MCU Phase Four: A Phase Too Far…

[@Serahpin]

A simple story told well is better than an exciting story told poorly.

[@danielbyrne5402]

Yeah ,that translates from jokes

[@IncredibleMet]

I would take any story at this point, I’m that desperate.

[@rustylarry7465]

Well isnt an exciting story told poorly not exciting? Thats paradoxical mate, try rephrasing. Maybe a story trying to be complex told poorly.

[@Tethloach1]

@@rustylarry7465 All hype and no substance is a story falling short.

[@mixmastermurphy]

That's lovely. Who said that? Shel Silverstein?

[@fearthehoneybadger]

Hiring for ideology, instead of creative ability, has devastated the canon of every one of our mythologies. The grim reaper, in the meme, has reached the final door.

[@Spongemonkey26]

Warhammer is still pretty grim dark, but I'm sure they're coming for that next.

[@davidgill7412]

Don't say that, you know they can ruin more. The woke beast must feed.

[@bodiless99]

Destroying our mythology is part of the design to destroy our society.

[@tadpolegaming4510]

@@Spongemonkey26 I know it's next. They already got Dungeons and Dragons.

[@BertoxolusThePuzzled]

@@Spongemonkey26 They have legitimately been trying to wokify it already, mostly unsuccessful thank goodness.

[@EYYYYYJustin]

"The message" Drinker made his mark on youtube history

[@bZman]

John Walker was the true hero of Falcon and Winter Soldier.

[@BalrogUdun]

I didn’t even watch the show and from all the highlights he was the most compelling character the MCU has introduced in years. His name in the comics is US Agent.

[@Beastinvader]

Zemo as a close second

[@dannyknightblade4592]

@@BalrogUdun USAgent should get his own movie instead of Falcon pretending to be Captain America. Samuel Wilson should get his own solo movie as the Falcon. Sadly, the way things are currently going in the MCU, that likely won't happen.

[@OldMovieRob]

I didn't realize that phase 4 was already over, and I didn't watch any of these films or shows, other than Spiderman. I found it more entertaining to just listen to folks like Dave Cullen give a breakdown of what happened and that was enough for me.

[@Write-Stuff]

Well said. Same here, brother.

[@22carmoon]

Same here too

[@thetruestar6348]

Remember the marvels and antman were supposed to be in this phase

[@abcdefghij337]

Same. I went and bought the last Spider-Man movie so that I wouldn’t have to rent it. I have the other of the original trilogy as well. Physical media is the way to go for a future where you will own nothing and be happy.

[@danielbyrne5402]

Be careful of that though, dave and critical drinker alike are great critics but I've known them both drop the ball and shit talk films that I've later watched with no expectation of hope only to really enjoy them. Like I say, be careful, judge for yourself always

[@Gribold]

If only it was "just a phase"

[@lostcrusader8053]

“It’s not a phase, mom!”

[@vladpiranha]

I just realized something pretty shocking - No Way Home only happened because Tom Holland went directly to upper management of Disney to plead for a third film. Left to their devices, Disney would probably have sacrificed the trilogy in their rights feud with Sony. The only breakaway hit of Phase Four was the only one Disney didn't plan on.

[@nathank2289]

Kinda a thing with Disney ironically. Black Pearl and Iron Man both had to fight the upper managers just to exist and both launched huge IP's for Disney.

[@SirBlackReeds]

Or screwed Holland over for a black actor to play Miles Morales.

[@spider-man500]

Thank god for Tom. They made a TERRIBLE direction for the MCU version of the character for many obvious and not so obvious reasons. So knowing Tom is the one who pitched No Way Home, as a tragic "rebirth" for the character, into a more classic and true Spider-Man? Immediately makes me like him more and hate Disney/Sony more.

[@nerdifymusic7322]

How Black Widow didn't do the Budapest storyline that was teased, is still beyond me

[@thibaldus3]

With Hawkeye. A black Widow and Hawkeye movie, in the style of Cap2: the Winter Soldier, would have been so cool.

[@boobah5643]

Why? A franchise that's firing on all cylinders doesn't waste itself on a story like that, and one that does have time for that kind of thing can't do it justice.

[@53kenner]

That would have required the presence of Hawkeye ... and Feige already cut out Tony Stark's cameo because Marvel didn't want any toxic masculinity getting in the girl's way.

