Thanos remains the best-executed villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character’s seven-year rollout demonstrates everything impressive about the shared continuity gimmick. When fans first saw The Avengers, Thanos ignited a massive wave of excitement. The invasion of New York by Loki felt like the end of days, but that preview promised that the first salvo was barely an introduction. Thanos sent his third-favorite alien army, the Chitauri, to take over a planet he’d vastly underestimated.
One of the problems with Marvel villains is the predictability of their strategy. This issue extends beyond the MCU and into the superhero genre in general. The antagonist must unleash an army of easily-defeated goons so that the heroes have plenty of targets to punch. They often complete their plan with some sort of doomsday weapon, usually depicted with a massive blue laser fired into the sky. The punchable minion position is thankless, but some come from more interesting backgrounds than others.
The Chitauri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Chitauri are the armed alien soldiers who invaded New York under Loki in The Avengers. Thanos wielded the Chitauri in various circumstances before 2012, but they’re most famous for their brief work on Earth. The Mad Titan has at least four or five alien armies under his command. The Chitauri may have been the weakest. A joke in a deleted scene from Avengers: Endgame proves that Rocket knew of the Chitauri as a trash-tier military force, laughing hysterically when Steve notes that he didn’t know their weakness. Chronologically, the earliest moment of the Chitauri in the MCU is their massacre on Zen-Whoberi, which killed young Gamora’s parents and half of her planet. They likely accompanied Thanos to several other planets, where they likely killed billions with ruthless efficiency. Fans’ first experience with them saw them lose handily to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
The Chitauri are human-sized bipedal reptiles. They have cybernetic augmentations with unspecified effects. They are considerably stronger, tougher, and more agile than most human beings. Traditional firearms, like Black Widow’s
Glock 26 pistols seem to effectively eliminate the Chitauri. While the United States National Guard couldn’t counter the invasion, their weaponry didn’t seem to be the problem. The Chitauri soldiers are a hive mind operating under the control of a central space vessel called the Mother Ship. Loki wielded the Scepter, which contains the Mind Stone, and controlled the Chitauri. Destroying the command center instantly deactivated every Chitauri warrior on Earth, ending the conflict with a single strike. The Chitauri returned to Earth in Endgame‘s final battle. They unleashed larger Chitauri Gorillas in this encounter. The Chitauri species seemingly went extinct after the Battle of Earth, as Tony Stark used his Inifinity Gauntlet to eradicate Thanos’ assembled forces. Thus ends the short, sad tale of the worst army in the galaxy.
The Chitauri in Marvel Comics
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First Appearance |
The Ultimates #8 |
|---|---|
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First Appearance Date |
November 2002 |
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Creators |
Bryan Hitch, Mark Millar |
The Chitauri first appeared as part of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe. On Earth-1610, the Chitauri take the place of the Skrulls. They were shapeshifting invaders who worked to corrupt and take over Earth. Their most notable attack came in the 1940s. They took the form of various human soldiers and worked to help the Nazis. They were partially responsible for the Nazis’ efforts toward developing a nuclear bomb. Luckily, they were comparably incompetent to their MCU counterparts. Captain America drove them out of every country on Earth. Because Mark Millar wrote this series, the Chitauri also provided a convenient moral excuse for the atomic bombing of Japan. They left Earth after losing the war, but returned later to do conspiracy theory stuff. They put drugs in water and microchips in children, but constant defeat across the galaxy eventually rendered them extinct. Marvel’s prime universe, Earth-616, later adopted the MCU version of the Chitauri as an all-purpose race of easily-vanquished goons. The new Nova, Quasar, and Captain Marvel got their chance to crush the Chitauri.
Why did the MCU change the Chitauri?
Joss Whedon needed a race of pointless goons to die en masse. He could have picked the Skrulls, the Kree, or the Outriders. He could have even made up his own. Instead, he took a name from a midly obscure early-2000s comic and adapted it into something new. Marvel does this often, but no one missed the Chitauri. The Skrulls and Kree had better opportunities in later Marvel projects. The Chitauri were a perfect choice, especially given Marvel Comics’ editorial’s choice to change them.
The old Chitauri will likely never appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They only existed to provide the Ultimate Universe with a unique alternative to a species that exists in Marvel’s on-screen franchise. If the Chitauri ever return to the screen, they’re likely to appear as a joke. That deleted scene from Endgame made an excellent point. The scale of the franchise has moved beyond any point that could have considered them a credible threat. The Chitauri are dust now, and they don’t deserve anything better.
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