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At the end of Avengers: Endgame there is a climatic battle. Through the course of the battle, Thanos is trying to get the gauntlet Tony made with the Infinity Stones on it. At one point Captain Marvel rescues Peter Parker who is holding the gauntlet. At that moment why didn’t Captain Marvel put the gauntlet on in order to subdue or vanish Thanos rather than taking it to the van where Ant-Man was waiting with the time machine.

Tony ends up putting the gauntlet on later and ends up dying because of it. Captain Marvel seems strong enough to wield the gauntlet and survive the effects of using the Infinity Stones. Unless I am wrong about Captain Marvel’s strength.

Is there any evidence that Captain Marvel isn’t strong enough to survive the effects of using the gauntlet? Otherwise, why didn’t she put it on use it cause she could’ve saved Tony?

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    I don’t get why this was put on hold. It is a legitimate question.
    – Gabriel
    Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 13:56
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    It...does seem a little like arguing why the story didn't go like you would prefer to have written it.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 17:01
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    The plan at that moment wasn't to use the gauntlet and snap again, was to return the stones to their timelines, the plan changed when Thanos destroyed the van with the time machine.
    – Gustavo Gabriel
    Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 17:30
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    @user5603 i think that response builds up a larger question then about the logic of trying to go back in time in the heat of a battle with no real plan or preparedness on the part of sending the stones back to their rightful place. Later in the film Captain america goes on a mission to return the stones and it seems like he is more prepared and ready to do it that time. I think your response points me to seeing a plot contrivance set up in order to end up with Tony using the gauntlet rather than captain marvel doing it then and there.
    – Gabriel
    Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 17:49
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    A better question is why she didn't fly up, into space, instead of directly through the chaos...
    – user91988
    Commented May 3, 2019 at 16:45

4 Answers 4

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Although, Julius has answered it pretty well and it is correct, I'd like to add words from director here.

As Joe Russo explains why Captain Marvel didn't put on the Infinity Gauntlet,

Q: Why Iron Man has to be the one to do the final snap, couldn’t the people like Thor, Star-Lord or Captain Marvel whom all previously have handled the power of Infinity Stones done it instead?

A: Thor in this movie couldn’t do it, only Hulk was strong enough to do the snap without dying. We are still not sure whether Captain Marvel can also withstand all the power of Infinity Stones at once. The reason we choose to let Iron Man do it in the end was because he was the closest one to Thanos at the time. In all the futures Doctor Strange foresee, Iron Man was the only one who could get close to Thanos and do the snap. People usually think the death of a hero is a horrible tragedy. But we think this is different. When his death was able to bring back hope, to save half of the universe, then his death was powerful and meaningful. We shouldn’t feel too sad or angry about it.

So, they only let Iron Man do it because Iron Man was close to Thanos and can do the snap as foreseen by Doctor Strange.

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    "We are still not sure whether Captain Marvel can also withstand all the power of Infinity Stones" Well, according to Kevin Feige Captain Marvel is the most powerful character in the MCU - And why would it matter who stands closest to Thanos? - Since this an interview with a chinese outlet, maybe something got lost in translation?
    – Oliver_C
    Commented May 1, 2019 at 19:16
  • @Oliver_C Maybe or maybe not. I have looked at other sources and they give the same translation. But there could be another reason why didn't she. If you remember, she was knocked out by Thanos using the power stone. So, it'd take some time for her to get up, wear the gauntlet and do the snap.
    – A J ♦
    Commented May 3, 2019 at 6:41
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    But before Thanos punches her with the power stone, she has a moment with Peter Parker, who hands her the gauntlet. He looks at Thanos' army and says something like "How are you gonna get it through that?", at which point the other female heroes arrive one by one. During that time she is just standing there, with the gauntlet under her arm.
    – Oliver_C
    Commented May 3, 2019 at 20:43
  • @Oliver_C At that time she was thinking of taking stones to the van and returning them.
    – A J ♦
    Commented May 4, 2019 at 2:32
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    That plan was kinda weird, Captain Marvel didn't have a quantum suit and wasn't present at the time heist discussion, so how would she know where to put the stones. Maybe Ant-Man could have done it, but does he know about Steve and Tony going to 1970? Why not use the gauntlet to win the battle, then they have all the time in the world to return the stones ... and that's what they eventually did.
    – Oliver_C
    Commented May 5, 2019 at 18:11
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I wondered this, too. I think Captain Marvel is strong enough to use Stark's gauntlet. Her powers came from the Tesseract/Space stone, as seen in her MCU origin story.

One possible answer as to why she didn't use the gauntlet is that she simply didn't think of doing it. This happens once in a while with Marvel characters. In Infinity War, while discussing how Vision's neurons/synapses and Mind stone were set, Shuri asks Banner, "Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Banner responds, "Because we...didn't think of it."

A second possible reason - had Captain Marvel put on the gauntlet, it would have taken about 5 to 10 seconds for it to "boot up" and be snap-ready. Those valuable seconds would've given Thanos or one of his minions time to get to her and wrest it from her. Getting into the quantum tunnel in the van was the much faster solution, and getting to any solution immediately was key to the Avengers winning. But even then, she wasn't fast enough - Thanos was quicker with his weapon. Now this makes me wonder if Quick Silver had to die (in Age of Ultron) so that no one could successfully get to the van, or do anything super fast. Hmm.

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    I maybe overthought it. What you and others are saying is understandable. In the middle of a battle I'm sure not everyone was thinking clearly. I think this situation could've been handled better in terms of a writing standpoint as it does seem kind of a glaring question that doesn't have any real answer outside of the characters didn't think about it. It just doesn't make logical sense for me that they were trying to use the time machine then and there rather than using the stones to finish Thanos or get the gauntlet out of there. You're right about the "boot up" time to be snap ready though!
    – Gabriel
    Commented Apr 29, 2019 at 20:49
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    I think everyone is also missing the fact that Bruce using the Iron Gauntlet in the first place nearly destroyed it, so it doesn't look to be in the same state, where it was able to resize for Bruce. I think it is basically just a hunk of Bruce sized metal at this point, so it fits Thanos but not Captain Marvel.
    – Arin Zandbergen
    Commented Apr 30, 2019 at 18:03
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I actually think really powerful characters like Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange and Wanda still wouldn't survive snapping the Gauntlet themselves because they still have human bodies. I mean, we saw Captain Marvel fight Yon-Rogg in her movie without using her powers and just her raw strength and she got her butt beat, so possibly her physical body wouldn't handle the snap then. It seems that her binary powers are what makes her that powerful, but "raw strength"-wise she is nothing. But that's just a theory.

Hulk, Thor and Thanos seem to be the only ones who could survive using the Gauntlet. Thor is God, Captain Marvel is just a mortal human with powers, like Wanda and Strange.

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  • This is seriously my unanswered question, we know Thor is drunk and fat, but he is still a god! Why didn't they let Thor do the snap so that they have the Hulk at 100% and maybe Thor too, because he is a god...
    – Mr.J
    Commented May 3, 2019 at 23:38
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Another explanation is that she doesn't understand how the gauntlet works. She's never been there to see Thanos or Hulk use it, and doesn't understand the risks to her life, or that using it is as simple as a birthday wish. In the heat of battle, might make more sense to deliver it than figure it out.

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