{"id":51155,"date":"2023-03-28T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=51155"},"modified":"2023-04-01T21:06:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T01:06:08","slug":"state-of-the-comic-book-film-are-we-heading-to-an-endgame-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2023\/03\/28\/state-of-the-comic-book-film-are-we-heading-to-an-endgame-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"STATE OF THE COMIC BOOK FILM: Are We Heading To An Endgame? – Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Images via respective film studios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SPOILER WARNING:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>This article series will be talking about plot elements of many recent comic book films. If you are not up to speed on your comic book film watching \u2013 And really, who can blame you? \u2013 you might want to proceed with caution.<\/em><\/p>\n

When FilmBuffOnline head honcho Rich Drees contacted me late last year, asking me if I was going to do my yearly “State of the Comic Book Film<\/a>” post, I told him no. At the time, I had yet to see\u00a0Black Adam\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Morbius<\/strong>, and I wasn’t in any great hurry to catch up on them (especially that second one).<\/p>\n

At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. But upon reflection, I had to examine my own personal feelings towards the comic book film. I mean, for decades I have been their champion. I started this series of articles back in 2012<\/a> to provide a positive view of the comic book film in a media landscape filled with journalists that wished they would just go away. I mean, I didn’t become FBOL’s Comic Book Movie Editor because I hated comic book movies.<\/p>\n

But over the last several years, the shine has faded from the genre for me. Perhaps it is the post-Pandemic malaise. Perhaps it is just my tastes changing as I get older. Or are there real reasons in the product that has been put out that has caused me to lose some interest in the genre.<\/p>\n

That’s what I am going to examine here, in this four-part series. Instead of just putting 2022 under the microscope, I’m going to look at the genre’s past, present and future to see if I am right or wrong to start to lose interest in the genre and if the genre is on its downward arc.<\/p>\n

I know what you are saying, five of the top ten highest grossing films<\/a> released last year were comic book films. Yes, but the fifth,\u00a0Black Adam\u00a0<\/strong>in at number ten, either failed to make a profit or just barely made a profit, depending on which budget estimate you choose to follow. So, there are cracks in the armor.<\/p>\n

And I am going to start with the 800-lb gorilla in the comic book film universe:<\/p>\n

Marvel<\/h1>\n
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Image via Marvel Studios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You might look to 2019’s\u00a0Avengers: Endgame<\/strong> as the perfect spot for where the Marvel films jumped the shark. After all, there was an air of finality about it. It was the culmination of ten years of Marvel films, the last on-screen appearance of popular characters such as Captain America and Iron Man and left the Marvel Cinematic Universe in need of a new direction, yet uncertain where that direction would be.<\/p>\n

And I guess you can use that as a point where the flaws in the MCU started to show, if you exclude Spider-Man: Far From Home <\/strong>as sort of an Endgame <\/strong>epilogue. Phase Four seems to me where Marvel went off the rails, both in its theatrical and streaming output. I have aired my concerns about the best years of the MCU being behind them in two 2021 articles, one in March<\/a> and one in July<\/a>. I’m not going to completely rehash those pieces. I don’t want to be repetitive if you read and remember them. If you haven’t, please visit those links and have a look. But it appears that I was right to have concerns.<\/p>\n

\"Shang-Chi\"<\/a>
Image via Marvel Studios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, every Phase Four film did land in the Top Ten in the year of its release, but the quality of the films declined. If we are to use Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer scores as a yardstick, out of the 11 films in the MCU’s Phase 3, all but one scored at least an 85% fresh rating (that outlier, Captain Marvel<\/strong>, still scored a respectable 79% fresh rating).\u00a0 In contrast, only 2 of the 7 Phase 4 films scored higher than that 85% benchmark–Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings<\/strong> and\u00a0Spider-Man: No Way Home<\/strong>, and that latter one was a co-production with Sony Pictures (Don’t worry, it will be Morbin’ Time to discuss Sony Pictures a little later in this series.). What’s worse, this Phase featured the lowest reviewed film in the MCU–the awful\u00a0Eternals<\/strong><\/a>–which could only muster a 47% fresh.<\/p>\n

Why this decline? Probably the reasons, or a variation thereof, I listed in those articles above that have been repeated in films since I wrote that article:<\/p>\n