Marvel is so Clever

(I promise there are no “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” spoilers.)

I went to see the new Captain America movie with my parents this evening. After spending about 7 hours in the car this afternoon sitting in a crowded movie theater was probably not the best choice for my back but Captain America was clearly the best choice for my soul. On my way out of the theater I stopped off at the bathroom. Women’s restrooms always have lines. I don’t know why they just do. I stood in line behind a girl who was already on her phone. I recognized her from the theater I had just been sitting in. 

“It was kind of dumb and I didn’t really get the whole thing,” she said into her phone. She then continued to bash on the film we had just seen. I did not think it was dumb. I was very confused because I thought it was a wonderful movie. I tried my very best not to roll my eyes or let the Thor Hammer (like I can spell anything from Norse mythology) I keep on my bag hit things while I listened to her (the hammer makes it harder for people to steal my purse… if you aren’t laughing you should be). I did not want to throw any judging stares her way because I do not like to berate people for not knowing every little detail about comic books. 

It is hard to know everything about comic books and where things are coming from. I cannot walk into a comic book store and pick up a Captain America comic so easily as you might think. Instead I go in and I get kind of lost. Worst of all is a lot of the time people won’t help me. I get the difficulty to just engage with the comics.

I also get it that there is A LOT to know about the comics and it is difficult to know and keep all of that strait. Walking into the theater I was explaining a bit of the comic book lore to my parents then turned to the ticket attendant, smiled, and asked “what sort of things do you think I would know if I did not know all of this useless information?” He did not answer. The point is that I do not know a lot about comics but I do know some and I had to really engage with the information to get to this stage of knowledge. 

Here’s the thing. I did not need to do any of that in order to understand and enjoy the current Avengers film universe because Marvel is so DAMN clever! The great thing about current Marvel movies is that I do not NEED to know anything about the comics before entering the theater but knowing all of that stuff makes the movie so much better. They make the movies into an entry point rather than something you have to already know something about going into the film.

I love it. I think its brilliant.

On an semi related note I think the new Captain America movie should have been titled “Black Widow: Captain America Throws his Mighty Shield.” Contrary opinions on this matter will automatically be considered wrong.