The MCU’s Avengers Problem - Part OneDoes the MCU have an Avengers problem? I’m going to cut straight to the chase on this one: no. It has several. So many, in fact, I’ve had to slice this article into three parts just to be able to cover them all. In this first part I’ll be taking a look at all the Marvel heroes that have graced our screens since the year 2000 and picking out the ones that have, at some point, made the Avengers roster in print. Some are Avengers both on-screen and in print, some, so far only in print, despite making it onto the silver screen. Some look unlikely to ever join their print counterparts as Avengers because of rights issues, or the way they have been handled within the MCU.
We should probably begin our journey looking at one of the most pressing problems: When all this Infinity Gauntlet stuff is dealt with will the MCU even be able to keep on truckin’? It’s the kind of thing that must haunt Kevin Feige’s darker moments. There will, of course, be dozens of people clamouring for more, more, more at the conclusion of the Infinity War, but the conclusion of the Infinity saga represents the end of a superheroic journey that has taken a significant wedge out of the lives of all participants, audience members included. For every passenger committed to the next leg of the journey are probably ten who will not look favourably upon a commitment to another decade long plot arc. There is no possible way that any of the current alumni (Robert Downey Jr. probably being the most taken aback) knew what they were letting themselves in for when Marvel began their little adventure. Sure they all signed extravagant multi-movie contracts but actors do that stuff all the time. The cast of Fant4stic will have signed away years of their lives to make grim dark sequels to the pile of unmitigated tosh that blemished our lives back in 2015. As history relates, however, those contracts are likely now to be so much scrap paper recycled into something more useful, like posters for the new Batman movie crediting Ben Affleck as director, or something. The only reason people haven’t taken in the unprecedented cultural achievement of the MCU is that we’re still in the middle of it, right now, at this moment. It can’t end until there’s an ending, and the end of the Infinity War may prove to be a lot of people’s moment to stand back and take stock. It’s Misney’s job to stop that from happening, or at least to prepare for a big climbdown as they stoke people’s enthusiasm anew. This is evidently a task that they’ve made a good start on. There are plenty of new brands, known to audiences, who can take up the reins once the original characters are all done. Downey Jr has set an excellent precedent for this with his “Feature Trilogy followed by Umpteen guest appearances” template. Chris Evans may, even now, be gearing up to give people an alternative to this by having his Captain America die in a blaze of glory, leaving the way open for possible replacement shield wielders. As for Thor, well, who knows? Let’s not leave aside the fact that Hulk has only had one feature movie, due to rights wrangling (and for no other reason, I’m serious). If all goes well old heroes will be able to pass from the spotlight without too much trouble. And we have plenty of feature characters ready to take up the replacement positions right now, Ant-Man and Doctor Strange have already proven themselves popular enough to take a shot at Avenger-dom, I’m pretty certain that Spider-Man will also connect with audiences, although obviously he has a tight webbing of contractual obligations and restrictions surrounding him. That leaves Black Panther, who will be super great as long as the solo movie all goes well and Captain Marvel who we do not have enough information about currently. In fact the current slate of known non-Avenger characters currently has more that are part of a solo/feature movie than are known and have never been an Avenger, at least as far as the cinematic universe goes. And this is where things start to get complicated. Because if we look backward we see a crop of characters with potential that have not had solo outings and a crop of characters who have had solo outings but have never been tested as part of the Avengers ensemble juggernaut. Which leads neatly to our second problem: What are Marvel going to do with those Avengers who have not had their own movie? I’m looking at you Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Vision, War Machine and Falcon. Now I’m not convinced that Falcon, for example, has the chops to fly a solo mission, although, to be honest, you could easily say the same about Ant-Man and that was fine. War Machine is a tricky prospect, James Rhodes has been Iron Man for certain periods of time, it might prove difficult to make a War Machine solo outing that compares favourably with the episodes in the Iron Man franchise. Whatever does happen it would seem inevitable that the fates of Iron Man and War Machine are too closely entangled to make a solo adventure likely in the short term. The failure to get on with a Black Widow solo project, on the other hand, is something of an embarrassment so mighty is her potential and so wantonly has it been wasted. Even