So, Marvel...

To go with DC, I guess...

My reservations about future-Marvel aren't as bad as for DC, but they're there.

So much so, I don't think I'm gonna see them all in the theater.

But I was drifting way from that, anyway.

I laid it out last year here....

Now!! My not-so-quickie review of phase 4.

While individual movies are instant classics, the overall saga they're assembling is incoherent.

I knew way more what was going on in the larger story of the other phases.

Phase 4 has 7 movies; phase 1 had gotten to Avengers 1, and then movie 7 was movie 1 of phase 2, which was Iron Man 3.

A nice complete arc had been told.

Can you plot the arc of this new stuff?

How does it hook together?

I'm not seeing a structure yet.

This is one complaint I share with the critics.

Where are we going?

We know Kang is the new Thanos, but that's about it.

Phase 5 needs to tighten this shit up. And fucking soon. Really soon.

You're losing people. Not me, I'm more patient, but still.

Well, maybe that's what's really causing the burnout. 

Frustration over the uber-story not gelling this time. Come on, Marvel, get it together.

You can do it.

Then I updated here...

Avengers 5 is no longer "The Kang Dynasty" cuz of the dude who played Kang going to jail.

It's just "Avengers 5" until they can find a new title.

They might just go with "Secret Wars parts 1 & 2".

Although, "Infinity War" and "Endgame" were originally supposed to be "Infinity War parts 1 & 2".

So, I think they'll find a title in the next couple years.

Then updated again here...

Avengers 5 has changed from "The Kang Dynasty" to "Doomsday".

The title is in reference to Dr. Doom.

Dr. Doom is being played by......

Robert Downey Junior.

And!! The Russo Brothers are back to direct both "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars".

Doom is the main baddie of "Secret Wars" in the comics.

You HAD to get him in there.

Why were they so obsessed with Kang??

I mean, I kinda get it, he's a time traveler, they're doing multiverse, you kinda on paper need a time villain....

But it just wasn't working.

They needed to pull out all the stops and their biggest guns to get this thing back on track.

They just did.

Between this, and the opening box-office of "Deadpool & Wolverine" the MCU is fixed.

I'm excited again.

I'm 2012 Avengers 1 excited.

I still largely stand by my phase 4 assessment from the first link.

The best thing phase 5 has had to offer was "Deadpool & Wolverine".

That made a scadzillion, and broke all kinds of previous records.

The only ones you can call bona-fide hits so far have been SM:NWH and D&W, the two big nostalgia crossover-porns.

Quantumania and Marvels flat out crashed into mountains.

A shame, I liked them.

I flat out loved the former.

But I can't get other people to go to them anymore than I could brainwash-ray people to vote for Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris.

The non-crossover movies all have issues.

Captain America 4 keeps reshooting, and reshooting, and it's almost ready to come out.

They're wrassling that one down to the fucking wire.

Thunderbolts keeps reshooting, and reshooting.

Blade 4 hasn't shot a frame, and keeps losing directors and writers.

All of the above have been a miserable slog for everyone involved according to everything that's leaked out.

Fantastic Four, however! That one just finished up, and it was an easy shoot, and everyone involved is in love with the damned thing.

That one has high hopes.

So, basically, everything caused by the Fox acquisition, good.

Everything Kevin Feige had lined up before Fox...not so much.

And THAT's the stuff that has one scratching one's head, and saying "where are they going?".

Where is it going now; and where was it going to go before Fox?

It all seemed pretty random.

Fox is saving Marvel's bacon.

If they can make it to 2026-27.

That's the thing, we have to cross this loooooong bridge (with Mario dungeon traps) of Feige-planned ones to get there.

How many more of these damned things can bomb?

Why can't the precious plan change?

Why can't we just have the ones we want, then they can weave the other shit in as prequels like they did Black Window?

I've heard pre-Fox, Shang-Chi was supposed to be the main hero of "Secret Wars".

Shang-Chi.

Huh.

Yeah, if we GET to "Doomsday" we're home free.

Getting there is gonna be a "National Lampoon's Vacation" quest though.

And weirdly, it's Kevin Feige's fault. Has he lost his Midas touch?

Can he get it back, like "Rocky 3"?

I'm skeptical.

Not full-bore cynical, but cautious.

Frankly, if the last good movie we pull out of this franchise is D&W, I'm good.

My favorite characters as a comics reader are Iron Man, Hulk, and Doctor Strange, and they all had good solo movies.

The crossovers after that have been gravy.

I've gotten everything I wanted, really.

If it all imploded now, I'd have no regrets.

That MCU stayed a hit machine as long as it did was the closest thing to a supernatural miracle you could get.

But! We'll see where we are after Fantastic Four.

I think that's gonna be the big deal breaker.

Stay tuned!