Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett tells us what he learned from repeated viewings of the last several Marvel movies.

Last week (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--What I Did On My Summer’s Vacation") I wrote how after a great fall while my multiple injuries were being treated in an Emergency Room I was diagnosed with low sodium levels.  Which I know doesn't sound very serious but when left untreated among other things it can cause coma and death.  Apparently, mine was so low I was immediately sent to the Intensive Care Center Unit an experience which was… I think "waking nightmare" pretty much covers it.

When I was finally pronounced well enough I was transferred to a general ward which, along with not being a waking nightmare actually offered some actual amenities.  Like, free soft drinks, that is, until the doctors attempted to get my sodium levels nearer to normal by restricting my intake of fluids.  They were so restricted ice chips soon became a rare delicacy.

But distractions were provided, including wifi and big TVs and cable.  Included among the fairly decent lineup of channels was the hospital's own version of On Demand which offered a variety of "Family Friendly" versions of recent Hollywood movies.  Maybe it was due to my low sodium, which can apparently also cause "mental confusion," but in spite of the fact there were a number of films I had actually wanted to see but so far hadn't.  I seemed to find solace in watching the same set of movies over and over again.  And after seeing Valerian and the City of a Thousand Worlds an additional three times, not only do I continue to contend that it's a pretty good movie, I found that it also holds up well to repeated viewing.

Something that can also be said about the Marvel movies, which, for the record, didn’t need a whole lot of editing to be made "Family Friendly."  The only examples I could find were the elimination of a single word in Avengers: Age of Ultron (which completely ruined the running "Language!" bit), and a clean-up of some of the dialogue in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to be less harsh, which had the unexpected consequence of making it sound even sillier.  Over the course of a week I must have seen Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Thor: Ragnarok again three or four times each.  And without exception each time I found them to be endlessly entertaining.

I realize that’s just my opinion and there are those out there who don't like them.  To prove it all you have to do is type "Marvel movies" into the Google search engine and the next words to pop up are boring, bad, all the same, stupid and, my favorite, there.  They're also routinely accused of adhering to a strict formula, and if so, it's the same one followed by Hollywood back in the 1930s and 40s, when most movies were a mix of action, comedy, romance, drama, and music, offering something for everyone.

And like those old films, Marvel movies also offer that mix and are intentionally meant to be entertainment, which goes a long way to explaining their worldwide popularity and profitability.  You never know when you'll come across a fan, or who that fan might turn out to be.  I was watching a Marvel movie in the ward when a nurse came by and we got to talking. When I said what was on my mind, which was they really held up to repeat viewing, to my surprise she agreed with me.

It turns out that at home she had a 14-year-old daughter who was (in her words) obsessed with the Marvel characters and who had forced her into watching all of the movies, over and over.  And while she wasn't the fan of them her daughter was, she had to admit she enjoyed them a lot more than she had expected to.

And finally, because of the timing of its digital release, I was also able to see Avengers: Infinity War multiple times.  It's a remarkable movie, likely most remarkable for just how close it comes to replicating the science fiction/professional wrestling/soap opera feel of a comic book superhero epic.  Something I never thought that a large mainstream audience would be able to accept back when the first Iron Man movie came out in 2008.

I could easily write at great length about how much I enjoyed it and what about it I enjoyed the most, however, that has proved unnecessary, because "Leslie Jones Live-Tweeted Watching ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ for the First Time, and It’s Amazing."  Although she's known to be a fan of HBO's Game of Thrones, most people wouldn't expect the SNL cast member and former Ghostbuster to be a superhero fan.  But to directly quote one of her Tweets: "Man I love superhero movies.  Had a blue and light blue cape in six grade moms made it for a parade but I wore it way past the parade."

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.