Liberal Containment in Marvel Movies of the Trump Era

Abstract

Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films provide a recognition of the prevailing crises of our time along with a clear sense of good and evil and that good will prevail, the fantasy that someone will come along to bring us back to the imagined certainty of the liberal status quo. The polarization of our time is reflected within Marvel movies as they (conditionally) critique colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, and greed, only to individualize their (re)solutions. Black Panther (2018) and Captain Marvel (2019) are the focus of this case study due to their appeal beyond even MCU fans and their focus on two forms of oppression that are often represented as dominant structures of our time: white supremacy and patriarchy. The MCU films foreground challenges to dominance in order to neutralize those critiques; the films narrativize liberal triumph by appropriating its opposition. The adaptation of liberalism in the MCU is to make its own critiques visible and then contain them—a double move that accounts for the immense cultural purchase of these films.