Over the past two decades Marvel, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has become a household name for people across the globe. From “Iron Man” (2008) to “Secret Invasion” (2023), Marvel has released  numerous independent and interconnected films and shows on their streaming service, Disney+. For years Marvel has dominated the box office, with six of their movies being in the top 20 highest worldwide grossing films of all time. But ever since Marvel wrapped up their “Infinity Saga” with the release of “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), there has been a shift of viewership and feedback to the content that Marvel has released. That brings up the question: what happened to Marvel?
The past two years, Marvel fans have been disappointed by mediocre releases including “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022), “Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022) and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023), which have all received negative reviews from fans and under a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. Along with that, Marvel television shows have seen a dip in viewership since 2021 with only 1.5 million streams for “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” (2022) in the first four days of availability and 0.78 million streams for “Ms. Marvel” (2022) in the first five days, compared to 2.5 million streams for season one of “Loki” (2021) in the first five days. Based on these numbers, there are two factors that I believe  have led to the declined quality of Marvel content: the adjustments from source material and the overuse of spectacle.
For films like Doctor Strange, the title is “Multiverse of Madness” which makes fans infer that it will be about the multiverse like in the comics. In reality, they go and see a movie that barely even scrapes the surface of the multiverse. On the other hand, in “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” there is so much dependency on CGI and scenes with big spectacle that it takes the audience out of the story. Marvel’s most recent release, “Secret Invasion,” incorporates both of these detrimental elements. The show follows Nick Fury in a fight to save mankind from an invading alien species in the tone of a globetrotting espionage and geopolitical drama. But once again, Marvel takes a storyline from the comics with so much source material and depth in the Marvel universe, and downplays it while also retconning what has already been established in the world of the MCU as well. On top of that, “Secret Invasion” ends with a huge, horribly developed CGI final battle that completely alters the tone of the series. “Secret Invasion” is the perfect example of why lifelong fans continue to be disappointed and Marvel is seeing a decline in viewership of their recent projects.
On the contrary, not all Marvel projects have been mediocre. For instance, take the newest Guardians of the Galaxy movie. The reason why it worked was because they had James Gunn, the director of the first two films, tell a fluid and emotional story about a group of misfits who found family within each other without straying too far from original comic book storylines. James Gunn’s alignment with the comics and relying on complex character moments instead of CGI spectacle is what satisfied fans. Gunn also tells a complete story without having the pressure of connecting his story to the overarching narrative of the Marvel universe. Marvel needs to learn from their recent success and allow directors and writers to take the initiative, and be able to tell stories without the strain of executives driving for as many projects as possible with a surplus of effects. Marvel needs to shift to quality over quantity. The more quality content they put out, the more it will captivate audiences. The more quantity they put out, which is mediocre at best, the more fans will lose interest because they have so much content to watch. With numerous films and shows to stream, Marvel is spreading themselves too thin. Marvel does not need a return to form, but they do need a clear vision and end goal for the overarching narrative so fans can continue to be interested. That is what captivated all of us in the first saga of Marvel.