The Typography of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase 3 & 4

Phase Three marks an era of change for the Marvel Cinematic Universe…

For one, by the time Phase Three’s first film – 2016’s Captain America: Civil War – was in full production, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was able to break the production company off from Marvel Entertainment. Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter infamously cut corners, held up development on features based on Black Widow, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther (he was firm that female and black superheroes weren’t a sell), and also made a few directors walk from their films. Edgar Wright and Patty Jenkins are prime examples, and Joss Whedon talked about how making Avengers: Age of Ultron pushed him to the breaking point.

Thus, it is no surprise that the films of Phase Three showcase more confidence than the earlier MCU films, and a little less reliance on overt connectivity with previous films in the Infinity Saga. This is reflected in their visuals, too, but is it reflected in their logos? Let’s see…

Starting with a sequel, we get something standard and expected…

Basically repeating the design scheme of the Winter Soldier logo, Civil War has what you’d expect from this kind of movie. Captain America’s post-Avengers adventures are decidedly more grounded, a little rougher than the high-flying thrills of Iron Man’s movies or the big fantasy of the Thor chapters. Thus the typography here is a little more basic, but the letterforms do suggest something hard-hitting.

Captain America: Civil War‘s subtitle is named after the 2006 Marvel story of the same name, and much like that comic storyline, the existing Marvel superheroes fall into disagreement over the government’s plan to regulate superheroes. The bigness of the “Civil War” subtitle perfectly lines up with the stakes: Superheroes vs. superheroes, several Avengers being present in the movie, and of course Captain America’s own plot: His search for a still-rogue, still brainwashed Winter Soldier, continuing right where The Winter Soldier left off.

After Civil War changed the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the next Phase Three movie would scratch at something even bigger than what we’ve already seen in these movies… The ideas of sorcery, and the multiverse…

Doctor Strange doesn’t exactly go all in with its ideas, but it does do a fine job at introducing them into the pre-established universe of this series. It’s a bit like the first Thor movie if you will, it indeed shows us stuff we haven’t seen in the universe of Iron Man and Captain America and Thor and all, but it grounds a lot of it so that it’s not too much to take in for non-comic fans. This logo reflects the more magical/sorcery side of the movie, despite being a simple san-serif logo, it’s meant to fit in with the imagery we’re seeing in the credits.

The print logo is more distinctive.

While still kind of basic, the reflective textures and small, subtle flourish on the connecting “R” and “A” in “Strange” says it all. This is a less techy/wham-blam actioner, and more of a magic and fantasy-based story. It’s more Thor than Iron Man, but even more different. Something grand and maybe on the cerebral side?

We then reunited with the cosmic a-holes, the Guardians of the Galaxy, in their second adventure, aptly titled Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Same great logo, and the integration of “Vol. 2” as a blocky, neon set of letterforms is brilliant. Very 80s, very spacey, very sci-fi, fits the super-fun opening perfectly as well.

The print logo by contrast is a couple of paint strokes, which still nonetheless lines up with the logo and the tone of the movie. Has a very rock/metal vibe to it, which aligns with the film’s 70s/80s soundtrack, repeating one of the elements that made the first film soar.

Interestingly, during the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios put out an early sort-of mock-up logo for this sequel.

I love how “2” is just kind of scribbled haphazardly over the logo. While it’s clearly just an early, tentative logo, I still feel the way that “2” was put on there isn’t far off from the spirit of both movies. There’s a silly, fun feel to it that isn’t so removed from what’s in both of those movies.

Marvel Studios followed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was distributed entirely by Columbia and Sony Pictures. After Sony tripped up with their second live-action Spider-Man movie series (The Amazing Spider-Man films), they made a historic deal with Marvel Studios. Marvel Studios was able to make Spider-Man movies of their own and have the character appear in the other chapters of their multi-film saga, Sony would sit back and distribute and collect the money from this endeavors. Joint-custody of Spider-Man, basically, and this allowed Sony to continue making Spider-Man films of their own that have nothing to do with the MCU: Venom and its sequels, and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and its planned sequels.

