What Would the Marvel Movies Be Like Without the Superhero Sub Genre?

I enjoy watching Superhero movies, but what happens if you take away the superhero genre in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), what would you get?

For this article I will be delving into these movies, and point out what these movies would be, they didn't have superhero as the genre in their films.

So let's dig in.

Iron Man

We already know that when we take Stark's suit away, he's a "genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." But what if we take away the superhero genre?

He's a weapon designer who sells them for profit, much like Nic Cage's character in the movie Lord of War.

The Incredible Hulk

The Hulk's story is very similar to a horror movie when you think about it, all you need to do is take out the superhero genre. When you do that, The Incredible Hulk is basically a Wolfman movie. It even has the body horror transformation from man to beast.

Iron Man 2

We're taking the Iron Man suit off again, and what do we have? The Prestige meets Rocky IV. Think about it, we have both contenders, one from America and the other from Russia. The two of them are competing against each other on who has the best toys, or in this case, the best trick up their sleeves.

Thor

This movie is basically E.T. The Extraterrestrial meets The Sword and the Stone. The parallels are uncanny. Tell me if this sounds familiar? We have an unknown being landing on earth, a secret government wants to do experiments on said being, and there's a weapon that can only be lifted by one who is worthy.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Now it's Captain America's turn to take off the superhero suit, or in this case, not take the super serum. What do we get? It's just a normal underdog war movie about a boy who ends up fighting a Hitler copycat. It kinda sounds like Jojo Rabbit, now that you think about it.

The Avengers

This movie is an alien invasion movie. I would argue it's closely related to the movie Independence Day. In Independence Day; you have outer space invaders who use some form of possession by making one of the doctors speak for them. Similar thing happens when a tesseract is used for mind control.

There's a scene in Independence Day where a pilot flies into the ship to jam the alien weapon. Iron Man guides a missile to a portal that lead to an alien fleet.

Heck even the aliens malfunction once the mothership was destroyed.

Iron Man 3

Now I know what you're thinking. It was a huge upset, that Ben Kingsley wasn't The Mandarin, but we can look forward to the real Mandarin in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Anyway, many fans would argue that this movie is a rehash of The Incredibles, but the same can be said about The Incredibles being a rehash of Watchmen. Since all these movies are superhero movies, we're going to focus on what this movie would've been without supers.

I would say that this movie is a futuristic retelling of ¡The Three Amigos! The scene where we see multiple Iron Man suits henh Tony Stark, is just like the scene from ¡The Three Amigos! where we would see "... amigos, amigos, amigos." taking out the infamous El Guapo and his sidekick Jefe. If you go even deeper, these two Spanish words translated to English we get the head honcho aka El Guapo means The Handsome, and Jefe means Boss. Jefe clearly wasn't the boss in charge, much like Ben Kingsley wasn't the real Mandarin in the movie.

Thor: The Dark World

This movie was hard to figure out. If you take away any superhero powers in a Thor movie, you get mostly fantasy. If I had to choose a fantasy movie this would be loosely based on, I would choose Legend. Instead of Darkness taking over the fantasy realm, you have the Dark Elves trying to take over the nine realms and more. Instead of the love interest succumbing to The Darkness, the love interest succumbs to the Aether which was just as dark and evil in nature.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

This movie is your typical spy movie minus the superhero genre. The question is, which spy movie is it loosely based on? To me, it's an amalgamation of the first Mission Impossible, and Bourne Identity. In these movies you have a secret organization hidden in plain sight, and an agent who can't remember where he came from.

Bucky! Language!

Guardians of the Galaxy

This movie is a musical playlist. It's the closest you'll get to a Marvel Musical. Starlord listens to music to get in the mood. There's even a Footloose reference, and Starlord even challenges Ronin to a dance-off to save the galaxy, much like what Kevin Bacon's character did when he saved dancing in a town where dancing was banned.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Age of Ultron is basically a robo-apocalypse movie. Much like The Terminator franchise, it has robots wanting to take over the world. It's also a Frankenstein story when you think about it. Tony Stark is Victor Frankenstein, Bruce Banner is Igor, and Ultron is Frankenstein's monster. Vision, on the other hand, is Frankenstein's monster's monster(not to be confused with the Netflix TV show, with the same name), who happens to be the innocent Pinocchio-like character in the story.

Ant-Man

This movie is your typical heist movie. It's an amalgamation of The Italian Job, The Bourne Franchise, and Ocean's 11 all rolled into one. Oceans even has a little guy sneaking into small places, much like in Ant-Man.

Captain America: Civil War

This one is kind of a no brainer. As the subtitle suggests, it is a war movie, but not just any war movie, a Civil War movie. Minus the futuristic technology and flying superheroes; we get a man with ionic facial hair, fighting for what he thinks it right while on his home land.

Doctor Strange

This movie was a tough one to compare to other movies that didn't have superhero characters as its formula, however it is basically a doctor movie, where the doctor is either trying to find a cure, or save a life. In a way, the plot is similar to the movie, Patch Adams. A man wants to become a doctor, but finds other ways to help the people around him through a different method that he finds humorous.

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

This movie is an inspiring Father's Day story where the son finds out who his biological father is, and realizes his adoptive father was his real daddy all along. Big Daddy has a similar premise. After the death of the mother, the son gets into a bunch of shenanigans with his father like figure, until he finds out who the real father is.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Homecoming is a teen movie. Take off the Spidie suit, and what is he? Jean wearing young boy, who's always pissed.

Thor: Ragnarok

The third installment in the Thor franchise is a gladiator movie when you think about it. But not just any gladiator movie, it has references to Ridley Scott's Gladiator. Tell me if this brief synopsis sounds like both of these movies?

Placed in an arena to fight for survival, one man must win back what he calls home, in order to obtain freedom.

Black Panther

This movie is probably one of my top three favorite Marvel movies. To me, it's what William Shakespeare would've written if he was around for superhero movies. But we're gonna take the superhero abilities out of this movie, and what do we get? A fantasy tale about a boy living in an unseen land, that is being threatened by a one arm man. Wait they already made this into a movie… Peter Pan.

Avengers: Infinity War

Most of the stand alone Avengers movies are typically Alien Invasion/End of the World type of movies… save Age of Ultron.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

This movie is obviously a heist movie, but with a romantic twist. Kinda like the movie Romancing the Stone. Heck it even has Michael Douglass in both movies.

Captain Marvel

Now this is probably my least favorite Marvel movie, but it had potential to be a great story that's an amalgamation of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and underground Lizard People. I mean even the Skrulls have reptilian-like skin, and can change their form much like the Lizard People can.

Avengers: Endgame

(Refer to all the stand alone Avengers movies)

Spider-Man: Far From Home

This film is a simple Teenage Vacation movie. I would argue it's similar to the plot of the movie Heavyweights. Think about it. A young boy goes on a trio away from his family, only to find that the people there are not what they seem.

What do you think? Will you watch the movies the same after reading this post?