History Headscratchers / TheAvengers2012

*** Loki would know about Darcy if he asked Selvig who else on Earth his brother knows and cares about, the better to mess with Thor, same as he learned about Natasha by questioning Hawkeye about SHIELD.

*** Loki would know about Darcy if he asked Selvig who his brother knows and cares about, the better to mess with Thor, same as he learned about Natasha by questioning Hawkeye about SHIELD.

*** I think Tony's correlating of Personal to Public comes from Tony's Ego, and aside from his stylish Facial hair His Ego being the first thing people see in him... To hurt Tony publicly IS to hurt him personally.

*** Thanks to ''Age of Ultron'', we now know it was powered by the Mind Stone.

** Or maybe both the first and second Lokis were illusions, and the real one was off collecting his scepter while his images kept Thor distracted. It's safer that way, and plays off Loki's quip about whether Thor ever ''won't'' be taken in by his doubles: had Mjolnir proven strong enough to smash the plexiglass, Loki can just disappear with a parting "Apparently not".

*** No, Thor didn't have his hammer in either of the instances I'm referring to. He punches Iron Man after they land from flying to a mountain and back, and he punches Hulk before he summons Mjölnir, shortly after tackling him through the wall.
**** People don't always hit with the same strength? It depends on the situation and what you want to do.
*** It might have to do with momentum. He was probably charging at Hulk when he punched him in order to save Black Widow, while he was merely standing for the punch to Tony. As for Loki, Thor was initially holding back because he didn't want to hurt his brother, until Loki stabbed him.
**** It also has to do with the person receiving the punch. As I recall, the Hulk was focused on Black Widow; Thor caught him by surprise, and so he didn't have a chance to brace himself for the hit. Iron Man and Loki were both facing Thor and ready for a brawl.
***** OP here. Possible FridgeLogic may follow, with much verbosity. As was mentioned, Thor was holding back against Loki at first by virtue of not wanting to hurt him. This could possibly also extend to Iron Man and the Hulk. Thor punching Iron Man does almost nothing, but mere seconds later he dents the helmet and sends him flying away with a headbutt, which AFAIK, tends to not hit as hard as a punch. Thor also tries to reason with Banner at first, encouraging him to calm down. Even after he summons Mjölnir, he doesn't seem to be trying to subdue the Hulk so much as distract him. It's possible that Thor is holding back against pretty much everyone in the movie, except the Chitauri. Even then, if Thor went around slamming his hammer down like in Jotunheim, (and also when he helped Hulk kill that one Leviathan) he'd cause all sorts of collateral damage to the city. The idea of Thor holding back also fits in with his character development in his solo movie, and Odin's talk of "a warrior's patience."

*** This was discussed at length in the archive pages; basically Tony had spent the last several minutes pissing him off, and interprets Cap telling him to put the hammer down as "you can't win so surrender." Warrior's patience or not, that riles him up even more, and keep in mind, Thor left a fair amount of time in his attack for Cap to move out of the way, and since he decides to stand his ground, that would indicate to Thor that Cap feels good about his chances.

*** Not that kind of one-way. The portal opens up in the sky and the Chitauri exit from beneath it. The original question was why weren't they coming in from the other side of the hole in the sky, which is to say above the portal. The answer is that it's functionally a door.

*** Not to mention that he doesn't seem to want to actually ''kill'' Thor. The lasers, the missiles, the bullets, they're all pretty much guaranteed to be lethal. He knows Thor can take a repulsor blast because Loki did.
**** I'm not so sure Thor would definitely be killed by Tony's best weapons, but with his main ones being ineffective and Thor getting progressively more pissed off, he could have tried something different, since he had to stop Thor or lose the Tesseract.
**** When Tony showed off all his weapons it was not with the intent to use them all, but to show them all off as a show of force. Think of a cat arching it's back and its fur rising to make itself look bigger. That was basically what Tony was doing. Would he have used all those weapons? Maybe. But from a character stand point, Tony is not an aggressor, he is a defender, so if it had come down to it, he probably would have done the same thing to Loki as he did to Thor. That is he escalated force ''as necessary''.
***** If you watch closely you can see he is, in fact about to use the wrist missiles on Thor right before Cap finally intervenes. He stows them once Cap tells them to stop, right before Thor knocks him away.

