Heroes and the Creation of Myth: The Avengers: Age of Ultron

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. I was going to watch or rewatch the eighteen existing MCU films in order to look at them specifically from this perspective in the time leading up to the release of The Avengers: Infinity War. I totally didn't get there in time, but I'm going to finish anyway. Today while everybody's thinking about that other Avengers movie, which I still haven't seen, I'm going to talk about the previous one: Age of Ultron.

In the first Avengers, we saw each of the heroes on the team coming to terms with his or her myth. In this movie, the myths are being used against them. Wanda Maximoff can tap into their deepest fears, and their deepest fears are all tied to their myths. We start with Tony Stark, who drives the main plot of the movie. He's the first Avenger that Maximoff encounters, and he's the one whose relationship to his own myth drives the creation of Ultron.

Ultron was formed from Tony's scrap pile, both literally and figuratively. Tony is still dealing with the trauma of the Chitauri invasion, his brush with death in fighting it off, and the humbling realization that Iron Man isn't enough to guarantee saving the world. Maximoff shows him a terrible vision, not just of all his friends dying, but of Tony having to live with Iron Man's failure. It's that vision of failure that haunts him so much that he ignores Bruce Banner's reservations and shuts out everyone else completely. It's that vision of failure that causes him to throw away all caution and use Loki's staff to try to create Ultron. If Iron Man isn't perfect, then Tony Stark will have to create something that is.

Of course this backfires, and it does it it a way that allows Maximoff access to the rest of the team. Hawkeye is able to avoid her mental powers, because he's already played this game in the first movie. Just the attempt on his loyalty is enough for Hawkeye. But each of the other heroes is pulled into a vision related to their myth.

Natasha is taken back to her days in a Russian spy academy, when she made the choices to become the person she is. Black Widow's mythology has always been more internal than external, the conflict between a heartless assassin and a woman trying to find a life as a human being. Maximoff sends her back to the key moments of her assassin training to make her question whether she has really ever become anything different.

Steve Rogers also visits the past, but a past he never lived. It's a fantasy celebration of the end of World War II, complete with Peggy Carter, in a universe where he had never been trapped under the ice. Maximoff forces him to deal with a world where Captain America is never a lost hero, but a present one, living in a world where he's not an anachronism, and neither is his patriotism. After such a vision, it's difficult to return to reality.

Thor, on the other hand, sees a possible future, one in which the once-all-seeing Heimdall, blinded, welcomes him to Ragnarok. Like Tony Stark, Thor sees a future where all of his friends are dead, and he couldn't prevent it. Thor truly is the champion of Asgard in the way Tony would like to believe he is of Earth, and the vision is even more powerful to him.

And the Hulk's vision is all too real. Bruce Banner's greatest fear, the one that has kept him running from his powers, is that the Hulk will go on a rampage among a civilian population. And now, just as he's becoming close with Natasha, just as he is finally becoming comfortable with the Hulk having a controllable role in the Avengers, Maximoff makes that come true, not in a vision, but in Johannesburg.

Dazed and with their public image in a shambles, the Avengers retreat to Hawkeye's safehouse, a.k.a. Hawkeye's house, and we finally get a clue as to who might have made Natasha watch Wargames. All of them have to deal with the aftermath of their visions. Natasha goes straight from her vision of assassin training into the one place in the world where she has to be most human. Banner, fresh from his biggest-ever destructive streak, has to confront what it means to his budding relationship with her. Steve has to deal with the presence of the happy, all-American family life he never got to have, and is convinced he never will. Tony not only has to deal with another failure, but with Steve, and eventually Nick Fury.

Thor leaves the team entirely in order to seek further visions in the company of Dr. Selvig. And it's Thor who begins to get glimpses of the complete picture involving the Infinity Stones. It's Thor whose vision leads to Vision, when the rest of the team can't agree on whether to put the remnants of J.A.R.V.I.S. into Ultron's Infinity-Stone-powered super-body.

Most of the mythical narratives cut off there, to be addressed in future movies, while the rest of this one focuses on the battle with Ultron. But Banner and Natasha have to keep facing theirs. Bruce has lost his willingness to trust the Hulk in crises, and Natasha, who until now has been the one to bring the Hulk gently back to human form, pushes him into a giant hole in order to force the Hulk out of him. It's a betrayal of trust that channels her assassin past above her human present, and adds justification to Bruce's fear, so much that it manifests itself within the Hulk. It's not Bruce Banner who runs away from the Avengers at the end of the movie. It's the other guy.

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)
Part 10: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

_{All images in this post are from The Avengers: Age of Ultron, copyright 2015 Marvel, used in this post under Fair Use: Criticism. Provided courtesy of Movie-Screencaps.com}