The Marvel Movies are Dead*... Long Live Spider Man and Black Panther!

I am here to declare that the Classic Marvel Movies are Dead, and that Captain America: Civil War killed them, but that the great subfranchises like Black Panther and Spider-Man are very much alive, and well, and are the life of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Captain America: Civil War did not kill the Classic Marvel Movies because they played around with the idea that superheroes should be placed on a Government watch list like Jews in Nazi Germany.      This was just one awful idea in one stupid movie.

Captain America: Civil War killed the Classic Marvel movies because this was where they stopped making Classic Marvel Movies, save for Spider-Man movies and a select few others, and replaced them with 'mythology' movies, Continuing Storyline-movies.

Because Marvel and DC, in the comics, do continuing storylines so, so badly, drawing you in and frustrating and dissappointing you, and the almighty Russo brothers, who are in charge of the MCU continuing storyline, fall hook line and sinker for the worst tendencies of these.

Storylines like Crisis on Infinite Earths draw you in, sucker you, and frustrate and dissappoint you.  The Russo Brothers' continuing storylines do the same, on a massive scale.

Captain America: Civil War was the beginning of the darkest days of the franchise creativelly: the four Phase Three darkness and despair continuing storyline movies, betraying the noble theme of optimism and hope of Iron Man and Thor, and Spider-Man to come.

Captain Marvel, looks so good on paper, pushing all the right female hero buttons, but with poor execution where the central character is concerned- simply without the necessary character arc to drive the movie.

And all the amazing action sequences and messy darkness and despair and jaded cynicism of the notorious Russo Brothers Avengers movies.

Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame was the greatest tease in Hollywood history.

Avengers: Infinity War seemed so great because we assumed that the Russo Brothers were going to save the day in Avengers: Endgame.

They didn't.

At least it gave Spider-Man a chance to spend a great movie or two picking up the pieces and cleaning up the mess.  But that is simply not haw a good franchise is done.

It was great for the Spider-Man franchise.  But it is just simply not how the wider Marvel franchise should be done.

More to the point, though, regardless of what the continuing storyline is doing, is that, save for the Spider-Man movies, there have been very few core Classic Marvel movies since Avengers 2.

Leading into Avengers 2 from the beginning, we had no less than seven Marvel movies that were classic Superhero movies in the spirit of things like Richard Donner's 1978 Superman movie, that involved core superheroes and were not too Continuing Storyline-dependent.

Seven- not counting the two Avengers movies- out of eleven movies, including two Avengers movies besides, leading up to and including the mighty Avengers 2.

Two good Captain America movies that were not too continuing storyline-dependent, three Iron Man movies, and two very good Thor movies.

Plus two classic Avengers movies- so far, the only true Classic Avengers movies we have.      In eleven movies.

Between Avengers 2 and Avengers: Infinity War, there were two- a Thor movie and the first Spider-Man movie.

Around the big tease of Avengers 3 and 4, we have three great Spider-Man movies and Black Widow's movie.  Just before and after that, the two remaining Thor movies.

Since Thor: Love and Thunder, there has not been a single core classic Marvel Movie.

Since Avengers 2, other than the Spider-Man movies, there have been three, Black Widow and two Thor movies.

In what, as of Thunderbolts, no less than 25 Marvel movies.

From seven in 11 movies, plus two classic Avengers movies, to six in 25 movies, all but three of them Spider-Man movies.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has lost its soul.

Marvel persued the temptation of darkness and jaded cynicism and the temptation of the tease of continuing storyline in those four Phase Three movies, and after that simply pushed it for money- after 11 movies in the first 7 years of the franchise, making 14 in the 6 years and a few months after Avengers: Endgame

And in all this, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, outside of the Spider-Man movies and the great subfranchises, lost its soul.

In 22 non-Spider Man movies since Avengers 2, the MCU has given us three Marvel movies that are classic Superhero movies that star familiar superheroes that don't tease and frustrate with 'mythology' continuing storyline but give us actual, honest-to-God classic Superhero stuff with familiar, classic, readily identifiable characters.

That is, unless they managed to make the new Captain America movie, Captain America: Brave New World, an actual, honest-to-God classic Richard Donner-worthy Superhero movie and not something bogged down in continuing storyline tease and frustration.  Because God knows that Falcon, now the new Captain America, is a classic core Superhero worthy of a Core movie, and deserves such.

But the last time Captain America had a movie that could reasonably be described as a classic Superhero movie was way back in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Let's hope for something in the upcoming Armor Wars, because God knows that James Rhodes is a classic Superhero worthy of a Core movie.

The great subfranchises, on the other hand, are something else.

Black Panther, Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, are Great.  Great, Great, Great.

