Here’s the actual problem with the Marvel movies – and it came from the comics
At a certain point, comic book readers became obsessed with stories that “count.” Basically, these are stories that impact continuity in some way, stories that are important to the larger connected universe.
Comics that weren’t an active part of the shared reality died on the vine and self-contained stories went the way of the dodo. Readers bought books specifically because they believed there were connections to other books. This has gone on for decades in comics, but had never really been done in movies.
This is why the Marvel movies took off like they did.
The idea of a bigger, expansive narrative existed from the start.
Perhaps more importantly, the objectives of these larger narratives were made very clear from the start.
The initial narrative was the formation of the Avengers, a through line that included every phase one movie. In phase two, it was Thanos and the Infinity Stones. Phase three was bringing everything together.
Marvel also made sure any new characters that weren’t directly connected to the overreaching arcs were introduced in movies the audience already knew, or at least incorporated characters they already knew.
Ultimately, it made every movie seem like it mattered in the grand scheme.
I’m not sure anyone knows what the current grand scheme of the Marvel movies is.
Is it the multiverse? Or Kang? Because the Black Widow, Eternals, and Shang-Chi didn’t appear to have any connection to either of those things. Neither, really, did Thor: Love and Thunder, or Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
It’s not surprising that the two movies in phase four that deal with the multiverse (Spider-man and Doctor Strange) also featured the most connections with the larger MCU. But that’s just 2 movies out of 7 that featured what has become the essence of Marvel movies.
The main motivation to see these movies in theater has disappeared, and with the advent of Disney+, an awful lot of people are perfectly happy to wait a few months to see Marvel movies from the comfort of their homes.
It hasn’t gotten much better in phase five. While Ant-man and Wasp prominently featured Kang, it wasn’t the Kang who will supposedly be the big bad of the current overarching story. In fact, nothing about the movie set Kang (any version of him) up as a reoccurring character that the audience should be excited about.
Thanos’ impact was felt well before he properly appeared in a movie. The attack on New York that brought the Avengers together was caused by Thanos. Ronan the Accuser worked with Thanos.
What has Kang done? Why would anyone consider him to be an epic threat, let alone a reason to go to the movies?
Guardians of the Galaxy had the strength of its franchise on its side and it was also dealing with the fallout from phase three; even taking place in its own space, the movie was still connected to the large universe.
The Marvels’ connections are strongest with the Disney+ shows. If the goal is to get people to go to the theaters instead of waiting for the release on Disney+, maybe strongly connecting it to two shows on Disney+ wasn’t the best idea.
The upcoming slate of movies doesn’t look much better. Deadpool should do well because it’s long stood on its own, even if it didn’t feature Wolverine. But Captain America: Brave New World? Did anything about the Winter Soldier/Falcon show suggest that the multiverse or Kang would be part of Cap’s world? The same goes for Thunderbolts and Blade.
Thunderbolts is particularly strange because it suggests an entirely separate overarching story running through Black Widow and some of the Disney+ shows — possibly Captain America. But, again, will people think those movies count if they’re not dealing with the big story?
And does anyone actually know what that is yet?
Just as with the comics, it’s a shame to see it come to this. It’s unfortunate that people aren’t interested in stand alone stories, but in their defense they’ve been trained to expect as much from Marvel movies, so not getting it is a disappointment.
If Marvel wants to continue to expand their cinematic universe, they need to determine whether or not they can maintain separate lines within the larger structure. The existence of the Thunderbolts movie would suggest that are going to give that a try, but, again, we’re 10 movies post-Infinity Wars and it’s still not clear what the plan is.
I suppose the upside of movies is that they’re limited by real people, so we don’t have to worry about Marvel releasing a dozen X-men movies every year.
They’re totally going to do that now, aren’t they?
