DOES EVERY GROUP NEED A SUPER HERO?

DEADPOOL THINKS SO 1

Does every group need a super hero? Deadpool thinks so

A mixed methods content analysis of groups from the movies of the Marvel cinematic universe

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DOES EVERY GROUP NEED A SUPER HERO? DEADPOOL THINKS SO 2

Abstract

The super heroes of the Marvel cinematic universe (MCU) tend to accomplish great things with the

aid of their team. I did a content analysis of groups, in 12 MCU movies using FOICS (Function-

Oriented Inter-action Coding System) (Griffin, Ledbetter, and Sparks, 2015, 216). I then start a

discussion on if the fictional teamwork shown in the movies is representative of team performance

in reality. What I discovered was the results of the groups actions are mostly fictional, because the

teams usually communicate only half of the required group functions. This should lead to a bad

decision approximately 70% of the time (Griffin, 2014). I decided to undertake this research due to

my love of these fictional worlds, and a desire to explore and see what parts of popular culture we

can use to guide our learning.

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Introduction

I grew up fascinated by sport movies. The underdogs taking on the powerhouse, and making a

playoff run excited me when viewed on screen, but what sport movies really taught me was an

unrealistic view of how the teams I played on functioned. Occasionally, a game happened, where

my team clicked. The phenomenon was rare and often short lived. I pondered, while watching Dr.

Strange at the local theatre, are the blockbuster super-hero movies having the same effect on our

perception of how groups function? If the Avengers execute a plan that saves the world, would it

work to use the same decision-making techniques with my school group project? Perhaps there’s

some glimmer of truth to it, and maybe we can learn from how these super-hero groups make

decisions. I wanted to find out, because while the Mighty Ducks movie had taught me the flying V in

theory, when my team put it into practice… it was shit. This time I was going to do some research

before attempting to execute the techniques. I decided to analyze movies from the Marvel cinematic

universe (MCU), excluding the 2008 Incredible Hulk (It is the only MCU movie that doesn’t have a

protagonist team), and 2016 Dr. Strange (I already paid to see it in theatres once, and this research is

privately funded).

Literature Review

While I couldn’t find any articles that analyzed group function in the Marvel cinematic universe. I

was able to find two articles that discussed characters in the setting, and numerous sources that

looked at group theory. In fighting the battles we never could: The Avengers and post-September 11 American

political identities, Hagley & Harrison (2014) examined how the authors described each of the Avenger

characters through a textual analysis, enhancing my understanding of each character (Hagley, &

Harrison, 2014). The article by Catherine Coker (2013) dealt specifically with the relationship

between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, proving to be an in-depth comparison of their motivating

characteristics. I then looked closely at how content analysis is applied through the works of Robert

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E. Babe and Larry Z. Leslie. Babe (2000) wrote an entire chapter dedicated to Dallas W. Smyth. He

was one of the first to apply content analysis to the television medium, and from here I refined my

topic, using his concept of the static lens through which we see reality (112). Leslie (2010) looks at

different types of communication research in a postmodern culture, and in his book talks about

looking for a truth, rather than the truth (136). The next two articles looked critically at the

functional perspective of group decision making theory. They point out the challenges of using a

group theory without any focus on social-emotional characteristics (Bonito, & Meyers, 2011; Thery,

& Verstraeten, 2013). The book A First Look at Communication Theory gave a full description of

functional perspective on group decision making, giving me an overall understanding of the theory

(Griffin, Ledbetter, & Sparks, 2015, 216). The final journal article I looked at dealt with the

interaction between different groups, and I wanted to understand the interactions between super

hero teams and other groups (De Vries, Hollenbeck, Davison, Walter, & Van Der Vegt, 2016).

Research Method

This research project will use qualitative and quantitative methods, making it a mixed-methods

approach. I chose to primarily use the FOICS (Function-Oriented Inter-action Coding System), as a

method of data collection (Griffin, Ledbetter, & Sparks, 2015, 216). I will use FOICS to look at

functional utterances, and discuss whether each group in the MCU will make good or bad group

decisions (Griffin, Ledbetter, and Sparks, 2015, 216). This is done by recording each utterance as it

relates to one of the four functions (problem analysis, goal setting, alternative identification, or

evaluation) as promotive, disruptive, or counteractive (Griffin, Ledbetter, and Sparks, 2015).

