The traditional arc of a film’s protagonist sees that character undergoing some kind of development or growth by the end of the film. They might learn an important lesson, let go of an event in their past, or gain new understanding of the world around them. In action films, this often helps the protagonist defeat a central force of opposition, a “Villain”, in many cases. And while a good action film sees the protagonist winning due to a change in their beliefs or ideologies, the more physical reasons for their victory are often much more… physical. They might become a better strategist, learn how to dodge a villain’s signature attack, develop a new piece of gear that enhances their abilities, learn to work better with their team, become more dedicated to the fight, or gain more control over their exceptional gifts. No matter how the protagonist experiences their physical growth by the end of the film, one thing is almost always true: By the end of the film, they have gained more fighting experience and are a more effective combatant than at the film’s beginning.
This has happened many times during the events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Iron Man continually builds and upgrades his armors, The Avengers learn to work together, The Vision is created in Avengers 2, Bruce Banner learns to control The Hulk, strong anti-heroes such as The Winter Soldier become heroes, Iron Man builds better gear for the rest of the Avengers, Iron Man builds new suits for Spider-Man, Ant-Man learns to use Ants in combat, Black Panther gets an upgraded nanosuit, Thor gained a stronger weapon in Infinity War… I could go on.
The point is there’s a sense of rapid power escalation going on here. The MCU is constantly enhancing and upgrading its heroes in order to keep them relevant in its ever-expanding universe. Some heroes, like Iron Man, gain logical upgrades for logical reasons, while others, like Spider-Man, have upgrades essentially thrown at them without doing anything significant to deserve it.
Spider-Man’s upgrades, in particular, are concerning: Unlike huge, godlike heroes such as Thor or Doctor Strange, much of Spider-Man’s appeal comes from his power level being a bit lower than top-level Marvel heroes; he’s known as “just your freindly neighborhood Spider-Man” for a reason. This rapid progression is cool in the moment, but takes a lot away in the long term. It makes the characters less relatable and removes a lot of the tension from action scenes.
There’s a particular genre of Anime and Manga that suffers from a similar problem: The Shōnen (Show-nen) genre is characterized as an ongoing series with no defined conclusion that continues running until it falls out of popularity, and often centers around one character who must train and grow stronger to fight and overcome a particular opponent. Due to the genre’s “endless” nature, characters end up becoming blindingly powerful, as the main character must grow strong enough to defeat each new opponent, but the genre then forces the introduction of a new, stronger opponent. A popular example of a show in the genre is Dragon Ball Z, which started off with the protagonist learning martial arts as a child and competing in local tournaments, and eventually has progressed to the characters mastering mental Ki energy that allows them to teleport around at the speed of light, destroy planets by touching them, and fire energy beams that have the destructive force of the big bang. When these shows become so absurdly far removed from the real world, their characters become unrelatable, and the stories lose much of their humanity.
Even if Avengers 4 sees the death of veteran powerhouses Iron Man (rumored) and Thor (Not rumored, but possible), Black Panther’s Wakandan base has established itself to be the new hub of technology for the foreseeable MCU future. And Spider-Man still has his Superior armored costume, Doctor Strange will likely return as an extremely powerful force, and Black Panther’s near-invulnerable Vibranium suit may get further upgrades. As the power quota for new entries in the universe continues to grow, small-scale villains stop being a threat, which makes the universe a lot less interesting. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has succeeded in part due to its ability to see these characters as human beings in addition to incredible super-beings, and it runs the risk of losing that advantage if it fails to adjust its formula after Avengers 4.
