It’s inevitable that anything popular is going to become a target of derision. Especially when it comes to a film series that is over ten years old and boasts over twenty films.
The ambition of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is only second to its hubris and the feeling that they could do no wrong.
Of course they could.
The best laid plans, as they say.
The problem with Marvel though is not only that they are forced to serve a corporate master that isn’t satisfied with making some money or getting some views, but they also wrote themselves into a reverse nesting doll. Their films and shows have to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger because they have built that expectation and seem loathe to change it.
They forget that some of the most impactful superhero stories, indeed comic stories, are the ones that are emotional. It doesn’t take the threat of global annihilation to devastate, no, it only takes an emotional connection and a punch that is earned.
Loss that matters.
I LOVE Marvel movies but they don’t all hit.
There are so many hands on the whole of it and these recent ‘phases’ is where we’re seeing that most directly. Every project has to serve its own story while also feeding to an overarching one. Both fans and the suits start to lose sight of the simple joy of seeing superheroes superheroing.
I dunno that all of us are in superhero fatigue so much as having a hard to connecting to it all. You have to watch the movies, and the television shows and have to know who so many people are that it’s hard in a society where many of us have to have second jobs to make it by as well as a streaming service to see everything.
Streaming services have made going to the movies less special and now we just have to wait it out for the next blockbuster to hit the stream.
And we do.
But we also need the small stories, the self-contained ones that are exciting but don’t always feature huge arcs or tons of character cameos. That was the wonder of the Netflix shows and what ABC tried to do – they were ambitious but they were contained to their universe. With the DC Arroverse they crossed over and really did some large scale and small scale things but they kept fans engaged because they took risks and told stories that we weren’t expecting.
With Marvel, we’re at a point where there are issues with the actors – because they employ so many – there are issues with trying to stay up with the television shows (that are often lambasted by critics before fans even get a chance to decide if they care or not about them), and they have to keep track of the movies that are coming out. It’s all a lot.
During the pandemic, we all had more time to watch movies but now that it’s over we are going out, we are seeing friends, and we are going to concerts once more.
And it’s not like the world got less expensive.
But you can’t count Marvel out.
They still have the Fantastic Four (which I don’t think will go over well as I think they are too dated) and X-Men. Heck, they could shut down everything BUT new X-Men movies and get all of us right back. Folks LOVE X-Men and there are tons of characters and stories to tell.
But they need to take a breath.
They need to make Marvel special again.
They need to slow down.
One or two movies a year TOPS.
Fill in the games with one or two shows TOPS.
Don’t make everything connect to huge arcs.
Don’t forget the smaller heroes that are not an Avenger but are at street level doing their thing (we MAY get a return to that in the new Daredevil).
Be weird.
Have fun.
And be willing to take a break.
We may need it.
You may need it.
Don’t run it into the ground.
Disney cares only about money and IP. Let’s hope Feige still cares enough about Marvel to take a breath and rethink Phases 7-84.
…c…
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 