Fair warning, this piece is filled with spoilers. If you haven’t seen Age of Ultron, Spiderman: Homecoming, Hawkeye, or Spiderman: No Way Home – avert your eyes, or better yet, grab some pizza and spend a day with Disney+ or your streaming service of choice and catch up on these essential MCU properties. On the 2022 Cosmic Circle look-ahead podcast, I mentioned that in 2022, I was most looking forward to finding out the answer to the question: Who bought Avengers Tower?
Everything depends on Spiderman
First, let’s back up a moment to Spiderman: Homecoming and the thing that kicked off this article: Moving Day. In Homecoming, we’re told that all the Avengers tech from Avengers Tower has to go to the new facility upstate, and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is the guy coordinating it. The events of Avengers: Age of Ultron have shown that the central local of Avengers tower is a security hazard – it’s too easy to attack. Moving Day is significant in Homecoming. Without it, you don’t have the Vulture’s (Michael Keaton) attempted theft of the Stark tech, and you don’t have Spiderman proving himself as an Avengers-level superhero.
There’s a time lapse between the attack on the tower in AoU and Homecoming’s Moving Day. This time gap isn’t explained – but the widespread assumption is that Tony (Robert Downey, Jr. ) needs time to find a buyer and sell the tower. Billions or trillions don’t just grow on trees; only a limited number of people or organizations could put up the dough.
Only a few in the MCU have the dough
It’s not out of line to wonder why Tony can’t just own both. Why does he need to sell the tower? Stark was rich enough to bankroll the Avengers and do whatever he wanted. Presumably, he’s rich enough to maintain an extra tower or two. You might think that Homecoming would only have happened by selling the building. We can still have Moving Day and all the hijinks without selling the building. Happy and co. could still go upstate and leave the tower empty and owned by Tony.
Let’s think about this then and assume it’s vital to future stories that someone now owns Avengers Tower. Marvel is great at the lore and planting things in their movies and now their shows. Sometimes these bits of world-building don’t pay off until long after the seed has been planted.
Who It Isn’t – Oscorp and Norman Osborn
One of the popular theories prior has been that Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) was the secret buyer of Avengers Tower. In Spiderman: No Way Home, we learned that Osborn and Osorp don’t exist in the MCU. Ouch. Osborn and his Green Goblin must accept their lack of existence in NWH. That pretty definitively rules out the hoverboard-powered villain from buying Avengers Tower.
Who it Probably Isn’t – Moon Knight
Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac) has a long history in the comics and will soon have an eponymous show. Details about the plot and the characters have been kept very quiet, but as more promo for the March 30th premiere has happened, we’ve gotten more information.
According to the Empire Magazine’s April 2022 issue, Moon Knight has been stripped of his wealth for the show. End of the story, right? Not quite. The character has dissociative identity disorder. So maybe a distinct personality (with his own different bank accounts and wealth) may have bought the tower. Here’s hoping we find out in a few months.
Who is left?
There’s been a lot of wishful chatter about a Fantastic Four reboot. Supergenius Reed Richards is certainly rich enough to afford the building in comic book lore. Reed and his fantastic friends are most known for hanging around the Baxter building. Given that they’re selling the Avengers Tower in the MCU, it’s totally reasonable for the new owners to give it a new name.
If it isn’t the Fantastic Four that have bought Avengers tower, there are still many possibilities from the comics. Marvel has also shown a willingness to deviate from the source material, so the individual or group who buys it could be original.
Closing thoughts
If we don’t find out soon, it sure feels like a missed moment for a fan-satisfying emotional payoff. I don’t think it crosses the line to Ralph Bohner (Evan Peters) territory (did no one really think that one through?), but if we went through the drama surrounding Moving Day and getting out of Avengers tower for nothing, it sure comes close.
Your thoughts on Avengers Tower
Who do you think bought Avengers Tower? Do you have any theories? Join the conversation by leaving a comment or messaging us on X @MoviesWeTexted.
If you’re still looking for something to watch on Disney+, including everything Marvel and Marvel Studios, check out all of our Disney+ reviews.
(Editor’s Note: This article was originally intended to run on The Cosmic Circus.)