Since this movie was following two live-action iterations of the character, something unique had to be created.

The in-film version of the logo matches the collage-like nature of the end credits, blending nicely… The real print logo…

These letterforms are so nice to look at and are A LOT of fun. They’re sci-fi like, and also have that buggy/insect kind of appeal. More than stands out from the Sam Raimi trilogy’s logo, which will *always* look very arachnid-like and cool.

And certainly the Amazing Spider-Man duology’s logos, which look kind of generic in hindsight.

 

Let’s talk about the “Homecoming” subtitle for a second… I like how it’s written on there like any given high schooler writes in a notebook, as Peter Parker is a high school student and the MCU has wisely kept him in that age group. The previous film iterations quickly sent Parker off to college, but the MCU series continues to keep him in school, even in the face of such life-altering events. *cough**cough*The snap*cough*

An early logo for Spider-Man: Homecoming wrapped the text so that it would resemble the comics logo:

Sony Animation’s Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse ended up using a variation of the exact comic logo, fitting, as that film was the most comic book a comic book movie has ever gotten…

Next up came, for a guy who loves 80s aesthetics and such, a personal favorite… Thor: Ragnarok.

 

This logo is just perfection, and we didn’t even start with the in-film logo… The shading and color work on “Ragnarok” is 80s. To. The. Max. Movies, video games, comics, you name it.

Visually, Thor: Ragnarok just looks like a lost 80s fantasy movie that could sit comfortably alongside the titles shown above, and many more. Aesthetically, it’s a night-and-day difference from the more formal Thor and Thor: The Dark World. It went into overdrive on the kooky kozmik elements, boosted the heck out of the color palette, and then some. This is well-reflected in the posters.

Oh, and also Thor’s name is in a cool 80s-style font as well. Very blocky, sci-fi, the whole nine yards. Everything about this logo is perfect. The film itself has fun with the design… The opening integrates it into the imprint left by the bifrost in the bonkers opening sequence, and blends in the cosmic Sakaar flourishes to great effect. The end credits version does the same…

To think that we almost got *this* for the film’s logo… This must’ve done up well before Taika Waititi signed on to direct the film and take the Thor side of the MCU his way…

Basically The Dark World‘s design all over again. Not that it’s bad, as I looked at it in the previous part and had nothing but good to say about it, but it doesn’t fit the movie…

Next up is Black Panther, a film with two separate logos…

In-film, the title resembles the Wakandan alphabet, which is even used for location title cards throughout the story. The letters appear, and then flip to reveal what they mean in English.

It’s very subtle and nice-looking, and I can only imagine why they didn’t use it on the posters and promo materials…

But this logo is no slouch either. It definitely feels more comic book-like and less sci-fi, probably less Wakandan, too. The points on the letterforms feel like the sharpness of the character’s vibranium claws, though. The size of the “P” and “R” are a nice touch, too, and the overall logo works fine on a poster…

… Though I feel that the in-film logo is more successful.

After a few sequels and a couple of solo films, a new Avengers was next… It, too, was not the finale of the phase. Far from it, it was PART ONE of a two-part epic. Avengers: Infinity War…

Much like the first two Avengers movies, the title card appears the same way, same rotating animation and all. This would be the first Avengers movie to be directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. Of course, they directed Part Two, which was Avengers: Endgame. “Infinity War” is in a more basic serif font, suggesting something serious is about to go down in this installment, something big…

The trailer and poster logo keeps in line with this scheme…

But another version of the logo was used for merchandise and other various promo stuff, and the “Infinity War” subtitle is less formal.

This one definitely looks more made-for-toys than the other one. It has a more typical blockbuster movie feel than a Marvel event.

