After “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” were released, many fans were uncertain about the future of the universe that was created.
But one of the best things about Kevin Feige, current president of Marvel Studios, is that he always has a vision for the future.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” was one of the first movies of Marvel’s Multiverse Saga, and it excelled in removing the Tony Stark attachment from Peter Parker and putting together a beautiful Spider-Man story with two familiar heroes, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” helmed by original “Spider-Man” director Sam Raimi, explored a variety of storylines from Wanda’s love for her children, to Doctor Stephen Strange’s love for Christine, to America Chavez’s journey of using her multiversal powers on command.
Messy and no clear direction? Wanda (The Scarlet Witch) “sacrificed” herself to destroy the Darkhold which consumed her and made her cause destruction and almost destroyed the Multiverse.
Thor’s fourth adventure debuted when social discourse around Marvel projects started to take a shift for the worse.
People were discussing how the movies are not amusing, the visual effects (VFX) are rushed and the big connection with the next big villain does not show up.
“Thor: Love and Thunder” was a thrilling movie where Thor learns more about himself, and reunites with Jane Foster who becomes the “Mighty Thor” to prolong her cancer diagnosis.
Eventually, the duo, along with Valkyrie and Korg and some loud goats, help defeat Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher, whose character was chilling but meshed into the humor of director Taika Waititi well. Some say characters were not developed at all, but Thor found who he was, didn’t he?
The introduction of Disney+, Disney’s streaming service, is a new way to tell the vast stories of Marvel. It has helped to create some incredible shows, like the recent “Ms. Marvel,” where Kamala Khan becomes a young hero thanks to her family heritage and helps to keep her family and community safe from the ever-annoying Department of Damage Control.
In addition, there’s “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” which looks at Jen Walters and how she handles becoming a new Hulk along with her normal human self and pokes fun at fans always waiting on the next big thing.
The streaming platform has helped to put out great works like those, and also a chance for people to stream movies shortly after appearing in theaters. Sure, the six-episode format feels a bit rushed at times and puts a lot of pressure on each episode to deliver, but for the most part, it has hit the mark.
And the reports of visual effects workers being overworked with the recent increase of content coming out from Marvel Studios are definitely disappointing to read about. But in a report from IGN, Marvel has begun to logically split up the work and lighten the workload for the VFX artists.
You can cherry-pick projects that may not have been as good as others, but many fans recognize that the whole of Phase Four has been pretty solid.
Something that fans have actually noticed and are happy about is the current future of Marvel Studios are movies like “Deadpool 3” with Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine and Disney+ shows like “X-Men ’97” which is a direct continuation of the animated classic.
To round out Phase Four, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” looks to be a highly emotional story surrounding the death of “Black Panther” lead actor Chadwick Boseman, while introducing anti-hero mutant Namor and Riri Williams, also known as Ironheart.
Thanos’s destruction of the MCU was inevitable. Now, Kang the Conqueror will see us soon in the next installment of “Ant-Man”.
If you don’t like the direction it’s going, and especially if it’s been a few years since their supposed last good project, simply just don’t watch.
