An Essay on “Evaluation of Marvel

Cinematic Universe: An Analysis Of the

representation of New Era of
Superheroes”

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Introduction
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is originally a media franchise based in America and a shared
universe which is centered on superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. As per Bennett,
Terry, Feige and Downey (2022), the character and the superheroes that appear in the Marvel
Comic Book are published by Marvel Comics. The writer of the marvel comic book is Stan Lee
and these massive pool superheroes are his creation for which he is recognized and remembered
in the heart of every marvel comic lover (Cho, Strathearn, Davis and Davis, 2021). Without him,
the marvel comics may not have existed and if the comic book has not existed, then this huge
marvel cinematic universe will not be created. The Marvel Universe was developed based on the
crossing over of important plots, themes, stories, cast and characters etc. The marvel cinematic
universe was created more than 14 years ago with a shared superhero world along with
interlinked cannon, epic team-ups, tie-ins and distinct marvel phases. Marvel Cinematic Universe
has four distinct phases and each phase has a way of grouping together films across the MCU
(Cho, Strathearn, Davis and Davis, 2021). To date, the marvel cinematic universe has fallen
under three distinct categories which include phase 1, phase 2, phase 3 and most recently phase
4. Over the years, Marvel Cinematic Universe has been evaluated through this phase. Phase one
is the general introduction of each of the members of the Avengers. The next phase deal with
handling the fallout with the Avengers and the third phase features a situation of uneasiness
among superheroes after the Age of Ultron lead the Universe to the showstopping Infinity War
and Avengers: Endgame (Weiss, 2021). Phase four is the recent addition of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe which will represent a post endgame era with the new wave of superheroes
reappearing five years after, an event which is known as “Blip”. This essay will focus on how the
marvel cinematic universe has been transformed since its inception and is a representation of the
new era of superheroes.

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The Evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
The inception of the marvel cinematic universe began with Iron Man with a lot of promises and
expectations to fulfil (Bennett, Terry, Feige and Downey, 2022). It had a tall list of orders that
needs to be fulfilled. The movie serves its purpose tremendously and shows the early signs of
what remains ahead – the charm of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Iron Man set the stage for
the spectators a something bigger by introducing to the viewers, one of the best Superheroes the
world has ever seen – Iron Man aka Tony Stark (Koh, 2021). He showed how an arc reactor got
placed in his chest and the first sign of his Iron Man suits, largely to the awe of the spectators.
Tony Stark is one of the founding members of the Avengers family and the CEO of Stark
Industries (Koh, 2021). Besides, he was a billionaire investor, a genius in tech, a playboy and
philanthropist and the world’s one of the most powerful men. From the first to last of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, he was the epitome of the avengers family and a self-confident man who
never compromise against any kind of injustice and oppression and always be the voice of the
common masses even after his playboy life. He paved the way for the expansion of the
subsequent marvel universe and the creation of other superheroes into reality.

In 2018, when Thanos and Black Oder came to Earth to conquest, Iron Man was the main
protagonist to stop Thanos with the help of Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and Guardian of the
Galaxy. The role played in the movie was Rebert Downy Jr. and he was able to fulfil the
expectations of the viewers and even sometimes exceeded the expectations. Although, the chief
of Marvel Studios once mentioned that, taking the challenges of portraying Robert Downey Jr as
Iron Man was a big risk but he was honest to date by acknowledging the contribution of Robert
Downey Jr (Johnson, 2021). He later said, “Without Robert Downey Jr. and his inch-perfect
portrayal of Iron Man, we wouldn’t be able to sit here today”. This shows how important Iron
Man aka Tony Stark is for the evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and how Iron Man
paved the way for the subsequent success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Johnson, 2021). He
is a leader through and through and the prognostication of how a leader should lead from the
front. He was bestowed with inborn confidence which is reflected in his movie ending epilogue:

“My armor is never as the issue of distraction or hobby rather it was a cocoon. Now, I’m a
changed man and you take away everything of mine including my house, my tricks, toys but you
can never take away – I am Iron Man”.

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This movie shows the potential of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and presents a lot of
possibilities. This movie showed how the marvel cinematic universe will transform and gave the
viewers a glimpse of Marvel's trademark “Post-Credit Scene” which would become one of the
main staples of MCU. It showed a wealth of possibilities that MCU holds by the enunciation of a
line of Nick Fury which told “I’m here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiatives”.

