Hey, Wisecrack, Jared here.
It’s no secret that daddy issues are to
the Marvel Cinematic Universe what HPV is
to a college campus: Everybody’s got it.
Indeed, paternal drama pops up constantly
in these films, from Odin putting Thor in
time out on Earth, to Black Panther traveling
to the ancestral plane to yell at his dad,
to Peter Quill confronting his celestial egomaniac
of a father.
What’s more, many of the characters are
fathers themselves, from Ant-Man to Hawkeye,
and of course, big daddy Thanos.
But father conflicts are perhaps most present
and poignant when it comes to Tony Stark.
Not only is he a literal father in Endgame,
but he is always struggling with his relationship
with his own father, and acting as a surrogate
father to Peter Parker, as seen in Avengers:
Infinity War and Spiderman: Homecoming.
The nuances of Marvel fatherhood have been
covered in videos by The Take and Justwrite,
so definitely check those out.
But we think Marvel’s take on fatherhood
is undergoing a possible shift, and that this
change occurred somewhere between Endgame
and Spiderman Far From Home.
Depictions of fatherhood are starting to get
a little more complicated, and we think it
all has something to do with the idea of “projection”
- like literal projectors and also emotional
projection.
So welcome to this Wisecrack Edition on Fatherhood
in the MCU post-Endgame.
And of course, spoilers ahead for Endgame
and Far
from Home.
Alright guys lets do a quick recap of Far
From Home, which sees Peter Parker Eurotripping
and hoping to give that spidey-suit a break
so he can just be a normal teen.
This plan is derailed when very large, very
ugly monsters start popping off all over Venice.
Peter tries to fight them and runs into Mysterio,
who seems like a nice-enough dude.
Then the Skrull-version of Nick Fury tracks
Peter down to say that Tony left behind a
pair of uber high-tech glasses that need to
be gifted to the next leader of the Avengers.
Peter’s like “not it,” and goes back
to awkward-flirting with MJ.
Then, he realizes the “right” answer:
Give the glasses to his newest friend, Mysterio.
Only turns out Mysterio is actually a disgruntled
former employee of Tony’s who made up a
fake sob story about his dead family and invented
a projection system that he uses to make everybody
THINK the world is under attack when really
it’s just being blown to pieces by drone
technology.
Peter stops him, reclaims the glasses and
gets with MJ, so that’s nice.
So how does Spiderman Far from Home perpetuate
and evolve the theme of fatherhood?
There are a few dynamics worth mentioning.
Most literally, 1) Peter is missing his father
figure, and 2) Mysterio lies about being a
father who lost his children.
Then, less literally 3) The Avengers are without
a leader, and people are looking to place
the responsibility on Spiderman's shoulders
and 4) Mysterio is trying to fill society’s
paternal void that Tony left behind.
To understand this last point more, we’re
going to have to dip into some Sigmund Freud,
because, sorry, the dude is still relevant.
In his book Civilization and Its Discontents,
Freud meditates on, among other things, the
origin of religious feelings, which he credits
entirely to our childhood longing for a father
figure.
The way he sees it, childhood is a state of
inherent helplessness in which we are at the
mercy of adults who parade us around in ridiculous
onesies.
Freud identifies helplessness, along with
the resulting “longing for the father”
and his protection, as the source of all religious
feelings.
He even wrote, “I cannot think of any need
in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s
protection” which means he obviously never
tried pizza bagels.
As a result, he notes that we pretty much
CAN’T imagine God other than “in the figure
of an enormously exalted father,” complete
with  a white beard and a scowl because you
didn’t clean your room.
Ok so God = Dad.
But according to Freud, there’s more to
a father’s role in your psyche, and it has
to do with his theory of the developing mind.
For Freud, human brains develop like this:
First you are pure Id, or the base desires
to eat, scream and poop.
Then, as you realize that there are objects
outside of you, like your teddy bear, your
spork or your mom’s visa card,  you start
to develop an ego, or the organizational part
of your brain that does stuff like reason,
plan and decide to opt out of parkour.
But there’s one thing left that still has
to develop: Your superego.
The superego is, according to Freud, the part
of our brain that “retains the character
of the father” that is, it’s the part
of us that internalizes our dad’s voice.
We do this because when we’re tiny, our
father seems all knowing and generally badass.
