Getting into the MCU

My son, a comic book lover, reader, collector and expert, came by it honestly. When I was in grade school I discovered, courtesy of a friend with less restrictive parents, comic books. I loved Superman, and Archie and Veronica, and all the stuff that went with them. LOVED THEM!!!

The rising of Marvel Comics, like a phoenix in the post literate world where even comic books, or as they are now called, “graphic novels”, are literature and only geeks and nerds read them (which was always true, but now they are the only ones who can read at all) has become a phenomenon of this 21st century. Courtesy of movies and TV. Courtesy of some genius who decided to make every available super hero and villain all live in the same time, in the same storyline, in an incredible place that is called  the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

I saw the first Iron Man movie- known to those who follow the MCU as the first movie of phase 1- and really enjoyed it. It was exciting. It was funny. Robert Downey, Jr. was fabulous- better than he had been in many, many years. He’d found his niche- he WAS Tony Starke, the titular Iron Man. The movie went gangbusters at the box office. No one cared what the critics said- and the critics loved it. Raved about it. Huge numbers on Rotten Tomatoes. Four (4!!!) stars from Roger Ebert. And the MCU was off and running. 

That was 10 years ago. The MCU has released lots of movies. It has expanded into television, and gaming, and podcasts, and pretty much every form of entertainment media around. There are live action stories, and cartoons, and the comics still keep going, and Marvel got so big that finally, Disney bought them out. Yes, that same Disney that bought out Lucas Films. Now Star Wars and Marvel are under the same umbrella. WOW!

Marvel is (not) slowly bringing to screens near us superhero after superhero, all with accompanying villains, and friends, and backstories. If you only follow the MCU on film, you have the Avengers to enjoy, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, and coming soon, the Avengers team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. And a whole bunch of other superheroes you only know about if you are a comic book geek, and have been for a very long time. 

So, back to my own personal family geek, for whom I am responsible, with some help from my darling husband, aka the geek’s father. I introduced the boy to Doctor Who at the age of 2; he was 3 for His first Star Wars movie, and about the same for Indiana Jones. He has a whole schtick he does on this topic-we considered it good parenting. No wimpy purple dinosaurs for our kids. 

He could read when he was 2- part of the reason why we offered him other outlets. I don’t remember when he started with comic books-does any parent?- but once he got started, he devoured them. Still does today, and that brings me the long way round to my topic- my personal journey into the details, the thousands and thousands of details, of the MCU.

Our son has been encouraging us to delve more deeply. I actually recently looked up a chart that tells you the order in which you should watch all the currently available films and TV shows in the MCU. See, Iron Man was movie #1of Phase 1, but if you want to watch the shows so that they occur in the chronological order WITHIN the MCU, well, that’s a bit different. What fascinated me when I saw this chart, is that there are already 43 movies and television shows listed as available. There are actually a few less, because this list breaks out the television shows into partial seasons that occur before, during or after the movies. But, let’s just call it 43. The movies and television shows not yet released, but already in the pipeline, bring that number to 53. Yikes!!! 

This is actually all my own fault. At some point last summer or fall, during a discussion of one of the MCU films, I made the mistake of saying something to the effect of “I’ve been falling behind in keeping my MCU characters and stories straight”. BAD mistake. But, with a good side effect. For Christmas, both his father and I received Movie Pass cards, so we could catch up. So, that part was not bad.

But, we’ve been binging the MCU available on Netflix for a while now and wow! We watched Season 2 of Daredevil - some good actors, interesting storyline but a violence quotient way above my level of tolerance. So I “watch” with an iPad or cross stitch in my lap and frequently in front of my eyes. But I do recommend it- I find the characters interesting, I want to know what happens to them. We have moved next to Jessica Jones- not as violent, more than enough sex, and the incomparable David Tennant, whose only failing is that his character, Killgrave aka the Purple Man, is not on screen nearly enough. Again, interesting storyline, interesting characters. So we will finish season one. Then on to Luke Cage, Iron Fist and the Defenders, where these four (Daredevil, Jessica, Luke and IronFist)  get together for an adventure. And scattered throughout, if we actually follow the chart, will be various seasons of Agents of Shield, the Punisher, The Spider-Man and Thor latest movies, and finally, catching up to #41- the current movie sensation, Black Panther. With Avengers Infinity War arriving on April 27th. Ant Man and the Wasp July 6. Then we get almost a year to breathe before Captain Marvel arrives next March. I get tired and confused just thinking about it. 

So, if it starts to seem that my brain is turning to mush-it’s really not. It’s just there is sooooo much information to keep straight, so many dozens and dozens of characters, so many cross overs to remember, that all the stuff I used to keep in my brain- Physics, Anatomy, what day of the week it is-is getting crowded out and replaced with whether or not Groot and David Tennant will be meeting up in the near future. 

Isn’t it great to be retired???