a Black Widow and Hawkeye project would be welcome, but it is possible that Renner and Johansson are over the idea of signing on for solo projects, it’s been a long while since Iron Man 2 and Thor (with its “blink and you miss it” Hawkeye moment) but not as long as it’s been since Iron Man 1, so, the time won’t possibly get any righter, you hear me Marvel? Hint, hint. To a slightly weirder extent, while Vision and Scarlet Witch are maybe a little underwhelming individually, they are a known Marvel power couple in the comics universe. That would be one weird-ass movie project but… Thor: Ragnarok, so, it could happen. Before we leave this topic of characters who may have been underutilised let’s spare a thought for characters who got to be Avengers in the world of comics who are unlikely to be Avengers in the movies, or have their own movie. This small band includes Bucky (although when he was a comics Avenger he was acting as Captain America, so…), Maria Hill, Valkyrie and Mantis. It does appear like a no-brainer that a Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Hawkeye and Black Widow movie set in a big, pre-Avengers prequel flashback could have serious box office potential but the ship on that one has probably sailed. Marvel has its Agents of Shield show and pulling this kind of stunt could unleash unnecessary amounts of nerd rage. So, Bucky could take over as a new Captain America, which would be interesting. Mantis is a lesser known character who has a lot of potential as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but the Guardians are like a sub-franchise within the MCU, the individual Guardians have not yet split off into films of their own. Valkyrie has tended to be a team-member character rather than an individual. Notably she was a long standing member of the Defenders, although Defenders appears to be a team name handed out to any non-Avenger superhero team up of more than two characters on a fairly casual basis, so not much to read in there. All of which leads us nicely onto yet another issue: What about the (apparently) impassable barrier between Marvel Movies and Marvel Television? When Agents of Shield and Daredevil were glimmers in the eyes of the show-runners the mantra was “It’s all connected”. How exciting. A number of practical and arbitrary concerns have altered this mantra to be more like “It’s all sort of connected but only in one direction, only vaguely, and, to be honest, I wouldn’t read too much into it”. It would appear that characters can only really be “demoted” from cinema to television, as no “promotion” has yet taken place. Also, although the TV characters apparently share a planet with the movie characters only the TV characters appear to be aware of this. Also, the TV characters will go out of their way not to actually name-check or otherwise consolidate this connection through actual direct reference. For Captain America say “flag waver”, for Hulk say “big green guy” and so on, and so forth. The problem with the practical concerns here is that they will tend to cement the arbitrary ones in place unless anyone has the will to change things. Marvel has already blacklisted five former Avengers by beginning their stories on television. Those former Avengers are: Mockingbird, Quake, Crystal, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Two of these have appeared as series regulars on Agents of Shield, those being Mockingbird AKA Bobbi Morse and Quake AKA Daisy Johnson. This is interesting as either have the potential to take the Black Widow/Espionage slot if Scarlett Johansson decides she’s had enough already. So they could open the door for other characters to cross the divide onto the silver screen. Maybe if that happened other movie characters might be less apprehensive about committing to a stint on television. Now imagine a rebooted Incredible Hulk TV series with genuine Mark Ruffalo… now, let’s move on. Luke Cage and Danny Rand have both served as Avengers, Luke Cage more often than the Iron Fist. Either would be welcome to my cinematic Avengers roster. Iron Fist, in particular, could benefit from increasing his powers under the tutelage of Stephen Strange, for example. Luke Cage is an Avenger comics writers have enjoyed using to forge a link between the lofty group of demi-gods and the concerns of the street. It has to be said that Marvel currently appear to be paddling desperately in the opposite direction from such a link. Crystal is one of the Inhumans, a film project mutated by Terrigen Mists into a TV series that will also have its opening showed in IMAX. Is this a testing of the waters for the reception of TV characters on the big screen? If so, I think it’s a poor choice. ABC have graciously “allowed” IMAX to pay for a quarter of the Inhumans first season, so that’s nice. I just hope that the event can be viewed in context. The Inhumans are, in my opinion, a hard group to love (although TV may be kinder to them than the comics have been) and an IMAX release can hardly be compared to the wider release enjoyed by a “traditional” MCU title. This could just be a publicity stunt, it would be a shame if it also presumed to set any kind of precedent. Overall this appears to be one of Marvel’s biggest