Marvel cinematic universe some thoughts

I’m a casual Marvel fan, first introduced to comic heroes due to the animated TV shows. The majority of my knowledge comes from stories told on the small screen. Growing up I used to watch on Saturday morning Spiderman and X-men a deep rich library of animated TV shows from the 1990s and 2000s. In terms of comic books, I own a small collection of Beano comics. The corner shop only stocked one or two comics I never saw a Marvel one.

History of Marvel

The big two comic book publishers are Marvel and DC. Marvel originally started out as Timely Comics back in 1939. Renamed to Marvel back in 1960 due to the suggestion of one of the employees. I haven’t covered the complete history here. Search for the golden and silver age of comic books if you want to learn more. Ron Perelman purchased Marvel entertainment group in 1989 for $82.5, and within 2 years the stock was listed. Perelman went on a spending spree, shares in Toybiz, trading cards, and distribution Hero’s World all for $700 million. Neil Gaiman writer of Sandman gave a speech in 1993, warning the industry was in a bubble. Months later great comic book crash started, between 1993-1997. A slump in comic book sales, trading cards and merchandise hit hard. Resulting in 75% of comic book speciality stores closing, and a number of publishers being driven out of business.

Facing mounting losses, Perelman had a rescue plan in 1995 he created Marvel Studios. Plan was to bring comic book characters to the big screen, but legal battles and reluctant Hollywood stopped it from happening. First, he needed to buy the rest of Toybiz, merging it with Marvel. Shareholders from the latter resisted, bankruptcy means you can restructure without shareholder consent. Marvel filed for bankruptcy in 1996, indebted by poor choices and declining revenue. A power struggle raged for two years, settled by the courts in 1998. Marvel and Toybiz merged together, and executives were ousted. Perelman along with allies, Carl Icahn shareholder who had resisted the merger gone too. Pushed out by two ToyBiz executives, Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad installed a new CEO and management team. The legacy of Marvel Studios would live on and has been a vision for a while.

History of superhero movies

An American superhero movie is nothing new, the shadow strikes 1937 is the first. Here is the Wiki list of American superhero movies.

Just picking some important ones from the list.

Warner Bros the owner of DC Comics, Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze 1975 is the first comic book superhero movie.

20th century Fox produced Superman 1978, forming the template for the genre.

Universal produced Flash Gordon 1980, a camp 80s cult classic. Soundtrack by British rock legends Queen.

Universal produced Howard the Duck 1986 based on the Marvel character. Critical and commercial failure.

Warner Bros produced Batman 1992, the start of the golden age of superhero movies. Last movie Batman and Robin was a critical and commercial failure.

Compared to the rest comic book superhero are largely missing until the 2000s. Before going on to dominate the box office. With dreams of entering the movie business Looking at that list, even DC had struggled on the big screen, Superman 1978 and Batman 1992 were only major successes. A handful of cult classics but nothing like MCU today. , Marvel began selling film rights. For years it had been a struggle, Howard the duck was a failure and nobody wanted to take the risk. Until the late 90s, hits like Blade, Spiderman and X-Men, which Marvel had sold the film rights for were a success. Marvel gained very little from these movies in some cases a laughable slice of the revenue. Blade 1998 saw Marvel take home $25,000, it made $131 million at the box office. The budget was $45 million, and commercial success even with mixed reviews. Avard approach had worked but gave away the best part of the business. Why not make your own movies and reap the profits yourself? The idea of the cinematic universe was born with Marvel’s management. Just look at what happened, here is the Marvel list.

The 1980s was the age of the action hero and the 1990s was the hangover. The 2000s belonged to the comic book superhero, the 2010s age of Marvel.

How the MCU got started.

Marvel had survived bankruptcy and bounced back in the early 2000s. Others were finally finding success with Marvel characters, the small share went to Marvel. Why not produce movies under the Marvel banner and reap the profits? This was however highly risky and would require borrowing money to fund it. Board agreed with the plan and created the Marvel studio division. Merrill Lynch $525 loan over 7 years, character’s film rights as collateral the remaining crown jewels. Could spend that money on 10 movies over 7 years, with budgets ranging from $45 million to $180 million. One small problem is certain characters Marvel had sold the film rights to years ago. They were using some of this new money to reacquire Iron Man and more. The first independent production was Iron Man, an unknown character outside of comic nerds’ minds.

