Deconstructing the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the security/popular architecture of American identity and threat perception

The film has become increasingly popular and more accessible in the age of globalization. Superhero genre especially from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) can be considered as the manifestation of global politics as it has shaped and represented how we think and visualize global politics and their security architectures. Moreover, in the field of international relations (IR), though some theories especially mainstream have been applied to the film studies, the MCU especially the latter series have never been untouched. This paper mainly uses theory of post-structuralism and the concept of architecture as event space introduced by Michael Shapiro in order to illustrate how films can portray the American identity, with the emphasis of identity of victim and savior, and how threats are perceived in the US foreign policy discourse, from terrorism, disaster, pandemic, national security, and human security. This paper selects four films i.e., The Avengers, Avengers : Age of Ultron, Avengers : Infinity War, and Avengers Endgame as case studies. In addition, the paper also examine how the concept of architecture of security such as buildings and locations throughout the series have played significant roles in emphasizing hidden meanings and agendas in global politics. Finally, the paper also discover the challenge on existing hegemonic discourses, such as the discourse of men as ‘protector’ and the discourse of Africa as ‘backward and uncivilized’.