After I saw #Endgame and realized the arc came to an incredibly satisfying conclusion, I wanted to start watching them with the kids. We mostly followed the order laid out by my former BuzzFeed colleague, @JennaGuillaume, here, buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume…
@JennaGuillaume ...with one fuckup: We watched the first "Iron Man" first, not the first Cap. I regret it!
@JennaGuillaume But we watched "The First Avenger" second, which righted the ship. (@JennaGuillaume, if you wrote this now, would you make "Captain Marvel" No. 2, since it chronologically is that? I've been wondering for months.)
@JennaGuillaume They loved the movies from the start. That first "Iron Man" is very violent, so I wondered whether I'd made a mistake, but decided to ignore those feelings, and soldier on! Which sums up my approach to parenting, perhaps.
@JennaGuillaume There are also some sex jokes in that "Iron Man" they definitely didn't understand, and Tony has a one-night stand. They didn't get that either (I think).
@JennaGuillaume After each movie, we'd read Jenna's entry, and often we would have missed some character we'd seen before who turned out to be a HYDRA agent, or some reference to an Infinity Stone. But I never get those things, so the sooner my kids learn to look that shit up, the better.
@JennaGuillaume They loved Cap the most, but also thought Tony was hilarious, and admired his sarcasm. #CivilWar was painful viewing for them. But they ultimately were on Cap's side. As it should be!
@JennaGuillaume They thought Black Widow was very cool, especially because she doesn't have powers. They would frequently argue about who the strongest Avenger was, Thor or Hulk. Scarlet Witch was a strong contender as well. As was Doctor Strange!
@JennaGuillaume After watching "Guardians of the Galaxy," they declared it to be their favorite movie. Jenna recommends going straight into the sequel, and watching that one was our only disaster.
@JennaGuillaume They don't have a dad, so they identified with Peter's search for his, and I think had *feelings* about his reunion with Ego. When it's revealed that Ego gave Peter's mother the brain tumor that killed her, Frederick, the older one could not handle it. Because I had cancer.
@JennaGuillaume We had to pause the movie for a long time while he wailed: "Why would he do that????" It was terrible. I said we didn't have to keep watching, but he wanted to. Then Yondu died at the end, and let me tell you something: 6 year olds do not understand a noble death.
@JennaGuillaume Wally, who has never cried during a movie, was inconsolable. We tried to talk to him about how Yondu wanted to sacrifice himself, how Peter had looked for his father, but Yondu was really his father all along — nothing worked. And nothing should have worked! We all just hugged.
@JennaGuillaume I will say here that I disagree with Scorsese's premise that there are no stakes. (I'm not going to look up his exact phrasing, no desire to argue about this.) I held my sons as one wept for Yondu, and the other because Peter's shitty dad gave his mom cancer. There are stakes.
@JennaGuillaume They looooooooooooooovvvvvved "Black Panther." They loved him, but also totally saw Killmonger's point about spreading the wealth. They thought the Dora Milaje were incredibly cool.
@JennaGuillaume And along with our viewing of "Captain Marvel," I felt gratitude that I could show my young white sons aspirational characters who are women and people of color. I didn't have that.
@JennaGuillaume That's basically it! We watched #Endgame three weeks ago. They cheered during the final battle, screamed aloud when Cap wielded Mjolnir, cheered for the all-women Avengers scene (sorry, it's great!), and got emotional during the Black Widow and Tony stuff.
@JennaGuillaume We've discussed starting again from the beginning soon. The End.
