Marvel Phase 4-The Darkest Phase Of MCU: What, Why And How?

Phase 4 is at its end. It seemed like one of the most mixed bags that MCU had to offer so far, it faltered far

By Mohit Srivastava
November 17,2022
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Marvel Studios has recently concluded the first chapter of its highly ambitious, The Multiverse Saga – Phase 4. It consisted of a total of 7 movies, 8 Disney+ shows, 2 TV specials, and 1 TV short spin-off. All in a total of 18 projects. It started with Wandavision (Jan 2021) and ended with Black Panther (Nov 2022). Well, it officially will end with The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, set to release on Disney+ in December 2022. However, the story of how this Phase turned out to be was not a happy one. Many of them divided the fans and critics, and some even shook the faith of fans in Marvel as a whole. So, what went wrong? Let’s discuss.

Too Much Content

MCU Phase 4 slate revealed at Comic-con

One of the most obvious reasons for this turmoil is that Phase 4 of MCU just had too much to go for. Too many hands spoil the broth! That is what happened here. Marvel already suffers from the helplessness of directing all of its projects to an overarching plot. This demands interconnectivity which often comes at a cost of the quality of the content. On top of all that, Marvel decided to delve into streaming services by offering 6-8 episode Disney+ shows. In the era of Covid, it was a necessity, but soon it started choking upon itself.

Except for Wandavision, almost all the shows felt a bit too long and left the audience unfulfilled with their rushed endings. Ahead of WandaVision premiering to start the phase, Julia Alexander at The Verge wondered if Marvel Studios would be oversaturating their content, saying that having essentially “a new Marvel thing each week (2021) is either a blessing or a curse” depending on how viewers felt about the MCU. Many of these movies/shows’ premises came with great promises, however, their execution failed to live up to them. 

Introduction of Multiverse

Multiverse in MCU

Marvel Studio’s previous three phases 1, 2, and 3 (now called The Infinity Saga) benefitted from the fact that all of its movies were very targeted in their execution. Stakes were set, characters were given proper motivations, and audiences were well-versed with the world before the final threat arrived. The losses were mourned by all and at the same time, the so-called special-Marvel-moments were cheered for (remember Cap lifting the Mjolnir for the first time). Now, Marvel has introduced the big concept – Multiverse. Although that does open a lot of possibilities of including X-Men, Mutants, and Sony’s Spiderman universe into the MCU, it comes with many items of baggage too.

First, granted there exist so many variants of a character across the multiverse, no death of any character will now matter. Marvel can bring in another version of him or her anytime from some other universe – alive, revamped, and (maybe) recasted. Second, the concept of a Multiverse can easily go over the head of the regular movie-going audience. The kind of audience who go to movies to cheer and have a fun time, not to get bombarded with complicated theories of Relativity and parallel universes and dimensions, will feel frustrated.

In fact, I can bet that not many people still fully understand the concept of Incursion that was introduced in  Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, even 7 months after its release. Third, the audience shall always be confused about the current going storyline in a movie or series that is taking place in the main universe (now called, Earth 616) or some other that they do not know of.

Disjointed Storytelling & Uninteresting Characters

Still from Thor-Love and Thunder

Taking into account the mound of projects that the studio had to handle, faltering here and there was evident. A lot of movies like Eternals, Black Widow, Shang Chi, Thor: Love and Thunder, still await their role in the overarching MCU plot. Surely it has been teased either in their mid-credit or post-credit scenes, but it still remains to be seen how they affect the MCU as a whole. They feel disjointed and lacking souls sometimes. Often the choice of the Director and their vision do not feel in sync with the MCU tone, sometimes they get too dramatic (Chloe Zhao’s Eternals) other times they get too comedic (Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder).

Marvel is leaving no stone unturned in adding more of talented and reputed actors in the MCU eg. Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie in Eternals, William Dafoe in Spiderman: No Way Home and Christian Bale in Thor: Love and Thunder. But, their standout performance was curtailed by bad visual effects, poor execution, and an inconsequential plot. Audiences also felt left out by the new characters that were being introduced. They did not invest in who these characters were nor cared for their story eg. Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and the Eternals. They failed to generate buzz just a few weeks once their movie or show ended. 

Failed Experiments

Moon Knight

Kevin Feige (the head honcho at Marvel Studios) had never shied away from experimenting with different genres in his MCU projects. This ensured continuous interest and helped in avoiding repetition or fatigue. In the times of Thanos, it worked really well, but now it does not. Let’s bullet down these points, shall we,

  • Black Widow focused on an already deceased character, with a consequence that did not do much in the future (Yelena in Hawkeye).
  • Shang Chi delivered a great movie on martial arts and Chinese culture but asked a question (origin of the ten rings) that still remains unanswered.
  • Eternals was an inconsequential, dramatic snooze fest, with a plot spanning decades of history (none of which were explained or shown explicitly).
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness felt open to the world of the Multiverse, but had a chaotic plot and suffered from Sam Raimi’s horror vision.
  • Thor: Love and Thunder was just too comedic and it reduced Thor (from a fearsome Asgardian in Endgame) to a mere joke.
  • Loki suffered from world-building and a cringy-love story that nobody asked for.
  • Hawkeye and She-Hulk themselves did not know what they were supposed to do. They remained confused and directionless.
  • Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel had a great start (one dealt with psychological issues, the other with religion) but in the end, they too disappointed with their rushed endings.

Much Build-up is still required

Arishem the Judge in Eternals

Above all this, if one looks closely at Phase 4 Marvel is now bound to build upon many more things like:

  • Establishing a powerful antagonist for The Multiverse Saga – Kang.
  • Introduce younger versions of OG characters in order to build towards Young Avengers.
  • Introduce Mutants, Monsters, Celestials, and X-Men into the MCU.
  • Handle complicated plot points like – Variants, Multiverse, Dimensions, Realms, Incursion, and godlike beings, and find a way to weave them into the ongoing MCU coherently.

It does feel like a Herculean task, but Feige has said that the future of the MCU will be more clear with upcoming projects. We all have high hopes for our beloved ‘capped-crusader’, and we strongly believe that he has thought of everything. Let’s just wish for it to do so soon enough.