There’s one crazy message which is current throughout a huge bunch of Marvel movies and no one ever caught on to it.
I say that, but look, I don’t know everyone on planet Earth – maybe one or two guys guessed it? But generally speaking, no-one did.
Apart from those who watched and studied super closely.
Take Cracked writer JM McNab. In a new piece which digs deep into the last ten or so years of Marvel flicks, we’re taken through a journey featuring pretty much every conspiracy theory out there.
He writes:
When you put these movies together, the overarching story is … pretty odd. As a whole, it feels as though the reality of the MCU is inadvertently one in which every crazy internet conspiracy theory you’ve read actually comes true – less like our world and more like an Alex Jones fever dream.
Back when the first Iron Man came out, it was clear Marvel was working through some post-9/11 anxieties. The inciting incident is an attack by Middle Eastern terrorists … which leads Tony to build the Iron Man suit and … violently intervene in the Middle East.
This was at the tail end of the Bush era, but by the 2010 sequel, uneasiness around the new Obama presidency seemed to percolate into the franchise.
At the time, there was a paranoid theory that Ol’ Liberal Barry was going to confiscate all the guns. Similarly, Iron Man 2 opens with the government, headed by Senator Garry Shandling, trying to take Tony’s ‘weapon’ away.
He adds:
All of this led up to The Avengers, which gives the MCU its own 9/11-like incident, which comes to be known as ‘The Battle of New York.’
The impact of that event is felt in almost every ensuing movie, from Tony’s PTSD to Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s villains scavenging the rubble for alien technology. The next phase of the MCU is all about the fallout from the attack.
Not unlike in real life, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s reaction is to over-militarize and infringe on people’s civil rights.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo specifically called out Obama’s “kill list” and use of “preemptive technology” as the inspiration behind S.H.I.E.L.D.’s problematic plan in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
He continues, on a different note:
Then there are the survivalists, the people who believe you should live off the grid in preparation for an apocalyptic event.
That philosophy is oddly validated in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, wherein the only way for the Avengers to stay safe from a technological monster is to hole up in an isolated house surrounded by woods.
In Captain America: Civil War, Cap essentially becomes a conspiracy theorist. He doesn’t want to sign the Sokovia Accords because he has a bad hunch about government interference.
In the end, Steve’s not-at-all-fact-based fears are vindicated by the fact that Tony, the government, and every law enforcement agency have all been manipulated by Zemo and his dastardly plan to … wait, what was his plan again?
Infinity War has opened with an estimated $630 million worldwide, smashing previous-holder The Fate of the Furious with $542 million.
It also set a new record for an opening weekend at the domestic box office, with a projected $250 million. It’s since overtaken the record set by The Force Awakens, which garnered $248 million.
The movie, which along with Avengers 4, will serve as the grand finale to the MCU, sees Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) finally go up against Thanos (Josh Brolin) as he attempts to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet.
To fight off the evil Titan the three will assemble the biggest Avengers team yet featuring Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and countless other heroes from across the cinematic universe.
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