Endgame: End of an Era

 

The most rewarding joy of my entire life has been being "Auntie Kim" These boys are the light of my life.   This is what being blessed exceedingly, abundantly, above all I could ask or Imagine looks like. 

   People wonder why I go so hard for Marvel movies. After 11 years of these angels & 11 yrs of movies, each movie marks a milestone for me and the boys. Watching them yell at the movie screen when they had 10 phrases to their young vocabularies, "HulkSmash!" Was certainly a common one.

   As they got older the anticipation for the next movie was a shared excitement. Their little legs would swing from the theater chairs. Eyes wide as the flashing montage of the current characters would graze across the screen then our favorite word popped up surrounded by red, MARVEL. With Every Stan Lee cameo, their little beautiful eyes would shift over to me and say "There's the Guy!!" 

    Each movie determined the Halloween costume for that year and each fight scene was recreated in a dining room and to blame for some sort of broken glass or a skinned knee. As they got older we joined our favorite YouTubers in theorizing about the end credit scenes, adding our 2 cents to conspiracies about the new villains.

Not to mention the times Auntie Kim got to the theater 3 hours before to make sure my boys were 1st in line on opening day.

    Each storyline surrounded my conversations with these growing boys as I got to learn their personalities and be impressed by their growing intelligence as we pondered the fate of Asgard, the bravery of T'challa, the badassness of Blackwidow and of course the coolness of Tony Stark.

   Real tears filled my eyes at the countdown of phase 3. Not just because I love Marvel but as we learn the fate of our heroes Jo and Ben will be leaving elementary school for Middle School and J will be 10, a double-digit dude. My memories of diapers to potty, drooling to intellectual dialogue, 24/ 7 costumes in the house to "has anyone seen my leather jacket and my hat!" All these memories are attached to the opening credits and that unmistakable Avengers Score by Alan Silvestri.

...this is a deeper changing of the times for me as we face Endgame. Phase 4 of MARVEL with The Eternals, Black Panther 2, Dr. Strange 2 and Black Widow, will be marked by adding their friends to go with us, and OMYGOSH possibly … dare I say, GIRLS! 

I love film, the power to connect storytelling, technology and wrapping it all into our memories. The power of character development to intertwine with another person especially little kids, we take their powers in our imagination to strengthen us, we use our imagination to befriend these larger than life heroes , we cry when they cry, we punch the air to mimic their harrowing fight and as they grow and move on so do we.  

Needless to say when I see Endgame this weekend my tears will be for many reasons. …