Marvel bashing: is Phase Four really that bad?

Luca Fontana

18/4/2023

Translation: Katherine Martin

Since Endgame, Marvel’s once-celebrated cinematic universe has come under fire with almost every new release – and rightly so. But was it really all that bad? In this cross-examination of Phase Four, I’ll be taking on the role of Devil’s advocate.

Critics can be relentless – something comic giant and film studio Marvel is painfully aware of right now. Its movie universe, the MCU, was once revered with every new release. Not just by fans, but by critics too. Marvel’s success speaks for itself. Until 2019, its superheroes generated more box office cash than many of the biggest movie franchises combined. These days, however, there’s hardly anyone left with a good word to say about Marvel. Not even me.

When I penned the article linked above, I said Marvel had been experiencing an existential crisis since Phase Four of the MCU began, veering from too childish to overly political. On top of that, despite the downright dramatic fever pitch around its new film and TV releases, the main multiverse story has barely advanced. Instead, the MCU is drifting aimlessly through the cinematic landscape, rubbing its fans up the wrong way. It’s little wonder there’s been a hail of criticism.

Only recently, however, I watched this video by Youtuber Nando. The comic book nerd runs counter to the Marvel bashing that has become the norm, preferring instead to talk about the elements of Marvel’s Phase Four that he likes. And honestly, why not? At the end of the day, he’s right; not all Marvel releases since 2021 have been lousy or forgettable.

So just for a change, I’d like to follow his example.

WandaVision: a promising start

It all started with a series. Of course, it wasn’t just any series – it was the MCU’s first real TV series, WandaVision. At the time, it was a big deal. Though Netflix’s Marvel series Daredevil, for instance, was set in the MCU, it never had an impact on the movies. Subsequently, you didn’t need to have seen it to follow the MCU story. WandaVision changed all of this. It was the first time Marvel Studios had taken on the role of producer, and the first time the Avengers had starred in major roles in a TV series. Not only that, but it was the first time a series had been used to continue the MCU story.

I like WandaVision – and not just because of the tremendous fun I had writing the episode analyses, during which we all waited (in vain) for villain Mephisto to make his big appearance. The series also felt fresh, playing around with a bold concept. Every episode was a homage to a popular sitcom from a different decade, filmed in the appropriate style, even using canned laughter. The reason? Initially, the series made a mystery of it, allowing fans to spin the wildest of theories. It wasn’t explained until later that it’s Wanda herself who’s unconsciously creating a «dream world» with her magic. A world she can escape to in a bid to deal with the traumatic loss of her lover Vision, who she was forced to kill in order to save the world.

Wow.

Back then, it was still there; that seriousness and gravitas of Marvel stories and their characters that I go on to miss more and more as Phase Four progresses. But WandaVision never lost it. The series contains moments that still put a lump in my throat as I’m watching them. «What is grief if not love persevering?» for instance, might be one of the best lines ever written for a Marvel screenplay.

Admittedly, the ending misses the mark slightly. As is all-too-typical of Marvel, the emotions get lost in over-the-top CGI battles. That being said, I still think back on WandaVision with fondness. Sadly, there’s no sequel on the cards. However, a spin-off – Agatha: Coven of Chaos – is due to be released in late 2023 or early 2024 at the latest. After all, we do need to find out what happens to the wicked witch who – dramatic breath in – killed Sparky!

Falcon and The Winter Soldier: the super patriot loses it

The next Marvel MCU series – The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – didn’t disappoint me either, and made for a worthy addition to the big picture. In it, the world has lost one of its greatest heroes in Steve Rogers aka Captain America. His successor? U.S. soldier John Walker, who, though not a genetically engineered super soldier, is the best the U.S. military has to offer. Although Walker gives it his all, he’s close to cracking under the pressure of having to fill Roger’s immense shoes. The emotional climax of the series comes when Walker publicly executes a fugitive. His weapon? The blood-smeared shield of Captain America, an object that’s actually supposed to protect people.

A horrific image.

Meanwhile, Sam, the real hero, has to deal with imperialism, racism and police violence. Bucky, on the other hand, tries to atone for his debt to his neighbour, whose son was murdered in cold blood by Bucky’s former evil alter ego the Winter Soldier while under the mental control of Hydra. Meanwhile, Baron Zemo raises the Machiavellian question of whether any end, no matter how noble, really justifies the means. Sure, there’s no shortage of action or witty quips in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but its attempt at seriousness isn’t quite as stringently pursued as the themes require. And the ending is even a little pathetic. Nevertheless, these shortcomings aren’t enough to tarnish the strong impression made by the rest of the series.

Loki: a trickster seldom comes alone

The release of Loki saw Marvel Studios achieve its best series yet. Part of that success is down to Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of villain Loki. Considered a long-time fan favourite, sticking him in a buddy cop comedy alongside a mustachioed Owen Wilson as Mobius, was a stroke of downright genius. With a chemistry reminiscent of Lethal Weapon, the pair travel through time to hunt down the figure seeking to throw the entire space-time continuum into chaos: Loki.

Wait, what?

