H. G. Well’s Law states that a science fiction or fantasy story should contain only one extraordinary assumption. This law has always fascinated me and been something I love to think about whenever I watch or read science fiction or fantasy, and though some people don’t like restrictions such as this one when it comes to writing fiction, for me it makes the impossible seem just a little more plausible. In Harry Potter magic exists in secret. In Star Wars everything tales place in a galaxy far, far away. And I can’t even count the number of stories that take place after some apocalyptic event has occurred or is about to occur. However, every time I watch a Marvel Avengers movie combining a multitude of stories and characters, I can’t help but think, “Does Marvel not follow this law?” Marvel even adapted H.G. Well’s book The Invisible Man into a comic, but the Avengers still colors way outside of the lines of his law. If we look at each story separately they all appear to work within the confines of the law: Spiderman is bit by a radioactive spider, Captain America is injected with a super serum, and Iron Man is a genius with a ridiculous amount of money. But when they all come together and the crazy powers of superheroes such as Doctor Strange are combined with aliens in Guardians of the Galaxy, things get a little dicey. When creating Avengers movies, the Marvel Cinematic Universe creates a lot of extraordinary assumptions for the understandable purpose of creating a lot of money and captivating their audiences. Stan Lee’s mind was insanely impressive to come up with all of the storylines in his comics and I will always hold him in high standing for that, but while watching Avengers movies I can’t help but feel as if it all is a little too unbelievable.
Indeed! Many extraordinary things happen at once in superhero/villain narratives. I would not, in fact, considers Marvel and DC comics SF, for this (and other) reasons. There are certainly SF elements (e.g., the ones you mentioned), but the focus is not on how science and technology, or some form of future or alternate world, challenge us to think about what is happening now (or critique the now), or imagine consequences of the now. Superhero narratives are more like “hero” and straight adventure fiction. Even _Doctor Who_ leans in this direction.
This is a great point! Marvel definitely trends away from H.G. Well’s law and it can leave the viewer a little overwhelmed, but I think you had the right point that the aim is to captivate audiences, not create something believable.