Contemporary Morality in the MCU

I came to the Marvel Cinematic Universe kind of late. Tobey Maguire was firmly cemented as Spider-Man, and I didn’t much understand or care for X-Men. Iron Man, 2008, was alright, but lost in the background against the likes of Twilight and Juno. Keeping an international fanbase engaged in a franchise that now spans more than twenty films in more than a decade is no mean feat. But of course, I’m not sure anyone could understand the sheer magnitude of what this movie would create.

24 movies, 12 television shows, and 13 years.

Few production houses have seen success on the scale of Marvel Studios. Every film made under the Marvel Studios banner has been met with commercial success, grossing more than $400 million on average. Superheroes have always played a pivotal part in popular culture; from when they were first published on the pages of comic books in the late 1930s to the video game revolution of the 1980s, mirroring the current zeitgeist of the time. Superhero movies may be fantasy, but they reflect trends in our society and encourage us to reflect on societal problems such as prejudice and diversity.

Black Panther was the first big-budget superhero movie with an African-American Director and a predominantly black cast. Not only did the film prove that African-American narratives had the power to generate profits from all audiences, but it also unsubtly challenged many of the issues raised with Hollywood in recent years – and it’s still now the ninth highest-grossing film of all time. Many of the strongest characters in Black Panther were women. King T’Challa is protected by the Dora Milaje, an all-women guard who protects the throne, while Shuri (T’Challa’s sister, played by Letitia Wright) is one of the brightest minds in Wakanda, responsible for the latest technological advancements and the development of her brother’s Black Panther suit. The loss of Chadwick Boseman last year left a void in the MCU family, and T’Challa will not be recast. If reports are to be believed, Letitia Wright will take on T’Challa’s throne. If that is true, she will be the first woman of color to lead an MCU film.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier saw Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes come together after the loss of Steve Rogers to fight off a violent revolutionary group. The show ended with Sam Wilson becoming the new Captain America, which is monumental as a Black man took on the mantle in a conservative country. This show dealt with many important issues surrounding discrimination, police profiling and brutality, and the military.

Fictional role models allow us to think about what sort of person we want to be. When we are young, we typically enjoy stories where the good guys and bad guys are very clear. Happily, the good guys usually triumph over the bad – or they are transformed into a good guy. But as we get older and our thinking develops, we come to understand that the world is rarely black and white as portrayed, and, as a result, our tastes change, and we begin to enjoy the morally ambiguous characters. They may be bad, maybe even evil, but have more interesting, relatable motives. There is a sense, however small, that we can understand them and why they do what they do. This links to our stages of moral development. As young children, our sense of morality is tied to avoiding punishment and gaining rewards for being good. As we get older, we see morality as an agreement between people to maintain social order and everyone’s rights, but we also develop our own personal moral ideals. Thanos, the ultimate MCU villain, aims to wipe out half of the population of the galaxy. His reasoning is that the galaxy is overcrowded, and civilization will suffer and die eventually. By removing half the population at random, it’s thought that everyone will then have an equal chance of survival and those who are left won’t have to suffer. The ends justifying the means is a key element in these stories, and fandoms like the MCU give us space to reflect on this maxim and our own sense of morality.

If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to leave a tip. Anything can help as I try to deliver all kinds of interesting content to readers. Please consider reading some of my other works, and I thank you so much for the support!