When I started this blog for my Strategic Presentation Methods in Digital Media class, I hoped that I would be able to improve my ability of making enjoyable content for an audience. I chose my blog topic to be about Marvel movie characters because its a topic that I know a lot about and something that enjoy discussing. Looking back on how I worked on this blog I believe that this course really has helped me to improve and understand what I need (and want) to do moving forward. Now that the semester has almost concluded, however, it is now time to look back on what I have learned through this class and its assignments.
One of the most memorable parts of this class was learning about audio and making a podcast. As someone who enjoys listening to YouTube podcasts on fun, interesting topics, it was fascinating to learn about making them. I had thought about making my own podcast for years, and now I have the tools and information on how to do so. In class we had a debate on the importance of audio loudness and I now I feel that I can make MP3 files that are loud enough to hear but not so loud that they are not enjoyable to listen to. My podcast on HEROES Inc. was not only fun to make but hopeful was able to inspire those who listened to it to take action.
Another part of that class that was important to me was the assignment we had on memes. I have always found memes to be hilarious and fun to share with friends. After this class, however, I have begun to understand the insightfulness that can come from them. Creating my own memes was an interesting challenge and enjoyed trying to make memes that were relevant to my topic and make great commentary.
Finally, a topic that was discussed in class that really stood out to me was about protecting our online privacy. In week 12 of the course, there were several methods of online protection that were discussed. Two-factor identification was one idea in the class and, though it may seem annoying, it can really make a difference in making sure strangers are unable to access a person’s account. Another good way to keep others from accessing your personal information is deleting cookies, making it harder for your information to be tracked. This was quite an interesting subject that we learned in class, and feel more prepared to keep my information safe.
Overall, I believe that I had a positive experience in this class and now I am able to leave this class, feeling better prepared for my future.
Now that The Infinity Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has wrapped up with Avengers: Endgame (I won’t spoil it but maybe have some tissues ready), I made a few memes based on some of the memorable characters and their moments from across the MCU.
Memes can be broken down into three parts. The first is the ideals, ” The ideal of a meme is the aggregate of all manifestations of that meme,” (Davidson, 133). Then there is the behavior (how the meme was made) and the manifestation (the individual parts of the meme).
First here is one I made about one of the most complex characters in the franchise, Loki:
If you have seen any of the Thor movies then you are well aware of Loki’s constant death fake-outs. This particular meme is based on the “Loki’d” meme (https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lokid).
Loki is one of my favorite characters and one who several people love to pick apart because you never know what he is going to do next. Maybe he will agree to help you but then stab you in the back or maybe he’ll just stab you. The ideal of this meme is that, when you watch these movies, you never can trust Loki. As for the behavior of the meme, “Loki’d” was started by Loki’s actor Tom Hiddleston. A brief skit on MTV involved Hiddleston playing pranks on the host. According to the Know Your Meme page, “Given that Loki is known as the God of Mischief, the term is often used after one plays a prank or a joke on someone, therefore embodying the prankster part of Loki’s character.” The manifestation of the meme is a picture of Tom Hiddleston as his character and the line “Loki’d” being featured after some kind of prank. This is comparable to a RickRoll’d type of meme, in that it is meant to be a prank, but in this case the Loki is the one pulling the pranks- which fits a lot better with this site.
Next we have a meme based on the film Avengers: Age of Ultron.
In case you need a refresher, the point of the movie is that Tony Stark decides to build a robot, Ultron, that can keep the earth safe from invaders. However, Ultron ends up seeing the only way to keep the earth is by wiping out humanity. In the end Tony decides to build an android named Vision to save the day. This is a very famous meme called “Distracted Boyfriend” (https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/distracted-boyfriend).
