The many worlds of Captain Marvel?

Captain Marvel (2019)

The ancient Greeks believed in re-births. They used to think that before birth, the memory of the yet-to-be-born infant is erased clean. All old thoughts of their last birth are wiped out, like a white sheet of cloth. After birth, the young mind observes, learns and re-'minds' itself of 'new' things. In a way, nothing is new but are old tricks, packaged to be re-programmed. 

This is what that went through my mind as Carol Danvers struggle to find herself. With so many recurring thoughts, dreams and nightmares tormenting her all the time, the search for self-discovery proved to be a Herculean task. It is made worse with the multitude of contradictory inputs that are channelled through her senses. For Carol Danvers to come to terms that she is indeed Captain Marvel, it must be pretty confusing. For ardent followers of Marvel comics, they must surely be knowing that before this, many other characters have been trying to claim their stakes on being the real Captain Marvel. As we recalled in another post, Shazam!  used to Captain Marvel at one stage but he had to relinquish his title after a legal tussle. Danvers was once Ms Marvel, and another Captain Marvel was there who died. Even Yon-Ragg was the Captain in one edition of the comic!

Most of the newly churned movies, be it superheroes' movies or any other regular ones, there is a concerted effort to subtly change the fabric of society. If members of Gen-X and Babyboomer generations were used to have blockbuster movies with white male actors taking lead roles in them, now they have to familiarise themselves with members of the minority class and the previously unempowered to lead. Of late, many box-office films have a lead female cast; male characters are portrayed as redundant, shallow and can be disposed of. Not all viewers are receptive to this deliberate shoving of current agendas down their throats by the big establishments. 

Nevertheless, the radical social reforms by the Trotskyite are being recognised at the grassroots level. There is massive pushback. Recently it was shown that @RottenTomatoes was 'mass nuking' audience reviews of the abysmally rated 'Captain Marvel' in order to juice its audience rating. It apparently nuked up 47,000 reviews over the weekend to bump the score by 6%. 

Capt. America & Capt. Marvel

Maybe it was portraying Captain Marvel a big no-no with comic fans. As it is, of late, members of the 'subaltern' sect of the community have been represented as superheroes (Wonder Woman and Black Panther). Do we need another? And to have Gwen Stefani's 'I'm just a girl' playing in the music score to drive home the point?

I also could not help but entertain the thought that Captain Marvel's fatigue has an uncanny resemblance to that of Captain America. It is no brainer to guess the choice of colour as this Hollywood blockbuster stream rolls through to the four corners of the world. Perhaps, now that Thanos had virtually crippled the Avengers team and put the Universe in limbo in his quest for the Infinity Stones, the Marvel Comic Universe has to respond. Guess who will save the day in the 'Endgame'?

Only the hardcore would understand!

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Which is your superpower?

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

The first thing that I noticed was that there were too many superheroes and I had a difficult time trying to identify them. Some of them even look somewhat similar to my eyes. To me, one who is a slow learner of this genre, Captain America and Star-Lord has the same face-cut. Black Widow and Scarlett Witch look almost alike. Even Bruce Banner without his Hulk outfit and Iron Man seem to share a similar exoskeleton. Anyway, one gets the gist of the story as the story, which could have easily been plucked out of the Indian mythology.

Thanos, the protagonist, who wants to destroy half of the world's population to put things right. To do this, he needs to have in his possession some precious stones which are implanted in some superheroes. Just as seen in Hindu mythologies when an Asura is given a boon and he terrorises, all the Devas have to join forces to set order in the Cosmos, here the Avenger and the Guardian of the Galaxy teams put their resources together. Spoiler alert, Thanos wins in the end with many of the superheroes falling apart like powder. It sets nicely the platform for a sequel and something for the diehard fans to talk about until the next instalment is out. Dr Strange, the mystic and the seer, prophesied that this ending is the best (but for what?) It just gets more interesting.
Why are we so fascinated with superpowers? Perhaps, it is because we, as human beings, feel so vulnerable against the forces of Nature that we yearn for extraordinary abilities.

Thanos at the closing scene, setting the
stage for the possible outcome of his
unlimited powers.

Just the other day, I read of an ad-hoc study on people's preference for a superpower, if ever in their wildest dream were given a boon for invincibility. People gave many options but by far, most chose the ability to fly or the gift of invisibility. Researchers postulated that there was a clear distinction between people who chose either strength. Flyers tend to be extroverts and people who like to flash their ability. Men tend to opt for flying. Invisibility is preferred by the introverts, the social misfits and perhaps conniving individuals.

In that study, none of the people researched said that they chose their powers to save mankind, but to ease it for subversive activities like stealing, cheating and dodging buying tickets. Maybe mankind is innately evil.

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World politics is not so easy!

Black Panther (2017)

Congregations of all religions all over the world pray for peace on Earth. The preachers sell the idea that we are all of a single tribe and we should all live in harmony and pray 'Kum ba yah'. In reality, life is far from that.

Just like rain can be a boon to one set of society while it is abhorred by the other, doing good cannot be taken as a singular act. Sometimes, a leader has to make the unpopular step which he knows that it would benefit the nation in the end. Again, it is no easy task. Nobody has the crystal ball to show them the way. Sometimes the leaders have to bow to the pressures of the lobbyist who put them there in the first place. And least of all, a 'good' person who wants to do the best for everyone would fail miserably. 

