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| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
Now that Ant-Man
is over and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to start its third season at
the end of next month (thus kicking off Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe), this seems like as good a time as any to look back at MCU Phase 2
and see just what happened. Next week I
will have another article looking ahead to Phase 3, but before we get there,
let’s take a look at Phase 2 and see what themes it explored.
Media in Question
During Phase 1 of the
MCU, Marvel did a lot of testing and introducing new characters. They did so with six movies as well as three
Marvel One-Shots.
Movies:
- Iron Man
- The Incredible Hulk
- Iron Man 2
- Thor
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- The Avengers
One-Shots:
- The Consultant (released on Thor)
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer (released on Captain America: The First Avenger)
- Item 47 (released on The Avengers)
In contrast, Phase 2
consisted of the same number of movies and less One-Shots, but vastly increased
the amount of screen time through the introduction of several TV series.
Movies:
- Iron Man 3
- Thor: The Dark World
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Ant-Man
One-Shots:
- Agent Carter (released on Iron Man 3)
- All Hail the King (released on Thor: The Dark World)
TV Series:
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seasons 1-2
- Agent Carter season 1
- Daredevil season 1
Considering that a
single season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a longer run-time than all
of Phase 1, I think we can look to Phase 2 as when the MCU really exploded in
terms of sheer material involved.
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| Image Courtesy www.ifanboy.com |
Phase 1: A Quick Recap
Before we can talk
about major themes from Phase 2, it’s important to understand what happened in
Phase 1. Simply put, Phase 1 was all
about introducing the viewer to this world.
No aspect of the world was explored in depth, but several different
areas of the world were introduced, along with key concepts and ideas.
Iron Man
introduced us to the idea of superheroes—and was the first time anyone in the
world’s recent history had seen a superhero.
The Incredible Hulk introduced the idea of heroes who do not look
heroic, as well as the idea of conflict between “freelance” heroes and the
established military. Iron Man 2
gave us a proper introduction to S.H.I.E.L.D., though the universe as a whole
did not learn about them. Thor
introduced the viewer to the Marvel Cosmic realm, and introduced it to a small
segment of the earth-bound MCU. Captain
America: The First Avenger introduced “Retro Marvel” through the characters
of Peggy Carter and Howard Stark and hinted at the rich history behind the
modern MCU. Finally, The Avengers
brought all the characters together in the first superhero team-up of the
MCU. The Avengers also brought
the Marvel Cosmic realm and S.H.I.E.L.D. to the attention of the world.
None of these concepts
were fully explored in Phase 1, and I don’t think they were intended to
be. Phase 1 simply laid the groundwork: there is a world full of superheroes out
there, and there are threats out there which standard humans cannot confront.
Phase 2 Themes
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| Image Courtesy www.southerngirlramblings.com |
Aftershocks of The
Avengers
The first two movies
after The Avengers came out focused most of their energy on exploring
the results of that movie for the main characters. Iron Man 3 saw Tony Stark suffering
from PTSD as a result of his trip through the wormhole and vision of the
massive threat posed by the Chitauri.
This leads Tony to descend into madness, staying up late at night and
building 30-something new armors so he will not be caught off-guard by just how
scary the wide world is ever again. This
plants the seed which would become the “Iron Legion” in Avengers: Age of
Ultron. Iron Man 3 also
expands on the idea of government-controlled superheroes first explored in Captain
America: The First Avenger. However,
where that movie focused on a government-created super-soldier intended to
serve during wartime, Iron Man 3 introduces the Iron Patriot as a
military-controlled superhero serving during peace. This is a direct result of the Avengers’
“coming out party,” but it also foreshadows the primary conflict for Captain
America: Civil War, the first movie of Phase 3.
Thor: The Dark
World also focuses on the ramifications of Loki’s actions on Asgard. Because the Tesseract was returned to Asgard,
Thor and Odin are able to reassert Asgard’s control over the other realms. However, for his actions, Loki is
imprisoned. Much of Jane Foster’s arc in
this movie centers on the conflict of Thor having returned to Earth to hunt
down Loki (in The Avengers) and not having called her.
Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1 explores how the world has been changed by the
Chitauri invasion. S.H.I.E.L.D. is now
out in the open (a theme which also holds true in Captain America: The
Winter Soldier). There are grave
threats out there which must be confronted.