Kevin Feige’s love of comics saw him land a producer role for Xmen, Spiderman, Daredevil, and Hulk. Characters whose film rights were sold to different studios. He became president of Marvel Studios in 2007. Playing a key role in the oversight of the Iron Man movie. Briefly, the iron man had no script during filming, the lead actor was questionable. On a budget of $130 million, it made $585 million. Kickstarting the MCU was a success, followed by the Hulk which was not. Disney purchased Marvel for a dizzying $4.3 billion in 2009.

Avi Arad said “It’s a cheap price!” “It’s nothing! It’s a very strong brand, and we planned on this brand. It wasn’t a fluke.”

MCU’s all-time earnings are now $29.6 billion. That is only half the story just consider how much merchandising sales and Disney got a bargain. Disney in recent years picked up Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4 billion, and 20th-century Fox in 2018 for $71.3 billion. Marvel has turned out to be the wisest investment. House of Mouse was already a copyright giant before buying all of the above.

Marvel cinematic universe

Kevin Feige’s job creating a universe similar to the comic books. Nobody else had tried anything like it, even DC Comics had avoided it. All studios made self-contained stories, rarely sharing the same universe. The concept was simple characters would get solo movies with shared experiences. Jumping between titles before a crossover team-up to fight a big bad. Easy to forget just how fresh and different that approach was. Super risky one movie fails the whole chain is broken and the plan is ruined. Slate is planned ahead of time and years in advance.

Phase 1 – The Avengers 2008-12

• Iron Man
• The Incredible Hulk
• Iron Man 2
• Thor
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• The Avengers

6 movies over 4 years, take the time to tell the story. Nick Fury played by Samuel L Jackson seeks out heroes to form the Avengers to defend the Earth. Appearing in post-credits with the proposed team. Each movie is an origin story, sharing supporting characters. Avengers team up to take down Loki, Thor’s brother from taking over Earth.

Phase 2 – Age of Ultron 2013-15

• Iron Man 3
• Thor: The Dark World
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Ant-Man

6 movies over 2 years, clear ramp-up in production. A couple of new characters are introduced, Guardians of the Galaxy and Antman. Tony Stark is traumatised and creates a backup plan called Ultron. Designed to shield the Earth against threats when the Avengers can’t come to Earth’s aid. Ultron attacks the group and tries to destroy the world. A couple of plot points which form the fountain of phase 3 are introduced here. Infinity stones in guardians, one is retconned and shown to be the source of Loki’s power. Ant-Man gives us the quantum realm. Mind stone is part of the vision, Tony’s stark answer to Ultron.

Phase 3 – Infinity Saga 2016-2019

12 movies over 3 years, let us discuss the 6 movies at a time.

• Captain America: Civil War
• Doctor Strange
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
• Spider-Man: Homecoming
• Thor: Ragnarok
• Black Panther

Civil War deals with the fallout from Ultron, splitting up of the Avengers. The first time we get Spiderman in the MCU. Sony after seeing the success of MCU reached an agreement, Marvel studios produce solo movies and a revenue split happens. In return, spiderman can be used in the MCU. Doctor Strange gives us the first magic user and another stone. Black Panther gives us loads of lore. Concepts like the multiverse along with higher universe powers are hinted at.

• Avengers: Infinity War
• Ant-Man and the Wasp
• Captain Marvel
• Avengers: Endgame
• Spider-Man: Far From Home

Infinity War and Endgame two-part ending to infinity stone saga. Thanos until this point made various small post-credit cameos now he gets loads of screen time. Thanos is revealed to be the big bad behind some major events. More than a match for the Avengers. Antman and Captain Marvel both provide some backstory and fill in the blanks. Spiderman Far from Home deals with the aftermath of an endgame. Endgame wrapped up the infinity stone storyline nicely.

