Can The MCU Ever Be Cosmic Enough? | The Influence of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko

The MCU has come a long way since "I am Iron Man." When the Marvel movies were first born, part of the production company's charm was in the grounded nature of their stories. Iron Man and The Hulk may be incredible, but it took Marvel a long time to warm cinema audiences up to the cosmic reaches fans have enjoyed on the page for decades. While Doctor Strange has taken us into the Multiverse of Madness, it was pioneering comic artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko that laid Marvel's cosmic groundwork. But can the MCU ever truly catch up to the mind-bending trippiness Kirby and Ditko establishes? While Thor was Kevin Feige and co's first foray into otherworldliness, it was still couched in science fiction, and while Loki with his invading Chitauri army blasted a portal into the public consciousness in The Avengers, it was still more of alien invasion movie than anything cosmic. But when Doctor Strange met the Ancient One and went on a quick tour of the multiverse, moviegoers got their first taste of true cosmic awareness, albeit a small one. How have the efforts in the MCU measured up to Kirby machines or space jockeys or Ditko's eternity? And more importantly, can they ever really live up to them? This Video Essay was written by Siddhant Adlakha and edited by Kevin Cappiello, with graphics by Casey Redmon.