[@Lefty217]

Because of toxic feminism. Can't have a female lead shown in a negative light.

[@pistolbobcat420]

@@53kenner how did Feige so quickly go from the hero who made phases 1-2 to… this agenda? I sometimes wonder If Kathleen Kennedy has secretly taken over marvel

[@dragonmac1234]

The last Spider-Man film had a lot of member berries, but as a huge fan of the character I had no problem with that. What I don't appreciate is modern shows and movies being "made for a modern audience", "reflecting the modern world" and spreading (as Critical Drinker calls it) "the message". Woke has no place in entertainment, the audience want fun and entertaining products not a preachy lecture about women good and toxic men bad.

[@thehermitman822]

"Women infallible while being the most toxic characters."

[@MashyManny1022]

Watch "Raiders of the Lost Ark." It is pure gold in terms of being fun and entertaining and still holds up over 40 years later. Not sure if Indy 5 will be good but it'll be more interesting to see in the summer of 2023 than "The Marvels."

[@thedarkknight1971]

AS MUCH as BOTH a DC AND Marvel fan am I, (heck my username - I've been a serious Batfan since I was a kid, but have read and loved many other Superheroes whatever the source), I HAVE to agree... Marvel SHOULD have taken a break at the end of Phase 3, allowed a year or two breather, then... Started and maintained the effort for proper, truly exciting stories, well written plots and characters USING ACTUAL FANS/WRITERS/DEDICATED followers of these fine comic books/graphic novels WITH AS LITTLE (if any at all) Wokeness/'Todays ideals'/Modern Agendas', 'The Message' yada yada yada... ATTN: Film companies.. If YOU had hired people who ACTUALLY LOVE the source material (YES I'm talking about YOU writers/producers/showrunners of...cough cough LOTR ROP & WITCHER - who hated the source material), AND YOU make the TV series & Films WELL.... THEN YOU WILL have people flocking the cinemas, you WILL gain a massive following, and YES, money WILL ROLL IN!) Have YOU NOT got the message yet? Make a woke film/TV series, using writers who either do not fully understand/not know of the characters story arc, the ethos, the lore (or just hate the characters and what they were written to stand for), and your productions FLOP The General populous who want to watch GREAT movies and TV, PLUS the fans (from kids who discover these characters from their first comic books, to the 'Well seasoned and knowledgeable 40 or 50 year old collectors/die hard fans etc) FAR OUT NUMBER THE SMALL PERCENTAGE OF WOKE MINDED PEOPLE OUT THERE!!! IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND IS IT? 🤔 😎🇬🇧

[@SumDumGy]

Being a huge fan of the character is probably exactly why I don’t like or, in most cases, haven’t watched MCU Spider-Man entries, because I don’t know what *that’s* supposed to be, but it sure ain’t Spider-Man or any supporting characters I recognize.

[@SumDumGy]

@@MashyManny1022 No, it won’t, and I won’t.

[@Real_Iron_Smith]

Agreed! And let's not forget: No Way Home was headed by Sony, not Disney, meaning the best film of the phase wasn't in Disney's hands.

[@carlmanvers5009]

Nothing exists beyond Phase Three in _my_ multiverse.

[@laurarules3642]

I agree 100%

[@justanothercomment416]

There are only three Star Wars movies.

[@chasehedges6775]

@@justanothercomment416 Revenge Of The Sith: YOU UNDERESTIMATE MY POWER!!

[@dragonslayer2545]

What about Spider-Man No way home that was good.

[@FoulPet]

@@dragonslayer2545 was ok. Mostly fan service with weak predictable plot. IMHO it just mashed old movies together to make a new one.

[@brettloo7588]

IMO: The multiverse plot device is a massive copout for story tellers to make shitty versions of already told stories. I think there are plenty more stores (See 800 years of comic books) but they don't satisfy 'The message" (in Drinkers voice) so they can't be used.

[@ArmyWolves]

Multiverse and Time Travel are cheat codes for story telling to bring back characters that were killed in a very emotinally impactful way and to write themselves out of a corner.

[@dennydude]

I think that is why I genuinely hate phase 4. They stopped telling stories about heros and none of the movies connect with each other. (How is that petrified celestial sticking out of the earth doing?)

