Darker And Edgier / Marvel Cinematic Universe

From chilling in the city to fearing it.

"The most successful, crowd-pleasing global film franchise is back. But since life on Earth sucks now, it’s all about grief, loss, guilt, depression, and despair."

— Honest Trailers for Avengers: Endgame

While the MCU is at most times an idealistic universe, there are many moments that are surprisingly Darker and Edgier than your usual superhero movie/series. Some of them are dark enough, they even go to What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids? territory.

See also LighterAndSofter.Marvel Cinematic Universe

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Infinity Saga - Films

• At the time it was released, Iron Man was this in comparison to the hammier, Narmier Marvel films like Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four. In fact, director Jon Favreau has stated that the success of Batman Begins was what motivated the studio to take the movie more seriously than its competitors' past comic book outings.
• In this article about Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the co-director uses this exact pair of comparative adjectives. The movie also has a much more serious tone than Captain America: The First Avenger. Movie Superheroes Wear Black seems to be in effect, with Cap wearing a darker, more practical outfit rather than his colorful costume from The Avengers, and The Falcon wearing dark military gear rather than his red costume from the comics. Scarlett Johansson specifically said large portions of the film invoke the Not Wearing Tights trope to give the movie a more "grounded", realistic feel.
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is this to the original Guardians of the Galaxy. While the film still retains its humor, there are much darker and risqué jokes (including a scene set on a planet of sexual escorts) and many scenes containing bigger doses of violence and a villain who wants to eliminate all life in the universe by replacing it with extensions of himself, and is the biological father of Peter Quill. He even is responsible for Meredith Quill's death and killed many of his previous offspring after determining they weren't useful to his plans. The film also has a much more character-driven story and a more Bittersweet Ending than the first.
• Downplayed with Black Panther. While there are plenty of funny moments, the film is more of a Low Fantasy drama especially compared to the previous MCU movie Thor: Ragnarok, which was more of a wacky High Fantasy comedy. It is also one of the few MCU films to discuss real-world racism and colonialism.
• Up until Avengers: Endgame, every Avengers film was darker than the last:
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron is darker, deeper, and more emotional than The Avengers, though not as dark as the trailer.
  • Captain America: Civil War , nicknamed Avengers 2.5 , is considerably darker and more intense than any of the previous movies in the series. Many have compared it to The Empire Strikes Back in this regard (including the directors). It's noted that Age of Ultron was supposed to be the really dark entry in the series, had been advertised as having almost no humor, yet still had more than its fair share. This movie has even less.
  • Avengers: Infinity War is way, way, way darker than the already dark Civil War. In Infinity War, the heroes ultimately fail, Thanos succeeds in wiping out half of all life in the galaxy, and many beloved characters including Loki, Heimdall, Gamora, and Vision are brutally Killed Off for Real. Even Thanos himself realizes that he lost too much and took too much to accomplish his well-intentioned goal. This is all best demonstrated by the somber rendition of the otherwise upbeat Avengers theme being played in the end credits.
  • Avengers: Endgame: While still a idealistic film and the movie ends with the heroes ultimately saving the day, and the un-snapped being brought back, the whole film (especially the beginning) has an extremely dark and depressing tone with overtones of hopelessness, which is even more harrowing and grimmer than any other MCU film, including Avengers: Infinity War. The whole world here is shown to be dark and in despair (looking kinda like something out of Terminator: Dark Fate and Logan), the film opens with a truly ungodly Downer Beginning sequence, our main heroes are now Shell-Shocked Veterans, there is plenty of drama on almost every scene, and two of the original six Avengers, Black Widow and Iron Man, are both Killed Off for Real, not to mention a Bittersweet Ending that is a borderline Downer Ending.
• While Spider-Man: Far From Home is for the most part a Lighter and Softer Breather Episode after Endgame, it's considerably darker than Spider-Man: Homecoming, with elements of Spy Fiction blended in with its teen Romantic Comedy angle, and the John Hughes-influenced elements largely downplayed. Mysterio is also a more sinister figure than the Vulture - unlike Adrian Toomes, an Affably Evil family man and Noble Demon, Quentin Beck is simply a petty sociopath who doesn't care how many people have to die so he can play the hero. The first stinger also has an apparently-dead Beck exposing Spider-Man's secret identity, and framing Peter for the drone attacks and his own death.

