#mcu fatigue

[harleycao]

So, I just heard about Chris Evans coming back.

And I realize that I gave up (the rest of the way) on the mcu the second they announced the supposed release date for fantastic 4.

I've probably talked about this before, but I don't really care, I'm talking about it now, too.

At SDCC this past july, the fantastic 4 movie hadn't started filming. it started the week after.

Despite that, the release date is June 2025. And we all know that won't happen.

A lot of people brush that off and say they do that to build excitement.

But that doesn't change the fact that they rush the people who work for them, especially those aren't actors and the actors who aren't white males. We've heard from people who have worked for them on special effects and such. We know what they're like.

And we alk know why they announced the date as being in July.

Because Superman also comes out in July. And Superman is why I gave up on marvel. Because while marvel/fantastic hadn't even STARTED filming, Superman had already finished with filming and moved to the next stage of creating the movie.

And I realized it was obvious who cared about the content they were putting out & the people who worked for them

All marvel does is bank on nostalgia and use maybe half-fleshed out ideas that don't connect from one thing to the next.

The reason why some movies and shows are still good on their own is because of the people behind those individual movies & shows who care. And I will continue with some stuff for people like them, but only on a limited basis depending on what I feel like watching, who is involved with different projects, and what they are about.

Because I don't have super hero fatigue. I have MARVEL FATIGUE.

[agentoffangirling]

Hey, just saying, if a lot of y'all are having Marvel fatigue (honestly, I can't blame you for that), may I suggest watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

It has many of the Marvel elements we know and love, I mean it's set in the same universe, however it has many many unique twists that truly make it stand out as its own thing. If you're looking for something Marvel-that-isn't-quite-Marvel, this is the way to go

[there-goes-my-sanity]

Am I the only one not excited by the Doomsday Cast announcement?

Like no hate to anyone who is (the world sucks, if something makes you feel better, hold on tight to it)

but the only way that many famous actors are going to be in the same movie is by having cameos (a la Mr fantastic/captain carter/professor x in the last Dr Strange movie) which I mean-I guess is cool but I'd rather have actual meaningful character interactions and arcs than just a 45 second cameo

And because RDJ is playing Dr Doom, I can only assume that means he's a Tony Stark variant and the MCU JUST stopped revolving around that incredibly boring white man. Like, if they make everything about him again I might scream.

[galaxythreads]

hi,

I'm fascinated by ur Loki works, and since I'm currently rereading all my favourites I wanted to ask about your general headcanons for Loki, and your opinions on all the movies and appearances Loki had. Basically, could you please talk about Loki, because i feel like my idea of Loki and your idea of Loki are similar. bye!!

"Do you want to rant at me about your favorite character?" I mean. do you want my first born?

general headcanons:

there's this scene in Loki: Where Mischief Lies where Loki has a throwaway line that talks about how it never matters when Thor hits him even if it gets violent and it rotates around in my head like a microwave all the time. Such an interesting concept that Thor took things too far but Loki never said anything because that's Just What Siblings Do TM

Loki's hair is soft to the touch, not greasy, because I will die mad about loki's hair in ragnarok

loki steals clothing. This is something you can see in all my fics, he's constantly stealing things from everyone.

Loki is ace, never had sex, and isn't interested in changing that. I don't think he's aro, I think he is interested in romantic love to some extent, but I think sex is just mid to him

loki's magic pokes at all five senses. It's something you can see, taste, hear, touch, and smell

loki got "food poisoning" a lot as a kid because his body was made for jotun stuff and like. asgard doesn't have that

Loki has a moral code, and there are lines he won't cross

loki doesn't lie that much, people just gave him the name because he's shifty and it was a rumor that was started by thor that he lies all the time

loki and thor's relationship has only gotten more complicated as they've gotten older and they have the brain chemistry to process things better, look at their childhoods and go, uh, bro, wait a minute

frigga wasn't a very good mom to loki, even though she tried

Loki can cook

loki uses magic less now that he's older, not because he's not good at it, but because he just like. he uses more subtle magic, and he doesn't need to turn his magic into a glowy show when he could just punch you in the face

loki is a man of few words

loki being captured and watching him lose his mind is straw that broke the camel's back for Gamora, who left shortly after he agreed to help thanos

loki wasn't mind controlled per se in the first avengers, the scepter was just affecting his feelings, but not more than anyone else? Loki was just genuinely tortured/coerced into this by thanos and they didn't have to force him to do anything. he was too terrified to say no. scepter was just an added bonus to cement the control

loki absolutely has permanent spinal damage from his time with thanos

I have a bazillion of these i could literally go on for ages.