[@cgdimension]

That celestial would make a great tourist attraction, a show about a hotel next to it with lots of weird and wonderful aliens visiting would be fun, the hotel manager would be a multi dimensional Basil Fawlty trying not to offend his guests;)

[@iggyfenton5]

It says a lot that you didn't mention Moon Knight. Despite having one of the cooler concepts going in, it ultimately fell flat and went nowhere. Critical Drinker said it best, "A messy waste of a cool character."

[@delta2372]

Moon knight was a giant waste of potential, would have been cool to see a different pantheon like the egyptians working along side the hero and from what I remember about moon knight he's essentially a multi personality disorder version of Batman but with magic powers that sounds fucking cool but well that isn't what happened

[@infinitespace2520]

It was pretty good... Until they noticed they didn't know how to end it, gave up, and added the crappiest, most mediocre boss battle in the history of Marvel

[@ninjanibba4259]

Moon Knight should have never been in Disney to begin with, from what I've gathered, his tone is completely DARK and MATURE, like the Netflix shows The total opposite of what Disney went with, Oscar is the only thing that made it work, and Ethan when he could

[@delta2372]

@@ninjanibba4259 I am dreading what they are gonna do to daredevil and blade

[@jackjohn4156]

@@delta2372 Read the supposed script they could have gone with. Blade wouldn’t have been the main character of his own movie lol. He would have been sidelined by his “daughter”

[@jessecortez9449]

NWH was good because it finally gave Peter the origin story the MCU never gave him because they wanted him to be Iron-Lad as well as the nostalgia wave of Toby and Andrew. It took a three solo movie trilogy and three supporting roles in major crossover storylines before they essentially did a soft reboot to allow Tom's Spidey to be the Spider-Man he should have been from the beginning.

[@ArmyWolves]

Tom Holland's Spiderman is fun but there were certain aspects I had issues with... one of them is that Spiderman is REALLY smart. Smart in a science-nerd way and common sense smart which allows him to defeat stronger opponents by using his abilities, the environment and even the opponents strengths and weapons against them. But the MCU/Sony would make questionable decisions like hitting an unstable energy source with a hammer in science class and endangering his classmates, playing around with the EDITH glasses and inadvertently launching a drone strikes (Tony Stark also to blame for not adding more failsafes and safety protocols.... wait!!! Such a weapon should not have been controlled by glasses in the first place). And other dumb decisions. They made him "Iron-Kid", a bumbling teen in a teen movie who looked up to Tony Stark instead of Uncle Ben. Let me not het started on my issues with the action.

[@archercolin6339]

Phase Bore, to be followed by Phase Barely-Alive...

[@brettloo7588]

Followed by dead horse reading for beating

[@michaelforbes6902]

You're not the only one who preferred "Far From Home" to "No Way Home". As much as I enjoyed NWH, it felt like it really leaned far too heavily on the member berries, and really would have meant next to nothing without the already excellent - and in my opinion superior - Sam Raimi films. FFH, on the other hand, had a well-told original story with a villain that could have easily been hokey but was actually made quite sinister, and had some serious messages about the reality we now live in, and how we can't always trust what we see and are told. Probably the most relevant message to the real world the MCU has ever done, with the exception of Winter Soldier.

[@Beastinvader]

Exactly. The humor and diverse settings were better too

[@RedDeath2001]

Does anybody has a trouble with trying to take the MCU seriously recently given how the She-Karen ending completely erased any sort of stakes and immersion, since Jennifer can easily speak with the manager to bring back dead characters and solve any type of conflict in a instant?

[@chasehedges6775]

The MCU should have stopped after Infinity War. It just seemed like a natural way to end it, really.

[@kyotheman69]

pretty much

[@Galahadfairlight]

You mean Endgame surely?

[@tomkerruish2982]

But, money...

[@anthonylogiudice9215]

@@Galahadfairlight Endgame was crap and dull.

[@jbbrolic]

@@Galahadfairlight Endgame sucked and introduced most of the elements many of don't like about Phase 4. It also wasn't REALLY a conclusion since it added a whole bunch of major unresolved plot points. Though honestly I couldn't even finish it, turned it off after an hour or so because of how much I disliked it and settled on "Thanos wins" as an acceptable MCU ending.

[@katey1dog]

Marvel deserves to STOP.

