Marvel Saga

Now that a new Infinity War trailer has dropped and we've all had time to watch it a thousand times, I want to make a commentary on the journey taken with these films. The Marvel Cinematic Universe films have been an unprecedented endeavor and success in so many ways, but the one I really want to focus on is the long form storytelling. They have basically told an epic saga usually only seen in books and serialized television shows, only they've done it in bite sized, self-contained films. The entire films series (disregarding TV shows) follows a giant 3 act structure.

For those of you unaware, a 3 act structure is a story telling formula heavily favored by Hollywood and many other creators. If you don't know what it is, I guarantee you've seen it without knowing it. Here's how it goes.


Act 1: Introduces the characters and the main conflict.
Act 2: Escalates and develops the conflict, and most often, act 2 will end with the characters at their lowest point.
Act 3: The protagonists recover for the climax and resolution.

This is a tried and true way to tell a story b/c it resonates with audiences so easily. It's certainly not the only way to tell a story, but it is arguably the most popular.

Taken together, one can see that the Marvel films form a giant 3 act story.

Act 1:
Iron Man
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer
Thor
One Shot: The Consultant
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers

Act 2:
One Shot: Agent Carter
One Shot: Item 47
Iron Man 3
One Shot: All Hail the King
Thor: The Dark World
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Ant-Man
Captain America: Civil War

Act 3:
Black Panther
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Doctor Strange
Thor: Ragnarok
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Avengers: Infinity War
Captain Marvel (placement pending)
Avengers 4

Act 1: There Was an Idea

We have 5 films and 2 shorts that introduce and develop the main heroes. If you've ever watched an ensemble film about people who don't know each other, it follows a similar structure. The characters start out separate with their own issues and stories, and eventually they are pulled into the main conflict together. Sometimes there's a shared connection that provides the introduction and in this case its Nick Fury and SHIELD. In a way, the organization acts as the Mentor to the Avengers, who, as a single unit, serve as a defacto protagonist.

In the 6th film, The Avengers, the series' conflict rears its head in the struggle for the first Infinity Stone which sets the course for the rest of the series. The heroes finally meet and the main conflict presents itself to the audience.

"I don't think you understand what you've started, letting the Avengers loose on this world." - World Security Council

Act 2: A Group of Remarkable People

The second act of the series has kind of a weird start. First we have a two prologues in the short films Agent Carter and Item 47. It may seem like they are one offs that can be ignored, but they're actually very critical because Act 2 relies heavily on the importance of SHIELD. Agent Carter shows the nobility of the organizations origins, while Item 47 introduces the idea of loose alien technology floating around that would be a plot point later. Iron Man 3 and All Hail the King are also an odd fit for the start of Act 2. Since the writers thought it might be RDJ's last film, they wrote in such a way to be a conclusion for the character's arc, when in truth he had much more to do. Out of all the Act 2 films, Iron Man 3 had the least to do with everything else that was going on, though it does establish a few things like Tony's PTSD and a very subtle beginning to the Iron Legion and Ultron. That said, there are some very nice foreshadowing remarks, such Stark's "We all create our own demons," line.

The story escalation of Act 2 really kicks off with Thor: The Dark World when we see the fallout of the Infinity Stones emerging. The Avengers don't really know it yet, but this is when they begin the larger struggle against Thanos after their victory in New York as Thor tries to wrest control of the Reality Stone. As this go on, we learn more about Thanos and exactly what he's after through the Guardians of the Galaxy. But before the Avengers can even be made aware of what the full stakes are, they suffer their first major setback. SHIELD falls. Remember earlier I had called the SHIELD the Mentor, the force that tells the characters their potential, facilitates their coming together, and pushes the characters to be heroes. But like all great mentor characters, SHIELD "dies" before the climax, leaving the Avengers to fend for themselves. This is the first echo of "creating our own demons" as SHIELD is brought down by its own decision to compromise with its own values.

"The world is a dangerous place, and yes, we helped make it that way.
But we're also the ones best qualified to defend it." - Natasha Romanoff

The Death of the Mentor is often used as the Act 2 finale to knock the protagonists down, but not in this case. If you look at the 3 Act chart above, the fall of SHIELD is the "big twist" that happens in the middle. It doesn't bring the heroes down, but it does facilitate a series of events that distracts them from the struggle against the Infinity Stones and leads to their downfall. First Stark tries to supplement their strength with Ultron, which backfires horribly. This turns the public against them in the Sokovia Accords, and with no SHIELD to go to bat for them, the team turns against each other and break up like The Beatles. At this point, they are at their weakest and must recover if they're to have a hope of defeating Thanos.

