History Fridge / MarvelCinematicUniverse

* The first four movies before ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' were all about someone having the ability to be a hero, but not the qualities until he had to step up to the challenge: ''Film/IronMan1'' was about the egotistic genius billionaire Tony Stark seeing first hand what his weapons were doing to innocents and being unable to use the normal means to stop it, so he had to use the Iron Man armor to stop the terrorists (and Stane) and destroy the weapons himself; ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}'' was about Banner trying to cure himself of being the Hulk until the Abomination entered the frame, at which point he renounced any future attempt to find a cure (and gain a measure of control over his transformations) so he'd be able to stop him and any other possible gamma monster; ''Film/IronMan2'' was about a dying Tony choosing Pepper and Rhodey as his successors as CEO of Stark Industries and Iron Man and getting them to step up to the challenge; ''Film/{{Thor}}'' is about Thor overcoming his selfish & haughty nature and learning humility. Then we have ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', which is about the opposite: Steve ''wants'' to make a difference and stop the Nazis, but first lacks the powers (being a skinny runt before becoming the SuperSoldier) and then the occasion, and has to take them, becoming a hero in the process.
* In a similar way, one could argue the movies of Phase 2 were about losing something as part of being a hero (Iron Man was afflicted with PTSD and destroyed his armors, Thor's mother (and quite possibly dad) died and he abdicated the throne, Cap lost any trust in S.H.I.E.L.D and lost S.H.I.E.L.D itself.) ''Age of Ultron'' did not involve ''that much'' loss, but the events of it ''did'' shake the Avengers' confidence in their ideals. This ultimately segued into Phase 3, which started off with Civil War and the dismantling of the Avengers.

* The first four movies before ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' were all about someone having the ability to be a hero, but not the qualities until he had to step up to the challenge: ''Film/IronMan1'' was about the egotistic genius billionaire Tony Stark seeing first hand what his weapons were doing to innocents and being unable to use the normal means to stop it, so he had to use the Iron Man armor to stop the terrorists (and Stane) and destroy the weapons himself; ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' was about Banner trying to cure himself of being the Hulk until the Abomination entered the frame, at which point he renounced any future attempt to find a cure (and gain a measure of control over his transformations) so he'd be able to stop him and any other possible gamma monster; ''Film/IronMan2'' was about a dying Tony choosing Pepper and Rhodey as his successors as CEO of Stark Industries and Iron Man and getting them to step up to the challenge; ''Film/{{Thor}}'' is about Thor overcoming his selfish & haughty nature and learning humility. Then we have ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', which is about the opposite: Steve ''wants'' to make a difference and stop the Nazis, but first lacks the powers (being a skinny runt before becoming the SuperSoldier) and then the occasion, and has to take them, becoming a hero in the process.

* Jessica Jones answers the question: how do mooks think they can take on superheroes? The answer: combat drugs. In real life, defence departments have science agencies working to develop exercise programs, diets, supplements, relaxation exercises, new ways of teaching and assimilating information. This is especially true of special forces who will have scientists on staff to get any edge. In the MCU it is easy to extrapolate this to super soldier serums and the red/white/blue pills. Add whatever real world or fictional criminal enhancements you like (steroids, speed, who knows?) and you get mooks who think they are dangerous enough to take on our heroes. (This also explains Stark's fear that JSOC will come for Cap and Bucky in Winter Soldier.)

* The post-Avengers U.S government is also a bit of a notably split between Perlmutter and post Perlmutter. In Perlmutter's time Obama, a Democrat, was replaced by Mathew Ellis (presumably a Republican per American Political tendencies). More notably, a confirmed Republican, Christian Ward, was a senator in Massachusetts, a ''very'' Democratic state that rarely elects Republicans that high. Perlmutter is a known mega-dollar Trump supporter and Republican, and one could see this as a sign that the MCU shifted conservatively politically in the aftermath of the Avengers film. This government, while not shown as flawless at this point (see the V.P in Iron Man 3), was shown to be fairly moral. After Perlmutter was removed from the films and Feige had no interference from him (while Feige's politics aren't as clear as Perlmutter's, he is presumably farther to the left than 'all blacks guys look alike, female led films have no chance, what's the difference between minority and oppression based X-Men and self-oppressing, slave keeping Inhumans' Ike, regardless of if he is Republican or Democrat), we have films like ''Civil War'', ''Infinity War'', and ''Ant-Man and the Wasp'', which clearly show the Government as power-grabbing, stupid, thieving, and not behaving properly. Regardless on one's thoughts on the exact nature of each political party, one can read the shift as being tied into the fissure of Perlmutter and Feige.

