MCU v DCEU III
The Avengers Initiative
The Avengers was an audacious film. Little did Hollywood know that it was just the beginning of something even bigger.
In 2012, Marvel pulled off the boldest superhero film ever. The Avengers proved Marvel could successfully integrate heroes from all of its films into one movie. But how did Marvel get from Iron Man to the Avengers? Part 1 and Part 2 of my series dealt with the beginnings of Marvel and DC’s cinematic universes. In Part 3, we’ll learn how Marvel took a great idea and made it into a billion dollar movie.
“Avengers Assemble is big, but it isn’t bloated. It’s just over two hours long, but it doesn’t feel like it, as energy levels are ramped up and remain so for the duration. There’s an amazing economy of dialogue and motion, with every line or gesture intended to bring us joy, and not just drive the plot mechanically forward like the failed super team-ups of old.”
This is what James Hoare of SciFiNow wrote about Marvel’s The Avengers in 2012. The Avengers was, to everyone’s surprise, exactly what fans wanted. And that was an incredible thing. Meeting the expectations of the comic book fan is nearly impossible. Unlike normal books, comics not only establish stories and characters but also embed fantastic images in the minds of their fans. Comic book artists are among some of the most creative artists of our time, and bringing their vision off the printed page can prove challenging.
So how did Marvel do it? How did they move on from the bloated Iron Man 2 and create a movie that made $1.5 billion dollars worldwide? Marvel owes its success to Kevin Feige’s vision and the brilliant work of Joss Whedon. But before Marvel could launch the Avengers, they needed to introduce Thor and Captain America.
This franchise, I like it. Another!
After the moderate success of Iron Man 2, Marvel had a new challenge to face. Unlike most of the heroes on the classic Avengers roster, Thor wasn’t human. He was the mythical Norse god of Thunder, a member of Marvel’s cosmic roster. Bringing his story to the screen without making it silly would be a challenge. So Marvel hired Kenneth Branagh, known for his film adaptations of Shakespeare classics, as director.
Thor is a moderately entertaining film. Chris Hemsworth is perfect for the titular role: god-like physique, booming bravado, luscious blonde locks and a knack for spouting Shakespeare. Hemsworth brings a rare self-awareness to the role, and it pays off for Marvel in a big way. Unfortunately, the script didn’t really allow the rest of the talented cast to flex their acting chops. Natalie Portman is reduced to blushing at Thor’s physique, and Idris Elba is given painfully little to do as Heimdal. Even the mesmerizing Tom Hiddleston, whose Loki is perhaps the best baddie in the MCU, spends an awful lot of screentime blankly staring into space.
Then again, we did get to meet Hawkeye.
However, despite its flaws, Thor proved once again that Kevin Feige’s formula would work. Marvel was able to take a strange character and turn him into a quippy superhero. (“This drink, I like it. Another!” “We drank, we fought, he made his ancestors proud!”) Thor is entertaining because, once again, Marvel stuck to its model of casting well and finding a director who could manage the comic book tone of its protagonist. It also has one of my favorite Stan Lee cameos of all time. Marvel had cleared perhaps the biggest hurdle ahead of assembling the Avengers. Now, it was time to introduce their fearless leader.
The skinny Avenger
For their next trick, Marvel took us back to the 1940’s to meet true-blue American hero Steve Rodgers. Captain America: The First Avenger is my personal favorite film in the MCU. It does have its flaws:
But…thanks to Chris Evans’ utterly sincere take on Steve Rodgers, The First Avenger wins me over every time.
The First Avenger was the first film where audiences could experience all the benefits of a shared cinematic universe. The Tesseract? Saw it in Thor. Howard Stark? Iron Man’s dad. Magic is science? Natalie Portman and Thor already told us that. Thanks to the information audiences had already learned from previous films, the screenwriters were able to handle a lot of exposition with a wink and a nod.
