What a time it's been for Marvel of late.
I think people forget about the crazy early years of Marvel when they were essentially an indie studio who leveraged studios for distribution. Marvel was acquired by Disney in 2009, AFTER the release of the first two films. Superhero films taking off was not a foregone conclusion, it was a thing that made sense as FX could now kind of do anything, and the generation of 1980's comics readers made their way into positions of influence where they could roll back the anti-comics hysteria of the 1950's and 1960's and show what comics had been up to since Katy Keene was a big seller.
So credit where it's due, no one forced superheroes on the public, the public was ready for them.
And, look, we all know something got off-base with Marvel after Endgame. But many things have changed both at Marvel and in the world.
Recently I was rewatching part of The Marvels on cable - and I can see why it didn't take. *I* liked the movie, but it required homework. One had to watch and recall Ms. Marvel, know a side character from WandaVision, and be all in on Captain Marvel (which I was or am). And as a stand-alone movie it never felt entirely like they'd worked out the actual stakes of the movie, the personality of the villain. Instead, they focused on the character interaction and that story, which was a worthy story, certainly. But there was so much going on between Skrulls, singing water planets, Hala melting down, Ms. Marvel's family, Nick Fury in space, etc...
Now, I'm the first to say - like any deeply invested fanbase, superhero fans are awful, second only to Star Wars fans (meanwhile, horror fans are largely the best. Go figure.). I think there was a fun comics internet in maybe 2004, but by 2008 or so, the game was over. Look, I love me some comics, but like anyone too close to a community of people with a shared interest, you kind of know it's largely the worst of us taking up the oxygen in the room.
It's folly to ignore the boiling-over political climate and yahoos online just mad about women and anyone not a straight, white, male having lead roles, and you have a whole *other* problem to grapple with. Fan entitlement and weird parasocial relationships paired with attempts at YouTube careers made by bitching about this stuff are not helping anything. Especially when many looking for expertise on their new favorite thing are going to stumble across angry basement dwellers - it's either a turn-off or it's giving a really weird, sad angle to get invested.
We see a lot of that because in comics land, you just simply don't read that title that doesn't appeal to you. In Marvel Movie land, especially with something like The Marvels, you are obliged to see everything connected for it to work. And I have to think that's had an outsized impact as those same trolls feel obligated to watch and see everything, and - boy - does their blood boil when Captain Marvel will not debate Jude Law.
But, also, if Iron Man was aimed at me at age 33, Iron Man is now your dad's thing, not the kid's thing. The kids have Percy Jackson and One Piece and K-Pop Demon Hunters and whatever the heck else your teens are into. And they're doing it *at home*. So 50 year old me may get excited about Sue Storm @#$%ing up Galactus, but your teen may think that's some nerd shit.
And - yes, #film social media has decided that "superhero = stupid + bad" long ago, but as it was until X-Men and Spider-Man, superheroes are swiftly (once again) becoming the de facto punching bag. And, it's coming with the usual lazy critiques of "there's no story", "it's all FX", "the FX are baaaaad", etc...
While individually, these critiques may hold up when applied to specific movies, upon inspection, like any blanket assertion, the arguments are generally broad, lazy and don't work (and I often want to say "in comparison to... what?"). And, as a general rule in life, when you condemn a whole genre of *anything*, be it film, music, books, art... all you're really doing is depriving yourself of things outside your comfort zone while impressing only other folks locked in to being 16 and proving your coolness for life.*
But, look... If superheroes are uncool and unpopular again... for me, we're in a real "do not cite the deep magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written" territory.
I was an 80's comic book kid. People said horrible things to me about my choice in reading material. With absolute sincerity, I was told that I must be mentally deficient, that I must be a degenerate and pervert (only the last two are true).
I'm now fifty. I do not give a flying @#$% at a rolling donut what anyone else says about what is cool, what I should like, etc... For the time being, studios are getting hundreds of millions together to continue to make astounding live-action versions of stuff I generally like.
But, surely, Disney knows they let Marvel get away from them. They haven't seen a billion dollar return on a superhero movie that wasn't Deadpool in some time - and I'm pretty sure we've seen the last of Deadpool for a bit.
The current Hail Mary has been to bring back the Russo Bros. and give them a pair of huge movies to pull off as they did with Infinity War and Endgame. And it has surely whipped the economy of worrying about superhero movies like they impact your day in any way into a frenzy.
I won't speculate on whether Marvel's move to make two wildly expensive films in a row is wise or not (it's not). I just get the business decision - and if it doesn't go well, we can all probably expect Marvel to go dark for a while. Plenty of questions are obvious - does Marvel even have the juice for this anymore? Will this get people back? Streaming barely existed in 2019, and it's a primary mode of consumption now (I saw 32 movies in the theater in 2019 and 21 in 2025).
But now Marvel is teasing with a "look at our galaxy of stars, including actors you thought didn't have a Disney contract" series of videos.
Steve's back:
and Thor:
And, look, comic accurate X-Men
over there, we have Wakandans, Atlantians and Ben:
Look, they have my pledge of a movie ticket. That's not up for debate. But if "it's all too much, and not enough" has been a Marvel problem - this is really bringing it home. Now we're bringing in folks from other dimensions, and from unrelated movie franchises that launched when I was in my 20's.
That's not necessarily bad, but I know a DC Comics Red Skies Event when I see one. And the comics Marvel did that essentially ripped that off. And I know what a Secret War is, thanks.
I think Marvel's original plan was the Kang Gang making this happen, but I think that ship has sailed between the disaster that was Quantumania and Jonathan Majors' legal woes. So now it's up to Doom? Who we've seen for three seconds?
Well, we're off to the races. Not that Marvel hasn't teased multiverses and shown them outright for the past six years - starting with The Ancient One in Endgame.
Sure, I want to see all of these things, but no one character is getting an arc here. So what will this even be?
So, now we wait and see.
*that's not to say you *have* to like or love everything, everywhere. But it does mean curiosity is good and nothing is as 2-dimensional as your generalized argument wants it to be
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