Marvel Phase 4: How the mighty have fallen

Almost a decade ago around this time, the earth’s mightiest superheroes gathered to save the planet from the Chituari army. Probably, it was the most exciting story arc at that time, with six superheroes with different storylines coming together to fend off the aliens. The formula was new. Marvel knew precisely what they were doing.

Humour and action were key in every movie. CGI was great. Everything was hunky-dory! Ten years later, here we are, still reeling from the same effect that the first ‘Avengers’ instalment gave us. The Infinity saga culminated with ‘Spiderman: Far From Home (2019)’. However, the releases post that — both in theatres and on OTT — seem to have lost the flair Marvel came to be known for.

Reports saying VFX artistes being overworked and underpaid by Marvel isn’t good news.

Perhaps the downfall is just science. Things that shine bright early will lose its sheen gradually. We saw that with The Dark Knight trilogy, which led to the creation of the DCEU. Despite 10 films, they still couldn’t figure out the right approach. Individually, some films did well. Some did well after the re-release.

So what’s gone wrong in the Phase Four of Marvel Cinematic Universe? The pandemic hit the entertainment industry hard and slowed down a lot of projects. The first release in Phase 4 was Black Widow. It was put down by the critics, and suffered from poor CGI, and an average story.

Then came a string of series on Disney+Hotstar, starting with ‘WandaVision’. It was followed by ‘Falcon & The Winter Soldier’, ‘Loki’, ‘Hawkeye’, ‘What If’ and ‘Moonknight’. But these gained mixed to mildly positive reviews and to be honest, were middling efforts. ‘Loki’ probably did better as the character was loved by all.

Then came a couple of releases like ‘Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings’ and ‘The Eternals’ that fizzled out soon after the initial hype. The major issue was that the audience didn’t know who these characters were, They couldn’t relate with them. For the ones who did know, the characters were watered-down versions of their comic book counterparts.

We had the big gun releases post that and it was time for the multiversal story arc that was teased since the start of Phase 4. So we had ‘Spiderman: No Way Home’, ‘Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness’, and ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. While there was a glimmer of hope with ‘No Way Home’, the latter two movies had its positives. They were truly Sam Raimi’s and Taika Waititi’s films rather than phase 4 films connecting all the arcs.

The Infinity Saga had the infinity stone and the mighty Thanos. A lot of time was invested to bring out the story. Sure, some movies didn’t do well but there was a thought, “an idea to bring a group of remarkable people” as Nick Fury put it. Whereas in Phase 4 there is no binding agent. Yes, time travel and the multiverse exist but the series doesn’t have a discernible direction.

Another reason why Marvel fails to deliver is accessibility. Some films opt for the direct-to-OTT option while some hit the theatres. So the fans are disconnected with the story arcs. One had to watch ‘WandaVision’ to understand what’s happening in ‘Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness’. This applies for ‘Loki’ and the yet to be released sequel to ‘AntMan’ as well. Keeping up with these series in one medium and following the movies in another could be tough.

The length and pace of each series is a concern. With six episodes in each series, there is always a slump in the middle and the story picks up in the final two episodes.

Did Iron Man’s snap in ‘Avengers Endgame’ (2018) take away any remaining chances of MCU writing good stories? We don’t think so. The final set of releases gives hope for Marvel with the biggest of all being ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’. Marvel fans have endured a bumpy ride but they would love to end the year on a high.

(The author is a Bengaluru-based senior graphic designer and a short filmmaker).