[@thecoffeesloth]

Ugh, there is gonna be a Phase 5? Hard pass!

[@hatuletoh]

It's just like with Star Wars: there is almost an infinite amount of interesting stories that could be told within the framework of the mcu, but they won't get told so long as the sociopolitical message is more important than good stories and profit. It's kind of amazing that this generation of Hollywood should have inherited such a golden goose, because they're only qualified to kill it off. And one day in the not so distant future, a new generation of Hollywood people will be sweating and struggling to come up with bankable ideas, and they'll look back and say, "what a bunch of assholes."

[@dangerdolls]

Yeah, I've completely phased out. In fact I was losing interest even before Infinity War.

[@bighand1530]

I kinda wish I had this thinking.

[@Whytemonkee]

No one wants C-list super heroes no one even heard of. Overkill

[@captainstage2009]

Completely agreed! However, looking at the phase 5 slate, many of the projects actually seem quite interesting! We got Quantummania, which sounds spectacular with Kang, Secret invasion, which also sounds like it’s gonna be loads of fun, Guardians 3, which has James Gun, so yeah, and a bunch of other fun stuff. I have high hopes.

[@franko2886]

Good man Dave!

[@dougsmith6262]

Tony Stark's hologram: I love you three thousand. Me: SHIT, Marvel, way to twist the fuckin knife!

[@medinmon5150]

Whenever you see comments about phase 4 What If is completely ignored. I loved it, I feel like it brought me the best moments and characters from the movies and gave them some very interesting stories without having to try to ignore the bad cgi and enjoy more of the animation that is closer to the comics. It is the only series of phase 4 that did not end with a playstation battle and hastily closed plots.

[@DiggitySlice]

I forgot that one existed. That's the one where the female Captain America was better in every way to the male Captain America. And the black Starlord was better in every way to the white Starlord. I lost track after that, but sounds amazing. /sarcasm

[@barrysmith4610]

I agree I loved What If. Cant wait for Season 2

[@GinNBoost]

It also featured the strongest villain in the entire MCU. Infinity Ultron was such a badass. Thankfully he’s still “alive.”

[@medinmon5150]

@@GinNBoost That was great!

[@medinmon5150]

​@@DiggitySlice I love Agent Carter tv show, so I enjoyed this alternate version which is 100 times more entertaining than Falcon

[@TheKnomad]

Great observations made. I would mention though, Spider-Man is a shared project with and belonging primarily to Sony. So if you take No Way Home out, there are no high quality movies/shows out of 14.

[@maestrogeicho]

Bruh you can't just say the good movie doesn't count to support your point

[@gene1star]

Dr Strange2 was better than last films ? OMG!

[@chasehedges6775]

That movie was meh and average

[@stuff4007]

I disagree that they’ve run out of material - there’s 80 years of it to build on. They just keep hiring people that have no interest in furthering the superhero genre, and so the material sucks. Just to give you a simple example: we haven’t seen a family of vigilantes. The mesh of family tension and superhero plots is what makes the Batfamily DC’s leading property right now, but they’re scared about introducing Robin - a light character - to a dark Batman. Plus they can’t write good father figures (complex father figures) to save a life. Marvel has killed off all their villains, so they can’t do a villain team up. Spider-Man tried, but they didn’t take it very far. So we’re still waiting for a “Legion of Doom”. Not to mention comics set in the future - there’s a whole cyberpunk genre crossover waiting to happen with Batman Beyond, a whole Sci-Fi universe with the Legion of Superheroes. The problem is that the writers see the MCU and the DCEU as cheap cinema, something that they don’t respect. No wonder they’ve since lost the respect of their own fan base.

[@IncredibleFulk1]

I agree with most of your points! How ever I don’t agree with the “they’re scared of introducing Robin because he is light hearted” point. I think they don’t want to have Robin because they would much rather have Batgirl as Batman’s “true sidekick.” It’s the typical “an old male hero passing the torch to a strong female character” trope that has over stayed its welcome.

[@baronflyguy]

Omg, i only got to watch Spiderman no way home from phase 4. Sounds like i saved myself loads of hours if the other movies and tv series were no impressive.

[@Nopeasaurus]

"YOU'VE GOT TO DO BETTER SENATOR!" sounds like the audience speaking to the writers.

