marvel is kinda bad now.

why is my and many others favorite franchise losing its touch?
June 24, 2022

I have been a Marvel fan for as long as I can remember. I remember watching Infinity War for the first time and bawling my eyes out while my grandma, staring at me, asked, "You know these people aren't real, right?" I have Marvel propaganda all over my room, own Marvel encyclopedias, and comics. I have seen almost every Marvel movie and show- until recently. I think Marvel is becoming so crowded yet so hollow. Think the issue has been looming since the end of Phase 2, but peaked after Endgame. I know that may sound confusing, so I’ll explain.

Before we begin, let me give you some background on the MCU, starting with explaining what MCU even stands for. 

The MCU stands for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, technically a multiverse, but that will confuse things if I explain why. If you want to know, watch a film theory video or something; it's irrelevant. All you need to know is that it's divided into 4 phases of movies and tv shows between 2008-2023. I know that seems like a lot, and it is. Still, I know everyone here isn't a Marvel nerd like me, so I will explain most simply, even if you have better things to do than binging two and half hour movies all day. 

Let us start with Phase 1 of Marvel, one of the more boring phases for me. This Phase consisted of the following films: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Avengers. Going from 2008-2012. Still, I can appreciate it for the foundations it set for the MCU. Many of the plot lines established in the first Phase were improved later in other phases and introduced our soon-to-be beloved heroes. Will they stay beloved? Or will their entire characters be butchered in the pursuit of making money and plot convenience? Who knows? The first batch of MCU movies set a precedent for superhero films. Before, they weren't known as huge blockbusters that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make but cheesy, one-off movies that crossed more cartoonish lines. And they weren't very emotional, like the Ghost Rider Nic Cage films and early X-Men films. Make no mistake, though; Marvel was experimenting with superhero movies that were in the more serious vain before the start of Phase 1. Most notably, the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films, the first coming out in 2002. But, those films were made by Sony, not Disney. And my theory is Disney wanted to see how the public would react to another studio before making their investment. And boy did they, with the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy and the first two P1 movies making 3.360 billion dollars combined. Hence, Disney acquired Marvel Studios in 2009 for 4 billion dollars, right as the second movie of Phase 1 (arguably the worst and most forgettable of the Phase) had just come out, The Incredible Hulk. I didn't watch P1 until I was re-watching for Endgame, as I hadn't gotten into Marvel until the middle of P2. And in my opinion, its kinda- not great. And before all the hard-core Marvel fans tell me to kill myself and say stuff like, "THERE THE CLASSICS!!!" just because something is older doesn't make it better. I can appreciate them, but I still don’t really like this Phase as a whole. Only 3 out of these six movies I enjoyed watching; Iron Man 1&2 and the first Avengers movie. But even the films I didn't enjoy as much, I appreciated the effort and experimentation shown, and they were kind of endearing still. These movies didn't make me fall in love with the MCU, but they did many others, and I can acknowledge that. I will also applaud the excellent casting choices, as I can't see anyone else playing these characters. Phase 1 of Marvel made 3.813 billion dollars in total, so we obviously got a Phase 2. And like because of the art form of movies or whatever- BUT ONTO PHASE 2!

Phase 2 definitely shows improvement in the franchise. While I want to speed past this one because it's not really what I want to talk about, mostly because I don't have a lot of emotional connection with these films but they are essential to the thesis of my point. The 6 films of Phase 2 are Iron Man 3, Thor Dark World (yikes), Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man. Spanning from 2013-2015. This Phase is a mixed bag for me. It has a wild spectrum of quality as well. It has some of my favorite Marvel films, like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. Ok, films like Age of Ultron and Captain America. And just bad ones like Iron Man 3 and Thor Dark World. It's one of the strangest phases, but some real good came out of it. Like 5.269 billion dollars of good and like the art form of movies or whatever- This Phase overall is ok. It's mid. I have no strong feelings about it. That's why this section is significantly shorter. It was the first Phase to be made entirely by Disney. That 5.269 billion didn't even include merchandise and comic sales. Disney saw the potential in Marvel and really amped up the rate of release and amount of Marvel movies made each year for Phase 3. Pushing Marvel even more into the mainstream and pop culture. That's it for Phase 2, *sigh*. TIME FOR PHASE 3, AKA MY FAVORITE AHHHH.