Of course, eventually we grow up and realize
that our dads make mistakes too and sometimes
randomly send their rabbi hate mail, or is
that just me?
Anyway, we’ll often turn to religion as
we seek to replace our flesh and blood father
with a sort of cosmic father that still retains
all the dope qualities of our real dad.
Besides God, we can also project our superego
onto any group of people or individual leader…
whether of the state, of a political party,
or of a superhero team.
Which brings us back to Marvel.
Now, we see Thanos taking it upon himself
to fulfill the role Freud describes as paternal
in Infinity War and Endgame.
Dude’s followers are literally called the
“children of Thanos,” -- and Ebony Maw
actually says that EVERYONE is his child,
even in death.
"For even in death, you have become children
of Thanos."
What’s more, we see him take a break from
conquering a planet in order to adopt Gomorrah
as a surrogate daughter.
But most starkly, Thanos takes up the mantle
of celestial father when he makes a decision
on behalf of the whole effing universe: that
half of life should be destroyed because he
knows best.
“If life is left uncheck life will cease
to exist, it needs correction.”
“You don’t know that!”
“I’m the only one who knows that.”
Here, we see Thanos choosing to fulfill the
father role, or the superego, for a universe
he genuinely thinks needs him.
Through Thanos, the series shows us a majorly
flawed but powerful paternal/God figure.
What’s more, it furthers a theme omnipresent
in the series: sons paying for the sins of
their fathers.
Many Marvel heroes are essentially sons of
villains or, at least, coping with their fathers’
failures.
T’Challa has to deal with the fallout of
his father’s mistakes.
Star Lord has to stop his dad from taking
over the universe.
Iron Man has to grow up to be better than
his dad, and Thor has to confront his dad’s
seedy history of conquest.
Thanos is the logical conclusion to this motif:
He’s destroying half of humanity and leaving
his "children" behind to pick up the pieces.
Then there’s Tony Stark, who, as we previously
noted, had an interesting father/son relationships
with both his own father and surrogate son,
Peter Parker, and indeed, with the entire
Avengers, of whom he was largely considered
to be the leader.
Tony actually acts as a sort of shadow to
Thanos.
In Civil War, he seeks to grant the government
power over the Avengers through the Sokovia
Accords.
In Endgame, he regrets not “building a suit
of armor around the world” to save everyone
from Thanos.
"What we needed was a suit of armor around
the world.
Remember that?"
Eventually, he even sacrifices himself for
all of humanity, a move that’s pretty damn
protective.
All of these acts imply that he knows what’s
best for humanity, though he does it in a
way that is far more benevolent than the overbearing,
destruction-happy father figure that is Thanos.
Tony’s paternalism is even made literal
in Endgame when he actually has a daughter.
But now, Tony is dead and phase 3 of the franchise
has ended.
Are we seeing a subsequent shift in the way
the theme of fatherhood manifests?
Tony’s death leaves the Avengers, and the
world at large, reeling, without a father
figure to unite them.
Unquestionably, there seems to be a real need
for this father figure - evidenced by everyone’s
clear desire to see Tony replaced, and fast.
People start by harassing Spiderman who, as
Tony’s mentee and not obviously a 16-year-old,
seems like the logical replacement.
The central plotline of this film - what to
do with those damn glasses, is really about
finding the next father-figure for the Avengers.
Without a father figure to look to, Peter
seems lost and directionless.
Hence his relief at discovering Mysterio,
with whom he immediately forms a close connection.
He and Mysterio develop a sort of father/son
relationship, broing out at bars and fighting
fake elementals together.
Mysterio even offers Peter advice.
"You're not a jerk for wanting a normal life."
This relationship is unmistakably parental,
and consistent with Peter’s enduring urge
to be protected by a father figure.
If it seems like Mysterio is starting to replace
Tony as Peter’s metaphorical dad, things
are about to get a lot more literal: Indeed,
because of his trust in and genuine affection
for Mysterio, Peter decides that he should
be the new head of the Avengers, and thereby
assume both roles Tony left unfulfilled.
But Peter quickly realizes that he made an
oopsie because Mysterio turns out to be a
grade-A scumbag who is actually manipulating
high-tech projections to make people think
that they’re under attack, while simultaneously
blowing their cities to smithereens via an
army of drones.
Fittingly, part of his elaborate scheme includes
telling a lie about being a father, and losing
his entire family to these elementals  on
a different version of Earth.