* The 2019 set of MCU films follows a similar set in 2018. First is about [[Film/BlackPanther a hero]] [[Film/CaptainMarvel2019 who will assist the Avengers against Thanos]], [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar then an Avengers movie where many]] [[Film/AvengersEndgame heroes unite to battle Thanos]], and [[Film/AntManAndTheWasp then a movie]] [[Film/SpiderManFarFromHome about a superhero with a bug motif]] that serves as a BreatherEpisode after the second movie.

* The 2019 set of MCU films follows a similar set in 2018. First is about [[Film/BlackPanther a hero]][[Film/CaptainMarvel2019 who will assist the Avengers against Thanos]], [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar then an Avengers movie where many]][[Film/AvengersEndgame heroes unite to battle Thanos]], and [[Film/AntManAndTheWasp then a movie]] [[Film/SpiderManFarFromHome about a superhero with a bug motif]] that serves as a BreatherEpisode after the second movie.

* The split between the movie and T.V shows when it comes to story can be seen for what it really is all about since the start of Phase 3: a split between the films that Perlmutter had influence over (Iron Man 1 to Ant-Man) and the films he didn't (Civil War onwards). Perlmutter's films are still in ''a'' Marvel Cinematic Universe, but not the one we're watching. It's in ''Perlmutter's'', which has nothing in it he had no influence of.

* The post-Avengers U.S government is also a bit of a notably split between Perlmutter and post Perlmutter. In Perlmutter's time Obama, a Democrat, was replaced by Mathew Ellis (presumably a Republican per American Political tendencies). More notably, a confirmed Republican, Christian Ward, was a senator in Massachusetts, a ''very'' Democratic state that rarely elects Republicans that high. Perlmutter is a known mega-dollar Trump supporter and Republican, and one could see this as a sign that the MCU shifted conservatively politically in the aftermath of the Avengers film. This government, while not shown as flawless at this point (see the V.P in Iron Man 3), was shown to be fairly moral. After Perlmutter was removed from the films and Fiege had no interference from him (while Feige's politics aren't as clear as Perlmutter's, he is presumably farther to the left than 'all blacks guys look alike, female led films have no chance, what's the difference between minority and oppression based X-Men and self-oppressing, slave keeping Inhumans' Ike, regardless of if he is Republican or Democrat), we have films like Civil War, Infinity War, and Ant-Man and the Wasp, which clearly show the Government as power-grabbing, stupid, thieving, and not behaving properly. Regardless on one's thoughts on the exact nature of each political party, one can read the shift as being tied into the fissure of Perlmutter and Fiege.

* In a similar way, one could argue the movies of Phase 2 were about losing something as part of being a hero (Iron Man was afflicted with PTSD and destroyed his armors, Thor's mother (and quite possibly dad) died and he abdicated the throne, Cap lost any trust in S.H.I.E.L.D and lost S.H.I.E.L.D itself.) Presumably, ''Age of Ultron'' will destroy the Avengers as a team, leading to a Phase 3 where the age of heroes is torn down (as it starts with a Civil War and ends with an Infinity War with a well known HeroKiller).

* It's often asked how come other superheroes don't join in and help people when they're having issues, like why didn't Hulk actually help out Tony Stark in 'Iron Man 3' beyond just a cameo after the credits? Or why didn't Iron Man show up during 'Captain America: Winter Soldier'? The obvious reason is it would be too easy, but an in-universe answer has been there the entire time, in the events of 'Winter Soldier': the collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D.. This event was so massive and so revealing, if Captain America tried to call Iron Man for help, it'd be abundantly clear where he was and how HYDRA agents could find him.
** But what about 'Iron Man 3'? Tony had just put Pepper in extreme danger halfway through the film, he probably thought if he tried to contact any of the Avengers, the same would happen to them. Tony Stark comes off as a person who doesn't want to take responsibility, but at times he's a person who takes responsibility for everything. Just look at his actions in 'Age Of Ultron', he felt it was his duty alone to protect the world. Tony thinks he's the most important person in every room, his ego is massive... and as a result he feels like he's got to take care of everyone, that he's like a dad to a planet of children. He's burdened by his intelligence and makes mistakes by constantly trying to help people, believing they acn't help themselves.

