Chances are you've seen a Marvel movie at this point. I mean, how could you have not? I don't expect many people to have seen all of them but I believe almost everyone has seen at least one. They have ingrained themselves into our cultural zeitgeist. Whether you're a casual fan or an OG comics aficionado, you may have heard them referred to as part of the MCU. This stands for Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is in this three letter acronym that Marvel has changed the game of moviemaking, potentially forever.
When we watched RDJ do an outstanding job as Iron Man in the original movie that started it all, you know, before Don Cheadle was Rhodie, we sat with gleeful disregard to what we were getting ourselves into. And then the post-credits scene hit. Lots of people didn't see it because they left when the credits started. And 8 years later we would call them crazy for doing so. Those who did stay saw the beginning what would soon become the most lucrative and game-changing series of movies ever to grace the silver screen. When those credits faded and Samuel L. Jackson with an eyepatch said the word "Avengers," a shiver ran down the collective spine of nerddom.
Now, let's fast forward eight years. Captian America: Civil War just came out to outstanding reviews. Currently 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. What I think is even more outstanding than the movie itself, which is already pretty freaking great, is the lineage behind the movie. If this movie would have come out in 2008 instead of Iron Man it would have flopped. Because the universe wasn't there yet. MCU. Every character on screen has been vetted and established already. We love them because we've invested hours into understanding the intricacies of the group of heroes. The universe is the star. Not one single movie. Not even one single hero. The reason we keep coming back and feeding Marvel/Disney our hard earned dollars is because the universe is the star. This is world building on a scale we have not seen since the likes of Tolkien.
Movies will never be the same. I think they will get better. Marvel has proved humans inherently prefer long form storytelling. We like the stakes to always be there. They managed to turn the boring idea of a superhero summer blockbuster into the exciting, explosive, next chapter of a book we've been reading since 2008. The beautiful thing is that all the movies stand alone. Antman is a good movie. Captain America: Winter Soldier is a great movie. Iron Man 3 is meh, to be honest. But, when you place all these stories adjacent to each other, you discover a new form of storytelling that is simultaneously building upon itself continually and is non-linear. It is a web (get it, because Spiderman's here now) of simple to digest and deceptively complex character stories that tug on our heartstrings and cause us to invest.
It's not easy to build a whole new universe, but nerds rejoyce, because the MCU is here, it's exciting, and holy crap it has Spiderman.
