BW Vs Fansided> 9 Supposed Issues With The Marvel Cinematic Universe

We all know, except for those who don’t want to admit it, that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has fallen from grace. Stories that attack fans, creators that seem to hate continuity and proper adaptation, and at least one Marvel Studios producer openly saying he only wants writers who know nothing about the comics, aka the source material without which they wouldn’t have a job. Disney has been mistreating the SFX people to the point that they’re planning to unionize against Disney, and MatPat recently went over a host of other mistakes Marvel Studios are making with the movies and Disney+ series. What started out as something comic fans and casual moviegoers alike could enjoy has been ruined by activists and the “everything for meeeeeeeeeeeee” crowd.

So with curiosity I looked into an article by Fansided’s “Bam! Smack! Pow!” section about “9 Things No One Want To Admit About The Marvel Cinematic Universe“, though I thought article titles were supposed to be all capitalized. Apparently not at Fansided, and it’s one of the articles that makes you go through multiple pages so they can push multiple ads, except they don’t bury you in useless information to get you to the part you actual came for until you give up in disgust and learn nothing except “don’t read this site anymore”. It’s still an annoying practice. I’ve done this once or twice because the article is so long, with a set of links to the part you’d actually want to read but sites like those or articles like this is why I stopped. I’ll try to summarize with the right amount of context but you can check the full article for the entire post. It’s nine things over five pages so it won’t be as bad as some other sites. Let’s see what bothers writer Cody Schultz versus what bothers me about the current state of the MCU.

“THIS redhead isn’t getting swapped without a fight!”

Marvel has a “fridging issue”.

What’s fridging you ask? (I don’t have to ask. I did an article about it.-SWT)In short, fridging is the act of killing off or hurting a character in order to motivate or torture a main character. Can you see where this is going now…

Across the history of the MCU, the Marvel creatives have killed off so many of the MCU’s incredible female characters as a plot to further their male counterparts. There is a long list of characters on this list with the most notable examples being the likes of Maria Hill, Black Widow, and Gamora.

I can’t speak to Maria Hill’s death, and the only Gamora death I know is in Infinity War, which was not a fridge death by the above definition. Gamora died there because Thanos was so insistent on killing half the universe that he killed his own daughter to get the soul gem. It wasn’t to motivate anyone. Thanos didn’t care, but because her friends in the Guardians Of The Galaxy cared (especially Star Lord, who had a thing going on with her) of course they were going to be saddened by her lost and given a personal stake in stopping Thanos or at least avenging Gamora. According to the above they shouldn’t have reacted at all. It was less fridging and more shock death. Now if you want to complain about that, fine, or maybe something happened in one of the movies I’m not aware of because I didn’t watch any of the GOTG movies. This one at least is not applicable. If we’re talking Thanos’s “snap” deaths elsewhere, that would mean Spider-Man was also fridged. Fridging versus other deaths is about motivation and Peter Quill wasn’t why it happened.

Black Widow’s death is even less fridging. She and Clint go back in time to get the soul gem before Thanos destroys it, but the same rule applies: someone you love must be sacrificed in order to claim it, a rule that apparently doesn’t protect it as much as they thought it would. Clint is ready to sacrifice himself to claim the gem but Natasha takes the leap instead. This not about Clint’s motivation, or even Bruce Banner, whom she was in a budding romance with. This is the conclusion to HER character arc. Natasha Romanoff was a KGB agent with a lot of “red in her ledger” as she put it. That means she killed a lotta people. So not only was her sacrifice allowing Clint to return to his wife and kids but a cleansing of her ledger, with a huge move towards the black since she’d end up saving more lives than she ever took. If more woman characters died for this reason we wouldn’t need the term “fridging”. Sadly we do not live in that world. However, this is totally about her motivations, not the guys, and thus is the opposite of fridging.

Looks like someone finally saw WandaVision.

It’s time for a soft reboot

As someone who has been here from the beginning going all the way back to the movies that launched MCU, even I can admit it’s time for a reboot of the MCU. With more than 30 movies making up the MCU narrative as well as a handful of MCU set shows, the MCU has become a bit too vast and disconnected with fans picking and choosing what to watch rather than feeling a sense of urgency to watch each entry so not to miss an important piece of the puzzle.

