed incredibly flat to me. That said Thanos is a cool villain, just not in this movie, not as seen from the trailers anyway. Their decision to make him 100% CG continues to be absolutely baffling. They can get away with that stuff when used with the Hulk because he's usually jumping around and punching other CG stuff around into walls. To have someone that is supposed to stand still and monologue in the same frame as a real human being is ehhhh so-so. Especially since it's not like Thanos is THAT crazy looking. They could have easily painted Brolin a deep purple, gave him some chin cosmetics and blam you got a perfectly good Thanos. The idea that they would model a CGI character incredibly closely after a real life actor is like some weird snake eating it's own tail mentality.

@aktivity: Loki has definitely killed, but he never felt evil to me in the Thor movies and I don't find him that charming lol. If he was that bad he would've killed his dad in between Thor 2 and 3 instead of sending him to a retirement home and he would've done horrible things when he ruled instead of just partying and being drunk. I've read it called this elsewhere, but it always seemed like Loki was getting the "Vegeta treatment" rather than being an actual, permanent villain. I'd be surprised if Loki wasn't going to betray Thanos and isn't pretending to be on his side.

@deathstriker: Mustache twirling is not the only type of villain and betraying Thanos doesn't undo his aid. He doesn't go out of his way to aid/commit tons of murders, but he also doesn't shy away from aiding multiple invasions (and the body count that come with these) to achieve his goals over the course of these movies. While Vegeta goes from villain to actual hero, Loki still very much remains in the villain camp with occasional moments of redemption. But even those moments are immediately followed with more selfish scheming and betrayal. The fact that he does care for his adoptive family only gives him more depth as a villain.

Meh, not really that into the trailer, seemed kinda weak. It just doesn't feel epic. I got more of a feeling of "Hey, look at all of these super-heroes from all of these movies that you know! Look at them! Look at how they're together now! We're going to be so different this time! Trust us! Isn't that cool? We're cool! Right? Right?"

And I know that a super-hero movie has to get a lot of CGI, but it's getting to a point where it looks more of a pre-rendered trailer for a videogame than an actual movie.

As for Thanos, I don't know. Marvel has some cool villains in the comics but they never wrote a good one for the movies.

100%. It's scary how much it seems like that.

I liked the trailer and am excited for the movie - the Russo Bros were the best choice to tie this craziness together, and did a very good job with Civil War's 'too many cooks' despite tiring me out by the third act. But Thanos looks like Bruce Willis on Bane serum.

It's easy to be cynical about big cgi blockbusters, but I think Marvel has earned the benefit of the doubt that this isn't just a quick CGI cash-in. They put in the work to get to this point over the course of a decade and put out decent to good movies and pretty much kicked off the superhero craze. It's not like Justice League and BvS where it's clearly a rushed cash-in. They've shown they actually care for the universe and each individual character by giving them their own feature films and have created interesting relationships and conflicts between each of them.

I'm not sure how you make an Avengers movie with every super hero ever and intergalactic alien wars without a ton of CGI.

Am i the only one who liked ultron? I liked the performance, and him just being a bat shit crazy robot was pretty entertaining to me. But yeah besides loki and ultron i felt all the villains have taken a back seat, maybe to allow all the heros they throw in to shine more.(maybe a spoiler for civil war) Also there really isn't a villain per say in civil war imo, its just a film about the consequences of what the avengers do.

@oursin_360: Ultron had his moments, that's for sure, but his final plan was so over the top and lame to me. If I remember correctly he wanted to lift the city and crash it into the earth to mimic the dinosaurs dying from an asteroid. That felt too cartoony to me. Going after nukes like Apocalypse did in X-Men would've felt more natural.

I'm going to see it because it is a big dumb social thing and I'll always go check that stuff out just to have the conversation. I think it looks pretty damn weak though. Thanos, in the trailer, is embodying everything I hate about so many super hero movie villains. Just there to stir up shit with no real goal or motive. Just wanting to be the strongest thing in the universe is a means, not an end. Why does he want that? What's he get out of destroying "half of the universe"? Why would he give a single shit about Earth? It's just nonsense angry guy wants to beat up tough humans. And people keep saying things like "that's all I need from a super hero movie" but I think that's lame too because it's been proven that this stuff doesn't have to be mindless to be exciting.