Phase 4 2021-2022

The unfortunate timing of pandemic-related restrictions meant nobody could go to theatres. Thus delaying and impacting box office performance. Starting to accelerate an existing trend, the traditional media business model was under threat. Briefly streaming makes less profit per show or movie compared. More on why streaming has hurt the MCU later. Focus clearly switched to Disney Plus TV shows acting as pre-sequels until a film. One example WandaVision ties into Doctor Strange 2. Lesser known characters were given the spotlight given this change in focus.

WandaVision
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Loki
What If
Hawkeye
Moon Knight
Ms Marvel
She hulk
Were By night
Guardian of the Galaxy Holiday Special

The shows are not that bad but don’t really move the story forward or share a plot. Loki is the first multiverse-centred show, quite good overall. Standing above the rest is mainstream enough but suits the character. The fundamental problem is Kang really has no real connection to the rest of the world. Moon Knight is another surprise treat. What IF and WandaVision is not bad. Rest of the shows I barely remember if I have watched them. Flooding the market with TV and movies, no story narrative.

Big screen

Black Widow
Shang-Chi
Eternals
Spiderman no way home
Doctor Strange 2
Thor 4
Black Panther 2

Black Widow should have come out after the civil war. Feels out of place with retconning for the sake of it. Shang-Chi is average with no real risk-taking and formula approach to the MCU. Eternals were dull and boring, and the important plot was just wasted.

Spiderman’s no way home is almost perfect, ending his origin story that is a perfect ending to his story arc. Bringing back past villains and redeeming, fixing past mistakes. First-time Multiverse is on the big screen outside of an animated Spiderman movie. Doctor Strange 2 just missing something, I can’t put my finger on it.

Thor’s Love and Thunder, which is silly and dull takes the character backwards. Worse than the brilliant Ragnarok, just average. Black Panther 2 which is rather good and gives us a black female lead.

A decade of MCU could argue that oversaturated the box office market. Switching from 2 to 3 movies per year. Comic books after any big cross-over event always wipe the slate clean by resetting the world. It was always going to be difficult to create a new storyline and tie everything together. Phase 1 had the Avengers forming together in the background, and phase 2 infinity stones were discovered with Thanos cameos. Last part everything comes together. The structure of phase 4 feels deeply flawed considering what came before it. At the start of the multiverse saga, we get details but no real storyline connecting the dots. Phase 4 feels similar to pre-MCU, are other factors I will discuss in a bit.

“You Can’t Top Pigs With Pigs” Walt Disney

To make matters worse MCU is rather formulaic and refuses to take risks. After 20 films which are similar in terms of story and content. Movie one is an origin story, some sort of team-up that happens, or funny heroes exist. Frankly, most of the MCU is dull or boring these days. The multiverse storyline just stays in the background for half the phase, nothing happens to advance anything. One or two good movies but the quality overall feels like it has dropped.

Phase 5 2023-2025

Maybe it is unfair to say but feels like Marvel is muddling through. Before we had a clear sense of direction now I don’t know. Compared to how Thanos was introduced and that long story arc it just feels disjointed. Part of this is due to the TV shows which have far more lore-building.

Secret Invasion
Agatha
Daredevil
Echo
Ironheart

Big screen

Antman 3
Guardians of the Galaxy 3
The Marvels – Novemberer 2023
Deadpool 3
Captain America 4
Thunderbolts

Antman gives us the first big screen appearance of Kang. A rather strange choice considering he is more of a comedy relief character. Just a weird choice to include him as Antman’s villain, in Loki he is far more menacing. Result Kang feels like a B-tier less threatening character. Guardian Vol 3 is a far stronger movie, with a perfect ending for everybody. Moving the story forward, future plan is clear a new team is being formed at the end. I have low expectations for the Marvels but we will see.

Phase 6

Three unannounced projects are due for release, summer blockbuster and winter hit. Who is going to form a new Avengers team is unclear at the moment. Disney has already cancelled around 40 projects to cut costs. The blade is rumoured to be one of the movies here.