Loki introduces the multiverse, in which there are countless alternate timelines. These contain alternative versions of familiar characters, referred to as variants. Sylvie, a female version of Loki, has it in for the Time-Keepers. That’s the group responsible for ensuring that the one true timeline unfolds properly, and for letting TVA agents like Mobius loose on troublesome variants. At the time, it sounded like a fun Everything, Everywhere, All at Once-style concept that would inject variety into the tired Marvel formula. And yep, you guessed it. Someone evil has an evil plan to be thwarted by an Avengers member, and it all ends in a big CGI battle. None of the subsequent Marvel films have really ended any differently. But hey, that’s another story.

What sets Loki apart from Marvel’s Phase Four projects is its finale. Instead of the aforementioned final battle saturated with computer effects, there’s a surprisingly anticlimactic drama with He Who Remains. Its highlight? The outcome turns out to be much more drastic for the MCU than any soulless CGI battle could have been. Especially because it introduces the next major threat to the Avengers: Kang the Conqueror.

Shang-Chi: Jackie Chan meets Marvel

Series-wise, Marvel initially got most things right. WandaVision and Falcon and The Winter Soldier lent depth and character to characters who were given little room for development in the feature films. They dealt with the aftermath of Endgame and evoked new conflicts, which, in the case of Loki, were even multiversal in nature. In cinemas, a film I loved from the word-go hit the silver screen: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

At the beginning in particular, Shang-Chi is a showstopper; a skilful blend of genres somewhere between the crazy kung-fu interludes of Jackie Chan’s early Police Story films and Chinese martial arts fantasy films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero. While the young, fierce Shang-Chi, who gives the movie its name, fights like Jackie Chan, the flashbacks mostly feature his father, whose story goes back over 1,000 years.
During his fights, the camera often floats through beautifully opulent, feudal Asian sets. Actors fly through these scenes on wires that have clearly been edited out, run up walls and perform a kind of poetic dance with their opponents in combat.

Glorious stuff.

It’s only in the final third of the film that Shang-Chi strays a little. Namely, in (surprise, surprise) an over-the-top CGI battle more reminiscent of Dragon Ball than it needs to be. Incidentally, I like Dragon Ball. Love it, even. But while Shang-Chi had previously delivered down-to-earth, hand-crafted action scenes, the finale is so artificial that I almost think someone has swapped out the movie with another half way through. Too bad. Nevertheless, my overall opinion on it is still positive.

Moon Knight: protector of night travellers

Last but not least, there’s Moon Knight, my secret Phase Four favourite. Why? Because the series rarely sticks to the Marvel formula, driven instead by an ingenious narrative trick. Imagine you’re a perfectly ordinary person leading a perfectly ordinary life until one day, you find out that, unbeknownst to you, you have a second personality – and it’s a superhero.

At the centre of it all is Steven Grant, plagued each night with a sleep disorder. At his job in London, he’s bullied. No one takes him seriously. And complete strangers are constantly approaching him and talking about things he has hasn’t the foggiest idea about. As if someone else entirely had experienced them... Then one day, he wakes up in a random field in a totally unfamiliar country with a dislocated jaw and blood on his hands.

My first thought when I watched it was, «What the hell is going on here?» You see, the great thing about Moon Knight is that the story is initially only told from Steven Grant’s point of view. The gaps in his knowledge become the gaps in mine – his confusion palpable, his stress perceptible. One minute he’s being grabbed by evil henchmen, the next they’re lying dead around him, blood everywhere. Then suddenly he’s in a car, screaming as he speeds down a road full of hairpin turns – and suddenly he’s back in his own bed in London. Probably all just a bad dream after all. Or was it?

This non-linear narrative provides exactly the kind of intellectual challenge that Marvel should take a chance on more often. These gaps in our knowledge are only closed as the storyline progresses – of course with a dramatic twist and the realisation that Steven Grant is far more broken than he first thought. That affected me greatly. I think that alone makes Moon Knight a success. Ever since Endgame saw the old guard leave the cinematic Marvel universe, I can hardly relate to any of the new characters. Steven Grant is one of the few exceptions.

What’s more, the series is an almost perfect fusion of fundamentally different genres. There’s a lot of Fight Club, with all its harshness and gloom, carried by a mentally ill protagonist. There’s also a hint of fantasy, inspired by a lot of Egyptian mythology and a dollop of action-adventure horror in the style of 1999’s The Mummy. This lack of cohesiveness in tone sounds like a nightmare on paper, but against all logic, it works well on screen. My only point of criticism is the computer effects, which tended to be fairly meagre.

Marvel can do it – they’ve just forgotten how

Even though I railed against Marvel’s Phase Four in this article, not everything about it was bad. And even the «bad» stuff would actually be pretty passable if we hadn’t seen it a zillion times over during the superhero boom, which has been going on for more ten years now. That too is a reason why Marvel needs to come up with something new, so that it can shake the trite, stale image it’s acquired recently.

Maybe that’s why the releases that dared to deviate from Marvel’s home recipe for success are the ones I liked best. Loki or Moon Knight, for example. At the same time, it seems to me that whenever Marvel couldn’t simply rely on a formula, it placed more emphasis on deep character development and thoughtful plots. After all, Marvel’s greatest strength has always been telling compelling stories about interesting characters who just «happen» to be superheroes. Not the other way around.

I hope Marvel remembers that soon.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.» more

These articles might also interest you