Anyway, the Russo brothers have probably made my least favorite Marvel movies to date? I am honestly blown away that Winter Soldier gets so much credit for being a derivative political thriller that gives up in the last act and just goes back to all it can do, hit things to solve them. Civil War didn't even attempt the pretense of something intelligent. And their action direction is so tedious I zoned out through most of their climax.

I guess this stuff isn't for me, and that's fine, but I wish the fans held it to a higher standard. I think Black Panther, for example, did a damn good job of being exciting and accessible while also saying something important with its narrative. But I guess that's just like the single most successful movie ever, so why try to emulate that?

@hatking: I can totally understand the Russo brothers approach not being your thing. But to then go out and state that you wish fans held it to a higher standard? It honestly feels to me like you want the MCU to exclusively be for you, with no aspect of it being for anyone else. You reference Black Panther as an example of saying something important, and I agree with you. Which is why I'm confused about any sort of hatred towards the team up movies. Marvel is doing lots of different types of films. The team up films are the popcorn, WWE-esque crazy big wars/battles that a group of it's fanbase wants. Nobody is saying we can't have both? Except for you. Not every Marvel movie needs to push the envelope on the narrative, especially since so many others are. Spiderman, Thor and Black Panther are all examples of that.

I also think it's silly to try to change the team up movies from being what they are. If we start to try to hold them to a higher standard, almost instantly it gets broken because those things are juggling far too many characters at once. I think making them the big silly popcorn things makes the most thematic sense out of the universe. If you look at Marvels Netflix offering, a lot of the character development, nuance and other problems you have with popcorn Avengers is also prevalent. Jessica Jones S1 for example, has just as much to say as something like Black Panther. I just don't get people can't be happy that this universe is delivering or at least attempting to on all the grounds, and suddenly now that it has an aspect to it that isn't trying to be high minded filmmaking, and just wants to have some fun, that it has to be challenged or attempted to be repealed. A lot of us don't want that. I want a diverse universe that caters to an equal diverse fanbase. Dumb-fun popcorn included.

@hatking: I do think Cap 2 gets overrated. It wasn't bad (like Thor 2) but it seems to think it's way smarter than it actually is. Nick Fury being alive and Robert Redford being the bad guy were treated like some big reveals when I was sitting there thinking "no shit". I appreciated what it tried to do... mix a superhero movie with Bourne and other spy thrillers, but it didn't succeed. I love Civil War though. I think people like the Russos so much since they're the best at action in the MCU. I love Black Panther, but the action in it wasn't very good. I like Thor 3 a lot and didn't have very good action either. Thor vs Hulk should be a classic fight that we all remember, but it was pretty meh.

If Loki is a double agent and going to betray Thanos I don't think he needs to "undo his aid", that's just part of being a double agent. I only remember Loki doing evil things in Avengers 1. Of course the invasion was bad, but characters in other stories have been redeemed for doing worse things than that. In Thor 2 he gets revenge for his mom and takes over Asgard, but he doesn't kill or hurt anyone in order to rule and once he rules he seemingly isn't doing anything evil then either. He was a villain for a little bit, but I look at him more like a struggling antihero who is sooner or later going to be redeemed. A similar example of that is Zuko from The Last Airbender.

I think we disagree there. I think Ryan Coogler is great at action, and although he seemed a little bit restrained in what he did in Black Panther, I still thought some of the fights there were on the higher end of what I've ever seen in the MCU. The first fight between T'Challa and Killmonger, the one on the waterfall, was outstanding. I also liked the scene in the casino as the camera panned around the action in a single take, like the unbroken take he did in one of the early fights in Creed. And it's a different thing, but I dug the proceeding car chase as well, for what it was. I'll agree that the climatic thing at the end fell a little flat for me, kind of on a couple levels, but I'll avoid that tangent.

I guess my problem with Civil War is that the turmoil felt really manufactured. There wasn't an actual fundamental disagreement there, like is present in something like Black Panther. It was just a misunderstanding, that if these "best friends" took thirty seconds to address, could've been remedied pretty quickly. And was, once everybody got sick of punching each other and talked at the very end of the movie. I find that sort of thing frustrating, I guess. They've done the fragile alliance thing before, and it didn't come off genuine to me then either. That these characters' first course of action when something goes wrong is punch it in the face really cheapens them, and it makes me feel anxious whenever I watch their team up movies. I'm constantly just waiting for the villain to say whatever one thing they have to to turn everybody against each other.