*** Tony very clearly isn't talking about that. The meeting with the line about having privatized world peace takes place when the government is trying to confiscate his armor. Which he later comes around to something resembling an agreement with. While comic book Tony has bouts with alcoholism movie Tony has been shown as a heavy drinker precisely once when he's forces Rhode to take an armor. Which drunk as he was it's difficult to believe that Tony doesn't have all sorts of back up systems that could have stopped Rhode anytime he pleased. World Peace also tends to be in reference to actual wars. With the debatable exception of some of Captain America's moves since it's unclear who S.H.I.E.L.D. answers and the Fantastic Four in cases of Dr. Doom nothing any of these heroes do is likely to rise beyond what are ultimately petty and personal squabbles with surprisingly little collateral considering what they are capable of.

*** What makes you think the reverse-engineered weapon is going to be anywhere near the same strength as the Destroyer itself?
*** Especially when observed effects from the weapons in question wildly differ. One emits a short, bright burst that knocks Loki through a wall. The other is a massive beam of energy that blows apart buildings and vaporizes Frost Giants. There's a tremendous difference between the two.

*** Precisely. The idea was to buy time and minimize damage to the city until they could figure out how to close the portal, which is exactly what Black Widow does. Since Selvig only wakes up a couple of minutes before she reaches the tower, Cap's plan worked about as well as it could have.

*** OP here: I didn't think it'd cut a hole in the helicarrier, either. I thought it'd just be incapable of doing anything besides dropping, with Earth as its reference point. The helicarrier itself, being a vehicle (and not a valid reference point for Mjölnir's immobility) wouldn't be able to move it.
*** Why? Observed behavior indicates that it doesn't work that way. Mjölnir can be set down on a surface and it will not hinder that surface's movement. (that and an object that small capable of stopping the Helicarrier from moving ''would'' slice through the ship regardless; basic physics re: concentration of force) If Mjölnir can be set on the planet's surface without damaging the planet thanks to the massive amount of kinetic energy involved in its orbit, then it can be set on the surface of a moving vehicle without hindering that vehicle. If someone tries to lift it using that vehicle, then they're not likely to succeed. If the hammer is set on that vehicle by Thor, it could move it (as there's a tacit implication that it is Thor's will that the hammer be transported by the act of putting it down). Whatever magitech that is involved in Mjölnir, its smart enough to recognize when it is being transported and when it is being lifted.
*** That's probably the most plausible explanation I've seen for it so far. I'm basing my observations right now solely off the MCU and how Mjölnir has been portrayed in it. I can't think of any times besides the helicarrier where Thor set his hammer down on something that continued to be able to move after he did so. Accordingly, I didn't really know how to conceptualize it in the helicarrier's case. Are there any other times it's transported like that, and I just don't remember them?

