Learning ethics − one Marvel movie at a time

Yahoo

05-03-2025

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.
Ethics in the MCU
As a die-hard fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I rewatch the movies and series on a regular basis. As an ethicist, I can't help but notice that the MCU raises some really tough moral questions.
Yes, the movies are about monsters and magic and things exploding, but they are also about racial prejudice, power and obligation, artificial intelligence, biotechnological enhancement and colonization. They center complicated questions about right and wrong, moral character and unintended consequences.
The more I rewatched them, the more I was convinced that this would be a great way to introduce students to the study of ethics. So when my time came again to offer a first-year seminar, I constructed one around watching superheroes at work. Leading new college students through an ethical analysis of Marvel movies seemed like an opportunity to work on useful intellectual skills in a low-pressure environment. Not a bad way to start college!
I structured the course around specific moral questions and then used an MCU film or series to get the students thinking about those questions.
For instance, the challenges faced by the female protagonist in 'Captain Marvel' gave us an opportunity to talk more broadly about gender, empowerment and respect for women's leadership, as did the brutal reaction to the movie by some comic book bros.
The antagonist in 'Black Panther' takes over the African country of Wakanda in order to ignite a global anticolonial uprising, and we used his perspective to think about the ethics of racial oppression, reparations and violent resistance.
Captain America's best friend, Bucky Barnes, who was captured and brainwashed into serving as a covert assassin for decades, has to deal with the consequences of his actions once he recovers his true self. Bucky's situation invited us to talk about the relationship between intention and complicity in our moral judgments.
And the most fascinating conversation I had in the entire semester was about the utilitarian calculus of the supervillain Thanos, who appears in the 'Infinity War' and 'Endgame' films. Overpopulation led to the destruction of Thanos' home planet, and his fear that the whole cosmos could meet a similar fate drives him to wipe out half of all life in the universe.
Was he justified? Our discussions explored the ethical limits of utilitarian calculations. To my shock, half of the class eventually came to the conclusion that Thanos may have had a moral point.
While it is helpful to talk about moral responsibility theoretically, or with reference to real headlines, narrative is another useful way to get students to think about the ethical choices people make and how we make them. This is one way the arts and humanities can serve the liberal arts project, preparing young people for democratic citizenship.
Stories serve as fictional but concrete 'case studies' through which students can think about themselves and others as moral actors. By focusing on other characters, stories encourage our moral imagination and empathy. Rather than reducing ethical issues to abstraction, stories remind us that moral choices are made within particular circumstances and relationships.
Our main 'texts' for the semester were movies and series we watched and discussed with certain moral questions in mind. In conjunction, we read short pieces on ethical theory to give students a tool kit for analyzing those issues. Authors ranged from classical writers such as Aristotle and 19th-century philosopher John Stuart Mill to more modern perspectives such as Martin Luther King Jr., theologian James Cone and philosopher Martha Nussbaum.
We also read parts of two awesome books making similar connections: 'The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe,' edited by Nicholas Carnes and Lilly J. Goren, and 'Marveling Religion,' edited by Jennifer Baldwin and Daniel White Hodge.
I hope the course provides students a fun chance to develop capacities for ethical thinking at the beginning of their college career. Public discourse in the United States, which is the focus of my teaching and scholarship, could use more citizens with greater skill in moral discernment, and these days we all could use more fun. Why not do something that is entertaining but also has intellectual integrity and social usefulness?
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: James Calvin Davis, Middlebury
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James Calvin Davis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.