The Marvel Cinematic Universe Is Gradually Opening Itself to Asia

In pop culture, a superhero is usually an everyman turned into a powerful being by accident or other unforeseen circumstances. Thus, the oft-stressed moral of many American comic books (and comic book-based movies) is that we are all heroes, and that it is our character and our choices that make us heroes: After all, superhuman powers as such are something the villains of these stories possess as well. And yet, for all this everyman narrative, the American comic superheroes of earlier decades usually represented the dominant group in society: White men. In the world of Marvel’s paper comics, this started to change many years ago; however, the same transformation is finally occurring in Marvel’s cinematic universe (MCU), albeit gradually.

It must be admitted that the movies of today have it much easier than the art of the past, including comic books, which had to cut through the ice of prevailing social norms by introducing women or people of color as lead heroes before they were welcomed by society. To give one instance from outside the realm of films: in the book, “A Wizard of Earthsea” published in 1967, American author Ursula K. Le Guin deliberately made the protagonist dark-skinned. As she later admitted, that sociopolitical declaration was not easily digested by many of her White readers; she even discovered that some of the early book covers white-washed her hero without her knowledge. Thus, what MCU is doing now is far from revolutionary: It is just the gradual adaption of the diversity that it had slowly worked into its comic books over decades.

In my opinion, a real change in the narrative occurs when a character other than a White American man is given a main scene, including their perspective, identity, and background. Simply adding a woman or person of color to the team, standing in the back row and absent substance, is not meaningful enough. Thus, for instance, the sole fact that an African American hero (James Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine) appeared in MCU’s very first film, “Iron Man” (2008), is not a paragon of real diversity. Neither is the instance of another African American, Nick Fury, who despite playing a significant role in more than one movie plotline (as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.) to this day has not become a lead in any of them.

War Machine is to get his own time on the center stage in an upcoming, but yet not scheduled, Disney Plus TV series tilted “Armor Wars.” Nick Fury, in turn, is to be awarded such an opportunity in the forthcoming “Secret Invasion,” after he was already given more prime screen time in “Captain Marvel” (2019) which for the first time made a woman the central character of an MCU story. Moreover, the finale of the 2021 Marvel miniseries, WandaVision, announced that the pantheon of future heroes will be joined by an African American woman, a superhuman by the nickname Photon. They will be joined by the two young women of color helming the “Ironheart” and “Ms. Marvel” TV shows, both showcasing popular comic book figures that have yet to be introduced in the MCU.

The most significant change came 10 years into the MCU, with “Black Panther” hitting screens in 2018. This time, the lead hero was an African character – and not even African American, but the prince (and soon the king) of a fictional super-advanced African state. The film contained references to various African cultures (not any one in particular) and made passing remarks about how Western countries used to exploit the continent and how they still treat its inhabitants with contempt. The movie opened to tremendous applause. It still ranks as one of the MCU’s highest-grossing films ever, standing on the podium with “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame.”

To be sure, the movie was not itself a debate on racism, and it would be unfair to expect it to be one, given that a vast majority of action movies, including those by Marvel, are escapist fantasies. And yet the MCU took the issue even further with a short series, “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (2021), where, perhaps for the first time ever in Marvel’s universe, society is portrayed the way it really is. Racism is no longer confined to a passing reference: We finally hear the voices of African Americans, as we are walked through a case of Black soldiers being treated horribly in comparison to their White counterparts and are reminded of the U.S. police routinely treating African American citizens with more suspicion then Whites. Most poignantly, as the series is all about finding a successor to Captain America, one of the two protagonists, the African American Sam Wilson a.k.a. Falcon, admits that he was reluctant to take on the vacated position, knowing that some people would never accept a Black Captain America. This was a kind of apprehension Marvel comic books had been facing for decades finally being spoken directly.

Having finally made steps into diversity by introducing women and people of color as lead heroes over the past few years, the MCU is gradually starting to include Asian characters in the mix, too. Until this year, not only were none of Marvel’s main heroes Asian but none of the franchise’s superheroes, including the second-tier ones, belonged to any Asian community at all. Asians in the MCU were confined to being sidekicks and colleagues, such as Doctor Strange’s aide Wong or Peter Parker’s best friend, Ned. On this front, the change came in 2021, with the airing of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”

In a certain way, the film may be treated as a Chinese Black Panther: It makes an Asian character the lead hero, fills the story with references to his culture, and does not shy away from the question of his identity. Admittedly, making a superhero/kung fu movie is also a way for the MCU to reach out to new audiences. It is well known how much the Chinese market matters to American moviemakers. The film even makes one of the characters criticize the East Asian custom of adopting Western names (although this is done to make the life of foreigners easier) as, he argues, the original, traditional name reveals one’s nature and connects him to his ancestors. It is not for me to judge if other cultural references are accurate (this, at any rate, is not the objective of MCU works anyway). It is, however, clear that such cultural notes serve more than just as mere decorations to the storyline. The lead hero makes a journey from being Shaun to being Shangi-Chi and it is the endorsing of his twisted roots that gives him power to achieve victory. In other words, the hero’s true character is finally expressed in Chinese characters.

It looks like Marvel’s next step will be to introduce a South Asian hero. “The Eternals,” a movie that is set to premiere in November 2021, has Pakistan-born U.S. comedian Kumail Nanjiani in the cast, as well as South Korean star Dong-seok Ma. But given that they are to play the roles of ancient supernatural beings, I would assume that their characters will not reflect any real ethnic identities (Dong-seok Ma is to play a person named Gilgamesh). And thus it looks like we’ll have to wait longer for the real South Asian accents to be seen in the currently under-production TV series “Ms. Marvel,” which is the story of a Pakistani-origin American girl Kamala Khan (who, of course, gains superhuman powers by accident). In the comic books, Khan was also confronted by questions of her identity and belonging, growing up in America with conservative Pakistani parents – this should offer the scriptwriters plenty to work with.

What the MCU needs now, in my view, is to go further down the path paved by “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and pursue real depth. The hero’s identity should not just be a method to refresh a franchise; the protagonist’s roots should not just be a way to introduce a villain. They should rather open a window to look at real social issues. Marvel’s comic books often dealt with the issue of intolerance, especially through the stories of mutants (such as the X-Men). Who are they if not people whom society never trusted and whom the governments sought to control and even persecute because of their different biological constitution? While the X-Men are yet to appear in the MCU, as Marvel had to first regain the property rights to them, their stories in essence represent a capital of social sensitivity that the studio can easily tap into, even with different characters. The next opportunity to do this is “Ms. Marvel” – and so we are waiting for Kamala to take center stage.