*** OP still here: I didn't think Mjölnir to be particularly heavy, but what threw me off was that it's been demonstrated that machines can't move the hammer either. Does it just know whether someone is trying to move it, and it locks up when they are? And when it's just being moved around without anyone trying to keep track of it, it's fine? Hopefully none of the SHIELD crew running the ship learned that Mjölnir was on board.
*** All indications from observed behavior is that when the hammer is set on a surface, it cannot be moved from that surface without Thor's own hand. If it is set on a planet, it remains rooted to that spot despite the planet's orbit. Since the Helicarrier is moving, the hammer stays rooted to that spot on the Helicarrier.
*** When the hammer was lying in New Mexico at the Thor film, it ''was'' moving: it was set over the surface of a planet that's moving around its sun, and it goes with that planet. It's not really much different than if it was left on a human vehicle, the vehicle is simply smaller, but that's just a matter of scale (Earth is also much smaller than other planets and stars). As for using machines to raise it, that's simply cheating. Either with his own hand or using a machine to do it, the issue is whenever the man is worthy or not.
*** My understanding is that Mjölnir's restriction on "movement" is conceptual, rather than absolute or relational. Which is to say, if for example, Thor put his hammer down in say a boat, it wouldn't necessarily sink the boat, nor stop it from moving. The hammer can move in terms of absolute or relative position to anything (and seeing as its solid matter at above absolute zero, atomic physics says the whole thing should actually be constantly vibrating, thus moving), but it cannot move in terms of its theoretical positioning. For example, if I put my keys on my desk and then go to dinner, the keys move in the absolute sense (Earth is rotating, etc.), and the relative sense to say, me, but their theoretical position (on my desk) remains constant. So if Thor set Mjölnir on the helicarrier, it is moving in relation to the Earth and any other relative positioning, but it remains constantly ''where he put it down'', that is the helicarrier.

*** Tony's virus was already in effect by the time Cap went off on his investigation, but the virus was supposed to just break into SHIELD's encrypted files, not disable systems around the ship. That seems like something people would notice, and Tony didn't expect Cap to go do that anyway.

*** One would think they'd at least tell Fury (or Hill, or whoever's running things at the moment) what's going on. Also I want to meet Lenny now.
*** Lenny is probably aware that Loki has ''mind control'' powers, and ''anyone'' acting suspicious is potentially working for him.
*** But Loki's been locked up all this time. People were just talking to Captain America not too long ago, and he didn't display any signs of mind control like blue eyes or such.
*** It doesn't really matter, they can't just sit there and do nothing while someone breaks into the armory. Even if it's Captain America and they're not going to stop him, they should at least let someone know. Which I'm pretty sure would quickly get back to Fury, who would really rather Cap not find the HYDRA stuff they have stashed there.

*** This is probably the best bet I've seen for it. You're right about the secure storage part, I hadn't actually looked at the scene in a little while. Misspoke with the entry title. I didn't think the storage room would have extra security, the actual armory required a retinal scan for Coulson to enter. I just thought it'd have the same surveillance as the rest of the helicarrier, which would still be enough to see Cap breaking in. It would put Cap's break-in chronologically quite a bit ahead of his discussion with Tony and Bruce, though. Like, at least a few hours ahead. The sun had time to come up, after all.
*** It's Captain freaking America. Who's going to stop him? Even if someone had seen him, (and presumably someone or many someones had to have seen him walking through the halls with that gun), why would they question him carrying the gun or breaking into the storage? They might have made note of it and told higher ups, but in the end Captain America is a living legend and living legends tend to be able to get away with stuff that regular folks wouldn't.

*** Why assume whomever monitors those cameras even knows there ''are'' experimental weapons in that storage room? The Helicarrier's crew are unlikely to be kept informed about all of [=SHIELD=]'s research projects, especially top-secret ones; all they know is that a bunch of stuff from the evacuated base wound up there. Heck, for all they know it's an ordinary stockroom and Cap is just looking for some metal polish to give his shield a buff.

*** This is probably a big part of it. The Chitauri infantry weren't using HYDRA disintegration bolts. The energy weapons they were using, in fact, are weaker than any we've seen from anyone else (compared to HYDRA's Tesseract weapons, Iron Man's repulsors and the Destroyer's beam). Cap was hurt when he got hit, but between the relatively weak impact, his uniform's protection (seeing as the WWII one was a carbon weave, this one was probably quite a lot better), and his being a super-soldier, that wasn't going to keep him down for long.
*** Heck, the fact that the Chitauri weaponry isn't as potent as HYDRA gear is ''why'' they needed Loki to steal the Tesseract for them in the first place.