** And, considering the finale of Iron Man 3, they were certainly useful after all

** Actually, that could be an allusion to the fact that the government isn't the best option for keeping an eye on superhumans, because the US government "has" lost nuclear weapons before. The scary part is that we're not even entirely sure how many have gone missing, it can be be any where from 6 to a dozen (mostly during the Cold War). (Oh, and before you think that's bad, the USSR was "way" worse, and since the fall of the USSR only made their terrible record-keeping even more sketchy, it's even more uncertain how many nuclear weapons they've lost. The smart money's on around 33, but some of the more liberal answers claim it to be as high as 100)

* The first four movies before ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' were all about someone having the ability to be a hero, but not the qualities until he had to step up to the challenge: ''Film/IronMan1'' was about the egotistic genius billionaire Tony Stark seeing first hand what his weapons were doing to innocents and being unable to use the normal means to stop it, so he had to use the Iron Man armor to stop the terrorists (and Stane) and destroy the weapons himself; ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' was about Banner trying to cure himself of being the Hulk until the Abomination entered the frame, at which point he renounced any future attempt to find a cure (and gain a measure of control over his transformations) so he'd be able to stop him and any other possible gamma monster; ''Film/IronMan2'' was about a dying Tony choosing Pepper and Rhodey as his successors as CEO of Stark Industries and Iron Man and getting them to step up to the challenge; ''Film/{{Thor}}'' is about Thor stopping being selfish and learning humility. Then we have ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', that is about the opposite: Steve ''wants'' to make a difference and stop the Nazis, but first lacks the powers (being a skinny runt before becoming the SuperSoldier) and then the occasion, and has to take them, becoming a hero in the process.

* The first four movies before ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' were all about someone having the ability to be a hero, but not the qualities until he had to step up to the challenge: ''Film/IronMan1'' was about the egotistic genius billionaire Tony Stark seeing first hand what his weapons were doing to innocents and being unable to use the normal means to stop it, so he had to use the Iron Man armor to stop the terrorists (and Stane) and destroy the weapons himself; ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' was about Banner trying to cure himself of being the Hulk until the Abomination entered the frame, at which point he renounced any future attempt to get a cure (and gain a measure of control over his transformations) so he'd be able to stop him and any other possible gamma monster; ''Film/IronMan2'' was about a dying Tony choosing Pepper and Rhodey as his successors as CEO of Stark Industries and Iron Man and getting them to step up to the challenge; ''Film/{{Thor}}'' is about Thor stopping being selfish and learning humility. Then we have ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', that is about the opposite: Steve ''wants'' to make a difference and stop the Nazis, but first lacks the powers (being a skinny runt before becoming the SuperSoldier) and then the occasion, and has to take them, becoming a hero in the process.

* The first four movies before ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' were all about someone having the ability to be a hero, but not the qualities until he had to step up to the challenge: ''Film/IronMan1'' was about the egotistic genius billionaire Tony Stark seeing first hand what his weapons were doing to innocents and being unable to use the normal means to stop it, so he had to use the Iron Man armor to stop the terrorists (and Stane) and destroy the weapons himself; ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' was about Banner trying to cure himself of being the Hulk until the Abomination entered the frame, at which point he renounced any future attempt to get a cure (and gain of measure of control over his transformations) so he'd be able to stop him and any other possible gamma monster; ''Film/IronMan2'' was about a dying Tony choosing Pepper and Rhodey as his successors as CEO of Stark Industries and Iron Man and getting them to step up to the challenge; ''Film/{{Thor}}'' is about Thor stopping being selfish and learning humility. Then we have ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', that is about the opposite: Steve ''wants'' to make a difference and stop the Nazis, but first lacks the powers (being a skinny runt before becoming the SuperSoldier) and then the occasion, and has to take them, becoming a hero in the process.