Regarding Thanos I always viewed him as the combination of a schemer and extremely powerful bad-ass. His actions in the Annihilation comics is interesting, and his motives almost always remain the same: courting the embodiment of Death. This was also the case in the storyline they ripped the whole half-of-the-universe thing from. But, as seems to always be the case, he is denied Her.

He's quite a tragic figure, all things considered.

@hatking: The difference of opinion wrt the Accords may have been remedied among the heroes, but by the end of that movie half of em are still fugitives, so it's definitely not remedied by the governments of the world. Of course none of that will matter when Earth gets attacked in Infinity War, but that isn't really Civil War's fault. But it wasn't remedied in a "we all agree now because we took 30 seconds to address it" kind of way, it was remedied in an agree to disagree way. There 100% was a fundamental disagreement between Cap and Stark about the power of the Accords and their role as "superheroes."

And half the movie is literally them talking it out (okay, maybe not half, because it's a packed fuckin movie, but they definitely discuss their fundamental disagreements on the Accords). The fight in the airport was to bring them in because at that point they were essentially outlaws. Stark was working to bring them in without Thunderbolt (oh comics), and Cap was trying to get to the bottom of the U.N. plot, but Stark gave priority to the former. The fight at the end has nothing to do with the Sokovia Accords though, it was just Tony trying to murder the guy that killed his mom and dad.

I don't see how Winter Soldier and Civil War are the worst Marvel films? They are the two films that have shaken up the cinematic universe the most and actually strayed from the Marvel formula the most. Winter Soldier dissolved SHIELD and Civil War broke up the Avengers. Both Winter Soldier and Civil War have amazing action sequences and I think the Russos direct Black Panther's action better than the heavily CGI focused action in his actual movie. I would say even the car/footchase in Civil War does a better job of portraying Black Panther's speed and resilience than the car chase in Black Panther the movie. When BP knocks Bucky off the motorcycle and they tumble and skid across the pavement, it looks like it really hurts. The way he leaps from car to car just seems more graceful and natural. And that showcases the strength of his vibranium suit and his speed so much better than just making it CGI.

People put too much focus on the big airport fight in Civil War. The movie knows that no one is gonna kill each other there and characters treat it as such. But it's the spectacle that audiences want to see and the movie contrives a reason to have them fight and actually do it with some good action choreography. It's not like there isn't ANY consequence to their fight either. The heroes have decided their allegiances and the arrested heroes are incarcerated in a huge underwater super prison, feeling betrayed by Tony and their government.

The fight with real emotional heft is the one with Cap vs Tony. That is the one where their friendship breaks up and you believe that Tony wants to kill Bucky. I mean, Tony watches a video of Bucky killing his parents in front of Bucky and his friend who kept the truth from him. Civil War even tricks you into thinking it's gonna be the typical Marvel finale by making you think Zemo is gonna wake up a team of super soldier Captain America clones, but he actually executes all of them. He never dons iron man armor or injects himself with super soldier serum and gets into a fight with the heroes.

Honestly, if fans should hold any movie to a higher standard, it should have been Black Panther. Black Panther had some powerful themes behind it, but was held back by being too much of a comic book movie and sticking too close to the Marvel formula. There really shouldn't have been so much time devoted to doing a James Bond movie in South Korea chasing a cackling Andy Serkis. I'd have preferred if they focused the action on Wakanda and the characters there. They also dropped the ball with Kilmonger in the third act by giving him both super serum and a color swapped Black Panther suit and having him engage in maybe one of the worst climactic battles in the MCU. And I came away not really caring much for T'challa himself. He feels like pre-Ragnarok Thor to me where they haven't really nailed down who he is as a character. I find myself actually looking forward more to seeing Okoye and his sister Shuri talk to Tony Stark and Bruce Banner in Infinity War than I am seeing more of Black Panther.

I agree with everything you said in your post besides the part I put in bold. Shield dissolving doesn't really matter, they're a big deal in the comics and some cartoons but they were never all that important in the MCU. I'm willing to bet the Avengers will be back together without much drama once they find out about Thanos. As far as the MCU formula, I think GOTG deserves a lot of credit, since for better or worse, it changed the formula of nearly all other MCU movies. I'd probably say Black Panther is the most different. He's a superhero who is a king, so his surroundings/community matters, he can't be as independent as someone like Cap who can just follow his own heart/code, or reckless like Tony or Starlord. The story itself dealing with racism, colonialism, isolationism, and other real world issues makes it pretty different from other MCU movies (and blockbusters in general) as well as Kilmonger being a relatable villain rather than one that "wants to kill half the universe"... just because.

