Velez: The Infinity War continues in the Philippines
THE ending of the Avengers: Infinity War movie finds the villain Thanos taking refuge from his rampage of rupturing half of the universe that included the Earth’s mightiest heroes. Of all places, he finds refuge atop the majestic Banaue.
He must have chosen Banaue because his ideal choice that is Boracay is closed.
There is no news if the government will deport Thanos as an “undesirable alien”. But considering that Thanos wields a gauntlet; they realize he shares similar passion with ruler with an iron fist in Malacañang.
They might invite him for a state dinner, where our iron-fist ruler will serenade him with a song. There is no doubt that Thanos and the iron-fist ruler will get along. Both share the same vision that the universe is made better because they act on making the world better in their own terms.
Since they find Thanos has a penchant to collecting stones, they might bring him to mountains of Mindanao and Benguet to look for gold, copper and other minerals. Our country ranks in the global top five mineral-rich countries, which multinationals covet at the expense of our environment, food security and abode of our indigenous communities.
But Thanos might covet something more. The “bato” of Darna and the gems of the Sangre of Encantandia. Perhaps that is the sequel of the Infinity War. And it might be cool that this bad-ass will be whooped by an all-female army of superheroes.
Let us also include our local “avengers”, not the Revengers of Vice Ganda, but the heroes we grew up watching and cheer for. These are Captain Barbell, Super Inggo, Batang X, Krystala, and Mulawin. The warriors from Bagani will also realize they are really defenders of Lumads and join this war.
But what befalls now of Earth’s mightiest heroes? Some may have bitten the dust, er, turned to dust rather. But they showed what heroes truly are by standing and fighting ‘til the end.
It is also worth to praise T’Challa for standing up for his tribe and for this planet. Wakanda Forever may also be Banaue forever, Talaingod forever and Lumad forever.
Captain America is a war hero turned rogue and declared wanted by his state for defending human rights. It also gave him a reason to grow a beard and long hair, just like Macario Sakay.
Even aliens such as Groot, Drax and the demigod Thor showed they love our planet and sacrifice for it, much like foreign missionaries who side with the Filipinos, and speak in Filipino.
It is admirable that Doctor Strange knows that even if the odds to beat a tyrant is only one out of 14 million possibilities but still press on to fight. As he explained before he eviscerated, this is the only way.
And so we hope that the sequel to the Infinity War will be a good ending where Thanos gets whooped, and the heroes come back to life and restore the universe in order. I hope Darna et al will join the next epic battle.
(tyvelez@gmail.com)