Where Marvel Went Wrong and What I Would Have Done.
Most of you have probably realised that I'm slightly obsessed with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I view it as a reasonably healthy obsession because it allows me to flex some of my writing muscles, even if a lot of stuff never gets seen by anybody. It's also a continuation of something I've done, in comics, for over 40 years - predict the future and relive the past.
I don't know a Marvel (or DC) fan who hasn't had his or her own story to tell or idea they think would be a great comic and I'm sure everyone who's had some investment in the MCU will wonder about things that have yet to come. It's part of the attraction, it's what makes comics films a big thing, or at least it used to. I got thinking how Endgame ended it for many people, how there was literally a jumping off point offered to everyone. You could walk away from that and not really wonder what happens next.
That was a catastrophic idea and I know we have the benefit of hindsight but someone must have thought it had a finality about it, like people wouldn't bother any more, especially if they throw new unknown characters at us.
So what I would have done? What could Marvel/Disney done that wouldn't have helped kill off the superhero film genre?
First up, I would have postponed Avengers: Infinity War for a year, at least. Everything up to that point is okay and you can work with it. I would have scheduled the Black Widow film, not necessarily the one we ended up with, but not too dissimilar and the Captain Marvel film, with slightly altered post credit scenes. I would even have considered adding another film - possibly a final Iron Man acting as a preamble to Avengers: Infinity War.
It's what happens after this film that is important because Marvel missed an opportunity and that was to have a two year gap between Infinity War and Endgame; the fear of audiences forgetting was too real to them and they couldn't see what an opportunity they missed - three extra films looking at life after the blip. You could have had a Captain America/Black Widow film tying in with the underused Hawkeye/Ronin idea in a Mission Impossible styled thriller. They could have introduced the multiverse concept and arguably they could have had an entire film that looked at the consequences of this new timeline and then you have Endgame, and more importantly you can have a different ending - a logical ending...
In the Infinity War, Thanos uses the Time Gem to reverse time to regain the gem that powered the Vision. No one seemed to think about this after it happened. The Time Gem by its very nature can move time back and forth depending on who is wielding it? This is one of the flaws in the entire story's logic and that is based on what the Ancient One tells Bruce Banner in Endgame. Once the gem is used an alternate timeline is created, therefore by its very nature the Time Gem either cannot EVER be used or if it has been then there are multiverse strands already in existence and the Ancient One's lecture is moot and unnecessary. When Thanos used the Time Gem to restore Vision's Gem to then steal it, the first alternate time line was created, therefore this is the crux and solution to the entire story...
Endgame then could still have been a time travel movie, but one that needed to go back to that point at the end of Infinity War to prevent Thanos from using the Time Gem. In fact, not a lot would have to have been changed in that movie, except the circumstances which led to the final battle. Had the Avengers managed to use the newly discovered Quantum Realm's ability to manipulate time and returned to the point where a multiverse was created by kidnapping Thanos (and his army) and transporting them to a neutral playing field - say the Quantum Realm. You could still have achieved what was needed but without the subsequent baggage and it would give you a relatively clear slate to carry on. Everything about Endgame could have remained virtually as it did; you could have killed off Natasha; Tony could have taken the gauntlet and erased Thanos from existence and Steve Rogers, instead of being given a happy, timeline bending ending (wow, what poetry!) could have been, say lost in time, giving them an open goal to be able to introduce a multiverse logically, through some accident of winning.
How can you carry on with a superhero franchise when it's clear this is the end of the best story? You do the thing that Marvel did but with far more of a Phase One feel and you've sown your seed about the multiverse. It would have been crazy and inspired if...
The film that followed Endgame (and the Spider-Man film with bits changed) would have been the Fantastic Four...
Except it would start like it's the cliffhanger of a first unseen film; the FF fighting Doctor Doom atop of the Baxter Building and beating him with the help of a few other heroes, Iron Man, Black Widow and someone we haven't seen yet, a male Captain Marvel looking much different from the one in the MCU. Doc Doom is defeated and in the aftermath Iron Man takes his helmet off and it isn't the Tony Stark we know, but someone quite close and the Natasha Romanova isn't 'our' Natasha. We're clearly not in Kansas any more.
The story could have been Doom trying to get access to the Negative Zone because he feels he can use it to channel energy from parallel dimensions and has woken up Annihilas who now can see this dimension. The film will end with the FF falling out of their reality and into a new one, not unlike the one they left... A standalone film obviously set in a world that is similar but not the same as the MCU we've grown to love.
You can then have your next Doctor Strange and Thor films, you could then have introduced a T'Challa from another multiverse, you could have moved the story forward and had fun at the same time as the multiverse's walls crumble and the many worlds collide and that gives you the chance to introduce new characters and aim for another Avengers film which would realign the worlds and you've already got either a new jumping off point or a clean slate to jump back on. Using the multiverse to your advantage rather than as a problem. Introduce variations of existing heroes and new heroes and villains via the multiverse and then using another Avengers film to realign all the multiverses as one unified universe but now inhabited by many of the same heroes but also many more, newer, ones.