I never saw any of the Thor movies, even the ones not joked into oblivion by Taika Waititi. Or Doctor Strange. I watched the first Spider-Man movie and didn’t care about the others because they drained all of the characters out of it and replaced them with de-aged namesakes. You shouldn’t have to watch all the MCU movies and shows, but it does help if you do, and even then that’s only the case for the Avenger movies, or Captain America: Civil War because they’re crossover stories. I was able to follow Thor’s character rather well. It’s just like the comics. I don’t have to read everyone, which given what Marvel Comics is putting out is a good thing as right now I don’t want to read any of it.

The writer doesn’t want a hard reboot because he doesn’t want to throw out all the good stuff (there would be a DC joke except none of the DCEU stuff was all that good and the comics have rebooted so many times hard and soft that it’s not the same universe anyway) from the previous movies and shows, but given the people in charge of Marvel Studios seem to hate continuity (wasn’t that the whole theme of Loki, that continuity is for suckers?) a soft reboot with the current “stewards” would end up being a hard reboot so they can remake the Marvel Universe into their own image. I’d rather see them bring in people who will do proper adaptations without attacking the fans and you can just choose not to watch a movie or show. It’s never been a requirement.

“Let’s remind Kevin Feige WHY he has a universe to make stories out of, the lazy bum!”

The MCU Lost It’s Direction After Endgame

An odd one on this list as pretty much everybody has not only admitted it but been rather vocal about it. Endgame for many does feel like the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tony Stark died. Steve Rogers went into the past. Thor was ruined by Waititi. Wanda turned evil. She-Hulk was used to attack fans by people who don’t actually understand the fans’ complaints, even molding the villain after YouTube commentator Doomcock. Nobody thinks Phase 5 was any good because it wasn’t a “phase” so much as “random stories because we hate continuity”, and hopes for Phase 6 aren’t that high.

She-Hulk Was Brilliant (Also Falcon & Winter Soldier)

I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Jessica Gao and the talented writing team successfully captured the essence and humor of Jen Walters / She-Hulk, while Tatiana Maslany delivered a superb performance in the title role, embodying the character with charm and humor.

The show was absolutely fantastic and a brilliant addition to the MCU, which was hated on by so many fans who cried “woke” and tried to cover their toxic masculinity with complaints about the show’s CGI.

I refer you back to the above clip, the notation about Doomcock, the fact that Jen Waters things being catcalled by drunken jackasses is tougher than an abusive psycho dad, being chased by the cops, and losing the woman you love to clear the red from her ledger, how easier Jen learned at being Hulk, the attack on male fans as if they don’t love the character of She-Hulk more than writers upset you did worship Captain Marvel as a cinematic masterpiece (they have said this), and actually try reading some of the deeper reviews before making a foolish statement like that. Bad CG was the mildest complaint made against the show that to all appearances hates comic fans, men, and men who are comic fans. If you like it, fine, but I’ve seen deep dive reviews that seem the polar opposite.

The next entry is also praising The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. I haven’t bothered with as many deep dive reviews on this one for various reasons and I don’t have Disney+. So let’s move to the next entry.

I actually have very few images of Wanda.

WandaVision is the best MCU show and Loki is overrated

Did (Loki) have high points? Yes, I’m not disputing this; however, its pacing lacked and if we’re be honest it needed less talking and more doing. The show lacked substantial developments in the story and it often felt like the plot was taking too much time to reveal key information leading to a full start and rushed finish.

So many are quick to call Loki the best show from Marvel and that simply isn’t true. That honor goes to WandaVision.

The anti-continuity story versus “Wanda takes over an entire time and forced them into a sitcom thanks to Agatha Harkness, but that’s totally okay and she wasn’t really evil in Multiverse Of Madness because she killed everybody to get her children from that show back and not Vision who was dead again and actually real”. I know, you can’t judge WandaVision based on MOM but while the writer does have a point later about the acting (I’ve seen clips of Olsen and Bettany in each of the sitcoms and he’s not wrong), the people I follow pretty much didn’t like either show. I’m wondering who these fans are the writer is talking about?