Ant-Man and The Wasp was Great when it was treated as a subfranchise with its own identity.  Ant-man is meant to be the little guy on the side having fun adventures, not the big guy carrying the heavy weight of a Continuing Storyline movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy, unfortunately, is all wrapped up now.  But we have Black Panther, we have Shang-Chi, we have whatever the future holds for Doctor Strange.  Benedict Cumberbatch is a legendary, stunningly brilliant actor who has done serious live theater work and won awards for it.

Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange is now one of the few familiar characters to be found in the new continuing storyline.

This is the greatest thing that Kevin Feige and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done, greater than Phase 1 and the first 2 Avengers movies even, and that is take creative chances.  Do something different, while still giving us heroes that save the day.  Worldbuilding fantasy in Black Panther.  Colorful outer space adventure featuring classic rock and a group of misfits in Guardians of the Galaxy.  A great heist movie in the original Ant-Man.  And when these experiments work, we get the great legendary subfranchises.

And then there is where Classic Marvel of old still lives, brilliantly.  Stunningly brilliantly.

The Spider-Man movies.

The new heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the place where the spirit of Thor and Iron Man of old still lives on.

There is a reason that 2 of the most successful Marvel movies since Avengers: Endgame are core Spider-Man movies.

Let's all pray for high hopes for the upcoming Fantastic Four.  Given the screenplay-by-committee, and the history of having a legendary Marvel director drop out, I don't have my hopes very high, but maybe they will somehow pull a rabbit out of their hats.

(July 24: I stand corrected.  The reviews are in from the premiere of the Fantastic Four, and it looks like a new classic!  Hooray!  Marvel lives in Spidey and the Four!)

Then, Spider-Man returns.

Then, the biggest tease in Hollywood history returns, and we start it all over, hopefully to start fresh and ditch the continuing storylines.

But we'll always have Black Panther and Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings.  For there is a lot, lot. lot of life left in the Black Panther franchise, and I would imagine, all the future in the world ahead for Shang-Chi.

There should be plenty of amazing possibilities remaining for Doctor Strange too, if they keep him out of being dragged down into messy continuing storylines.

And, we really, really hope that there is still plenty of freshness left in Spider-Man.

Because the new Spider-Man movies are simply magical.

Here, and here alone, is where the soul of Marvel still lives in its Cinematic Universe.

God loves you!  At least we have the classics of Phase 1 and 2, and the first 3 Spider-Man movies!

Sincerely,

David S. Annderson

P.S. I can just hear the voice sing:

I can't remember if I cried

When Ben Parker up and died

But something touched me deep inside

The day that Marvel died

Do you believe in Iron Man

and Do you have the strength of Spider-Man

when you're cleaning up your home?

Do you believe in Avengers 2

When Captain America was still true blue

When we did the hero things we used to do?

Well, I know that you believed it then

Cause I saw you at the premier of Spider-Man

We both saw Spidey soar

Like Iron Man before

And now Spidey carries it alone

A champion true to the bone

And we believe it can be done

Even though Marvel died

But not Black Panther

And not Shang-Chi

And not doctor Strange

For they are all very, very alive!

Do you believe that Doctor Strange

Can still save the universe today

Even when it makes no sense

And did you see Shang-Chi soar

Do deeds like they were done before

And do you look up Wakanda's lore

Well, I know you looked in awe

When Wakanda's secret was revealed to all

And we all rooted too

For Guardians of the Galaxy 2

For there are still heroes strange

Even if not like yesterday

And they carry it on today

Even though Marvel died

July 24, 2025: *Marvel Reborn!!!* On the Fantastic Four: the reviews are in, and it looks like they pulled it off!  Perhaps now the Marvel Cinematic Universe can take back its soul, with substantial core Superhero movies once more, with the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man as the new core!  For those two were always the core of Marvel, and I have all the confidence in the world that director Destin Daniel Cretton of Shang-Chi fame can carry the Spider-Man franchise!  And the Marvel Cinematic Universe are no longer pushing it with like 3 or 4 movies a year, but slowing down to focus again on quality!  Hooray!  Let's hope!  Maybe Marvel is rising from the grave!  All hail the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man!

But we will always have Black Panther and Shang-chi!    (and hopefully Doctor Strange as well!)

I can't tell you how big this is for the franchise, if we can keep the Spider-Man movies fresh as well... Marvel now once again has what it has lacked since Avengers 2 was in the rear view mirror: two core Classic Superhero subfranchises to be its Classic core and beating heart- and the two franchises that were the core of Marvel back in the Classic comic-book days, Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four!    This is indeed the Marvel Cinematic Universe Reborn!

They've done it!  They've responded creatively to the decline of the core of the franchise!  The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been reborn!

July 25, 2025, looking back: Given the positive reviews, from both fans and critics, perhaps we should count Thunderbolts as another core movie?  It certainly wasn't marketed as such!  You decide.  I didn't see it- I'm having too much fun writing!