Now that we’re on the other side of Marvel’s awkwardly experimental Phase 4, we turn to Phase 5 and realize, this isn’t really working either. What’s going on? To understand where it’s falling short, we need to assess what did work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s past.
Unlike Phases 1-3, collectively known as the Infinity Saga, this current Multiverse Saga just doesn’t feel like it has a consistent sense of focus or a throughline. With 2008’s Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. gave us a flawed but somehow relatable hero in Tony Stark. Looking back, it’s amazing to consider how much the franchise has transformed since then — for better and for worse.
You have to remember that Iron Man was fairly grounded in reality. There were no wizards, giant purple aliens, or multiple dimensions. Not even Steve Rogers was mentioned in the film, even if an Easter Egg of his shield in Tony’s garage indicated he did exist.
Humble beginnings
At the time of its release, with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins finding resounding success three years earlier, Iron Man truly felt like an MCU version of that same kind of origin tale. You have a billionaire playboy with no superpowers, but a great intellect, going through a hardship in a foreign land that leads him to become a suited-up vigilante no longer interested in continuing a war but maintaining peace. In Bruce Wayne’s case, he gave up the idea of seeking revenge on his parent’s killer after realizing it would not give him any satisfaction, and in Tony’s case, he gave up being a weapons manufacturer after realizing his own capture by terrorists was enabled and motivated by the proliferation of his machines of war.
In short, were given the perfect character that would serve as a stand-in for the audience itself. Tony existed as a fantasy fulfilment for us, even before his superpowered suit, owing to his luxurious lifestyle and debonair persona. But after the suit? It inspired the notion that there is a noble aspect within us all that we, too, can conjure up and become the hero of our story. For all intents and purposes, Tony was the main character of the Infinity Saga.
Today, there really isn’t a main character that can serve as a stand-in for the audience in the same way that Tony did. Who is the current leader of the Avengers during this Multiverse Saga? Is it Spider-Man? Doctor Strange? Maybe Ant-Man? Bruce Banner? Thor? It’s entirely unclear. But in the Infinity Saga, there was an unambiguous center to it all, found in the Arc Reactor implanted in Tony’s chest.
No clear path
What’s more, the Infinity Saga era of the MCU always felt it was building toward a clear and direct path to something bigger. Even before Thanos, the end credit tease in Iron Man of Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury walking into Tony Stark’s home to tell him about the “Avengers Initiative,” broadcasting to us that an Avengers movie was on the way. Sure enough, we got more superhero movies one by one which all culminated in the crossover of 2012’s The Avengers, to great satisfaction.
What are we building toward today in the Multiverse Saga? I would argue it’s entirely unclear. Phase 4’s efforts felt like the message was “the multiverse is coming.” You had several different properties establishing multiversal elements, from the Disney Plus shows WandaVision and Loki to blockbuster films like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The only issue, though, was that each one seemed to establish its own set of rules for how the multiverse worked. They felt shockingly disconnected.
Then we were told Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror would be the next big Marvel thing to captivate us in the same way Josh Brolin’s Thanos did years prior. However, that hasn’t really worked out either. After a promising scene at the end of Loki season 1 as He Who Remains, Majors’ Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania proved underwhelming at best.
A pale imitation
Majors played the role of the villain well in the movie as his performance was not at fault, but rather, the lack of anything truly interesting about the manner in which he was written. Kang more or less comes across like a generic villain who gets seemingly easily defeated by the underpowered Ant-Man and pals. True, there will perhaps be other versions of Kang coming to confront the Avengers in the future. But the anticipation has already been depleted. It was the complete opposite inverse of how Thanos was introduced.
With Thanos, he was like the shark in Jaws. You barely saw him for most of the Infinity Saga. It started with just a simple end-credit tease at the conclusion of The Avengers. After that, a couple of moments in Guardians of the Galaxy and then a single line in Avengers: Age of Ultron, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” We really didn’t know that much about Thanos, other than his confrontation with Earth would represent the next gigantic crossover event in the franchise. However, this was a brilliant way to go about it because it kept the momentum of the Infinity Saga going and planted an air of intrigue about the villain in our minds.
Then Thanos arrived with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame and completely blew our minds with how satisfying of a villain he truly was. We didn’t agree with his genocidal mission to wipe out half the universe, but we could understand his point of view. From his perspective, it was an act of mercy to end unnecessary suffering due to the universe’s limited resources.
Picking up the pieces
Anyway, it’s not too late for the MCU to turn itself around. However, at this point, we should be past the relative point in the Multiverse Saga that is analogous to The Avengers. That moment was supposed to be Quantumania, but it came and went like a wet fart. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was satisfying and fun but it felt self-contained for the most part. On the TV side, Disney Plus’ Secret Invasion similarly feels rushed and unfocused with its ridiculous climax amounting to aliens scooping up the powers of other superheroes and battling each other in an eye-rolling moment.
Meanwhile, some truly great moments in the MCU are being sorely underutilized. For example, why is there not a Shang-Chi 2 slated for Phase 5? For me, 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a film I have returned to again and again for its excellent characters, unique martial arts-infused action, and strong narrative. And yet, the franchise is just sitting on the table, collecting dust. Compare that to Phase 1 when Iron Man received a sequel a mere two years after its release, and a threequel three years after that. It just seems like the MCU is wasting an opportunity.
I do have some hope for the MCU going forward, however. For one, the ongoing Loki season 2 is proving to be a welcome return to form in terms of quality, even if it continues to raise more questions than it answers in regard to the multiverse and how it works. The Marvels is also around the corner, for which I am strangely optimistic, too, despite the film’s November 10 release tracking relatively low at the box office by Marvel’s standards.