Again, the team still doesn't know what's coming. Thor starts to suspect when all the Infinity Stones start popping up, but the team overall doesn't really know what's behind it all, and it's that ignorance coupled with their own inner demons that breaks them down.

"If you can make God bleed, then people will cease to believe in him." - Ivan Vanko

Act 3:To Fight the Battles We Never Could

Most of the first half of Act 3 is about the recovery after the fall of the Avengers. What's interesting is that most of the main cast at this point step into the background. Iron Man is trying to hold together and manage what little he has left while his one-time allies in Black Panther and Spider-Man return to their respective lives as they adjust to the new universe, as the Avengers once had to do. Meanwhile, most of Cap's team is underground which we see through Ant-Man and Wasp trying to adjust to life as fugitives.

In the meantime, we see what Thor and Hulk were doing during the Civil War as they try to fix the mistakes they've made in their own lives. And it will all come to a head in Infinity War and Avengers 4 when the team finally faces their hidden adversary and must overcome not only him as a foe, but their own failings.

"They'll come back. 'Cause we'll need them to." -Nick Fury

What's Left?

Despite some minor stumbling here and there, Marvel has done a wonderful job of creating an epic saga about the rise of The Avengers. That said, we're not at the end of it yet and there's still some last hurdles they need to clear to tell a complete story.

Captain Marvel: It's been revealed that Captain Marvel will also break the timeline flow by taking place in the 90's before superheroes were really a thing, and how Nick Fury reacts to his first one. It's possible that it will follow a similar structure to The First Avenger in that the main story will be a flashback sequence with present day scenes book-ending the piece. Regardless of what happens, there's 2 pieces of backstory I'll be looking for here. 1) Nick Fury needs to lose his eye. It's been a lingering question for movie fans for a long time and the only hint we've gotten is a line in Winter Soldier. "The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." As a flashback story, this seems like the natural spot for that revelation, though it could also happen in the Black Widow film. 2) Fury needs to get the idea for the Avengers. The team was always his brainchild, despite objections from his superiors and colleagues, so meeting his first superhero would be a good spot for him to get that thought. I realize I'm making it sound like Marvel's first female superhero film needs to be devoted to a man, but these are just subplot check boxes that I think it needs to cover. They have whole film to cover what they need to with Danvers.

Black Widow: Marvel had 2 perfect opportunities to insert a Black Widow film into its lineup, one after Winter Soldier and one after Civil War, but missed both of them. Good news they've finally corrected their mistake and have begun development on a solo film. And with GOTG Vol.2, Black Panther, and Ant-Man and the Wasp finally breaking the precedent that Release Order = Chronological Order, they can go back and fill the gaps. The most pressing questions for Black Widow are who was she before she became a SHIELD agent and how did she come to join? I hope her film follows a Godfather II format, in that there is a present day and flashback story. I think telling of her time on the run following the events of Civil War would be a good A story while telling of her life as a Russian assassain would make for a good B story. Also, Hawkeye would definitely have to be there to tell how they became friends.

The Future

As most of us are aware, Avengers 4 will not be the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spider-Man 2, GOTG Vol. 3, Doctor Strange 2, and Black Panther 2 are all in development, along with the mentioned Black Widow film. In a way, Avengers 4 has to walk a delicate balance. It has to be conclusive enough to serve as finale for the journey taken so far, but open enough to pass the torch to the next batch of heroes and let the franchise move on from there.

I also expect we'll see some more splintering of the universe, as we're seeing with Sony making their own Spider-verse despite sharing Spider-Man himself. I wouldn't be surprised we saw an expanded space story with the Guardians, Captain Marvel, and others. Some version of the Avengers will probably still do theirthing on Earth. And of course there's still Civil War II to look forward to.

Regardless of how things play out, my hope is that the selection of films from Iron Man to Avengers 4 will be regarded as the "Classic Trilogy" of sorts when all the films were part of one epic story.