I think one of the reasons the Marvel Cinematic Universe worked so dang well is actually very

understated and if you're not in the Marvel Cinematic

universe or don't even know what that means don't worry about it.

We're gonna make sense. We'll get past here in just a minute.

There's the action, there's the characters, there's the high adventure, there's the

very coherent plot, all of that is great

But the heart of the thing I think really connected with people they did a great job of making characters not just whose superpowers interacted well and created balance,

but whose weaknesses in their character and their personality, their insecurities and their

needs would all mesh up well with another character

who could address those needs or reassure those

insecurities or fears.

And I've told you this before, but one of my favorite scenes that does this

is in Age of Ultron when Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch are hunkered down

because Scarlet Witch is freaking out and they're robots outside that all sound

like Robert California and they're blowing everything up and she's never been in this kind of environment

before and she doesn't really know what to do and Hawkeye gives her this little pep talk that probably wouldn't work on you or me,

but it was exactly what she needed to hear and then she went and smashed a bunch of robots and

that's just what it looks like when you overcome your problems in an action comic book movie, but it's exactly that

customization in Hawkeye's speech that makes me love it so much. That is what she

needed to hear to understand what she was up against and overcome her fears.

Likewise, in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus has just finished explaining a giant open world

quest to his disciples that involves flogging. He has also explained

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