"The strongest of them all, the one that destroyed
my earth.
It's the one that took my family."
His heroism, like the supposed perfection
of your father, is literally an illusion.
Peter is appropriately bummed.
"You lied to me.
And I trusted you."
That doesn’t mean that Mysterio was acting
out of some random destructive urge, or the
desire to own a cool pair of specs.
He’s more interesting than that.
We get some insight into what’s going on
beneath that fishbowl when Mysterio tries
to kill Peter.
"I created Mysterio to give the world someone
to believe in."
Basically, Mysterio recognizes that Tony functioned
as a kind of superego for the world.
With Tony gone, he sees a way to fill that
void, specifically by creating a make-believe
threat and then defeating said threat through
elaborate green smoke throwing.
He made those crazy-ass projections because
he wanted to give the people someone to project
their fears and hopes and beliefs onto.
He wanted... to be their daddy.
Sorry.
Couldn’t resist.
So, is Mysterio right?
Does the world need a superego to look up
to?
Or is the film saying that this kind of figure
is largely illusory to begin with?
Indeed, illusion and deception is one of the
primary themes of the film, from Happy pretending
not to date Aunt May, to MJ pretending that
she’s only interested in Peter because she
thinks he’s Spiderman.
Even Peter is not immune to illusions, donning
a fake Spiderman suit so that his classmates
don’t figure him out.
Then, obviously, there’s Mysterio who trafficks
in illusions, inventing his half-baked superhero
status from scratch.
Oh, and also all the literal illusions.
This overarching theme, and particularly the
way it interacts with fatherhood, makes us
think that there may be a shift in the way
the MCU will approach fatherhood as it enters
phase 4.
Because perhaps, there’s one more illusion
to consider: Tony Stark’s legacy.
Indeed, Tony has never been more heroic than
in death, as first exemplified in this dramatically
corny Powerpoint presentation.
But the film complicates this notion when
it reveals that all of the “bad guys”
are former employees who found Tony evil,
incompetent, or condescending.
"To the man who brought us all together, our
former boss TOnry Stark.
The jester king, literally wrapped in wealth
and technology that he was obviously unfit
to weild."
There are other issues with Tony’s legacy,
from the villains he made out of Vulture and
Ultron to his legacy as an arms dealer to
him siding with the government in Civil War.
Perhaps Happy puts it best Nobody could live
up to Tony, not even Tony.”
emphasizing the extent to which the myth is
often greater than the man.
On top of that, by having Peter’s new “father
figure” turn out to be a big old fake, Marvel
calls into question a central premise of the
film.
It asks if what the world really needs is
a new Tony Stark, particularly if the real
Tony had his fair share of flaws.
So what’s the world’s highest-grossing
franchise to do?
Marvel could repeat the similar themes and
tropes of previous films, or it could pivot
towards an entirely new disposition towards
father figures.
In one important scene near the end of the
film, we see signs that the franchise could
go either way.
Peter is gearing up for his final battle with
Mysterio when Happy gives him that look, the
subtext being of “Wow, he’s reminding
me of Tony.”
So, is Peter going to be just like Tony?
Is he going to inherit the same complexities
of father/son relationships we’ve seen thus
far in the MCU?
Or is this an indication of progress, that
he, as well as the rest of the Marvel canon,
will move past the myth of the father as our
collective superego?
One quick note - And it wouldn’t be Wisecrack
if we didn’t get a little meta so indulge
us - We think it’s worth mentioning that
there’s actually another layer to this drama,
specifically having to do with the recently
resolved fight Sony and Marvel had over the
IP rights to Spiderman.
With the threat of Sony permanently stealing
Spiderman from the Avengers, fans felt betrayed,
almost like they were losing their superhero
leader, and they didn’t know how to orient
themselves to that version of reality.
Sound familiar?
On some level, Spiderman’s own crisis was
also just lived out amongst his loyal fans.
So as you can see, there’s potentially a
lot going on when Peter dons those glasses,
and it poses some major questions about the
future of the franchise.
So what do you guys think: Will Peter rise
and become the teen dad that the Avengers
so badly want?
Or will Marvel evolve past its depiction of
paternal figures as the ultimate protectors?
Let us know what you think in the comments.
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Thanks to all our patrons.
And as always, thanks for watching guys.
Peace
