I agree with both Matt and ita !. I like it as a metaphor for the 99%, but as itself? Yeah, I don't really see how the existence of gods and monsters raises the bar for ordinary humans in any way that Tony Stark didn't already. Stark is totally human and embodies what "the everyman" wants to be and almost no one can be: rich, powerful, and popular. (Honestly, no one gives a shit about smart, unless smart makes you rich.) At first I didn't even realize Mike P. was talking about gods and monsters; I thought he was literally talking about the 1%, as evidenced by his rage outburst at his boss.
I can see people freaking out over the gods and monsters. I can see people envying them. I just can't see the average person actually comparing themselves in any meaningful way with them. We admire them, dress up as them, take them as role models for certain qualities we want, but we don't decide we're shit and our lives are meaningless because we can't fly or turn into a rampaging giant.
I saw where he was coming from. Mike was struggling just to be a man providing for his family, and now there are these other people out there to show him another level he wasn't going to be able to achieve, people his son admired. He'd been actively trying to match superpowered heroes, and he was failing at that too. Last straw time.
At first I didn't even realize Mike P. was talking about gods and monsters; I thought he was literally talking about the 1%, as evidenced by his rage outburst at his boss.
I think the gods & monsters were the last straw. One more bar set impossibly high.
If the supers are a metaphor for the 1%, how different should the relevant speeches be?
I was thinking about how the pilot gave us another guy whose super-powers gave him rage issues, and I realized we also have:
-A crack female agent with issues with her past
-a crack male agent who's shown to have an affinity for ranged weapons and high places
-a tech genius
-A leader who was apparently dead for a while and is now alive.
It doesn't quite match up perfectly, even if you stretch it to cover Skye as "Untrustworthy outsider who triggers the first mission together" but it's kind of cute.
I think we have a crack male agent who shot a gun from above. Affinity for high places is a bit strong for "best angle was the mezzanine."
Three tech geniuses muddies the waters a little bit too.
re: the tech geniuses--I wish we'd be able to get a guest shot of Stark strolling in to accept adulation and competitiveness from the Science Babies and to plant bugs all over the place--which Coulson will stroll along after removing.
when did folks hear Skye call Mike "Gunn"?