Fantastic four 2025

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty 2026

Avengers: Secret Wars 2027

My approach to phase 4 / 5

The main story should be told by the movies, TV shows should not be required viewing. The framework I would create is simple, tie up loose ends and end story arcs that make sense. I don’t know enough comic book stories to suggest something here.

Simple reset with new characters and old favourites returning. Nick Fury returning in post-credit scenes with Doctor Strange or somebody else talking about the multiverse. Strange informs Nick about Eternals, which is why he wants to build a space station. Throw in a couple of references about Kang the Conquerer. No need for a big Avengers team-up, just resetting the stage. One phase to rebuild the MCU would be okay. Don’t have to rush things you can slow down.

Phase 5 could be a secret invasion, Skrulls under the influence of Kang. You could kill off major characters here but they are Skrulls. End result Nick Fury decides it is time for the new Avengers squad to return. After finding out Skrulls has been working together with Kang for a while now. However, this new team for phase 6 is unready for Kang. Having not been trained due to Skrulls taking the identity of the Avengers. During all of this Kang is slowly shown in the background. As it turns out he has been behind various events for decades now.

GCI has been common practice and overused in Marvel for a while now. Stretched often overworked artists often doing the effects on the cheap. Part of that is due to the fantasy nature but has to be a better way to do it. Back to basics with GCI just necessary would be good.

Marvel movies are formulaic and family-friendly for the largest possible audience. Earlier I quoted Walt Disney.

“You Can’t Top Pigs With Pigs”

Disney has made a bacon factory, creating similar action-based movies and largely avoiding taking any real risk. Possible that audiences have now had enough bacon after all this time.

The business model of movies and TV

Hollywood’s business model was selling cable channels, advertising and reselling content. For a very long time that proved to be highly successful, reaping huge profit margins. Studios would provide residuals, small payments every time something was on TV or DVD sold. In recent years cable subscriptions have declined and physical media sales have too. Movies are similar, advertising before it is shown and resold once it leaves theatres at a later date. Ticket sales are split, and everybody gets a slice of the pie. After a couple of months, a physical copy is sold. Years later TV channels buy the rights to broadcast the movie and the process starts again. Streaming was viewed as the golden goose that could replace it.

And that has not happened, instead far lower profit margins compared to before. Shareholders have been promised returns that can’t exist without somebody making less. Costs of production have increased, and running costs remain high. Easy-to-cancel service requires loads of content just for people to sign up and keeping them around is hard. Hollywood has tried to cut costs, pushing down pay and conditions. Under existing contracts, residuals are low or don’t exist for streaming. Hoping this would be the new normal companies like Disney started to create their own service, Disney pulled content from other services, and started making dozens of TV shows. Netflix’s endless growth in subscribers gave a false impression anybody could do it. Few have been able to make a profit from streaming. Netflix makes a profit with over 200 million subscribers. That paints a worrying picture of how many services are viable.

Not hard to see services closing or merging together. Companies like Amazon have opened up to the idea of selling their own productions to other services. Box office numbers have not recovered adding to the pain. This is part of the reason why Hollywood has become so risk-averse. Advertising is slowly coming to streaming services as trying to turn a corner. Some of the more successful services are free to watch filled with advertising. Studios are finally taking notice, profit margins are smaller but they make a profit. Disney in many ways has overvalued Disney Plus and oversaturated the market. A glut of content fuelled by cheap borrowed money is coming to an end.

Video Overview from MSNBC by Steve Rattner.

Best and worse of the MCU

Top 3 worse movies

Eternals

Ant-man and the wasp: quantumania

Thor love and thunder

Dull, boring and downright silly. I have already talked about some of these movies.

Top 3 best movies

Black Panther

Avengers Endgame

Iron man

Endgame fantastic ending to the massive story arc that started with Ironman. Makes sense that the start and end are on this list. Iron Man took risks, something that missing in recent years. Black Panther is the perfect character development with a superhero story.

So far nothing has been a box office flop, everything has broken even. The least successful films, still made hundreds of millions against their budget. Even critical panned like Eternals, made $402 million. Smaller profit margin than Marvel would like but still good enough. My worry is that at some point we do get a flop. Hopefully quality can increase once more and MCU slows down.