The current state of the MCU is a topic that is highly talked about by both Marvel comic readers and movie watchers, as it is one of the highest-grossing Marvel assets; many people, even outside of the Marvel fanbase, look towards it as their main consumption of content. Household names like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Spider-Man were formed by these movies. But after years passed and those characters’ actors’ contracts expired, the MCU had to fill in those roles with new household names that have not left the same impression as those memorable heroes. Instead, new names like Captain Marvel, Miss Marvel, and Ironheart have left a very bad taste in fans’ mouths.
For starters, compared to the movies of the 2010s to early 2020s, Marvel has gone on a decline when it comes to memorable characters and moments. Marvel is creating characters that do not have any real “meat on their bones,” if you will. What I mean by this is that with these characters coming into the spotlight, they should have some sort of character development or even character depth to them. Instead, most of the newly introduced characters in the years 2021 to 2025 have felt almost 2D in the sense that the character growth is almost non-existent.
Now, there are some outliers within these movies, but for the majority of them, the leading character feels almost like they’re made to have cool moments instead of actual connections with those who watch the movie.
The biggest example of this is Captain Marvel; when Captain America and Iron Man got taken out of the story, Marvel wanted Captain Marvel to be the new head of the franchise. As such, instead of making an actual interesting and compelling story for her, they made her out to be some powerhouse with no likable qualities.
When the audience was introduced to Captain America and Iron Man, the heads of the franchise made these characters likable with backstories that were compelling to the audience. As the movies came out, they built the characters up to who they were before they got taken out of the series, with compelling issues like Iron Man battling alcoholism and Captain America standing against the government when they’re in the wrong. With Captain Marvel, she did not have any of this. Her biggest moment was stopping a giant spaceship; she almost has no big issues or any real fighting reason in my eyes.
After “Avengers: Endgame,” Marvel wanted to create a new Trinity with Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel. This was a good idea, but due to many different issues, it did not come to pass. With Sony fighting for the rights for Spider-Man, Captain Marvel’s movies doing poorly at the box office, and Chadwick Boseman passing away, the franchise has been left in a terrible situation where there are no main leading characters in the whole narrative.
With “Avengers: Doomsday” coming out in the future, I fear that the Marvel franchise may never recover, but that’s not to say there’s no hope. Even though the majority of the Marvel movies nowadays have done poorly, some have stood out from the ashes. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” have shown that if Marvel puts their mind to it, they can make good movies.
Although it may seem like I hate Marvel, this comes from years of support for the series, and I only wish for the best. I believe with enough time and a new direction that the Marvel Cinematic Universe could indeed thrive like it once did.
