Warning! SPOILERS for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The battle between Doctor Strange and Gargantos in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness aggravates an existing MCU problem. Doctor Strange and Wong's fight with Gargantos at the beginning of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness sets the stage for a particularly violent MCU movie, with the creature being defeated with its eye popped out of its socket. Although Gargantos' arrival is exciting, it seems inexplicably inconsequential in the lives of MCU humans.

When the MCU was just beginning, a simple fight between two armored geniuses or two Gamma-powered monsters was a massive event. Several years and countless world-ending events later, a rampaging octopus from another reality in the MCU multiverse is treated as a sideshow. After all, the MCU's Earth already experienced much bigger disasters. MCU humans have witnessed the rise of superheroes, an alien invasion, an attack from intergalactic elves, a robot uprising, the decimation of half of all life (and its subsequent restoration), and the interrupted birth of a Celestial, among other things.

Related: Did Marvel Really Just Kill Off That Important Doctor Strange Character?

However, all of these occurrences don't excuse the nonchalant reaction of bystanders in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. During the opening battle, Christine Palmer and the attendants to her wedding spectate without any sense of self-preservation. What's worse, right after Gargantos is killed, specifically when Doctor Strange and Wong interrogate Doctor Strange 2's multiversal America Chavez, bystanders can be seen immediately resuming their normal activities in the background, walking carelessly through the same streets that a giant interdimensional monster just trashed. Since Gargantos' corpse wasn't seen being taken care of, it appears that people just walked around its impaled eye like it was nothing. While it's true that the MCU's Earth — and especially New York — has seen plenty of mind-blowing events in the last few years, regular people's casual reactions to such events threaten the suspension of disbelief.

Arishem stands over Earth in Eternals

Daily life in recent MCU movies and spinoff series doesn't seem to have changed at all. Realistically, every aspect of society should have changed in the MCU by now, but that's not the point of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Apart from superheroes, the MCU's version of Earth can't be too different from real life, otherwise, it would quickly become unrecognizable and thus unrelatable. Still, there's no reason why bystanders should brush off a catastrophe happening right in front of their eyes.

Besides realism, superhero battles still need to have tangible consequences in order to have a dramatic impact. There must be a sense of danger in whatever would happen should the heroes lose their battles, including damage to the city and the death of innocents — both possibilities that can't be ignored from one scene to the next. If the heroes clearly avoid them, their efforts are evidently worth it. After all, the main goal of MCU superheroes is saving the Earth and the galaxy.

Director Sam Raimi isn't unfamiliar with creating a sense of danger in superhero movies. For instance, the reaction shots of people screaming in fear or getting tense at the offscreen steps of Doctor Octopus in the Spider-Man movies are part of what makes the ensuing battles so exciting. The Gargantos battle in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness does include a couple of these signature reaction shots from inside the buildings, but the nonchalant attitude of background characters seems like an oversight.

More: Doctor Strange 2's Post-Credits Scenes Explained (They're Both Important)

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