Phases Then and Now: Delivering Narratives in the MCU
Originally posted to Tumblr on July 15th, 2022
If you’ve spent any amount of time on Marvel Twitter/TikTok/Reddit/etc., you’ve likely seen the following few takes said in some way:
1. “The MCU is pumping out too many projects as of late, and I’m tired.”
2. “These Disney+ shows are way too short and none of them connect to the greater MCU.”
I’ve personally found myself bouncing back and forth between wholeheartedly agreeing with these critiques and completely refuting them as baseless complaints. As the MCU has been moving forward, I’ve been using this post-Ms. Marvel hiatus as an opportunity to look back on how the MCU has structured its stories in the past, and if that structure still fits their ever-evolving new cinematic universe.
In each of the 4 phases (or, at least, the first 3), each has a central theme within its stories exists. Phase 1 is all about origin. Each film in Phase 1 is literally the origin stories of our founding Avengers, from Steve’s super soldier experimentation to Odin’s more ~symbolic~ experiment for Thor by banishing his annoyingly egotistical son to Earth. These stories, and characters, all collide in their first team-up film, The Avengers, in 2012. This film, for all intents and purposes, is the purest Marvel as a studio and comic book company we’ve gotten thus far. Tony Stark pisses me off, Thor is still saying the hell out of those Shakespearean lines, and Steve Rogers is a still a patriotic golden retriever… all as God intended.
Phase 2 depicts what happens when people challenge the status quo, both intellectually and physically. The fallout from the Battle of New York causes a complete and palpable shift in the MCU’s culture (reflected amazing in season one of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., by the way), resulting in events like the destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the creation of Ultron “Humanity can’t be corrupt if they’re all dead” Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Phase 3 is… a bit of a toss up. The first half’s “theme”, if you can even call it that, is to set up Avengers: Infinity War. Its stories are crafted relatively separately from each other, then every other movie or so an Infinity Stone is gently dropped into the story. Post-Infinity War, we’re just waiting for Avengers: Endgame. And by the way, to this day one of the craziest decisions Marvel has made was following up Infinity War, the movie that ends with an incredibly depressing montage of most of our favorite heroes disappearing from existence, with Ant-Man and the Wasp, a movie where the bad guy is chased through the streets of San Francisco carrying a briefcase-sized building (a literal building) by a building-sized Ant-Man. That being said, Phase 3’s significantly expanded universe makes it difficult to unite all 11 of its films under one or two themes but… it’s also not impossible.
So... what’s the theme of Phase 4? What thematic through-line do we have to connect Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel? Short answer: Hell if I know! Long answer: We’re 12 movies and tv shows into Phase 4 and I can’t catch an overarching narrative to be resolved in another phase or two. And I know, I need to be patient and give Marvel time to set it up… oh, who am I kidding. My friends, Avengers teased Thanos 6 YEARS before he completed his gemstone collection and became the big bad of Infinity War, and he showed face several times after his original debut. And while I’m not necessarily saying we need another central villain to root against, we do need something, some larger plot, some... direction. What Phase 4 feels like is right now is a superhero draft. But with no upcoming game scheduled, you begin to wonder two things: (1) that your team might be a little too big, and (2) why you’re even building a team in the first place. What is the next team-up movie going to look like anyway? I would list every hero that could feature, but I’d have to get out a damn calculator, folks.
Another bummer that comes out of this mass of seemingly directionless content is that I see a lot of people failing to recognize the quality of these projects. It’s generally agreed upon in the fandom that WandaVision is a genre bending work of art and it dominated Twitter’s top trends for days at a time, but as we continued getting more shows, their support from fans decreased. So much so that I only found tweets discussing the Ms Marvel finale by actively looking for them. Which is a shame, because Ms Marvel and WandaVision are both wonderful! This lack of chatter is less about quality and more just a reflection of the fatigue fans are experiencing trying to keep up with all these projects and the frustration from lack of cohesion is appearing to catch up to fans.
Marvel Studios’ SDCC slot is next week, where there are rumors and leaks galore about new information that will be announce and despite what this essay might suggest, I’m still a fan of the MCU so I’m very excited. And more so this year, because I’m holding out hope that the creators at Marvel will give us a better idea as to what to expect going forward into the franchise. Because, right now, I’m kind of getting tired.
Anyway, I’m going to go start my rewatch of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Put some respect of Captain America’s name.