Marvel’s confounding technological evolution is the one thing that places the MCU apart from the limitations of reality. It is what makes the world of monsters and superheroes a believable one within the context of fiction and cinema. And adding in such sweet little miracles like nanotech and Vibranium just makes the multiversal plane all the more enjoyable. However, just as it has its pros that spell wonder for the masses, the cons of such technological upgrades are as equally troubling for some in the fandom.
The Pros and Cons of Marvel’s Tech Evolution
The base world of the multiverse aka Earth-616 is modeled on and hence exists as the closest representation of our world. As such, when Stan Lee began to compose his work and claimed: “Excelsior!” in high ecstasy, he envisioned a world where greatness would be the natural order of the day. So it simply was inevitable that with the shifts and developments and progress of the world outside, the one trapped within the comic book pages would excel in leaps and bounds as well. And one of the factors that did so was Marvel’s technological inventions and discoveries.
To enjoy the tales of high adventure and epic battles that occur within the MCU, one needs to understand the place it was born from – necessity. With threats getting bigger by the day and monsters getting more bloodthirsty and cruel, the heroes staying the same would not work out in the long run. A subpar fight where the underdog beats the overpowered villain in the story doesn’t work every time.
As such, the inclusion of everyday objects with just a little bit of upgradation, for instance, the Quinjet which can travel between worlds, or Vibranium (the strongest metal on Earth), and nanotechnology which allows our superheroes to save their neck by saving time while suiting up are not luxuries but necessities. But the best part about all of it is that these objects were not simply spun out of thin air but modeled on stuff that already exists (just a fraction out of our reach). Marvel simply leaped ahead and made them possible in real-time.
There are no cons.
YouTuber Claims Nanotech Could Spell Marvel’s Doom
The YouTuber Professor Ecks has made some very serious and heavy claims against Marvel and a very specific but essential aspect of its cinematic world – nanotechnology. According to him, Marvel’s authenticity (and the fandom’s nostalgia) is enclosed within the elemental breakdown of the scene where the hero suits up, bit by bit, piece by piece, and flies off to save the day. Ecks claims:
“I think we have a major problem with a lot of the mainline superheroes relying far too much on nanotechnology to use their suits. We saw it start in ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Iron Man’ which kind of makes sense for those characters, especially with Tony Stark integrating more technology every time he makes a suit. In ‘Iron Man 3’, we saw what it was like when his suit was out of reach. Pieces of the armor were flying across the country to him and with the nanotechnology, it just made sense for him to go that way.
[…] However, I feel like it’s just become a lazier way to get characters into costumes. Suit-ups used to be these amazing sequences. I remember the first time we see Tony Stark putting on the Iron Man armor in the first ‘Iron Man’ movie – it was an event. Even the first time he wields the nanotech armor in ‘Infinity War’ – it’s a huge moment. But then we have the nanotech in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’. I understand its purpose and why it was used in that movie. Nanotech became the default way that these suits worked in ‘Endgame’. So it makes sense that it transfers over into this film.
However, I just hate the way that it just slaps on them now. It looks very phony and I don’t really care for it. I miss the physical suits, the way that they looked. It doesn’t look as impressive or cool when they just slap their chest and boom they’re in their costume.”
Of course, as pure as those days of old (re: Marvel’s Phase One and Two) were, they were temperamentally suited to the action, thrill, and risks of the era. Now, in an era when an entire universe can be erased with the snap of a finger, a superhero suiting up one shin guard at a time, or having the nanotech crawl slowly and dramatically over every inch of their body would spell the doom of humanity. Watch the short film, No Good Deed starring Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool for visual context.
