Brand New Day or Doomsday?: The modern state of the Marvel Universe

Illustration by Sami Seyedhosseini, Photo Editor

Ask anyone who their favorite Marvel superhero is and just about everyone seems to have a different answer; speaking to the mass appeal and cultural impact the films have maintained over the past two decades. Since the release of “Iron Man” in 2008, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans have had high expectations for the arrival of blockbuster, comic-inspired films. As Marvel Studios hypes up the opening of “Avengers: Doomsday” this December, fans have mixed opinions about the current state of the film franchise. 

“The MCU, when it started out, was definitely only for comics fans, and then it turned into such a mainstream thing,” junior electrical engineering major Michael Kenny said. 

The trailer for “Avengers: Doomsday” suggests a successful opening, with the trailer reaching 503 million views in just 24 hours. Additionally, “Avengers: Endgame” is set to return to theaters on September 26 for an encore, along with sneak peeks of “Avengers: Doomsday” for fans watching in IMAX or Infinity Vision. “Avengers: Endgame Encore” and “Avengers: Doomsday” are currently the only movies available for Infinity Vision, a new cinema screen format created by Disney for enhanced video quality and sound. 

The success and satisfying finale of “Avengers: Endgame” marked a big change in the MCU, not only as the end of Phase 3 — with “Spider-Man: Far from Home” officially closing out that chapter of the saga — but as the end of the road for many characters in the franchise. For many fans, “Avengers: Endgame” had a perfect formula. 

“One of my favorite things about the MCU is how connected it is, and it's been a little disjointed lately. I mean, leading up to ‘The Avengers,’ you had five movies looking at each character individually and what they're doing until then, and then they meet up. That is the perfect setup and payoff. ‘Doomsday’ is a little like, ‘well, you've seen these guys before, and we'll just all put them in a movie together,’” said Kenny. 

The promise of the “Avengers: Doomsday” sneak peeks is not enough for some fans to make the trip to theaters for “Avengers: Endgame Encore.” 

“If you have to edit the movie to make the other movie make sense, maybe you should change the movie,” said sophomore strategic communication major Tara Frooninckx. “The ‘Endgame’ (ending) was perfect the way it is. I get they're just making small changes to make the storyline make sense, but it's just kind of not worth it in my opinion.” 

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo noted that the additional scenes shown in the re-release are required to provide context for “Avengers: Doomsday.” 

Although some fans of the MCU have critiqued recent projects and the direction of the storylines, Marvel continues to see sky-high box office numbers with their newest releases. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” became a hit movie for fans all around the world over the summer, grossing $2.3 billion globally at the time of this writing. In comparison with similar superhero movies, such as DC’s “Supergirl” which made a disappointing $126 million worldwide this summer, the gap in success between the two films brings questions of what makes fans more inclined to go to the cinema. 

“What DC was lacking for the longest time was the connectivity, which was definitely Marvel's bread and butter, and also their greatest strength,” said Kenny. “It's the one thing that they were doing that no one else was doing. When DC was trying to replicate that, they jumped the gun, made it way too fast, didn't do the build-up and payoff as well. I think that's why Marvel was more successful then.” 

Not only did negative word-of-mouth hurt “Supergirl”’s theatrical run, but the initial premise of the film may have hindered the box office return. 

“The female demographic this film is trying to reach is a difficult one for the DCU. Unlike the MCU, I can't imagine it makes up a large part of their dedicated audience.” said Dodge College lecturer Kia Afra. 

The positive reception of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” was not a shock to many fans, as seeing the beloved character on the big screen again encouraged many people to swing over to the theaters. 

“I think they really like this story because it was kind of a new, fresh start with the same characters, and while Spider-Man has had many iterations over the years from the very beginning,” said adjunct professor Assistant Director of Residential Life Alex Hart. “They're the same characters that are now in this brand new era, and I think that they liked that the character took a different turn and grappled with something that I think is very common for people right now, which is loneliness.”

Hart teaches the first-year foundations course (FFC), “Leadership in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” where he encourages students to watch the movies through the lens of leadership . 

“Each character has to have some sort of take on some sort of leadership role. You see that with Black Panther, who is now the king of Wakanda,” said Hart. “We see that authentic leadership with Iron Man, who has this character arc of being this playboy, philanthropist billionaire, to having to ultimately sacrifice himself for the entire universe, and how much that aligns with his values and being his true self.”

Beyond the storytelling of the movies, many fans were eager to see the return of actors like Tom Holland and Zendaya reprising their roles, as well as the introduction of new actors to the Spider-Man movies. Sadie Sink’s role as Jean Grey in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” led to the newest casting announcement of the MCU’s X-Men at D23, a popular Comic-Con-esque event for Disney fans. Movie studios are no stranger to using casts as marketing campaigns, and Marvel Studios is no different. The “X-Men” cast features many marquee actors, including Adam Driver, as well as rising Gen Z stars like Kit Connor and breakout scream queen Inde Navarrette. 

Whether the direction of the movies remains in line with previous films or becomes something entirely new, MCU continues to pull in fans. 

“After ‘Endgame,’ a lot changed. The TV shows definitely added a lot to that, (where) they're doing a lot more different stuff,” said Kenny. “I'm like, that's so much fun. It's the different genres. The fact that directors are allowed to make many different stylistic choices.”