Trust & Relationship (In a Comic Book World)

*Warning: Very mild (but not really if you’ve seen the trailers or read the Internet…like at all) spoilers towards the end.

Walking out of the Captain America: Civil War last night I couldn’t help feel like it was not only one of the most wholly satisfying superhero movie (nay, Marvel movie) experiences I’d ever had, but also one of the most wholly satisfying movie experiences I’d ever had…period.

Since last night I’ve been turning it over in my head, trying to figure out why. I don’t think it’s because it was really funny. (Hi Spider-Man 👋) Ant-Man was funny, the Avengers movies are funny. And I don’t think it was seeing so many heroes battle it out on screen…we’ve seen that before as well (maybe too many times, actually)—but this morning it hit me. It’s because I know these characters. Like, really know them.

In the past eight years, since the first Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man film, we’ve been getting to know these versions of the characters. In today’s comic book-cum-nerd-friendly-Marvel-marketing-machine-pop-culture world, in a lot of ways, Chris Evans, RDJ, Chris Hemswoth and Scarlett Johannsen (et. al) are the super heroes they play on screen, and we’re seeing them all of the time.

In the films, as they continue to build out the MCU, they’re showing up more and more in each other’s movies — so we see them on the big screen…a lot. Way more than other movie characters. And in real life, for 6–8 years now, the actors make appearances at Comic-Con, they do late-night shows appearances, and the list goes on.

I don’t say that as a critique of marketing or pop culture, but to point out the brilliance of it all on Marvel’ part . They’ve leveraged a basic human need, and built trust with their audience. And in that trust, allowed us to build relationships with these characters, these actors. The kind of relationship that can only be built through time.

Last night, as we were leaving the movie, I asked my wife (who’s only seen some of the Marvel films) what she thought about it.

She replied, “I mean, I really enjoyed it. It was fun, but I the whole way Tony acted really bothered me. Like, would he really try to kill Bucky? It just seemed out of place character.”

At face value, I could understand what she meant. To someone who’d not seen all of the ways that Tony Stark’s storyline had weaved in-and-out throughout the past 8 years of the MCU, sure…maybe it seemed odd for Tony Stark to respond in that way. But for someone who had seen all of them, it made absolute sense — and was completely in character.

Throughout Tony’s story, we’ve seen that he isn’t a hero in the same way to Steve Rodgers is a hero, or Hawkeye is a hero. Tony Stark is self-serving and is “the Iron Man” only because it serves his ego. Sure, we’ve seen him start to come to terms with the responsibility he’s taken on over the past couple of movies, but at the end of the day, Tony is still Tony.*

Which brings me back to this—the only way I feel like I can say that with confidence is because Marvel’s been so careful in building trust with their audience — and just like in life, trust helps foster relationship. And so when the events play out as they do in Civil War, it gives them credence and gravity. It makes the drama real — because, in a weird way, what’s happening on screen isn’t just happening to characters in a movie, it’s happening to people that I know.