Marvel Cinematic Universe

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Fandom
Name(s): Marvel Cinematic Universe
Abbreviation(s): MCU, Earth-199999
Scope/Focus: Category:Marvel Cinematic Universe
Date(s): 2008-present
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Marvel Cinematic Universe (short: MCU) is the shared universe that is the setting of the superhero films originally based on Marvel comics. The movies are in Sagas and Phases, starting with Iron Man, Captain America and The Avengers, and including the TV shows since 2020. The earlier TV shows are in the same universes but not officially connected.

There are about thirty movies and TV shows in the MCU: for links on fanlore, see the Category:Marvel Cinematic Universe

Fandom

Fanfiction set in this movieverse focuses on the characters that appear in the movies, often using additional background information from the comics and Norse Mythology. Stories may include characters from other Marvel Comics-related films, such as Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and The X-Men. These kinds of character crossovers are (for the time being) non-canonical and unofficial as far as the movies are concerned; different film studios own the movie rights to the various characters. Sony owns rights to Spider-Man, Disney (previously Paramount Pictures) owns rights to The Avengers, and Fox owns rights to The X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Fans ignore these limitations, supported in this by the fact that in the Marvel Comics, all the characters of the Marvel Universe interact and often appear in each others' comics. The Fantastic Four and The X-Men have appeared in various fanworks dealing with the MCU, and depending on the author/artist the characters are influenced by their comicsverse, cartoonverse, or movieverse. Both teams have been a part of The Avengers in comics for many years.

Fanvids and fanart such as picspams also take a similar approach for the MCU fandom, adding additional characters from the other Marvel films.

See The Avengers Movieverse, Iron Man Movieverse, Captain America Movieverse, Thor Movieverse, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Captain Marvel for more details about the fandom specific to each sub-series.

Pairings

The most popular pairings tend be slash, but there is some change and flexibility in the pairings over time as the universe expands and different characters interact with each other and new characters are introduced, see List of MCU Relationship Names which has a listing for over a hundred pairings and their ship names. The most popular slash pairings as of 2021 are:

There is also a strong het following, usually around canonical pairings, such as Pepper Potts/Tony Stark and Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, or pairings that had close canonical friendships, the most popular being Clint Barton/Natasha Romanova and Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanova.

Femslash is considerably smaller than the slash and het fandoms, but it is still fairly large overall compared to other large western media fandoms. There is also a community of femslash fans that encourage the creation of fanworks through challenges and exchanges. The most popular femslash pairings tend to be in the television fandoms, with Peggy Carter/Angie Martinelli and Jemma Simmons/Skye being the most popular. On the movie side of the fandom Natasha Romanov tends to be the character most prevalent in femslash, with Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov, Natasha Romanov/Wanda Maximoff and Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanov being her most popular pairings.

Fanworks focused on crossover pairings, pairing MCU characters with original characters, and readerfic are also common.

Challenges

For a full listing of Fanlore articles on Marvel challenges see Category:Marvel Challenges

The Marvel fan community always encouraged the creation of fanworks through challenges, but the number and variety of challenges exploded after the introduction of the MCU, and has consistently expanded over the years, some examples being:

There were also other challenges such as gift exchanges, fanweeks, fests and kink memes. For perspective on the depth of past, and current, challenges see the List of Marvel Challenges

Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fanart

Fanfiction

See also Category:Marvel Fanfiction

Fanvids

See also Category:Marvel Vids

Podfic

General MCU Communities & Resources

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Meta/Further Reading

References


Related Links
People Hayley Atwell • Robert Downey Jr. • Tom Hiddleston • Stan Lee
Places
Things The Avengers Movieverse • Iron Man Movieverse • Captain America Movieverse • Thor Movieverse • Guardians of the Galaxy • Black Panther • Ant-Man • Captain Marvel • Spider-Man: Homecoming • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. • Agent Carter • Daredevil • Jessica Jones • Luke Cage • Iron Fist • The Defenders • The Punisher
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