PHASE 3 TIME, BABY. AHHHH, I'M SO EXCITED. OK OK. Phase 3, as much as I love it, marked the beginning of Marvel's problem that wasn't quite a problem yet: oversaturating and stuffing the franchise to make more money. Let's play a game, your Disney and this ONE franchise are making you billions of dollars a year, just in box office sales. Some of Marvel's worst films came out during P2, yet people still came back to the theater. And unlike most Disney films and TV shows, Marvel films appeal to everyone, parents, kids, EVERYONE. That means you can market them to anyone. WOULDN’T YOU WANT KEEP PUMPING THESE THINGS OUT? So instead of the usual 6 films with about 1-2 coming out per year, Phase 3 has- 10 MOVIES, WITH 2-3 COMING OUT EVERY YEAR ALL OVER 2 HOURS LONG WHEW YEAH. The 10 cashgra- movies that came out were: Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Endgame. Spanning from 2016-2019. This is the Phase people are most familiar with. I will be the first to say, these were cash grabs- BUT WHERE THEY DAMN GOOD CASH GRABS. THESE WERE HANDS DOWN THE BEST BATCH OF MARVEL MOVIES TO COME OUT. There is only ONE I don’t like- Captain Marvel. BUT EVEN THAT ONE WAS OK. In this case, I feel the reason the packing wasn't that much of an issue is, 1. It was needed to give context and introduce characters before Endgame, the big wrap-up, and 2, the people wanted more Marvel movies. Around this time, the fanbase was at its highest; Phase 3 made 13.505 BILLION DOLLARS. YES, BILLION WITH A B DOLLARS. This was huge compared to Phase 1's measly 3.6 and Phase 2's 5 billion. Phase 3 also had Disney's first Spider-Man film to call their own, which was a slight gamble because the Tobey Maguire films were so loved and made by Sony, and the Andrew Garfield films were- not… It was a hit or miss. And Marvel hit. Tom Holands' portrayal of the character was well received and was not only one of the highest-grossing films of the Phase but one of the highest-grossing films of 2017. I think Phase 3 was indeed the MCU's golden age. The fanbase was intense; the reviews for almost all the movies that came out during this era were raving. Marvel was dominating the box office and telling DC to suck Disney's long, corporate, shlong. And now we have our lovely and shiny streaming service to add to the other 500. We have 90 million subscribers worldwide to dump all our properties on, including our Marvel movies. Marvel could go nowhere but up. But maybe, just maybe, Marvel went a little too up… 

*Sigh* Phase 4. Ok, this is when the over-saturation starts to become REALLY apparent. Remember that shiny new streaming service I mentioned? Well, um- pretend like we are an excellent Disney executive again. Marvel made 13 billion dollars in Phase 3, with just one of those movies alone making 3 billion. People love the franchise and keep throwing us money to get movie tickets and now pay for our beautiful property dump of a streaming service lets- abuse their love of the franchise. Let's test how many times they'll come to the theatre! And instead of just putting our movies on our streaming service, LET PUT 1,000 SPIN-OFF SHOWS AND SPECIALS ON IT! MWAHAHAHA, MUAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAH. Ok, I'm being slightly dramatic, but I'm sure that was the gist of the convo in the board room the day after Endgame left theatres. This is the lineup for Phase 4, *deep breath*: Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, AND Fantastic Four. 13 FILMS IN 2 YEARS. AND THESE ARE JUST THEATRICAL RELEASES. Let's start the Disney+ releases, shall we? *deep breath*: WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If...?, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, an Untitled Halloween special, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Secret Invasion, Ironheart, Armor Wars, and an Untitled Wakanda series. Can someone please tell me WHAT THAT HELL IS GOING ON? All of these properties are coming out or have come out between 2021-2023. Remember in Phase 1 when it took 4 years for 6 movies to be released? Hm? BECAUSE RIGHT NOW, WE ARE IN THE DARK AGES. Marvel introduced the multiverse and said "fuck you" to Marvel fans. I'm a Marvel fanatic, and I have been struggling to keep up with all these TV shows, movies, and specials. And I know I'm not the only one. Especially when you need to watch the Disney+ shows to understand the theatrically released movies. Like how you must watch WandaVision to understand why Wanda is evil now in MultiVerse of Madness. Considering the whole point of that movie was to better explain the multiverse to mainstream audiences, it did a kinda shit job of doing it. The movie seemed more concerned with shoveling in cameos and a dumb will-they-won't-they romance with a woman that isn't even Strange's love interest. Which I still wouldn't have cared about even if it was her.

