MOVIESPOP CULTUREThe Marvel Universe – Phase One

Since the governor issued the Shelter in Place order, I have been home all day long as many other Californians and basically everyone around the globe. I am lucky that I still have my job and have the capabilities to work from home but aside from working from 8:00 to 5:00, I have been doing all I can to keep myself sane and occupied. As a preferred homebody, I am basically thriving. I have been...
Hayley Rogers4 years ago190214 min
http://www.jeawok.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image1-9-1280x989.jpeg

Since the governor issued the Shelter in Place order, I have been home all day long as many other Californians and basically everyone around the globe. I am lucky that I still have my job and have the capabilities to work from home but aside from working from 8:00 to 5:00, I have been doing all I can to keep myself sane and occupied. As a preferred homebody, I am basically thriving. I have been working on bettering my artistic abilities one fandom at a time, I have managed to work on my novel that is a heaping pile of something, I recently discovered TikTok and have added it to my queue of scrolling endlessly through my social media apps, and of course like any sane person during this time: watching a lot of television and drinking a lot of booze.

As I caught up on several shows, Grey’s Anatomy (bets on some sort of pandemic in future episodes?), Outlander #poorroger, and succumbing to the Tiger King (just kidding I only watched the first four episodes), I decided I needed something else. I needed something bigger and life consuming. I love projects whether they are #drawthisinyourstyle challenges, cleaning out the colossal junk drawer, or taking the afternoon to dye my hair pink and contemplate front bangs. So as any 28 year old white female would do, I went to Pinterest to find a new project.

Lo and behold! I found the mega list. Every Marvel Movie and TV Show in CHRONOLOGICAL order. What does this mean you may ask? This means that some poor soul watched everything, wrote down dates, paid attention to specific details in the movies and saw where they overlapped in shows and created a list that starts from 1943 to 2019.

This list spans 76 years!

Well, not really but in the Marvel Universe, it truly does! In reality, the first Marvel movie to grace our presence was Iron Man in 2008. So if you’ve been watching since the beginning, it has been 12 years of superheroes. And that isn’t counting everyone’s favorite Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire, which came out in 2002 and is not part of this list because Marvel merely produced it. The only Spiderman we get is precious Tom Holland.

Moving on. The list is broken up into Three Phases. All three phases watched means you spent about 9 full, 24 hour days watching superhero/vigilante/so so much Agents of Shield stuff.

I have only completed the first phase.

PHASE ONE

Captain America – The First Avenger

Agent Carter (seasons one and two)

Captain Marvel

Iron Man

Iron Man 2

The Incredible Hulk

Thor

Avengers

The first phase is what I like to call The “Origin Story” Phase! It’s everyone’s favorite Avengers! Steve Rogers! Tony Stark! Thor!  Edward Norton’s brilliant rendition of The Hulk! And…Carol Danvers! But let’s be honest, no one’s favorite is Captain Marvel. Right? Also, can we give Mark Ruffalo a proper movie? Whatever.

Anyways, the list starts out strong with Cap’s movie. I would say this movie is in the top five of all the Marvel movies. It has history, it has men in uniform, it has Hayley Atwell being a complete peach, and it definitely lights the way for the rest of everything. We are introduced to Bucky Barnes, a fan favorite, Howard Stark (who gets recast in Endgame), and Peggy Carter. If you didn’t like this movie, specifically Peggy, you won’t like the next 13 hours of your life.

Captain American, if you’re watching chronologically with me, has many of the staple Marvel aspects of their movies. In a lot of ways, Captain American kind of watches like a classic Disney movie. A poor, extremely scrawny young man during wartimes wants, nay, must prove himself. He wants to do whatever he can to help his country, even change his entire human physique to do so. He goes through an extraordinary transformation, queue the shirtless six-packed man, just to end up as a pretty symbol. Again he must prove himself with a band of ragtag misfits in tow. And honestly, who doesn’t love a band of ragtag misfits? I’ll tell you one thing, those Marvel movie makers LOVE a band of ragtag misfits.

Next up, Agent Carter. 

The only television show in Phase One is Agent Carter. Two seasons of Peggy, despite losing the love of her life, working as a secret agent and being a single woman in the 1940’s. I really liked this show and was disappointed that we only got two seasons of it. I believe the reasons for this show dropping in viewers are simple. The cast, the utter lack of a band of misfits and the countless love interests. Hayley Atwell is wonderful but the rest are a bit subpar in the acting department. The actor who plays Jarvis, Howard Stark’s butler, James D’Arcy is mostly comedic relief/possible love interest. Misogynistic fellow Agent, Jack Thompson played by Chad Michael Murray is the classic prick from the 1940’s/possible love interest. And Daniel Sousa played by Enver Gjokaj, a one legged Agent and you guessed it possible love interest. Perhaps this is where the show went wrong? Peggy was a female secret agent in the 40’s for goodness sake! She was proving herself time and time again and yet she had countless potential lovers tearing her and the show down. So RIP to this show, maybe if they had focused on the badass that was Peggy Carter rather than who will be her future husband, this show would have lasted.

Next up is Captain Marvel.

I am going to be honest with all of you people, I didn’t like this movie. Let me first preface this with I love Brie Larson. She was fantastic in Room, she was great in The United States of Tara and even as Envy Adams in Scott Pilgrim v. The World, she was a perfect, hateable character, but Carol Danvers really bothered me. Perhaps it was coming off of the high that is Peggy Carter, or perhaps it was just that Captain Marvel, coming out in 2019, was not the female lead movie I wanted. Cough cough Black Widow cough cough Valkyrie. Maybe it is because Captain Marvel who is essentially more powerful than all of the superheroes just comes out of nowhere acting like she deserves to be a part of the crew that has been saving the world over and over again with no help from her? Maybe I just don’t like this character? We do however get insight into Fury’s missing eye! Which is about the most interesting part of this movie.

And fourth is Iron Man. 

Obviously this movie holds a special place in many people’s hearts. Tony Stark is kind of the original Avenger since his movie came first and RDJ is just delightful and it really did pave the way for the rest of these movies and tv shows. This is a great origin story of Tony Stark being forced to build a weapon but creates his suit instead! Based on Rotten Tomatoes highest rated Marvel movies the first Iron Man comes in third only to Endgame and Black Panther. So the critics agree! Iron Man might be the best Marvel movie.

These origin stories set up what I believe is the most important part of the Marvel Universe. The Avengers. The assembling of the characters we know and love or tolerate. And though some of the Avenger movies are sub par, which will be discussed at a later time, they are the movies people return to. Once upon a time as a Marvel virgin, I saw the first Avengers prior to any other movie in the MU and fell in love. Each Avenger movie bookends the movies around it, holding them together and linking them to what follows. I enjoy the origin stories, but I love a good group of rag tag heroes with all the flaws and friendships and a dash of romance just a tiny bit more.

18 hours of my life later, 198 hours to go…

Hayley Rogers

One comment

  • Dfr

    April 25, 2020 at 5:00 pm

    Excellent piece!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *