Marvel was once one of the biggest studios in the world. Arguably it still is, although as of late it seems as though Marvel is falling under the pressure of its past successes.
When Marvel became an official household name in 2008 with the release of Iron Man, no one could’ve expected the build-up and success that the team at Disney and Marvel would see over the next nearly two decades. With Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) bringing the last decade of superhero films to an incredible conclusion, many fans wondered what was next for the studio and the MCU. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t take very long for Marvel to fall.
Credit: Marvel Studios
Endgame was the biggest team-up in Marvel cinematic history, and it appears as though studio president Kevin Feige deemed that as the definition of success. In the last few years of MCU releases, fans have been experiencing superhero fatigue, with complaints that each release gets more convoluted, requires more knowledge and backstory, and each major movie is just another excuse for a large cast of characters to cameo.
It started to cause complaints among the fans, especially as the quality of each of the MCU films and Disney+ series continues to deteriorate. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania released earlier this year to widespread criticism, quickly becoming Marvel’s biggest failure. Ever since the success of Endgame, it seems as though Marvel has been chasing that same formula and continues to fall flat.
Credit: Marvel Studios
As more and more characters in the Avengers are shoved into audiences’ faces, they keep losing their personality and the things that made them special to fans in the first place. While each supposed individual project continues to serve set up future projects, characters, or villains, it’s become clear that they should’ve stopped forcing the Avengers after Endgame.
Rather than continue to introduce new characters as the “New Avengers” and focus on dumping as many characters into each project as possible, Marvel should’ve focused on their individual characters solely as individual characters. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) was a surprising success for Marvel, considering that Shang-Chi had no previous involvement with any of the Avengers films, and still has not been included in any major team-up movie.
Credit: Marvel Studios
Endgame served as an emotional climax for a generation of fans that had grown up with that iteration of the Avengers team. With Tony Stark dying and Steve Rogers passing the torch, along with so many other beloved characters not surviving Thanos, it would’ve made more sense for the MCU to leave that group behind and focus completely on a new cast of characters and initiate a new team.
Marvel has fallen in recent years, with an insane amount of content that’s been lacking the typical level of quality fans have come to expect from the studio, with everyone from general audiences to Bob Iger himself saying Marvel has released too much too quickly. Rather than feeling nostalgic for previous characters, fans are just tired of a formula that’s become repetitive and exhausting.
Credit: Marvel Studios
Rather than seeing the studio participate in its own demise, Marvel should have ended the Avengers team and projects in 2019 with Endgame, and instead should have turned its attention to setting up a brand-new team from the ground up. By trying to continue to recreate the formula and success that the original Avengers movies had, Marvel is slowly but surely starting to turn its fanbase against itself. While Infinity War and Endgame continue to be some of the highest-grossing films of all time, it’s unclear if the next several Avengers projects will see the same level of success.
Do you think Marvel should have left the Avengers after Endgame or are you a fan of their current projects? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Everything since then has only tried, and failed, to emulate the same success. #Marvel #MCU Read More