Superheroes and SuperTropes: Why I Snoozed Through “The Avengers” (Part 1)

The next big Summer Blockbuster is out, and you can’t wait to see The Avengers: Super War Soldier Man Muscle Fest. All 40 of your favorite superheroes will be in it, each with at least five whole minutes of screen time! Tony Stark is sure to have lots of hilarious sarcastic lines, and Black Widow is going to kick things! Some of the smaller heroes like Spiderman, Antman, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Doctor Strange even appeared in the trailer. You wonder what steamy romances might crop up in this new flick! Maybe they’ll say quippy lines to each other back and forth when fighting; gosh, you sure love when the superheroes flirt!

Sorry, did I come across as snarky? Must be all of that fantastic Marvel back-and-forth witty dialogue seeping into my system. Listen, don’t get me wrong, I happen to really love a lot of superhero media like Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Dark Knight Trilogy to name a few. My beef doesn’t lie with superheroes, no, my beef lies with huge movie studios pumping out lackluster writing and characters to make huge stacks of cash. And listen, believe me I know this isn’t an issue solely with superhero movies, I’d argue that lots of action movies and lots of Blockbusters have the exact same issue, I just think superhero movies often illustrate my exact issues perfectly, and I know that I have enough personal knowledge to speak about them.

So let’s get right into the nitty-gritty of it.

1. Characterization

So okay, I don’t know if this is just me, but I really don’t feel like most superheroes in these movies have a very distinct personality. A lot of the times in movies, most characterization comes from dialogue and how characters interact, and personally I feel that most dialogue, whether in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) or the DCEU (DC Extended Universe) is extremely cookie-cutter. All of it feels either like it’s pandering to the comic nerd audience or it’s creating throwaway jokes and snark, but either way, it’s not creating a clear distinction between how each character acts. Yes, Tony Stark has the “funniest” lines or whatever, but for the most part if you throw out some sarcastic line and try to guess which character said it, you might have some trouble. Here, watch:

“This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn’t an achievement, it was a responsibility. See, it’s stuff like this that gives me trust issues.”

Hmm, let’s see, which superhero could potentially have trust issues? OH, I don’t know, ALL OF THEM? It’s a signature superhero trait, you have to be stoic, angry, and have trust issues. Side note, this was said by Nick Fury in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Let’s try another one.

“Kiss me.”
“What?”
“Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable.”
“Yes, they do.”
“Still feel uncomfortable?”

Which characters are flirting here? Well, lucky for you, there are only a few recurring girl superheroes throughout both the MCU and the DCEU: Wonder Woman, Black Widow, Gamora, Scarlet Witch and, uhhhh…? That’s about it. This was said by Captain America and Black Widow also in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Light flirting is a must in any superhero movie, but only if both of the characters (especially the superhero) are emotionally unavailable. After a while, it just comes across as flat and ultimately boring.

I’m gonna backtrack for just a second though. Can we just dwell for a moment on the fact that despite all of the different female superheroes that happen to exist, only four of them consistently show up within the two most popular superhero cinematic universes? Four. Do you know how many stubbly white guys (usually named Chris) appear in these same universes? Too many to count and almost too many for me to keep track of. Can we also speak a bit on the fact that the female characters all have extremely similar personalities? I’m gonna give Wonder Woman a bit of a pass, because she actually has an extremely refreshing idealistic, caring nature about her (which honestly, is one of my absolute favorite parts of Wonder Woman). But Diana mostly aside, every female superhero shown to be cold, no-nonsense, extremely serious, and extremely intelligent. While these aren’t necessarily bad traits, it’s frustrating to see that only a few similar versions of “strong female character” are really able to get any type of screen time. Either the female characters are almost overly rational to the point of appearing that they almost have no feeling (Black Widow, Gamora), or their irrationality/outrage consistently gets in their way, making them extremely reckless (Scarlet Witch, Diana). Again, these portrayals would not be an issue if they weren’t the only portrayals of female superheroes that we get in movies.

Within the next part of this, I’ll be exploring the inability for these movies to stand on their own, some cash-grab gimmicks, and potentially some other petty issues I have. Stay tuned, folks because I’m angry. Also, side note: feel free to disagree w/ me in the comments here, I wanna know how you guys feel!! 

PART TWO