I wasn’t sure whether I would make a series examining the logos of the ever-expanding, massively successful Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Having already done Pixar, and now covering the library of Disney animated features, I wasn’t sure if tackling Marvel logos would be worth it. For one, these films are newer and more contemporary, lots has been said about their logos and aesthetics… But after the studio’s latest presentation at the San Diego Comic-Con, including unveilings of upcoming Phase 4 movie titles and their respective logos, I just had to jump in and look at the evolution of their films’ logos. The designs we saw a few nights ago just really made me want to do this.
So without further ado, let’s start from the beginning… Iron Man.
Iron Man, being an early MCU movie, has two different logos: One for the film itself…
… and one for the posters, home video covers, and marketing materials…
Night and day difference, but both are suitably iron-like in texture. The one used in the movie itself has a more sci-fi kind of look, as we saw kind of a boom in thin, techy-looking letters a little after this film’s release. The print/poster logo has a more blockbuster “big” kind of feel to it, with a slight hint of militaristic, given Tony Stark’s background.
Iron Man kicked off the summer blockbuster season of 2008, and just a little over a month later, Marvel Studios debuted the second installment in their ambitious series. Iron Man was handled by Paramount, who were set to handle the other upcoming features in the series, should it have been successful. The Incredible Hulk, the 2nd film in the series, was a Universal release… And the only MCU movie to be a Universal release, which only adds to the more odd duck nature of the movie.
The Incredible Hulk sports a logo that was used simultaneously in the film and on the print/promo materials.
This isn’t one of my favorite MCU logos, because nothing about it really suggests THE HULK! Maybe the boldness of the sci-fi letterforms were meant to evoke this? Strangely enough, it’s bland compared to the logo used for Ang Lee’s 2003 film adaptation of the character, which boasted nice big, green, cartoonish letterforms.
Ones that looked very comic booky, even if they might’ve jarred with the tone and ambitions of that particular movie. I feel that the logo for the 2003 film, or at least one that was similar, was more appropriate for the film Marvel Studios made. Marvel Studios’ Hulk movie is more of a straightforward film with more action and a tighter pace, and not without some sillier elements, far away from the misguided though sometimes admirable Ang Lee film.
Because of a complicated rights issue between Marvel Studios and Universal, Hulk has never gotten a solo standalone movie since then. Bruce Banner/Hulk has instead appeared in Avengers movies and other peoples’ movies, notably Thor: Ragnarok. Banner also has a fun cameo in Iron Man Three. While The Incredible Hulk is still canon, it does feel like the odd duck out. Take out the Tony Stark cameo and some of the other MCU hints (most of which are in the opening credits sequence, such as a flash of the Stark Industries logo and a tiny glimpse of Captain America’s shield), and The Incredible Hulk could’ve very well been a mere soft reboot of the 2003 Hulk movie, unconnected to anything in the MCU. It also really does not help that Bruce Banner is portrayed by Edward Norton in the movie, who opted out of any future MCU installments, consequently being replaced by Mark Ruffalo. It also doesn’t help that very few characters appeared in future movies, threads weren’t continued, and few events were mentioned in later films… It’s almost as if this story didn’t happen.
Perhaps this rather okay logo just about sums it all up? At least it’s not bad on the eyes and is appealing enough. I can only imagine what a current Hulk movie logo would look like. Closest we got to getting Hulk’s name in a post-2012 movie title was, again, Thor: Ragnarok. “Thor & Hulk: Ragnarok”?
Iron Man 2 was the next film in the MCU, which was fast-tracked and rushed through production to meet a spring 2010 release date, a mere two years after the first film opened. It was also released mere months after The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment for roughly $4 billion, an occurrence that perhaps fully secured this series.
The film uses the exact same font for the title, only adding a corresponding 2.
A little shinier and flashier this time, not as muted in its color. This perhaps reflects where Tony Stark is at by the start of Iron Man 2. At the beginning of Iron Man, he’s nearly killed by the Ten Rings attack and for the first 30-or-so minutes of the film, he’s stuck making a clunky battle suit in a cave out in the middle of a desert. Iron Man 2? He’s a celebrity now, he IS Iron Man. Shiny suits that are sexy cars. Instead of gritty, I get complex but beautiful out of this logo.
The print logo? Same thing. The letterform colors are surprisingly muted here. I guess in the marketing, they were trying to push it as a sort of Dark Knight-like sequel, hinting that big things would go down in this installment, but in the movie itself, that quite did not happen.
The next two Marvel Cinematic Universe movies would prove to be a little bit of challenge. Now, Iron Man was already a big challenge to begin with, given that he was a relatively unknown character to the general public. While known to comic book fans and maybe people who caught the cheap animated series from the ’60s, he was certainly a country mile from the likes of Spider-Man and the X-Men. Of course, for those who don’t know, Marvel Studios could only use characters like Iron Man.
