Me, of all people!

It’s highly embarrassing to be a peace-loving, non-violent, Quaker AND also a viewer of the violent, action-packed, Marvel cinematic universe. The Avengers! Captain America! Captain Marvel! Iron Man! OMG! WHAT has happened to me?  Will my Quaker community disavow me?

The pandemic hit. Like many people, I went into strict quarantine. My TV died a long time ago and I was fine with that - commercials, commercials, commercials. However, I felt the need for a bit more streaming variety beyond Amazon Prime. The new Disney+ channel had a great deal for a year and I bought it - hook, line, and sinker. (Honest admission: I really wanted to watch the 1950s Disney serial “Spin and Marty,” part of the Mickey Mouse Club. I had such a crush on Marty…) 

However, Disney+ is also the repository of the full Marvel cinematic universe. And, let’s face it, I LOVE superhero scenes of flying, supernatural strength, etc. - MAGIC.  Who couldn’t use some magic during the damn pandemic? (I still dream of flying, but that originally comes from my love of Peter Pan.)

Juicy pandemic rationalizations aside, and returning to outing myself as an Avengers! viewer, I’m incredibly queasy around fighting and violence. It just seems so gratuitous, so unnecessary - so, well, violent!   I mean, does a movie character need to be knifed in the stomach to make a movie worth viewing? (Judging by how many times I’ve seen this happen in Marvel movies, the answer would appear to be yes.) Non-violent Quaker, whatever, I just don’t get it and keep my eyes shut during those scenes.

However, unlike the comic book superheroes with whom I grew up, (Superman! Batman!), all the Marvel characters are fallible, conflicted, humor-endowed, and struggling with their humanity. Aha! That’s it. (You can see I’m redeeming myself as a Quaker by mentioning humanity.) Yes, I love the magic in these movies. However, it’s the characters’ very human struggles and humor that bring me back to revisiting particular sections of these films. Granted, I can’t fly (except in my dreams), but many facets of the Avengers are also part of my struggle as a human being.

So, I will continue to SPEED up the streaming through Marvel fight scenes (some of which seem to take forever.) However, I truly hope that viewers who tune in for the action and violence are also moved by the realistic depictions of superheroes struggling with finding the light (and humor) in their own humanity.  Cape or no cape, we’re all struggling with our humanity…