*** Cap is explicitly ''not'' superhuman. He's a BadassNormal, and always has been; his super power is being the peak of human physical ability in every possible aspect, give or take some slightly-improved healing/recovery. Keep in mind the Chitauri were there to ''conquer'' the humans, not wipe them off the planet; they threaten, they corral, and they definitely terrorize, but they don't make any serious attempts to kill anyone who isn't at least in the vicinity of someone who's fighting back. Chances are those lasers are non-lethal concussion force only, more designed to discourage resistance than to kill anybody.
*** Someone hasn't seen ''Winter Soldier'' yet. Cap is doing things way, ''way'' beyond BadassNormal. We see him do things from dropping out of a moving jet over hundreds of feet into the water with no parachute (twice!), he takes direct hits to the face from a cybernetic arm that explicitly breaks concrete, knocks down locked doors on pure momentum from his charges, kicks humans hard enough that they fly a good twenty feet away horizontally, gets shot three times in the chest and gets up and continues fighting, ''after'' lifting a massive steel I-beam, and does some frankly amazing parkour that would be impossible for a human to pull off.
*** Cap is ''not'' a BadassNormal and he never has been. He is explicitly at the peak of human perfection in ''every'' aspect, which is something that is completely impossible for a human to achieve. Someone who has gotten as physically strong as a human can ever be is going to be the exact opposite of agile. Someone who is as agile as a human can possibly be is not going to be exceptionally strong. Captain America lives in the freakish outliers of every possible physical trait. He can outlift any strongman, outperform any gymnast, he has the most robust immune system, the toughest skin, the strongest bones, the keenest eyesight, the sharpest hearing, etc. He's the mother that lifts a car to save her baby...except he can do it at will any time he wants.
*** You're talking comics Cap. Movie Cap is a separate continuity with a different power level. Oh, and in the trailer for 'Winter Soldier' we see Movie Cap do a 500+ foot jump out of an airplane into water without a parachute and come back up fresh as a daisy, so he's ''totally'' superhuman. (To a normal human being, hitting water from that high up is not materially different from hitting concrete.)
**** Peak Human potential isn't just Olympic level. It's full adrenaline, pushing the human form to its very limits level. Cap can with minimal effort lift a motorcycle over his head and leap far distances, as well as land on his feet with no issues. He's basically superhuman (if a weak one) in everything but a technicality. This is the same in the comics too. So yeah, he can take a blast like that much better than say Hawkeye or Widow could, but can't just shrug them off like Thor and Hulk can.

*** It becomes one of those portal physics things. If you can pass through it like that, then if you go halfway through and turn around, part of you will be in New York and part of you will be in Chitauri space. And you'll be cut in half, I guess. That kinda thing.
*** We never see it from the other side, so who is to know, but perhaps the other side is crackling energy of some kind. Think of the Star Gates and how they only are seen from one side. The other side might even be dangerous (or lethal) to try and pass through.

*** The [=energy field/gravitational gradient/whatever=] doesn't let you approach at all. You either get repulsed, or shunted to the side.
*** The [=energy field/gravitational gradient/whatever=] reduces you to your component atoms.
*** The back connects to itself, so if you enter from the back, you get turned around and come back out the same way.
*** The "back" of this portal connects to the "back" of the other portal, so which one is the "front" and which the "back" is largely a matter of semantics. [[note]]The guy who created the Headscratcher titled "The Portal", above, seemed to just assume that this was the case, so you're not the only one thinking about it.[[/note]]

*** OP again. Remember, the only reason Hitler was made Chancellor was because the Nazis were sweeping elections. And even if {{Black Shirt}}s for Loki's hypothetical regime are few compared to Germans who eagerly supported fascism, there will always be ''plenty'' of [[LesCollaborateurs opportunists and cowards]] who won't be making a stink.

*** It's the connection between making it personal and making it public that confuses me. Do those normally go hand in hand?
**** Tony's saying that Loki provoked them personally, so that any confrontation will end up being public. So that they'll go after him no matter where... even if it's downtown Manhattan.

