Is Phase 4 The MCU’s Worst? Why Marvel Is More Divisive Now
Is MCU Phase 4 the worst yet for Marvel Studios? After completing MCU Phase 3 with the triumphant box-office smash with the one-two punch of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame—and the denouement of Spider-Man: Far From Home—Marvel Studios was forced to look at the future without many of their staple characters that built the epic legacy of the MCU. Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Natasha Romanoff were taken off the chess board, while many of the surviving characters that helped forge the original Avengers team were scattered to the wind in spinoffs, solo projects, or even made into villains.
Marvel's «Phase» construct began with 2008'sIron Man, which left viewers wanting more with the first post-credits scene (which featured Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury), ending with the team-up audiences had been waiting for with 2012's The Avengers. MCU Phase 2 saw the introduction of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Vision, Wanda Maximoff, The Wasp, and The Winter Soldier, coming to a conclusion of sorts with Avengers: Age of Ultron. Phase 3 of the MCU boiled to the epic conclusion of Avengers: Endgame, bringing in heavy hitters along the way with Black Panther, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Strange, following a continued narrative that built and teased to an inevitable final confrontation with Thanos that felt like a carefully orchestrated build-up that paid off audience expectations in dividends.
Related: Trusting MCU Directors So Much Has Been Good AND Bad For Phase 4
Phase 4 had the unenviable task of essentially restarting the next big MCU narrative that would flow between the films (and now TV shows), building to something akin to Avengers: Endgame in terms of audience expectation. Following in the
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