Why is the Marvel Universe special to the Millennials?
We all love Marvel movies, don’t we? Well, if you have arrived at this article, then there is a good reason for me to believe that you do. The words Marvel and MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) are super-efficient click baits for most of us. It has indeed become a raging phenomenon, surpassing generations. But there is one particular generation that feels more special about it than any other — The Millennials. I might be biased as I belong to that generation myself, so I will attempt to validate the title, with a story on the Marvel journey.
I do not remember when and why I watched the first Iron Man movie. It was that ancient time when movies used to come in CDs or “4-in-1” DVDs. Our movie watching adventure went somewhat like this: Step 1 — Go to a rental shop that provides these CDs/DVDs. Step 2 — Ask for some good recent movies. Hollywood movies were the favorite choice. Their futuristic sci-fi concepts and the jaw-dropping action were way more appealing back then! Step 3 — Make a tough decision, pick up a CD/DVD, binge-watch, return it, repeat. (Did someone say piracy? Well, please excuse our small and unaware minds)
Maybe that is how I came across Iron Man for the first time. It was the coolest thing I had seen! Genius guy — aspirational. Rich guy — also aspirational. A genius rich guy with super-fast cars — super aspirational. The genius rich guy with super-fast cars now makes a super-awesome suit! I mean, could this BE any cooler?
Of course, it could be! Came the influx of Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. All of them, filled with gripping plots and engaging characters, with appropriate proportions of humor, love, grief, and Hulk smashes. Post-credit scenes were not synonymous with Marvel movies then. “Marvel” in itself was something that only comic-book enthusiasts would be crazy about, not the casual movie fanatics. Thus, each superhero movie was just-another-movie for us. We had no idea that something termed as a “production house” did exist.
Captain America — The First Avenger, was indeed an enlightening movie. It was in this movie where we saw Nick fury in a dialogue with Captain America about the Tesseract (used in the core plots of both Thor and Captain America). The dots finally connected. Nick Fury was also spotted in Iron Man 2, helping out our beloved Tony, trying to recruit him for an “initiative” (Now we know. Smart guy Nick). Even Phil Coulson appeared in both Iron Man 2 and Thor. Our feeble brains used to wonder- were these plots coinciding? How could it be? How can movies with different characters & separate plots be a part of something one?
The epiphany was real. If you think that this shouldn’t have been that hard to believe, you need to put yourself in the shoes of those kids who had hardly seen crossovers in any movies. Okay, imagine a Marvel-DC crossover today? Batman and Iron Man, fighting alongside The Joker, and the Ultron, maybe even arguing over who has more money. Sounds difficult? But what if it does happen, say, ten years down the line. The new generation won’t feel anything new, but we will be ones who would have traveled from imagination to reality. The case here is nothing different. The level of shock, surprise, excitement, thrill, and mystery around this new concept of “Marvel Cinematic Universe” was indeed unknown to us.
Then came The Avengers.
Oh. My. God! All these superheroes that we got familiar with, all of them, in ONE SINGLE MOVIE! How insane was that? We couldn’t keep calm, as this “get-together” was nothing like we had seen before. “Take all my money! Show me the goddamn movie already!” All storylines merged into one single plot, and how! The appeal of the first Avenger movie was certainly, unparalleled. The climax resembled a dream sequence, with all the heroes fighting alongside, each with his/her mighty power. Also, they had a Hulk! That was the best treat anyone who had followed the earlier movies would have had.
For the following seven years, we saw many new launches and sequels, with fresh plots and unique characters. The Captain America trilogy, Thor trilogy (and the interesting take on Hulk), the Iron Man finale, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr. Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel — we saw it all. We witnessed this new religion called the MCU, garnering more and more devotees, more cults, and spreading to all corners of the world.
One particular thing that I would like to point out, which I am sure Millennials would resonate with, is the long-awaited introduction of our friendly neighborhood superhero — Spiderman. We, as kids, witnessed the first Spiderman trilogy, and most of us are still attached to it. We even received the reboot with open arms, because he was the hero of our childhood. It was disheartening to see that the web-crawler was missing in action for the longest of time in the MCU, for reasons revolving the distribution rights. And when we finally saw the little guy, wearing a suit designed by Tony Stark himself, swinging and shooting webs at other heroes, oh boy what I sight it was.
We have witnessed three different versions of Spiderman, and are those rare species that will still like them all — because once you fall in love with something in your childhood, it stays with you for a lifetime.
We grew up alongside these movies, along with the excitement around the mid-credit and post-credit credit scenes. Every new movie that got announced changed the world around us. These movies influenced our topics of discussions, our choices of clothes, the posters on our walls, the wallpapers on our phones, those old awkward usernames on Orkut & Yahoo, and even our passwords. Our feelings and emotions got attached to anything and everything around MCU. Do you see why now, when this saga concluded, with The Avengers — End Game, it felt as if a chapter in our own lives got closed? Watching it end (and the ending itself) was nothing short of crying. I remember the feeling. What would I now look forward to? How else would I now experience that feeling of waiting?
Yes, there will be more movies coming up, but this universe was what WE lived in, and there, we saw it end.
Of course, I wouldn’t bear the stretching of plots and replacement of our favorite characters because the present ones got old or something — it was enough pain to see characters leaving us in The End Game already. So in a way, I was glad. We at least had a proper closure to everything, and we should be super thankful for it. The closure we didn’t need or want, but the closure we deserved
The End.
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Post- Credit
It is not an easy task, creating coherent plots, and maintaining each and every character (almost) for 11 years. DC reboots have shown us that sustaining a universe for even 4–5 years can be a challenging task.
Kudos to the directors, actors, writers, and everyone involved in making the movies happen for us. Kudos to MCU, to Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. And of course to the one whom we love 3000
Originally written for www.thelastpage.co.in