For the most part, S.H.I.E.L.D. covers them up; sometimes S.H.I.E.L.D.
can only contain the damage.
In the wake of The
Avengers, global security is of vital importance. This is something which S.H.I.E.L.D. steps in
to do, but at the end of the day, the Avengers are the ones who take
responsibility for protecting the Earth.
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| Image Courtesy marvel.wikia.com |
Further Exploring
the Introduced World
As I mentioned above,
Phase 1 introduced us to Marvel Cosmic and Marvel History. Both of these corners of the MCU receive
extensive treatment during Phase 2.
There are two movies focused on the cosmic corner of the MCU: Thor: The Dark World, which explores
even more planets (though not in any depth) and deals with a potentially
reality-altering cosmic event, and Guardians of the Galaxy, which falls
more in line with the traditional science-fiction portrayal of space found in Star
Wars and Star Trek. Even Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D. got in on the action, featuring Asgardians in 3 episodes
and a Kree in 1, in addition to introducing the Inhumans, whose origins are
tied very closely to the Kree. We meet numerous alien races, visit alien
planets, and confront alien weapons and technologies. Some of these things will become even more
important during Phase 3—Kree, Nova Corps, Inhumans, Infinity Stones, etc.
There weren’t any
period movies in Phase 2 that explored the MCU’s history, but Marvel History
actually received much more screen time than the Cosmic Marvel. Agent Carter was set in 1946 and
explored the history of the Black Widow program, in addition to some of the
events surrounding the founding of S.H.I.E.L.D. and even a nod to the Hydra
infiltration. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
used numerous flashbacks to fill in some of the blanks: the Hydra takeover, the origin of the term
“0-8-4,” and the like. There is even a
quick hint at the background of the “Avengers Initiative”: Coulson and Fury began working on the idea
for a team of “gifted” people to confront major threats on behalf of
S.H.I.E.L.D. shortly before Tony Stark became Iron Man. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
blew the history of S.H.I.E.L.D. sky-high with the reveal that Hydra had
infiltrated the organization at the highest levels and was planning to take
over the world. Ant-Man
introduced the concept of the “legacy hero”—a retired hero who passes his
mantle to a successor—and introduced us to the idea of superheroes active well
before Iron Man who just remained out of the public eye. Could this lead to the reveal of even more
pre-Iron Man superheroes, and even a “proto-Avengers” team which included
Ant-Man and Wasp? I certainly hope so!
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| Image Courtesy en.wikipedia.org |
Phase 2 also included very
brief introductions to a pair of realms which could prove extremely important
in Phase 3. The first is the Quantum
Realm, the MCU equivalent of the Microverse, which was introduced in Ant-Man. This could prove to be extremely important in
future movies, and especially in (the inevitable) Ant-Man 2. The second is the overall concept of
alternate dimensions, which was first introduced on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
in the episode “Repairs” (1x09) when a reactor explosion tears open a hole in
reality which leads to either another planet or another dimension. Inter-dimensional travel is rumored to play a
crucial role in Doctor Strange.
The other new area of
the universe which Phase 2 explored is the street-level MCU. Though we get hints in the big movies of just
how these superheroes and super-villains affect regular citizens, it is not
until Daredevil that the MCU turns the spotlight on the “little
guys.” Daredevil is not a flashy hero;
he’s a guy trying to make his city a better place. While the Avengers battle alien invasions and
killer robots, Daredevil disrupts heroin rings.
How will a hero like Daredevil be affected by the major events? That is something we will find out in Phase
3.
Conclusion
Those are my three
ideas for exactly how Phase 2 of the MCU coheres together. It is much, much larger than Phase 1 was, and
like the Phase 1 movies each piece can stand fine on its own merits. However, when we step back to take in the
broader picture, we realize just how well all of the pieces fit together. Even seemingly-standalone movies like Ant-Man
and Guardians of the Galaxy still play key roles in expanding the
universe and building toward the future.
And if the MCU
continues to balance out the needs of the metanarrative with the importance of
standalone movies and TV series, I think that the MCU will continue to go
strong for years to come, even after Infinity War.
How do you see MCU
Phase 2 connecting together? Are there
any major themes that I missed?
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