The Avengers Directed by Joss Whedon

Our society tells us that we have two spectrums of gender. A person can either be feminine or masculine. Masculinity says the man has to be strong, lead, a provider, and a protector. Truthfully, there is not any man that has all those traits. Looking at Bruce Banner from The Avengers and Steve Rogers from Captain America: The First Avenger, masculinity is not lacking. Only factor that is missing is the psychological trait from Banner since he has not yet accepted who he really is yet. This continues to hinder him from being a true protector. Rogers is missing the moral part, since he comes from a different time period where corruption was not prominent in our nation. His soldier mentality is hindering him from being a leader. These two heroes, affected by a chemical reaction, are the epitome of physical masculinity, but they are both lacking in their own ways.

In The Avengers, Banner was a very quiet and introverted or reclusive. In The Hulk movie, Banner had a hard life. His father, Brian Banner, hated him because he believed that Banner was affected by his work and was mutated. In the first scene, it shows Banner as a boy sitting in a corner neglected. His mom love for him caused his dad to hate him even more. Brian Banner killed his wife and this caused rage to build up within Bruce.

Banner’s anger has always been the one emotion he tries his hardest to hide from. This feeling of anger started with his family. Once he was exposed to the gamma radiation, the chemical fed on his anger. Whenever he feels rage he turns into a huge green monster. When Banner is in the India helping sick people in The Avengers, the audience already gets a glimpse of him isolating himself. Banner does not want to be noticed or found. Even when he ...

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...n The Avengers, the transformation with Banner occurred psychologically and with Rogers when he challenges himself to challenge his superiors. In the end, they both found that their masculine exteriors could help their inner self. Their masculine interiors they were lacking in their original movies, Banner being his acceptance of who he is and Rogers being that of always doing what is right, they both made the change to better themselves as a hero.

Works Cited

The Avengers. Dir. Joss Whedon. Perf. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, and Chris Hemsworth. Marvel Studios. 2012. Year.

The Hulk. Dir. Ang Lee. Perf. Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliot, and Josh Lucas. Universal Pictures. 2003. Film.

Captain America: The First Avenger. Dir. Joe Johnston. Perf. Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Samuel L. Jackson, and Hayley Atwell. Marvel Studios. 2011. Film.