What really makes The First Avenger stand out, however, is the incorporation of Captain America’s real-life origins. Captain America was created in the middle of World War II as a propaganda tool. By spending a portion of the film in the world of WWII propaganda, Marvel was able to incorporate the original comic books, films, and costume of Captain America without it feeling awkward or tacky.
Marvel also continued its streak of pitch-perfect casting. Chris Evans made Steve Rodgers into a genuinely sincere, likable superhuman. In the comic books, Captain America often comes across as a battle-hardened drill sergeant, but Evans makes him into a simple guy from Brooklyn who doesn’t like bullies. It’s this sincerity that makes the entire film work, even when the needs of the franchise outweigh the logical story progression. With the leader of the Avengers prepped for action, Marvel was ready to assemble the most audacious superhero film ever.
You mean the guy who did Buffy?
Outside of fanboy/fangirl circles, Joss Whedon was not a well known director. His most notable productions before he was announced as the director/writer of Avengers included Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and Firefly. Whedon was a Hollywood outsider, often expressing frustration with major studios and subverting genre cliches. Marvel had ties with him through their comic books, as Whedon had created the Astonishing X-Men books and served as editor on the series Runaways. The 2005 Civil War crossover event also featured Whedon on its panel of writers.
To Marvel fans, Whedon was the perfect choice to direct Avengers. However, The Avengers would only be his second film on the silver screen, his first being Serenity, an adaptation of unused storylines for the second season of Firefly. Russ Fisher of SlashFilm called Whedon a “ballsy choice,” but noted that Serenity was an extremely well-made movie and that Whedon would be able to “go to town” on the Avengers.
Fortunately, Whedon fit Kevin Feige’s formula perfectly. When asked about what the focus of the film would be, Whedon responded “Ultimately these people don’t belong together and the whole movie is about finding yourself from community. And finding that you not only belong together but you need each other, very much. Obviously this will be expressed through punching but it will be the heart of the film.” It’s this attention to the core of the story that allows the Avengers to be simple without being simplistic.
Avengers also works thanks to Joss Whedon’s brilliant writing. When you have seven main characters, plus the villain, every line of dialogue has to mean something. Whedon’s script took this to heart. Every storyline, no matter how small, gets resolved. For example, when Nick Fury recruits Steve Rodgers to head up the Avengers, he bets him ten bucks that something is going to surprise him. Ten minutes later, Rodgers hands Fury a ten dollar bill after the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier lifts off. Moments like that, along with some quippy dialogue, allowed Whedon to masterfully maximize every single second of screen time.
Audiences were blown away. Critics showered the film with praise, calling it “one of the most entertaining and satisfying comic book movies yet.” Amy Biancolli of the San Francisco Chronical said the film worked because “Whedon…never gives up his own seat in the crowd.” This was a film for the fans, a love letter from Feige, Whedon, and Marvel. Every shot in Avengers feels like it was ripped from comic book pages. It was the perfect comic book movie. Marvel had done it again.
Marvel’s doing what?!
What no one realized, however, was that the Avengers was just the beginning. The mid-credits scene from the film featured the Chitauri leader addressing a mysterious figure, claiming that challenging the Avengers “is to court Death.” The figure then turned around and smiled.
Marvel was bringing Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet to the screen.
Here’s the thing: Thanos is one of the biggest baddies in Marvel history. Fans who knew who he was (and unless you were a die-hard comic book fan, you probably didn’t) went nuts trying to figure out how and when Marvel would be able to pull off such an ambitious storyline. While Feige was tight-lipped about the details, he assured fans that Marvel Studios knew what they were doing. After all, Marvel had just pulled off the biggest superhero film ever. Who’s to say they couldn’t do it again?
The MCU was now up and running, a successful franchise beyond Marvel’s wildest dreams, but it had some growing pains ahead. Meanwhile, Marvel’s success was making DC’s executives worried. Competing with Marvel on the silver screen would be difficult, and, as it turned out, doomed to fail. In the next part of this study of the Marvel v DC rivalry, I’m going to explore what could have made Batman v Superman as successful as the Avengers. Stay tuned.