This was because they had given the movie rights to the prime cuts to other studios in the ’90s. Sony had Spider-Man and by the time Iron Man was filming, they had already released three blockbuster films based on the webhead. Fox was on X-Men movie number four when Iron Man was released, and they weren’t going to stop anytime soon. Marvel was in danger in the mid-2000s, after nearing bankruptcy in the 1990s. The plan to make a couple films about unknowns leading up to a big team-up movie was just one big do-or-die risk that they decided to take, and so the next two films in the series wouldn’t introduce overly familiar characters…
The first of these two films, both of which came out in the summer of 2011, was Thor. The Thor comics were a cosmic iteration of Norse mythology, far removed from the fast-paced tech world of Tony Stark and the science fiction of Bruce Banner’s world. Making this the next movie was a complete left turn. Perhaps this dive into a much different side of the MCU is reflected in the pair of logos done up for the film:
The in-film logo for Thor was never used elsewhere, and it is kind of strange-looking. The serif letterforms perhaps attempt to evoke a mythic/high fantasy aesthetic, but the color and shininess are definitely more space/sci-fi. It’s not a bad mix by any means, and it suits the film, but it’s far from perfect.
This logo is straight up medieval/fantasy movie, and very plain and formal. It doesn’t suggest the cosmic Asgard setting, but it does nicely align with the mightiness of the character and his adventure.
It looked nice on the posters and Blu-ray covers, too.
These actually match the tone of the movie more so than the setting and ideas. The first Thor movie is not without its campy humor and sometimes absurd scenarios, but the general feel of that movie is a mix of Shakespeare (not surprising, coming from director Kenneth Branagh) and a sort of Lord of the Rings-like approach. It’s just a straight up epic fantasy movie with some funny stuff. Not so much the Earth scenes, though, most of those felt like they came out of a TV thriller or something.
Thor was followed up by Captain America: The First Avenger. This was yet another left turn. Not only did have a hero who was old-fashioned and didn’t use fancy tech or fantastical powers, we had a hero who was loaded with a serum and became a super-soldier. His film is set in the 1940s…
Simple, but these letterforms nicely align with what we saw in the comics from time to time.
The font for the “First Avenger” subtitle is small, but subtle, the letters do kind of channel the ’40s setting. The posters and home media covers ditched that, and made the subtitle letterforms look like the main title.
Nice as this logo is, I feel it doesn’t quite capture the spirit of the movie, which goes for the pulpy nature of the Indiana Jones movies, and the classic serials and adventure films which that series is based on. Again, Marvel Studios was still finding their footing before gaining the confidence that they have now. All part of the logo evolution, though I bet if such a movie were made now in the MCU, the logo designers would’ve embraced the World War II era feel and some of the inherently campy elements that the film revels in.
On its own, though, this logo works fine.
Phase One ended with the event that brought all of these characters, plus two others who made more minor appearances – Black Widow and Hawkeye, together… The Avengers.
This title card is… Strangely kind of standard for such a big comic book event movie. Looks very Iron Man/Iron Man 2, right down to the textures and letterform shapes…
I much prefer the print logo, which is pretty much a remake of the comics Avengers logo that dates all the way back to the early 1960s…
Which also appears in the trailers…
I wonder why this wasn’t used in the film, or any of the future Avengers films. Those letterforms are fun, big, bold, comic booky, and that “A” within the half disc outline is just perfect. I love how the “The” is worked into the “A”‘s middle bar/arrow. Just great all around, and looks fine in textured form or more solid form… It wonderfully tells you, this is what is in store. Six heroes, an alien invasion, a mix of sci-fi and tech and magic and monsters and cosmic settings… All in one big team-up epic. The in-film logo, by contrast, just suggests a run-of-the-mill blockbuster.
Of course, as we all know, everything paid off wonderfully… The Avengers went on to become a critical hit and a box office record breaker, setting the stage for future Marvel movies and making the studio an envied bastion.
Would the movies of “Phase 2” boast more confidence in their presentation? Phase 2’s first three movies were continuations of Phase 1 movies: Iron Man Three, Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Iron Man Three? Why did I spell it out like that? Well, that’s how it’s presented in the film proper!
Okay, that’s a big change of pace right there. No more iron/metallic textures, no more unique letterforms even. It’s just an all-caps, bold, italicized “IRON MAN THREE”. For the first time, the title is after the movie ends. The other Iron Man films had the title cards at their respective starts. The reason Iron Man Three‘s logo looks like this is because the same font is used for the flashy credits.
The same print logo, however, is used for the all the poster and home releases.
