I Love the Marvel Cinematic Universe—It Also Needs to Change
The Scoop features personal essays on movie-centric topics.
By Justin Bower
I didn’t see Avengers: Endgame on opening night. It almost ruined me.
One year after a devastating cliffhanger ending in Avengers: Infinity War, I’d become increasingly aware of the two week “spoiler ban” suggested by the Russo Brothers. I was paranoid in every conversation; I deleted social media from my phone and tried to make it to my week-late showing without so much as hearing a word about the climactic installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In the years prior and following Endgame, I’ve never felt that way about a movie. I’m not typically someone who has to watch what’s trending—I don’t get FOMO—but I’d followed the arcs of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and many other comic book heroes over a decade on the silver screen. I wanted to witness their epochs conclude in a packed theater full of tears and shouts of triumph. Nor was I alone in this feeling; somehow, the MCU captured the zeitgeist of 21st-century moviemaking and created a colossal die-hard fanbase.
Marvel isn’t concerned with high-brow cinema that earns standing ovations at international film festivals (barring my personal favorite comic book movie, Logan). Rather, they’re more dedicated to popular-level filmmaking that excels despite heavy reliance upon CGI and poorly written scripts. In 2008, the release of Iron Man was as ambitious and against the grain as Tony Stark himself, initiating the MCU based on a deep love for comics. Marvel had licensed many of their characters out to other companies (such as Spider-Man to Sony), but they decided to reclaim the stories of their heroes and forge their own path in the movies. The franchise was not without its growing pains: big misses like The Incredible Hulk and Thor: The Dark World marked a shaky start for the franchise. Nevertheless, Marvel pressed on and made massive hits like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Guardians of the Galaxy.
In the cinema world, Marvel is a polarizing subject. They don’t procure the best actors or writers at every turn, yet certain portrayals such as Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark and Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff are unavoidably iconic. Some movie lovers are die-hard MCU fans (like I was) while others would rather see a gritty superhero movie like James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad become a cult classic. Regardless, Kevin Feige and the entire MCU creative team managed to thread the needle between these factions and become, for better or worse, the pioneering force of 21st-century moviemaking.
Making Movies for the People
Much of their influence was predicated on recognizing what their audience wanted out of superhero movies. Not many franchises could achieve consistent box-office success every year (except 2009) for a decade—becoming the best-selling movie franchise in history, making over $29 billion—but they did because of their dedication to bringing treasured comics to life. Iron Man was ambitious at the time. Six years earlier, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (of which I am probably too fond) was a massive box-office success, but Marvel crafted higher quality superhero movies at the mainstream level.
Part of the now-common distaste for dominant franchises such as the MCU is their clear priority of making money. The MCU became an unstoppable force in Hollywood and decided to ramp up their output following Phase 3’s conclusion; the result was an immovable object known as superhero movie fatigue. I wrote about this following the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, remarking that Marvel has struggled to strike a good balance between selling and storytelling. Infinity War and Endgame showed Marvel at its highest-grossing and at its most depth regarding character development (especially with Iron Man and Thor). While efforts like WandaVision sought to balance these elements similarly, Marvel’s game plan of churning out as much content as possible left me feeling cornered, forced to watch too many shows and movies I didn’t care about just to see the scant few I was truly excited for.
There’s still hope, though. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is proof that Marvel still knows how to make movies for the people. Watching it in the theater was a reminder of how powerful a shared MCU experience can be. But such emotional, exciting, and high-quality installments are not as common. And that’s why superhero movies need to change if Marvel hopes to reclaim their status as a Hollywood juggernaut.
A Return to Form
Long-running franchises have star characters in each generation: Rey, Finn, and Poe inaugurated the next era of a galaxy far, far away, while Shang-Chi, the Scarlet Witch, and Moon Knight are doing the same for Marvel. It’s necessary when making such transitions to recognize that past characters—and the raving devotion they garner from fans—will eventually be gone. Even if I’m excited for Thunderbolts and other big MCU movies on the way, I won’t be brimming with excitement as I was with Endgame precisely because I haven’t been invested in the new characters. While some consideration must be given to my distaste for change, the recent phases of the MCU have not provided much in the way of developing loveable characters as earlier phases did.
A major reason for this is spectacle. The multiverse is the current dominant theme of superhero movies, and while there are cool elements involved in bringing that to life, it often opens up the vice of writing expendable characters. Deadpool & Wolverine falls in line with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the non-MCU The Flash, bringing a world of possibilities to life through pizza balls, Dogpool, and Nic Cage’s Superman. They’re spectacular for a moment, but not worth the long-term investment.
Marvel has traded connection for spectacle, a misuse of their characteristic ambition. Relying on the multiverse robs characters of permanent development and cons viewers into a sense of awe without grounding the overall story. If the MCU is to return to its prime, Marvel must develop new characters (many of whom I’m very excited about; looking at you, Moon Knight), promote a coherent and emotionally engaging story, and return to making superhero movies from the sheer joy of comics.
“Marvel has traded connection for spectacle, a misuse of their characteristic ambition.”
Marvel is still a constant presence in film, but a less focused and genuine one. The MCU was the defining franchise of the first quarter of the 21st century, and there’s still hope that they can shake off mistakes like Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to cement their history in the decades to come.
As an MCU fan, I expect generic writing, cheesy one-liners, and looming alien threats—in fact, I adore them as integral parts of the franchise. But one of the defining aspects of Marvel’s heyday was a sense of connection and long-term commitment to the characters. I’m a huge fan of horror movies and narrative features, but I’ve never felt so connected and invested in a movie as I was in Endgame. Movies make life sweeter, especially when you can share your love for them with others. If the MCU can swap spectacle for connection and good storytelling, it may return as the loveable and wonderful franchise it once was.
Justin Bower is a cinephile, horror fan, and avid reader. You can find him writing at Loud and Clear Reviews or on Instagram @jtalksfilm.