The MCU is, without a doubt, the biggest movie franchise in the world right now. This means that his projects are pieces of pop culture that many people are exposed to, and often whatever story he tells tends to become part of the cultural conversation. That’s why when the franchise tackles subjects of a more serious nature, how they are portrayed is important.
Mental health has become one of the biggest themes of Marvel’s Phase 4, although it has certainly been addressed in MCU projects before 2021. iron Man 3 was the first, showing the consequences of the possible sacrifice of Tony Stark in the Avengers and the PTSD he got from that. Tony has an anxiety attack early in the film, and the rest of the film also examines his fears and worries.
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avengers endgame he also takes the time to check on the mental health of many of Blip’s survivors, most notably Thor. The God of Thunder spirals into depression after losing his entire family and failing to revive the population dusted off by killing Thanos, but regains some of his confidence once he realizes he’s “still worthy” of wield Mjolnir during the movie.
Now in Phase 4, projects like Wanda Vision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, LokiY moon knight have taken the opportunity to examine the mentality and mental health of their main characters. Each one does it in a different way, from fairly standard therapy sessions to imaginary mental hospitals and “trauma tours” through the past, but they all lead to revelations about the characters and why they are the way they are.
It is perhaps no coincidence that the aforementioned Phase 4 projects are all Disney+ shows. There is simply more time to explore these things in the several hours of a series than in the two hours of a movie. Which brings us to the common pitfall Marvel tends to run into with these types of issues: they show up in one project and are simply dropped after that.
iron Man 3, for example, was the only film to directly reference Tony’s PTSD and anxiety attacks. He sets up his actions in future movies of doing his best to protect the Earth from more threats, but sometimes it feels like the other characters and possibly even the movies themselves vilify him to some extent instead of really acknowledging the reason. of him to do it. these things and feeling sorry for him.
The fact that Tony is killed in avengers endgame he’s also a bit uneasy in this regard, as he ultimately has to die to end the source of his trauma, even though it’s in his hands and not Thanos’s. When we also factor in the movies (or at least, the filmmakers) presenting his sacrifice as atonement for their alleged “wrong deeds” that stemmed from his mental health issues, things get even more difficult.
But of course the most recent example of this problem is Wanda Vision driving to the movie Doctor strange in the multiverse of madness. Wanda Maximoff goes from a flawed but likeable and complex character who wants her lost love back but inadvertently harms others in the process in the series to a furious villain in the film, with most of the nuance present in Wanda Vision thrown out the window in multiverse of madness.
Again, being a movie and not a series, multiverse of madness I was never going to be able to explore Wanda’s pain and trauma as deeply as I could. Wanda Vision. That said, going from the sympathetic portrayal of Wanda in the series to making her a deranged evil witch in the movie was jarring (yes, despite Wanda VisionThe short post-credits scene of the Darkhold that begins to corrupt her.) It was not only a regression of her character, but a slap in the face to those who identified with her growth during the show.
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With Thor: love and thunder on the horizon, Marvel will continue the story of a character dealing with the repercussions of mental health issues once again. Thankfully, based on the first trailer for the movie, it looks like this movie will really address the issue of Thor. avengers endgame experiment head-on, with director Taika Waititi already poking fun at the character “mid-life crisis”.
“Thor is just trying to figure out his purpose, trying to figure out exactly who he is and why he’s a hero or if he should be a hero,” adding, “I guess you could call it a midlife crisis.”
Hopefully, love and thunder It will finally be able to do what other Marvel movies haven’t done and continue the thread of this kind of story. Mental health itself is a journey, not a step in a larger one, and Marvel would do well to keep that in mind in future projects.
