If I could give advice to the MCU about Phase 4

 

If I could advise Marvel Studios.

Now, after last year's Marvel films. I have to admit I'm not really big on the direction the MCU is going, and there are specific ideas they are going with that I'm not too big on. I also recently just watched the Moon Knight trailer and it was incredible really hope they don't mess up this character. He's Marvel Batman. Treat him with respect.

Now I've talked to people about phase 4 of the MCU, and I've had people who are excited and have issues about where the MCU is going. I even know people who are done with the MCU after Endgame. I have mentioned my concerns and the problems I had with Black Widow, Shang Chi, and Eternals, and I also had some issues with Wanda Vision, Falcon, and the Winter Soldier, Loki, I, and Hawkeye.

Not Spiderman No Way Home. Though that movie was excellent, it was the best MCU film of Phase 4.

Now, if I were to give Marvel Studios advice, here's what I would tell them.

Advice number 4.

Stop sidelining your main character for a co-lead.

I have noticed a lot in Phase 4 that Marvel films or shows always sideline the main character whose name is in the title of the movie or show. A good example is Shang Chi; in the film, he has a co-lead named Katey, played by Awkwafina, and she is so annoying in that film. She's an original character, and I'm all for original characters. She was so poorly written, and her character was so irritating and forced, and there's no way she had a great aim on a day when fighting the Mandarin. Shang didn't need a co-lead. You could have given him a love interest, a solid supporting character; it should have been Leiko Wu's character from the comics. As well his sister in the film also side-lined him too. The film should have focused more on Shang and his struggles, him trying to become a great fighter and someone who doesn't want to kill people to solve his problems. The film didn't have to sideline him in his own movie. That's not a good idea at all. It just ruins the character. 

We also saw this again in Black Widow. In the film Black Widow. She was long overdue for her own solo film, and she was sidelined for her sister, who will take over as Black Widow in phase 4. It just felt like this movie was a big slap in the face towards the character of Natasha Romanoff and Scarlet too.  

In his own show, Loki is such a huge fan favorite whom many wanted to see get his own movie or show. He gets beaten down and sidelined for a female version of him. Sliva was an interesting character, but the shift focused more on her than him.  

In Hawkeye, the same thing happens. Clint Barton is sidelined for Kate Bishop. Now I like Kate Bishop. I've read comics about her. She's a great character, but the show should focus on Hawkeye, aka Clint Barton, not to mention it would have been cool to see him fight Kingpin. Like Kate should have been like Sam Wilson was in Winter Soldier, a solid supporting character who always has the character's back, not steal the show from him. 

My advice to Marvel Studios would be to focus more on your main character whose title is in the movie or show. Like Spiderman No Way Home is a great example, the film had Tobey and Andrew come back, but they didn't sideline Tom's Spiderman. He was still the main focus of the film. That's what they need to do in future movies or shows focus on the main lead, just give that character a solid supporting cast but don't give that character a forced co-lead that has no reason to be there or see our main character get to talk down too or just sidelined for no good reason. 

Advice number 3.

Stop giving us too many sympathetic villains.

One issue many people have now in films and shows is that we are getting too many sympathetic villains. 

She killed a dog.

John Wick has taught us that you are the worst human being ever if you kill a dog.

It's getting to the point we're not getting good villains that we love to hate anymore. In phase 4, we had Agatha, and she killed Sparky, that poor dog. And she's getting her own show? I'm sorry I can't watch a show about someone who killed a dog. I can't. Also, in Wanda Vision, if you look at Scarlet Witch, she was just as much as the villain of that show. She took over a whole town, and she got away with what she did. It did bother a lot of fans because I remember in the story House of M Scarlet Witch messed up reality, and at the end of the series, she went into exile for her crimes as punishment for what she did. 

Her cause is understandable, but terrorism is never the answer.

 

Look at Flag-Smasher, making her a sympathetic character despite her killing so many innocents. Mandarin is trying to bring back his wife. Why not have him try to take over the world again? The plot twist with Ikrais in Eternals didn't work at all, and the fact that he kills himself is stupid, and Black Widow, her mother, is the reason for what's happening to her, and she gets a pass for what she's done, hell the other villains were lame too, and I mean they ruin Taskmaster for a lot of fans. Seriously you couldn't have gone with Red Widow?

I mean, we've waited years for a proper Mandarin although he looked relaxed, 

but the issue was motivation in the film. 