The trailers used a different kind of logo, where a giant “3” within an arc reactor was centered…
This one actually works because of the broken look of the “3”. Tony Stark is compromised throughout most of Iron Man Three. He has PTSD from the events of The Avengers, his home and a lot of his work are destroyed – ostensibly – by a terrorist, and the one suit that saved him from near-death ceases to work a half hour into the movie. You could say Tony is as broken as that “3”. While Iron Man Three plays out more like a lost 80s detective/buddy cop movie, not dissimilar to director Shane Black’s other works, the trailers played it up as a very gritty, Dark Knight-like movie. Dour tone, bad things happening all around, Tony waging war on a world-feared terrorist. The teaser logo really fits that, and is such a 180 degree turn from the movie itself and its title card.
Iron Man Three is a classic case of marketing materials’ presentation of a movie vs. the actual movie itself. The trailers sold it as “darker and grittier Iron Man movie”, the movie itself is Shane Black’s Iron Man meets A Christmas Carol with hints of Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, etc. and loaded to the brim with laughs.
By contrast, Thor: The Dark World used one logo. The original Thor didn’t do that.
This logo leans in a little harder on the high fantasy/medieval vibes. The letterforms are very neat! The main title and the subtitle, the letters are appropriately mythic and mysterious. I especially love the pattern work within the letters spelling out “THOR”. A flexible design, too…
Everything about this one works. While I never cared for “The Dark World” as a title, I think this logo could’ve very well have been used for the first Thor. Understandably, making the first Thor movie was a big risk and they had to test some waters when it came to designing its logo. Marvel Studios had no problem this time, now that Thor Uno did well at the box office and The Avengers solidified the whole shared universe, thus they were able to create the kind of logo they wanted to.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a much different movie from its predecessor. With Steve Rogers living in the modern day, Captain America’s adventures would take on a different tone. The Winter Soldier traded the pulpy 40s aesthetics for a modern spy-thriller feel, with a dash of the ’70s political thriller. Understandably, this film’s logo had to be a little different.
Captain America’s name now really resembles the comic covers’ logo, and “The Winter Soldier” is given a stenciled look, suggesting the metallic arm and the nature of the character: Mysterious and deadly. It works so well, they didn’t have to alter it much for the poster.
After three continuations of previously established characters’ stories, the next Phase 2 film would function like Thor and once again kick a door open… An all-cosmic action-adventure called Guardians of the Galaxy.
When Marvel Studios and Disney first revealed plans to make this film at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, they debuted this work-in-progress logo for the film:
This logo has a bit of that early Phase 1 lack of confidence, as it is pretty standard… That said, the letterforms are least interestingly shaped. Some jutting points here and there, there’s a bit of a waviness to the whole thing as well, but it’s a prototype logo that was wisely dropped, so there isn’t much to say beyond that… It does kind of resemble the logo used for the early 90s iteration of Guardians:
Now, the official logo, used in the film and in print…
Much better. Blocky, slanty sci-fi letterforms and cool borders make this one pop. The symmetry is nice, too, especially the way the “Y” leads to the “S” on the right.
Even without the borders, it’s still a great typeface. This logo just simply sums up the movie: A fun, wild, and sometimes wacky 80s-tinged space action-adventure.
Three sequels, one adventure introducing a whole new set of characters… Phase Two continued, but didn’t end, with the second Avengers movie: Avengers: Age of Ultron…
As expected, the in-film title card and the print logo don’t deviate from the first film’s logos.
“The” no longer factored into this group, given that the Avengers team expands by the end of the film.
I like this. There’s some visual variety in here. “Avengers” is rendered in stone, perhaps suggesting the mightiness of the team, now that they protected the world once, and are going to do so again. During the credits sequence, we see statues of the individual Avengers, so this hints at that quite nicely. The stone texture says “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” Like modern myth. “Age of Ultron”‘s typeface, by contrast, is given a red, menacing, techy-sci-fi scheme. That’s how the titular villain appears.
For the print logo, the “Age of Ultron” subtitle is the least interesting aspect. It’s done in vaguely sci-fi-esque letterforms.
With that being said, some posters for Age of Ultron had fun with the Avengers “A”…
Cinemark theaters handed out an exclusive poster to those who saw the film in IMAX on opening weekend. My copy is stashed away somewhere, so I’ll leave you with just the image. This right here is a work of art:
So yes, strangely, Phase Two didn’t end with an Avengers movie… Instead of ending big, Phase Two ended small.
Super small. Tiny, actually… Ant-Man was the final film in the MCU’s second phase.
The in-film title card basically incorporates a very simple sans serif typeface into a sci-fi like image. Not much to write home about, though it does fit in with that film’s credits sequence. The print logo is a lot more distinctive and fun.
The big letterforms work well because of how big everything is to an ant and an ant-sized person.
It makes sense that these fun-looking letterforms are bold and thick. The little points on each letter gives the logo its stamp, while retaining a comic book-like feel.
In the next part, I’ll take a look at the logos for Phase 3 and the forthcoming Phase 4. So far, the logos for these films have been pretty strong, though because these are earlier MCU movies, there is still some development and evolution going on here…