Avengers: Infinity War, as we all know, ended on a major cliffhanger. Outside of fans who scrounged up every news bit they could find, most audiences – many of whom probably have never read the comics – weren’t aware that Infinity War was the first part of a two-parter, so its abruptly dour ending certainly shocked many who weren’t prepared. Part Two wasn’t going to appear right after it, you had to wait almost exactly another year…

In the mean time, we got two movies that functioned as breathers… The first of which was Ant-Man and the Wasp, and its placement – two months after the release of Infinity War – seemed strange at first… That was, until you saw the mid-credits scene of the movie, which revealed what happened to Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Hope van Dyne/The Wasp, Hank Pym, and Janet van Dyne during The Snap.

Ant-Man and the Wasp‘s logo is basically a slanted version of the first film’s logo, with “The Wasp” added…

This time we have some really nice shiny borders, and a carbon fibre/honeycomb-like texture within the letterforms. As expected, the in-film title card is different.

It at least tries to keep the overall style of the “Ant-Man” font that we saw in movie one. Considering that this appears during the credits, a series of cool diorama images, it fits.

Next up was an origin story set well before the events of Iron Man, a film that felt like it belonged in Phase One more so than anything… Captain Marvel.

Big, groovy, and nice to look at… Came with nice variants, too!

The simplicity works in its favor, because Captain Marvel is many things. She’s one of Marvel’s most powerful characters, as a galactic fighter with ridiculously cool abilities. Most of her movie, however, is set on Earth circa 1995, so the logo has a bit of a restraint to it that works in its favor. It is certainly not the comics Captain Marvel logo, which was what Marvel Studios originally wanted to use for the movie.

Now that one is more galactic-looking and neon-like, definitely a bit on the 80s side as opposed to the movie’s mid-90s setting, and the scratched paint gives it a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe. Maybe for the sequel, they’ll ditch the current one and go with this. I think they should, because now that the origin and Avengers: Endgame are out of the way, the sequel will likely be set entirely in outer space. Changing gears with the logos will only add to that, methinks.

With the two in-between treats over and done with, Marvel struck back with the second part of the epic and the climax of their first three phases… Avengers: Endgame. Still in theaters, I’m unable to use high quality screencaps of both this film’s logo and Spider-Man: Far From Home‘s logo. However, Avengers: Endgame‘s logo is literally the same as Infinity War‘s, except it says “Endgame”.

Print logos… That I can do!

This logo appeared on pretty much all of the film’s promo materials, so no bold sans-serif typeface was used for “Endgame” like they did with Infinity War. I like how “Endgame” is the same font, but italicized and without the two bars sandwiching it. Fits perfectly underneath the slanted “Avengers”.

By contrast, the logo in the trailers does the sandwich bars thing, but it still looks nice enough. I think the italicized “Endgame” is the better logo…

Spider-Man: Far From Home was the closing to Phase Three, the entire Infinity Saga, a more lighthearted epilogue to the massive, intense battle for the universe.

Same scheme, but now the logo is suitably red. “Far From Home” still reads like a high school notebook scribble, very nice. The in-film title card is pretty much the same, too, it mixes it in with collage imagery in a credits sequence that resembles the first film’s credits sequence.

… Of course, it isn’t over… Far from it.

What lead me to write this post in the first place was the big Phase Four reveal event that Marvel Studios had at Comic-Con this past weekend… The titles and logos for the next set of films have been revealed, a slate that goes all the way up to the autumn of 2021… The titles and logos are some of Marvel’s best yet. At this point? They have 21 blockbusters (the odd duck out, again, is The Incredible Hulk, which failed to break even at the box office in the summer of 2008) in a successfully interconnected movie universe under their belt, including a film that is now the world’s highest-earning movie ever. At this point, they can just do whatever… And they did… Phase Four, from the looks and sounds of it, is wild, and that is DEFINITELY due to its logos.

Black Widow… Lots of late 90s/early aughts European action thriller vibes. The integration of the black widow spider’s red is a lovely touch.

