The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in trouble. You can call it superhero fatigue, and I think that’s the lazy answer. The real problem is deeper. It’s a story of broken promises, creative fumbles, and one really gigantic, ocean-sized mistake that Marvel hoped we’d all just forget about.
The MCU isn’t dead, but it’s on life support.
Phase 4 Was the Shaky Foundation
To understand the mess of Phase 5, we have to go back to what it was built on. Coming off Endgame, Marvel had an impossible task, and their solution was to throw everything at the wall. We got a flood of new characters and the messy introduction of the multiverse. Some of it was great, but a lot of it felt like homework.
Let’s be real, Phase 4 had some bangers. Shang-Chi was a total breath of fresh air. Awesome new hero, incredible fight scenes. The choreography was unreal. Why isn’t the sequel already here? And of course, Spider-Man: No Way Home. That was an event. It’s the one time the multiverse concept has truly, 100 percent worked. It gave us nostalgia, emotion, everything that was the promise of the Multiverse Saga.
But then there’s the other stuff. Eternals. What a beautiful, boring, and narratively pointless misfire. It introduced god-tier concepts and ended with a giant Celestial sticking out of the Indian Ocean, which the entire MCU then proceeded to ignore for four years. This right here was the first major crack in the foundation. It showed us these huge, universe-changing events might not actually matter.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness wasn’t nearly as mad as it promised, and Thor: Love and Thunder cracked the code on bad jokes. It totally wasted Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher and rushed through Jane Foster’s incredible Mighty Thor storyline. And Wakanda Forever, while made with love, was just overstuffed. It was trying to be a tribute, a Namor introduction, and an Ironheart backdoor pilot all at once. It buckled under the weight.
High Highs and Lows on Disney Plus
On Disney Plus, it was pretty much the same story. WandaVision: brilliant, weird, creative, and a perfect character study. Loki Season 1, even better. It actually set up the stakes for the whole saga, and it made Loki one of the most compelling characters in the entire MCU.
Hawkeye and Moon Knight, I loved these. Hawkeye was a fun, street-level Christmas story, and they brought back Kingpin. Moon Knight was a genuinely bold standalone character piece. More of this, please.
But then you get to Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk. Look, I wanted to love them. Iman Vellani is a star, and the idea of a superhero legal comedy is great, but both shows just sort of lost steam. Ms. Marvel’s plot got tangled up in the Clandestines, and She-Hulk got so meta and preachy that it kind of forgot to stick the landing. The finale, with She-Hulk literally talking to a robot Kevin Feige, was sort of a bold swing that completely undercut any stakes the show had built.
And this was the problem of Phase 4: inconsistency. A few gems buried in a pile of okay and “what was that?” It felt like Marvel, under orders from Disney, was just churning out content to fill a streaming service. And those cracks that started with Eternals were about to get a whole lot wider.
Phase 5 Is Where the Audience Checked Out
Phase 5 was supposed to be where the story ramped up. Instead, this is where the audience started to check out.
We kicked off with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This was supposed to launch Kang as the next Thanos. Instead, we got this soulless CGI mess that underwhelmed everyone. The villain who was supposed to threaten the multiverse couldn’t even beat Ant-Man. Not a great start.
Thank God for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. James Gunn delivered a masterpiece. It was a perfect, emotional ending to his trilogy, and it reminded us that Marvel could still make us feel something. It was a beautiful film and, frankly, one of the best things the MCU has ever done.
And then we crashed back to Earth with The Marvels. What a mess. It felt like a sequel to a movie that was never made. The three leads had chemistry, sure, but they were trapped in a paper-thin plot with a forgettable villain. It became the MCU’s biggest box office bomb for a reason.
Then came Deadpool & Wolverine, a massive, R-rated, fourth-wall-breaking hit. It succeeded because it was irreverent and fun, and it wasn’t afraid to make fun of the MCU’s own recent failures. It was the dose of cynical fun, the cold water we needed, especially with the way everything had been going.
But the solo films continued to be just fine. Captain America: Brave New World was okay. It was great to see Sam Wilson as Cap, but he felt like a side character in his own movie. It was too busy with political subplots and with finally, finally addressing the giant Celestial in the ocean. And Thunderbolts was a pleasant surprise. A grounded, character-driven story that, well, it actually worked. It felt like a course correction. At least what one should feel like.