*** It is the way Tony's brain works through a problem. He was just thinking out loud basically. He may have skipped a few steps, and ''not shown his work'', but in the end he came to the correct conclusion. Like any super genius engineer would. Also, I got the impression he was not so much coming to a conclusion as he was bouncing ideas off of the other super genius in the room (Banner). Since no one questioned his conclusion, and in fact agreed with him, it seems he was right, so he went with it.
**** Good theory, but Banner had definitely fallen out of the Helicarrier at this point. Tony was only talking to Rogers here.

*** Hoo boy. First off, Tony even in his selfish phase didn't go around trying to kill his father in his sleep, or his "perfect brother" Steve, or millions of innocents. Although he was a manufacturer of weapons, he honestly believed he was contributing to his country's self-defense. He remained best friends with the genuinely straightlaced Rhodey from high school/college, and he cared enough about other human beings to pick up enough redeeming traits to win the heart of the very smart and unique Pepper Potts. Tony was an immature and irresponsible extrovert who still gave a damn about strangers, not a psycho-in-the-making.
*** Point of fact; Loki didn't really try to kill Odin. He set the "assassination" up so he could save Odin and be the hero. He also didn't see the Frost Giants as innocents. The Warriors Three and Sif apparently considered Loki a friend. Loki considered himself more responsible than Thor, not less. He was also content to leave Thor be until Heimdall let the 3 and Sif through, forcing his hand.
*** Loki clearly intended to kill Odin, and possibly Frigga, in that bedroom if Thor hadn't interrupted. Loki was immediately certain that Odin had mercilessly killed his innocent Frost Giant parents the moment he realized he was of their blood, and from then on his adopted family and Asgard--the place he had grown up in--were no longer worthy of his love or protection. The Warriors Three may have considered Loki a friend, but they did not seem to be particularly close to him, and vice versa; in fact, did not seem to have that much trouble turning on him when he became the enemy, and Loki in turn saw no qualms in trying to kill his former "friends" immediately after his [[FaceHeelTurn Face Heel Turn]]. Yes, Loki thought himself more responsible than Thor, and also better than him, and also everyone else. This arrogance facilitated his descent. His hand was never really "forced" throughout the movie; he plotted and planned most of what he reaped. To wit, this troper cannot see Tony Stark doing ''anything'' as heartless as the things Loki does in "Thor"; Tony Stark, remember, has a heart.
**** Eh... I'm not sure I agree there. Loki knows his father is Laufey (the Frost Giant who was straddled over Odin poised to kill him) and I took it as a way for Loki to be able to get Laufey alone so he could kill him himself. Loki clearly loves Frigga, embracing her and protecting her, and at the end of the movie Loki is still seeking out Odin's affection, or at the very least his approval, made clear by the "I could have done it, Father! For you!" It's only when Odin replies with a "No, Loki", a clear sign of disapproval and, to Loki, anything but love and acceptance, is what breaks his heart and turns the mischief god against his adopted father, ultimately, in the end.
***** Agreed: It's clear that Loki's motivations (however twisted his methods) are to prove that he's a true son of Asgard and Odin, just as much as Thor is: by saving Odin's life, killing Laufey, and protecting Asgard from the frost giants once and for all.
***** And the movie makes it appallingly clear that Loki does /not/ think that he is better than Thor; he's extremely jealous of all the love and attention his older brother gets, which gives the impression that being treated worse is not anything new to him, even before he finds out his origins. And Loki genuinely thought he was doing the right thing, from his perspective; kill the race that his realm is constantly under fire from. Thor wanted to go to war with the Jotun, and Loki is following in his footsteps. Sure, the dude is definitely misguided but I think 'heartless' and 'evil' are getting a little out of hand... [[spoiler: in the Thor movie, anyway.]]
****** This reminds me of a post where people were [[TheWoobie woobifying]] ''Hitler'' because of a short gif of him acting nice. All his evil is justified because of this and that. The entire point of this is: Tony is ''not'' Loki pre-''Iron Man'' in ''any way, shape, or form''. Tony is flawed, yes, but not to the point to that he, for example, thought genocide was a good solution to anything. One was a formerly selfish rich brat, and the other a murderer-in-the-making.
******* Not justifying his actions; just saying that it's almost like Tony is what Loki could be if he hadn't become a {{Smug Super}}, {{Obliviously Evil}} {{Manipulative Bastard}}.
