What Marvel established with the MCU was great. When it kicked off with Iron Man, they had a unique take on the superhero genre. Complete with reverence to the source material and a willingness to diverge a bit, audiences were captured. To say that the fan base has grown since that day is a massive understatement. Marvel has a grip over Hollywood now and the pressure is on to innovate with their movies or the entire genre could die out. Though fans have flocked to theaters to see the next installation of the ever-expanding movie universe, there are some things that annoyed even dedicated fans and they are listed below:
1) Weak Villains
MCU has a lot of fierce villains but many didn’t get the chance to showcase what they are truly capable of. Many villains did get their chance but some of them were simply forgotten. It’s honestly a common criticism that follows Marvel Studio films, as each movie seemingly has the same plot: reluctant hero finds a superpower/weapon/suit/etc, only to have it stolen by the villain and the hero must pick themselves up by the shoestrings and muster the self-determination to save the world. Every Marvel film thus far has had the same formulaic plot, but since each hero is unique enough, most fans haven’t necessarily noticed how flat the villains have seemed to be over the years.
2) Lack Of Women-Led Films
In recent years, there are three very loud calls that routinely accompany the release of movies within the Marvel Cinematic Universe: “Why aren’t there any female-led superhero movies?” Sure, Marvel finally decided to give fans a film with a woman as the titular character and leading role when they released Captain Marvel, but after almost a decade.
Ever since her character first appeared in Iron Man 2, fans have been waiting for for a Black Widow film and are still waiting for it. Yes, Marvel is slowly and steading trying to correct this, but it’s been a long time coming.
3) Fractured Universe
MCU hasn’t been a whole, fully-formed version of the Marvel Universe, lack of superheroes like The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and even Spider-Man for a significant portion of the MCU has been weighing the MCU down since the very beginning. This has led to creators coming up with fresh creative stories around heroes that may have been kicked back to B players.
4) Genre Fatigue
By the time Spider-Man: Far From Home had hit theaters (which was back in 2019) fans have seen the release of three MCU movies every year for the past three years. Fans love the MCU they also love seeing their favorite heroes brought to life and continue to expand the MCU. After a decade of multiple releases per year, it was starting to wear on fans.
5) Scarlet Witch’s Accent
What happened to Scarlet Witch’s Sokovian accent? Yes, it’s not really a big deal, and there must be a good explanation for it. But it almost feels as if it was tossed aside for no real reason.
6) Thor: The Dark World
Many fans agree that Thor: The Dark World didn’t exactly turn out as fans expected it to be. It just couldn’t live up to its hype. The antagonist in the movie was weak plus his intentions were immoral and was easily forgettable. The subpar plot and writing were not that good. Thor: Ragnarok was something that many fans liked and it really uplifted the Thor franchise.
7) Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3 is actually not as bad as most people say it is. It displayed Tony Stark at his most broken, staggering from the trauma of the attack of New York and encountering his mortality. But what most fans didn’t like about Iron Man 3 was the disappointing twist and a forgettable villain. Fans were promised cunning, ruthless, and powerful, enigmatic leader of the Ten Rings terrorist organization but instead the Mandarin was just a timid actor and the real antagonist was Aldrich Killian.
8) Not As Faithful To The Comics As Some Would Like
Many fans may argue that the comics were, in fact, better than the movies. They do have valid points to justify this statement. But some fans also think that the movies are better. Movies improved a lot of characters. The comics are obviously more true to themselves, so to speak, but the films do freshen things up while staying true enough to the intentions of their source material.
9) The Dark Mirror Effect
This points out the “villain problem” in the MCU. Fans often state that MCU has a habit of making its villains almost exact copies of its heroes. For example, Tony Stark, he’s faced several villains who are simply ‘Tony Stark, but a total jerk’. MCU does a great job at showcasing their heroes and fans would love to see villains getting the same consideration and treatment.
10) Plot Holes
There are several things that don’t add up in MCU, like, If Thanos was so set on collecting all of the Infinity Stones, why did he give the only one in his possession to Loki before he attacked New York, or If Tony Stark has an arc reactor, an unlimited source of energy attached to his chest, then why does he charge his Iron Man suit with a car battery in Iron Man 3, the Bi-Frost bridge was destroyed at the end of Tho? So how’d Thor get back to Earth in Avengers?
Source: CBR
