In recent years, Marvel Studios has paid much more attention to the mummy issues in the Marvel Cinematic UniverseIntroduced some evil, morally gray and problematic mothers. One of the best things about the heroes of the MCU is that they are as close to real people as they can be. They often have relatable backstories, believable motivations and raw, human emotions. The exploration of these themes often makes family an important concept, with many heroes’ family histories being detailed, which has allowed a wide variety of parents to debut in the MCU.
Unfortunately, the relationships between superheroes and their parents in the MCU are not always strong, and some parents are even introduced as wildly dark mirrors to their heroic children. While the focus of the Infinity Saga was evil ancestors in the MCU, It’s the mothers who have taken center stage lately, contributing to a rise in mommy issues in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga. There have been exceptions to this rule, but it’s time to address the issues with parenting in the MCU.
The MCU has been obsessed with evil fathers
Marvel’s Infinity Saga included the likes of Thanos, Ego, Hank Pym & Odin
Although it is the mothers of the MCU who have recently shown their darker sides, Marvel Studios initially debuted a whole lot of evil and morally-questionable fathers. This has been a pattern that has persisted since 2008 Iron Man First teased the estranged and troubled relationship between Tony Stark and his father, SHIELD founder Howard Stark. Phase 1 was pretty terrible for focusing on fathers and father-figures, with the likes of Stark, General Ross, Odin and even Thanos making their mark on the MCUand establishing a status quo of difficult relationships between fathers and their kids.
Hank Pym abandoned Hope van Dyne after her mother’s apparent death and favored Darren Cross, leading to the development of the Yellowjacket. Ego hoped to turn his son, Peter Quill, into a battery that powers his expansion plans. Odin always favored Thor over Loki, which ultimately contributed to Loki’s scheming and machinations in an effort to thwart his brother’s happiness. All of the Infinity Saga fathers have very low points, however Thanos took the triumph when he turned his adopted children into living weapons, and even sacrificed them on his quest for the Infinity Stones.
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The multiverse saga hasn’t exactly been much better, but aside from Xu Wenwu, more focus has recently been placed on the idea of ​​surrogates and father-figures. This includes Wilson Fisk’s Kingpin, General Draykov, Alexei Shostakov’s Red Guardian and the High Evolutionary, all of whom posed significant problems to their surrogate childrenEcho, Black Widow, Yelena Belova and Rocket, respectively. There were some exceptions to this rule; Clint Barton, Yusuf Khan, Scott Lang, Thor and Vision have all been wonderful fathers in the MCU, but unfortunately there have been fewer commendable mothers.
Now, mommies are the big issue in the MCU
Several troubled mothers have taken center stage in recent years
Except for the occasional appearance of the likes of Frigga, Maggie, Meredith Quill, Ramonda, and Aunt May, mothers and mother-figures never really got much attention in the Infinity Saga. However, this took a massive turn with the dawn of the multiverse saga in 2021, as mothers, especially those with dark pasts and evil intentions, were introduced to the MCU in spades. Melina Vostokoff, Janet Van Dyne, Maria Rambeau, Wendy Spector and Eleanor Bishop all had key roles in shaping their children into the powerful superheroes they became.For better or worse.
Recently, Marvel Studios has been paying more attention to the Witch Mothers of the MCU. striking, Wanda Maximoff’s Scarlet Witch waged war against Doctor Strange and America Chavez across the multiverse in the hopes of reuniting with her children.. in 2024 Agatha all along series, Agatha Harkness’ story with her seemingly-dead son, Nicholas Scratch, and her long-dead mother, Evanora Harkness, is explored. The latter proved to be a wonderful, supportive mother by declaring that Agatha was “Born Evil” And she should have “Killed [her] The moment [she] links [her] body.”
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Long before the start of the multiverse saga, in Netflix’s Defenders saga, which was recently confirmed to be canon to the MCU, evil mothers were a consistent theme. Mariah Dillard, Alisa Jones and Dorothy Walker are all huge problems for the heroes of the Defenders sagaBut even then there were exceptions to the rule. Although there have been a number of good mothers introduced to the MCU, it seems that Marvel Studios has recently either taken two routes with the MCU’s mothers: kill them off or make them evil.
Marvel either kills mothers or makes them all evil (with few exceptions)
There were exceptions to Marvel Studios’ evil mother pattern
Fortunately, not all mothers and mother figures in the MCU have taken evil turns. The likes of Muneeba Khan, Laura Barton, Frigga, Maria Rambeau, Ying Li, Sarah Wilson and all of Echo’s ancestors have all demonstrated redeemable and positive qualities. However, this is not always the case in the MCU, as the majority of mothers and maternal figures are turned evil or simply killed off. This is a real problem in the MCU, especially since most of the good mothers have been severely under-served by Marvel Studios.
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It was great to see more female representation in the MCU after so many years of women being neglected by Marvel Studios. In the multiverse saga, there have been more female-led MCU projects than ever before, and there may be even more on the way. even so, The representation is somewhat tainted by the fact that many of the women are not heroes. It seems that Marvel Studios still has huge issues to address when it comes to women, specifically mothers, in the Marvel Cinematic UniverseBut, hopefully, that will change soon.