I’m very excited as I wait to head in to the first daytime showing of Avengers Endgame at my local cinema!
It’s easy to be cynical about the Marvel movies, but to build up a 22-movie shared universe and story arc, mostly well-made and entertaining, is an unprecedented achievement.
By now everyone is trying to do cinematic universes, crossovers and mashups. But before Iron Man most superhero films were hermetically sealed off from each other by per-character licensing. It’s hard to remember just how exciting the tease of an Avengers team up was at the time.
Marvel took their time to establish a solid foundation with their core characters, before teaming them up. Now we have Avengers plus Guardians plus dozens of other characters – almost unimaginable 10 years ago that this could be mainstream, not just for a niche comics fandom.
The MCU’s success probably wouldn’t have been possible without online fandom – the industry of online hype and discussion, the Easter egg explainers and speculation. Fan service used to be feared as alienating casual audiences; now it’s integral to the hype cycle.
Avengers Endgame is the pinnacle of geek culture going mainstream. We’re all geeks now. And as someone who has been a geek all along, I couldn’t be happier.