******** No, not even ''remotely'' alike. Tony is damaged, but not to the extent Loki is. Two completely different people, even pre-Afghanistan. Would Loki have had a guy like Rhodey as his best friend, or a girl like Pepper who admired him? No, because his personality, already dark at the beginning of ''Thor'', would not have precluded it. He has very little in lieu of a conscience. And Tony Stark has always, ''always''--both in the movies and the comics, even in his darkest hours--had one.
*** Would he have had a guy like Rhodey as his best friend? You mean kinda like how he and Thor were very affectionate and loving toward one another? A girl like Pepper who admired him? You mean kind of like how he was as friendly with Sif as with everyone else? Loki was one of the guys at the start of ''Thor''. He was a trickster, yes, but everyone seemed to like him and enjoy his company.
*** Even at the beginning, in order to frame Loki's StartOfDarkness, he's shown to be standoffish even with the Warriors Three; in an early scene they're sitting together trading jibes, and he's brooding by himself. He doesn't even talk until Thor tries to convince him to join them. The Sif-Pepper and Rhodey-Warriors Three comparisons in regards to their respective narratives and their relationships don't hold water. Rhodey and Pepper would've fought like hell to get through to Tony if he ever decided for some reason that genocide was a great idea to make Daddy Stark happy. The Warriors Three take Loki's [[FaceHeelTurn transformation into an enemy]] without blinking; they barely bother to reach him using their alleged bond of friendship. The only one who bothers is Thor, who Loki stabs and nearly kills--multiple times!--for his efforts. I frankly cannot see Tony heartlessly stabbing Rhodey or Pepper--multiple times--while they pleaded for him to see reason. I realize this is all very subjective, but from a mainstream, non-fangirl perspective, Loki =/= Tony Stark.
*** The mainstream, non fan-girl perspective jab is completely unnecessary (and untrue, since there's clear support of Iron Man going on in the "arguments"). And the movie makes the parallels between Stark and Loki so blatant that, at the end, Stark figures out where Loki is by realizing that Loki would do what he (Stark) did in the first place (that is, a gigantic monument to himself).
*** I think that at the core of their personality, Tony and Loki are actually very much alike. The way they reacted to a troubling realization is actually very similar. They both just found out that they are, to the world at large, very bad people. In Tony's case it was because of his weapons being in enemy hands and in Loki's case it was being a Frost Giant. And they reacted the same way, to do EVERYTHING in their power to erase the source of that problem, wipe the slate clean and start anew. They both went at it with a single-minded focus. But what people seem to be forgetting is that to Loki the Frost Giants were not just a enemy race. As far as Asgard (or at least the stories they told to their children) was concerned, they were MONSTERS rather than people and that killing them was a GOOD thing without question. [Don't forget that Thor had the very same idea of going to war and killing them all as well, Loki's plan was just more "efficient" about it. Killing the FG was considered no more worse for them as killing the Chitauri were for the human Avengers later.] So Loki, after having heard stories for centuries about these creatures (not really people, remember), finds out that he's one of them. He's not just a bad person, but a monster, a boogyman, and perhaps that's the reason why his father has always favored Thor, who is an actual Asgardian. But wait, Loki is a Son Of The Allfather, even if by adoption! If he can foresake his blood ties to the FG and tear them down as Odin himself had done long ago, perhaps he will see and understand that Loki is an exception and not at all like the other FG and see that he is just as valuable as Thor. And a major, MAJOR part in how they reacted to these situations were the people they had around him. Tony was lucky to have people near him that could take his hand and pull him out of the abyss. He had Yensin to build him back up when he'd broken and Pepper and Rhodey to keep him up when it looked like he was falling again. Loki on the other hand had no one. It didn't help that he was a magic using male in a predominately warrior-type society. It didn't help that his father was pretty freaking standoffish towards him at the best of times. Or that his brother had just been banished after trying to kill other FGs, and even if he hadn't been how would he react? Or that his friends were mostly Thor (the great and wonderful)'s friends. That's a lot of crap to deal with alone. Tony would not have faired better TBH. His reactions would likely have been similar.