[@dsadik666]

Phase 4: woke phase is complete. M-she-u has solidify.

[@maestrogeicho]

Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?

[@Chris-es3wf]

@@maestrogeicho do you have any idea how r3t4rded woke people are?

[@netwarrior1000]

I find myself at the end of phase 4 simply asking.......is that it?

[@atomicninjaduck9200]

If Ryan George has taught us anything, it's that the plural of Spiderman is Spidermans!🤣😂

[@Bodya_CN]

I really want to see a Mongolian character in some of the next MCU films, who does literally nothing for the plot, but is poked in every scene for the Genghis Khan conquest of 1206.

[@thehermitman822]

What a colony that guy created too. 😆

[@aleksander8497]

That's good. But sadly the only acceptable woke prejudice is against straight white males.

[@ronhaefner7833]

Love that..."A phase too far"

[@killershootin6934]

When they made Loki bisexual....

[@sharpshooterjames8891]

5:13 imagine that……SPIDER-MAN once again having to carry the entire brand on his back

[@KDrew-pn3sb]

If I would describe phase 4 in one word, it would be 'rushed'. Ik that's an understatement but, what other word is there to perfectly describe it? They've pumped out every damn series or movies every single month and now I don't think it can be fixed.

[@sgtpaloogoo2811]

I'm just so tired of these stupid 'multi-verse' nonsense films/shows.

[@jbbrolic]

Multiverse has always been a bad plot device for uncreative people who can't find a way to stick to prior plot/canon/continuity. The only multiverse material I have liked was DC comics pre 1986 (when they ended the multiverse in a crisis.)

[@sgtpaloogoo2811]

@@jbbrolic agreed, going past the boundaries of cannon\plot\continuity is almost always disastrous for a franchise.

[@RealBadGaming52]

its a time honored Sci fi trdition like Time travel plots and Alien Invasion/infiltration

[@DylanWOWilliams]

I actually disagree that the pool has become dry. I think their integrity as studios won’t allow them to create original ideas anymore. I think The Batman(even though I greatly disliked it) started to tread new ground with the “early years” and more grounded grittiness.

[@tcschenks]

I was a full-time comic book reader when John Walker was a major character (Captain America, then US agent when the real Cap returned) replacing Steve Rogers and I could not stand him back then.

[@jesster402]

Far From Home had some really nice ideas in it, but it'll forever be the worst to me because it treats Peter's development in Homecoming as if it never happened. Granted the start of No Way Home does the same, but at least that one had all the stuff I loved as a kid

[@Tafharrris]

I quite liked Wandavision and Hawkeye … more so that Falcon and Wintersoldier at any rate.

[@ashewalked]

I totally agree. I don’t think either one contributed much to the “phase”, but as standalone stories those were entertaining in my opinion. Wandavision kinda fell flat in the end, but for a project to sideline a male character to introduce his new young female counterpart Hawkeye was about as good as it could be. I couldn’t even focus on Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It was incredibly boring.

[@daviddaniel6949]

I also made the observation that they don't have film directors like Ang Lee or Kenneth Brannagh directing Marvel films anymore. I love the work of these two and it feels like now they just hire yes men that nobody has ever heard of, that will do what they are told.

[@SirBlackReeds]

Branagh wanted to direct Thor: The Dark World, but he had prior commitments.

[@DarthDevorin]

Phase 4: Rise of Mediocrity.

[@mabus11tk]

There are many places the new phases could go, if they had comic lovers behind the scenes instead of activists - a good guy team versus a bad guy team instead of one adversary. A two team up movie, like the comics frequently did - Spiderman and the Punisher, Dr. Strange and Hawkeye, etc. Smaller one off stories that don't tie into a larger narrative. The heroes doing something other than fighting main adversary - they must save a group of people, for example. Have regular heroes interact with the supernatural - DC could do this with the House of Secrets and House of Mystery comics. Superman and Lois are driving and end up at the House of Secrets, then fun fantasy story commences.

[@AshyView24]

The franchise ended at Endgame for me. My interest is basically completely gone. But that's part of the plan. Our generation is also being phased out as the next generation takes over which is way more brainwashed.

