Today I'm going to dive into why I think this is the inflection point for the MCU and provide a loose guide for how they can get back on track.
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So today I'm going to dive into why I think this is the inflection point for the MCU and provide a loose guide for how they can get back on track.
Why Multiverse of Madness?
Picking on the Multiverse of Madness movie isn't breaking new ground. Fans have had mixed to negative opinions since it came out, much of which has curdled as more underwhelming projects were released. It's guilty by association because while everyone really likes No Way Home, folks aren't huge on what came after so it's all bad now.
As a movie, I kinda like Multiverse of Madness. It's big creepy and silly and it's a lot of fun to see Sam Raimi bringing his own foibles, fixations and Bruce Campbell into the MCU. The opening action beat for Stephen Strange is him fighting off a giant interdimensional octopus. This is what we come to the movies for baby!
But when we get to this movie's villain...we're running into problems.
The villain for Multiverse of Madness is the Scarlet Witch played by Elizabeth Olsen. Not an inherently bad idea. She started off as a villain and became a hero, and her emotional breakdowns have led to a lot fun "What If?" style universes because she's just that powerful and unpredictable.
Her being a villain isn't a problem. But why she's a villain and her character's motivation are. And that all ties to Wandavision.
The reason Scarlet Witch is our villain is because she's trying to use a magic book that was introduced in Wandavision to bring back her two sons, that were actually projections Wanda conjured up and later gave up by the show's end and believes that America Chavez is the key to carrying out her plan.
And this breaks a cardinal rule of the MCU which is...how much back story you need to watch one of the movies.
The Pre-Multiverse MCU
Movie critic MovieBob once described one of the key appeals of the MCU. It's not that it's a shared universe. It's that knowledge of the shared universe or Marvel in general, only enhances the viewer experience. It doesn't detract from it.
As an example, when Rocket and Winter Soldier are fending of Thanos' creatures in Wakanda, Rocket points out his arm and how he wants it. Bucky says no thank you, Rocket jokes that he's going to get it. Fun banter in the middle of a fight. Really hits home if you know Rocket likes to take prosthetic limbs for some reason from the original Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
Also, the most you can get behind on anything in the MCU that might be useful to know was about 2 hours long. You don't need to know every character from Black Panther to understand the stakes in Endgame. But if you did miss it it's 2.5 hours to catch up.
If you want to understand why Wanda's entire characterization in Multiverse of Madness or rather how she got here, you would need to watch a 9 episode season of television. On a streaming service. That you pay for monthly.
And as well-received as Wandavision was/is, treating it like well-understood canon by an audience that used to get their versions of "updates" once or twice a year, not have to dedicate hours to it.
As much as really like Patrick H. Willems as a film video essayist, one of the funniest things was seeing him talk about the "limitations of the MCU" in multiple videos, pointing out how a lot of cool ideas couldn't come to fruition in a movie setting, later acknowledged that most of the shows and miniseries could've been scraped or significantly shortened.
As much as really like Patrick H. Willems as a film video essayist, one of the funniest things was seeing him talk about the "limitations of the MCU" in multiple videos, pointing out how a lot of cool ideas couldn't come to fruition in a movie setting, later acknowledged that most of the shows and miniseries could've been scraped or significantly shortened.
Be careful what you wish for.
In Marvel's case they put out four shows that all contribute to the MCU canon the same year they released four movies (2021). That's fine if I don't have to keep track of all of them. But Multiverse of Madness made it clear that audiences should. And as someone who watched every movie before, this is where I started to drift from the MCU because now it felt like a job to keep up with it.
Which is also an ongoing problem with comic book storytelling after "events"
The Post-Event Problem
Marvel and DC Comics are somewhat infamous for what I'll loosely call "events." Big sweeping "giant villain who is a threat to destroy all of existence/humanity" that require almost every hero and sometimes villain this world has at its disposal.
These events have a number of goals:
- Develop buzz to get people to buy more comic books
- Kill off existing or introduce new characters
- Massive paradigm changes for the entire comic world these characters live in.
- Clean up any timeline or world-breaking issues that have come up.
And these are a mixed bag to say the least. They're profitable and they usually involve seismic changes to the existing canon. But it can also be a great opportunity for writers to try out and expand new things with familiar characters. Marvel's "Secret Wars" event is how we got the symbiote suit for Spider-Man which eventually led to Venom. And DC's Final Crisis may be the peak for Darkseid as a villain period, but also led to Dick Grayson becoming Batman and Grant Morrison's solid Batman & Robin run.
The problem with giant "events" is that said success usually drives a desire for more "events" vs. what made the MCU popular in the first place. A bunch of enjoyable superhero movies that very loosely introduced the idea of a new incoming threats or team-ups in post-credit scenes with movies that were going to happen at some point.
And man did Phase Four and Five of Marvel introduce a whole lot of events and new bad guys that seem unlikely to return.
