AGDQ GRAND TOTAL
What a fantastic week of gaming and charity! Through 7 days, AGDQ 2022 raised a total of $3,416,729 for The Prevent Cancer Foundation, a record high. The generosity of viewers for an event that started so small (in the basement of one of the founder’s mother’s house ten years ago), to being a huge contributor to major causes around the world is such a gratifying thing to be a part of.
Games Done Quick returns this summer with SGDQ and I hope it eclipses the 3.5 million milestone for Doctors Without Borders. The world is a better place because of this event, no doubt about it.
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MARVEL FANDOM: WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER NOW
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (Marvel’s movies and television shows) has become so numerous and robust that it isn’t easy to keep up with what’s going on. Even I watch analysis videos about the Easter Eggs in each film and episode on Disney+, paying attention like a student at a college lecture. Yet, somehow this fandom happened to me, and I think most of America.
What’s interesting about fandom is that it takes devotion and study, something most adults would rather not give time for. “Watch Star Trek? All of it? I don’t have time.” Or, “Star Wars? How many movies are there? Oh, and then read the books for all the differences?” You’d rather take a course in World History (which might be less robust than the stories of those two franchises). And yet, all of us know the story of Iron Man and Captain America and the fight with Thanos.
So, what made us all aware of the MCU?
Like any central entertainment of its time (the Beatles in the 60s, disco in the 70s etc), it was the unifying force that people talked about and experienced with one another. We watched the MCU on the big screen over the course of a decade and fell in love. Marvel movies were the spotlight attraction, and we followed the story as it was built. Perhaps movies do something that other mediums cannot. Movies are a visceral experience, much faster and easier to consume, and accessible by just about every walk of life. Not only that, but the movies were damned interesting: some heroes were larger than life like the billionaire Tony Stark, some were about the small guy with a big heart trying to do the right thing…and also gains superpowers along the way (Captain America, Spider-Man). There was a story for everyone. The MCU was exciting, entertaining, and it put forth a storyline that was easy enough to follow:
A group of super-powered individuals must team up through their differences in order to defeat the all-powerful bad guy.
Anyone can follow that story. In fact, we all prefer that type of story. Sports teams, elections, religion, awards contests are all whittled down to “My favorite team has to somehow beat your team because we are the righteous ones.” We even narrate our daily lives with this narrative form, “Can you believe what my boss said to me today? I should turn around and tell that guy to…”
And let justice be served.
Superheroes are greater forms of all of us. They do what we cannot and we envy to be them. Like gods, they can impact the world at their will, doing mighty things. We want to be like them because, as we see it, we already are them…just without the powers.
All of this led to an inadvertent baptism into comic book fandom. Those that never thought they would care for the likes of Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, or even the obscure (until the James Gunn movies) Guardians of the Galaxy suddenly said sentences like, “See, just like Star Lord,” and, “I can do this all day,” catchphrases from the movies. And we followed this team of superpowered misfits come together and beat the baddest of all bad guys: Thanos.
Then, it was over. Our favorite characters leaving the silver screen, leaving the fight to whoever comes next.
What comes next?
Once the Infinity Saga ended and Thanos was defeated in Avengers: Endgame, I thought there would be a sudden decline with how devoted Marvel fans would remain. Suddenly, the story was not going to be as simple as “beating the bad guy.” Things were going to change and the path began twisting in ways that might have taken most by surprise.
In this current MCU multiverse, it’s hard to tell up from down. The Loki we followed and loved until his death in Avengers: Infinity War was killed, but another Loki, one from another universe, has taken over. I found myself asking: am I ok with that? Do I feel any differently about this Loki or the previous one?
Not only is there a Spider-Man, but there are multiple Spider-Men. In the next Doctor Strange, there are multiple Doctor Stranges—do I care about this? I honestly don’t know.
In the current MCU story, there isn’t a singular objective (at least not yet), and I had my doubts that moviegoers would stick to the Marvel formula if things got too weird.
Over the past two years, however, it turns out they are willing to stick it through. And for reasons that were unexpected.
For one, devotion to anything means an acceptance of whatever is presented. Fandom, especially devoted fandom, is near psychosis in many ways because of how much we are willing to ignore for the sake of the cause. Another way of putting it: love. We are in love with these heroes. We want our heroes to be heroic, even if we don’t understand them. Hell, they could even behave un-heroically, putting people in danger for selfish reasons so long as they are equipped with the superpowers we all dream we could have (ie Spider-Man: No Way Home when Tom Holland’s Peter Parker attempts to wipe the memory of his identity from EVERYONE in the world—a purely selfish and defensive decision made without any kind of deliberation about what it means to tamper with freewill or others’ rights).
Instead of a concrete story to follow, what Marvel has done is create a need to know the rest of the story, no matter what it is. We’re all vested, we all want to know what comes next. So, we’ll follow this until the end, most likely, because we’ve been doing so for over a decade (sort of a Gray’s Anatomy of the cinema, really). Watching a Marvel movie is beyond habit at this point, it’s Stockholm syndrome—we’ve fallen in love with our captors.
I don’t think many would forgive Marvel for something shoddy and poorly done. What helps propel Marvel along is that with every new movie and hero, each new story (no matter how bizarre or obtuse it is compared with the “good guy beats bad guy” formula) is something interesting and unique. In that, we’re willing to keep going along with the gag, to see where it all leads..
Because we trust that it will lead somewhere.
- A Chinese assassin whose mother belonged to an ancient civilization that housed a protector dragon, and whose father owned a set of celestial rings from across the universe? Cool, I’ll buy it.
- A group of precursor robots sent to monitor human development throughout the centuries so that the population grows vast enough to energize an egg birthing in the core of the earth? Ok, gotcha, never heard that one, I like it—what else have you got?
And on the story goes, but we are still willing to hear it. “Give me another, tell me more.”
I don’t think the world has experienced anything quite like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As the saga continues, and as we all delve deeper into the multiverse, we might reflect on a version of ourselves along the way, of what life would have been like without the MCU at the forefront of our entertainment. Somewhere out there, through the cracked glass into another dimension, there must exist such a place.
And what would a world be like without gods and heroes?
I honestly don’t care to know.
Whenever the MCU saga ends (because all things must), I think we’ll look back and think how remarkable it was that there was such a thing that kept audiences coming back to learn about the rest of the story. It reminds me of Homer and all those other great orators that kept audiences glued upon their every word. Who would have thought such a thing could unite, in whatever flavor, a world so easily divided.
I can’t wait to hear the rest of the story.
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- “Shotgun” by Anna of the North and Hver gang vi møtes
- “Ride or Die” by Hippo Campus
- “DANDELION” by ill peach