Infinity Saga - TV series

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gets progressively darker each season. This reaches its peak in season four due to the introduction of Ghost Rider and the LMD storyline.
  • The second season introduces the Inhumans and showcases their distrust of humanity - not helped by the fact that a radical group called the Watchdogs are trying to wipe them out. The season closes with Daisy's mother (the leader of the Inhumans) turning on Shield and trying to kill her own daughter.
  • Daisy becomes the anti hero known as Quake in season four due to Lincoln's death in season three.
  • Ghost Rider is driven by the spirit of vengeance and straight up kills criminals. Robbie Reyes first becomes the Ghost Rider due to a car crash which killed him and crippled his younger brother and the spirit of vengeance drives him to punish criminals - the very first episode of the season shows him torturing someone for information.
• Most of the Netflix original shows have been darker than the movies:
  • Daredevil takes a far more realistic and down-to-earth tone than any other entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Matt's Anti-Hero traits are played up greatly, emphasizing the Black-and-Gray Morality of the series. At times it feels more like a Criminal Procedural with a definite Film Noir influence, and the violence is relentlessly brutal and horrific. Notably, the creators stated that along with the comics, the biggest influence was The Wire.
  • Jessica Jones continued this, and is even at times darker than the original Alias, especially given in the comics, Killgrave subjected Jessica to Mind Rape, made her Brainwashed and Crazy, and made her watch as he raped other women, but didn't actually rape Jessica herself. In the series, Kilgrave did make her a Sex Slave.
  • Luke Cage not only expands on the frustrations of cops dealing with superpowered threats, but season one has a very dark ending, with the criminals largely escaping with their crimes and Cage sent off to jail for breaking out of jail, in spite of his innocence in all other crimes being proven.
  • All of the Netflix shows are designed to show darker, violent corners of the MCU, effectively making The Defenders a grittier street-level counterpoint to the grand-scaling Avengers.
• The Punisher is dark even by Netflix-MCU standards, and it's the darkest Marvel television series. Unlike Daredevil and the rest of The Defenders, the fantastic elements are absent here and is much more oriented towards espionage, action, as well as conspiracies that deal with government and corporate corruption. Basically, the series is less MCU and more like 24.
• Runaways: When compared to the original comic. While not quite on the level of the Netflix series^note They're TV-MA, whereas Runaways is a "mere" TV-14 LSV, it's up there and definitely edgier than the movies as either as a very hard PG-13 or a soft-R. This show features frequent swearing, sexual content and fanservice, violence, depictions of abuse, cheating, attempted rape, and murder, and the teens themselves behave about what you'd expect from real life teens as opposed to the squeaky-clean kind you often see in fiction. For comparison, the original comic had its dark moments but was overall much lighter in its tone.
• Cloak & Dagger (2018): Both literally dark thanks to Cloak's powers, as well as figuratively dark thanks to content addressing racial profiling, corrupt police (who, unlike the ones on Netflix, aren't just being blackmailed by the villain), human trafficking, drug use, domestic abuse, attempted rape, psychological torture, and disturbing imagery (again, thanks to Cloak's powers). The source comics covered this ground as well, but it is rarely trodden upon in the MCU, and the show is a tonally a huge departure from Runaways, the other MCU "teen" offering.

Multiverse Saga

In general, the Multiverse Saga appears to be steering towards darker themes and heavier concepts than its predecessors.

