As a heads up this will be a slightly personal essay for this writer, and a personal analysis of the MCU rather than an analytical essay on the various scenes, characters, and future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Instead I will talk about what makes this universe so special and why it will stand the test of time.

I have been watching this universe unfold since the very beginning like many have, from Iron Man to Captain Marvel, and soon to be Avengers: Endgame. To write this article, and personal essay is quite a task to say the least, there is no real way to put into words on what this universe means to me, how it has shaped me as a person. I suppose we start from the beginning with Iron Man. I remember watching the first film in the MCU when I was about eleven years old, and from then on I realized I loved a hero who overcame adversity. Iron Man; Tony Stark is a character who no one should like, but we do because his ego and image took a hard hit and from the one line said by the character Yensin (Shaun Toub), “Don’t waste your life”. Something I try to live by to this day, impacted me even at such a young age.

And the impactful lines don’t stop there, in fact from there they just get better and even more poignant with each installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’ll now share some of those lines now.

“I can do this all day.”-Captain America: The First Avenger & Captain America: Civil War

“I’m with ya till the end of the line.”-Captain America: The Winter Soldier 

“He might be your father boy, but he wasn’t your daddy.”-Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 

“You don’t get to destroy who I am.”-Daredevil (Netflix) 

“I see a suit of armor around the world.”-Avengers: Age of Ultron 

“A thing isn’t beautiful, because it lasts.”-Avengers: Age of Ultron

“We are Groot.”-Guardians of the Galaxy 

“Always forward.”-Luke Cage (Netflix) 

“What more can I loose?”-Avengers: Infinity War 

While I can continue to quote more lines from various MCU properties, movies and TV alike I’ll continue on. These movies teach something, Marvel teaches us and shows us that our heroes are us, and they have flaws and need to overcome them. They’re not gods trying to be human, they’re just people who want to try and do the right thing and do their best to protect those they care about.

Marvel Studios has brought wit, charm, heart, color into our lives when the world around us seems so bleak at times. It gives us all an outlet, heroes to look up to and to see ourselves in, that’s what’s most important. Anything from showing a kid he can build himself up to become greater, or giving young colored minorities heroes to cheer on that look, and feel like us, to providing young girls heroes to stand up and say yes you can fight to. The MCU will always be there, and be keep on breaking barriers and uniting people, with new stories, adaptations; films and TV alike. Because that’s what Heroes do.