Acknowledgement of Country
I would like to pay my respects to the First People: the traditional custodians of the lands and waterways of Ngunnawal, Ngunawal and Ngambri Country. I would like to acknowledge that this geocache has been placed on what always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.
Background
Welcome to my Endgame series! As you will see I found six awesome cache containers whilst shopping in Sydney in Feb 2020. Each cache is a tribute to a Marvel character but for this series I pay special tribute to the specific versions of each character from the ever-growing Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). In each cache description rather than giving the history of each character I will share my personal thoughts and memories about the character throughout the MCU.
Beginning in 2008 with the release of 'Iron Man', the MCU has led to a plethora of movies and TV shows with high budget quality and A-list stars and film crews. The MCU has explored the stories of heroes and villians from Marvel's huge catalogue of comics from the past. Each product comes with its own unique style but are all interlinked into one continuous story in the same universe. Three phases of the MCU culminated in 2019 with the release of 'Avengers: Endgame': a 3hr epic which is now the highest grossing movie of all time. Endgame was one of the greatest experiences I've had interacting with film because all my friends were excited, speculating what would happen, and then in cinemas it felt as though the crowd were united in their love and appreciation for the MCU.
The plot of Endgame is conveluted but can be summaried pretty easily. In the previous Avengers movie, 'Infinity War', the warlord Thanos had collected the Infinity Stones, put them in his Infinity Gauntlet, and snapped his fingers to turn 50% of the universe's population into dust. Many of the Avengers also vanished due to 'the Snap'. Endgame follows the Avengers five years after the Snap where those who remain discover that they can time travel through the Quantum Realm to collect all the infinity stones themselves, build their own Infinity Gauntlet, and use it to bring the vanished back to life and to defeat Thanos. Endgame then becomes a story of the remaining Avengers revisiting the scenes of past movies to collect the infinity stones which made for an epic but nostalgic celebration of the MCU's amazing achievements to date.
The Endgame Series
There were six Infinity Stones the Avengers had to collect in Endgame: MIND, POWER, REALITY, SOUL, SPACE, and TIME.
This geocache series aims to replicate the epic nature of Endgame in geocache form and is also inspired by Sol de lune's Neighbourly Neighbours series in Canberra. Completing this series requires an epic journey to each of Canberra's regions (Gungahlin, Belconnen, North Canberra, South Canberra, Woden Valley, Weston Creek, Tuggeranong) to collect all the infinity stones and repair the universe from Thanos' tyranny. There are six traditional caches (Black Widow, Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Thor) named after six MCU characters and one final mystery cache (The Endgame). I've made a bookmark listing for this series for those who would like to use it!
In each traditional cache is one laminated card with the picture and name of one infinity stone with a number corresponding for each stone. Record this number or take a photo of the cards and please leave these cards in the cache for future finders. You may like to use the Personal Cache Notes function on this cache page. Some of the stones are placed in caches that match with the superhero characters they are "associated" with in the MCU story which may give you some hints on which caches to find which stones. Once you have recorded all six numbers (aka. Infinity Stones) you will be able to substitute the name of each stone with a number and calculate the final coordinates for the bonus cache.
Each cache is placed in a bushland area but are reasonably sized containers so please be stealthy when finding and replacing. Each cache is sizeable enough for lots of cool swaps so perhaps consider bringing some swag to trade!
This Cache
Iron Man is the alter ego of Tony Stark and is portrayed miraculously by Robert Downey Jr. He's the man with the best quips and the best tech. 'Iron Man' was the first MCU movie which in 2008 ended with the famous line in the media press conference, "the truth is, I am Iron Man". This was significant for setting up the rest of the MCU because it showed that many of the plots were not going to revolve around characters hiding their secret alter egos (like the classic plots of the past) and would be more focused on characters participating in public life and with everyone aware of their alter egos.
***FTF honours goes to Tankengine***