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Welcome to the main discussion thread for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! This pinned post is here to establish some basic guidelines. All of the Media Forum rules still apply.

  • This thread is for talking about the live-action films, TV shows, animated works, and related content that use the Marvel brand, currently owned by Disney.
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    Original post 
Since Thor and now Captain America came out this year, I wanted to get what Tropers thought of the concept and execution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general. Personally I love the idea and wonder why this idea hasn't been seriously tried before. It sorta seems to me like the DCAU in movie form (And well, ummm, with Marvel), and really 'gets' the comic book feel of a shared universe while not being completely alienating.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#29601: Mar 22nd 2015 at 10:12:17 AM

You want to get crazier? Steve Rogers used to draw the in-universe Captain America comic.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#29602: Mar 22nd 2015 at 10:16:37 AM

So you're saying that if he just kept that job he could've written/drawn himself as the winner of Civil War and have been done with it?

edited 22nd Mar '15 10:16:59 AM by KnownUnknown

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#29603: Mar 22nd 2015 at 10:20:26 AM

Well first he'd have to throw his shield to gain protection from editors (all who oppose his mighty shield must yield) but yes. That seems completely logical.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#29604: Mar 22nd 2015 at 10:23:31 AM

IMO the biggest flaw with the story is that it presented the conflict as equal with both sides supposedly being valid, when Stark's outcome is one that simply could not ever last because it basically defies a lot of the oldschool Necessary Weasels of the superhero genre.

Yeah, in real life I'd absolutely want heroes to be registered and licensed if they're gonna enforce the law, but comics as a whole had spent the last 50 years trying to tell people why that's a stupid idea and that heroes work best when not being a bunch of government stooges.

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#29605: Mar 22nd 2015 at 10:40:53 AM

I think the main problem with the law is that it said you either work for the government or go to jail. That's just a dumb idea.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#29606: Mar 22nd 2015 at 10:44:00 AM

I guess the question would be if the government is really able to keep the secret identity secret. For the MCU though, I guess it will be different...perhaps it will even be the other way around, with Cap insisting on rules for the Superheroes and Tony being against it.

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#29607: Mar 22nd 2015 at 10:47:13 AM

What do you mean about keeping it a secret? I thought it would be public knowledge under the act.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#29608: Mar 22nd 2015 at 10:52:01 AM

[up][up][up] Depends on the writer. Some wrote it as a universal draft to all superpowered individuals, while others depicted characters being able to Opt Out, so to speak, by just not using their superpowers to fight crime. The Loners formed when a group of supers signed the Act and took the option to just not be superheroes anymore. Meanwhile, the Initiative comic was asserting that you can't do that and anyone who signs it must undergo mandatory superhero training.

The SHRA was terribly inconsistent across the board due to Quesada's insistence that writers just depict it however they feel like, which you may recognize as terrible editorial procedure.

[up] Nope. Supers had to be registered in the S.H.I.E.L.D. database but their identities did not have to be public. Iron Man and Spider-Man unmasking was a publicity stunt, not a requirement of the law. Stark was adamant about this, that the identities of superheroes would be secured by him and protected by him, and when he lost his position as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., he wiped out the database to protect them.

edited 22nd Mar '15 10:53:25 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#29609: Mar 22nd 2015 at 10:52:56 AM

"That's right! This comic company is writing our own universe!"

They explain it in She-Hulk as basically biographies in comic book form. They technically aren't allowed to write and publish events that didn't actually happen, but that's sometimes the case as with the in-universe X-Men comic, which little resembles the real X-men.

My question is more where DC Comics would get its material. "Behold! Tales from an alternate universe!"

zam Since: Jun, 2009
#29610: Mar 22nd 2015 at 10:53:28 AM

Nope the Government holds onto it, these guys wear masks for a reason.

But it's the Marvel version of the U.S. Government, would you trust them with your secrets?

[nja]

edited 22nd Mar '15 10:54:26 AM by zam

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#29611: Mar 22nd 2015 at 11:00:47 AM

I would trust neither the Marvel nor the MCU Government with anything...on the one hand you have a government who hunts mutants and might get the idea that my own superpower is perhaps not that cracked up either, on the other hand a government which was (and still might be) full of Hydro agents, not to mention vize-presidents who are not above killing to get what they want.

KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#29612: Mar 22nd 2015 at 11:03:26 AM

Iron Man and Spider-Man unmasking was a publicity stunt, not a requirement of the law.

Didn't Iron Man go public before then?

[up][up][up] I prefer the Watchmen take on it - superhero comics went out of style when the real thing came along. Of course, that might also have to do with the American public opinion turning against them...then again, that seems to happen in Marvel universe every other week.

Hydro agents

Hydro-Man has his own agency?

edited 22nd Mar '15 11:04:13 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#29613: Mar 22nd 2015 at 11:03:30 AM

Damn those water men!

