Okay, this is a misleading title.
Maybe you expect me to jump on that internet bandwagon. You know the one I’m talking about. “The MCU has lost its way, and, for that reason, I refuse to watch any more of the movies and television shows it keeps cranking out.” That bandwagon.
Let’s be real. You know that, sooner or later, I’m probably going to watch all of the live-action product that Marvel produces in the coming years. I was never really on board with the DCEU, but it seems I’ve watched most of the movies created under that banner. I’m skeptical that James Gunn is going to be able to rekindle those warm feelings I had for DC Comics during my grammar school days. And yet, I’ll probably watch the DCU movies as well.
Knowing yourself is the Socratic Dictum. Saying that I’m quitting the MCU is, at best, disingenuous, and at worst, a cry for attention. I am a walking contradiction: a natural introvert who’s also a shameless ham. So maybe there’s something to the attention-seeking part.
But I can’t lie to you.
I also can’t continue to be an apologist for Marvel. I was 100% on board when the MCU movies were concentrating on the comic book storylines I grew up with during the Silver and Bronze Ages of comics. My consumption of superhero comics since the early eighties has been sporadic and largely focused on comic book publishers who aren’t Marvel or DC. Oh, there have been some cherrypicked collections based upon the recommendations of other fans, such as the Snyder/Capullo Batman run and other “free” titles made available to me through Amazon Prime. The truth is I don’t really know what’s currently going on in the continuity of any comic. I’d rather read an old Claremont/Byrne X-Men book or a Jack Kirby reprint featuring the Fantastic Four.
The MCU has killed off Captain America and Iron Man, effectively ripping the heart out of my self-centered slice of the spacetime loaf. Spider-Man, that ubiquitous symbol of Marvel, is still out there. Which is a good thing, I guess. But Thor, Hulk, and Doctor Strange were always second-tier superheroes to me. At best. Hawkeye, Ant-Man and Captain Marvel (in any gender) weren’t even ranked that high. Many of the other heroes introduced by the MCU didn’t even exist when I was a regular reader. I met Star Lord, Rocket Raccoon and Groot at the movies.
Black Panther and Black Widow were never top-tier heroes for me either, but they also no longer exist in the MCU. At least, not as they existed during the 1970s comics. I know we have a new Black Panther (RIP Chadwick Boseman) and Natasha Romanoff’s “sister” was also part of the Black Widow program. It’s just not the same.
The whingeing portion of my floor routine has now come to an end. I’m now removing myself from the MCU dogpile and brushing the dust from my clothes.
I’ve already admitted that I’ll more than likely end up watching everything the MCU has coming down the pike. But there are a few titles that I’m still looking forward to.
Let’s focus on the positive.
Daredevil: Born Again
I liked what Netflix did with Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, and I’ve been happy to see Daredevil and Kingpin make the jump to the MCU.
Marvel’s The Fantastic Four
I’m counting on the MCU to breathe new life into this franchise, and maybe give us a Doctor Doom and Galactus who at least resemble what Jack Kirby created on the page. I wasn’t feeling optimistic until it was announced that Kylo Ren would not be cast as Reed Richards.
Marvel’s The X-Men
There were things I liked in the Sony movies, especially Patrick Stewart as Professor X and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (although he’s too tall), but I’m holding out hope for an X-Men team that feels even more like what I grew up with. I know I may be disappointed, but for now there’s still hope.
That’s pretty much it.
As I said, I’ll probably watch the other stuff as well, and I’m completely open to being pleasantly surprised. But the MCU is definitely no longer a guarantee of quality to me. Maybe it never was.
Everything has a life cycle. One day the MCU will be a thing solely of the past, like Blockbuster Video, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Radio Shack.
It’s just a question of how soon that day will come.
firewatersite 
The “Born Again” storyline in the comics was fantastic. Here’s hoping they don’t screw it up. Meanwhile I’ll just be over here waiting for Dazzler to finally show up in the MCU somewhere …
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Anything run by committee is certain to get mucked up. What we need is a benevolent dictator who actually loves Marvel comics to take control of the narrative. Dazzler may not be the worst possible outcome. How about Impossible Man or Asbestos Lady? Personally, I never want to see a live-action Squirrel Girl, so that’s probably already in production.
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OK Ill add my own rant.
The Marvel movies started strong in the late 00s and early 2010s. They’re suffering now because of a) fatigue, there’s just so much of it b) scraping the bottom of the barrel, ancillary low-level characters taking over the show who were only of modest interest to hard hitting comic nerds and even then weren’t Marvel’s best c) they killed off their best like Cap and Iron Man and D) they went they far astray with wokeness and girl power. Girl power is fine but today it comes at the cost of a story arc. In the past we had real female heroes like Ripley and Buffy who were fleshed out, made mistakes, suffered, made comebacks, we rooted and cheered for them. Today, female heroes must be shown as perfect and infallible. That’s something to aspire to sure but makes for lousy watching.
I’ll harangue DC/Warner Bros and say they should have followed Marvel’s MCU strategy and built a cohesive universe rather than dive right in and go all over the place. Imagine some introductory movies that built up the tension before Batman and Superman fought? Imagine building up the tension between heroes and villains until reaching a boiling point in a Suicide Squad movie where the heroes are sidelined and the villains have to save the day. Had DC taken its time and come up with a long term plan, they’d be eating Marvel’s lunch now.
Marvel did do some good. You mention the Guardians, Black Panther, Ant Man, Dr Strange etc, they were all low level characters. The movies intro’d me to them too. But those movies were good enough that they, to me, turned them into top level characters. But the weren’t able to recreate that with the likes of, say, Moon Knight, She-Hulk and so on.
I’m not sure Marvel or DC find their way back without a massive reboot but I fear the new generations arent into patriotism and things that made characters like Cap and Iron Man great. So we’ll see.
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While I’ve said “Make Mine Marvel” since the 1970s, I cut my superhero eye teeth on DC while in grammar school. In the Modern Age, I think I’ve read more DC collections than Marvel. Mostly because Batman is one of my favorite costumed heroes, if not “the” favorite. I’m not going to say much about wokeness or girl power, not for fear of being cancelled but because extremes of any stripe never seem to end well. While Ms. Marvel and the female Hawkeye were new characters to me, I liked them well enough in spite of the obvious agenda.
While I’ll stand by my statement that Dr. Strange, Hulk and Thor were always second-tier characters to me, I was familiar with them through their Bronze Age adventures (not so much the modern ones). Plus, I always liked them, but usually just in a group setting such as the Avengers or Defenders, or even Marvel Two-in-One.
Now that the Avengers of my youth has been effectively gutted, the Marvel gold standard for me will be what they do with the FF, X-Men and Daredevil. Hope springs eternal.
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I too continue to be on Team Marvel, even with the decline in quality. There of course are a number of reasons for the lack of interest. One I think people skip over sometimes…in the lead-up to Infinity War and Endgame they brought along a ton of “casual” fans. People who maybe had some prior exposure to the comics, but found the superhero movies cool and just wanted to ride the wave until the literal Endgame. Marvel was never going to be that “big” again, and those fans would not be down with investing in another 10 years of movies before the next Big Bad. And of course, the rush to streaming with way too much product, and product not well thought out at that. I’ll continue to watch it all but as you noted, it will end at some point.
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If there is such a thing as a negative optimist, then that’s what I am. Thank my parents. I am holding on to hope that things will get good again, but that other part of me is sitting at the back of the classroom blowing raspberries and making wiseass remarks. It’s sad, and more than a little macabre, to watch something slowly dying.
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