Marvel movies seem to have their formula down pat when it comes to making movies that audiences love - and the box office definitely shows it. While each movie is different when it comes to the details of the plot and has unique moments (and usually characters), there are some common patterns that most of the films follow. Some of these patterns are more about the overall filmmaking process of telling stories people love, and some of them are a little more random and a little weirder.
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Here’s a list of 10 weird patterns that most MCU movies follow.
THOSE MARVEL DISGUISES
Jokes about those Marvel disguises are rather common. The Marvel movie disguise consists of a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses (usually aviators). This disguise shows up in films like Captain America: Civil War and Ant-Man and the Wasp. In fact, Marvel even makes fun of itself in Ant-Man and the Wasp by pointing out how ludicrous it is that no one would ever recognize these superheroes just because they throw on a hat.
WITTY ONE-LINERS IN SERIOUS SITUATIONS
One thing that sets the Marvel universe apart is their signature use of humor. From all the way back at the beginning with Iron Man, MCU movie have been full of a lot of zingy one-liners. Some of the movies have been more lighthearted, such as Thor: Ragnarok, while others, like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, have been more serious.
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But, overall, humor plays a big part in these movies. While the humor is often enjoyable, it can sometimes distract from the serious nature of what is happening in many of these movies.
POP CULTURE REFERENCES
Marvel also loves pop culture references, and audiences do, too. Just in Avengers: Infinity War, we have references to Squidward, Alien movies, and more. Captain America: Civil War also makes mention of Star Wars, and these are just the tip of the iceberg. Marvel definitely loves to add these moments in because they know they will get a big laugh, even if they can be a little distracting at times.
WOMEN AS SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
This is an unfortunate pattern that the MCU is finally about to break. Up to this point, the female characters in Marvel movies have all been supporting roles. While Black Panther did a great job of including multiple, diverse, complex women, Captain Marvel will be the first female-led Marvel movie. Earlier Marvel movies such as Iron Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron were particularly bad at treating their female characters as complex human beings. Hopefully, this pattern continues to be broken in the future.
HERO CONFLICT BETTER THAN VILLAINS
This is a complaint that many have raised against Marvel movies. Especially when it comes to conflict between the Avengers, the interpersonal conflicts are often more interesting than the actual villains themselves. For example, the conflict between Iron Man and Captain America has been a driving force in the MCU.
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Even in the Thor films, conflict between Loki and Thor is often more interesting than the actual antagonists. While more recent Marvel movies have focused more on villains like Thanos, these conflicts between the hero characters are still some of the most compelling.
CONNECTIONS TO OTHER MCU FILMS
This is one of the signature patterns that MCU movies follow. The MCU has done an amazing job of creating an interconnected world. All of the Marvel movies have references and cameos to other characters from other films. Sometimes these connections are simple in the form of dialogue such as Ant-Man referencing the airport fight with Captain America. While other times the connections are more substantial like the T'Challa joining the MCU in Captain America: Civil War.
IRON MAN GETS ALL THE ATTENTION
There are certain characters that get more crossover and connection moments than others. While Captain America also gets a lot of these, Iron Man is definitely the character who gets more cameos and references than anyone else. Tony Stark played a large part in Captain America: Civil War, even though that wasn’t an Iron Man film. He also had a big role in Spider-Man: Homecoming This weird pattern makes sense, however, since Iron Man is the character who kicked off the entire MCU.
DIFFERENT DIRECTORS CHANGE CHARACTERS
This isn’t exactly a pattern that is individual to the MCU, but it does make a difference in how different films come across. Films directed by the Russos have a very unique feel compared to the earlier Avengers films made by Joss Whedon. Taika Waititi has also brought his unique mark to the franchise, and Ryan Coogler as well. The only problem with having different directors is that they interpret characters in different ways. For example, many people weren’t thrilled with Whedon’s interpretation of Black Widow.
UNDERDEVELOPED ROMANCES
Most of the romances in Marvel movies feel shoehorned in, with a few exceptions. It seems like Marvel feels like they have to include romances in order to make their films likable by audiences. This has led to many underdeveloped romances that don’t make a lot of sense such as Sharon Carter and Captain America. Characters like Black Widow have also been put with different characters such as Hulk, Captain America, and Iron Man, even if she only officially dated Hulk.
POST-CREDIT SCENES REALLY MATTER
Everyone knows that Marvel has post-credit scenes. This has become their signature, and they were really the first major franchise to do something like this. While the post-credit scenes can be fun, sometimes they actually include important information and even character development. Bucky Barnes, for example, is a character that has been in multiple end-credits scenes and has had many important moments told there including when he went back into cryo at the end of Civil War.