2021

American culture mythologizes war. The myth of war is apparent in news media coverage. News perpetuates the narrative of a just war: a hero’s journey. The lack of criticalness is a biproduct of American culture. While the news media acts as an informant for the public, entertainment media translates the cultural meaning of the news into cinematic myths that reflect war norms. Those myths can contextualize post-9/11 attitudes (Lecture Feb. 22, 2021). While movies like Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper are representative of traditional war movies, they only appeal to a select audience. Contrastingly, Marvel movies are better known and have become a cultural icon likened to the Harry Potter franchise. The Marvel-verse has become a mythological retelling of 9/11, “the superhero boom is about the need for escapism (VanDerWerff 2015).” Hollywood’s propagandistic—pro-war, pro-torture and pro-hero—agenda bleeds into the Marvel movie franchise and manifests as a quasi-war myth that reckons with America’s grief and revenge fantasy following 9/11. 

The narrative in Marvel’s 2012, the Avengers, is weaved around post-9/11 attitudes. Schwartz interprets the Marvel movies—specifically the Avenger movies—as a cultural reaction to 9/11. He argues that in the Avengers, Loki serves as proxy for Bin Landen and that the iconic Hulk-Loki, “Puny god,” scene is intended to provide insight “about not losing ourselves in vengeance (Schwartz 2019).” For that reason, Schwartz claims Marvel movies should not be interpreted as a revenge fantasy. However, he fails to acknowledge The Avengers end credit scene with Thanos and the entirety of Avengers: Infinity War, which was released in a year prior to the publication of his article. If Marvel movies are an analogy for 9/11, then it follows that the movies are a revenge fantasy. Schwartz mischaracterizes Loki as Bin Laden. It is revealed in Infinity War that Loki acted under the orders of Thanos. Thus, in the 9/11 analogy, Loki represents one of Bin Laden’s followers, while Thanos himself—a radicalized god—personifies Bin Laden. When the event of the Avengers is recontextualized through this lens, it is evident Loki was not the mastermind behind the New York attack and therefore does not serve as the key pawn in the revenge fantasy. In contrast, Thanos—unlike Loki—is the object of America’s vengeance. Not only is Thanos killed twice in Avengers: Endgame, he is killed in manner that mirrors Bin Laden’s death: no trail, just an execution. The two-fold death reflects America’s culture of glorified vengeance that emerged following 9/11 (Russo 2018; Russo 2019; Schwartz 2019; Russo et al. 2012). 

The origins of several prominent Marvel figures are deeply engrained in American war culture. The Captain America comics made their debut in the spring of 1941 as a propagandistic tool to support America’s WWII efforts (Wright). While modern Marvel has strayed away from its WWII roots and resettled in the post-9/11 narrative, the propaganda undertones remain. Zinn states that films that come out of Hollywood “are almost always films that glorify military heroism (Zinn 66).” He continues to describe the need for alternative narratives beyond the “good versus evil” story that is evidently present in superhero movies. His argument implies that movies upholding the stereotypical plot favoring the morally right and virtuous are a form of propaganda (Lecture April 21, 2021; Zinn). All the Marvel movies, in such case, would be categorized as propaganda. For example, the Avengers can be interpreted as propaganda for torture. Not propaganda that promotes torture as a means to obtain information, however, because torture is not reliable for the extraction of actionable intelligence (Kearns and Young 2017: 5). The movie instead promotes torture as a means for revenge. When the Hulk smashes Loki, the scene is indicative of the torture at Abu Ghraib (Lecture April 21, 2021). The Hulk-Loki scene has implications on public perceptions of torture by portraying it as an effective tool for revenge (Kearns and Young 2017; Russo et al. 2012). 

The Marvel movies reflect the mainstream media’s desire to glorify war through a primarily uncritical lens. However, there are instances of Marvel attempting to portray a “true war story” even if it derives from a fictional narrative. Avengers: Endgame in particular tries to incorporate the emotional realities of war through Thor’s character arch. While the film addresses Thor’s PTSD and alcoholism with comedy, the underlying implications about the aftermath of war remains (Russo 2019). Arguably, the intention of the character arch is to humanize a god in a way that makes the audience empathize with his struggles as a result of war. Sontag’s insights about artistic expression and war are useful to understand the movie’s pitfalls in its attempt to incorporate the reality of war into the plot. She states that photos can be objective, but they can also be a form of artistic expression with various interpretations. As such a photograph “can be read in several ways (Sontag 2003).” Despite normative expectations, photos cannot portray the realities of war. This claim can be applied to movies as well (Lecture April 21, 2021). The portrayal of Thor in Endgame attempts to contextualize the feelings of loss and hopelessness that people felt after 9/11. Although, as Sontag establishes, perceptions and past experiences can be deterministic of an individual’s interpretation of a desired artistic message. A civilian and veteran will inevitably interpret the fallout of Thanos differently (Russo 2019). War, even superhero war, is not a story Hollywood can adequately represent. The only way to understand war is to fight in war (Sontag). 

While the narrative of Thanos—and therefore Bin Laden—has been concluded, Marvel is still grappling with post-9/11 cultural norms. Terrorism still persists. The news habitually reports on terrorism through a pro-war, uncritical and patriarchic frame that reinforces preexisting attitudes about the “other” and the justness of American military intervention (Lecture Feb. 3, 2021). However, as “wokeness” becomes increasingly popularized in Hollywood culture, Marvel is beginning to veer away from the post 9/11 revenge frame that was incorporated into the plot of Avengers: Endgame (Russo 2019). Rather, Marvel has seemingly adopted the “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” frame (Walzer). Marvel’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier attempts to show the audience the aftermath of the blip and the return of the vanished. Namely, they do so through the terrorist-freedom fighter organization, the Flag-Smashers. The new Captain America—Sam, formerly the Falcon—refuses to call the Flag-Smashers terrorists, despite politicians and the media dubbing the group a super soldier led terrorist organization. This is in contrast to previous post-9/11 narratives, which suggests a shift in public and entertainment media attitudes regarding alleged terrorist groups (Skogland 2021). While Marvel movies may not fulfill the criteria of a traditional war story, they nevertheless reflect cultural norms and can serve as an indicator of changes in post-9/11 attitudes, even more so than the news media. 

Ramzy, Austin. “China’s Oppression of Muslims in Xinjiang, Explained.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2021, http://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/world/asia/china-genocide-uighurs-explained.html.  

Russo, Anthony and Joe Russo, directors. Avengers: Endgame. Marvel, 2019.  

Russo, Anthony and Joe Russo, directors. Avengers: Infinity War. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, 2018.  

Russo, Anthony, et al., directors. Avengers. 2012.  

Skogland, Kari, director. Falcon and Winter Soldier. 2021.