Superheroes occupy a nearly-unique position in the history of human character creation. They are creatures of myth, but at the same time people with the concerns of human beings, even when they are themselves alien. This puts them in a position to not only be the subjects of myth, but to interact with and in some cases control the creation of the mythology which surrounds them.
In this series I set out to analyze the different ways heroes participate in the creation of their own mythology. I've decided to begin with the largest single continuity ever attempted in film, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the time leading up to the release of The Avengers: Infinity War I'm going to watch or rewatch the eighteen existing MCU films in order to look at them specifically from this perspective. Today I'm looking at one of my favorite films in the series, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
Although it's the tenth film in the continuity, Guardians was the first to have a personal impact for me. Growing up, comics was my mom's thing, and she was a heavy partisan of DC, and particularly Superman. So where a lot of my fellow nerds have substantial attachments to the Marvel comics, I really didn't have an opportunity to make that connection. Most of my relationship with Marvel has been through the media properties, and that was pretty casual until recently. Before Guardians I had seen the first two Iron Man movies and the first Avengers, and while I loved Banner's plot in The Avengers I wasn't all that excited about anything else. One of my few strong opinions about the Marvel comics was an intense dislike for Thor, and I hadn't bothered with Captain America either in comics or movies.
But Guardians was different. This style was something new and exciting. It wasn't quite a superhero movie, and it wasn't quite a space move. It was something in between, and I found that something compelling. In large part that was due to its relationship to music, something that I adore in non-speculative movies, but which hadn't really made its way into the realm of superheroes and science fiction. (We are not counting Battlestar Galactica.) And of course, how can you not love Groot?
Peter Quill isn't a superhero, but he desperately wants to be a myth. He seems to have left Earth before superheroes were really a thing, and has modeled his self-image on America's great outlaws instead. But he can't get anyone else's perception of him to match. He's putting effort into the myth of Star-Lord, but getting nowhere. People are either confused by it or derisive.
Yet at the key moment, it's Quill's myth-making talents that make all the difference. His "we're all losers" speech weaves together the narrative threads of the five characters who will become the Guardians, creating a self-perception within each of them that they truly belong as part of this team, even though they believe that it is only for a short period before their inevitable deaths at the hands of Ronan. Quill's ability to convince them of his narrative is the core of his leadership.
And because this is a movie, Quill gets immediate payback on a personal level when they board Ronan's ship and Ronan's henchman Korath reacts to him not as some pathetic, annoying human but as Star-Lord, a threat worth taking seriously. Despite the precarious situation for all life in the universe, despite all else that has happened in the movie, this is the moment when Peter is most delighted. The myth that he has always wanted has finally become real.
Would Peter Quill, orphan, vagabond, and outlaw, have had the courage to seize the Infinity Stone when it was demanded of him? I don't know. What I do know is that Star-Lord had that courage, and Star-Lord discovered that he was, in fact, a superhero after all.
Previous entries in this series:
Part 1: Iron Man (2008)
Part 2: The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Part 3: Iron Man 2 (2010)
Part 4: Thor (2011)
Part 5: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Part 6: The Avengers (2012)
Part 7: Iron Man 3 (2013)
Part 8: Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Part 9: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
All images in this post are from Guardians of the Galaxy, copyright 2014 Marvel, used in this post under Fair Use: Criticism. Provided courtesy of Movie-Screencaps.com