After the initial success of Iron Man, Marvel Cinematic Universe created its second superhero
and released its second movie of the first phase. At this time, it was The Incredible Hulk. The
character is first created Stan Lee, and Artists Jack Kirby, in 1962. According to the storyline of
the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hulk was given life when Dr Bruce Banner, a nuclear Scientist,
was accidentally affected by gamma rays which came from a gamma bomb. Although Banner
continued to look like a normal human being, he was far from it and when angered, he would
occasionally transform into Hulk who is a green-skinned, massively strong raging giant, with an
intention to exterminate everything coming in his way. He is another main element of MCU,
although not much to the love of MCU fans. The first Hulk was portrayed by Edward Norton
who was subsequently replaced by Mark Ruffalo (Fox, Reid, Tornvall and Weerasekera, 2021).
And with this movie, the evolution of the MCU continues, with Tony Stark's promises of making
a team which is the Avengers.

Here comes the Iron Man 2 which was released in 2010 with much hope to turn the viewers
around and provide them with a skeptical view of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was a
revenge story. As per Fox, Reid, Tornvall and Weerasekera (2021) the story unravels with the
son of a disgraced physicist who worked under the guidance of Howard Stark, the father of Tony
Stark, trying to ruin the legacies of Tony Stark. But with the grand scheme of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, the film gives rise to two new characters which are James Rhodes and
Black Widow. This movie straight leads the viewers to the introduction of another superhero
which is none other than Thor. The introduction happened when one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent
goes to investigate the hammer of Thor which is called “Mjolnir”.

The evolution of MCU continues to amaze the viewers and glued them to the skin with the
introduction of the new superheroes and every time, after the introduction of the new
Superheroes, they turned into one of the favorites, surpassing the fan favoritism of others (Ato,
2021). Thor was released in 2011 and is a fish out of water character of MCU, at least what

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viewers say at the first glance. But with time, Thor turns into one of the iconic characters of
MCU. As deemed unworthy of crowning the throne of Asgard, he has vanished into the earth
without his power which was stored in his hammer “Mjolnir”. According to the fandom theory,
Thor, when descending to earth, encountered a group of scientists, Hawkeye, and S.H.E.I.L.D
along the way (Ato, 2021). This movie shows the extreme power of Thor and what he was
capable of. Thor gives viewers a glimpse of Morse mythology which enthralled many viewers
along the way. The Shakespearean type of drama and tragedy between Thor and his brother Loki
is an eye-catching experience for the viewers. Through this movie, Thor gives viewers an idea of
leading The Avengers, in the post-credit scene.

By introducing Captain America, the most favorite American superhero, the MCU become the
talk of the town and get instant box office success through this movie, credit to the beautiful
portrayal of courage and bravery of Steve Rodger (Robinson and Wood, 2022). The story of
Captain America traced back the viewers to World War 2, where Steve Rodger’s transformed
himself into a strong fighter by taking super-soldier serum. After becoming one of the best and
favorite American Superheroes, he takes on Red Skull and HYDRA forces. The movie had a
heartbreaking ending with the assumption that Captain America has died. Although many
fandom theories postulate the resurgence of Captain America and much to their surprise, Captain
America eventually bring him back to the right spot and becomes one of the essential parts of the
Avengers (Robinson and Wood, 2022).

Marvel cinematic universe likes chaos and to bring chaos in the Universe, they bring together
their superheroes to fight against evil. Avengers takes the most impossible task by keeping
together into a group with other superheroes and uniting them to fight off Loki, who has the
tesseract and possession of the mind stone. Viewers were glued to the first collaboration of the
MCU superheroes. Besides, Thanos remained a mysterious character with unknown knowledge
of what he is capable of to bring mass destruction to the Earth. With this movie, the first phase of
the marvel cinematic universe was completed and the second phase began (Taylor, 2021).

Like the beginning of the first phase, the second phase also began with Iron Man and was
released in 2013. This time, Tony Stark competes against another villain who intends to destroy
him. But with the help of James Rhodes and Pepper Potts who were put to an experimental
treatment known as Extremis, able to take down the actual mastermind behind the movie

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(Rhodes and Niesha, 2022). The second Thor movie was also released in the same year. This
movie shows the actual threat of Thor which is in the hands of the dark elf Malekith who has
possession of the Aether aka Reality Stone. The ninth movie of the MCU reveals around a
political thriller with the main protagonist as Captain America. This movie portrayed Steve
Rodger on the run to reveal the threat of HYDRA. With the help of mind-controlled Bucky
Barnes, Black Widow and Falcon, they fight off HYDRA’s threats and eventually succeed.

