This is going to be a 2 part article but it's something I've been thinking about ever since I watched "The Snyder Cut", Marvel's Netflix shows and their latest offering of TV shows on Disney+ now this is topic is coming to the forefront of my mind, but I have to do a lot of legwork because like I said this is a 2 part article but for you dear reader, you're gonna have to do some homework (and we all know how much you all LOVE homework). The 2nd Part of this series will be titled "...And What The DCEU ALMOST Did Right", but for now we're focusing on Marvel, but I will have to address DC (or more specifically "Man Of Steel"). Anyway I'm gonna go ahead and assume you're a geek like me and have seen all of The Marvel stuff on Netflix and Disney+ or at the very least you're knowledgeable about it, so let's dive into "What Marvel Did Wrong and The Right..."
When Netflix announced that they'd be adapting street-level heroes for the small screen, all contained within the same MCU fans were ecstatic, to say the least, EVERYONE was wondering how these street heroes we're gonna intersect with the one on the big screen. Nick Fury popped up in "Agents Of SHIELD", so a cameo wasn't exactly outta the question, not to mention these heroes operated exclusively in New York, EXACTLY where The Avengers operated and fought off an alien invasion if anything all of that needed to be addressed. Much to our surprise (or at least mine), the alien invasion wasn't mentioned that much, and here's what Marvel did wrong. If you look at the first set of MCU movies they were all isolated stories (none more isolated than Captain America, taking place in a completely different time period), Tony Stark was dealing with a Tony Stark problem, Thor (while yes stuff happened in a small town with other people involved) was dealing with a Thor problem, the world wasn't at stake, not yet.
And then "Avengers" happened and Loki attacked New York, the sky ripped open and the world came face to face with not only the reality of aliens but incredibly hostile aliens. Dozens of witnesses watched as New York became ground zero for the fate of mankind, The Avengers was front and center and now everyone witnessed magic (Thor), science gone wrong (The Hulk) and right (Captain America), excessive wealth (Ironman) and the fact that the universe was now a pretty big place. In the aftermath of all of that, you'd think that the playing field (ie, everyday life) would be different somehow and yet, it wasn't. What Marvel got wrong is that they didn't show exactly how the world changed now that they were exposed to this new information, in "Daredevil" Wesley mentions magic hammers, in "Luke Cage" you have a kid selling footage of what they call "The Incident" and bullets manufactured by the metal used from an alien spacecraft , in "Jessica Jones" a kid mentions Captain America but that's about it.
 |
| Just $80 Million in damage and undeniable proof that aliens exist, but hey, no biggie, right? |
In my personal opinion, Marvel didn't milk this event as much as they possibly could have by telling the story of the same event but from the perspective of someone from the street. And maybe not what they were doing during the attack but the aftermath and how that affected them. Sure in "Daredevil" the attack was the catalyst that allowed Fisk to take over, his whole "rebuild Hell's Kitchen" idea but again The Incident is barely mentioned. This lack of referencing the greater MCU caused many fans to believe that the Netflix shows were merely a different universe and to be completely fair to them, I can see why they'd think that. There were no signals or no discussions about aliens or magic or portals or anything, Matt met every word from Stick's mouth with skepticism despite living in a city literally torn apart by aliens (who he'd have heard coming by the way) and while I appreciate Stick making an appeal to Matt's religious beliefs, the obvious can't be ignored, the world is a VERY different place for everyone involved.
 |
| "There are no such things as dragons." said The Bullet Proof Man to The Magic Ninja... |
What Marvel did wrong is that they didn't take advantage of the narrative they already set up. How does your average citizen react to learning there are indeed aliens? After all, a bulletproof man can't be that hard to believe when literal aliens wield magic hammers, can it? What does The Punisher think of aliens? Granted, Frank was probably in a coma for most of that but still, the world has changed and the Netflix shows didn't take as much advantage of that as they could have and missed the opportunity to tell some great stories...
...that being said...
What Marvel got right, however, is their uses of "The Snap". Let's be completely honest, we all knew The Avengers were going to defeat Thanos, that much was obvious and "Endgame" didn't surprise in that regard, however, what did surprise me is that The Avengers lost...for 5 YEARS! 5 FRICKIN' YEARS they were without a plan, without hope and just settled into learning how to move on with (a targeted) half the population gone (and another possible 30% as collateral damage...you gotta factor in airline pilots, unattended children, train operators, bus drivers, people doing generally dangerous jobs that require a second person's supervision...The Snap gets more horrifying the more you think about) and a LOT can happen in 5 years with such a sudden and drastic change in dynamics. And while "WandaVision" touched on the effects of "The Blip" (the return) with Monica Rambeau returning (she was snapped while asleep) and running into people returning to reality after having been gone for 5 years.
 |
| This sent a chill down my spine. |
But "Falcon & Winter Soldier" is showing an even darker side of "The Blip" and that is within the 5 years of everyone missing, certain people got used to the abundance of resources and the lack of cohesion. Consider that if Kim Jung Un and certain members of his regime were snapped away, North Korea would change dramatically, same goes for Russia, China, and any other country (including ours) and when things change that much, returning to normal is going to be difficult. The Flag Smashers offer an interesting take on the idea of what happened in the 5 years, they're basically the left-behinds, the people who Thanos was actually fighting for and they're fighting to keep the dream alive. Marvel did this right by exploring The Blip and how it changed the world of terrorism and the idea of nations. If "The Incident" wasn't a world-changing event, then "The Snap" most certainly was and I'm very happy that Marvel isn't ignoring it or giving it a passing mention. By calling attention to and mentioning these events they're allowing the MCU to grow organically by creating something that echoes throughout each story. Anyways, on to part two...
No comments:
Post a Comment