Even outside of Marvel, we are getting too many sympathetic villains. Like, look at Joker. I mean, I love that movie, and one thing they did right was that we don't feel sorry for him anymore because he's the Joker. Other films like Cruella make a woman who wants to wear puppies' fur as a coat have to be made sympathetic. I can't support someone who wears the fur of dead animals. I can't!

 

Like we love villains for how evil they are, we've gotten great sympathetic villains, but they still do horrible things and need to answer for their crimes. No one is above Justice. That's a fact. However, in this day and age, villains have to be viewed as heroes or in the right, but they kill innocents to prove their point. 

The What If series gives us better villains like Ultron, who was a lot better in the what-if series than the actual film, and Kilmonger shows us he's one of the best villains in the MCU. 

Like Green Goblin was by far the best Phase 4 villain.

But the issue is Marvel needs to stop giving us sympathetic villains. We need to have villains we love to hate for all the horrible things they've done. Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin is the main villain in No Way Home, and he kills Aunt May. Sure, Spiderman is trying to cure him and the other villains in the film, but Green Goblin was a fantastic villain. 

Come on, Marvel gives us more villains to hate, not to sympathize with. I'll provide Magneto and Dr. Doom exceptions but still make them do horrible things. There are also Marvel Villains you cannot make sympathetic, like Red Skull, The Human Council, Sin, Purple Man, The Purifiers, and many more.    

Advice number 2.

Give us characters we want to see on the big screen or TV.

Since Disney bought Fox, so many fans have been excited to see the X Men, Fantastic 4, Silver Surfer, and Galactus in future projects. Now they are developing ideas for X Men, and we have a Fantastic 4 film on the way, and it makes sense they want to reboot Fantastic 4 first because that franchise needs a good movie. 

However, fans want to see the characters they know best get adapted first. Still, unfortunately, we're getting characters from the All-New, All-Different Marvel era, which does raise red flags because we saw how poor the sales were in that era. 

However, I should keep an open mind because I am excited for Dr. Strange 2, and I'm excited for Thor Love and Thunder because those films are made by two of my favorite directors, Sam Raimi and Taika Waititi. Still, my advice is to give fans the characters they really want to see on the big screen, like the X Men, Nova, Thunderbolts, etc. As well, please respect those characters and make them great characters. 

Now the MCU is likely planning these adaptions for Phase 5, no doubt; I'm okay with that if they want to take some time and really work on a good idea about how to introduce these characters. I just wish they would be working on them now. I made four Wolverine film ideas on my blog.

Advice Number 1 

You got to go back to how you made old films with stories and characters. 

Back in Phase 1, 2, and 3, we got some of the best Marvel films, like Winter Soldier, which is still considered one of the Best Marvel films. It is an excellent example of a movie that didn't sideline its main lead, give the character a tremendous supporting cast, a good villain, and focus on the story development and character development. 

Phase 4 didn't have that because, like the film, the stories were weak, and the characters weren't interesting enough except for Spiderman No Way Home. That was the only awesome one because it had a great story. It also did a better job developing Peter Parker's character, and he had a strong connection with Tobey's and Andrew's Spiderman. They also did a good job developing Tobey and Andrew's Spidermen in the film. Now, when you do an MCU marathon, you have to include Tobey's and Andrew's films, now lol.  

That was the main problem with Marvel's 2021 films. They lacked interest in characters, and the stories were weak. There is so much more they could have done if you asked me. Out of all, the Black Widow deserved better, as I mentioned in my previous blogs.

Marvel needs to focus on telling a good story by not adding any force agendas down our throats because I think Story and Character come first before anything when writing a film. If you have a message in your story, that's good but make sure the story and the characters come first. Why do you think comics sales aren't good right now, and no one is reading any comics because the writers they have right now just don't understand their characters, and they just butcher them. That's just how I feel about comics today. 

I'm excited for Thor 4, Dr. Strange 2, and Black Panther 2. However, I really hope Marvel will recast T'Challa because a better way to honor Chadwick Boseman is to keep his character alive, continue his character's story, and give him a proper ending like Iron Man and Captain America. 

Hopefully, this year, films will be better and are more story-driven, character-driven, and not side-lining the main character for a forced co-lead. I hope Marvel gets better and maybe learns from some bad decisions they made. 

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So this is the advice I would give to Marvel Studios because I knew they would one day lose their winning streak, but I do want them to do a good job still because I still love Marvel despite my issues with the current state of Marvel. Let me know what you think about leaving a comment, and do you agree with me or not? If you do, that's great, but I understand if you don't think that's fine. If you like the direction they are going, that's fine. I'm just giving my feedback on where the MCU is right now.