MCU: 10 Real World Issues Addressed In Marvel Films
Politics? In my Marvel movies?! It's more likely than you think.
The old adage is coming out in full force with the premiere of Marvel's new hero, Captain Marvel: "I don't want politics in my superhero films." However, the assumption that Marvel doesn't frequently address timely and relevant real world issues, is a misguided one, since that's more or less what the MCU has been doing since Iron Man came out.
If characters aren't created as a reaction to the current political landscape, then they're remade to fit it, as with Captain America's shift from Nazi-puncher in World War 2 to Nazi-puncher dealing with America's post-Bush era security state (because, depressingly, those Nazis never quite went away), or Iron Man going from Cold War capitalist superhero to Bush-Era capitalist superhero.
The reason Iron Man took off in a way most other comic book films didn't, was that it was a film that presented a hero that felt like he could genuinely be living in the world we were, and still are. And the MCU has carried that tradition in every film made, whether it's as prominently seen as in Civil War or Black Panther, or as subtle as in Thor: Ragnarok...
10. Captain America The First Avenger: Disenfranchisement
Despite being your average war-era Nazi punch-em-up, Captain America's origin story does a great job outlining what actually made Steve Rogers special: his humanity as a disabled, poor young man was never lost even when he became heroically huge.
The Nazism was a pretty obvious story point, but it was never quite as focused on as Steve Rogers's story about a disabled kid who was banned from fighting in the war, and his unrelenting determination to do what he could - not for glory or the need to battle, but to simply help others.
There's also the effective narrative of Peggy Carter, who, in a time of great sexism, which is expanded in her spinoff TV series, is able to save the world more than a few times in the years that follow.
The idea that these people, who were traditionally seen as weak and lesser, were the ones who could truly save the world, was one that this film impressed upon. Especially given that the ones wielding and preaching the value of strength and power were, in fact, the bad guys.