Table Of Content¾VENGERS
A S S E M B L E !
C RI T IC A L P ER S P E C T I V E S O N
T H E M A R V E L C IN E M AT I C U NI V E R S E
T E R E N C E M c S W E E N E Y
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!
AVENGERS
ASSEMBLE!
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE
TERENCE MCSWEENEY
WALLFLOWER PRESS
LONDON & NEW YORK
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The Avengers (cid:10)(cid:20)(cid:18)(cid:19)(cid:20)(cid:11) (cid:133) (cid:57)(cid:67)(cid:78)(cid:86) (cid:38)(cid:75)(cid:85)(cid:80)(cid:71)(cid:91) (cid:53)(cid:86)(cid:87)(cid:70)(cid:75)(cid:81)(cid:85) (cid:47)(cid:81)(cid:86)(cid:75)(cid:81)(cid:80) (cid:50)(cid:75)(cid:69)(cid:86)(cid:87)(cid:84)(cid:71)(cid:85)
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
Prologue: The Heroes We Need Right Now?:
Explaining ‘The Age of the Superhero’ 1
Introduction: Superheroes in the New Millennium
and ‘The Example of America’ 14
PHASE ONE
1 ‘That’s how Dad did it, that’s how America does it … and
it’s worked out pretty well so far’: The Stark Doctrine in
Iron Man and Iron Man 2 41
2 Allegorical Narratives of Gods and Monsters: Thor and
The Incredible Hulk 72
3 State Fantasy and the Superhero: (Mis)Remembering
World War II in Captain America: The First Avenger 97
4 ‘Seeing … still working on believing!’: The Ethics and Aesthetics
of Destruction in The Avengers 109
PHASE TWO
5 ‘Nothing’s been the same since New York’: Ideological
Continuity and Change in Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World 129
6 ‘The world has changed and none of us can go back’:
The Illusory Moral Ambiguities of the Post-9/11 Superhero
in Captain America: The Winter Soldier 150
7 Blurring the Boundaries of Genre and Gender in Guardians
of the Galaxy and Ant-Man 167
8 ‘Isn’t that why we fight? So we can end the fight and go home?’:
The Enduring American Monomyth in Avengers: Age of Ultron 186
v
THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE ON TELEVISION
9 ‘What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for?’: The MCU on the Small Screen
in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel’s Agent Carter 207
10 The Necessary Vigilantism of the Defenders: Daredevil
Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist 223
Conclusion: ‘Whose side are you on?’: Superheroes Through
the Prism of the ‘War on Terror’ in Captain America: Civil War 237
Epilogue: The Superhero as Transnational Icon 262
Filmography 269
Bibliography 273
Index 302
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Every project presents its own unique set of challenges and this one has been no
different. The words on the page are mine, but they would not have found their
way there without the help and support of too many people to mention here.
I would like to thank the wonderful staff and students at my own institu-
tion, Southampton Solent University, especially Donna Peberdy and Darren
Kerr, for their continued support, and Stuart Joy who has always been a source
of wise counsel. Also, the staff of two remarkable libraries: the Vere Harmsworth
Library at the University of Oxford’s Rothermere American Institute where some
of the writing of this manuscript was done during my tenure as Visiting Research
Fellow in 2015–16, and those at the Queen Mary University of London where I
was fortunate enough to have a similar position in 2016–17.
Special thanks are always reserved for my family, not just my loving wife,
Olga, but my two beloved sons. Harrison: your love of writing, even from such a
young age (I Hate Shark!), has always moved me and I look forward to seeing the
writer you will become in the future. Wyatt: your unconditional love of super-
heroes has been inspirational and I hope one day you might read this book and
remember the golden years during which it was written. I wish they could have
lasted forever.
vii
Dedicated to Lewis, Billy, Jimmy,
Harrison, Wyatt and Nancy Lou
The only real superheroes
PROLOGUE
The Heroes We Need Right Now?:
Explaining ‘The Age of the Superhero’
Due to the fact that superheroes have been perpetually subject to revisionism,
they become symptomatic signifiers of contemporary consciousness and thus can
serve as embodiments of specific needs in a given time.
– Johannes Schlegel and Frank Habermann (2011: 33–4)
People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as
Bruce Wayne. As a man, I’m flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed;
but as a symbol … as a symbol I can be incorruptible … I can be everlasting…
– Bruce Wayne, Batman Begins (2005)
We are living in the age of the superhero and we cannot deny it. The subject of this
book, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), is the most financially successful
film series ever produced, with earnings of more $12 billion at the international
box office since 2008, comfortably surpassing rivals like the James Bond (1962–)
and Star Wars (1977–) franchises, even though they have both existed for decades
longer.1 The image of the superhero is now one of the most pervasive in contem-
porary global popular culture: whether we like it or not, it is they that serve as
examples for our children, who play with their likenesses and aspire to be them,
it is their imposing personages we use as a barometer to measure our real-world
figures and even ourselves by, and it is films about them which fill multiplexes all
THE HEROES WE NEED RIGHT NOW? 1
