Spartans, assemble!

San Jose State students competed amongst their peers in Marvel Trivia Night at the Student Union.

The friendly competition let students show off their knowledge on superheroes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel comic books.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe films are separated in five phases currently, and viewers are encouraged to follow this order to be familiar with this shared universe based on Marvel Comics.

The game was played in a similar way to “Jeopardy!,” where students picked from different categories like MCU Movie Mania, for a certain amount of points.

Using Trivia Maker, students raced to tap their phone screens in order to answer questions. The event coordinators announced the name of the fastest student and then brought a microphone to them so they could respond.

Advertising senior and event coordinator Shanall Sneed said she chose to host Marvel Trivia Night because she’s a fan and wanted students to have a fair chance at winning.

“Marvel has been a thing since like the 40s, damn near like the 30s, so I know it’s something that has been like generational that everybody can enjoy and have fun with,” Sneed said.

Business junior Subha Khan said she heard about the event from her friend Jessica, who is a huge Marvel and comic book fan, to spend more time with her.

“I realize, I pay the money for a lot of their salaries and I pay the money for this, like my tuition pays for all of these extra stuff. So coming in here, and like, getting the snacks and using what they do, as activities, is really helpful,” Khan said.

She said she is originally a DC fan and loves the comics and characters. However, the first Marvel movie she watched, “The Avengers,” gravitated her toward this side of the fandom.

DC got its initials from the Detective Comic series, which featured Batman, a popular superhero from the DC Universe. The two franchises are often pitted against each other by fans in all aspects.

Khan said her favorite franchise in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the “Black Panther”
movie series.

She said she likes “Black Panther” because of how well-done the story and interesting the villain is.

“It’s the best Marvel movie in the sense that it kind of elevates other superhero movies with it because it’s showing that even comic book movies have substance,” Khan said.

In regards to the sequel, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Khan said the recent movie did a good job of exploring Shuri’s grief as she became the new Black Panther after her older brother, T’Challa, passed away.

Letitia Wright, who plays Shuri, had big shoes to fill after taking over the movie series as the lead character. This occurred after Chadwick Boseman died in 2020 because of colon cancer and Marvel also decided to rest his character.

“I think it’s going to be interesting with her being on the throne and her journey because she never wanted to and she never expected to be a ruler so I’m interested to see but I hope Marvel doesn’t mess up,” Khan said.

Mechanical engineering junior Carissa Phillips said she’s also a huge DC fan and came to the event dressed as
Harley Quinn.

Phillips said she doesn’t really watch Marvel movies but her favorite superhero from the universe is Black Widow.

She said she heard about the event on her way to grab coffee with friends.

“We saw a sign that said ‘Marvel Trivia Night’ and we were like, ‘We should go to that’ and then we did,” Phillips said.

Regarding the event’s turnout, Sneed said she wasn’t
expecting anything.

“I kind of was just letting it play out,” Sneed said. “I was really excited for my event and I knew a lot of people were, I kind of heard a lot of talk about it, but you know, things happen and the weather was not that great today. There were some other factors so I wasn’t expecting too much, wasn’t trying to get my hopes up, wasn’t trying to be like negative either.”

Sneed said events like Marvel Trivia Night are a great way to get to know other students
on campus.

“I’m a transfer student so when I came here, I knew nobody [and] that’s how I started meeting people, was going to events,” Sneed said. “I think it’s a great way to interact, to get to know your campus a little bit more.”

The winners of Marvel Trivia Night took home prizes like a brand new air fryer or sunset lamp, along with bragging rights, to conclude the evening.