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The MCU Must Grow Beyond the Avengers

Even as it moves into Phase 4 (and beyond), the MCU is keeping one foot in the past.

At Comic Con this week, Marvel Studios unveiled their plans for Phase 4, a cross-media cornucopia that ushers in many new faces. In time, the strangely named characters from The Eternals may be as commonplace as Iron Man or Ant-man (look no further than The Guardians of the Galaxy for proof that Marvel can make even the most ridiculous premise work), but it’s not the new franchises that's the problem.

It’s Marvel’s refusal to let go of the old.

The shadow of Tony Stark looms large over Spider-Man: Far From Home. Rightly, in some cases – Tony meant a lot to Peter, and he did save the galaxy. However, the film suffers from it’s preoccupation with an unnecessary question:

Who is the next Iron Man?

And I would counter – why do we need one? How can we properly mourn Tony’s loss if Marvel is so determined to cram someone new into the metal suit?

Only, it’s not just Iron Man that Marvel can’t let go.

Sam Wilson will wield the vibranium shield as the new Captain America.

The Hawkeye streaming show will center around training Kate Bishop to be the new Hawkeye.

Jeremy Renner: What I get to do is shepherd a new character to be ultimately a better version of me. I get to teach someone else how to be a superhero without superpowers.

Are you seeing the pattern?

Black Widow’s eponymous film features Yelena Belova, the second character to take the Black Widow moniker. Presumably this means future teams will have a super spy in black leather.

New Captain America, new Hawkeye, new Black Widow. Probably, eventually, new Iron Man.

Meet the new boss, same as the old.

Oh, and a resurrected Loki is running loose and somehow Vision is back. Those threads are explored in the streaming service, but Disney+ is not like the ghettoized Netflix Marvel shows. They will impact the ongoing MCU. From Kevin Feige himself:

These episodes will intersect with the movies in a very big way. It’s a totally new form of storytelling that we get to play with and explore. It’s the first long-form narrative that Marvel Studios has done – they’ll be six episodes, eight episodes, 10 episodes with the actors from the films playing their characters. They’ll be changing, evolving, growing in those event series and then those changes will be reflected in their next film appearances.

In addition to the reskinned Avengers, we may very well see Vision return to the MCU. And what’s to stop Loki from popping up in future Thor films?

How can the MCU evolve when it clings to remnants of the past? How can it possibly make room for all the new franchises, plus the Fantastic Four and X-Men, without letting something go?

How can we miss Tony, Steve, and Nat when their alter egos are being treated like interchangeable parts?

I understand this is all part and parcel with comics, where characters regularly take on new mantles and return from the dead. However, the MCU is at its best when it’s not aping the comics and instead letting the movies be their own thing.

The films must contend with the real-world realities of aging and actor discontent, and thus can’t keep the same characters around forever. This is a good thing. Cinema is a medium in which stories are confined to a couple of hours. Even the sprawling, interconnected web Marvel spun eventually must pay-off somewhere, otherwise they risk watering down the narrative and alienating the audience. That was what made Endgame such a powerful experience — it was paying off a 21 film sequence.

And this doesn’t mean I’m not excited about seeing Kate Bishop or Sam as Captain America. But I really don’t need another Russian spy called Black Widow, or another Iron Man. We’ve had that. Let’s see something new.

Feige and the MCU have certainly earned the benefit of the doubt. But it’s hard to be excited about all the shiny new stuff while Marvel refuses to let go of the old.

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