The MCU is halfway through its Phase Four and fans are busy debating its merits. Regardless of your opinion of this era of Marvel Studios storytelling, it’s safe to say that things are very different post-Endgame. The first decade of the MCU was marked by stories establishing the Infinity Stones, showing them in action around the universe and ever-so-slowly teasing the arrival of Thanos.
The aftermath of the Snap and its subsequent undoing have had a huge influence on Phase Four stories, though they’ve distinguished themselves from the past by establishing the multiverse, which includes amping up its willingness to explore outright magic as well as more overtly fantastical elements.
Following this exact chain of thought, prominent superhero social media presence Matt Ramos (aka ‘supes’ on Tiktok) has chimed in with a positive opinion, saying that he loves the diversity and uniqueness of these stories but has some concerns about how they fit together:
It seems that this new style has driven MCU fans into two distinct camps. Those who enjoy these movies more as individual stories are having the time of their lives, but those that prefer to consider the MCU as an ongoing saga aren’t happy. But let’s face it, with the MCU approaching 15 years of storytelling and now encompassing three movies a year and multiple Disney Plus shows, it’s going to be increasingly harder to maintain narrative consistency.
Even so, you have to think they’re cooking up something big for the next few years. Right now, the closing film of Phase Four is Fantastic Four, so we can expect a certain giant purple planet-eater is already heading towards Earth — and hopefully, that galactic-sized stomach is rumbling.
