Running MCU thread

I was thinking about Phase 4 and all the complaints that it felt disconnected the other day before the announcements, and I was kinda thinking, isn't that how comic books work? They have a major event where the books crossover, and then they all branch out and do their own thing for a while, and then eventually you get another big crossover event. I kinda see that how the movies are doing. Phase 4 has kinda been the movies each doing their own thing with some groundwork laid for the multiverse, and as we get into Phases 5 and 6, we'll see things come back together for the crossover. Maybe Marvel set itself up by having so many Thanos hints/appearances in the first phase of movies, but I kinda look at it that way.

 

I think part of the complaints stem from the fact that everything before phase 4 wasn't the original start of everything, so 1-3 weren't following something people could compare it too AND you had avengers movies mixed in to showcase everyone together.


You went Iron Man, (I don't count Hulk because it's not Ruffalo, but it would fit here), Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and then boom -- Avengers and everyone is together.

Then you got Iron Man 3, the second Thor, the second Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers together in Ultron

Then you go AntMan, third Captain America, Doctor Strange, Guardians 2, Spiderman, third Thor, Black Panther, Another Avengers to start infinity war

Then second AntMan, Captain Marvel and then Avengers Endgame.

Going with just movies and not including the TV shows, it has been

Second Spider-Man, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Eternals, third Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse, fourth Thor.

The last six of them have all come in the last year and a half and I get the pandemic played a role in that but you have people going to see these every couple months and there is no light at the end of the tunnel where they come together with more than another character or two.

 

Yeah, it was a thought I had not long ago. There were a lot of movies that weren't well received or meh in the early MCU. Thors, Captain America, Iron Man III, no one even considered or remembers the Incredible Hulk as part of the MCU! You might even be able to put something like Age of Ultron in there. Then the whole story was out there and you see how it all went and could get behind it. Heck, you look back at Age of Ultron and it almost seems like it was done just to make WandaVision (I doubt it was, but it is amazing how they tied a years-old movie as basically the whole foundation of the series).

People have revisionist history that these all hit hard and stood alone and were great. Not sure it is a whole lot different now -- and for me, I've enjoyed all of it in some way, most of the time a lot, and kept up with it much more than early MCU stuff.

I agree with Della that there were more joints that held it all together like the Avengers and we haven't had that yet. These are also coming at a quicker pace right now -- we've had Black Widow, the Eternals, Sider-Man, Dr. Strange, and Thor and pretty much all the series mostly within a year. It is a lot to digest! Lots of us love it, but the first phases were way more spread out.

 

"So enjoy a show Disney clearly didn't believe in or they wouldn't have buried the first three episodes under Obi-Wan."

They're not wrong, especially given that they could have given Ms Marvel a little more breathing room and avoided the gap in new content before She-Hulk.

 

Age of Ultron also set up the Cap-with-Mjolnir scene in Endgame, and an Easter egg in Doctor Strange 2 with the Ultron robots in the 838 Universe (meaning in that universe, Tony's plan to create a suit of armor for the world succeeded to some degree).

And was the first Captain America panned when it came out? I seem to remember it being pretty well received.

 

I kind of agree with this... but, I can also see the argument that they probably figured the overlap of audiences between the two was probably not that great. My wife didn't give one shit about Obi-Wan, for example.

 

I get that. My daughter still loves the original trilogy, but she wants nothing to do with any things else about Star Wars, but she is a big MCU fan.

That said, there is overlap. Why not always have new content whenever possible? There were also rumors that they were unsure about Iman Vellani during filming, so maybe they underestimated just how well she would be received.

 

Yeah, I heard that Iman was rough and needed retakes. But she played the role of a clueless teen pretty well! LOL

 

Star Wars does not naturally give you new young characters.

Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Vision have all been cycled out.

The next 5-10 years are filled with fresh faces and new characters.

 

It is certainly easier for Marvel with so much source material to pull from. The MCU hasn't even really gotten into mutants yet, which will offer a deep roster of new young characters or new takes on ones we saw in the Fox movies.

That said, Star Wars can do it, too. The first season of The Mandalorian proved that. They did it in the sequels, too. They just didn't do it as well.

 

But they did it based on the original stories. I wonder if Star Wars will ever be able to evolve away from Skywalker/Vader type foundations?

 

You are right. It looks relatively well received. I was late to the game on all of this, didn't really start going until Winter Soldier (did see the Iron Man and liked it, but it didn't jumpstart anything for me). That said, the original just has that same kind of origin story setup that I think people didn't swarm to as much as some of the later stuff, so why I added it. Might be a personal feeling as much as anything!

It is amazing how much they churned out with Age of Ultron!