I am not ashamed of the fact that I’m a huge Marvel Cinematic Universe fanboy.
Others have Star Wars or Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or the Girls Gone Wild Cinematic Universe - I have Marvel movies. Marvel’s films - even more than their comics at this point - are the one thing I truly allow myself to nerd out about. I follow production news and rumors, I speculate with friends, and I watch every new movie and television show at the earliest opportunity. I even get a little nervous when traveling via airplane, afraid that the plane may crash before I have a chance to see the next Marvel movie. Like I said - I’m not ashamed.
Frankly, a big part of my obsession has to do with the fact that this all feels like a dream I’m going to wake up from. It blows my mind that not only are there live-action Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ant-Man movies - but they are huge blockbusters, dominating the pop culture conversation. How the hell did this happen? I remember having to hide the fact that I still read comic books in high school, afraid I’d be made fun of. Now normal folks not only know who Loki is, they also have a favorite Loki variant.
Here’s the thing, though - I anticipate every new Marvel movie in the weeks and months before it comes out but - once I’ve seen it - I move on. I rarely rewatch the Marvel movies. I keep telling myself I should do a complete rewatch of all the movies and shows but who has time for that? It’s not the movies themselves I’m obsessed with - it’s the anticipation and the series as a whole.
I’ve stopped thinking of the movies as individual films and instead I consider each new film or streaming release as episodes in a larger television series. DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS is the 70th episode of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Show.
I don’t count AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D., AGENT CARTER, or the Netflix shows.
Fight me.
As with all my favorite television shows, there are certainly episodes I like more than others but I don’t think about LOST, BREAKING BAD or YOU’RE THE WORST as individual episodes as much as I think of them as a whole - a long-form experience watched over an extended period of time.
This’s why, I think, I’m fine when a Marvel movie or television show doesn’t completely work for me - it all averages out. Characters I was indifferent about when they were first introduced - like Thor - are now favorites. Movies I only kinda liked, like AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, have become better in my estimation due to the movies and shows that have built off them. That’s the power of episodic storytelling. You build and build and the bottom blocks - rough with the uncertainty of figuring the story out - become stronger as they support the weight of what comes next.
Who knows when this grand experiment is going to end. I mean, it has to - right? Eventually, the series’ popularity will ween and somebody in charge will realize that it’s better to go out with a bang than a whimper. You can keep building higher and higher but - like a Jenga tower - the structure will eventually start to weaken and wobble.
ETERNALS seems like the first crack in the armor. The film was fine but it was not a huge hit by any stretch of the imagination. It ended in a cliffhanger but will Marvel ever get around to making a sequel? My assumption is that, instead of an ETERNALS 2, we will get some CELESTRIAL QUEST movie in which Eternals characters are teamed up with a handful of Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and other cosmic characters to have some kind of big team-up film to wrap up loose plot threads and pave the way for whatever comes next.
And what is coming next? SECRET WARS, right? Incursions across the multiverse? Kang the Conquerer in place of The Beyonder or Doctor Doom? This seems to be what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently building towards. Is this the potential end? A way to soft- or hard-reboot the series? Who will Kevin Feige be able to convince to return for a SECRET WARS movie? What if they release four SECRET WARS movies in a single year - a new installment every quarter? Is SECRET WARS the way the MCU weaves in the Fantastic Four and the X-Men franchises? Why has Marvel not made a Squirrel Girl TV show yet?
Marvel Comics has been telling the same continuous storyline since the ‘60s (not including the ‘40s and ‘50s comics that have retroactively been folded into continuity). I guess there’s no real reason why the Marvel Cinematic Universe can’t just keep going as long as people buy tickets. My personal hope is that live-action films continue in some form as long as people watch them but Disney/Marvel begins to experiment with theatrical animated films featuring Iron Man and Captain America, bringing back the actors who have publically retired from the series in order to voice adventures that fill in the gaps in Phase One, Two, and Three films.
Does this week’s newsletter have a point? An underlying theme or thesis? God, no - this is me just nerding out about Marvel movies. I love speculating almost - if not more - than I love watching the movies. It’s who I am.
Let me have this, please.
But I want Doctor Doom, tho