[@nathank2289]

Except the next generation doesn't give a shit about all the gender bent heros unless they are in Fortnite

[@Hypershell]

I don't count Spider-Man as a "Marvel Studios" project, since those are made in conjunction with Sony, who still holds the Spider-Man movie rights. It's part of the MCU timeline, but Marvel Studios specifically has universally failed in Phase 4 without exception. The entire studio is creatively bankrupt. There's absolutely no reason a strong team couldn't make good projects around Loki, She-Hulk, and Dr. Strange as characters. The studio just doesn't have it in them.

[@MrCau5e]

I’ve been a subscriber of yours for quite a while. Since the GG days. I have to say your content over the last year has gone from strength to strength. Keep up the good work and well done.

[@stevenwoods5787]

No way home did have nostalgia, but they used it right. Most movies just throw shot in there and are like 'hey look remember this?' But this movie gsve them purpose. They weren't just there for the hell of it. Amd William Dafoe did better in this movie than he did back in 02

[@callmesenpaidesu1506]

MSHEU phase 4 the rise of the message

[@yaaninja]

Still feel bad for Black widow move they did scarlett johansson dirty, both movie story and timing or release, why they force Captain Marvel in MCU phase 3 i will never understand

[@jamainegardner4193]

I would say that the MCU actually should've ended with No Way Home. Not only does it provide a good ending for Peter, it also ends entirety of the Iron Man cast, which was the last open plotline after Endgame.

[@thagomizer8485]

I'd really love to hear a conversation with a Hollywood talent manager. I suspect that most of them KNOW these writers are hacks, but they keep getting work anyway. What is it? Is it just a problem of not enough quality writers? The content churn is too high, so they have to throw some at the rookies/failures? I can't imagine that in a country of 300 million, America is really that short on decent writers. And if the problem is that all the quality writers are already tapped out, then where are the movie being written by those high quality writers?

[@AlexandraStubbs]

Thank you Dave for the video. Really appreciate you for the time you put into your videos.

[@thefonzkiss]

These Marvel films were garbage plotless CGI fests since the first film anyway. Amazed it took you guys a decade to work that out.

[@Jrockk999]

Well I don't think Holland's Spiderman will continue in Sony's Venom universe. Eddie and Venom got sent back their own universe, unless we are counting the piece of Venom left behind.

[@tomfink7505]

Sadly, the comics started going down this ultra-woke rabbit hole in the mid-2010s and with Phase IV, the MCU has almost caught up to it's comic book source material (in terms of being hyper-focused on identity politics). Give it a few more years, and it will be an exact reflection of where comics are now, with the white legacy characters (especially the males) being ineffective and treated as pathetic jokes, and literally half of all the characters being gay, trans, non-binary or some combination thereof.

[@jbbrolic]

It didn't have to catch up. They were moving pretty freely back and forth between bronze age (1970s) stories up through about 2009. They could have continued this for decades if you look out how many great storylines there are in Marvel. They just chose to skip over all that straight to 2012-present, likely for political reasons.

[@bearhow4876]

I think marvel could turn it around IF they took a risk like DC did with Joker and the Batman. Stand-alone films, rated R, and risky.

[@firefly551969]

If the M-She-U had their way, you'd be required to watch various television shows, buy comic books, and still try to integrate all of that into a storyline. I miss the old MCU...

[@Trekkie46]

The well isn't dry. It's just the direction that's the issue. The Kree/Skrull stuff is already on the table as long as they don't screw that up too.

[@Batman12810]

Dave your point about the woke government wanting a black Captain America was Morton point than shots from both Hawkeyes.

[@ac6367]

Great installment! Your insights into the Spiderman franchise were worthy of contemplation.

[@riftshredder5438]

I think it'd be cool if the next Fantastic 4 movie was also a multiverse movie that combines the MCU version of the Fantastic 4 with the previous two versions, yes even Fant4stic lol

[@DiggitySlice]

That's going to be awkward with the existing race swapping and the very likely black Reed we'll get in the MCU Oh also not to mention the fact that the original Johnny Storm is now Steve Rogers lmao

[@riftshredder5438]

@@DiggitySlice thats what would make it funny lol

[@Jarod-vg9wq]

1:39 I felt this way to! I especially mad we never got a hulk vs thanks rematch.

