Over the last 20 years or so, Marvel's "Silver era" comic books have been recreated as films. With each iteration, the movies have gotten farther and farther away from the spirit of Marvel-- and have gotten worse. What made Marvel the comic book for "cool people" in the 1960s was that they broke all the rules-- adult situations, cross-panel action, full-page scenes, surrealistic art work. Those innovations were pioneered by artists and writers such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko (not, in large part, by Stan Lee, whom everyone now thinks is synonymous with Marvel). Yet, the films are anything but innovative. They are mostly standard Hollywood action adventure films, glorified by excessive CGI and trivial one-liner jokes (e.g., Dr. Strange's jokey cape). Where's the surrealistic innovation, the challenge to dominant social beliefs, the challengingly adult content? Missing. The latest film, _Avengers Endgame_, is by far the worst. The very idea that Death itself ("Thanos" translates as "death") would look like an over-muscled professional wrestler is laughable. But then, that provides an opportunity for Our Heroes to fight him, to engage in an apocalyptic battle scene to "defeat" Death. Death, rather, when it comes, steals quietly in the night, invades by stealth, steals away life. Death is sad and depressing and unavoidable. I suppose, to teenagers (perhaps the principal intended audience) it might be reassuring to believe that Death can be defeated merely by knowing the right fighting technique, but it ain't so. The spirit of Marvel-- shockingly disruptive and disturbing-- is what's dead.
