Whether Marvel Cinematic Universe is Atheist Propaganda
Objection 1 It would seem that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is composed of supernatural agents whose agency bridges into the realm of harmless fantasy. C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien and E. Nesbit are often held as purveyors of the same benignant fodder. The fantasy elements are clearly only used to drive the plot and the plot could unfold with or without the fantasy elements.
Objection 2 The powers that the characters draw their fantastical energy from are harnessing God's creation. And as Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego attested "All you powers, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever." (Daniel 3:61 NABRE) As God is Creator of the universe, (and the multi-verse) he is most certainly Creator of the powers which, if used for good, must have their origin in God.
Furthermore, powers used for good are praiseworthy, a soldier uses his strength to save his comrades, a mother gives her strength to her children.
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:13
The work of superheroes is to save the universe, the universe clearly needs to be saved.
On the contrary, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is composed of stories that diverge so wildly from the traditional heroic journey to the point that they are inseparable from their atheist underpinnings. The one who Catholics proclaim as King of the Universe is reduced to an idea from "One of those planets". Myths are merely the way humanity dealt with supra-natural realities they couldn't fathom. Instead of myths being true or false in themselves, myths are all true, but none of the religion is true. Religion, being the virtue of reconnecting with God is not a virtue in the MCU, as the gods themselves manifest themselves in response to their own conflict, not their love for humanity.
I answer that the Catholic faith proclaims that all existence is God's thought and as co-creators in God's plan for eternity, our creations should reflect God's plan for salvation. As the Marvel Cinematic Universe uses deeper and deeper physics as its fundamental axioms for wiping away the mystery of religious belief (even if it doesn't directly attack Christian religions it attacks the longing for God in other religions that the Catholic Church upholds as a positive good). It stands to reason that, unless something truly inexplicable happens, a purely science based world of witches, warlocks and demigods has deprived itself of the mysterious fantastic elements of classical literature and only serves as a tool of modernist, materialist thought.
Reply to Objection 1 The supernatural agency spoken of in the MCU is not 'fantasy' in the normal sense of the word. As Chesterton puts the words in the mouth of a practical person, comparing the logic of the shop and politics to the logic of the nursery:
Ah, yes, when one is young, one has these ideals in the abstract and these castles in the air; but in middle age they all break up like clouds, and one comes down to a belief in practical politics, to using the machinery one has and getting on with the world as it is
This is how it is in the MCU, where the magic is not magical but:
Magic is the practice of harnessing various forms of energy to manipulate one or more aspects of the infinite realities that are present within the Multiverse
Marvel fandom - Magic
This is logical, but it is not the logic of the nursery or the logic of the Church, it is the cold logic of materialism which is
a philosophical system which regards matter as the only reality in the world, which undertakes to explain every event in the universe as resulting from the conditions and activity of matter,
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10041b.htm
By its own logic, fantasy in Marvel is not fantasy but science fiction.
Peter Parker
Like Thor. Thor was a myth and now I study him in my physics class.
Reply to Objection 2 Nearly every movie has a plot where the hero makes a terrible mistake, usually it's pride. There's no evidence that many of the characters in the MCU have the least compunction about calling on "Dark Magic" when it behooves them. Magic wielding characters search after forbidden knowledge without a second thought and their consequences are not a contrite heart, but a further wielding of deeper and deeper magics. Every movie's main antagonist since the first Iron Man:
The one that started it all. In more ways than one. It started the unfortunate “villain just being an evil version of the hero” trend.
https://best-media-world.com/2018/03/12/how-phase-3-fixed-marvels-villain-problem-and-why-it-never-existed-in-the-first-place/
But if the protagonist and the antagonist both harness the same evil powers can evil ever really be driven out?
And if Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself; how, then, will his kingdom stand?
Matthew 12:26 NABRE
As Chesterton says, Original Sin is the "the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved." and Original Sin, which makes these characters relatable, makes them lamentable, when they don't fight against Sin itself both within and without, but only the evil manifestations of sin.
