Week 4

 Week Four Recap:

This week Caroline and I watched the last two films in phase three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers Endgame, and we watched the two television series in phase four Wanda Vision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. 

https://insidethemagic.net/2021/03/wandavision-monica-rambeau-al1mmb/

Overall throughout all the phases of the MCU representation of women as well as people of color has improved. In the series Wanda Vision, we see our first black female superhero, Monica Rambeau, outside of the black panther films and does not play into the stereotypical best friend trope. Falcon and Winter soldier did a great job with representation of people of color as well as addressing difficult themes. Overall this series had a strong social impact as Sam Wilson, a black man takes the role of being Captain America. It’s important to note that the previous Captain America was a white man with blonde hair and blue eyes. During the show, Sam struggles with taking the role of Captain America knowing the history of the shield and the history of the U.S. This show also does a good job of talking about the daily struggles people of color have to endure. Even though this series was great and is a big step for marvel it could have had more representation of women as not a single episode past the Bechdel test. 

https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Captain_America

Reflection:

While doing this project our group set three goals: to observe how the world at the time (cultural movements) affect the films, observe how the films affect the world around them, and observe the total change in representation throughout the arc of creation within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I believe that we were able to achieve all our goals throughout this four-week project.  Overall, I really enjoyed this project. It was fun getting to watch these films and television series through a different lens than just pure enjoyment as well as getting to apply some of the aspects I learned in my Honors African-American film class. I also enjoyed having discussions about these films with someone who shared different viewpoints than my own. After doing this project, I believe that I will take these new analysis skills in my everyday media intake. Having this non-traditional way of learning has been really helpful, and I would definitely recommend this project to someone else.