'Black Panther' is a full-length feature film of a black superhero and a king of a fictitious country in Africa named Wakanda. Long ago, a mysterious meteorite containing vibranium which had unique qualities hits this part of the world. Vibranium is useful to generate power, technology, Captain America's shield and even gives superhuman attributes when ingested with a particular herb. The secret of vibranium is guarded closely against the rest of the world. Mayhem ensues when foreigners put it up for sale in the black market, assisted by double-crossers within the clan.

T'Challa, the heir to the throne, the protagonist returns to claim his due. The life decisions that he has to make forms the basis of this somewhat different Marvel superhero film.

©variety.com

Along the story, I could not help but ask myself why with so much technology in Wakanda did the ordinary people live like Masai tribe people with bare belongings and simple lifestyles. Even though skyscrapers were visible, magnetic levitation trains speed through the countryside and Star War-like spacecraft swish through effortlessly through the country's airspace, the general public do not seem to exude modernity.

It may appear altruistic to share all your nation's wealth with the rest of the world. It may only be the right thing to treat everybody as part of the human race, to treat each other as brothers and sisters, in reality, it is really a wild world. Again and again, we have seen that it is human nature, maybe it is the selfish gene within us, that we want to possess everything. We always want to ensure we are not caught stranded hungry and cold. We want to be prepared.

For example, look at the USA. Even though it has the most significant stockpile of petroleum, it is more keen to create pandemonium in the rest of the world for others to sell their oil cheap!

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Son of God vs. Bat of Gotham

Batman vs. Superman (2016)
Dawn of Justice

Gone are the days when superhero stories used to spur that feel good feeling, that warm feeling that assures us that the truth will protect us, that the good would always prevail over evil. That doing good is the only thing to do; that there cannot be any other way of doing things; that good would not hurt anybody. These days, however, we have come to realise that things in life are so straight forward, not so black or white, that they are not so cut and dry. Everything comes in shades of grey. We sometimes have to appear to be unkind to be kind in the end. Doing something seemingly good may turn out detrimental to another's intention. One man's meat may be another's poison. It may not pacify him to hear that the unfavourable action is actually for his good and that he should see the 'bigger picture'.

Part of this film delves with what is doing good and whether a good deed does indeed bring only a good outcome. Superman, who is seen here as a God-like creature who descends from the sky with his thunderous might to help humankind, does hurt innocent bystanders as collateral damage in his fight against evil. Just because his actions are perceived as done with purest of intentions, the pain is, nevertheless, hurtful. The rage, the feeling of powerlessness turns good men into monsters. Which lives count and which do not?

With this background, the story shows the gargantuan clash between Superman (who seem to portray God-like qualities, a two-dimensional view of life) and Batman (who represents the human cognitive faculty which tend to rationalise things rather than expect something wholesome). In between this clash, or rather in an instigating manner is the epitome of evil, the devil persona, Lex Luthor.

The media is the means of creating mass hysteria and fanning herd mentality to sway people here and there. People soon realise that they are not the centre of the universe and doing good is not a unilateral thing. It has repercussions. Criminals are like weeds, pull one, and it grows another. People hate what they do not understand, and they cherry pick what they like to hear. Everything believes that they are here for a reason, but some die before achieving anything. Others reach senescence without knowing they have completed.

In the modern world, God is said to be dead and the people through their mental faculties have killed Him. In this Godless world, Man is left to his own devices to fend for himself. With the constant lure of the evil forces that thwart him from his quest of taking the race to a higher level of civilisation, he can prevail. History has shown again and again that his race is a resilient one. Catastrophes after maladies have erased many more well-footed species on Planet earth, but he has survived it all.

Love will keep us together?

Wonder Woman (2017)

With dialogues like 'everyone has to fight his own wars', one can be forgiven to think that it is a feminist movie, highlighting the female species' struggle and the minorities. Furthermore, the male characters are most laughable and imperfect in every conceivable way. Men are needed only for procreation, not for emotional support, says one of the dialogues. Hey, were not women the objects of reproduction only in archaic societies?

Maybe the storyteller is trying to tell us in her own way (the director is a lady) how much the world has changed since the first World War. And a real paradise appears in the form of an all-Women mythical land of Amazon where women are sorceresses and men are non-existent.

Wonder Women's story starts with Princess Diana growing up in a guarded environment, forbidden to indulge with physical fighting. The society, the Land of Amazon, is reeling to build its defences after a war with the God of War himself, Ares. Ares had disappeared and is rumoured to return anytime. Diana, being the offspring of Zeus himself could not be restrained.

One day, an Allied spy infiltrates their 'force-protected' cocoon as he was ambushed by the German Navy. Thinking that it is Ares' dirty work, Diana leaves her paradise to defeat Ares. In her mind, she believes that peace can be attained by just beating the War God, that is all. Slowly she realises that life is not so straight forward.

Peace on Earth is not a simple matter. There is no one single hero and the other being the villain. It is not the question of one perpetrator and one victim. Sometimes one wonders whether mankind is inherently evil? They seem to be their own enemy. They orchestrate their own downfall. It is not the Gods that let catastrophe befall upon them, but it is their own doings.

Yes, people harm their kind and want to exert power over his neighbours, all the things forbidden by belief systems of the world. Every once in a while, despite all the nihilism that surrounds us, we do see a glimmer of hope. On the one hand, we fight, but on the contrary, we feel that Man has that one redeeming feature. We can love, they say.

The problem is 'love' that is shown is only directed towards their own kin, race, nationhood and of the same religions. Love stops short at the sight of someone who does not share our values or simply appear different. Without love extending to all of Nature's creations, animals, plants, landscape and all, peace on Earth will only remain a pipe dream.