to make characters and events feel like they fit in the real world, Marvel has taken the approach with their movies of trying to make them as grounded as possible. Of course, this is difficult to do when dealing with things like Norse gods or aliens from outer space, but for the most part (especially in the early phases of the MCU), Marvel has managed to ground the more fanciful elements of the comics in some sort of science, or at the very least a more logical explanation that would make sense within the confines of our world.
While this helps to place the MCU in the real world, it also takes away some of the inherent fun from the comics. They’ve recently leaned more intomagic existing in the MCUrather than just trying to explain away magical events with “science”, but it’s a strange balance that they now have to strike between grounding the story and letting in more of those fun superhero elements to create an entertaining story. The MCU may have shot itself in the foot a bit when they decided to ground the stories as much as they did, because it’s made the process of transitioning to magical elements a bit more jarring and less believable for some viewers.
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Magic was introduced into the MCU slowly, and was used very sparingly at first. Very few characters in the early phases actually had magical powers, and they either used technology or had some sort ofgenetic “mutation” or abilitythat was given to them in a scientific way. This tracked with all of their comic book counterparts, but with the exception of theThorseries, the MCU tended to stay away from magical characters because they wanted to establish realism. Once they had this basis, they felt free to introduce the more whimsical and magical characters into the fold, which they’ve only really ramped up in recent years.
Everything had to be logical rather than just accepting that things could be magical or silly in the way that comic books often allow them to be. Of course, comics are a different medium than film, and it’s a lot easier to have zany events when they’re cartoons on a page rather than real people on a screen. However, a lot of the fun of comics is lost when everything has to be “realistic”. Even the visual styling of most of the films is quite boring because they don’t try to emulate the comics at all and instead just opt for a more realistic look.Thor: Ragnarokis one of the exceptionsto this, because so much of that movie (especially the scenes that take place on Sakaar) look like they were pulled straight out of a comic book - from the bright color palette to the interesting shapes and lines in the architecture.
Every time magic does show up in the MCU, the writers will often include lampshading from the characters as a way to acknowledge the heightened nature of having magic in the real world. Lampshading is when criticisms or plot holes that the audience might complain about are directly referenced by the characters as a way for the writers to communicate that they’re aware of the arguments or complaints that the viewer might have. MCU characters will be shocked that magic exists orconstantly joke about wizardsas a way of saying to the audience, “Isn’t magic crazy? We know that this is supposed to be like our world, but if you found out magic was real, this is how you’d react too!”
It’s not a bad strategy, as it makes the characters feel more realistic, but it does get tiring when it feels like it should just be an established fact at this point that magic exists in this universe. Half of the characters have fought killer robots anddifferent types of space aliens, and yet they’re still shocked when Doctor Strange opens a portal? It just feels like they’ve grounded things too much to the point where they struggle to get the characters to the same level of knowledge that the audience is on. Anyone who knows comic books knows that they’re very often not realistic, but the MCU has set itself in our world and as such, opened itself up to nitpickers who like to point out when unrealistic things are happening, even though they should absolutely be expecting that in a superhero movie.
What’s the solution? Maybe it’s just to do away with the tiptoeing around magical elements and just start to fully lean into them without having to explain it or have the characters point out how wacky it is. It would be to Marvel’s benefit to lean into the comic book aesthetic more to give Phase 4 (and future phases) a style that is distinct from the past phases and goes back to the roots of where Marvel came from. It’s just tiring to hear the same jokes in every movie, and it would be much more satisfying ifthe superhero characters(who have already seen so many crazy events) just accepted the heightened elements and made them feel just as normal as anything else. The MCU no longer needs to be grounded, they just need to make the existence of magic their new status quo.
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