Feature - The Marvel Cinematic Universe

I am burdened with glorious purpose.

I've enjoyed the idea of a shared fictional universe ever since I encountered one during my college studies. Defined in the Urban Dictionary as 'a fictional universe in which multiple individual works are set', it was a concept first introduced to me through the novels of Thomas Hardy. Really. Reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles, I noticed mention of a 'weather prophet' named Fall, who had featured significantly in the plot of The Mayor of Casterbridge. Hang on, I thought, these aren't simply a bunch of stand-alone tales here. The characters in these books all exist in the same version of County Dorset, aka 'Hardy's Wessex'. They have their own stories for sure, but they could conceivably meet each other. And then they could have a good old chat about how miserable and doomed by fate all their lives are. I didn't actually think it in those words, but it definitely occurred to me, and the idea was a very satisfying one.

Hardy wasn't alone in doing it either. Over in America's Deep South William Faulkner was cross-referencing subtly in all his works from The Sound and the Fury to Intruder in the Dust. Agatha Christie dabbled in it a bit, creating the tantalising notion that Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple might by chance have ended up swapping crime-solving anecdotes over afternoon tea. Terry Pratchett wrote largely within his Discworld (over forty novels' worth), with protagonists from one story showing up as bit-players in another. And Stephen King has got on board with the whole idea as his career progressed, so that  - for example - a time-traveller in his Kennedy assassination sci-fi thriller 11/22/63 falls into conversation with some of the kids from IT. 

Because crafting individual stories that tie together is more than simply a fun idea (and as ideas go it is huge fun). It builds up the suspension of disbelief, reinforcing a sense of reality into which readers or viewers can totally immerse themselves. The glimpse of a character in one film who's played a major role in another has the power to make an audience gasp with the thrill of recognition. (M Night Shyamalan's most recent movie Split provides a prime example of this.)

The Marvel Studio has achieved the creation of a shared universe with unprecedented success, at least in filmic terms. Some critics rue the preponderance of comic-book movies currently in production - but when they're made with such a life-affirming sense of fun and excitement as this Marvel crop, I personally can't complain. I watched the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies piecemeal for a while, enjoying them individually, but missing out on all the connections. Finally I succumbed fully to their brash charm and watched the movies in sequence, so that I could relish every character crossover and thematic connection.

Ten years have passed since Robert Downey Jnr's Tony Stark first donned that iconic military-grade armour in Iron Man. To the casual viewer it was a one-off superhero movie, albeit with sequel potential. But stick to the end of the credits and there was Samuel L Jackson as the eye-patched Nick Fury, inviting Stark to join him in something called 'the Avengers Initiative'. That moment set the course for succeeding MCU films - mid-and-end-credit Easter egg moments, linking each story into something broader, while rewarding cinema-going credits junkies for their patience. The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America were all given their own standalone movies, while an Iron Man sequel built up Nick Fury's Shield organisation. This in turn drew together the superhero threads into a huge cinematic gamble...

2012's The Avengers (UK title Avengers Assemble so as not to confuse with John Steed and his various catsuited female associates) banded together a total of six major characters, like Marvel comics had first done in 1963, as a team of global defenders. It might have been an incoherent mess - all action and effects, with some team members hogging the camera while others got sidelined. But no - it was a thrilling, funny, occasionally rather affecting carnival ride, in which every key character got his or her shining moment. And it proved to be a launching pad for something even bigger.

The really big players like Thor, Captain America and Iron Man went off to have their own further adventures, making new friends and occasionally reconnecting as Team Avenger. Simultaneously the MCU became populated with new heroes like Ant Man and Doctor Strange, while being extended to truly galactic dimension via Guardians of the Galaxy. Even Spider-Man joined the cast once Marvel had successfully negotiated the film rights with Sony. The Avengers themselves suffered a major falling-out (Captain America: Civil War), while a vivid new roster of heroes was introduced from the African state of Wakanda (Black Panther). 

Some of these films (Guardians in particular) stand apart to be enjoyed purely in their own terms, aside from some sly nods here and there to Marvel comic aficionados. Others contain more obvious connective elements with the other movies. Thus in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Parker has Tony Stark as a kind of mentor, while his nemesis, Michael Keaton, salvages alien technology dating back to the Avengers' first adventure. It can be a touch confusing for casual viewers, but if you're up to speed with the shared universe as a whole, such aspects add a whole other layer of enjoyment (as does each film's inevitable cameo from Marvel Comics' one-time supremo Stan Lee).

Now 2018 brings the MCU's biggest challenge to date (and one of the biggest challenges in the history of cinematic storytelling). In Avengers: Infinity War, to be released later this month, virtually the entire cast of Marvel characters will be - well - assembled, to face down a certain Thanos, the most powerful villain in Marvel Comic history. Even the Guardians will be there, since said super-villain featured significantly in their first movie, and it seems that Black Panther's Wakanda will serve as a major location. It's a gargantuan undertaking, trying to marshal upwards of forty characters into something that isn't, let's be blunt, as messy as a dropped trifle. But you have to admire the ambition.

Other studios are attempting the same kind of shared universe project will lesser success. The DC Comic movies, for example, have tended to cram in too many new characters all at once; their Justice League struggles to prevent character exposition from clogging up the plot. And last year's The Mummy was widely thought to be more concerned with setting up Universal Studio's 'dark universe' than with telling a good story in its own right. MCU played a long-game, however. We're ten years into its gradual, patient world-building, new over-arching plots having being teased, while smaller individual tales were told. It's a remarkable success story, one that continues to delight fans.

Unlike Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has characters from individual stories who do meet and meaningfully interact. They bicker, they banter, they combine forces - taking on opponents too daunting to be tackled alone. Avengers: Infinity War will take this to a whole other scale in a project so huge it borders on folly.

The prospect scares me - and I can't wait.