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#29614: Mar 22nd 2015 at 11:12:07 AM

[up][up] Yes, and no. He put the genie back in the bottle by publicly "retiring" from being Iron Man at one point. He unmasked again just before Civil War began as a show of support for the Registration Act.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#29615: Mar 22nd 2015 at 11:27:17 AM

Hail Hydro! Plug up one spring, two more shall take its place!

Unless you mean the Team Fortress 2 map, in which case, nah, Hydro's boring.

ultimatepheer Since: Mar, 2011
#29616: Mar 22nd 2015 at 11:27:35 AM

Can I just point out Civil War started because of a villain fighting a Hero who had his own TV show?

It's not like the guy was secretive. Or in any way would have been stopped from what he was doing by registering.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#29617: Mar 22nd 2015 at 11:46:26 AM

I actually prefer that secret identities aren't a thing in the MCU. It's the kind of thing that only really works for street-level heroes, and I'm glad the first Iron Man film set a precedent for it. Likewise where they're not really a big deal in the X-Men universe.

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#29618: Mar 22nd 2015 at 12:25:21 PM

They're still a big deal in the X-Men movies. It's just a lot easier to hide because most Mutants cut themselves off from society.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#29619: Mar 22nd 2015 at 1:04:16 PM

The X-Men don't really have secret identities, because they don't have civilian lives at all. Sometimes they wear masks, but those masks are kinda pointless. Most of the time, the publicly only ever sees mutants when they're having destructive battles that tear up human cities and get humans killed; they secret themselves away in their own social bastions from the world and only come out to have gang wars in human territory over whether or not killing the humans is a good thing to do.

edited 22nd Mar '15 1:05:08 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
TenebrousGaze Dark Eye from A Shaded Face Since: Sep, 2013 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
Dark Eye
#29620: Mar 22nd 2015 at 1:05:31 PM

I do like how marvel deals with secret identities; most of the big heroes don't actually have them and it's when you get down to the smaller ones that effort has to be extended to keep them. This also creates an interesting medium; for example, in the recent Hawkeye run, it was public knowledge that Clint Barton was Hawkeye but most people wouldn't actually have that memorized or recognize his face. Although there are a few characters where I honestly can't tell if they have a secret identity or not, which is frustrating.

comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#29621: Mar 22nd 2015 at 1:26:13 PM

[up]There was actually a really funny incident where Vulture ripped off Spider-Man's mask and immediately became pissed off because he had no idea who the hell he was. He'd spent years assuming Spider-Man must be some influential, recognizable public figure like Reed Richards or Tony Stark and never stopped to consider he was just some random dude who nobody could pick out of a crowd.

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#29622: Mar 22nd 2015 at 1:37:58 PM

That reminds me of the time Lex Luthor switched bodies with the Flash in Justice League.

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#29623: Mar 22nd 2015 at 1:46:27 PM

It's an interesting point about DC that a lot of their characters' secret identities are such a liability because several of their key characters are powerful or at least recognizable outside of their hero lives as well. Clark Kent is a world famous reporter who has covered many important events, Bruce Wayne is... Bruce Wayne, Oliver Queen is in a similar situation as Bruce, Hal Jordan is a famous pilot who is the boyfriend of the owner of one of the most influential air and space corporations in the world, etc. There's a lot of "glamorous people living even more glamorous secret lives" there.

People like Flash and Plastic Man are lucky. Nobody knows who the heck they are.

On a related note, Batman himself's Secret Identity issues are an interest flip from Iron Man. While revealing his secret identity allowed Tony and his company to get even morepower and influence in the end, DC instead runs very strictly with the idea that if Batman's secret ever came out, Bruce's assets would be frozen and he would be hunted down and thrown in jail. Even though that doesn't quite gel with the image of Batman as a public figure and member of the Justice League (but then, Batman's own series often doesn't gel with his appearances in ensemble titles in terms of tone and portrayal anyway).

The main DC character I think would really suffer from getting their secret identity revealed is Superman - not because it would put him or his loved ones in any more danger (since those guys are about as danger prone as they come already, and he's Superman), but because it would easily prevent him from living a normal life - which is something he deeply craves (at least, Nu52. I don't know much about Superman's relation to his humanity in the current continuity).

edited 22nd Mar '15 1:49:28 PM by KnownUnknown

Whowho Since: May, 2012
#29624: Mar 22nd 2015 at 3:11:52 PM

It seems to me the problem with the registration act what that it was about superheroes fighting each other, rather than the superheroes actually fighting the act.

How did Cap actually oppose the act? Did he attempt any peaceful protests?

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#29625: Mar 22nd 2015 at 3:25:49 PM

He superheroe'd without a license! Boo and hiss!

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

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