So, What Is Marvel's Phase 4 Actually About?

In its first 10 years of moviemaking, Marvel Studios established something of a myth that persists to this very day: "In Feige We Trust, fans would exult, as if a prayer to ward against evil rather than a parasocial relationship." The lack of a singular thing planned a decade in the making is notable since it was almost as important to its success as its films.

In reference to its defining central conflict, the first three phases of the movie were built. Iron Man ushered in Samuel L. Jackson to change blockbuster moviemaking forever in a singular, post-credits sequence to entice Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark into joining a team of Earth's mightiest superheroes. The hunt for the six Infinity Stones and the gauntlet used to manipulate their awesome power began, persisted, and finally concluded with the movie, "Avengers:Infinity War"

No matter how different a movie it was, there would be some little tidbits in the film or one of those post-credits scenes that promised something. It was simple, and it was true: the threat of the Infinity Stones and the threat of the universe as a whole was a singular one. This is why you have to see every movie, this is why it all matters, because it builds to this, and it was one thing that you could point anyone to.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is bigger than ever, metatextually or otherwise, as evidenced by the fact that Thanos is done and dusted. The studio's interconnected releases are no longer confined to the box office, and when they are they overwhelm and dominate to defy a changed world, with stories debuting on screens big and small alike with an onslaught of Disney+ streaming shows. The universe is bigger than ever, as stories explore the idea of an entire multiverse of tales, alternate realities and characters stretching out not just across one reality, but many. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the latest entry in the canon, is laying the groundwork to hint at one big thing on the horizon, an eventual loose adaptation of Secret Wars.

Phase 4 feels different to what came before, and not just because of its hybrid release format. The first decade of the MCU was powered by the ever-present driving force of Thanos, but a few years in Phase 4 is lacking in that aspect. There's no need to unite a team of people who have gone their separate ways, because there's still a threat that overshadows all the other stories. Although we know that Jonathan Majors is going to appear in the next film, we don't know if he's going to be the next king of the multiverse. That multiversal concept is the closest the latest swath of releases has come to having a unifying build-up, between Loki, What If?, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and now Multiverse of Madness.

This sense of aimlessness feels odd to an audience that has been trained to connect the dots and see how each release connects to the others. The well-crafted illusion that Marvel and its producers had a long game planned out 10 years in advance is hard to maintain when the illusion is barely. Although shows like WandaVision,Falcon and the Winter Soldier all starred major characters from the movies, their stories were isolated from each other and a wider whole. The post-credits sequence that once teased a threat like Thanos now offers isolated snapshots of comic book characters to come, and the dazzling Hollywood superstars set to portray them, from Eternals to Multiverse of Madness. The movies and shows don't feel like they're talking to each other, like Eternals climaxes with the frozen corpse of a giant Cosmic entity sitting in the Indian Ocean, for example. Doctor Strange picks up on Wanda's story after the events of WandaVision, and although there is a passing mention of Westview itself, the film arguably re-treads her character arcs in the series.

After that decade of illusory planning, it's clear that every Marvel release is essential for even the most casual fan, as all parts build to a grander whole. It feels closer to the world of its comic book source material in Phase 4 because of the lack of homogeneity on this front. If you want to get into superhero comics, you need to know that they have a lot of stories and retcons in their names. You don't really have to read everything the company puts out to read the comics in the 21st century. You don't have to understand the whole of Earth-616 to care about individual story arcs and events that draw your attention, because you can chase characters you like, teams you like, and individual story arcs and events that draw your attention. The latter are an example of this, because of the age of comics that makes it easier than ever to just read X-Men comics without knowing what other superheroes are up to. There is something freeing about being able to pick and choose what matters to you, after the daunting initial idea of stepping your toes into such a vast medium.

As Phase 4 continues to flourish, maybe that is what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is evolving into. There will always be fans who follow every single show and film, and they will always relish the Easter eggs and the connections that tie them all together. In the same way comic books have their own events, there will always be events that bring the heroes and villains together in multiple films. It's easier than ever to follow a show, a movie, or even a single character without knowing the bigger picture. Maybe the real definition of its universe is not one at all as it tries to define it once more. It's a big multiverse.

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