This is it guys.
I mean I thought this was it when the first Avengers came out, but so much has happened since then that I now see that the Avengers Assemble was literally just the beginning. This article is just a celebration of how things have changed since then, of why we should all be so excited for Avengers: Age of Ultron this weekend, and of what’s to come.
Iron Man 2 happened. Now Iron Man 2 wasn’t incredible. We did get War Machine, showing that sidekicks were now acceptable in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whiplash may have been quite a disappointing villain in the end, but his control of the drones pushed our expectation of scale within the MCU. Tony beat his flawed design and the introduction of his father in retrospect paved the way for the historic MCU stories of Captain America 2 and Agent Carter.
Then the Avengers Assemble changed everything. This was the first fully realised, fully conceived cross-series film up. It was like the big bang. It was like we had all the pieces of reality, drawing closer and closer together, circling timelines with exciting cameos, and then bang! With all that, the Marvel Universe fully realised itself to an astounding success. All the characters we loved returned, bonding almost chemically as their characters interacted. Black Widow and Hawkeye were given relatively less screen time, but what they were given was enough to ask for more. The Hulk was a resounding success and everybody’s screaming for Planet Hulk. It all worked well.
The whole of phase 2 in the MCU has been a story of expansion. Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier expanded our understanding of the political landscape within the MCU, as Shield are infiltrated and destroyed from the inside out by Hydra. Thor 2: The Dark World literally expanded the Universe by introducing us to more of the nine realms, and adding more depth to the history of the Infinity stones.
Then we had what is probably my favourite Marvel movie to date, the Guardians of the Galaxy. Now Guardians of the Galaxy was paramount to the expansion of the MCU. If Guardians had been a flop, all these plans for new franchises, new characters and new stories in the future may have been in jeopardy. Imagine if Guardians of the Galaxy had not been a success (I know, it’s hard) how could they possibly continue their propulsion for expansion, what would be the justification? Luckily for us we won’t have to find out. Equally, on the small screen, Agent Coulson, Sky and the gang have been getting up to mischief in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which has loosened our definition of the MCU and shown that it can expand in to television. A step which has been even further illustrated by the success of Daredevil most recently, though it may be too soon to consider the merits of that series and the implications of its release on Netflix.
Looking forwards to Avengers: Age of Ultron, we already know that a further expansion of Starks’ technology will lead to the creation of Ultron. And looking even further than that, there’s an accountability which will begin to come in to question as we move towards Captain America 3: Civil War. But have we already seen the seeds planted for the demise of the MCU as we know it? Was Iron Man 3 not an ode to the identity of Tony Stark, but rather a hail to the decline of the tragic hero, doomed to eventually become nemesis? As Harvey Dent says in The Dark Knight: ‘you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.’ Maybe Tony Stark shouldn’t have made it through that wormhole in Manhattan.
Age of Ultron is out in cinemas now...