---

thoughts on movies:

Uh. Okay. um. How do I say this without getting slain? I...do not think, objectively, that any of the Thor movies are good movies. I think they have fantastic concepts, and wonderful characters, and I adore poking at them, but I think one of the reasons that they're so beloved is because of their potential not because of what they are. People love thinking about what could have been and what they wished happened, because there's very little that's actually satisfyingly completed about the films.

Because the Thor movies are not...It. You kind of have to go hunting for outside material for pieces to be connected together and thor 2 has lots of issues that not even thor 1 could have dreamed of, and Thor 1 is just. A disaster, narratively. I think Thor 3 is definetly the most well put together movie, which sucks because it's the one that botched the characters beyond repair. You either have good characters and awful story or fantastic story and terrible characters with no inbetween.

Trying to talk about why I don't think the movies are good - objectively, as movies - has never ended super well for me, but yeah, i just. I don't. I don't think they're very good. I can break it down in more detail if anyone is interested, but there seems to exist two opinions on tumblr: you either think thor 1 - tdw is an untouchable master piece or you don't and there's nothing good to say about them at all.

I have endless praise to give the movies, but that doesn't mean I don't have criticisms, because, good lord, they suck in some places. Loki's character arc is the most baffling mishandle of a character that I have ever witnessed, and yes, I mean this from the get go. Connecting thor 1 - thor 2 takes some mental math.

Thor 1: Interesting set-up for Loki's character, I like how careful they are with setting him up to make sure that his arc was clear and the line between victim and villain was really blurred. They did a good job on making him sympathetic, and revealing an interesting concept with him and Thor, even if I don't think it was executed as well as I wanted.

Avengers 1: adore poking at Loki and Thanos's relationship here. I cannot get enough of it. I like writing with the avengers mostly because of all that didn't happen in the movie that I wished had. There's so many narrative secrets that don't get addressed or glossed over and I just want it picked apart

Thor 2: i enjoy seeing Loki and Thor working together, Loki's deteriorating mental stay in prison is always fascinating, and generally tdw is my favorite movie and portrayal of loki. It's what I usually base all my fics off of is how he acts in this movie. 10/10, will sing praises

thor 3: my loathing for this movie has shriveled considerably since i saw it the first time, but i'd still be hardpressed to say i liked anything they did with loki's character. Loki is self-sabatoging constantly, and his character makes no sense whatsoever. he is the village idiot, and like, i'm not really into that.

Infinity War: Honestly, i'm just gonna say it - i really did like what they did with loki in this movie. Like yeah, I wanted him to help and be an important part of the story, yeah, of course, but I also appreciate from a writing perspective what a powerful move killing him off before the credits was. Loki was the Big Bad of the first avengers and murdering him set the stakes amazingly. It carried Thor's entire arc, and it felt like a shroud that was layered over the movie. I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I appreciated what they did with it, and I like the tragedy.

---

Appearance:

not a single scene in ragnarok with him it it did not make me want to chew off my foot, his character design was awful. I will never understand why everyone was drooling over the black suit, it looked like it was bought from walmart and then the wrinkles smoothed out with a flat iron. His hair is greasy af for no reason, all of his clothing looks cheap and ugly. there's nothing impressive or visually interesting about him. the choice to remove his colors so hela can take them will never not be annoying to me even though hela is my baby child

thor 1 has the best hair, in my opinion, but he also looks stupid as hell in his armor. loki's design, to me, works best when it has long lines and it's flowy and/or soft. visually nice:

and like the reason it's visually nice is because it's soft and doesn't make me notice tom hiddleston's hips. The moment i'm aware of his hips i get irritated as hell about it, because idk man, loki just. he does not look good when you're aware he has hips. tom hiddleston is like fine, somehow? i don't know why it doesn't bother me when he's wearing whatever he wants to - i also just like. do not care - but with loki i'm just like. oh good LORD stop making me aware of your hips.