Rhodes and Niesha (2022) stated that when everything seems as predicted and on the right
course of action, MCU add new dimensions to their Marvel Cinematic Universe with the
introduction of Guardian of the Galaxy. In these movies, Thanos and Infinity Stones came into
the limelight especially when Peter aka Stat Lord got his hands on the Power Stone (Rhodes and
Niesha, 2022). The guardian of the galaxy was constituted of Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Groot,
Gamora and Drax the Destroyer. It is a major landmark for MCU and shows how far the MCU
can expand and its infinite possibilities. Through this movie, the marvel cinematic universe
evolution shows in a very optimistic way and showed infinite opportunities by featuring the film
completely in space. The Avengers: Age of Ultron was released in 2015, where all the
Superheroes team up to fight against Ultron, which Tony Stark created to act as a peacekeeper of
earth. This movie showed a glimpse of Thanos's desire to get the infinity stones himself (Comic
Book Review, 2022). Phase two ends with The Ant-Man which was released in 2015 and began
to plan significant roles in the subsequent Avengers movies.

The marvel phase 3 began with Captain America Civil War was released in 2016. According to
fandom theory, this is also called avengers 2.5 because of the appearance of most of the
superheroes. This movie introduced viewers to three new superheroes such as Black Panther,
Spider-Man, and Wakanda, whose best power is how to remove brainwashing. The third phase
revolves around the appearance of more superheroes such as Doctor Strange. According to
Comic Book Review (2022) the most entertaining and fan lived moment of the third phase was
the introduction of Spiderman through Spider-Man: Homecoming which was released in 2017.
After going through the exhilarating fight along with the Avengers, it centered around the life of
Peter Parker and how he struggled to keep his identity secret and was mentored by Iron Man.
Wyss and Bratton (2021) said that after the second movie of Thor which is Thor: Ragnarok in
2017, another superhero was introduced in 2018 which is Black Panther. T’Challa was the Black

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Panther who gets ready to rule his country but is threatened by Killmongers as he wants to rule
the country on his own or he would tear down Wakanda apart. With the tension rising in the
Avengers: Infinity War, where Thor and injured Thanos, the Mad titan set his plan to turn all the
Superheroes into dust. With every passing movie, each superhero played their intended role and
assembled for working with The Avengers. Before the Endgame, captain marvel was introduced
in 2019 which is another origin story of Air Force pilot Carol Danvers (Taylor, 2021). Captain
Marvel leads the viewers to the inevitable fights that are stored for the next movie Avengers:
End Game. While half of the superheroes were dusted due to the snap of Thanos, the remaining
superheroes gathered to fight against the inevitable. By killing Thanos and sacrificing Iron Man
aka Tony Stark, the Avengers did eventually manage to save the universe. And this is how with
every passing role of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the superheroes were transformed and their
roles were important for the building up of the MCU storyline.

Medina-Contreras and Sangro-Colón (2021) mentioned that the charm of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe is because of their precise and thought out personification. After all, the roles will be
played by the human who will face the real-world issues with apocalyptic catastrophe. This
represents the social context of our everyday life. The MCU has managed to bring issues related
to people’s social lives and major world issues that humans are facing on a regular basis
(Medina-Contreras and Sangro-Colón, 2021). The MCU has beautifully portrayed the two sides
of the superheroes by showing their highest and lowest points in life and how they deal with their
mistakes and loss, and how they deal with their dual life. For instance, Peter Parker feels
insecure and awkward during his normal life but on the other hand, when he was Spider-Man, he
was the complete opposite of it. Its focuses on the changes in the attitude of the people living in
the society with their own problems and opportunities.

