Marvel fans may feel jaded nowadays thanks to films like the aggressively underwhelming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the disastrous Disney Plus miniseries Secret Invasion. However, before you write off the entire Multiverse Saga, consider whether this might just be the franchise going through some growing pains, just like it did in the era before this one.
After all, it’s easy to forget that the Infinity Saga was not all sunshine and roses. Right now, we are in the second part of the Multiverse Saga, called Phase 5. The equivalent stage of the Infinity Sage was Phase 2. Just like today’s releases, Phase 2 was also marred by entries in the franchise that were considered disappointments among many fans.
For example, Iron Man 3 was considered by many to be serviceable but middling, Thor: The Dark World represented one of the MCU’s all-time low points, and Avengers: Age of Ultron was one of the first times Marvel caught major criticism from fans and reviewers alike for seeming more preoccupied with setting up future storylines rather than telling a coherent story in and of itself.
Marvel’s third-act hat trick
So what happened after Phase 2? That is when the MCU came out with its most critically-acclaimed chapter to date, Phase 3, which spanned from 2016’s Captain America: Civil War all the way up through 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. Almost every single movie was hit after hit, unlike the struggling Phase 2.
We are now in Phase 5, the middle chapter of the Multiverse Saga. Though there have been a couple of disappointments, it’s still early days for the phase, so they could easily turn things around. After all, we’ve already gotten one of the MCU’s best outings with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
I personally believe there will be more MCU high points to come in Phase 5, just as there were high points in Phase 2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ant-Man were also part of Phase 2 and are generally loved by audiences worldwide. I think we will see similar out-of-left-field successes for Phase 5; for instance, Loki season two and The Marvels both look promising, in my opinion.
However, even if Phase 5 continues to struggle, it could just be a “the night is darkest before the dawn” situation, as Harvey Dent would say. Perhaps the real gold will come with Phase 6 of the Multiverse Saga, mirroring the third-act home run that occurred with the Infinity Saga.
Real-world struggles affecting the MCU
There are also other reasons to be optimistic about Phase 6. For instance, Bob Iger taking back the reigns as CEO at Disney and signaling they are scaling down Marvel’s bloated Disney Plus lineup of content could mean they will once again take their time to produce quality entries each time.
Admittedly, other considerations cast doubt on Marvel’s future, such as dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and Kang the Conqueror actor Jonathan Majors facing abuse allegations that throw into question his longevity with the MCU. However, maybe you could chalk all of these up as more growing pains that may have a grave impact on Phase 5 in the short term but only further strengthen Marvel’s cinematic immune system to return to its former glory in Phase 6.
Just like the Infinity Saga’s middle period, perhaps we just need to give the franchise a little patience and time to work out its problems while still being vocal about what is absolutely not working in the MCU right now so they can learn from their mistakes. After all, if it weren’t for the backlash from critics and fans against Age of Ultron, perhaps Marvel Studios wouldn’t have focused so sharply on clamping down its quality control for Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, considered pretty much across the board to be slam dunks.
