There was an idea...

Superheroes in present-day society remain for the qualities that society needs, however frequently likewise those that society neglects to esteem. Alongside numerous different superheroes, including friend/foe Bruce Banner, Iron Man is a self-admitted virtuoso (the man in the suit is not exactly so praiseworthy, Tony Stark proceeds with, 'extremely rich person, playboy'). Captain America is the poster boy for pride and all-around honourableness.

Spider-Man esteems generosity and duty. Wonder Woman remains for honesty. These characters aren't simply helping us in strife; they are intended to go about as good examples for regular day to day existence. The superheroes aren't intended to be our pioneers. They're simply the best forms.

The majority of the fundamental superheroes have had many years of backstories over a wide range of years and something every one of them have in common is their modest start. Maybe a couple of the superheroes effortlessly arrived in our comic books and screens and were conceived with the capacities that put them there. Indeed, many people saw that the DC character Batman never gained any powers.

His greatest quality is his humanity. It is characters like him that fill in as updates that we would all be able to transcend what we are conceived with. We are greater than our fears and the sum of our parts are always greater than the whole.

In 2005, the idea of superheroes hanging out together on-screen was as absurd as the thought of someone making another ‘Star Wars’ trilogy. While superheroes often team up on the pages of comic books, movie licensing deals limited specific characters to specific studios for specific franchises. On the big screen, Superman stayed in Metropolis, Batman in Gotham City, and the X-Men and Spider-Man lived in two separate versions of New York produced, respectively, by 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures.

But around that time Marvel Comics was growing dissatisfied with the way its characters were being presented on-screen in critical flops like 2003’s ‘Daredevil’ and 2005’s ‘Fantastic Four’. So, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, who handled TV and film rights for the comic book company came up with a plan: Marvel would simply start making its own films with the characters it still owned the screen rights to—a handful of relatively unknown heroes who made up a famed comic book team called ‘The Avengers’. The studio would also replicate a comic book concept introduced by Marvel creators Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Stan Lee back in the 1960s. These movies would all share one continuity, now known as the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ or ‘MCU’.

The official MCU includes only the films and TV shows produced by Marvel Studios. So although 20th Century Fox’s ‘X-Men’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ franchises star Marvel Comics characters, they are their own thing.

While MCU products generally work as stand-alone adventures, the viewing experience is deepened and enriched the more fans immerse themselves in the universe.

In 2008 the MCU officially launched with a phenomenal gamble. While the character of Iron Man had some vague name recognition thanks to a cartoon series, the red and yellow hero held little weight in the larger spectrum. So the first ‘Iron Man’ film would live and die by its quality, not its name recognition. Feige hired Jon Favreau (then known for writing the indie films ‘Swingers’ and directing the family film ‘Elf’) to helm the project and together they cast Robert Downey Jr to play a sarcastic billionaire playboy weapons dealer named Tony Stark.

‘Iron Man’ made more than $585 million worldwide and was one of the best-reviewed movies of the year thanks to its light-hearted but sardonic tone and Downey’s gregarious performance.

Even in those early days ‘Iron Man’ boldly hinted at plans for a larger universe. Samuel L Jackson appeared up in a post-credits scene (a soon-to-be Marvel tradition) as the eye-patch-wearing Nick Fury, the director of a shadowy government organisation known as S.H.I.E.L.D. “You’ve become part of a bigger universe, you just don’t know it yet,” he explained to Tony. Showing Marvel Studio’s confidence, he added, “I’m here to talk to you about the ‘Avenger Initiative’.”

After the release of ‘Avengers’, Marvel revealed a slew of films leading up to the year 2020. Avengers post-credit scene showed Thanos as the main villain orchestrating everything from behind the scenes and in 2018, we have the big baddie showing up for a full role in ‘Infinity War’. Upon viewing the movie, very little doubt will remain in the minds of those as to why the directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, refer to Thanos as the protagonist of their film.

Kevin Feige, in an interview, said, “We try to keep audiences coming back in greater numbers by doing the unexpected and not simply following a pattern or a mould or a formula,” speaking about imbibing a unique flavour into every Marvel flick and avoiding superhero fatigue.

Superhero movies are considered like Westerns, it’s a phase in the industry and will soon pass and directors like James Cameron make their opinion on comic book movies plenty clear. In a recent interview, he said, “ I'm hoping we'll start getting ‘Avenger fatigue’ here pretty soon. Not that I don't love the movies. It's just, come on guys, there are other stories to tell besides hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It's like, oy!"

It is not just directors like Cameron who are voicing out their opinion. Marvel actors have on numerous occasion have been shunned because the industry feels they pander to the crowd rather than making ‘real’ films.

After the release of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, which broke the records of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’, and has become the highest grossing movie in the US and is widely liked by both critics and audience, one is left to wonder whether the ‘real’ movies could ever hope to coalesce 18 movies into a final conclusion and shatter records globally.

Speaking about future plans, Feige said that seeing the success of ‘Infinity War’, Marvel has had already had discussions of movies leading up to 2025. One thing is for certain, this superhero steam train is going ahead full speed and as long as it continues to break records and earn the studios their money, it seems like these characters are here to stay on screen for good.