The Marvel "multiverse" is a pretty complex topic. Since it has many characters and plots, heavy items of science fiction and fantasy (other dimensions, other planets, other spaces, and time travelling) and a huge number of movies, I will dedicate this post to introduce some basic ideas non-fans need to understand the Marvel Cinematic Universe (hereinafter MCU), and present the main objections I have to the prolific superhero franchise.
It is possible that I will make a sequel to this article about the films Avengers: Infinity Wars and Avengers: Endgame as well as another one about individual movies separately, but I can't promise anything.
While for time restraints I won't speak about the comics, because they are millions, I want to warn you that some comics are unappropiate for children and are either too violent, disturbing or degenerate. I clearly remember a picture where Wolverine was being eaten alive by a monster.
General Introduction to the MCU.
While this introduction is by no means extensive, I believe that understanding some of the main conections of films is important to better understand (and being able to criticize) the MCU.
MCU is a term used to describe 26 superhero films connected to each other. Not all Marvel movies belong to the MCU, this is why different movies tell different versions of the same story For example, the story of the character Venom is different in Spiderman 3 and the recent 2018 film "Venom". This is why things can get confusing, and what you think about a character may change with the movie.
Many superhero films are Origin films, this is, movies that narrate the beginning of a superhero. The Iron-man and Thor trilogies are about one superhero, but even these films are conected with other movies and superheros. For example, in Iron-Man 3, Tony Stark is still traumatized by the events that happened in Marvel's The Avengers.
Image from Marvel/Walt Disney
The Avengers are a group of superheros formed by Nick Fury. It's members are Iron-man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye, however other members are added on later movies. A chronologic order of all the movies (together with a synopsis) can be seen here:
My simpler chronologic order of movies can be seen here:
1: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
2: Captain Marvel (2019)
3: Iron Man (2008)
4: Iron Man 2 (2010)
5: The Incredible Hulk (2008)
6: Thor (2011)
7: Marvel's The Avengers
8: Thor: The Dark World (2013)
9: Iron Man 3 (2013) (Conected to The Avengers)
10: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
11: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
12: Guardains of the Galaxy 2 (2017)
13: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) (Many characters that will appear in subsequent films have their first appareance in this film; eg Wanda and Vision)
14: Ant-Man (2015)
15: Captain America Civil War (2016) (sequel to Age of Ultron)
16: Black Widow (2021)
17: Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)
18: Black Panther (2018)
19: Dr. Strange (2016)
20: Thor: Ragnarok (2017) (conected to Age of Ultron and Dr. Strange)
21: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
22: Avengers: Infinity Wars (2018)
23: Avengers: Endgame (2019) (sequel to Infinity Wars)
24: Spider Man: Far from Home (2019) (conected to Endgame)
is your mind spinning yet? :)
The X-Men, although belonging to Marvel, remain unconnected from other characters. The X-Men are a group made by mutants, people whose genes gave them superpowers. While some people discriminate against mutants, the X-Men seek to unite mutants with humans. The villains therefore are usually mutants who hate humans or humans who hate mutants. (Yeah, Acceptance message)
The movies related to X-Men are the original X-Men trilogy and various spin-off and precuel films.
General Objections to the Marvel Industry:
Immodesty:
All of the heroes (excepting Thor, Iron-Man and most of X-Men characters) are dressed in tight clothes that may reveal more than they should. Wolverine is prone to appear shirtless and Mystique, albeit she looks like an ugly alien, appears absolutely naked when not impersonating others, something that gets particularly grotesque in X-Men 3. Villains tend to be more modest than heroes, but that doesn't mean they don't wear thight clothes in ocassions (eg; The "godess" of death in Thor: Ragnarok)
Pass The Pot
In my opinion, the Marvel universe could restrain itself to stories about men who somehow developed super powers and decided to use them for good. However, it's creators made it all about other dimensions, time travelling, fake gods, aliens, titans, all of this culminating finally in the super smoked off, idiotic narration on how the universe was created of Infinity Wars.
What is the purpose of making such a big fake universe? Fiction is fine, and world-building (creating a fictional land in which a story will develop) can be used, but there is a point where it all becomes too jargonic, too fantasized, too smoked-off. This becomes particularly relevant when speaking about the MCU, because since all movies are the same story, you feel compelled to watch more and more, until you became totally immersed.
Strange Defnitions of The Divine
The first objection people I presented to Thor is that he is supposed to be the celtic "god" of thunder. "God" in the Marvel Universe, is not the Cristian God, but just someone who has superpowers. There isn't really a lot of difference between Iron-man and Loki. Many characters are "gods"; we can say Marvel Universe is polytheistic.
It is thereby implied that godhood is achieveable because it is just developing powers, not about being a superior, eternal being who does not depend on anything to exist. Thanos, the villain in Infinity Wars and Endgame, reaches the status of "godhood" after gathering 5 infinity stones. Yeah, if I brought cool stones and put them on a gauntlet, I will surely be omnipotent.
I think is a very valid objection towards various story arcs of the MCU, since you can't just say that a character is a "god". There is only one God, and he doesn't look like Thor, Thanos or other characters with the status of "godhood".
Occultic Imagery
Dr Strange (aka Stephen Strange) is a talented but narcissitic neurosurgeon who lost his hand ability in a car accident. Seeking cure, he goes to an hindu shaman ("The Ancient One") who eventually teaches him how to be a sorcerer. Although the movie explains that sorcerers fight against beings from other dimenssions, the film is full of occult imagery. It's like Dr. Strange joined the teosofical society or the ordo templi orientis. Other character involved in the sorcery issue is the Scarlet Witch, who appears in Infinity Wars and Endgame.
