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Avengers After 10 Years — The Legacy of the Movie that Codified the MCU
The first Avengers movie seemed like one that was doomed to fail. Instead, it’s the start of the most ambitious serial cinema storytelling endeavor of all time.
Some years ago, when I was revisiting the Marvel Studios films in advance of Avengers: Endgame, I wrote about how 2012’s Avengers defied all of my expectations. On the 10th anniversary of this film’s release, the mythos around this film has changed (mostly because of behind-the-scenes revelations) but its impact remains the same. This was the movie that proved beyond all shadow of a doubt that the newly minted Marvel Studios was able to bring to the big screen the formula that worked so long for them in the comics. No, I’m not talking about telling stories about superhumans that bring them down-to-Earth with relatable problems but rather making the large world of Marvel heroes feel real and lived in. Even more so, it showed that the studio could successfully sell this shared universe idea to audiences without sacrificing big box office returns. If the cameos at the end Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk were the proof-of-concept, Avengers was the prototype for the modern MCU.