*** This is part of the most likely answer. It's also a reasonable assumption that there isn't a ton of material on the subject for Tony to familiarize himself with.

*** It's not the fall that kills you. It's the steel and glass on all sides of you suddenly shrapnelizing upon impact with the ground, turning into a spiky deathtrap of twisted metal and powdered glass on all sides of you that impales, rips, and shreds your body to pieces. Given that it was built for the Hulk, if it was just the fall alone, the cage would simply open the floor and ventilate the Hulk into the air; much cheaper to build for something that can't fly. That was the entire suspense with [[spoiler: Thor's descent: it wasn't that he needed to get out before he hit the ground, it was that he needed to get out of the cage before what we explicitly watched happen to the cage, happened with him inside of it.]]

*** Whose to say Loki only has one form of mind control available?

*** Not to mention when Loki starts throwing him around, Tony's (strangled) response is to tell Jarvis to "deploy" the suit. Never mind traps. Loki was quite familiar with Iron Man's ability to go toe-to-toe with a god, and he had just witnessed Tony ''casually walk out of a suit'' after landing on his tower. It's Tony's home turf, and a toss in the wrong direction could have put Tony in range of another suit. Since the glowstick failed, he didn't want to risk a stab or neck snap not working. Cue window toss. Of course, the suit Tony was looking for is able to follow him down, and the rest is history.

*** more likely he wanted to give Tony some time to think about why he was going to die.

*** Ask Coulson if the staff is sharp.

*** He was, at most, a kilometer or two off the top of Stark Tower, lower even than cruising altitude for commercial aircraft. Earth's gravity definitely had a hand in it.
**** Consider we do not know how the portal works. Perhaps it has some kind of inherent pull of it's own and Tony was not that far from the opening. My own observation was that he looked to be pulled much slower on the "space" side of the portal and once on the Earth side, he started falling faster.
**** Actually just after he loses all power in his Suit, parts of his shoulder armour are ejected and it pushes him back. It was probably the recoil of that ejection which pushed him back into the portal. In space, where Gravity doesn't interfere, Newton's third law really shines.

*** None of them ever caught Hulk reverting to Bruce though, or his secret would long be blown.
*** ...what secret? Banner hides in third world countries from United States Army pursuit that has, at one point, engaged him in the middle of a university in broad daylight. There are detailed S.H.I.E.L.D. reports on his whereabouts, news reports of his battles, he broke Harlem, and even a random janitor in the asscrack of nowhere knows that he's an ordinary man who transforms into a giant green rage monster. At what point is it even ''hinted'' that Banner's identity is a secret by the time Avengers rolls around?
*** And even if people don't know specifically that it's Bruce Banner the scientist that morphs into the giant green rage monster, they know that it ''is'' a person that does, so it makes sense that the janitor would expect him to return to human form once he calms down/passes out.

*** This is just a misinterpretation. He wasn't aware that the Hulk was going to shrink. What he was saying was, he didn't think the old clothes would fit him, until suddenly, Hulk turned back into Banner. "until you shrunk back to normal size" isn't what the man was waiting for, it was what actually happened.