• WandaVision, under its veneer of a Genre Throwback to classic sitcoms, has heavy undertones of Psychological Horror and focuses heavily on Wanda's grief. Unusually for an MCU work, Wanda is revealed to be an Anti-Villain Protagonist, and ends the series justifiably hated by the people of Westview.
• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: While the interactions between Bucky and Sam are fun to watch, the overrall series has a darker tone than usual MCU fanfare similar to the previous Captain America films, with themes of race and mental health being prominent through the story. Notably, the fourth episode features possibly the most bloody and brutal on-screen death in the MCU, at the hands of the new Captain America.
  • Both WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier also portray the return of half the population in a darker manner than previous works - while Endgame played it as a heroic moment and Far from Home played it for laughs, both of the shows touch on the negative side-effects of half the population disappearing and then reappearing several years later without warning.
• Loki starts out quirky, but quickly takes on elements of Existential Horror after Loki is confronted with his intended path, with the last episode shifting into borderline cosmic horror territory. It's also the first of the Disney+ shows with (at least for its first season) an outright Downer Ending - while both of the aforementioned shows had Bittersweet Endings (even with WandaVision leaning more toward the "bitter" part), Loki ends its first season with Sylvie having killed He Who Remains, only to discover that Vengeance Feels Empty, while Loki is warped into a TVA where Mobius and B-15 don't recognize him. And on top of that, it's implied that Sylvie's recklessness just unleashed Kang the Conqueror on the multiverse - despite He Who Remains's goofy demeanor, it's made clear that even Thanos is small potatoes next to this guy.
• Black Widow contains many dark actions, especially the inhumane treatment of children by the Red Room. The girls are rounded up at a very young age and hauled into shipping containers and transported in poor conditions. Any girl that does not meet the requirements of the program are executed and those that do are Mind Raped, robbed of their reproductive organs (in the sense of having them sterilized), and are forced to commit actions against their will - all while being aware of what they are doing. The subjugation is done through psychological conditioning earlier on and and, in particular in this movie, chemically. Those who attempt to escape are hunted down and killed by the widows and ultimately the Taskmaster. The Taskmaster herself is also brainwashed and is the daughter of the red room's leader who was collateral damage in Natasha's first attempt to kill said leader.
• What If...? starts off with two optimistic alternate history stories. And then the third delves into the cynical always-the-worst-possibility that are very common in the eponymous comic, dealing with the Avengers being killed off before they could assemble and fight Loki.
  • The fourth one gets even more bleak - while the third at least has a "Ray of Hope" Ending, the fourth ends with the complete destruction of Strange Supreme's reality, leaving only a tiny pocket where he is trapped alone forever.
  • The fifth episode isn’t as dark as the previous one, but a Zombie Apocalypse (and a surprisingly violent one at that) isn’t that much of a step up.
  • The sixth episode delves into the scenario of Killmonger in his days as a Navy SEAL. While it starts off as less dark than the previous episode as it sees him rescuing Tony Stark from Gulmira, it later results in Killmonger killing Rhodey, T'Challa and Tony himself and then setting up a falseflag attack to get Wakanda and the USA to go to war with the story ultimately resulting in a The Bad Guy Wins ending where Killmonger gets pretty much everything he wants.
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings features themes of family division, and the effects of how losing a loved one in particular can impact relationships and one's personality hiding beneath the veneer of its martial arts fantasy story. It's also one of the few Marvel works to address real-world racism and cultural appropriation.
• Eternals: While the violence and language aren't really any more extreme than other Marvel productions^note there is a brief sex scene between Sersi and Ikaris, but not much is actually shown, the film is fairly ponderous and deliberately paced, focusing more on its cosmic concepts and ideas than flashy action sequences. The Reveal halfway through the film shifts it into Cosmic Horror Story territory crossed with a nasty Tomato in the Mirror moment - the Eternals aren't heroes protecting humanity, they're Unwitting Pawns of the Celestials to eventually orchestrate the birth of a new Celestial, and the death of humanity with it, and the events of the film end up causing the deaths of Ajak, Gilgamesh, and Ikaris - roughly a third of the main cast. The film also touches on the psychology of a Fallen Hero (namely, Ikaris and how his Undying Loyalty to Arishem clashes with his love for Sersi), Thena's Mahd Wyry is presented similarly to PTSD, and the final conflict is largely between the Eternals themselves over whether it is safe to let a dangerous child live (Sersi is ultimately forced to kill said child (Tiamut the Dreaming Celestial) when Ikaris stops them from using a non-lethal solution, and is still conflicted over it later). And on top of all of that, the film ends on a cliffhanger, with Arishem abducting the remaining Earth-bound Eternals, with humanity facing an ominous judgment.
