Captain America's Shattered Shield and Other Unsettling Props From Marvel

Gwynne Watkins
Updated
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Only the lucky crowd at last Saturday’s Comic-Con panel got to see advance footage from Avengers: Age of Ultron. Fortunately, Marvel saved a little something for the rest of us: three key movie props, which went on display Saturday night. Read on to find out how each of these items foreshadows the dark times ahead for our favorite superteam. (Spoilers below.)

The most immediately recognizable of the props is Captain America’s shield, which super-soldier Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) uses as his primary defense and weapon. The shield is supposed to be virtually indestructible, so it’s pretty jarring to see it cracked into three pieces and scarred by battle marks. It sounds like the shield’s cameo in the preview footage was even more unsettling: One of the final shots shown was Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), staring down at the broken shield, surrounded by the dead bodies of his teammates. (A dream sequence, perhaps? An alternate future? Let’s hope so.)

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The other two props, by design, bear a resemblance to Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit. The glove on the left is a piece of the “Hulkbuster” armor, designed by Stark to fight the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) when he’s in full-on rage mode. The robot skeleton on the right is believed to be an early prototype of Stark’s creation Ultron (James Spader), who ultimately becomes the film’s villain (and is composed at least partially from pieces of Stark’s Iron Man suits).

If it is indeed a peek at a rudimentary Ultron, it’s a pretty eerie artifact. (The footage also showed a gleaming Ultron in his intimidating finished state.) According to director Joss Whedon, he’s not your typical comic book bad guy. “Ultron sees the big picture and he goes, ‘Okay, we need radical change, which will be violent and appalling, in order to make everything better,’” Whedon told EW. “He’s not just going ‘Muhaha, soon I’ll rule!’”

Avengers: Age of Ultron opens on May 1, 2015.

UPDATE: Marvel has been teasing the famous Infinity Wars story line, so it could be the shattered shield is the work of Thanos. In the comics, the big, bad death-slinger (who first surfaced cinematically in The Avengers credits sequence and will next appear in Guardians of the Galaxy) smashed Cap’s shield using his all-powerful Infinity Gauntlet. We think Josh Brolin, who plays Thanos, showing up at Comic-Con wearing a toy Gauntlet constitutes a big hint.

As some of you pointed out in the comments, the broken shield might also point towards the imminent appearance of Black Panther. The special isotope of the super-hard metal called Vibranium used in Captain America’s shield is only found in the small African nation of Wakanda (home to T’Challa, a head of state who battles crime in his spare time). Any repairs — or future movies? — could involve a visit from the Panther himself.