*** Coupling that with the Real World reason why the Pentagon didn't provide support for the film, it could be that the military chafed against an organization that is outside of the chain of command giving orders that a walking WMD controlled by a U.S. Air Force officer be used on American soil without government authorization, and Rhodey wasn't given permission to participate due to a jurisdictional pissing contest.

*** Oh I know it wouldn't have killed her, as I work on an archery range and handle arrows on a regular basis. But it would have at least pierced her skin if he stabbed at her face, allowing him to follow up with his knife as she reels back from pain. There might also be more damage if he had equipped it with one of the trick arrowheads, such as the superheating one he used on the Chitauri flier.

*** Joss actually mentions in the film's commentary that he found it hilarious for Hawkeye to shoot a guy at such close range.
*** Given that Natasha kicks his ass rather handily, he could simply be too bruised up for any sort of fisticuffs. Either that, or he still has a bit of a concussion from all the times she cracked him in the noggin to knock him out.

*** No, but he could punch the portal generator, which is what both Cap and the OP are referring to.
**** I'm picturing the Hulk hitting something 'invulnerable' hard enough to [[BuffySpeak vulner]] it anyway, and it sounds like the sort of thing that - in a comic-book world - would be kind of explodey. Further damage to New York would be kind of counterproductive.

*** Can't possibly be connected to the UN. They actually succeeded in fulfilling their goals (I'm only half joking). It could be multi-national due to the World Security Council or a domestic US agency due to what S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for. I still highly doubt it would have anything to do with the UN, though. Too many countries involved for things to go well in that case.
*** Definitely multi-national. In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' they are shown to have jurisdiction and agents operating in China.
*** Haven't seen anything involving "Agents of SHIELD" but the way you phrased that doesn't technically mean they're multinational. The CIA, for example, technically has jurisdiction to operate anywhere in the world except the United States itself; that's where other agencies take over. Whether other countries want CIA operatives in their country is irrelevant. They're there to do a job regardless of what the local government's opinion is. SHIELD gives me a headache.
*** In this case he is working openly, with the Chinese local police, in his capacity as a SHIELD agent. The show also makes it clear that SHIELD can legally operate in some countries and have legal authority to conduct their work but is barred by others. In those instances it's made clear that SHIELD has to care what the local government's opinion is, but can ignore that if the stakes are high enough.

*** The only thing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that indicates the public is aware of the nuke would be the crayon drawing of Iron Man in ''Iron Man 3'', which appears to show him flying the nuke into the portal. Presumably, that's an oversight.
*** Some guy with a cellphone might have gotten a picture of it, and the WSC had to make up an excuse of: "Umm, we ''gave'' it to Tony Stark so he could hurl it at the big bad aliens."
**** Is there any reason for the general public to doubt that Iron Man doesn't have access to nukes if he wanted them? We're talking about a man who despite however much time has passed between Iron Man and Iron Man 3 was up until then the world's greatest weapons manufacturer and the designer of one of Earth's deadliest weapons. (No amount of calling the Iron Man armor a shield makes it a shield unless we're arguing the best defense is a good offense) It doesn't seem unbelievable that the general public thinks Stark summoned up one of his nukes (or on of America's with or without permission) and used it against the alien invasion sweeping through New York.
*** Most likely, the US government will claim that it fired the nuke (what other government could do so without starting a war?) and Iron Man got the assist by flying it into the wormhole (either that was the plan all along or there was a malfunction and Iron Man saved the day) then tell Tony that if he dares to breath a word otherwise, they'll do things like audit Stark Enterprises (or at least investigate its past terrorist ties) or make life hell for his friends.

*** And completely forget about the little promise he made about "return[ing] for [her]" in his first movie? Even if her contact with the outside world was limited, there's nothing to stop him from seeing her in person. Even if SHIELD didn't tell him where Jane was, it's not like they know how to hide anything from Heimdall, and if he really wanted to see her, it's not like they could do anything to stop him.
*** Heimdall? Sure, I can picture the scene