One of the main criticisms repeatedly directed at the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the humor-heavy approach that’s become the franchise’s stock-in-trade over the last 14 years, with the template set in Iron Man having rarely if ever been deviated from since.
Obviously, it would be a huge and incredibly jarring tonal shift were a movie or Disney Plus series to play things with a completely straight face from start to finish, but many fans are starting to grow weary of the relentless quips and one-liners. As it turns out, though, the MCU has its fair share of brutal asides that left audiences shocked by how cold they were.
For the most part, it’s all been fun and games in Kevin Feige’s superhero sandbox, but Redditors have been sharing the lines of dialogue that made them let out a collective gasp, if only for how hard against the MCU’s typical tide they swam.
Doctor Strange’s name comes up more often than not, given that the former surgeon is generally regarded as a bit of a pompous asshole, but almost everything that comes out of Willem Dafoe’s mouth when he goes full Goblin mode in Spider-Man: No Way Home is worthy of consideration, too.
Even the normally-reserved Pepper Potts get in on the action, specifically when denigrating the reporter who Tony Stark “did a spread on” a reporter in one of the MCU’s most blatant and wince-inducing double entendres. Ultron, who wasn’t exactly here to make friends, put his point across succinctly when stating his mission was to have “people look to the sky and see hope, I’ll take that from them first”.
Sure, it might be a very levity-dependent operation, but the MCU knows when to turn the screw.