The ideal of this meme is that Tony was pretty quick to try to recreate a super robot to protect earth a second time. As for the behavior of this meme, it all started when “the source image, taken by photographer Antonio Guillem, was posted on the stock photo database iStock.” Over time people began to spread the meme on Instagram and Twitter with funny references written over the people in the photo. The manifestations of the meme are always the man, his girlfriend, and the other woman. The crux of the joke is that a person may not be loyal.
Finally we have:
Here we have a picture of Peter Quill, also known as Star-Lord, from Guardians of the Galaxy. Here I gave him a caption about how he is the reason there was another avengers movie after the film, Avengers: Infinity War. I based it off this image here: (https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1472959-avengers-endgame ).
The ideal here is that Quill was the reason that the previous Avengers film ended the way it did. Quill loses his temper and attacks Thanos after Mantis had made him fall asleep, so Thanos wakes up and ultimately gets away. This intended as a reference to both the fact that he is the in-universe reason for the next film and how the audience felt watching this scene. The original meme that inspired mine is based on a YouTube video that defended Quill’s actions since we ended up getting another movie because of it. The manifestations of the meme are Quill and a reference to his actions in the film. There are several memes that deal with how we often get angry but still enjoy a major part of it so we really have nothing to complain about, but I believe that this meme in particular is great at capturing the mix of excitement and rage that all came from one short scene with this character.
In this podcast I explain what being a hero really means. I look at the subject of this blog, Marvel movies to explain the aspects of heroism. I structured this podcast like a review of some individual movies as well as the franchise as a whole. I specifically wanted to analyze how certain characters are able to be heroes. At the same time, I also talk about the non-profit organization HEROES INC. and the absolutely incredible work that they do to help the families that have lost their heroes in the line of duty.
In this video I created, I talked about how to create your own character analysis, just like I have started to do here on my blog. If you are anyone who enjoys gaining a better understanding of you favorite characters, or if you maybe want to write your own characters and want to see what makes great characters, then this is the video for you!
YouTube tends to recommend videos to users that its algorithm recognizes as useful and I believe that this video is worth watching. “Despite participants’ perceived straight-forwardness of searching and waiting to ‘see what comes out,’ what content appears and actually gets watched on YouTube is heavily dependent on the recommended or ‘related’ video feature… many participants described simply, and often fondly, as ‘helpful,’ ‘great,’ or ‘useful’ in finding relevant videos.” (Wolf, 2016). This video can help anyone who appreciates a well written story with incredibly likable characters.
Which person would be leader that you would follow, The person with the high IQ or the person with an encouraging attitude? Well, in the case of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s main team, The Avengers, either choice would be an acceptable answer. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers (or Iron Man and Captain America if you prefer) have each proven themselves over the course of the Avengers films as very capable leaders.
That being said, which of the two was the more successful as a leader? Well, as it turns out, one way to determine the better leader comes from analyzing their emotional intelligence. There are several, different components in emotional intelligence, including regulation, awareness, social skills, motivation, and empathy (Porter, 2003, p.229). Those are the skills that we will be taking a look at today.
Let’s begin with self-regulation since that seems pretty obvious, at least to me. In the film, Captain America: Civil War, we know that Captain America’s arguments against the Sokovia Accords do make perfect sense since they would be giving up their control to the United Nations. While I do side with Cap in this case, Tony’s readiness to create a way to manage their team in the future does show that he is willing to create specific rules to put limits on both himself and his fellow teammates.
Motivation is another easy point to give. Since his debut in Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve Rogers has been able to inspire others with relative ease. His determination to continue to fight when he doesn’t have to but knows it’s the right thing to do shows that he is a symbol of justice that others admire. During the battle of New York in The Avengers, Steve takes charge right away telling his teammates the best ways each of them can contribute in the fight and they all follow with question. As it turns out that when a leader is charismatic their leadership skills are more communicative. A team’s commitment and satisfaction with its leader are linked to the communication style of the leader (Vries, 2009). Cap is definitely a charismatic motivator for the Avengers.
