The Avengers was originally created as a comic book series by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, published by Marvel Comics. The fictional series revolves around a team of superheroes challenged by different bad guys who ultimately serve one lead enemy, in his attempt to destroy life on earth as we know it. The team of superheroes made their debut in The Avengers #1 in September 1963. After years of comic book success, Marvel comics brought out a line of trading cards in 1991. This started a colossal wave of fandom, resulting in Marvel expanding the ‘Marvel Universe’ adding more characters and eventually debuting the first line of toys in 1994.
With Marvel Comics and The Avengers continuing to grow, Marvel decided to release the first Avengers film in 2012. Within this section, I will critically apply my two concepts (paratext and representation) to The Avengers, looking at the original Avengers release, versus the newest release Avengers: End Game, and how paratext and representation have changed throughout the 10 year period between the two.
The original 2012 Avengers release was the first time that Marvel fans had seen a high quality, full-length feature film, that included all of the main 6 characters (Iron man, Thor, Hawkeye, Blackwidow, Hulk and Captain America) and instantly became a phenomenon. The film received an immense amount of praise with reviewers calling it the best in its genre. Calling Jonathon Grey’s book Separately: Promos, Spoilers and Other Media Paratexts, with the help of these massively influential paratexts, The first Avengers film quickly became the highest grossing film of 2012 and to this day is in the top 10 highest grossing films to date. The Avengers does well at accommodating all types of audiences and is unique in its ability to appeal to not just long time Marvel fans, but also those that haven’t been keeping up with the series or read the comics.
The 2012 Avengers release introduced us to the first ever strong, female lead. For years, it was argued that women were portrayed as weaker, and were mainly looked at in an objectifying manner. ‘Black Widow’ the only female lead within the first Avengers movie, was first introduced into the franchise back in April of 1964. The original 1964 black widow was portrayed as an overly feminine spy, draped in a green dress, jewellery, and drawn in a way that accentuates the feminine body in order to appeal to a majoritively male audience. , therefore, feeding the idea of the male gaze. “the gender power asymmetry is a controlling force in cinema and constructed for the pleasure of the male viewer, which is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies and discourses.” (L.Mulvey)
However, the representation of Black Widow drastically changes within the 2012 rendition as Marvel massively defy the gender stereotype and portray Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow as one of the most athletic, strongest and most lethal heroes within the film. Her suit is also far less sexualised as she plays one of the key characters within the film. The response from fans worked greatly to Marvel’s favour and articles and videos arose discussing how beneficial the new rendition of Black Widow was for female representation within media. Accompanied by other strong female roles such as Agent Maria Hill and Pepper Pots, the film was widely received as a ‘step in the right direction’ for female representation.
After putting two more films out after the original movie, the final Avengers movie (Avengers: End Game, released in 2019) took the positive representation feedback from the previous films and attempted to build on it. Marvel decided to write all of the strongest female characters from the comics into the film and have them featured all together in their own scene. This scene shows all of the female characters from the Marvel universe band together to fight against Thanos (one of the main protagonists) and his army, after saving the life of one of the lead male characters, Spider-Man (played by Tom Holland). The team of female superheroes then go on to completely obliterate the opposing army, and an immense war sequence breaks out. This scene alone shows the massive effort that Marvel and the Russo Brothers (directors of Avengers: End Game) went to, in order to make sure that true, positive female representation was a key piece of the Avengers franchise, and the film would be remembered as one of the most diverse and well-represented films to date.
The success of Marvels series’ would be nothing without the use of paratexts. The way that marvel use paratexts is unlike any other production company within the media industry. Marvel are known for their post-credit cut scenes, that often give a little teaser about what the next film is going to be. As these sequences are at the end of the main texts, it would be easy to assume that these paratexts are not paratexts at all, but are simply part of the original text. However, it could be argued, that as these sequences come after the end credits, and are often separate from the main film, they are stand-alone pieces and should, therefore, be considered paratexts.
Jonathon Gray tells us that ‘paratexts condition our entrance to the texts’ (Gray p.24) and therefore play an enormous part of media for an audience. Similar to reading a blurb or looking at the cover of a book, media companies use a variety of paratexts in order to allow the audience to get an idea for the main text before consuming it. I would argue, that these post-credit scenes are the first paratexts that are presented for the next films. By presenting these paratexts at the end of the original movie, Marvel are already setting up the next film, attempting to gain interest and get people talking about what the next film could be. This technique is therefore making the audience not only discuss the current media text, creating more ‘public paratexts’ (Genette p.267) but also discussing the next film, sometimes years before any of the official paratexts for the next film are released. This technique, along with many others, is what keeps fans so engaged with all of the Avengers films.
Marvel has also collaborated with brands such as Lego, Nerf, and Hasbro in order to create an abundance of merchandise that is aimed to create more profits for the companies. These paratexts vary in scale and detail in order to accommodate the entirety of the Marvel fan base, for example LEGO’s more simple playsets contain fewer pieces and feature a more basic design, but are aimed at young children. Where as some of the more advanced, intricate Hasbro pieces are aimed at an older demographic. This then maximises the reach the merchandise has and allows the opportunity for the fans to feel as though they are a part of the film. Toys such as Iron man masks, Captain America Nerf guns and lego war machines, and even taking it a step further in collaborating with Travellers Tales and Warner Bros to develop a LEGO Avengers video game, allow the audience to develop a deeper connection to the characters within the films, which ultimately leads to them becoming more invested in the films, therefore driving profits for Marvel and their collaborators.
One would assume that the majority of interest and marketing would come from these lines of merchandise, however with generation z now boosting social media presence, and the development of web 2.0, more paratexts are moving across social networking sites. Production companies such as Marvel are creating separate cuts of their trailers in order to fit the specific criteria for social media posts, in order to achieve the highest engagement rate possible. With social platforms such as Instagram and Facebook making it easier than ever to send photos and videos your friends, marketing these paratexts by utilising social media means that they are reaching a much wider audience than ever before.
After the main text has been consumed, media sites such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook become a perfect place for Marvel to share the behind the scenes of their films. This allows the audience to further develop a personal relationship with the characters, as they can be seen in a more human-like form, interacting with each other in a way thats more relatable to the audience. These behind the scenes montages also add more value in terms of marketing , as it gives the audience more to talk about in between films, as well as even gaining interest from other film makers and creatives, as it shows the development of the stories and the technical aspects that it took to achieve the final product. This then opens itself up to a whole new demographic of film makers and other creatives, and again adds to the hype for the next film.
Discussing Paratext and representation within Marvel's 'The Avengers' 