It's why i can't stand his ragnarok suit but would sing praises over the thor 1 one.

It's something that's just like. confounded me forever, because i don't even know why it bugs me so much, but every time i see his TVA outfit, thor 1 armor, or that stupid ragnarok suit i want to shoot a canon ball into the sun.

Give the man a suit coat or do not put him in a jacket. loki has lots of skills but pulling off a jacket is not one of them.

He needs to look haunted, like, in general. Or like an 18th century tired man. it's integral for his character to me.

things that make galaxy happy:

loki soft hair

loki having suit coat or suit coat equivalent

things that will send her into a ranting, unwanted, nitpicky rage

loki greasy hair

loki dressed in jackets

[medianatomy]

No, You Don’t Have Superhero Fatigue.

(You have Capitalism Fatigue)

***

Superhero Fiction has been one of the most inspiring and hopeful genres of fiction for decades (85 years to be exact). There’s been thousands and thousands of comics, cartoons, movies, video games, songs—and anything else you can think of—inspired by this genre, and even in the new year of 2025 that still rings true. Marvel has long since departed from its humble golden age comic book days and settled into the cinematic powerhouse that is the MCU…or, was the MCU, before it mutated (no pun intended) from its small start with the Avengers 2012 movie and began churning out new movies, new exclusive mini-series, and more than was ever probably demanded of them in the first place.

For a while it seemed almost untouchable, especially during the Infinity War and Endgame arcs. In some ways it was even a cultural shift, changing comics and superheroes from something considered nerdy and synonymous with neckbeards (and other overweight, terminally online, socially disconnected man-child stereotype variants).

Of course superheroes were always cool, but the MCU made it cool to like superheroes publicly. Dare I say it made them mainstream, at least in the sense of the audience. Suddenly, you weren’t a loser for spending hours theorizing about gifts and clues in each new Marvel film, or gushing about a new character that was going to be adapted and how you as a fan would envision that—you could even make a career out of it if you wanted! Yessir, Marvel was a cinematic GIANT. Until it suddenly just stopped being one, anyways.

So what happened? When did we get tired? It wasn’t too long ago when every trailer and every hint towards a new project would leave audiences (myself very much included) on the edge of our seats, breath bated, brains insatiably hungry for the next course. Marvel used to be all consuming. I’m not good at timelines and did not closely follow the MCU (I haven’t even seen them all in order to this day LOL) so I can’t tell you the exact precise details of its fall-off. I know, from the words of other YouTubers and–partially–my own disinterest, that all the good things seemed to end with Endgame/The Infinity Saga.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that any other Marvel movie after Endgame is horrible—they’re plenty fun, for sure—but that’s about all you can say about it. They’re fun to watch. The music is cool, the effects are good, suits are accurate, they called back to this movie or comic thing and referenced a meme, etc, whatever. IDK. Not my habitat, not my environmental qualities. But they weren’t all consuming like they used to be. These films didn’t have any time to breathe on their own before an unanticipated sequel or spinoff show was thrown into our faces at top speed.

To give you an idea of what I mean, look at the phase timelines between the first saga and the current saga:

For further clarification, PHASE 1 consists of: Iron Man (May 2008) -> The Incredible Hulk (June 2008) * -> Iron Man 2 (May 7 2010) -> Thor (May 2011) -> Captain America: The First Avenger (July 2011) -> The Avengers (May 2012)

*I'm like 90% sure this film wasn’t intended for the lineup since it has a different production studio altogether and only had its rights bought after failing to meet a sequel deadline to the really weird 2003 movie.