Next let’s talk about social skills as this one is a bit trickier. In the first film, Iron Man, Tony Stark does not hold his tongue and he communicates with allies like Rhodey very easily. With this in mind one might think that Tony has greater social skills than Steve, and this would be correct… at first. Steve is a bit shy in his first movie and a little awkward when the Avengers Assemble for the first time (but you probably would be too if you suddenly woke up 70 years into the future). However, by his next solo outing Steve seems to much better at communicating and leading, even with people he just met like Sam.
As for empathy, one would probably think of Captain America when comparing the two in this aspect yet I would actually say that Iron Man is the more empathetic character. Empathy is of course the abilities to understand and experience another’s feelings, which tends to make the empathetic listener someone who helps people feel reassured (Kellet, 2002). Avengers: Age of Ultron has the biggest example of Tony’s empathetic nature. Tony feels so distraught over the death of a young man with a promising future after meeting with his mother that, although he never met him, he attempts to make radical changes to how he runs the team. In my eyes, Steve is less of an empathetic leader and more of a sympathetic leader.
Self-awareness can be another tricky one to give to one avenger over the other. It’s no secret that Tony has a tendency to screw up. An excellent example comes from, again, Avengers: Age of Ultron, where Tony convinces Banner to help him create a peace keeping program only for Ultron to possibly be one of the most destructive foes the Avengers have faced. Yet while Tony doesn’t always see the repercussions for his actions, he does know what he wants and understands the best way to go achieve his goal. Steve on the other hand, always thinks his plans through when he needs to reach his goal. He can also quickly adapt to changes to assure he completes his mission. For this reason, Steve Rogers is definitely a much more self-aware leader.
In conclusion, Captain America takes the cake as the better leader of the two. Don’t get me wrong, Iron Man is a clearly a great member of the team and displays amazing leadership skills but compared to Cap, he just falls short.
Citations
Kellett, J. B., Humphrey, R. H., & Sleeth, R. G. (2002). Empathy and complex task performance: Two routes to leadership. The Leadership Quarterly,13(5), 523-544. doi:10.1016/s1048-9843(02)00142-x
Porter, L. W., Angle, H. L., & Allen, R. W. (2003). Organizational influence processes. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
Vries, R. E., Bakker-Pieper, A., & Oostenveld, W. (2009). Leadership = Communication? The Relations of Leaders’ Communication Styles with Leadership Styles, Knowledge Sharing and Leadership Outcomes. Journal of Business and Psychology,25(3), 367-380. doi:10.1007/s10869-009-9140-2
Hello my name is Kyle McNaught and I am a Junior at Rutgers University where I hope to graduate with my major being Information Technology and Informatics. Welcome to my website, where you will find information on some of my favorite movies about some of my favorite characters. To be more specific, I am talking about Marvel movies, which I have been watching for many years.
Although I was not much of a comic book reader as a child, I did watch many of Marvel’s television shows and movies growing up. It was thanks to Spider-Man: The Animated Series that really got me into Marvel to begin with. Since Marvel is making multiple movies a year, I am more of a fan now than ever before. After watching these movies I like to better understand these characters and how they have evolved and spend hours reading multiple articles and analysis videos on YouTube to see what other people have to say about these creations of Marvel Studios.
For this website I will mostly be looking at the past to analyze these iconic characters and their stories to show how they have developed over the course of these movies, as well as to speculate on where the future movies will go from here. It is my hope to reach out to other Marvel fans and perhaps allow them a chance to see the likes of their favorite super hero and villain characters in a brand new light. Marvel movies have a universal appeal that allows Marvel’s team to tell serious adult stories in a way that anyone can enjoy them, from science fiction comedies to psychological thrillers, there is a movie for everyone. If you’re a fan of Marvel movies or just like super heroes in general then you have come to the right place.
Both images on this page are being used under fair use. This is transformative work and therefore is protected under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act (Crews, n.d.).
Marvel Cinematic Universe Database 
