My Marvel(ous) Shenanigans

I am sitting in a café, grabbing a bite of pizza and peeping outside through the glass wall when the world I have known for so long looks unfamiliar to me. The metro over-bridge splits into two halves and the train is hanging down barely with its engine on the track. The cars running on the street are being sucked into a wormhole. The buildings keep bending and twisting and warping into different dimensions. The sign boards seem floating in the air like fleeting spaceships. People keep appearing and disappearing from the café like they are in some time loop. Their apparels, jewelries, appearances and everything around seem strange to me.

No, I have not been diagnosed with any Psychotic illness. It was the enormous dose of Marvel movies that I had indulged myself into for a fortnight before watching the recent release of ‘Spider Man - No Way Home’. My husband wanted to watch this movie with me, like a real movie fanatic.

If it hadn't been for another new year resolution of growing our couple bonding stronger (errrrr), by no means would I have succumbed to the mission of watching twenty three movies in less than a fortnight. I was all game for the Marvel marathon madness.

To be honest, I was never a superhero movie fan. Drawing connections between the characters or picking up the Marvel's easter egg from the 20th movie down the Marvel saga timeline - always seemed daunting to me. To add to the conundrum were the concept of parallel universes, numerous superheroes, their unique powers, catchphrases and character chemistry. No matter how standalone these movies were meant to be or how insignificant the connections were in terms of enjoying the real thrill of the blockbusters, these little missing pieces of stories always kept me away from cherishing the movies.

I began my mission with the Phase - I Iron Man (2008) movie and I totally loved it. What started as a crazy-couple-challenge became an obsession. I began hurrying back to my room straight from work (no family pleasantries, no how-was-the-day formalities), let kids have their extended playdates, bent the house ‘screen-time’ rule, subtracted the family-ritual time, stayed up late nights, turned around every opportunity around ‘me-time’, and binge-watched the movies. My movie diet which had gone up by like a thousand percent in the last eight years' time, once superheriocally assigned my dream to find the connection between Kree and Ronan.

I began adoring these superheroes and started craving for more of these movies. I loved how Marvel pursued the characters and gave a crisp story arch to them. From powered armor suits, to enchanted hammer, bug-bite power, mystic art, human experiments, radiations, and size-altering suits - every hero is a uniquely weaved character that leaves you with no choice but to marvel at them. Even the villains like Loki, Hela or Thanos have charisma that tempts you to check out the dark-side.

The Marvel movie marathon turned out to be the best end-year stint ever. Being able to finally watch the Spider Man - No Way Home movie with my husband, didn't only check my list but also harnessed more of such crazy goals to come. More than comprehending the characters or relating to their underlying stories, I could hoot during the movie, wait for the after-credit scene, follow the Spiderman subreddit and discuss the movie way back home like a Marvel fan would do.

If you ask how these shenanigans went by? I would say: I can do this all day!