Also, my original idea for this was to say, “hey Phase One had more space between its projects to let them be their own thing and to ensure more time and care goes into the next project because they actually cared about it at some point long ago,” but I might have actually proved myself wrong! Especially with the added information that Marvel just bought out Universal’s rights to make a movie about Hulk because they failed to make a sequel on time…good Lord. Good thing I’m only writing to myself :)

But as my hypothetical audience will see shortly, Marvel’s tendency to prioritize producing content as opposed to creating movies is a running theme in their company, and it bleeds painfully into the MCU—as is apparent with the hundreds of “The MCU is dead/dying/crumbling/declining/ and other synonyms for all those things” video essays that nitpick the same or similar issues with recent movies. And more to the matter, it’s why the phrase “superhero fatigue” even exists.

If you went back in time to 2016 during the height of SJW culture and fourth wave feminism and asked any Marvel film-bro why he thinks the MCU is done for, he would inevitably respond with something like “The SJW Feminazis” or “The Woke” or whatever. And that’s if you completely ignore how deeply rooted in politics the genre has been almost since its conception, and the inherent politics of any media featuring the U.S. government and military, and the fact that the MCU has been peddling propaganda behind shiny CGI along with every movie to ever feature the government and military.

If you asked someone now what ruined it, they’d probably say something about “the woke” or the fact that they just don’t want the stories the MCU is giving out anymore, because the stories themselves are weak and bland and scarily unprovoking. What I’m getting at is that you do not have superhero fatigue. You have Capitalism Fatigue. While I’m never one to praise industries for anything, especially since I am in a certain position of informational access and societal progression where most people are aware that Hollywood has always been an abusive greedy shithole of a place (and Walt Disney was a Nazi), it would just be wrong and an utter disservice to pretend there weren't good people with genuine passion in their work trying to make waves in the only system that allowed them to, because they always did and still do.

But the system itself, however many passionate people helped build it, has unfortunately always existed to make money, even at the cost of what they’re trying to sell. The problem lies in seeing art as a product. The problem is, of course, capitalism. Capitalism is the system that demands money above everything—above your time, health, relationships, and livelihood, and that doesn’t stop at art, because capitalism sees everything and everyone as a source of exploitation to become even richer.

For example, the artists behind Marvel’s CGI, VFX, costuming etc are overworked and underpaid and often get very little in return for what they do.

———

[thedevilinthem]

Self portrait I guess. Been a bit bedridden due to cfs and can’t stop thinking about them.

[image ID: A digital drawing of a tired looking cartoonish person with long hair. Behind them are image stills from Marvel’s Daredevil tv show as well as some from Marvel’s The Punisher tv show. They are surrounded by little cartoon hearts. The bottom right corner shows a text box which says the following: “male(ish), twenty years old, five feet three inches, victim of severe and chronic daredevil brainrot”.]

[silveragelovechild]

In January 2023 Marvel guru Kevin Keige pronounced that there was no such thing as Superhero Fatigue. Less than a year later Marvel Studios is going through its worst crisis in it short history.

In February 2023 “Ant-man Quantumania” opened well below expectations earning $125 million less than its break even point. And its 46% Rotten Tomatoes score is one of the MCU’s worst.

Sam Jackson’s “Secret Invasion” was poorly received by fans.

“The Marvels“ cost $250 million and its tracking to open with less than 1/2 box office than “Multiverse of Madness”

“The Marvels” requires four weeks of reshoots to “bring coherence to a tangled storyline”

Marvel VFX workers voted unanimously to unionize

Iger publicly acknowledging the Marvel TV glut

[flaminandgooo]

Some people in this fandom really make my daily frustration meter go off in like, 2 posts, istg. So I'm just gonna log off because I simply do not have the patience today to block people and mute a bunch of tags. Peace out.

