We must be in the 43rd issue of the first volume of Marvel Comics’ “Fantastic Four,” because “Lo, There Shall Be an Ending!” (That’s the title of that issue. Also, it’s “Avengers: Endgame.” “Avengers: Endgame” is the ending. This review is about “Avengers: Endgame.” Also, the Fantastic Four have nothing to do with “Endgame” or my review, so that’s the last time they’ll be mentioned. Anyways.) 

“Avengers: Endgame,” the fourth Avengers movie and Marvel Studios 22nd movie, premiered over two weeks ago. “Endgame” tells the story of how the Avengers fight Thanos, a super-powerful, genocidal alien, to undo the events of “Avengers: Infinity War,” the decimation of half of all life in the universe. 

It features the main Avengers cast — Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk and Chris Hemsworth as Thor — as well as almost every other character in the Marvel franchise. 

There was a lot of pressure on this movie to succeed; the previous 21 movies all culminated into “Endgame,” the supposed conclusion of the Marvel franchise as audiences know it. Now, fans can rejoice because “Endgame” lived up to the hype. 

Audiences have been following the main Avengers cast for a long time, but this movie has some of their best performances. Given the opportunity to explore a wide range of emotions and drama, they take it and run with it; they can go from being fall-out-of-your-chair hilarious to upsettingly heartbreaking in one short scene. 

The characters are deeply human when they need to be and superheroic when it’s called for, making a fantastical world and story believable and captivating; Evans and Hemsworth are significant highlights of the film. That being said, the quality of the special effects helps too. 

Drama, characters and emotional stakes aside, the action sequences are plentiful and well-executed. Despite the large amount and length of the fight scenes, they’re never boring or inconsequential. 

These scenes find the perfect balance that all superheroes need, capturing the joy of a child playing with action figures while remembering their place in the story and relevance to the movie. 

There are a lot of entertaining parts of “Endgame.” My favorite, though, as a fan of superhero comics and more specifically as someone who has been following the Marvel franchise, is how well Endgame ends the franchise. 

Superhero comics — and now the movies — are a form of serialized storytelling; Captain America has had an issue come out every month for almost 80 years. Despite having lost his powers (multiple times), being turned into a werewolf, substituted by a Nazi clone of himself and actually dying, he’s still around. 

Until Marvel stops publishing comic books, he will never receive a real, genuine ending. However, in “Endgame,” some characters are given resolutions. 

While it’s not technically the very last installment in the franchise (it had a 1.2 billion dollar opening weekend and trailers for upcoming Marvel movies have provided glimpses of what’s coming next), “Endgame” ties up dangling plot threads, delivers on promises, calls back to well-loved moments and shows the audience a hint of what the future has in store. 

No one should watch this movie without having seen at least some of the previous films, but if you have, I think “Endgame” makes good of your investment of time and money in the franchise.