Promotive utterances move the group forward in one of the four functions, disruptive is when the

utterance either halts, or knocks a group conversation off course, and counteractive is the act of

putting a group conversation back on course (usually after a disruptive comment) (Griffin,

Ledbetter, and Sparks, 2015). I plan on treating the FOICS chart as a content analysis, and to

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analyze the group outcomes textually to determine if we can pattern our group functions after

characters in the MCU (Babe, 2014; Griffin, Ledbetter, & Sparks, 2015; Leslie, 2010). There are a

few challenges with this. Each category is highly subjective based on my perspective. There is no

measure of positive or negative relationships (as seen in Iron Man with the traitor Obadiah Stane, or

the constant fighting between Steve and Tony). The choice of who is in which group is clear in

some cases, but not always (Bonito, and Meyers, 2011; Thery, & Verstraeten, 2013).

Method of Data Collection

The first challenge was to determine which movies, and what teams would be analyzed in each. I

decided that in Captain America (3): Civil War, I would analyze the entire group until the United

Nations explosion, but then separate team Iron Man and team Captain America. I decided who was

on each team based on two principles: (1) They had to either be the main protagonist of the story, or

a support of the protagonist, (2) they had to interact with the protagonist and one other member of

the team in a group function capacity. I have most of these movies in my personal library of DVDs

and what movies I don’t have are available via Netflix. I manually recorded each functional utterance

by hand, munching on popcorn in-between pen strokes, and spent a week binge watching MCU

movies.

Discussion

The movies are watched, the boxes are ticked, and the data are analyzed. The results were

predictable in some ways, and surprising in others. I will include the FOICS sheet for each movie,

and being a discussion about my findings.

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Movie: Iron Man

Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 84 37 27 13 161
Disruptive 32 15 19 6 72
Counteractive 14 9 10 2 35
Productivity 66 31 18 9 124

Team Members: Tony Stark, Jim Rhodes, Obadiah Stane, Pepper Pots, Jarvis, Phil Coulson
Iron Man

Movie: Iron Man 2

Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 53 13 39 9 114
Disruptive 15 6 16 3 40
Counteractive 9 2 4 1 16
Productivity 47 9 27 7 90
Team Members: Tony Stark, Jim Rhodes, Pepper Pots, Happy Hogan, Jarvis, Natasha Romanov, Nick
Fury, Phil Coulson

Movie: Iron Man 3

Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 50 8 38 5 101
Disruptive 11 5 6 0 22
Counteractive 1 0 0 0 1
Productivity 40 3 32 5 80

Team Members: Tony Stark, Jim Rhodes, Pepper Pots, Happy Hogan, Harley Keener, Jarvis
The FOICS chart for Iron Man is skewed due to Obadiah’s status within the group. Much, of

Obadiah’s action was promotive in the FOICS sheet, but we know he was working against the group

the entire time! He even arranged for the attempted assassination of Tony, and played a major role

in the creation of Iron Man (I guess Obadiah should have spent more time on alternative

identification). Tony blatantly disregards discussion with his group members and rarely initiates

team conversations. It falls to Pepper, or one of the other support characters, to remind Tony that

he is part of a team, not the lone hot-shot. I included Jarvis, the artificial intelligence, as a member of

the Iron Man group, because Jarvis was the one character Tony consistently reasoned with. This

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brings up further questions, because sophisticated computer programs are normally tools to increase

group efficiency, and not members of the group.

Thor

Movie: Thor
Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 46 18 24 7 95
Disruptive 18 6 8 1 33
Counteractive 4 1 3 1 9
Productivity 32 13 19 7 71
Team Members: Thor Odinson, Jane Foster, Erik Selvig, Darcy Lewis

Movie: Thor 2
Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 54 17 36 7 114
Disruptive 28 4 9 3 44
Counteractive 5 0 0 0 5
Productivity 31 13 27 4 75
Team Members: Thor Odinson, Darcy Lewis, Jane foster, Erik Selvig, Heimdall, Sif, Volstagg, Fandral,
Ian Boothby
In the first Thor movie, I had to make a difficult decision. Do I follow his Asgardian team, or do I

focus in on the Midgard (earth) team? I decided following the Midgard team was the right choice,

because they had more screen time, and the characters were more developed. Darcy proved to be

the group’s comic relief, constantly disrupting the flow, but despite it, the group proved to be

productive. The screen time was reduced because of the split, so the 71 productivity in Thor is for

half the amount of time as the 75 productivity recorded in Thor Two. This means the Thor team

could be closer in productivity to the first Iron Man, or Captain America. The reduced productivity in

the second movie was due to the addition of one disruptive member (Ian ‘the intern’ Boothby) and

the altered mental state of Erik Selvig, because of the mind control brain scrambling, gifted by Loki.