* The first four movies before ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' were all about someone having the ability to be a hero, but not the qualities until he had to step up to the challenge: ''Film/IronMan1'' was about the egotistic genius billionaire Tony Stark seeing first hand what his weapons were doing to innocents and being unable to use the normal means to stop it, so he had to use the Iron Man armor to stop the terrorists (and Stane) and destroy the weapons himself; ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' was about Banner trying to cure himself of being the Hulk until Abomination entered the frame, at which point he renounced to any future attempt to get a cure so he'd be able to stop him and any other possible gamma monster; ''Film/IronMan2'' was about a dying Tony choosing Pepper and Rhodey as his successors as CEO of Stark Industries and Iron Man and getting them to step up to the challenge; ''Film/{{Thor}}'' is about Thor stopping being selfish and learning humility. Then we have ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', that is about the opposite: Steve ''wants'' to make a difference and stop the Nazis, but first lacks the powers (being a skinny runt before becoming the SuperSoldier) and then the occasion, and has to take them, becoming a hero in the process.
* In a similar way, one could argue the movies of Phase 2 were about losing something as part of being a hero (Iron Man got PTSD and destroyed his armors, Thor's mother (and quite possibly dad) died and he abdicated the throne, Cap lost any trust in S.H.I.E.L.D and lost S.H.I.E.L.D itself.) Presumably Age of Ultron will destroy the Avengers as a team, leading to a Phase 3 where the age of heroes is torn down (as it starts with a Civil War and ends with an Infinity War with a well known HeroKiller).

* The first four movies before ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' were all about someone having the ability to be a hero but not the qualities until he had to step up to the challenge: ''Film/IronMan1'' was about the egotistic genius billionaire Tony Stark seeing first hand what his weapons were doing to innocents and being unable to use the normal means to stop it, so he had to use the Iron Man armor to stop the terrorists (and Stane) and destroy the weapons himself; ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' was about Banner trying to cure himself of Hulk until Abomination entered the frame, at which point he renounced to any future attempt to get a cure so he'd be able to stop him and any other possible gamma monster; ''Film/IronMan2'' was about a dying Tony choosing Pepper and Rhodey as his successors as CEO of Stark Industries and Iron Man and getting them to step up to the challenge; ''Film/{{Thor}}'' is about Thor stopping being selfish and learning humility. Then we have ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', that is about the opposite: Steve ''wants'' to make a difference and stop the Nazis, but first lacks the powers (being a skinny runt before becoming the SuperSoldier) and then the occasion, and has to take them, becoming a hero in the process.

* Secretary Ross' line in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' to the members of the Avengers about two lost nuclear warheads (referring to the absent Hulk and Thor) might actually double as a reference to a nuclear warhead recently being stolen in the concurrent third season of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' (in this case, for use in [[BigBad Hive]]'s master plan) -- unless, of course, the two plot points are [[RightHandVersusLeftHand just a total coincidence]].

** Coulson also knew that he (and the clerk) weren't in any real danger; he probably thought up using the flour bag as soon as he mentions moving to the other aisle. Those punks never stood a chance.

* The first four movies before ''Film/TheAvengers'' were all about someone having the ability to be a hero but not the qualities until he had to step up to the challenge: ''Film/IronMan1'' was about the egotistic genius billionaire Tony Stark seeing first hand what his weapons were doing to innocents and being unable to use the normal means to stop it, so he had to use the Iron Man armor to stop the terrorists (and Stane) and destroy the weapons himself; ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' was about Banner trying to cure himself of Hulk until Abomination entered the frame, at which point he renounced to any future attempt to get a cure so he'd be able to stop him and any other possible gamma monster; ''Film/IronMan2'' was about a dying Tony choosing Pepper and Rhodey as his successors as CEO of Stark Industries and Iron Man and getting them to step up to the challenge; ''Film/{{Thor}}'' is about Thor stopping being selfish and learning humility. Then we have ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', that is about the opposite: Steve ''wants'' to make a difference and stop the Nazis, but first lacks the powers (being a skinny runt before becoming the SuperSoldier) and then the occasion, and has to take them, becoming a hero in the process.