The Case against Marvel

"Do you know how done you have to be to wish they'd just killed off your favorite character?"

—a friend of mine said that to me in reference to Captain America's tragically disappointing choice to leave Bucky behind to be with Peggy at the end of Avengers: Endgame (2019). We had just watched the original Avengers (2012)- a movie neither of us had watched all the way through in easily five years- on a whim, and we were stunned by how good it was. Sure, when I say "good" I don't mean it's anywhere close to Spielberg or Coppola, but it's compelling. The characters are dynamic, the humor isn't forced, the relationships and tension make sense. For all intents and purposes, it's a good and entertaining superhero movie. Marvel took their B-list comic book characters and spun them into a story people could really care about.

As I post this, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has just hit theaters- the third installment of another Marvel outfit that propelled a long-forgotten super team into the spotlight, the first premiering in 2014. Now though, the Guardians of the Galaxy are just another sloppy addition to the towering mess that is Marvel, people scrolling past what would've been exciting news five years ago with a sigh.

So, what went wrong?

To me, it seems there are two major issues with Disney's Marvel model, the first being their push for quantity over quality. Just looking at the release dates of Marvel films and tv shows since the premiere of Iron Man in 2008 to today is enough proof. When the original Avengers was released in 2012, it was the only Marvel movie in theaters, and the first Marvel tv show Agents of SHIELD wouldn't premiere until a year later. Compare that to the Marvel slate for 2023:

• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania- February 17

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3- May 5

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse- June 2

• Kraven the Hunter- October 6

• The Marvels- November 10

• And at least 5 tv shows including Loki season 2, Secret Invasion, and Echo

Disney has completely eliminated one of the best things that the original Avengers had going for it: novelty. Part of the reason the Avengers was so exciting was because it hadn't been done before, and while novelty is difficult to capitalize on, Disney decided to completely flip the script and turn the MCU into a never-ending conveyor belt of half-realized movies and shows.

The second, equally important, issue is inaccessibility. When the original Avengers hit theaters, there were 5 Marvel movies out: Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America: the First Avenger (2011). I didn't see a single one of these before I saw the Avengers, and to this day I have never seen The Incredible Hulk. But the beauty of that first story was that you didn't have to have seen any of those movies to understand it— they even briefly recapped every Avenger's story so that the audience was on the same page.

Disney has flipped this to its detriment as well: rather than write movies that make people want to watch other projects because they liked the characters, they force cameos and obscure references into projects so fans are forced to watch every preceding one. They've essentially put a paywall up in front of popular releases— understanding the newest Marvel movie will cost you a Disney+ subscription and the cost of some movie tickets.

Spider-Man was my last tenuous link to caring about the MCU, so I was psyched when No Way Home was announced. I analyzed the trailer when it first came out, researched multiverse theories, and ultimately saw it in theaters 3 times. There was one thing nagging at me though: why did everyone cheer for Peter Parker's lawyer? I was completely in the dark. I found out on second viewing that it was Matt Murdock, Hell's Kitchen's blind vigilante known as Daredevil. I figured I'd check the tv show out— the No Way Home cameo was innocuous enough that it hadn't impeded the movie for me, but piqued my interest. I enjoyed the first 2 seasons, but when I started season 3 I realized I had no idea what was happening. It started with Matt Murdock emerging from the rubble of a building, gasping for breath— the outcome of a fight I had certainly not seen. My frantic search results for the things I was missing yielded me a disappointing result: the rest of season 3 was at least somewhat dependent on knowledge of another Marvel tv show, The Defenders. The Defenders had ended in the fight that got Murdock crushed by the building, just as it had tied up some plots with Elektra, a season 2 character, that I didn't realize had even happened.

Marvel is not a fanbase at this point— it's a hostage situation. And while there is part of me that hopes it gets better for the sake of the few good things they have going— Miles Morales and the Spider-Verse movies, Daredevil and the Punisher's comeback— the more realistic part of me knows that it's probably only going to get worse.