The most obvious example is Kang, who was introduced in the Quantummania movie. Now there's no easy way for a studio like Marvel, whose track record with casting actors that are unproblematic is pretty impressive, to predict that Jonathan Majors would no longer be viable in a lead villain role. That and Chadwick Boseman's tragic passing necessitated a lot of last second shuffling, cancelling or reworking, they wouldn't have had to do otherwise.
The problem with Kang is that he is introduced as Thanos 2.0. The guy you need to be worried about in the future...but also right now. Which isn't the best. Part of the reason Thanos was so terrifying wasn't that he showed up and was capable of kicking everyone's ass. It was that the bad guys that gave the Avengers problems were terrified of this guy. A bunch of little breadcrumbs before he finally arrives as an unstoppable force. Even in the original Avengers movie Loki is the main bad guy, but Thanos is the one with the influence and the army
But if Ant-Man and company can take that guy out...not that intimidating. And it also really feels like you're trying to create another Thanos as quickly as possible.
It's like how 90s comics went off the rails by constantly upending their existing character costumes and paradigms to match the speculator market, that saw a bunch of rare out-of-print comics get auctioned off for hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's how you get something as cynical as Superman: Doomsday.
But there is way forward. And Marvel may have realized it.
Let Each Property Have Its Own Identity, Avoid Overload, Keep The Larger MCU Clean
After the deluge of Marvel content between 2020-2022, studio head Kevin Feige said that they would slow down their production pace to focus on quality which is both a great idea and secondhand admission that they had saturated their own market and that the overall quality declined.
Three of the four projects that did come out from Marvel in 2024 were both critical and commercial home runs. The first was Deadpool & Wolverine, a movie that used a multiverse concept to blow up the multiverse idea moving forward and focused on buddy cop vibes between its two leads and individual redemption arcs. They're technically saving existence, but it rarely feels like that because at most the giant battles are hack and slash bouts with two of Marvel's most inherently R-rated characters with a lot of good will from audiences in their roles. If anything the movie ends on a, yeah that multiverse stuff was bullshit note, and lumps a bunch of formerly off-limits characters like the X-Men into the Marvel fold.
It is the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time.
That also leads nicely into X-Men '97 which picks up where the original series left off but with a much more adult approach to its story, themes and action. It was an immediate smash, not only because it veered harder into its themes related to bigotry/intolerance, but also because it matured along with its initial audience of millenials. Keep what worked and was beloved, but not being afraid of forging new paths or making bold choices.
It's also completely isolated from the MCU, which is to its benefit. It means the show can take giant world-changing swings in its final episodes, and it does, while also keeping its core appeal intact.
It's also completely isolated from the MCU, which is to its benefit. It means the show can take giant world-changing swings in its final episodes, and it does, while also keeping its core appeal intact.
And finally we have Agatha All Along, a showcase for America's favorite quirky comedic actresses and spin-off from Wandavision. The show is generally light, very silly, gleefully queer, features far less of the big action or special effects than previous Marvel shows. And it might be their biggest hit. Because the show isn't tied down or necessarily contributing to the larger MCU, Agatha is free to let its freak flag fly and it's all the better for it. Now a studio that was known for pumping out too much material too fast has a legitimate awards contenders in comedic TV categories and ended up on numerous "Best Of" lists for 2024. The show went from a fun afterthought after Hahn's winning turn in Wandavision to fans eagerly anticipating season two.
What's great about all of these properties is that they each have their own distinctive identity and appeal that requires little to no buy-in or knowledge from previous films and shows. You might recognize the "timeline" stuff from Deadpool & Wolverine from both seasons of Loki. But all you really need to know is that one guy is looking to destroy our Deadpool's universe and he'll try to stop it.
This is the actual appeal of ongoing comic book storytelling where people can pick and choose their favorites and follow along and gear up for something big that might come around the corner. It means paradigms can change for individual characters, while the world-changing swings are reserved for the "events."
I've experienced this firsthand as I've begun to read more and more comics.
I've experienced this firsthand as I've begun to read more and more comics.
I'll use Tom Taylor's recent run on Nightwing as an example. There's a lot happening for Dick Grayson in this particular run. He's becoming a public figure, working with a sibling he didn't know about, and trying to upend criminal corruption in his city. All of which has an infinitely sillier and more sincere vibe than a Batman comic. Which is what I come to Nightwing for.
If I need to know about the big "events" I can check in with Justice League or piece things together via context clues.
If I need to know about the big "events" I can check in with Justice League or piece things together via context clues.
What's so strange is that this is what the MCU was once praised for doing. Telling solid isolated stories that may contribute and build-out the larger whole, but can be enjoyed by themselves. And I think if they get back to that and focus on making good movies and shows vs. "the next piece of the bigger Marvel puzzle," that'll work.
Marvel can't recreate Endgame. That level of fan investment may never happen again. And, intentional or not, the multiverse saga attempted to force even more right when Marvel's popularity had already crested. But they can still bring back new and old fans by making each project count by itself.
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