Where are they now?
Where Are They Now?
July 18th, 2012
It has been seventy-five days since what is commonly being referred to as “The Battle of New York”–or simply just “The Incident” among the locals–and yet the self-titled Avengers have not come forward with a statement addressing the destruction. Yesterday marked our final day of tribute articles for the seventy-four dead, the last of which was on Sunjina Nadeer , where we interviewed families and friends to make sure the victims are not forgotten. Rebuilding has barely even begun , and an estimated 177 thousand New Yorkers are still being kept from their homes due to the more than 18 billion dollars worth of destruction that was brought on by the invading aliens. So far, Tony Stark is the only member of the group that has made steps to aid in the rebuilding of Manhattan, the rest are unaccounted for. What’s even more alarming than the inactivity–and perhaps more dangerous –is the anonymity among the rest of our heroes. We know the identities of two of our six defenders, Dr. Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Tony Stark (Iron Man), while the remaining Hawkeye, Black Widow, Captain America, and Thor are still hidden.
We know little-to-no information on the team of heroes, beyond reports of their code names. They answer to the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D), a shadowy organization that doesn’t seem to belong to anyone (we wrote an article on that here ), which doesn’t really calm anyone’s worries. Our heroes have faded back into the shadows, the damage they wrought wholly left to fall on the shoulders of Stark, who’s singlehandedly funding the rebuilding effort with aid from his company, Stark Industries. Even then, Stark’s involvement has remained mostly anonymous and out of media attention until late May, when a local science fair project winner highlighted all of the environmentally friendly additions that Stark was making in the rebuilding (the article to that can be found here).
What about the rest of them? There were reports of Thor and Loki disappearing from central park, though strangely enough there was no video or picture evidence, that might give weight to the theory that the invading force was being led by the real life Norse God, Loki. And in that case, we might know the identity of Thor, as Thor the Norse God of Thunder . Which would be absolutely ridiculous coming from anyone three months ago, but seeing as real actual aliens invaded Manhattan, now the theory doesn’t seem so very far out of the realm of possibility. (We have an article here about some reports about Puente Antiguo from 2011 that speak about Thor as well.)
The public seems to be torn on who should be held accountable for what, the popular opinions ranging between holding the Avengers accountable for all of the damage versus none of the damage at all, to even blaming the government for the damage caused in the battle. While New York Senator Boynton is calling for “Enhanced Individual Regulation and Registration” (link to his interview here ), other members of the senate wish to issue a thank you. In any case, people are still being kept from their homes, saddled with medical bills so high they’ll most likely never recover financially, and seventy-four individuals are dead. No apology from the Avengers is going to bring them back, no matter how much money Tony Stark throws at the issue. General Thaddeus Ross is calling back to when Bruce Banner AKA the Hulk caused just under 7 billion dollars of damage to Harlem, NYC, in his battle against an unknown person in 2011, citing the fact that Dr. Banner immediately fled the scene once again, leaving the repairs to someone else.
Now that we’ve defeated an alien invasion, what’s stopping the supervillain of the week from stepping things up? Especially now that our heroes have dispersed, we remain more vulnerable than ever. We want accountability, we want trust, and most importantly we want the security that our city won’t get flattened next month because we have another Ivan Vanko situation on our hands. And more than that, what’s to say that these heroes won’t start taking advantage of their power, or they get bored with just saving people? Tony Stark has already proved that even the government can’t stop him, what’s to say he won’t take the next step towards villaindom?
The invasion has left us with more questions than answers, and much to do about repairing our city. If you could consider donating here for the relief fund for the families affected, or signing up for volunteering here, it would be much appreciated.
One can only hope that Iron Man will always be there to save us.