• Spider-Man: No Way Home is by far the darkest Spider-Man film at the time of its release as pretty much, Peter and his friends all got into trouble thanks to Peter being framed for Mysterio's death at the start of the film. When the multiverse villains get involved, their tragic lives and inevitable downfalls are discussed in detail. And by the end of the film, Peter pretty much lost anybody who was close to him as Aunt May ends up dying while Happy, Ned, and MJ (as well as the entire universe) lost all of their memories revolving around Peter Parker in order to save the multiverse villains and keep his identity secret again.
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was described as the first MCU horror movie, and they weren't joking. Sam Raimi, who had already made some scenes very similar to The Evil Dead (1981) in his Spider-Man Trilogy, puts many cases of Jump Scare, Cruel and Unusual Death and startling imagery. There's also a resurrected corpse that even brings in a legion of angry spectres. And worst of all, the villain is a Fallen Heroine, Scarlet Witch, who after the above mentioned events of WandaVision wants to get her sons again by taking them from an alternate universe, and doesn't care if she has to slaughter whoever gets in her way to do so. And she's so powerful many heavy hitters don't do much trying to stop her.
• Most of the other MCU Disney+ shows aren't exactly walks in the park either, but Moon Knight is not only noticeably Bloodier and Gorier than any other entry from Marvel Studios, but the tone is significantly darker and more morose than most other MCU works. Most of the epic superhero action and comedy typically seen elsewhere in the MCU is downplayed in favor of genuinely terrifying supernatural and psychological horror (a Disciple of Ammit being mummified alive by an undead priest of Heka in Episode 4 definitely springs to mind here), and the series also frequently indulges in melancholic ruminations over identity and mental health issues, which in turn are revealed to stem from a disturbingly realistic abusive childhood involving the death of a much younger sibling. The showrunner Jeremy Slater even explicitly described it as a Psychological Horror series more than an actual superhero series.
• Thor: Love and Thunder still has the jokey and adventurous tone of Thor: Ragnarok, but not only again the villain is a very serious threat, he literally takes the color out of the movie, as most scenes show him in dreary lighting and a monochrome palette, and once the heroes enter his Shadow Realm, the scenes are downright monochrome aside from some splashes of color. The film's opening sequence has a child dying, and a major plot point is an endangered pack of kidnapped children. And Jane becoming Thor, like in the comics, is something that happens because she has terminal cancer, hence there's a very sad subplot regarding her struggles with incoming death.
• Werewolf by Night (2022) is the darkest entry both in the visual sense — as it's filmed in black and white — and in terms of violence. People are killed left and right in gruesome ways — either by blades to the throat or even one hunter having a blade slice through the skull and even Man-Thing's acid powers are capable of turning people into skeletons in just a few seconds — and there's a sense of dread in what is a campy love letter to Universal Horror films. It's also surprising that this is only given a TV-14 rating due to said black and white filter.
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continues the trend set by the first film: T'Challa is dead after the events of Endgame (following the death of Chadwick Boseman), and the film's plot features grieving the king amid trying to find a successor as a major focus.
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 still has the comedy of its predecessors, but this is contrasted by having a more sombre tone than even the second film. The film heavily focuses on Rocket's traumatic past of being experimented on by the High Evolutionary, while the main goal of the heroes is to find a way to stop Rocket from dying. Quill is shown to be a depressed wreck following Gamora's death in Infinity War, and ultimately does not get back together with her time-displaced Variant from 2014. The High Evolutionary becomes the first villain in the Guardians films to successfully destroy a planet; wiping out Counter-Earth and all it's inhabitants. The movie is also a lot more violent than many films in the MCU and pushes the limits of its PG-13 rating during the scene where the High Evolutionary's face is peeled off.
• Deadpool & Wolverine is notable for being the first R-Rated film within the franchise. The film contains more swearing, graphic violence, and sexual references than any of the PG-13 MCU movies.