Let's talk about the Phase four movies that have come out so far. Black Widow was the first film of Phase 4, coming off the heels of Endgame, a prequel movie about a hero most didn't really care about, to begin with. Not great. It was kinda dull? Now, calling it "Anti-Male Feminist Garbage." (real review quote) and "the worst thing the MCU has ever released" (laughs in Dark World) is an over-exaggeration. It could have been worse. Maybe it seems lackluster because it came right off the heels of one of the most loved and highest-grossing movies of all time? I dont know, but I saw it with some friends, and I remember it being forgettable. Not a great way to start an era of an iconic franchise, but I digress. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was actually really good. It was very reminiscent of P3 in terms of quality and cinematography, I had hoped. "Maybe Black Widow was just a mess up. Things seem to be heading in the right direction, hahaha, right, right?" No. No, they weren't. Eternals, hmmm. STOP SHOVING NEW CHARACTERS IN MY FACE. AHHH, MY EYES. I understand it's the beginning of the Phase, so we need to introduce this set of characters. Still, it feels so jarring now, like you're just throwing people at me and expecting me to care about them. When Phastos and Ben kiss, it's this emotional moment, but aside from the exciting representation in a mainstream movie, I don't care very much because I don't care much about these characters. Eternals wasn't bad at all; it was slightly better than average. But not the best. Then we got the mega movie, No Way We Arent Gonna Make Money. Bringing together all the Spider-Man's and breaking and "fixing?" the multiverse, the film was fantastic, no doubt. When Andrew showed up, the whole theater cheered, and during the fight scene, I was pumped. It was the first time I had been so thrilled by a fight sequence since Endgame. Not because both were team-up films, but because I cared about the characters. I dont care much about Black Widow, but I did care about Shang-Chi. I don't care about- most people in Eternals, but I do care about The Peters, Aunt May, Ned, and MJ. This brings me to Marvel's main problem; Marvel's constant pumping out of content is making them sacrifice making and developing the loved characters, which was why we didn't mind throwing our money at Disney. With the release of the 900th Disney+ special and the 13th film this year, I can't keep up, and for the first time, I'm not interested in trying anymore. 

I know that these films were made to make money from the beginning, and if they didn't make a profit, there wouldn't have been more of them. But before, these films had heart. I'm not the only one who feels this way, as the box office numbers for Phase 4 show fewer people coming to see these movies. Especially compared to the beginning of the other Phases. The first Disney+ series like Loki and WandaVision performed well. Still, recent ones like Ms.Marvel not so much, "Samba TV reported that Iman Vellani's Ms. Marvel did not perform well with regard to the number of viewers watching across the United States. In its report, the service revealed how only 775K US households watched the premiere episode within the first five days of it being on Disney+." I know it is not because these are terrible shows, as I've seen glowing reviews for Ms.Marvel and many of these other shows. But I think I and others feel overwhelmed by the number of characters thrown at them, which is disappointing because Marvel is excellent. I don't wanna stop loving it, but I cannot bring myself to care about all these different characters; I just can't. Hopefully, by Phase 5, Marvel will stop throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks when they already know what works. Find a few characters you want to introduce, then build them and get us to care about them. I love this franchise so much, and I wish it loved us more, that's all. 

Hence, Marvel is losing its touch by getting too greedy and pressuring its fanbase into consuming more and more until we barf or give up or reluctantly re-look at DC.

These are my opinions. I know Marvel discourse can get heated, so if you disagree with me, that is ok! I love to hear different perspectives on the movies and everything else! Just please be nice!