Here, Dr. Strange is seemingly receiving the mark of shiva. This mark is also the opening of the third eye, which is some sort of occultic waking up process (gnostic redpilling)
Dr. Strange is warned by the Ancient One that even though he is a neurosurgeon, he lacks the enlightenment offered by her group. She knows everything about him, and plans to use him to save the world from a bad creature from other dimension. In one scene, Dr. Strange is able to practice astral projection and separate his "astral body" from his physical body and continue fighting the bad guys even though he is severly wounded. The "Ancient One" does the same thing and she has preserved her age via the occult.
There is a curious joke current in the film, concerning crucial warnings only appearing at the end of occult books. Yeah, it really makes me wonder which kinds of warnings.
The movie X-Men: Apocalypse tells the story of a mutant, En Sabar Nuh (Apocalypsis) who transfers his soul to other bodies. He eventually has himself worshipped by various civilizations, and the movie heavily implies all religions were inspired by this man.
It also seems that Apocalypse was based upon the gnostic demiurg: a god who is creator but he is bad and imprisons people. Apocalypse wants to destroy humanity because he believes they are wasting their time with technology, and are corrupted by it. Different quotes from the movie suggest that Apocalypse is actually God Himself. One of the X-Men, Nightcrawler, looks like a demon but is good and a devout Catholic (actually, I think he is novus ordo, but that is beside the point now). The film is full of typically masonic symbols, perhaps due to the egyptian origin of En Sabar Nuh, but hey, why shouldn't X.Men be gnostic? In the comics, the father of Nightcrawler, Azazel, is a demon from other dimension, who leads a war against Heaven. He is bad, but I believe the case for the X-Men being gnostic can be done.
Punk Heroes: The Guardians of the Galaxy Saga
There are many issues with the Guardians of the Galaxy. First, they are all criminal bounty hunters; at the end of the first movie they give the impression that they will become good guys and save people, but the second movie destroys that impression. The Guardians are vulgar and have bad manners, for example:
1: Star Lord tries to seduce Gamora, who claims she is not attracted to his "pelvis powers"
2: Rocket, Drax and Groot get drunk in Star Lord's spaceship
3: Star Lord is always blasting rock music on the background.
4: They use bad language and behave like wild beasts.
5: In Avengers: Infinity Wars Dr. Strange asks Star Lord who is his lord, and he says "What am I supposed to say? Jesus?". (from my memory) Yes, Mr. Star Lord, you are supposed to say Jesus. Such irreverence is unworthy of a character in a film which will be seen by children.
Not precisely an example to follow. The Guardians are only good because they happen to be on the right side of history, nothing else.
It looks like off-the-cuff, vulgar and unecesary humor is becoming increasingly common in the MCU. Humor is fine and it helps to break off the intensity many films. But poo jokes, blasphemy, irreverence and an excess of witty-but-mean comments aren't what you would expect real Catholic heroes to do.
The movie Deadpool and it's sequel got an R (Restricted) rating because of it obscene content, violence and bad language, yet, how many parents let their children watch it because "muh it's a superhero must be good". Deadpool (as well as Venom) is supposed to be an anti-hero: someone who is good not because he practices virtue but because he happens to be less worse than his enemies. Is not hard to see why our society loves anti-heros: they want to punish bad people without ammending their lives.
The DC Universe has Pretty Much the Same Crap
While different from Marvel, both franchises are pretty similar to each other. Immodesty is found in all characters except some versions of Batman. While "gods" are less ubitiquous, "divine" characters are also found on DC, particularly Ares from the Wonder Woman film. DC is also a little bit less imaginative, but stuff like time travelling and different dimensions are also found.Villainous anti-heros are glorified in the Suicide Squad, in which the Joker, Harley Queen and other psychos are the protagonists.
CONCLUSION
It is not difficult to see what would be the problems with the MCU. While some individuals may watch these as mere entertainment, and then forget about them, others dedicate themselves fully to it, participating in fan-fiction, and cosplaying, and shippings, and fan-art, and fan-videos, and fan-parodies, and fan-reviews, and fandoms, and so much stuff, that it becames something more than just entertainment. It's a secular religion, and that's where all the bad messages can influence you more than you can imagine.
This is why, instead of focusing so much in fictional mutants, maybe focus instead on everyday saints, people like you and me who ruled over their passions and fought against evil without laser-eyes, robot-suits, genetic mutations and flying caps.
I recommend looking at this post by The Catholic Archivist, in which books about lifes of the Saints can be found if you scroll down.
Links
Links to Dr. Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy
Links to Infinity Wars: Quotes
The Lefebvrist Tradition in Action Review of Avengers Infinity Wars and Endgame. I've got some of the information from those reviews, which offer some interesting comments on the MCU. Just be carefull with the stupid lefebvrist theology found on the rest of the website
Of all of these, I have only seen the one when Thor loses his powers and can't lift his hammer (the humour in that was self-aware, and didn't take itself that seriously); and Deadpool. I guess I saw Deadpool because someone I knew raved about it, so I thought I would check it out (this was 3-4 years ago).
ReplyDeleteOther than those, I never really was interested in the MCU, partly because it just degenerates into "big powers" vs. other big powers, and when everybody is powerful, nobody is.
But mostly I was not really interested in overblown comic/superhero genres because it is like false gods, as you indicated.
I watched Thor in the cinema too, and was angry because I knew I had wasted my time.
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