So that’s two big hits, one total bomb, and a few functional movies. The pattern of inconsistency continues.
The Shows Hit a New Low
The movies weren’t the biggest problem in Phase 5. The Disney Plus shows hit a new, horrifying low.
I’m talking about Secret Invasion. This was, without a doubt, the single worst thing Marvel Studios has ever produced. It took one of the most epic comic storylines, a paranoid spy thriller about shape-shifting aliens, and turned it into a boring, poorly written, and insulting waste of time. They killed Maria Hill for shock value. They wasted Nick Fury. And the ending introduces an absurdly overpowered new hero and resolves absolutely nothing.
It felt like a slap in the face, because if you skipped the show, you missed absolutely nothing of consequence. I know it sounds overdone, but it was kind of a betrayal of the characters, the story, and ultimately the audience’s time. It was trash. Full stop.
And right behind it is Ironheart, another show that took a great character concept, or at least the potential it had, and buried it under a clunky plot, bad dialogue, and a story that went utterly nowhere. It was the official whimpering end to Phase 5, and it was just bad. My review of the finale is on the channel. Watch that and save yourself the show.
Now, it wasn’t all a disaster. Loki Season 2 was brilliant. It gave its hero a perfect, I would argue poetic, ending. Agatha was fun (spooky is the wrong word, but whatever), and it was a surprise. Daredevil: Born Again, while a bit messy, was decent. A return for a beloved character. But when two of your phase’s projects are arguably the worst thing ever, you have a serious quality control problem.
The Moment It Went Wrong: The Tiamut Problem
The Multiverse Saga has been, I would argue, a great idea executed poorly. Unlike the Infinity Saga, there’s been no clear direction and no growing threat. It’s just sort of been a collection of random stories.
For me, the moment it all truly went wrong was Eternals and the Tiamut problem. The second that giant dead space god was left sticking out of the planet and nobody talked about it, the illusion of a connected universe was really kind of shattered. It was the first time, I think, that an MCU entry felt truly inconsequential, like a story that existed in a vacuum. It signaled that the meticulous planning of the past was gone.
And the project that proved Marvel had lost the secret sauce, the ultimate example of their decline? For me, it has to be Secret Invasion. It’s one thing to make a mediocre movie. It’s another thing to take a can’t-miss concept and a fan-favorite character like Nick Fury and produce something so fundamentally broken and utterly pointless. It showed a stunning lack of care.
As for the fix, I think they need to slow down, focus on quality, and find a villain that actually feels like a threat. But more than anything, they need a win. A big one.
It All Comes Down to the Fantastic Four
There’s so much riding on the Fantastic Four. It’s a potential reset. The Fantastic Four are the heart of the Marvel universe in the comics. They’re explorers. They’re a family. They open the door to Doctor Doom, arguably Marvel’s greatest villain, as well as cosmic threats like Galactus and the Silver Surfer.
This movie has to work. If Fantastic Four is great, if it captures that sense of wonder, adventure, and family, it could be the jolt of energy the MCU desperately needs. It could recenter the universe, give us a new anchor, and ultimately restore fan faith.
But if it flops, if it’s just another okay Marvel movie or, worse, another Eternals, I fear it could be the point of no return for many fans. The pressure is immense, and Marvel knows this. They’ve delayed it. They’ve worked on the script endlessly. They know this has to be the one.
The MCU is at a crossroads. It has forgotten what made it special, but the pieces are definitely there for a comeback. If I’m being honest, Fantastic Four is the ultimate test. Either it heralds a new beginning, or it’s the final nail in the coffin of the Multiverse Saga. I’m hoping for the best, but I’m really prepared for the worst.
There’s no Index on this one, and there’s no rating. Whatever the future holds, we’re going to see it together. I’m going to be here, ready and willing to talk about it. Hopefully you will be, too.
I do want to hear from you. What was your breaking point with the MCU? Which movie or show did you love or hate the most? And do you think the Fantastic Four can save the day? The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