Havard, Fuller, Ryan and Grieve (2021) opined that the movie was about dealing with terrorism
and a plethora of general physical crimes. Through their movie, MCU perfectly raised awareness
among the viewers regarding international crime and violence. Havard, Fuller, Ryan and Grieve
(2021) also added that the later phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe resurfaced many issues
that never really left rather enhanced. As per The Insider (2022), Marvel Cinematic Universe
also used mixed varieties of demographic and cultural contexts throughout the movies by using
different levels of Superheroes. For instance, by showing female heroes such as Captain Marvel,

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Gamora, Black Widow, and Scarlett Witch, MCU is successfully able to deal with sexism
(Olufidipe and Echezabal, 2021). From the inception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this has
been a representation of an inclusive society. For instance, Marvel hasn’t restricted itself to only
male-dominated superheroes rather they had done a good job by blending a mix of superheroes
based on gender (i.e. Captain Marvel, Black Widow), race (i.e. Black Panther) and Ethnicity (i.e.
Thor) (The Insider, 2022). This has shown how many diverse cultures Marvel Cinematic
Universe has. Another example of inclusive cultures at MCU was the representation of Captain
Marvel who was originally a male but portrayed as a female in MCU movies. The same
circumstances happened in the new Eternals movies where Makkari was originally a white male
but was portrayed in the movie as a POC (Person of Color) woman (Olufidipe and Echezabal,
2021). The inclusive Culture of MCU and their movies are also shown by their movie ranking.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, Black Panther gets a 96% of the whopping score because of its
fan favoritism and showing the inclusive cultures at MCU.

Figure 1: Ranking of Black Panther by Rotten Tomatoes

Source: (Rotten Tomatoes, 2022)

This film was also directed by MCU's first black director, Ryan Cooler, along with an entire cast
from Black where a number of black women were seen to have portrayed engaging and powerful
roles (Rotten Tomatoes, 2022).

Generation Z has become the most fan of these superhero characters and it creates awareness
among them. From the inception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was seen two contrasting
characters Iron Man and Captain America. This Superhero's characters are taught about life and
how they overcome challenges along the way (Ingle, 2022). It also raises awareness about

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keeping patients during the most desperate times and the most valuable lesson of learning to
embrace and forgive yourself by putting aside your ego. It also raises social awareness among
the viewers by teaching them to not cling to the past and moving away from the last moments of
life (Ingle, 2022).

It is known to all that Marvel Cinematic Universe likes to enthrall its fan with a historical
perspective. The MCU is adorned with history and culture which is amazing to the fans and
followers. The recent adaptation of Moon Knight is one of the glaring examples of it which takes
inspiration from the Egyptian Good and Egyptian mythology (Eom and Jung, 2022). However,
the greatest historical adaptation that Marvel Studios was integrated into the Norse Mythology.
Norse mythology is one of the main historical perspectives of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Lots of legends and figures were drawn from Norse Mythology. Eom and Jung (2022) added that
most of the places and characters featured in the Thor movies were actually taken from the Norse
Myths and it shows various cultural inclusion in Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Although most of the characters in the Thor movie were taken from Norse Mythology, MCU
fabricated the actual storyline and figures as per the need of the storyline of the movie to
represent the storyline more appealing to the viewers. For instance, in actual Norse mythology,
Thor is a middle-aged redhead man which is opposed to the actual Thor film, where Thor is
portrayed as a bolder and younger age persona. Despite the differences, there are lots of
similarities between Norse Mythology and MCU. For instance, the common thing between MCU
and Norse mythology is the hammer of Thor “Mjolnir” through which Thor can summon
lightning (Benson, Munch and Hustvedt, 2020). In both the storyline of MCU and actual Norse
mythology, this hammer is subjected to boomerang and finally came back to the hand of Thor
after being thrown out. Black Panther, on the other side, is the representation of African culture
and presumably the situation and circumstances of Black people. Olufidipe and Echezabal
(2021) argued that it is much more than a black movie and carries a significant weight that
neither Captain America nor Thor can uphold. It also serves the purpose of a black audience
which has been underrepresented for a long. This movie depicts the reality that whiteness isn’t
the default in entertainment and black is not subjected to only niche entertainment (Olufidipe and
Echezabal, 2021).

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Sometimes financial turmoil shadows the beauty of a movie. Iron Man came to the box office in
the latter half of 2008. It is the time of economic downturn when buying movie tickets seems
luxury especially when it is about a cool billionaire playboy. However, just after the year, in
2019, the selling of tickets rises sharply by 17.5% and the attendance for marvel movies also
increased by 16% (Business Review, 2022).

