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Tony Stark got in just under the wire.
Indeed, we now live in the world that the MCU made.
That all raises a question: if the MCU made contemporary Hollywood, what made the MCU?
Theres no single answer, and most of them have been worn threadbare by analysts.
There was the momentum created by pre-MCU superhero pictures over the preceding ten years, starting with 1998sBlade.
There was the creative and business genius of Feige, who is envied but never replicated.
We wouldnt have had the MCU without the crazy flow that preceded the devastating ebb.
He was quickly hired and put in an executive position.
For Marvel Studios solo endeavors, they were stuck with B- and C-listers in terms of name recognition.
Nevertheless, Merrill took the gamble.
A few months later, the global economy collapsed.
Had Marvel dallied by a few years, the Merrill injection would never have come.
As it was, when the crash hit, they already had their money secured.
Then, something curious happened: people kept going to the movies.
The crash made studiosmore risk-averse, and they were hungry for reliable tentpole flicks.
Marvel was perfect for this new post-collapse film landscape.
No wonder Disney snatched Marvel up in 2009.
And throughout its existence, the MCU has provided ludicrous escapism of the highest order.
Outside the cineplex, of course, nothing is going right.
This is a matter of dire concern for Hollywood.
The movies that do manage to drag people outside tend to be ones that feel likeevents.
That obsession is near-universal.
But more important, it transcends socio-political boundaries.
This is perhaps the most important connection between the crash and the conquests of merry Marvel marching society.
Next year, posters for the fourth Avengers movie will adorn walls in red states and blue ones.
This is, when you step back to think about it, astounding.
Every political faction can makeThanos jokes.
The films are 99 percent about good guys staving off an improbable apocalypse in a world of whimsy.
it’s possible for you to check your faction at the door.
The MCU is, in the words of our second-worst president, a uniter, not a divider.
But is that such a good thing?
Theres a case to be made that the age of escapism should end.
Perhaps we need cinematic agitation.
In the world the crash made, a wind is blowing against our Tony Starks.
Can the repulsor beam win out against the guillotine?
