From ‘Black Widow’ To ‘Thor Love And Thunder,’ Why Does The MCU Phase 4 Feel So Aimless?

The luster is starting to diminish from some of the projects. Billions of dollars and pop culture conversation domination, but here in Phase 4, things feel a bit different. We are halfway through this phase where Disney Plus TV series join the blockbuster movies and things have been weird.

I want to figure out why these projects don't seem to work together. As a whole, Phase 4 feels off in a few ways, and it's difficult to know where exactly it's going even based on all the projects we've seen so far.

I will go in chronological order.

WandaVision remains one of the best projects of this era, a fantastic exploration of grief and mourning, though what it ended up being was setting up Wanda to be the villain. She is said to be dead, but we don't know when or how she's going to come back.

The show is back in the news because of an article that wondered if Sam would pick up the mantle of Captain America when he did. This seems to be the least well-received live action series so far on Disney Plus, and it does speak to how pointless it is.

A strong entry for Disney Plus, one that results in the birth of the multiverse, which is at least a partial thread kind of holding some of these upcoming projects together, and also introducing us to Kang, though it still remains an open question if he's. The reliance on the multiverse has been a weak plot point in this phase as it is hard to create meaningful stakes once you open that door.

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A project that should have existed a long, long time ago, with Scarjo's Natasha not getting her due until after she died in Endgame, making this one of the only flashback MCU movies. The movie mostly passed the torch to Yelena, who still hasn't been utilized. Later, more on her.

The best movie in the entire phase so far is Shang-Chi and it was turned into a great new force in the MCU. Even though Shang-Chi will be a key presence on whatever team is assembled in the future, it has yet to join any of the other projects. A sequel is coming which could change that, but it is odd that the feature and character have been ignored.

Disney must have been alarmed by the first everrotten MCU movie. Even though I am a big fan of Eternals, it is far from the best of the MCU, and I think that the movie may cause the team to be thrown out. Phase 4 tries to make new superstars out of lesser known characters. It did not work as well here as it did in Shang- Chi.

The MCU is executing well with no real indication of what their bigger plan is supposed to be. We don't know when Kate Bishop will be seen again, with no season 2 announcement, nor any indication she's forming the Young Avenger or joining the new, proper Avenger team. In a way that seems like a perfect season 2 could be Kate and Yelena doing things, and that doesn't seem to be happening either, as perhaps Yelena will instead be attached to an anti-Avengers "Thunderbolts" project.

The best movie of this phase would probably be Spider-Man: No Way Home because it pulls in Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire from other universes. We have spent three films investing in start over from scratch whenever Peter Parker reappears, and even this film ended awkwardly with a memory wipe.

Moon Knight is an experiment in what happens when you take a fan favorite, albeit not a blockbuster-level character, and give them a series completely disconnected from the rest of the MCU. It works, but then again, you have the same questions about a second season, and if not, where Moon Knight may reappear after six episodes of an introduction. There are no answers at this time.

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness shows how chaotic things can get when a plot point is used. It's a weird blend of a reprisal of an old Avenger, the sacrifice of a long-term fan-favorite character as a villain, and the introduction of someone new and likely meant to slide into the Young Avenger squad that doesn't yet exist.

This feels like a series that A) should have been a blockbuster movie and B) should have debut as one of the first introductions to this, as it's currently the highest reviewed MCU project ever. After this week again, we will be in a weird position where a show that feels like it should have a second season may just turn into a guest spot for a character.

Critics soured on this one badly, and even if audiences like it more, it's not a top-rated movie. The question of what to do with the leftover main Avenger from the last phase does not seem to be a question it answers all that well.

I see a lot of issues.

• No clear direction at this point re: forming a new Avengers team and facing a unified villain threat
• The multiverse introduction makes everything somewhat low stakes
• A bunch of Disney Plus shows that ride an awkward line between kind of being a TV series, but mostly being lower budget movies that are chopped up into six 30 to 50 minute episodes, with unclear indications about their future

Things will go from here.

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The Herokiller series and The Earthborn trilogy are available for purchase.