On Thursday, May 14, 2020, we began the Marvel Movie Saga all over again: 23 films in 23 weeks. Like everyone else, we are housebound by the coronavirus pandemic. Bored, cut off from our friends, from conferences, and from comicons, we decided we would re-watch, together, every Marvel film in order from the beginning. We chose to view canon only, so we wouldn't have to suffer through Ang Lee’s Hulk again, thankfully; just the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And, because we are Comics Studies Scholars, we also decided we would write about the experience.
There are 3 of us taking this marvelous journey: Sandy Eckard, Professor of English and Writing Studio Director at East Stroudsburg University, Alex Romagnoli, Assistant Professor of English Education at Monmouth University, and Gian Pagnucci, Chair of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The 3 of us have published a number of academic volumes on comic books and superheroes, and, more importantly, we are fans. We love the Marvel characters. And we enjoy working together. So, we decided to battle the coronavirus pandemic the main way academics can, by talking and writing...and watching movies!
We began our journey on Thursday, May 14. We started at the beginning with the original Iron Man film from 2008. Of course, we had a few problems getting rolling.
“Are we ever going to watch this movie?” Alex groaned.
“We’re getting there,” Gian said.
“It’s already 7:38. We were supposed to start watching at 7.”
“We’re almost there,” said Sandy.
First, we had to get our zoom meeting going and our computers connected. Then we had to figure out how to get us all together in a google doc so we could take notes as we watched the film and talked. Then we had to sync up our movies. With millions of us at home trying to watch things together while socially distancing, why isn’t there an app that launches movies at the same time for people?
3-2-1 go. And we were finally off. Sandy had her Iron Man popcorn bucket. Gian had on his Iron Man shirt that pulses with battery power, though sadly not a Stark made mini arc reactor. Alex had already started and was several minutes ahead of Sandy and Gian because we were having problems getting Sandy’s access to the google doc.
“I refuse to get yet another account and password,” said Sandy. So, after multiple emails she then could finally view the doc through her ESU email address. But it took a few more emails to get her editing access too. Then we finally caught up with Alex and started watching.
* * *
“Part of the journey is the end.” We watch now knowing the whole story. And it shapes our viewing. But Iron Man was, and remains, a joy to see. You know, instantly, that you are at the start of something new, a superhero film like nothing that had come before. Robert Downey, Jr., revels in his bad boy status as Tony Stark. Alex and Gian debated whether he was the first bad boy superhero. Alex pointed out that Dark Manand Robocop and The Crow and Judge Dredd all preceded Iron Man. And of course, there is The Dark Knight. But Batman is really only Batman. Bruce Wayne barely exists in the films, an afterthought for Batman’s all-consuming drive for vengeance. Iron Man is all Tony Stark. His personality is so big the suit can’t contain it, no matter how cool the armor looks. And that gleaming red and gold armor does look so very, very cool.
What wasn’t clear 12 years ago, though, was that Tony was to be the hero of a grand story of redemption. Uber wealthy arms manufacturer Tony Stark begins the film with the world at his feet. He has money, fame, and beautiful women. He has everything. Then after demoing a new Jericho missile to the U.S. military in Afghanistan, he gets captured by terrorists. He almost dies, but a native doctor and fellow captive named Yinsen, saves his life. Yinsen gives Stark a little hope, and together they begin building the first Iron Man suit, the Mark 1 version of the armor. Along the way, they become friends. One evening, Yinsen tells Stark he wants to escape in order to see his wife and children again. He asks Tony if he has any family, and Tony just shrugs a no. “So you’re a man who has everything, and nothing,” says Yinsen. Tony and Yinsen succeed in building the suit, but Yinsen is killed before the armor comes online. Yinsen’s dying words to Tony are, “Don’t waste your life, Stark.”
This statement becomes not only the driving force of the first Marvel film, but of the entire saga. As a huge Captain America fan, Gian wanted the saga to be about Steve Rogers. But Cap is inherently good. He always does the right thing. That’s just who he is.
But not Tony. Tony says himself, “I have this whole list of character flaws.” He can’t possibly be a superhero. And yet he is. Or, at least, he has to learn to become one. And we know he will. Because we know, now, how the journey ends. One of the reasons Avengers: Endgame is such a marvelous finale is that directors Joe and Anthony Russo clearly watched all the other films in preparation. And then they tied it all together. Not just nostalgic re-treading, which the Star Wars finale falls prey too, but making the story come full circle.
The Marvel Movie Saga is the story of Tony Stark. “I am Iron Man.” When Tony says those words, he begins a journey that took viewers across 23 films and decade. But it was one big story. What Stan Lee figured out in the dawn of comics, as Alex and Gian have written about in Enter the Superheroes, is that every Marvel story should be linked to every other Marvel story. It was one big universe.
And it worked. And now, restarting the series, it works again.
“Here comes Pepper!!!” Sandy squeals in delight. “You can already see how much she loves him.”
“I have to admit the suit still looks cool,” says Alex.
“Him turning the screw on the repulsor ray gauntlet while he’s watching his weapons being used on T.V. to kill innocent people. That’s when he really becomes Iron Man,” says Gian. “When he starts blasting stuff.”
Near the end of the film, Pepper says she can’t work for Tony if he’s going to be Iron Man. She doesn’t want to watch him get himself killed.
Tony replies, “I shouldn’t be alive. Unless it was for a reason…I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it’s right.”
“Ok,” says Alex as the movie ends. “That was fun, but I need to get to bed.”
“Wait! Wait!” cries Gian. “We have to watch the end credits scene.”
“Was there only one for this movie?” asks Sandy.
“Yep,” says Alex, “they had only just figured that out.”
“I am Iron Man,” Tony hears as he enters his darkened house. There, in all his glory, stands S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, perfectly played by the brilliant Samuel Jackson. Then he says, “You think you’re the only superhero in the world, Mr. Stark? You’ve become part of a bigger universe. You just don’t know it.”
And there it was. The real beginning.
22 films to go.
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