It feels that the term “superhero movie” used to be a subgenre that could take on many forms. For example, Logan was a Western epic with super-powered characters at the core, but the tone was nothing like any of the other X-Men films of years past. Or the way Constantine gave us a dark horror-thriller with demons and monsters but kept the detective-slash-noir aesthetic and allowed it to bleed through. But, these days, it feels like nearly all of the caped cinema we’re getting fits into the same all-encompassing, mass-appealing mega-genre that has started to feel the same across every film- With the rare exception of movies like The Batman or Marvel’s recent Werewolf By Night, there’s been a frustrating lack of variety in the tones of modern comic book cinema. But back in 2011, Marvel was in the infancy of building out there now-dominating connected universe by way of introducing different characters in their films, before crossing over into one giant blockbuster event with Marvel’s Avengers.
With Iron Man already being two films in and Thor and the Hulk being introduced in their outings, it was time for Kevin Feige and the folks at Marvel Studios to rewind the clocks to 1942 and introduce audiences to one of the MCU’s most iconic heroes- in Captain America: The First Avenger.
If the Iron Man movies were a high-octane action romp, Thor was a Shakespearian ode to the Renaissance era, and The Incredible Hulk was… I don’t know, something? Marvel Studios wanted to tell the story of Captain America in an adventurous trip to the past where we can meet the man who unknowingly made it possible for the Avengers to come together nearly 70 years later. The film offers a full origin story for Steve Rogers as the character. Also, it brings in some history to help fill out the already-established MCU, giving the entire connected universe a sense of lore and detail that connects these films even further. But, by this time, Marvel’s confidence in the success of their projects led them to use this movie to dabble and experiment with the historical war epic genre- and in some ways, it works, and in other ways, it simply does not. But of course, the big question today is how this movie stacks up against the standards or lack thereof in today’s world of comic-riddled content. Let’s find out in today’s episode of Marvel Revisited.