Superheroes | Movies | Marvel
Marvel Phase 4 — The Beginning of the End?
Oh man, where to start?
Seven movies, one television film, eight Disney+ series later, and it’s finally come to an end. And all in all, this Phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t been the smoothest compared to its counterparts.
It’s no secret that superhero fatigue is well and truly festering inside the hearts of many, but not quite enough for Marvel to realize that what they’re releasing is sub-par. From Wandavision to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, let’s have a brief look at the decline of these products, because really, what else are they?
They aren’t stories — stories engage, make you wonder, hook you in and don’t let you go. These are placeholders as Marvel gets ready to squeeze out the next one in line, whether that be character or plot point. It’s just all so draining.
Wandavision should have been a warning to us all. These D+ series never got me excited after Endgame. I just didn’t care, especially not about the Scarlet Witch. But then I watched the first episode, and it intrigued me. It felt a little different; the idea was new, which is rare for Marvel these days, and I decided to give it a shot.
But as the series wore on, I caught onto a trend as the next series came out, and the next, and then the next.
And then I realized something — consequences don’t matter anymore, and these shows are only introducing X character for X plot that will happen down the line in X movie. Sure, that’s always happened in Marvel movies. A character will make an appearance later, but unlike previous phases, none of these series really led anywhere. Heck, Wanda enslaved an entire town just because she was a little sad and wanted to play make-believe with her family. And then she just ran off, free as a bird, and ready to come back as one of the most poorly-written antagonists later on down the line.
Loki was a bust, as they disintegrated his character into someone else entirely instead of expanding on who he already was. And then they made the entire threat of the Infinity Stones a gimmick. And sure, that’s fine, I guess our heroes died for no reason as the TVA kept them as paperweights. By the end of the show, our Loki wasn’t even the main character. He was just a prop for female Loki, making sure she knew how awesome she was. Isn’t that just so sweet and supportive?
Falcon and The Winter Soldier was one long advertisement for Marvel’s politics, and don’t forget the infamous, you’ve got to do better, senator, line that’s now etched into Marvel canon.
Ms Marvel hardly warrants any kind of attention, and that Marvels movie is going to tank like a bird with no wings. Nobody in their right mind wants to watch an entire huddle of Brie Larsons for two and a half hours. That’s just ludicrous.
And then the movies came out. None of which grew my trust in this studio. If the plots were poor, like Doctor Strange’s second outing, then the characters were stiff and boring, like in the Eternals. Spiderman: No Way Home was good on the surface, but once you dig into the meat of the plot, character motivations, and basic structure, then it all boils down to nostalgia. Although it was the movie that shone the brightest, albeit because of circumstance.
When the credits rolled for Black Panther, and I blinked myself awake, I realized that these movies aren’t linked in any kind of way. In previous phases, each movie had something to do with the one coming after it.
Spiderman nearly caused the entire multiverse to collapse, but I guess that’s cool. Just sweep that under the carpet. Doctor Strange trounced around the multiverse, but hey, that’s not an Avengers-level threat. The Eternals was a standalone movie as much as any, and Black Panther could have been so, so much more. Instead, it was a slog of almost three hours with nothing in terms of character and plot to write home about.
Even the first Spiderman movie — though largely self-contained — still connected two characters, Tony and Peter, which would be pivotal in later movies. At the very least, the characters would come together, and they’d have a previous conflict or bond that would be expanded on later.
Each phase four movie can be watched alone, and your viewing experience wouldn’t be affected at all. And that’s a shame, because what’s keeping the casual fan around? It’s not the good writing or likeable characters, because Marvel seemingly forgot how to do both. So what’s the point of it all?
Phase Four was meant to be about grief. Dealing with the effects of death and the snap. I may not be the biggest Black Panther fan, but when it came to the end of the movie, it should also have signalled the end of this grieving period, the climax to this poignant arc and where new beginnings will be forged from here onwards.
Each installment could have dealt with different aspects of this grief. With each movie, with each story and each snatch of character development, Marvel would stand higher after the effects of the snap. Then phase five would start, and it would have bigger and badder threats that a sensitive, healing world would deal with. The old heroes are gone, but there are still heroes around with stories to tell.
That was meant to be the message of this phase, but that hasn’t come to be.
Instead, we got politics from Falcon and The Winter Soldier and the Eternals; we had the shrugging off of consequences from Wandavision, the deterioration of character from Thor: Love and Thunder, and then She-Hulk was Marvel pushing back against the fans who just want to have fun again instead of being alienated for having a negative opinion on a rather bland movie or series that could desperately do with a re-write and reality check.
When one tells a story, it’s important to actually tell that story. Marvel has great source material, arguably the most in the history of any existing IP, and instead of squandering it, they should let it flourish.
Or they don’t, I don’t care much. At the end of it all, DC just has a bigger void to fill, and if this rumoured Superman movie comes true, we could be seeing the change of the guard. How welcome would that be?
Or maybe I’m just the senile old man, noisily ringing a bell and holding up a poster proclaiming ‘The End is Near!’
But all in all, how did you feel about Phase 4? Have any hopes for the future phases? Or is it all going to come to a stuttering halt one day and be tucked away in the annals of human history, seldom remembered as a fallen empire? Let me know what you think.
And who knows, maybe DC can finally capitalize. Because right now, Marvel is releasing B movies to the tune of billions, and that’s a damn shame.
