This is an old post that I had initially published on January 31, 2022, but ended up taking down. I was talking about this text recently to my girlfriend and thought I should dig it up again as I remembered thoroughly enjoying writing it. I hope you will have as much fun reading this as I had writing it.

Warning: the following blog post contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Hi everyone!

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a little while and I’m glad I am finally publishing it. It took me a while to write it, but it was a lot of fun!

I’m hoping to write more about pop culture this year and what better way to kick off this category than with a post about the Avengers movies, one of the highest-grossing film series of all time?

I’ve actually been fascinated by the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as a whole for a couple of years now. It seems to me that each movie, like most movies, is the collaboration of (at least) thousands of artists working together to bring a particular vision to life. It’s difficult to truly appreciate all the man-hours that went into producing a single movie (even when sitting through the credits…), but it seems to me that creating a shared universe like the MCU with all of its continuity and consistency is an exceptional artistic feat, especially when they are such a big part of our collective consciousness and shape the way we see the world to the degree that they do.

It was incredibly cool to watch the Avengers movies in theatres as they came out and to be a part of this cultural phenomenon. I was reminded of the long lines of people waiting to see the Star Wars movies in the 1970s…

Even rewatching some parts of certain iconic scenes on YouTube for this post gave me chills… Anyway, I’ve been profoundly inspired by this film series for a number of reasons, including the fact that I see several parallels between certain scenes from the Avengers and world mythology. This may not come as a huge surprise; both are stories that have values encoded in them, values on how we should live in the world and how we should figure out what to strive for ultimately.

The first parallel I’d like to talk about comes from Avengers: Infinity War, when Thanos is confronted by the Avengers on his homeworld, Titan. After a brief battle with the superheroes and a one-on-one fight with Iron Man, Thanos decides to use his infinity stones to bring down a moon – highlighting the magnitude of his power – on Iron Man, who quickly rushes to try and minimize the celestial body’s impact on the planet.

It seems to me undeniable that this act is reminiscent of Atlas, a Titan from Greek mythology, who was cursed by Zeus to hold up the heavens (commonly misconceived as being a terrestrial globe) after losing the Titanomachy, the war between the Titans and the Olympians. Many Titans were only confined to Tartarus as their punishment, but Atlas received the most severe punishment, given that he was the leader of the rebellion. Atlas is known as being the God of endurance and strength; he “carried the weight of the world on his shoulders,” perhaps the same can be said with Tony Stark…

The two other parallels I want to highlight are from Avengers: Endgame. The first one comes from Dr. Strange holding off a flood in the final battle, which is a consequence of Thanos’s ordering Corvus to rain fire. It seems to me that Strange was the only superhero that could genuinely handle the flood and keep the battlefield dry. As unfortunate as this was (many people claim Strange was “nerfed” in this movie because of the flood, meaning we did not get to see him at his full potential given that he was distracted), the underlying mythological motif here is intriguing.

The mythological flood, usually sent by deities to wipe out a civilization, is a symbol for the creation of a new world by way of cleansing humanity. This theme is an incredibly common one in world mythology, appearing in Greek mythology (caused by Zeus’s anger), Mesopotamian mythology (created by the council of gods), Aztec mythology (as a result of Chalchiuhtlicue crying for 52 years), Hindu mythology and, of course, the Abrahamic religions, in which God sent a flood to wipe out the sinners of the Earth. Given that Strange had seen 14 million futures and was responsible for guiding the Avengers towards the one where they win, it would seem that he was the one preventing the creation of Thanos’s new world…

The final parallel comes at the climax of the movie, when Tony Stark manages to use his suit’s nanomachines to steal the Infinity Stones from Thanos.

One does not need to look much further than Christianity to find a myth where a man sacrifices Himself to save the world. (Disclaimer: I not using the word “myth” in a derogatory sense; I am using it in a Petersonian sense, where the word means a form of knowledge presented in a narrative form. This word and this comparison are not meant to trivialise the story of Jesus Christ or insult His followers, both of which I have a great deal of respect for.)

It is well-known that Jesus’s sacrifice was a necessary one to save humanity. Likewise, Tony Stark had to make the ultimate sacrifice (“it was the only way”), choosing to prioritise the universe over his life, which included his role as a husband and father, both of which clearly meant a lot to him. Choosing to rise above his father’s insufficiencies that he had been reminded of moments before (“Let’s just say that the greater good has rarely outweighed my own self-interests.”), Tony managed to achieve a degree of transcendence that is rarely seen outside of mythology. It’s possible that this explains why Tony’s actions are constantly reflected in our most ancient stories… Perhaps this means that the Avengers movies constitute modern-day mythology!

Tony Stark managed to be an inspiration to both people inside the MCU and to real-life cinemagoers. Personally, I find even more inspiration from these stories when I realise that they all have profound parallels with each other and that truths embedded within the MCU movies resonate with some of our most enduring stories. It seems that those truths are even higher resolution when you find them emerging in some of the most powerful stories that we have at our disposal. I suppose this speaks to how deep the truths being depicted really are!

Jo

Updated on March 13th, 2022 to include time stamps for the YouTube hyperlinks and to correct a quote and minor inconsistencies.