Personal MCU Observations: Continuity and Story Issues
When people criticize the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s usually in an attempt to get back at people who hate on DC films, saying they are dark and have no color. T he DC fans talk about how Marvel is “for kids,”, relies too much on jokes and ironically, how the films have muted colors. One of my favorite criticisms is that The Avengers looked like it was shot for TV. I still don’t understand that one. Something rarely discussed is continuity. This is something I have been vocal about in the past and it’s not “marvel hate” or anything. These are just my personal feelings about the MCU post-Avengers where the continuity has gotten worse. Don’t forget that the Marvel Cinematic Universe started having continuity issues starting with their second film, The Incredible Hulk. This universe is not really planned out as well as we like to think. I honestly think they just throw titles up onto a flow chart and we gawk and awe, clapping our hands like seals when they announce a new film. The issue isn’t just in the films either; it extends to the ABC shows and Netflix. Oh, did you forget those are in this universe as well? Marvel sure has.
The Incredible Hulk is the second film in the MCU, debuting a month after Iron Man in June 2008. It featured tie-ins to the greater universe if you paid close attention to the opening credits, you’d see official documents, schematics and blueprints bearing the names of S.H.I.E.L.D., Stark Industries and Nick Fury. Then in the actual movie, none of that is brought up. If you caught the blueprints, you could guess that the military outfit that responds to the Hulk rampaging on the university campus is using Stark weapons.
The real tie-in though doesn’t come until the end of the movie with Tony Stark showing up to convince General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross to pardon Bruce Banner/The Hulk alone and let him join the Avengers Initiative. This scene is confusing and totally made unnecessary and useless by Iron Man 2 (which sees Tony Stark/Iron Man deemed unfit to join the Avengers) and “The Consultant”(the first Marvel One-Shot short film) which was made to explain it. According to the MCU Timeline, the same day the Hulk is rampaging, Stark meets with Fury for debrief. This would put his appearance in the actual Hulk movie AFTER Fury tells him he’s not fit to be an Avenger. So why would Stark want to help recruit the Hulk for the team?
Another early issue: the Bifrost. Thor destroys the bridge to prevent Loki from blowing up Jotunheim with it. The whole point of that was to save the Frost Giants, but it also was to show Thor being selfless and sacrificing his chance at happiness with Jane back on Earth. So how did he get back to Earth in Avengers? Marvel expects us to believe that Odin used some dark magic or something? I don’t even remember a proper explanation. Also, in the post-credits scene of Thor — which is DIRECTED BY JOSS WHEDON — we see Loki take control of Erik Selvig through a mirror in some undisclosed location. Then in The Avengers, Selvig is fine (until he’s not — Loki puts him under mind control again), Loki isn’t on earth and we see that he has to use the scepter in order to take control of people. This is never explained.
Marvel has started to require you to suspend your disbelief for character relationships. We’re coming up on Captain America: Civil War in May — a film that I am personally quite excited for (Civil War was the first big comic event I read and some of the first comic books I ever read) — I can’t sit by and not discuss the issues. For this film, you’re to believe that Steve Rogers and Tony Stark are friends or have been friends. To believe this for a second you have to fill in the blanks for yourself, which is easy to do and that’s to tell yourself they’ve been bosom brothers off screen. We get a few moments of camaraderie toward the end of The Avengers and again in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but for most of those films, they were at odds physically, ethically and morally. For all intents and purposes, Captain America and Iron Man have been enemies from the get-go. If only the one man who brought them together in the first place could somehow inspire them to stop all of this in-fighting… oh wait, he died.
