The general mentality that has been surrounding the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the past few years is that it’s possibly run its course. At the very least, at this point, it’s retaining fans more than it’s attracting new ones. As Sinners has proved, audiences are currently hungry for more original fare, as opposed to an adaptation of existing material that is also part of an ever-expanding cinematic universe where you often need to watch at least one TV show and one other movie to understand what’s happening in this movie. Thunderbolts*, while solid overall and a lot of fun, is an example of this.
When it comes to Thunderbolts*, you need to have seen The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Black Widow, and that’s not even all. It’s tough to attract new people when not only is that the case, but also the general aura surrounding the IP as a whole has been dwindling. But was Phase 5 (which concludes with the Disney+ series Ironheart) an improvement over Phase 4, when this negative reputation started to build? Let’s dive in.
Phase 4 Highlights and Lowlights
Phase 4 was weaker than the three that preceded it, without a doubt. The main issue was blindingly clear: the MCU was stretching itself too thin. Eight series, two specials, and seven movies from January 2021 to November 2022? That’s simply too much.
Even the devoted were bound to either miss a project or deem it not quite worth watching. Without a doubt, they were bound to not find watching all of these things on day one necessary. Something can’t feel like an event if there’s no space in between projects to build up anticipation for the audience.
But, of those 17 total projects, which were worthwhile additions to the universe that contains 2008’s Iron Man, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Endgame? Let’s break it up into three categories of quality for the sake of simplicity: success, middling, and failure. Mind you, this is in terms of how audiences as a whole tended to feel about the projects, not so much how we feel about them.
[RELATED: 10 Captain America Movie Mistakes You’ll Never Be Able to Unsee]
Let’s kick off covering the success column and start with the Disney+ series. WandaVision is without a doubt in the success column. The same applies to Loki Season 1 and Hawkeye (low-key one of the best MCU projects to date). Also in the success columns are the films Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Now let’s look at the middling column. Most would agree that both specials, Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, fit there. They’re fun, but not exactly integral to appreciating the MCU as a whole. The Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel’s What If…? Season 1, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel also fit there as do the movies Black Widow and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
That means that the failure column consists of the Disney+ show She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and the movies Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder. Now, let’s attribute everything a points value. Successes are three, middling projects are two, and failures are one. In total that’s 37 points. Divide that by 17 (again, the total number of projects in the Phase) and you get 2.18. Now let’s move on to Phase 5.
Phase 5 Highlights and Lowlights
Phase 5 paced things out a bit better, but still with not quite enough space between movies or shows to make them feel like events. From February 2023 (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) to May 2025 (Thunderbolts*), there have been 14 MCU projects. As of right now, Ironheart has not hit TVs yet, so we’ll call Phase 5 at 14 projects, as opposed to the 15 it will soon be.
When it comes to the success column, several Disney+ shows once again made the cut. There was Loki‘s second season and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and some might argue Agatha All Along was a success, but it was still a step down from WandaVision. As for movies, there was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool & Wolverine.
In the middling category, we have Season 2 and Season 3 of Marvel’s What If…?, Echo, the aforementioned Agatha All Along, and Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again. This is where we also find Thunderbolts*.
As for outright failures, we have Secret Invasion and the movies Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (which set the wheels in motion for something that would never happen), The Marvels, and Captain America: Brave New World. This gives Phase 5 a total of 28 points. Divide that by 14 and you get a score of 2.0.
Naturally, everything’s subjective. Some people like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law the same way some people didn’t care for Deadpool & Wolverine. But, if you’re looking at things in terms of average perception, Phase 5 was actually a small step down from Phase 4.
The post Was MCU Phase 5 Better or Worse Than Phase 4? appeared first on ComicBook.com.