Looks like a huge clusterfuck. I cannot care about this many characters at the same time.

Ultron was more menacing in the trailers than the actual movie, which was weird. His whole ' no strings on me' speech in trailer was slower, more dark. In the movie, he was just a bumbling, lame version of that.

So does Wakanda have the Soul stone? The trailer seems to imply the Avengers are just waiting on earth for Thanos to come get the stones. There is a giant attack shown on Wakanda, but Dr. Strange and the Vision, the two known possessors infinity stones on earth, don't seem to be there.

The leaked Comiccon trailer is still the best and would quell any claims that "Thanos is boring."

I can't believe the moon thing hasn't been any new trailer yet.

When I see too many grand CGI battles in movie trailers like this and Pacific Rim Uprising, it's a cue to me to never see them.

@jaycrockett: We still have no idea what the soul stone is. Some speculate it's Stark's Arc Reactor, some say it's Earth itself, some even think it's got to do with Cap. I'm still leaning towards it having to do with Wakanda and the vibranium buried in the region. It may not have been revealed in Black Panther, but the Wakandans may not even know about it.

Vision and Strange aren't there in the Wakanda stuff we see, but judging by the Infinity Gauntlet when it's bearing down on Cap, it looks like he's got the power gem and the space gem. The power gem was with the Nova Corps. and the space gem was with Asgardians, if I'm not mistaken. There's a scene of a roughed up lookin Loki offering the Tesseract, so maybe that's his trying to make good with Thanos after getting defeated in Avengers 1. Either way, Thanos has em by the time he reaches Earth.

The first released trailer shows Visions mind gem about to get ripped outta his head, so it's safe to say he'll be at risk. Well, "at risk" nothing, it's also safe to say that Infinity War Part 1 is basically gonna be a Thanos movie about his backstory and then him getting all the stones.

Whether that Vision scene is before or after Wakanda depends on whether the Wakanda stuff trailer was changed to show only the power and space stone in the gauntlet in order to avoid spoilers, which is of course a very strong possibility. They seem to be playing pretty coy with footage too. We're only seeing a focus on New York, Wakanda, and some space stuff with Thor (alongside those few scattered snippets of other things). Seemingly the same handful of scenes, just different bits of them.

Hell, maybe the Wakanda stuff is earlier on. I figured the New York stuff would be an early to middle part, and then the big war stuff in Wakanda would come after, but who fuckin knows. New York looked royally fucked, and Wakanda is hidden, so it makes sense as a place of refuge while the world is getting completely wasted by Thanos. Also fits in nicely with the historic isolationism and disregard for the rest of the world exhibited by Wakanda, and T'Challa trying to change that. But New York looking so apocalyptic might make for a neat later sight.

In any case, we have some idea of how the heroes are split. Guardians with Thor, Stark and Spidey and Strange in New York, then later Guardians with Stark (maybe they rescue them from New York?). Also Banner is with the New York crew and then later with the Wakandan crew. And wasn't there a scene from the Comic-Con trailer of the Collector's shit getting all blown up? He's got the reality gem right? Figure Thanos would deal with all the space gems before going to Earth, but maybe not.

Basically I don't fucking know but thinking about it has me excited again to finally see this shit all go down. And so soon too!

I think Thanos works. He comes off as a heel wrestler but I think that's fine.

I am about to rewatch all the MCU movies to get hype for this. I really hope it lives up to it.

@theht: I would guess the New York stuff is early on since Peter looked shocked to see the spaceship when he's on the bus in the first trailer. It seems like team NYC goes to the alien planet somehow. Wakanda and the stuff on the alien planet with Iron Man, Strange, Spiderman, and GOTG are probably the middle and end. It also seems like Thor, Groot, and Rocket are on a side mission, maybe they went to Collector's ship. I'm probably most curious about Thor and it's from a personality standpoint. He pretty much got rebooted in Thor 3, but it seems like he might be acting like old Thor in this movie. They showed Vision beat up and limping when they get to Wakanda, so he seems to survive his attack. If he really has the mind stone on his forehead or not could be a trick, like they did with Thor's eye in that trailer. I'm surprised that the soul stone wasn't revealed to be in Wakanda in Black Panther, since that would explain their afterlife, but if the afterlife is a fact in the MCU, I don't think a hero dying is as sad anymore.