This could allow you to retell the MCU yet again with new, younger actors, playing the key roles. It allows you to introduce X-Men and mutants; to introduce characters that the usage of has been returned to Marvel. Marvel could have tested the waters for new concepts inside other films, by introducing them in one movie and spinning them off from that if the box office seemed conducive. Instead of throwing enough shit at the wall hoping some of it stuck. it could also have used Disney+ as a way of tying up old subplots and introducing new ones; made the two interactive, thus allowing the viewer to want to see TV shows rather than feeling they have to and then abandoning them.
It was clear there was no real plan after Endgame, whatever Kevin Feige says about it, hoisted by their own petard the people in charge of the MCU just threw shit everywhere, not even at a specific target. Let's do this, let's do that, let's do a kung fu film, let's introduce Gods from almost every culture on the planet, let's do a comedy Thor film about death, let's introduce an entire team of immortal beings who did fuck all during the Thanos business, let's just shit on the floor and spread it all around! Can you honestly defend Marvel and Disney execs for the rubbish we ended up with? Can you forgive them for fucking up what was a pretty good thing?
It's quite possible that the superhero genre might have imploded anyhow - just look at the excrement DC pumps out or how, say, The Boys has lost its edge (and that's nowt to do with either of the big boys). The superhero entertainment genre is in the shitter and there's nothing to suggest the MCU wouldn't have bottomed out; people are fickle and would have got bored even if the MCU had continued to bang out highly rated films. The point is had the MCU followed Endgame with a mix of actual MCU films and movies set firmly in the Multiverse, meaning they could literally do whatever they liked; introduced whoever they wanted and killed off all kinds of familiar characters it would have introduced an element of 'what's going on?' That keeps cinema goers on their toes.
I mean, imagine if a Fantastic Four film had ended with Galactus consuming Earth and the four heroes escaping through the Quantum Realm into a new universe similar but not the same? That would have been unexpected; people going to the cinema would, at least, been mildly astounded. The Multiverse should have been a licence to fuck about, but instead we had that bag of toilet waste that was Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Wankers and TV shows that were so boring shaving your own arse with a blunt Bic razor became more enjoyable. It's like Disney threw a lot of shit at a lot of marginally talented writers to see which ones swallowed it and then they said 'go, write an MCU TV show and make sure it's as shitty as what you have just consumed.'
I suppose if this had been a Multiversal world where I was Kevin Feige, I wouldn't have thrown too much shit at the wall. I would have argued with Disney execs about quality over quantity and I wouldn't have gone, "Ooh, the Chinese market is huge let's do a crap kung fu film." I might have done it, but I would have found a way to introduce the character in a clever way and I wouldn't have had big fuck off dragons fighting at the end and I might not have tried to tie it all into the MCU and the Avengers. I definitely would not have commissioned a load of crap TV shows. Yes, I'm sure no one knew they would have been shit, but maybe I would have said to other execs - "we had a lot of success by not sticking our oars in, so let's leave these talented filmmakers alone." I maybe wouldn't have tried to introduce cultural deities every single time a superpowered individual appeared. The whole thing about the Norse 'gods' is that they're not really 'gods', they're an alien race who believe they're better than everyone else. Asgardians are just super powerful humanoids; they might have been treated as actual gods by the Norse, but, you know... common sense.
I also would have limited films to two a year; if Sony wants to pump out non-Spiderverse excrement there's nothing you can do about it and I would have asked Disney if there was something they could do to remove the Marvel MCU rolling logo from Sony's films. Their existence puts pressure on other superhero films by virtue of them being unbelievably awful, but without what seems to be a favourable endorsement by Marvel they'd perhaps get the attention they deserve, which is none at all. I also would never be telling punters what we're planning on doing for the next ten years; tell people what is coming out in the next two years and what is planned for the third year, but everything else is under wraps. As one year ends, reveal what is planned for the next third year arc. If there's internet leaks, so what? Let the fanboys generate the interest; it worked for comics, it should work for films.
The bottom line is, at the end of July we'll get the first MCU Deadpool film and first film in over a year and the only one this year. Whether that's a huge success or a pile of wank is immaterial; we might see the Fantastic Four film, we also might see the fourth Captain America movie (although the longer that drags on and the more re-re-re-shoots that happen the less confident everyone becomes) and I'm sure Blade will happen (Ha ha ha), but everything else I'd wage money that we never see them, or they won't be coming out through Disney. Marvel/Disney are not solely responsible for the end of the superhero genre, but they fanned the flames and did nothing to raise the bar and instead of standing above all the shit from DC and Sony, they appeared to allow themselves to be dragged down to that level. Compare anything from Marvel's Phase One to the wank that comes out now and you'll completely understand.
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