Figure 2: Number of Tickets sold for Iron Man

Source: (Business Review, 2022)

To stray away from all the pessimism the marvel cinematic universe has become one of the most
successful movie franchises of all time surpassing the ten-year record of Avatar. According to
Rodriguez (2022), Marvel’s Avenger: Endgame was a huge box office success by crossing the
margin $2.7902 billion box office mark and surpassing the record of $2.7897 earned by Avatar
which was directed by James Cameron.

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 Figure 3: All-time box office chart

Source: (Rodriguez, 2022)

In the list of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, the first and highest-grossing movie is also
Avengers Endgame which is followed by Avengers: Infinity War and The Avengers (BBC
News, 2022).

Figure 4: Highest Grossing Marvel Movies

Source: (BBC News, 2022)

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Walsh (2022) opined that the main reason for the box office success of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe can be attributed to four main factors which are maintaining a balance between the
experienced and inexperience, leveraging a consistent core of cast and superheroes, continuity in
terms of challenging formula and cultivating the curiosity of the customers. With worldwide box
office revenue of USD 22.93 billion dollars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe series is
undoubtedly the highest-grossing and most economically successful movie of all time.

MCU has also expanded its industry by producing more subgenre movies and it keeps the
viewers glued to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU industry is growing big by making
an introduction to the MCU's new Multiverse. For instance, Marvel Studios has expanded its
metaverse by introducing a full season of Loki which provides an enlightening explanation of
what the multiverse of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is all about. Introducing this Marvel
Cinematic Universe gets the viewers to a new and even bigger stage than Avengers: Endgame.
Besides the filming industry perspectives, another industry is also growing. Disney has also
established a theme park, which is the owner of the marvel studios, by portraying the
superheroes of the marvel cinematic universe. They have created an Avengers campus which is
situated in California and attracts a lot of tourists every year (Variety, 2022). The theme park is
also been the inspiration for other movies industry and they are doing the same thing which is
building a theme park based on the location and characters of the favorite movie.

Figure 5: Thor at Avengers Campus

Source: (Variety, 2022)

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The CEO of marvel studios also expressed his interest in the theme park industry and its
potential for growing big. He said one of the most fascinating things about avenger’s theme
parks and campuses is that they will never be completed. He also added that it is a living and
breathing space that will grow with time as our cinematic universe also grows along with it.

Although, Marvel Cinematic Universe has received box office success over the years, it is not
without criticism. The movie has been criticized for its lack of support towards LGBTQ+
characters. Besides, there are numerous controversies with this movie such as not actual
representation of Norse mythology, too much violence which is not good for all ages, lack of
actual threat from most of the actual villain etc. These are some of the controversies that have
tainted the image of Marvel Cinematic Universe in minimal way, but the movie eventually won
the hurt of billions of fans by its awe awakening storyline, visual effects and its overall
presentation of wonderful and experienced cast. There are no major controversies around this
massive media franchise except bits and bytes. The success and hard work of this media
franchise shadowed the tiny controversies of MCU, which is, in fact, inevitable in every media
franchise and their respective movies.

However, the essay was conducted on the fandom theory and how fans around the world thinks
about this media franchise. Their enthusiasm and expectations are beautifully portrayed and
reflected in this essay. For the collection of numerous fandom theory various articles and blogs
have been used for the collection of information. The most notable one is
marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com, which is one of the major sources of MCU fandom
theory. Besides, review from various movies sites, movie ranking website such as IMDb, Rotten
Tomatoes, Roger Ebert is also used for gathering fandom theory and related movie trivia.
Various social media forums and groups for MCU and related movie magazines such as Vanity
Fair, Variety has also taken into consideration for gathering the fandom theory and making the
essay more solid along with relevant fandom theory.

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Conclusion
The impact of the marvel cinematic universe on the modern film industry is immense. From
casting to video and audio editing, the movie franchise has all the elements of becoming the rank
holder of the highest-grossing movie of all times. It has changed the way how visual effects will
be used in the movie. The movie franchise has been growing immensely and has been the source
of constant inspiration for many action movies and comic book lovers. By completing the third
phase of the marvel cinematic universe, the company has now landed into the most recent phase
four and movies like Doctor Strange: multiverse of madness already gained and attracted a lot of
popularity and fan favoritism. Marvel cinematic universe is one of the go-to movies franchise for
every movie lover in the world. Viewers have high expectations of them and if they can continue
their success with the beautiful storyline and character design, then they will certainly be able to
cement their place in the heart of the movie lovers.

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