She-Hulk’s KEVIN is a bizarre Marvel in-joke brought to life
With more than 100 hours spread across movies, Disney Plus series, and questionably canonical Netflix shows, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is brimming with GIF-able moments that fuel a collective internet zeitgeist. The memes and moments range from direct pulls (“I understood that reference”) and slightly modified scenes (“I see this as an absolute win”) all the way to full-on remixes that sample from the MCU to create something wholly unique, yet still very much connected.
For my money, there is one MCU reaction GIF that stands above the rest. In just a few looping seconds, it manages to incorporate more than three dozen Marvel moments while placing at its center one of the most influential figures in the MCU, albeit one that has never actually appeared on screen. Because of this, its spread is largely limited to Marvel-centric discussions between those who know — an extremely potent in-joke, yes, but an in-joke nonetheless.
This week’s She-Hulk finale, “Whose Show Is This?”, paid homage to, if not the GIF directly, then to the ethos that inspired it. And it did so with a much larger production budget.
[Ed. note: The rest of this post contains spoilers for the She-Hulk finale.]
The GIF is a work of art. We open on the frowning head of Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, superimposed onto the body of the all-powerful Architect, a pivotal character from 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions. On either side of him are 36 monitors, each playing a different scene from a Marvel movie — and not just the MCU but also X-Men, Deadpool, and even Fantastic Four. It’s the best and worst of its cinematic history, with Spider-Man’s debut in Civil War just two spots away from Vinnie Jones screaming “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch.” Throughout
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