Marvel Can Take My Money, and Here’s Why

I wasn’t always a Marvel fan. 

I mean, sure, I grew up watching Marvel movies like Civil War and the Avengers, but I had no idea there was a whole cinematic universe (the MCU) surrounding them. I didn’t know that they were connected, and there was an order you were supposed to watch them in (I didn’t). I didn’t even know that they were based on comic books, comics that had existed in a decades-long tradition that was founded in New York in 1939. 

I was clueless.

But I wasn’t clueless about the enjoyment I received from the films. They made me happy, and they were immensely quotable. The memes I saw captured from them were priceless. (The one urging Marvel to have Ant Man’s Luis, infamous for his storytelling skills, recap Infinity War is a personal favorite). I found myself looking forward to another movie. The unique blend of humor Marvel seemed to incorporate into every film blended so well with the angst and struggle that made up the heroes’ journey. 

So I became a fan. Not the mega-fan, that annoying has-a-Marvel-quote-for-every-occasion, has-their-wall-plastered-with-movie-posters person I am now, but a ‘basic’ fan. I remember watching 2018’s Infinity War, the culmination of every MCU film up until that point, shortly before the pandemic hit. I remember feeling so confused. What are the Infinity Stones? I thought. When did Loki become good? I needed to watch all the films, and I needed to watch them in order. 

Well, there was a pandemic raging, and no movie theaters were showing any films, let alone Marvel ones, so I watched all the Marvel content I could. I watched all the shows on Disney+ and started filling in the gaps of movies I hadn’t seen. Recently, I started watching the MCU in order. (There’s only one film, Avengers: Age of Ultron, that I haven’t seen). And even more recently, I started going to theaters to watch the latest films that come out. (The last one I saw was Spider-Man: No Way Home, and that absolutely shattered my heart). 

I’ve heard a lot of criticism surrounding Marvel, and I’ve tried to give it good consideration. Some say Marvel movies are just a corporate cash grab for Disney. Disney, who has monopolized the superhero genre, now owns Marvel Studios, as well as 21st Century Fox. They own the rights to Deadpool, one of the highest-grossing rated R films of all time, and they’re making movies about beloved characters that their target audience spent their allowance on growing up, reading comics with their namesakes. Of course it’s easy money for Disney, and subsequently, Marvel. 

But I don’t care about that. 

Marvel can take my money, and here’s why.

I became a self-professed ‘mega-fan’ during my junior year of college, during the pandemic, as previously mentioned. I enjoy the anticipation of waiting for the newest Marvel content to drop. It gives me something to look forward to. (Currently, I’m waiting for Daredevil to move to Disney+, so I can finish the series, and I’m waiting for the release of Moon Knight and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to release in theaters). I spent the later part of my adolescence growing up with these movies, watching them cross over in their shared universes. I love waiting to see the outlandish hijinks they’ll get themselves into next. 

But the biggest reason Marvel can take my money isn’t because of the movies themselves.

It’s the characters. 

The characters who headline Marvel’s films are immensely relatable. 

I mean, the aliens and Wanda Maximoff and Captain Marvel, with their extraordinary powers and chance meetings with strange forces, might be a little less similar to us. But there’s always a core of relatability at the heart of Marvel’s films. 

Steve Rogers was just a sickly kid transformed into a hero, who ultimately kept his heart of gold. Matt Murdock is an ordinary lawyer who decides to use his blindness to his advantage and becomes a vigilante to serve the justice his city needs when the law can’t. (We also have the same personality type, something I’m strangely proud of). Stephen Strange was a doctor with a mile-high attitude who got a reality check when his car crashed and he could no longer use his hands for surgery. But he could use them for magic. And my personal favorite? Peter Parker is just your average science-genius teen who wants to use his newfound abilities for good, and protect his neighborhood. 

So maybe Marvel movies are a cash grab for Disney. Maybe all they care about is the money. But at the heart of their movies are intense, relatable characters put in extraordinary situations, and provide their audiences with a thrilling experience they want again and again. So Marvel can take my money. I’ll keep going to the movies.