We went back to Avengers Endgame this week, to watch it all over again, after news broke that the movie had surpassed the record once held by Avatar as the top gun on the list of the top ten grossing movie of all time. I wanted us to have a discourse on the astonishing fact that a non-crude oil export, a single movie, has generated such phenomenal profits for its owners. Details showed that it is hovering around $3billion. In less than six months!

More than anything else, the report underscores the power of the creative economy, and the urgent need for the Nigerian government, and players in that sector to shift gears, as they say. I was hoping we would progress further along that path but a teenager among us changed the course of our discourse with a simple question, “Why didn’t Dr Strange save Iron Man? Why didn’t he take the Time, Reality and Power Stones from the gauntlet Iron Man had thrown away after he had killed Thanos, to rescue Iron Man and prevent him from dying?” After all, it was claimed those three stones had the power to do just that, she added.

Because I had not given the question any thought prior to our discourse I could not give a satisfactory answer. Until the Russo Brothers come out and provide those Iron Man-loving teens who were heartbroken about the death of their hero when the elements to restore him, were within easy reach, we would have to make do with conjectures. Here is one of the most plausible ones to me, and it comes from my favourite Iron Man line in the entire movie, ‘Part of the journey is the end.’

Every beginning has its end. The fact of an end is an inescapable reality. Superheroes have their end. Supermen and women have their end. Those with or without exceptional powers, abilities, skills, reach, advantages, and resources, all have their end. The shine doesn’t last forever. All lights eventually fade away into the sunset. And what’s left will be how those who have passed away made those left behind feel in the heart. Where it matters most.