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Captain America

Movie: Captain America

Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 60 15 35 13 123
Disruptive 9 3 3 6 21
Counteractive 3 1 0 2 6
Productivity 54 13 32 9 108
Team Members: Steve Rogers, James Barnes, Peggy Carter, Chester Phillips, Howard Stark, Abraham
Erskine
Movie: Captain America 2
Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 73 16 46 11 146
Disruptive 15 5 6 0 26
Counteractive 4 2 1 0 7
Productivity 62 13 41 11 127

Team Members: Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Natasha Romanov, Nick Fury, Maria Hill
Movie: Captain America 3 - Whole Team
Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 24 5 22 5 56
Disruptive 7 0 5 2 14
Counteractive 0 0 3 0 3
Productivity 17 5 20 3 45
Team Members: Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Vision, Natasha Romanov, Sam Wilson, James Rhodes,
Wanda Maximoff, Sharon Carter
The Captain America series proved interesting to analyze due to the time shift. The first movie took

place in 1943, while the second movie was in 2013. This meant the groups that supported Steve

Rogers were completely different, and the writers spent equal amounts of time developing both

teams. The third movie was titled Civil War, and saw a split in the two teams. Plus additional

members were added to each team. The 45 productivity for the combined team is for the first 30

minutes of the movie (which is the highest number in the shortest period of time – my hand blurred

like the Scarlet Speedster).

A DC Easter egg in a Marvel-focused paper, I couldn’t resist, but now back to the Civil War.

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Team Iron Man

Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 31 6 17 0 54
Disruptive 9 1 2 0 12
Counteractive 0 0 0 0 0
Productivity 22 5 15 0 42
Team Members: Tony Stark, Jim Rhodes, Vision, Peter Parker, T'Challa, Natasha Romanov

Team Captain America

Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 38 4 19 1 62
Disruptive 3 0 0 0 3
Counteractive 1 0 0 0 1
Productivity 36 4 19 1 60
Team Members: Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Clint Barton, Scott Lang, James Barnes, Sharon Carter
Team Captain America had slightly more screen time, and spent that time talking about the

situation, and analyzed the challenges more completely than team Iron Man. The leadership styles

were also very different, because while Tony led his team through action, Steve led his team through

discussion. Do leadership styles play into it? Is there an optimum, or prime leadership style that

encourages the four functions, and is it Optimus Primes style? Let’s get back on track and head to a

galaxy far, far, away.

Guardians of the galaxy

Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy

Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 63 23 20 6 112
Disruptive 27 3 12 2 44
Counteractive 6 1 1 0 8
Productivity 42 21 9 4 76
Team Members: Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, Groot, Yondu Udonta

Marvel took a different route with Guardians of the Galaxy, they emphasized individuals becoming a

team. The movie had a greater focus on the differences and challenges each of the characters

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encountered. Star Lord (Peter) leads this group, but each character needs the others. Together they

develop, and follow a unified morality. The Avengers come close to this idea, but no other Marvel

movie has done it as successfully in my opinion. The Guardians may not be the most productive,

but at least the movie shows us why.

Ant-man

Movie: Ant Man

Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 53 16 28 15 112
Disruptive 14 0 4 1 19
Counteractive 1 0 0 0 1
Productivity 40 16 24 14 94
Team Members: Scott Lang, Hank Pym, Hope Van Dyne, Luis, Kurt, Dave

The thief Scott Lang gets a second chance at life through the generosity of Hank Pym. The Ant-man

movie (like Thor Two) is the eventual joining of two teams into a single unit. Many of the disruptive

comments come from the main character, but unlike what we see in Iron Man when Tony is

disruptive, Scott admits fault and acts as his own counter. I recorded many of these interactions as

promotive instead of counter active (perhaps this was an ant-sized error) but the functional

utterance often forwarded the discussion (making a Scott-sized difference).

The Avengers

Movie: The Avengers

Problem Goal Alternative
Group Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 85 20 52 10 167
Disruptive 26 1 21 5 53
Counteractive 0 1 2 0 3
Productivity 59 20 33 5 117

Team Members: Tony, Steve, Bruce, Thor, Clint, Natasha, Maria, Nick, Phil, Jarvis, Erik

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Movie: The Avengers 2

Group Problem Goal Alternative Evaluation Totals
Analysis Setting Identification
Promotive 86 21 35 9 151
Disruptive 19 4 7 0 30
Counteractive 2 0 1 0 3
Productivity 69 17 29 9 124
Team Members: Tony, Steve, Bruce, Thor, Clint, Natasha, Maria, Nick, Pietro, Wanda, Jarvis, Vision,
Sam, James
In the Avengers movie series the primary two characters Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, are constantly

acting as a balance for each other (Coker, 2013). This fuels group discussion by pulling the other

team members into their drama, and each Avenger gets to be part of the conversation. This leads to

a spike in the number of functional utterances. The Avengers increase the duration of group

discussions as membership increases. In one of the other movies, I would have assumed this

phenomenon was due to actors requiring a certain amount of screen time, but I noticed in the

Avengers that a major part of the entertainment is seeing these heroes try to work together.

