Source: Marvel
Recent media events that can go without explanation had me thinking the other day – is the MCU getting close to election season? Giving it some further thought, I realized the can of worms I had opened.
Most politicians in the MCU are, believe it or not, fictional characters – Gideon Malick, Mariah Dillard, Calvin Chadwick. The thing that I find most interesting is that real people are injected into the world’s history; politicians such as Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, and Harry S. Truman.
Take a look at the current president. President Matthew Ellis has appeared on WHiH Newsfront, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Iron Man 3 and is mentioned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Considering his appearance in Iron Man 3 in 2013, one might assume that he is the analog to the real current POTUS, Barack Obama. However, Iron Man 2 saw Tony Stark with “Iron Man” posters based on the famous Obama campaign design. On top of this, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Obama’s auto-biography can be seen among Steve Rogers’ collection of books written by presidents. It appears that Obama was president – he simply is no longer.
Based on this information, one can assume that Barack Obama was the 44th president, elected in 2008, just like in real life. During the 2012 election season, Matthew Ellis beat Obama and became the 45th. This makes sense, because anyone who watches Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. knows of the president’s concern over powered individuals – and in the 2012 election season, taking place almost immediately after the Battle of New York in The Avengers, this concern could easily be mounted into a winning campaign.
The question is – will Ellis be re-elected in 2016? The Battle of New York was enough to lose Obama after only four years, and think of everything that has happened since then – the events of Iron Man 3, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Daredevil, Ant-Man and Jessica Jones all took place on American soil, while international events such as the ones in Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Captain America: Civil War all involved the Avengers – an internationally hated American group. His career has seen the fall of a trusted government agency, an outbreak of powered individuals, his own kidnapping, and multiple destructive international events (including being involved in the murder of several Russian government officials).
Now, the answer is probably yes. I doubt even Kevin Feige and the other folks running the MCU have put as much thought into this as I have, and there’s no point in getting rid of a perfectly good contracted actor. It does make you wonder, though – what were the circumstances over this fictional characters getting elected over their real-life counterparts? What makes Dimitri Olshenko a better fit for the office of Prime Minister of Russia than Dmitry Medvedev? What made the unlikable Christian Ward the people’s pick for senator of Massachusetts over Elizabeth Warren or Ed Markey?
There’s your Marvel food for thought for this week to get your gears turning. I hope you enjoyed my ponderings and haven’t totally dismissed me as insane quite yet. Well, not this week. There’s always a next. Excelsior!
