Which brings us to the one true sin of the MCU, which is that the meaning
of the movie comes from the combination of all the points I have been
making and how they have to operate in interlocking, faux-change
perpetuity. No, it’s not as lazy as some anti-capitalist screed about
how they keep wanting to make billions and billions of dollars (though
it’s worth mentioning). It’s how all those things come together to
create a certain a dire thematic statement within the story about the
heroic and human condition.
When you look back at Greek myth and
its treatment of “superheroes,” all with their own gods, half-gods and
titans, you realize how many of the stories are just fables; morality
tales with lessons of hubris and pain and suffering. They’re parables
meant to inform us about our own human shortcomings. You know the
stories, Icarus flying too close to the sun; Achilles and that pesky
heel. But the one I always think about is the Prometheus myth, in which
the protagonist steals fire from the gods to give power to man. There’s
no other myth that so captures the story of what “superheroes” are
about. To be given power far beyond measure and to put us on par with
gods? Greek myths are always metaphors for power. And the point is that
Prometheus is, of course, punished for this action and in a pretty
grizzly way. But note that in Greek myth, the gods aren’t so much about
challenging authority, but challenging fate itself. Particularly in the
notion of what happens when you try to cheat death. This is precisely
why The Wire got so much mileage out of using the structure of
greek drama. It was comparing the lumbering bureaucratic nature of our
modern institutions to “challenging the fates,” the consequences of
which show our powerlessness and how we learn to cope in human ways.
Like all stories, it was about our faults and failures.
But modern
superhero movies have a completely different notion on their mind,
largely because they’re about the empowerment fantasy. You’ve stolen
fire from the gods and now you can do things beyond your wildest
imagination! Isn’t it so cool!?! This is all part and parcel of why the
messaging of “with great power comes great responsibility” has to matter
the more than ever. Just as consequences and growth really have to
matter. Which just makes me cringe when it comes to how insanely
irresponsible some of the MCU movies have gotten when it comes to these
fronts. It’s not the lack of death and “stakes,” but the lack of
consequence and depth they represent. For if you can always stubbornly
press forward and just yell “trust me this time!” If you can always hit
“undo.” If you can never, ever truly suffer, nor spend time examining
it, then you are lying about the consequences of stolen fire. And it’s
the reason the best superhero stories are always about cost. They’re
about how truly difficult it is to do the right thing; not how hard it
is to defeat someone.
And so when I look at Thanos, the MCU’s own
mythical mad Titan, I can’t help but realize that Marvel’s got it
backwards. For it is Thanos who is the god that the Avengers will need
to come to grips with. But instead they’ll press forward in pursuit of
resurrecting the dead. And how many times have we had a feint of death
before resurrection already in these films? Cap. Thor. Bucky, Loki,
Jarvis, Pepper, T’Challa. The list is endless. And right at the biggest
moment, right where the snap of consequence has to matter more than
ever…
The MCU is once again going to be about cheating death.
Because
damn the gods! Damn suffering! Damn cost! I’m a superhero, dammit! I’m
charming and people like me and they don’t want to see me go! And I
can’t help but think about how much this attitude has a lack of
permanence—has not only cost comics and the MCU, but us. I think about how many people can’t handle the basic dramatic stress of Infinity War
and seeing our heroes in danger. I worry about how all the old lessons
of Walt Disney’s original ethos, and the emphasis on understanding loss
and consequence, could help prepare us to face the pain that we
experience. For so many stories are designed to teach us the incredible
healing and human power of sadness. But instead, we have a story of
denial. About the “heroes” who have fought tooth and nail against it at
every step. It is like re-writing the story of Bambi so that the
character will go into fires of hell to undo death itself. And if we let
ourselves go past “the feeling” of loss in Infinity War, a movie that is ostensibly very much about cost and consequence, we will see the larger metaphor for what it is…
What
if Prometheus stole fire and instead of being punished, fought back and
killed the gods themselves? What if the lessons learned along the way
didn’t matter? What if hubris was rewarded? What if we could snap our
fingers back when god snapped their fingers against us? What if we could
make it so that we were great at beating fate and could be much more
awesome forever without much cost along the way? I imagine you’ll tell
me that “they will address it in the next one!” But they won’t. We know
they won’t. Not just because of what’s been announced in some trade, but
simply because there’s too much at “stake” for those who are ordained
to seek perpetuity. And with this film, they have the gall to look you
in the eye and pretend they’re really finally doing it different. But
it’s the worst kind of lie.
Smile It Won't Suck Forever 