[@filipvadas7602]

Phase Four transformed the MCU from a cinematic universe that was carefully crafted with passion over the course of a decade into a printing press churning out lackluster products at breakneck pace just to appease a quota of constant monetary growth It also doesn't helpt that by splitting the MCU between the movies and shows, they've made it *much* harder to keep up with it all then just taking your time and watching a bunch of movies in order of release And as if all that wasn't enough, we also have *the message* and the fact that, for most people, the MCU ended with Thanos and Tony.

[@hellkr]

Wow...when you started listing all the phase 4 movies and shows, I realised how many of them I've simply forgotten! I can easily place all the P1-P3 productions in chronological order, but I don't even recall all the P4 stuff.

[@flyingpaladin617]

The government may be woke but America certainly isn't. We're tired of this crap

[@nniicckk1223]

I disagree that the primary stars were undermined in endgame. The actors wanted to leave and they gave 2 of them a good send off. Tony Stark dying was the completion of his story arc from a self-centered narcissist into a hero who was willing to sacrifice everything for good. It was the perfect ending for him. And Cap got the life he always wanted. That's not saying his story is done. It's possible he had plenty of adventures in the past, if they want to write it. Professor Hulk was in the comics and was expected. It wasn't until the She hulk show that they killed him. Natasha and hawkeye were never primary stars.

[@mikewright8304]

Just discovered your channel. Excellent analysis and i agree wholeheartedly. Subscribed

[@richardbastuck3902]

I disagree that phase 4 lacks direction. It may not seem obvious yet, but ScreenCrush, CBR, and New Rockstars have all made multiple videos linking all the phase 4 projects to vibranium, mutants, the Quantum Realm, the Multiverse, and Kang. Of course it's all speculation at this point, but it feels very similar to phase 1 in that we all speculated the Tesseract was an infinity stone but it wasn't really confirmed until after Avengers 1. I'm hoping it will all start to make more sense once Quantumania comes out.

[@NinjaSheepXGaming]

I also preferred far from home to no way home - but then I really like Thor 2 so maybe I'm just weird :P

[@surepain3375]

How about the Steve Rogers is not from this timeline. His actions created a split in the timeline, so for him to be there it cannot be his original timeline.

[@Kat1kafka]

"You have to stop calling them terrorists"

[@kyrgiosuhhhh5617]

The film writers use(and further uses) of the "Multiverse trope" is kind of like scraping month's worth of residual grease/food from your frying pan for sustenance, immediately after you devoured a 4 course meal cooked by the world's greatest chef, out of that same pan

[@fyrfly8768]

Its my opinion that access to the Multiverse plot device completely ruins the MCU because there's no stakes and no direction. Nothing matters because there's a miltiversal answer to it.

[@pistolbobcat420]

Also the TCA invalidates years of world building by trying to tell us “Kang made sure they did what they’re supposed to do or they get melted”

[@diengacherish5475]

Finally someone else saw the problem with far from home I thought I was the only one 😌

[@kmdreacts]

I still think they should've cast that blonde girl from "It Follows" & Independence Day Resurgence as Captain Marvel.

[@ThePanda-MARS]

What about Werewolf by night? Please watch and review that MCU piece. Besides that, totally agree with your views on Phase 4...

[@chasehedges6775]

One of the few thing I’ve enjoyed out of the mediocrity of Phase 4

[@keithdavison2960]

No way home was very good film probably the best comic book hero movie since Endgame

[@shadowdramon01]

While No Way Home is one of my favorite MCU films, MoM, Wakanda Forever and Shang-Chi, I found to be average. And Black Widow, Eternals, and especially Love and Thunder, were some of THE worst superhero movies I’ve ever seen. I think the only superhero films I’ve hated as much as, if not, more than Love and Thunder were Catwoman, Elektra, and Batman and Robin. I didn’t bother with the tv shows, especially since I feel the MCU is way too oversaturated. I wasn’t feeling it when Marvel decided to do 3 movies a year, but the tv shows are just ridiculous. It’s like old school Oprah “you get a show and you get a show and you get a show”. 😑

[@Ozymandias1]

2037: Marvel introduces Phase 17 of the MCU.

[@colinmclean3029]

Peter Parker has transitioned to Pauline Pankhurst who cut off her legs and is in a web spinning wheelchair and the most exciting part of the movie, she is upside down on the ceiling talking about feelings. Yet it is still a bigger hit than the 57 marvel films that came out that year.