Eternals… Simple, but cosmic and grand-looking. Doctor Strange is what I immediately think of.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings… Appropriately martial arts-esque, from the stylized “Shang-Chi” to the font used for the subtitle. The subtle Ten Rings logo in the background adds to it greatly.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness… First of all, excellent title. I love how Marvel Studios is just going ALL-IN on the comic booky elements now. A huge step up from the first film’s logo, “Doctor Strange” looks like it’s written in a font fit for a dark 80s fantasy movie. Get a load of those sharp ends to the “R”s, trailing off like scimitar claws. “Multiverse of Madness” looks even darker and more sinister, what with those letterforms and blood-red coloring. It was announced that this would be the first full-on horror film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You already have me sold with that logo…

Thor: Love and Thunder… If Thor: Ragnarok‘s logo was super 80s, this is even… More super 80s. Godly indeed, and the colors hint that it’ll be – visually – just like Ragnarok, since the same director (Taika Waititi) is returning to the helm and will be writing it, too. Also, like the Doctor Strange sequel title, it’s just a perfect title.

Comic-Con attendees were, for whatever reason, shown a different version…

via Inverse

This one is also very appealing, and I hope it appears on promo materials or somewhere else.

Blade… After a bunch of logos that were distinct and packed so much information, this one is strikingly minimalist. The contrasting gray and white pieces of the sharp, almost vampire fang-looking letterforms hint at something that’ll not shy away from the previous Blade movies’ R ratings. Shadowy, almost Batman: The Animated Series vibes with this one (wrong universe!), methinks.

In addition to the movies, we got the logos for the upcoming Disney+ Marvel TV shows that’ll be crucial to Phase Four. For the first time, Marvel Studios put their all into announcing shows, while being more wishy-washy on the Netflix Marvel shows (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, etc.) and even the ABC show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to an extent. Most of the logos for these shows and the fact that they made them a big part of their presentation speaks volumes.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier aligns nicely with the two Captain America sequels, and the integration of the shield is top-notch. WandaVision is such a kooky 50s-sounding title to begin with, so the neon oven-looking logo just matches it so nicely, even if the title and logo may not even match the tone of the show, whatever it may be. What If…? looks pretty standard, Hawkeye does a cool job integrating an arrow target and the arrow on the “h” has something of a 60s spy vibe to me. The simple lowercase typeface adds to that as well.

The Loki logo, however, has attracted some mockery. Given that Loki is the God of Mischief, I think the logo is intended to look all incongruous! One person, can’t remember who, pointed out that this was the joke: Loki stole aesthetics from separate movies and made a logo out of them! The show is ostensibly about Loki going through history and altering events to suit him. I think with this in mind, the logo alternately is delightfully foolish and silly, perfect for someone who gets into a lot of trouble. Loki is also just very silly-looking, from his costume to his demeanor, while he can still muster up pure menace, a trickster still has to have some element of comedy to him. The logo arguably matches that, it’s intentionally sloppy and hideous. Or… This is just a joke prototype, a sort of prolonged April Fool’s joke of sorts, and that a professional-looking logo will debut in time for the show’s first trailer.

I think we have seen quite an evolution at play here in the logo design for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This change in logo design is a reflection of the studio’s own climb, from a little enterprise making risky movies based on untested characters in a last-ditch effort to save themselves from bankruptcy, to the massive force they are today. Phase One’s logos are decidedly a little more plain than usual, as most of them skew more “summer blockbuster” than Marvel Comics, with the exception of the Avengers print logo. During Phase Two, we saw Marvel Studios slowly branch beyond what they established in the first four years of the MCU. After three sequels, you had Guardians of the Galaxy and you had Ant-Man, more off-kilter flicks that introduced more comic-like logos.

Phase Three, as mentioned earlier, was when Marvel Studios was eliminating their ties with Marvel Ent. executives and a “creative committee” that was compromising a majority of the movies they made. The movies made during Phase Three are a little more confident in themselves, a little weirder, a little more comic booky, a little more this, a little more that. The logos, for the most part, line up with this change. With Phase Three over, 22 movies under their belt, and one big climax that got everyone to the theaters… Marvel Studios can really explore now. The movies they have planned more than say this, and so do the logos…

One can only imagine what Phase Five’s logos are going to look like. One can only imagine what kind of movies we’ll get during Phase Five…