Phil Coulson, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., he was a big part of the Avengers Initiative/Phase One of the MCU. Then Joss Whedon killed him in The Avengers and made him a symbol; the inspiration that a group of remarkable people needed to come together to fight the battles that none could face alone. It was a beautiful end to the character and brought an unexpected emotional weight to the film. Then Joss Whedon brought Phil Coulson back from the dead and launched the TV branch of the MCU with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC. The show took some time to find its footing, a little too much time if you ask me because it really didn’t get good until it started tying into Captain America: The Winter Soldier. You see, part of me thinks that Kevin Feige did not like that Whedon did this show and in a grand attempt to tank the show, destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D. in Winter Soldier. This is an elaborate conspiracy theory, but you have to consider it knowing that there is obvious tension between the movie and TV studios.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a good show until it started down the path with the Inhumans and totally lost me around the time Age of Ultron came out. It was just presented at the end of an episode in season 2 that Coulson has been secretly holding Helicarrier #64 as well as helping track Baron Strucker and Loki’s Scepter. Look, the issues with this show are so headache-inducing that I don’t even want to talk about it. Basically, Fury made Coulson director of S.H.I.E.L.D. at the end of season 1. In season 2 we learned that there was another faction of S.H.I.E.L.D. that didn’t recognize Coulson and his team as the actual organization and they are carrying a giant Kree artifact that sucks people into it and takes them to another planet where the villain Hive lives and HYDRA wants Hive and the show basically retcons HYDRA’s origins to tie it into the god-awful Inhumans storyline its got going on.
Coulson is keeping the secret of the Helicarrier and the scepter from his team (and us, the viewers) until the Age of Ultron 3-episode tie-in arc starts. Coulson gives the info about the scepter to Maria Hill (who is no longer a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent by the way) and she relays this to the Avengers. This is referred to as “Theta Protocol” on the show. Phil Coulson is the reason the Avengers are raiding Strucker’s base in the movie. This of course is never mentioned in the movie. Maria Hill is now just the Avengers’ secretary or something? She’s supposed to be a Stark Industries employee. Anyway, when the team arrives at Avengers Tower, there could have been a little exchange between Hill and Stark mentioning the help Coulson provided. We don’t need to see Phil in the movies.
Later in Age of Ultron, Nick Fury pops up at Hawkeye’s house to talk to Stark. Again to tie it all together, another exchange could have worked where Stark asks about Coulson’s resurrection and Fury could have brushed it off with a “it’s a long story.” Then he appears again during the Sokovia rescue mission with Helicarrier #64 and like a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. This begs the question: is the actual S.H.I.E.L.D. back or was this just Whedon edging us? I think it’s the latter because of the show and the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. is totally absent from Civil War. Tony Stark talks about the Avengers needing to be put in check, well hey, you guys blew up your police agency in the last Captain America movie.
The pieces were there to sort of bring the S.H.I.E.L.D. aspect from the Civil War comic into the movie. Nick Fury out of commission with Hill in charge as director and Iron Man working with S.H.I.E.L.D., an organization he previously did not trust, to hunt down Team Cap. But no, you’ve got the Coulson and the B-team running around on TV. I’ve stopped watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
I want to briefly touch on continuity in the Netflix shows, very minor, but also a little frustrating to me. Avengers Tower has effectively replaced the Metlife building in the New York skyline. I’ve talked about this online before and it’s always met with “CGI costs money.” Well I’m sorry, but if these shows take place in this universe, the topography should be uniform. We know that these shows don’t take place before the Avengers because the Chitauri invasion is referenced either through conversation or set decoration like in the New York Bulletin offices.
The Russo Brothers and now Kevin Feige have said that Avengers: Infinity War and Untitled Avengers 4 are to be the end of the MCU as we know it. I wish it were the end of the continuity, character and storytelling issues, but there will be brand new ones presented. I really like the Marvel movies. Marvel has always been the comics I enjoyed reading, especially Spider-Man. The fact that they are taking staples such as S.H.I.E.L.D. and just throwing them out the window is so disheartening and disappointing. I hope that someone in Infinity War uses the Infinity Gauntlet to take the MCU back to before Captain America: The Winter Soldier and stop them from deciding to bring down S.H.I.E.L.D. Back to before Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and tell Fury to leave Coulson dead.
Some of these issues are minor, maybe they all are, I get that, but when they build up as much as they have it becomes one major problem. Marvel likes to put the world building and the steps to the next movie in before they consider the actual story. That’s what was wrong with Iron Man 2 and Age of Ultron. They were stepping stones to Avengers and Infinity War.
In Phase 4, Marvel should consider telling the story before trying to connect and then organically marry the two. It can be done. They did it before. But once they started making the money, they got complacent and figured people would come out just because it’s Marvel. And they were right, but it’s not fair to the audiences and especially the fans and people like me who like good movies and can appreciate a shared universe. I’d also like for them to get a better handle on the music side of this cinematic universe. I don’t need to say anymore because there several video essays that cover this point very well and are a much better medium to discuss music.
