Incredible Marvel Monday

This weekend I watched two superhero movies. The first, as you may have guessed, was the brand new and crazy popular Avengers: End Game on the big screen. The second, and less obvious choice was the not-as-new Incredibles 2 at home. Both were great fun. In fact, as I watched Incredibles 2 on Sunday evening after a fairly busy weekend, it struck me how much the Pixar film had in common with its Marvel cousin. Today’s post, which is just for fun and completely spoiler-free, takes a look at the similarities between the Incredibles and the Avengers.

My Monday could use an injection of super hero power. How about you?

Disney owned entities

Okay. So maybe this first one is cheating a bit, but it’s still true. Both of my weekend superhero films were produced by entities that weren’t always part of Disney. Disney purchased Pixar, the maker of Incredibles 2, in 2006. The company then purchased Marvel, at least most of it, roughly three years later.

Can you imagine where Disney films would be without these two powerful brands?

Sequels

The second similarity is fairly obvious. Both films are sequels. (Surprise!) Incredibles 2 is the um, second installment of the Pixar superhero franchise (Is Captain Obvious a Super Hero?) although Disney released it a whopping 14 years after the original.

Avengers: End Game is the 22nd film in the Marvel saga that started with Iron Man in 2008.

Incredibles 2 already claimed the title of highest grossing film for Pixar last year. I’m pretty sure Endgame will get there for Marvel too.

Superheroes Galore!

Third, both movies feature a TON of superheroes! Yes, you totally expect the Incredibles 2 to feature the Parr family of five and Mr. Incredible’s friend Frozone, but the film introduced a bunch of new quirky side kicks too. For example, we met Brick, Screech, Voyd and Reflux (yuck).

Avengers: End Game as you can tell from looking at the movie poster (so you know I’m not spoiling anything!), offers even more. Perhaps I should be more familiar with the mad skills of the peripheral Marvel characters than I am, but in both films I enjoyed encountering new talents. I also played a game (quietly, in my head of course) to see if I could link Jack Jack’s skills from the Incredibles to specific Marvel characters. Turns out there are quite a few: grows big like the Hulk, crosses into other dimensions like Dr. Strange, multiplies like Loki, etc.

Feel free to play along.

Superheroes face defeat

Speaking of all those superheroes, in both films the gifted crews have to deal with significant defeat. It’s no secret, at least anymore, that the Avengers faced major set backs in last summer’s Avengers: Infinity War. The new Endgame picks up where the last movie left off and follows the superheroes as they regroup, emotionally and physically, from the loss to evil Thanos.

Incredibles 2 shares a similar sub-plot, although the specific loss is not as clearly defined. All super heroes in Pixar’s world have been driven underground due to a series of past failures and the collateral damages they caused.

The struggle added some depth and a slightly darker edge to both films.

Technology-company backing

Speaking of rising against the challenge, the Incredibles plan to get back into action with the help of DevTech, a massive technology company. In the Avengers world, it’s mostly Stark Industries, spearheaded by Iron Man and his genius friends.

Technology companies tend to play important roles in a lot of super hero films, often assisting the heroes and the their foes in equal measure.

Samuel L. Jackson

Another similarity between the two films is the presence of Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson plays Nick Fury in the Marvel films and lends his voice to Frozone in the Incredibles. They are different characters of course, Nick Fury leads the superheroes and Frozone technically is one, but Jackson is memorable in both.

Family dynamic

And finally, both films explore work-life balance. Even superheroes struggle with how to manage their time and responsibilities. The Incredibles portrayed these life lessons a little more comically than the Avengers, but both offered relatable insights.

I can’t say that any of my personal choices are as significant as choosing whether to save the planet or my individual family, but I can certainly relate to the stress of making constant trade-offs. Right now, for example, I most certainly should be wearing my parental hat rather than my blogging one.

Conclusion

So with that I’ll wrap it up. I could probably come up with a few more ways Incredibles 2 is similar to Avengers: End Game but I’ll stop with seven.

Are they silly? Sure. But it added a little fun to my Monday.

Hopefully it did the same for you too.

Add a little (superhero) magic to your world!