problems, the barrier that they have erected between television and movies is a function of setting audience expectation. It would be foolish to pretend that everyone’s schedules can synch up nicely across TV networks and movie studios. They clearly had a game try early on in Agents of Shield and it didn’t really work, so fair enough. But for Marvel to prohibit TV characters from doing a stint on television or vice versa would appear to be a foolish act of self-harm. It might not work for every character but some could enjoy a fluid crossing over from one to the other from time to time. In many ways the Movie/TV dilemma is more pressing (as decisions can be made) than that other problem: What about those characters Marvel can’t use because they’re licenced to other studios? It’s actually not that tough. Marvel just cannot use them. And, to be honest, it’s no great loss. Okay, so it would be nice to see Beast and Wolverine cross over from X-Men to the Avengers but, in a way, without having the X-Men and the rest existing in the same universe as the MCU (however cheeky Deadpool gets with the references) their presence and impact is vastly diminished. In fact it could be argued that if Wolverine suddenly showed up in the Avengers it might cause more headaches than it was worth. Other mutants you won’t see or hear in the MCU Avengers, despite stints on the roster in the comics, include Firestar, Storm, Sunspot, Cannonball and Manifold. And I know how much everyone was hoping for that Manifold* appearance but sadly, it just ain’t happening. One character who began in X-Men but may, in the long run, have been overlooked in the rights sign over is Smasher, who is not a mutant but a character who derives his/her** powers from a pair of alien sunglasses. I’m sure that this is of great relief to Marvel who are even now planning a sunglasses-based solo adventure for the character. Or not. Before we leave the consideration of Marvel’s roster of characters who have already been accounted for let us spare a thought for poor old Marvel Avengers Quicksilver. Not only was the poor chap offed unceremoniously without even having the chance to develop any kind of personality but he’s now been upstaged in two separate movies by Fox’s X-Men Quicksilver who is the version of the character people are most likely to associate with the name. X-Men Quicksilver not only benefits from being portrayed by the fantastically talented Evan Peters but the character is also allowed to have Magneto for a dad. Things do not look good for Avengers Quicksilver, although he does have Scarlet Witch for a sister. As Wanda Maximoff has created entire universes through her inability to cope with grief and loss of loved ones in the comics maybe her dead brother need not remain quite as dead as he appears in that universe. Although if they bring him back from the dead it would be nice if they could also make him a little bit interesting as well. The “House of M” arc can’t really work in the MCU (because, hey, no mutants) but a variation could, and would be an interesting thing to see. Although, on consideration, maybe that would be better done as some kind of one off television mini-series. That thought, I think, wraps up the pitfalls and potential of Marvel’s current position nicely. So many interesting ideas need a disciplined hand to martial them effectively. It would be unwise to underestimate the amount of leadership it takes to produce such consistent high-quality product and not just go crazy with all the interesting potential projects that could quickly lead Marvel into a death-spiral of self-indulgent twaddle. And I haven’t even begun to look at past Avengers that the Marvel TV/Cinema universe hasn’t even mentioned yet. Indeed that is what the next part of this look at Marvel’s several Avengers problems will focus on. I will consider those heroes from the past Avengers roster that have thus far not even rated a mention. If the MCU is to continue milling out content at the present rate for as long as some of our more beloved franchises it would be wise for them to look at what tools they have at hand to accomplish the task. Eventually Iron Man will rust, Thor will return to Asgard, Hulk will find his happy place and the dream of Captain America’s simple peace will, of necessity, be shattered. Even the next generation of potential heroes can’t last forever. So, what else does Marvel have to fall back on? Join me in part two to find out. * In case you care Manifold is a mutant who can fold and twist portals in space-time, so obviously a character who can travel anywhere in both space and time would opt for the handle Manifold, instead of something that sounded fun and exciting. I hear echoes of the line from the Ant-Man trailer questioning whether the name is up for discussion. Besides, Manifold has been mentioned as an Inhuman in Agents of SHIELD, so his Avengers potential has been officially and doubly dismissed. ** Several people have worn the extraordinary shades and the incredible eyewear is an equal opportunities power-bestower, unlike the alien space bra that, obviously, only bestows its gifts upon male wearers. Make sure to check back soon for another part of Leo's MCU's Avengers Problem examination! |
|