TheMarvel Cinematic Universehas an interesting relationship with genre. Its entries are typically listed as “superhero movies,” but that category encompasses a lot of different stories and styles. Westerns are set in the West, war movies take place during wars, and superhero movies are about superheroes. Outside of their subject matter, they can tell any story they want. So, do the superhero movies of the MCU qualify as hard science fiction or are they just regular action movies full of sci-fi tropes? Whereas generic comic book movies likeMorbiusandBlack Adamare virtually indistinguishable from one another, MCU movies strive to have a genre identity of their own.
That’s not to say that there aren’t any MCU movies that feel like cookie-cutter comic book films, but even its most mediocre entries make an attempt to carve their own genre niche.Thor: The Dark Worldis a medieval fantasy movie;Captain America: The First Avengeris a pulpy World War II movie;Ant-Man and the Waspis a zany Elmore Leonard-esque crime caper.The BatmanandDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessare both “superhero movies,” butone is a slow-burning detective noirand the other is a cosmic horror dark fantasy epic. Just like not every western is an action movie, not every superhero film is a sci-fi movie.
RELATED:1982: The Summer Of Sci-Fi
What Is The Simplest Meaning of Sci-Fi?
TheCambridge Dictionarydefinition of science fiction describes it as “a type of writing about imagined developments in science and their effect on life.” Most entries in the MCU seem to fit this description of science fiction. FromTony Stark’s constantly evolving armorto T’Challa’s energy-absorbing suit of vibranium to Hank Pym’s experiments in human shrinking, almost every Marvel movie revolves around a technological breakthrough. But most of the “imagined developments in science” seen in the MCU give their heroes powers without driving the story. The only “effect on life” that these scientific developments have is giving the people one more superhero to look up to.
The implications of these speculative technologies are occasionally explored in the MCU, but rarely in any depth.Ant-Mansupposes that if human shrinking was perfected, some smarmy corporate suit would want to use it for nefarious purposes, but it’s more interested in sight gags and action sequences than ethical conundrums. It feels more fitting to describeAnt-Manas a heist comedy that happens to include human shrinking as opposed to a sci-fi movie that happens to include a comical heist. Technology often drivesthe action of Marvel films, but it doesn’t drive the story like it does in true sci-fi films likeEx MachinaandThe Terminator.
The heroes of the MCU might be powered by imaginary tech, but the stories are usually driven by some mystical MacGuffin like the Infinity Stones or the Ten Rings or the gates of Eternity. These are made-up artifacts with made-up properties; they’re a cheap, easy way to advance the plot and raise the stakes of the conflict. In this sense, Marvel movies aren’t real science fiction stories. They exhibit sci-fi tropes like alien invaders and interstellar travel, but the inherent themes of these plot devices aren’t the focus.
What the dictionary definition misses from the fabric of science fiction is its capacity for commentary. The truest science fiction stories use speculative narratives to explore thought-provoking questions about science and humanity. The originalStar Trekseries used its interplanetary adventures to tackle contemporary social issues.2001: A Space Odysseywonders what the next stage of human evolution might look like, and how humanity even made it this far to begin with.Blade Runneruses sympathetic android charactersto ponder the ethics of artificial intelligence, and begs even larger questions of self-identity.
A couple of Marvel movies suit this definition of science fiction.Thor: Ragnarokuses its cosmic setting of Sakaar for a veiled critique of the whitewashing of colonial history, as the Grandmaster forbids his underlings from using the word “slave” to refer to the “prisoners with jobs.”Black Pantheruses the speculative concept of Wakanda to examine institutionalized prejudice through the conflicting ideologies of T’Challa, who wants to use Wakanda’s resources to help his people, andhis challenger Killmonger, who wants to use the nation’s resources to exact revenge on oppressive forces across the world. But these are just a few exceptions. The majority of Marvel films are less metaphorical with their themes (if there are deeper themes at all).
Are Marvel Movies Sci-Fi?
The short answer to the question of whether Marvel movies classify as science fiction is: yes and no. It’s important to understand the distinction between “science fiction” and “science fantasy.” Science fantasy takes the familiar intergalactic settings and high-stakes plot devices of science fiction into bizarre, outlandish pastures with a healthy dose of magic.Star Warstechnically isn’t science fiction; its stories have more in common with westerns, samurai films, and fairy tales than traditional sci-fi. The focus is on the spectacle of futuristic technology like lightsabers and lightspeed travel and Imperial Star Destroyers, rather than the mechanics of it, or its moral implications.
In the firstThormovie, Jane Foster paraphrases Arthur C. Clarke, a respected futurist and one of the greatest science fiction writers who ever lived: “Magic’s just science we don’t understand yet.” Clarke’s actual third law is slightly different: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Thor’s hammer andShang-Chi’s magical ringsand Steve Rogers’ bouncy, indestructible shield are no more impressive than the human inventions of electricity and the airplane.Doctor Strangeis the story of a man of science opening his mind to the possibility of realities outside the laws of physics; it’s about a surgeon who becomes a sorcerer. In traditional terms, this could be seen as an anti-sci-fi story. It makes scientific innovation look redundant in the face of dimension-bending sorcery.
Every Marvel movie has elements of science fiction and some of them lean heavily into those elements –Age of Ultronis aFrankensteinstory about the Avengers creating their own worst enemy – but it’s more accurate to describe MCU movies as fantastical action films than hard sci-fi. Storylines like a purple alien collecting six enchanted stones to reshape the universe orthree Spider-Men teaming upto cure their various supervillains of their evil tendencies are just scattershot hodgepodges of comic book make-believe. Characters like Shuri and Tony Stark and Bruce Banner make scientific innovations to enhance the spectacle of a given movie’s final battle, not to explore complicated themes about technology and the future of humanity.
