MCU fans will probably be debating Phase Four until the heat death of the universe. After the first three Phases painstakingly established the universe and gradually built up to the world-shattering Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Marvel Studios was clearly left wondering where the story could go next.
Their answer was the multiverse, with many Phase Four movies and TV shows introducing new variants of existing heroes, taking us into parallel realities, and into the weird world of Loki‘s TVA. The results have been mixed, ranging from highs like Spider-Man: No Way Home to lows like Thor: Love and Thunder and The Eternals.
But Phase Four has its fans, and one is baffled as to why people don’t like it and want others to explain their opinion:
It’s looking like there’s no single answer, other than the creative leads being spread too thinly:
Were some projects rushed?
Does the MCU have a villain problem?
We can’t deny that the VFX in many of these movies felt rushed:
But Phase Four cheerleaders are out there:
It was very comic-booky, for better or worse:
Maybe Marvel Studios needs better quality control?
And we do miss the big team-up movies:
James Gunn’s DCU may be set to finally give the MCU a run for its money when it comes to superhero universes, so it’ll be interesting to see how Marvel can react to an improved, distinguished competition. As always, the proof will be in the pudding, though with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, they’re hardly off to a great start in Phase Five.
