Even with the success of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, complaints about the Marvel Cinematic Universe are getting louder. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania tanked at the box office, and made barely a ripple when it landed on Disney+. (For the record, I still think it’s a lot of fun.) Early reactions to the latest limited series, Secret Invasion, have been tepid. Moreover, superhero fatigue seems to have set in big time. Marvel has begun pulling back on the notorious “firehose” of Phase 4 content, delaying some projects like The Marvels, and spacing out others like Loki season 2. Plus, there are murmurs of actors like Elizabeth Olsen feeling frustrated about working with the studio.
Marvel’s previous cinematic story arc, The Infinity Saga, had plenty of mediocre installments. However, you could argue that by the time the MCU reached Avengers: Infinity War, we were in the golden age of superhero movies. So what happened? Why does Marvel’s current saga, The Multiverse Saga, feel so lackluster, despite its many high points?
Here are the problems that are becoming more apparent as we get deeper into Phase 5 of the MCU—and how Marvel can right the ship.
We should have had Avengers 5 by now
Phase 4, the first chapter of The Multiverse Saga that concluded with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, included Marvel’s biggest assortment of titles yet: seven feature films and eight Disney+ limited series. That’s a lot of superheroes to either introduce or keep in the franchise, and yet very few of those characters interacted with each other.
Phase 1, by contrast, contained only six films, and one of those was the first major team-up, The Avengers. The result, even with the varying quality of the individual movies, was some pretty tight storytelling. The MCU felt like a unified series, and it wasn’t hard to see how each film connected to the others.
In retrospect, there were a lot of benefits to having the first team-up early in The Infinity Saga. It revealed new sides of each character. It gave them more screen time without the commitment of a whole new movie. Most importantly, The Avengers heightened the stakes in the MCU, giving the series some clear forward momentum.
By contrast, the characters in Phases 4 and 5 keep asking where the Avengers are, but no one seems to be doing anything about it. Their absence is jarring in the face of world-ending threats like the Celestials in Eternals or the Skrulls in Secret Invasion. Plus, there are so many new and returning characters that it’s hard to imagine what a new Avengers roster would even look like.
Marvel seems to be holding off on their next Avengers film, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, until they can make it another Infinity War-level event. However, there’s no reason why they couldn’t have concluded Phase 4, or begun Phase 5, with a smaller-scale Avengers movie. Even non-team-up films like Captain America: Civil War still gave us all the major characters interacting with one another. That would have helped fans feel like there was an underlying logic to all the new content.
Where’s the multiverse in the Multiverse Saga?
The Multiverse Saga feels odd and disjointed so far. We’ve had three movies and one series centering on the multiverse, and yet it feels weirdly absent from the MCU as a whole.
That’s because so far, the multiverse has been cordoned off into its own projects instead of bleeding into the MCU at large like the Infinity Stones did. Remember how the six Infinity Stones were planted all throughout the MCU? The first five were introduced in The Avengers, Captain America: The First Avenger, Doctor Strange, Thor: The Dark World, and Guardians of the Galaxy before all coming together in Avengers: Infinity War. On the surface, most of those movies didn’t have much to do with each other. But when everything eventually fell into place, it all made perfect sense because Marvel had spent years planting the seeds.
Not only that, but many films picked up right where previous films had left off. Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World both dealt directly with the ramifications of the Battle of New York. Avengers: Infinity War opened on the same scene that closed out Thor: Ragnarok. Ant-Man and the Wasp ended with the Blip, which Scott Lang would go on to help undo. You really felt like you were living in one cohesive world.
Marvel can’t figure out who it’s catering to
Of course, everyone knows the problem with interconnected movies: after over a decade of groundwork, there’s no entry point for new viewers. I still remember trying to watch Captain America: Civil War when it first came out and giving up halfway through.
But Marvel’s approach in The Multiverse Saga, in which most films and shows are more self-contained, isn’t solving the problem. Without that sense of being part of something bigger, the superhero formula starts to show more than ever. The result? Marvel’s offerings begin to feel repetitive.
Here’s how Marvel could get back on track
Writing this article, I keep thinking about Moon Knight. Remember Moon Knight? Remember how great Oscar Isaac and May Calamawy were as Marc, Steven, Jake, and Layla? Why does it feel like we’ll never see or hear from them again?
I write this mainly as a thought experiment since Marvel’s slate seems pretty locked in for the next few years. Still, we need to start seeing more team-ups. The MCU now has more superheroes than ever: so why is Nick Fury declaring that he needs to take on the Skrulls by himself? The Marvel Cinematic Universe has never felt so sparsely populated. Here’s hoping The Marvels scratches that itch.
We also need to see some clue, anywhere, that the multiverse exists outside of films and shows that are explicitly devoted to it. Is a massive multiversal war barreling down on our heroes, or isn’t it? If it is, we need to see more signs that it’s an actual threat.
Phase 4 is what made me a Marvel fan. I loved Loki, WandaVision, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel. I just hope that I, and other fans, won’t be left wondering what it was all supposed to add up to.
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
