C’mon MCU, you gotta do better than this

Kontent is king! Or at least that’s the line most of us seem to live by these days. Especially if you’ve got an IV of Disney hooked up to your veins. And your bank account. The constant… No, relentless march of new shows, movies and animation must be making Disney feel all the more justified for raising the price of their streaming service over and over. I mean, they’ve still got me on the hook.

But I would be lying if I didn’t admit that my interest is waning, especially when it comes to Marvel’s output. It’s no secret that the MCU and it’s offerings have been a little… lacking in luster throughout the past 12 months. The last two movies, Doctor Strange 2 and Thor 4 both really failed to move me. I came out of both of them thinking: “yup, that sure was a movie I saw”. On top of that, I Still haven’t even finished Ms. Marvel, which might be the first official Marvel thing I don’t have any desire to see through. I just have to say thank God She-Hulk has been great so far because otherwise I’d genuinely be starting to worry my time with Marvel is just over.

As good as She-Hulk has been in the four episodes I’ve seen though, it’s not necessarily filling me with confidence for what Marvel have got coming up. The movies notwithstanding, it kind of feels like a lot of the effort of the creatives is being thrown behind the shows. Which makes sense I suppose; they’re exclusive to Disney’s streaming platform and they run for much longer. Both in terms of their actual run time and the amount of weeks they remain in the public zeitgeist given their weekly, television release schedule.

Which I’d be all the way on board for if their announced docket of shows featured characters I knew a single thing about outside of what little I’ve seen of them already in the MCU in supporting roles. I mean, with Tony Stark and Steve Rogers behind us, I am personally really finding it difficult to muster excitement for the likes of Echo, the Agatha Harkness series and Ironheart. I’ll admit that Kathryn Hahn killed it as Agatha in WandaVision, but I don’t really feel super interested in that character carrying their own show. I feel that doubly so for Echo, who really felt like an inconsequential character in a show that was having Hailee Steinfeld and Florence Pugh stealing every scene they were in.

But yeah, I know. It’s probably unfair of me to complain about low rate Marvel characters getting their own shows when Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my most beloved MCU movies; one that was jam packed with characters nobody had ever heard of nor cared about. And I’m more than willing to be proven wrong, but given their recent track record, you’ll have to forgive me for not being super excited about what Marvel have got coming up.

It’s a sad realisation I’ve come to about a lot of things in my life this past couple of years. Every has just started to lose its luster in general. It’s not just Marvel, but most movies, anime and video games have been a battle to muster some genuine excitement for. Maybe it’s because I’ve become a jaded, old man. bled dry from the crushing weight of the approaching cyberpunk dystopia we’re quickly arriving at. Or.. just maybe, it’s because I’ve started to value my time with other people more, going out and having experiences and not simply having a life that revolves around the next piece of content I need to consume.

I’ve actually been a little happier not feeling the need to consume and keep up with absolutely everything, then force myself to have an oppinion on it for this blog. Which is why I’m feeling more inclined to stop writing about things if I don’t actually have any strong feelings about them. Hence, why this entire post has mostly been bundling up what I feel has been a pretty mediocre year for Marvel and their content and maybe I’m on the very begining of starting to get off of the train and instead just hyperfocus on star wars instead…

I mean, I have been thinking about about writing a Star Wars tabletop adventure for Edge of empire for the past few weeks and that has filled me with so much more excitement than just consuming the product passively. It’s good to know that creative flame still burns inside me. Its focus has just changed of late.