Building the Web (like Spiderman)

What was I able to get from all this data? Besides a whole bunch of questions, I learned that MCU

movies spend a great deal of time developing these teams. In almost every case the groups decrease

in productivity with each subsequent movie. With Captain America Two, I would argue that it was in

essence Captain America One. This gives Captain America a new group to establish in future movies.

The MCU movies closest to functional groups that make good decisions, are often the first movie in

each of the series. The exceptions to this are Captain America Two (as shown above), and the second

Avengers movie, because increased group work is a main focus of these films. The groups of the

MCU are made up of powerful people, with nearly inexhaustible resource to call on, so in the case of

bad decisions the results had only a negligible effect on the group. This could create an idealistic

view of the negligible consequences from inferior group planning. There were only five events I

deemed having a fitting consequence to the groups bad planning: (1) The freezing of Captain

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America in ice for 70 years, (2) The paralysis of James Rhodes, (3) The death of Quicksilver, (4) The

death of Phil Coulson, (5) The death of Groot.

Letter to Deadpool

Conclusion & Further Research

Dear Mr. Pool:

While each of the groups in the MCU uses a combination of the four functions in the FOICS

system, the amount of focus given to problem analysis and alternative identification is extreme when

compared to the small focus spent on goal setting and evaluation. This could be the key in

eliminating some of these groups, but I would recommend using this information to train them

better to fight for good, and a huge paycheck in which to buy many chimichangas. These low

numbers tell me the result of group decisions should be more bad than good. All a super villain

needs to do is make them suffer consequences equivalent to their actions, and they should crumple

from a lack of resilience. As a group their actions

could represent reality (we have bad groups out here Group Productivity by Movie
140

too), but the results of said actions are altered as if 120

100
they see life permanently through rose-coloured
80
glasses (I believe you named this defense plot 60

armour). If we are to proceed with this arrangement 40

20
I would recommend research to identify which areas
0
Iron Man 2
Iron Man 3

Avengers

Ant-Man
Thor 2

Captain America 2
Captain America 3
Captain America

Avengers 2
Guardians of the Galaxy
Iron Man

Thor

of teamwork could be studied in the MCU, perhaps a

look into different styles of leadership and how that

affects team dynamics. A deeper look into the role of

Jarvis, instead of just a tool (this information could

be useful if your Skynet prediction comes to pass). I would suggest looking at the other teams in the

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MCU and seeing how well the teams work together. I would also compare teams from other similar

movies, like between the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, as they may also yield interesting

results. I would also enjoy continuing the content analysis to include the Marvel television additions

to the universe. Finally I would like to thank you for the job you did paying respects to the Mighty

Ducks, for me. That appropriate consequence was a long time coming, but they needed to pay for

the flying V. We still on for the next showing of Dr. Strange? Your treat?

Sincerely,

Super-Hero/Villain in training

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References

Babe, R.E. (2014). Canadian communication thought: ten foundational writers. U.S.A:

University of Toronto press.

Bonito, J.A., & Meyers, R.A. (2011). Examining functional communication as egocentric or

group-centric: application of a latent group model. Communication Monographs. 78(4).

463-485. doi:10.1080/03637751.2011.618138.

Coker, C. (2013). Earth 616, earth 1610, earth 3490-wait, what universe is this again? The

creation and evolution of the Avengers and Captain America/Iron Man fandom.

Transformative Works & Cultures. 13. 10-10. doi:10.3983/twc.2013.0439

De Vries, T.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Davison, R.B., Walter, F., & Van Der Vegt, G.S. (2016).

Managing coordination in multiteam systems: integrating micro and macro perspectives.

Academy of Management Journal. 59(5). 1823-1844. doi:10.5465/amj.2014.0385

Griffin, E., Ledbetter, A., Sparks, G. (2015). A first look at communication theory. New York,

NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Griffen, E. (2014, January 29). Randy Hirokawa on the Functional Perspective on Group

Decision-Making [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

agqQQnhD9NE

Hagley, A. & Harrison, M. (2014). Fighting the battles we never could: the avengers and post-

September 11 American political identities. American Political Science Association.

47(1). 120-124. doi:10.1017/S1049096513001650

Leslie, L. Z. (2010). Communication research methods in postmodern culture: A revisionist

approach. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

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Théry, A. & Verstraeten, M. (2013). Interaction coding: development of a multidimensional

instrument. Centre Emile Bernheim. 1-31. http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/redir.pf?u=

https%3A%2F%2Fdipot.ulb.ac.be%2Fdspace%2Fbitstream%2F2013%2F152949%2F1%

2Fwp13051.pdf;h=repec:sol:wpaper:2013/152949

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