[@jamiecollins7915]

I think if they wanted to continue after endgame, my plans for that would be simple. after endgame, wait about 5 years or more to spend a very long period of planning out where you can go from here as a original concept. Let's people enjoy the emotional high of end game and lets you make a worthy sequel saga if you go that route, that could be totally movie original. They instead unleashed a massive deluge of content that with the benefit of hindsight, we can see how lackluster as a whole they are overall. At this point, no one would notice or care if the mcu suddenly stopped after a movie or show and just never came back. Sure, the media could say about all sorts of plans as things go quiet and fans slowly catch on that the mcu has suddenly gone away and isn't coming back.

[@JustTooDamnHonest]

You are forgetting Adam Warlock. You know the character who was foreshadowed to be introduced in GOTG 2 and he never showed up and Adam's whole character was centered around Thanos himself and they screwed themselves up with that alone. The MCU ended with Endgame and now the M-SHE-U and Disney is the place were storytelling goes to die.

[@tadpolegaming4510]

We were supposed to get him instead of Captain Karen.

[@JustTooDamnHonest]

@@tadpolegaming4510 Also correct.

[@AshPrimeDCFC]

Infinity War was the end of the MCU for me. Only Spider-Man films get my attention now.

[@bighand1530]

I didn’t care for Spider-Man : No Way Home.

[@tomrodgers6629]

They wasted Bruce Campbell in Dr. Strange and the multiverse of madness. They leaned hard into Evil Dead they may as well had a scene with Ash and Wanda and Wanda is the one who cast the spell for Ash to beat the crap out of himself. It could have been a great comic scene. They are in the multiverse anything can happen.

[@deansimon751]

I love your intro music.

[@pistolbobcat420]

I’m surprised you also don’t mention the fact that Loki, by introducing the TVA basically fucking destroys the last 12 years of storytelling because It was Kang’s script and none of the characters ever actually had agency or a choice. Imagine Tony surviving that finally battle only for the time cops to be like “noooo u can’t do that” and just undoing everything they accomplished

[@ShadesOfKnight]

No way home should have been called “Doctor Strange fixes Spider-Man.” All these movies to get to a moment where someone finally teaches the Holland version that “with great power comes great responsibility,” something that made ALL of the previous Holland entries less than Spider-Man is supposed to be.

[@andrewcarlton6196]

You can tell a franchise is dying when it starts to dabble in time travel to change past events and is truly dead when it pulls the multiverse card. Note I am not referring to franchise where time travel and multiverses are part of the story such as Quantium Leap and Sliders

[@richardkev3077]

To say “phase 4 sucks” is giving it far too much credit.

[@princeongata9453]

They said it’s M ‘SHE’ U With their woke agenda, I’m done.

[@MrWiggsy4]

Don't think it's gone on too long, there's thousands upon thousands of stories from the comics. What's fuxked it over is too much too soon (Disney+,) and putting quotas and the message over good story telling and acting

[@jamesms4]

WandaVision started strong IMHO then devolved big time. The Fan theories would have made a better story than how it turned out by the writers. Somebody fire that lot...

[@lazyd.williams1555]

COMMENTING TO SUPPORT THE CHANNEL.

[@slevinchannel7589]

Wokeness would never have become so Bad if Normal/Real Progress didnt have so much Backlash. The less--advanced Half of the World aka the Right-Wingers push-back, duh. Duh-much: The 'Message' wouldnt have to be pushed so much if we hadnt Right-Wing-Grifters tell every-Lie-under-the-Sun and despair at the Thought of 'Tax the Rich'.

[@THEPETERC1]

Davey, I'm afraid you were too kind in this one.

[@MasumiWolf]

I totally agree with you Dave. But not on somethings, like you said Spider-Man chose to lose his only love that he wanted but you forgot to mention he lost his best friend he ever knew aka Ned. Also with the point of saying oh No Way Home is just for nostalgia since it's a crossover. Then i guess those people don't really know Spider-Man well like at all. Theirs the Spider-Verse Movie. And the Edge Of Time video game and the one before it forgot the name where it put different spider-mans into the game that they meet each other. Also that Peter or any other Spider-Man meeting another one is canon no matter what cause of yes Spider-Verse but most notably cause of Madame Web.