Next entry is about defending The Eternals. The only major complaint outside of a Blockbuster Buster review is why the Eternals were absent from so much of the MCU and one characters turned gay or something, but I have never cared about the Eternals in the comics and don’t care about the movie, either. Next!

“I’m going to watch every Disney+ show at once.” “Can’t wait to meet the new publisher when you go crazy.”

Six episodes doesn’t work for Marvel shows

The problem with the six-episode format is that it doesn’t allow the shows enough time to fully flesh out the storyline they hope to achieve. This has often led to a slow build in the early episodes as the shows attempt to lay their groundwork, only for the shows to have to rush their endings. Six episodes just aren’t enough for the stories Marvel is hoping to tell with some of these projects, and for others, it’s more time than is needed as certain stories would work better as movies.

Some of the Disney+ shows for both Marvel and Star Wars were intended to be movies, not TV/Streaming shows, so it sounds more like they padded out a movie to make six episodes and didn’t use the time wisely. There have been miniseries and multipart stories with LESS than six episodes that did rather well, sometimes episodes only a half-hour long. I somehow doubt that’s the problem. Perhaps if they weren’t following the comics (and that could be ironic) by being focused more on some epic story and instead focused on just smaller adventures between the movies this wouldn’t be a problem?

Apparently the MCU’s most disposable character. Even Rhodey got to have a new actor.

The MCU is still lacking diversity

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was one of the greatest Marvel movies to ever be released with an incredible ensemble of characters. Yet despite the success of the film, years have passed without any confirmation of a sequel or larger role for the characters.

Shang-Chi was originally created in the comics in response to the cult following around Chinese martial arts movies. The movie version was all about the modern wire-fu Chinese martial arts movies, made him fight the Mandarin despite they’re having little association in the comics, and the effects are the only positive thing I hear about the movie, and that’s when anybody talks about it at all. Add in some comments by Simu Liu lately and I don’t think anyone is jazzing up for a sequel unless you’re complaining about “diversity”.

The same goes for Eternals and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Both films marked major strides in celebrating diverse voices with the former making Marvel history through its inclusion of the first deaf superhero and the first openly gay hero within the MCU.

And people hated The Eternals, giving it less discussion that even Shang-Chi. Meanwhile, everybody loved the first Black Panther but hated the second one because the writing was terrible and they saw an opportunity to replace T’Challa when even Chadwick Boseman’s family was saying it was okay to replace the late actor. Plus Wakanda has been the source of questions in both comics and movies like “if they’re this advanced, why not try to benefit Africa” or “if they have the cure to cancer, surely they can find a way to distribute it properly without it getting somehow weaponized” (that’s a comic one) so all the good will made up from the first movie has been lost by the second and nobody is caring about the comics despite it being such a big deal that activists on TikTok are telling white people not to see it but buy a ticket for a poor black family who I’m sure has more to worry about than seeing a movie. Like not starving to death!

There are so many underrepresented communities who still deserve the chance to see themselves within the MCU and it’s time Marvel truly commits to celebrating diversity within its shows and movies.

It’s also time it starts showing its non-white heroes the respect they deserve by committing to diverse storytelling beyond one-off projects.

Sure, if they could get properly written stories where they weren’t stereotypes, replacing redheads or existing characters, or if Marvel Studios gave them a proper adaptation without tossing out the script after 90% of the movie is already done. I’m all in favor of seeing the unknown black and Latino and other races heroes get their time, just not at the expense of the existing white characters. Nobody outside of comics  and cartoons knew who Black Panther, James Rhodes, or the Falcon were until a few years ago. The same is true for Iron Man, the Guardians Of The Galaxy, and the Winter Soldier. Don’t replace; expand!

So I agree with some of his statements, especially the ones fans themselves have said but the rest is a bit off the mark. I’d like to see the MCU get better, but with the current egos who hate comics, continuity, and fans of both I’m not seeing that anytime soon. Disney doesn’t care as long as they make money, though they’re doing less and less of that. Can the MCU be saved? Not by the people currently in charge. Marvel was better off on their own with Paramount distributing their movies because Disney is becoming the mark of death for any of the franchises they’ve take over lately, including their own.