There’s something I’ve been wondering all throughout Phase 4 of the MCU. In every Marvel movie, there’s an epic battle between the heroes and whatever baddie has decided to hatch some evil plot. Sometimes the battles are quite public, like Loki’s attack on New York City or the Convergence over Greenwich in Thor: The Dark World. But others take place far away from any spectators, like the battle at the end of Endgame. So how to ordinary people find out what exactly happened?
Because average citizens seem to know every last intimate detail about what Marvel’s superheroes are up to. I only know the vaguest facts about the stuff I hear about on the news, but civilians in the MCU seem to know the starting lineup for every battle. They’ve somehow got the scoop on every last laser shot or punch. Take Spider-Man: No Way Home! Kamar-Taj is supposedly so secretive that Doctor Strange had never heard of it before visiting Nepal, yet when Ned enters the Sanctum Sanctorum, he’s starstruck. He even knows what the Sorcerer Supreme is (although he’s confused about who currently holds the title).
Now that Ms. Marvel has premiered and we get to see the MCU through the eyes of a fangirl who lives inside of it, it turns out that civilians know even more than we thought they did. The opening sequence of episode 1, “Generation Why,” is an animated sequence in which Kamala is describing the final battle in Endgame (and catching the audience up to speed, just in case anyone’s dropping into the MCU without having seen the Infinity Saga). Kamala doesn’t just give us an overview, though. She describes in minute detail everything that happens in the battle, right down to Carol Danvers punching through Thanos’s ship. How does she know!?
Then, at the Easter-egg-filled AvengerCon later in the episode3, there’s a minor revelation that felt like the final straw for me: a brief shot of a greeting card that shows Captain America sticking his butt out and saying, “You’re welcome, America.”
OH COME ON. That’s clearly a reference to the joke Scott makes during the time heist about Steve having “America’s ass.” No one was privy to that comment except Steve and Tony! So who’s divulging all this info to the masses? Are the Avengers holding press conferences? Exclusive tell-alls on 60 Minutes? Do they all have blogs?
Now I think we finally have our answer, though. It’s been Scott Lang all along. He’s been spilling the beans.
Scott Lang Has Been Working the Podcast Circuit
In the Ms. Marvel intro, Kamala mentions that she’s learned all about Carol Danvers from lots of “diligent studying of Scott Lang’s podcast interviews.” While she’s talking, we see a title card for This Powered Life with the episode title Big Me Little Me: a Scott Lang Interview, along with an illustration of Scott with his Ant-Man helmet and a bullhorn.
Can you imagine how all those interviews went? Can you just hear Scott regaling the interviewer with the story of a joke he himself told? Poor Scott was so disappointed in Endgame when that group of kids wanted a picture with the Hulk, but were absolutely uninterested in getting a selfie with him, too. It’s clear that it’s nothing personal—I mean, Steve and Natasha were sitting right there—but it still ruined Scott’s day. He wants a taste of that sweet Avengers fame, and he’s clearly willing to do as many podcast interviews as it takes.
Scott’s podcast tour might also explain why, in Rogers: the Musical, Ant-Man is present at the Battle of New York. Maybe a confused journalist asked Scott about a battle he wasn’t actually in, and he stretched the truth juuuuust a little? And the story grew until it ended up on Broadway, where Clint had to sit there and watch it?
Anyway, Scott Lang is the MCU’s honorary puppy dog and Paul Rudd is officially the sexiest man alive (look it up), so we need to hear those podcasts now. I want to hear the entirety of phases 1-3 recounted through Scott’s point of view, including (especially!) all the stuff he didn’t even take part in.
Take my money, Marvel. Take my money, get Rudd in a recording studio ASAP, and MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
(image: Marvel)
