It’s cheating a little bit since Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk both came out in 2008 but that means that 21 of the MCU Films just came out over the last 10 years and that’s what I want to talk about for this article. The Marvel Cinematic Universe(Or MCU, for short) has permeated the very idea of pop culture the last decade and there’s multiple reasons why but I think I’ve finally figured it out. What makes an MCU film different from the rest? it’s not the bombastic finales that are massive spectacles to behold. Surely it’s not the wit and humor of the writing. Maybe it’s the bright and colorful characters. It’s not quite any of those things although they all come from the same core value of the MCU films. But, Why is the first Iron Man so successful? Why are all 4 of the Avengers films incredible? How did Black Panther hit every single mark it needed to? and why is Captain America : The Winter Soldier arguably the best film of the entire studio? All of that and more is because of one thing : Heart.
Now I’m not going to go over every single MCU film and tell you they’re perfect because they’re not. But there’s a love and passion that has gone into each of them and for me, it’s something that you haven’t seen from just about any other studio. The love of the comics and the original stories were molded into something truly beautiful this past decade and now look at where we’re at. If I mention characters like Dr. Strange, Scarlet Witch or Ant-Man to someone, no one looks at me like I’m weird because those characters are now household names. That’s an amazing feat to me. This is something that many other studios don’t understand when they’re adapting books, comics or even older films : You can change things to fit your story, but don’t change the core values of the characters. The heart and soul of those characters is why we love these stories in the first place and I’ll never understand why some people don’t get that.
The idea of a shared film universe would’ve been unthinkable 15 years ago and it probably still would be if it wasn’t for one man : Kevin Feige. Any producer who can claim that they did 21 films in 10 years would say they were incredibly tired and were ready to slow down and retire…That’s not Kevin Feige’s style though. He’s made the statement that he won’t retire until he gets tired of making these films and for me, I don’t think he will get tired of them. He’s been crucial in setting up future films for some lesser known characters like Shang-Chi and The Eternals and I don’t see him wanting to leave for a while. Feige is a man that I will probably always trust just because of what he’s given us already. He’s a man who understands the value of Heart.
One of the better parts of the second half of the MCU has been the growing diversity of the characters. This is something that Red Lanyard touched on in his article earlier this week. But between strong female characters like Black Widow, Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel and characters of color like War Machine, Falcon and Valkyrie we’ve been able to see more representation for females and for characters of different ethnicity. This is something that will only continue as we get to the aforementioned Eternals and Shang-Chi films and I can’t wait for it. The idea of diversity was never truer than with what is probably still my favorite MCU film : Black Panther. Black Panther was able to do so many things right and I struggle to find a flaw in it. You have your big superhero moments with T’Challa, you have the spy espionage aspect when they’re hunting Klaw, you have one of the best villains of the last 20 years and you’re able to represent multiple African Cultures in the different tribes of Wakanda. All of these are things that are incredibly important to the Black Panther mythos and it was phenomenal to see it brought to the big screen in this way.
And then we come to the end of it all, The Infinity Saga. It was something that I didn’t think could be done. I personally thought that I would never live to see so many of my favorite characters on screen at one time and then just this year alone we had a film that featured over 40 major characters, all complex with wild backstories and yet, we never felt like they were fighting for screentime and we never felt short changed for any of our heroes. These are things that couldn’t have happened without the MCU being as a tight of a franchise as it is. It’s a masterful accomplishment and it’s one that I intend to look back on fondly for the rest of my life. My family, my friends and multiple people who just know me from either my writing or my day jobs know that I love the MCU and I always will.
