Why I’m being alienated by the Marvel universe – and you are too

Luca Fontana

7.3.2023

Translation: Katherine Martin

No other film franchise has a greater success story behind it than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even so, I have my doubts about its future. Is Marvel in the midst of crisis?

«It’s official now,» I declare emphatically to my buddies as we’re leaving the cinema. «If Marvel can make movies as awesome as that about talking raccoons and trees in space, it can do anything!»

Crazy.

Almost nine years later, it’s 2023 and things have changed. The MCU is in crisis, with dwindling sales and viewers turning away from the seemingly once invincible juggernaut.

Here’s my attempt at explaining why.

Where’s the enthusiasm?

But other than that? Mediocrity. And lots of it – if reaching that standard at all.

So what’s going on?

Films as teasers

and without leadership.

But that’s the way things work at Marvel these days: the brand advertises the brand. And then there’s the obligatory post-credits scene that – you guessed it – advertises the next movie. Absurd right?

The Disney Channel problem

Voilà, welcome to the new Avengers campus at Disneyland Paris.

or Ms. Marvel in the upcoming The Marvels. She’s likely to succeed Captain Marvel, because Captain Marvel actress Brie Larson has lost all credit with the public. And yeah, that’s a fair bit of «Marvel» in one sentence. Like I said, the films are all marketing. Even their characters are named after their own brand.

Spoilt for choice? Or spoiled by choices?

I’m not done yet. In fact, Marvel has made yet another error. It’s not just that the quality of the films is declining (I’m not even going to open the can of worms that is the ever-worsening special effects). The number of films, series and TV specials is on the rise. Here’s the breakdown of the numbers:

• Phase 1 of the MCU: 6 movies (2008–2012)
• Phase 2 of the MCU: 6 movies (2013–2015)
• Phase 3 of the MCU: 11 movies (2016–2019)

To sum up, the first three phases of the MCU, when the Infinity saga unfolded, gave us 23 movies in 11 years. That’s an average of about two films per year, with a slight upward trend in Phase 3.

We’re now in Phase 5, which recently kicked off with Quantumania. Here’s what we got during the preceding phase 4:

• 7 movies (2020–2022)
• 8 series (2020–2022)
• 2 TV specials (2020–2022)

In other words, the Multiverse saga that started with Phase 4 already includes 17 movies, series and TV specials in just two years, not counting Ant-Man. That's about eight to nine (!) TV specials per year! That’s an immense increase compared to every other phase. No wonder Marvel films and series have started to feel like homework that’s got to be done in order to follow the story, as opposed to long-anticipated events.

But as if the sheer amount of new content weren’t enough, they haven’t brought the Multiverse saga forward in any real sense. At least not in the way that the search for the Infinity Stones spun the narrative thread in the Infinity saga, which told more stories in fewer films. In Phase 4, however, many films and series seemed more like sequels to the Infinity saga.

WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, for instance, featured the effects of The Blip. Black Widow even took place before the sequence of events depicted in Endgame. Multiverse of Madness did play around with the Multiverse, but only to celebrate pointless cameos (which we’ve already talked about). And what was Thor: Love and Thunder actually good for? Even Shang-Chi is drifting kind of aimlessly around the MCU. I could go on and on.

What’s missing from the MCU?

What the MCU lacks is a well thought-out direction of travel. A concept. One that prioritises quality over quantity. One in which the characters, not the brand, take centre stage in the stories. And above all, one that doesn’t rely on the cheap humour only capable of raising a laugh from kids watching the Disney Channel on Saturday mornings.

What Marvel needs is something Andor embodied in the Star Wars universe just recently. It’s something also associated with Disney: courage. Courage to tell a fully developed story. One with real effects and consequences, and written in a way that doesn’t insult the average viewer’s intelligence.

I certainly don’t know. When the Multiverse was introduced in Loki, it still sounded exciting. It’s now degenerated into a narrative gimmick that can be used to undo any consequence, whenever necessary. In other words, whenever the contracts with actress X or actor Y go through. Because of this, Marvel has lost its fun.

In my book, anyway.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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