There was recently an unexpected rerun of Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame at theatres. Avengers Endgame: Encore adds a few scenes designed to prime viewers for Avengers: Doomsday, releasing in December.
I was more than happy to see it again. This film is the second to last of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), what a friend of mine called “the last good era.” What followed was a bizarre fall from grace with the introduction of the Multiverse Saga. Suddenly, there were no stakes anymore, because in the multiverse, anything can happen, and it often did, in the most bewilderingly poorly written ways.
When stakes are removed and plot convenience becomes the driving force behind a narrative, lazy writers thrive. Plots no longer need to make sense because the multiverse is wacky, man! Events can be strung together with the flimsiest of thread, with zero accountability. We saw this in the likes of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Stories became convoluted and messy, and viewers became tired of it.
This fatigue was compounded by the fact that after Endgame, many of the MCU cast took their leave. Beginning with Iron Man in 2008, the MCU was driven by staple characters such as Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, and Black Widow. In Endgame, Captain America literally retired, and Iron Man and Black Widow died. The group had disbanded.
What followed was a series of weakly written spin-off sequels receiving lukewarm response. Marvel had entered their “quantity over quality” phase, desperately hoping to stoke the flames and draw in new viewers, now that everyone who grew up with The Avengers had lost interest and moved on.
The MCU also went through a shift towards politicising stories to align with the popular narratives of the time, such as the Girl Boss era, in which writers championed feminism (with no understanding of the concept) by creating female characters who coldly and victoriously display all of the masculine traits they apparently loathe, while having no faults (or personality) and doing no wrong. Some notably awful shows and films in this era are Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, Eternals, Thor: Love and Thunder, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Writers appeared to forget that what makes stories compelling is not unrealistic, perfect characters who act like angry robots, but real, relatable people with flaws. When a character begins with weaknesses and has to overcome them and grow, they create a dynamic story, which doesn’t exist if they begin perfect and end perfect.
Endgame: Encore marks yet another act of desperate flailing by Marvel Studios, hoping to stoke the flames for Doomsday (which brings back series favourite Robert Downey Jr. to play Doctor Doom, clearly trying to capitalize on nostalgia).
I like a lot of Marvel movies, and there is nobody who wants Doomsday to succeed more than me. Movies like the new Spider-Man series and Deadpool & Wolverine show that Marvel can still produce good films when it finds writers and directors who are not lazy or politically motivated. I’m cautiously optimistic that Doomsday will be an unexpectedly great film, but I certainly don’t think it will be a resurrection for the MCU. Sometimes, stories need to be allowed to gracefully die, before living becomes a forced and pointless struggle.
I hope that Doomsday will be the final entry in the MCU… but I know it won’t.