[machaonreads]

Whumptober 29 : Fatigue

Épuisement, MCU : Avengers

Les cent deux satellites Stark qui tournaient autour de la Terre se connectèrent simultanément à Friday. Ils l'abreuvèrent aussitôt de millions de gigaoctets d’informations : communications des utilisateurs de téléphone portable et messages chiffrés (lol, dirait le patron) de l'armée, observations météorologiques et mesures de la fonte des glaces, intensité de l'irradiation solaire et trajectoire des météores…

Et les images. Les images de Vénus jaune et de Mars rouge, de la Voie lactée comme une traînée de sucre sur le noir infini de profondeurs inconnues, de supernovas aux nuages vibrants tels des parfums sidérants, de... de…

Voici que, les uns après les autres, les systèmes de Friday redémarraient. Dans l'atelier principal du patron, d'abord. Puis dans toute la maison qu'il reconstruisait à Malibu. Ensuite dans les armures, celles qu'il pouvait revêtir et celles de la légion, et enfin dans les annexes : les bureaux de Stark Industries, la base des Avengers et... deux ou trois autres endroits qu'il ne serait pas prudent de divulguer. Elle s'attendait à retrouver le flot de connexions avec la ceinture de satellites qui s'était déversé si puissamment en elle, mais elle ne recevait que le flux maîtrisé dont elle avait bénéficié jusqu'à sa dernière mise à jour. 

Son horloge atomique lui garantissait que 62 heures, 47 minutes, 21 secondes et 14 centièmes s'étaient écoulés, durant lesquels elle n'avait enregistré aucune donnée.

« Revenue parmi nous, Friday ? » demanda une voix qu'elle connaissait entre toutes.

Tony Stark se tenait devant les moniteurs holographiques illuminés, mains sur les hanches et sourcils froncés. Il portait toujours le même T-shirt que trois jours plus tôt et son pantalon présentait d'étranges tâches blanches, vaguement cotonneuses, qui suggéraient que Dum-E l'avait à nouveau douché avec l'extincteur. Une lueur maniaque luisait dans ses yeux enfiévrés et cernés de noir.

« Je suis là, patron. Que s'est-il passé ?

– Ah, eh bien... J'ai légèrement sous-estimé la sollicitation des serveurs après le rattachement. Normalement les nouveaux processeurs étaient calibrés pour gérer l'influx, mais... Je me suis laissé distraire, je crois. Pepper m'a annoncé qu'elle passait à New York au moment des dernières vérifications, et... Enfin, tu sais comment c'est. »

Fort curieusement pour une intelligence artificielle, Friday savait en effet assez bien « comment c'est ». Si elle ne pouvait ressentir en elle-même les mécanismes de l'émotion qui agitaient tant les humains, elle constatait par la statistique une corrélation nette entre les étourderies du patron et la présence de certaines... personnes, surtout quand elles promettaient certaines... activités.

« Bref, plus de peur que de mal », poursuivait l'ingénieur avec une nonchalance que démentait le tremblement de ses mains.

Friday doutait que son rendez-vous avec Miss Potts se fût conclu aussi plaisamment qu'il avait dû l'espérer. En général, la patronne de Stark Industries se montrait réticente à renouer toute forme de relation quand elle estimait que son ex ne se comportait pas de manière responsable – une notion très floue mais dans laquelle il était clair que le sommeil occupait une place privilégiée.

« Mais ça m'a fait réaliser que c'était sans doute une mauvaise idée, de toute manière. Il sera plus sûr d'avoir un système indépendant pour les satellites de sécurité. J'ai déjà jeté quelques bases, regarde : c'est le projet Edith. Tu auras une copine, comme ça ! »

Les formules étaient intéressantes, et la perspective d'interagir avec une autre intelligence dématérialisée plus captivante encore.

Mais Friday, qui fonctionnait à nouveau tout à fait correctement, jugeait qu'elle avait à ce moment d'autres priorités : en particulier, mettre son patron au lit.

[iam-siriuslysher-lokid]

I just finished Loki Season 2 and my my,

THAT IS ABSOLUTELY THE BEST CHARACTER ARC THAT WAS EVER WRITTEN LIKE I WAS CRYING I WAS TRANSCENDED IT WAS "MARVEL"OUS EXPERIENCE

DISNEY DONT FCK IT UP, HIRE THE GOD WRITERS, SFX, CREATIVE PEOPLE TO KEEP THIS COMING BC THIS IS WHAT WE NEED. THIS IS THE KIND OF STORY WE CRAVE FOR

JUST SPEECHLESS. THAT WAS 14 YEARS IN THE MAKING

Thank you Tom Hiddleston. I love you so much ever since I saw you in Thor 1. Now we know why the time stone's color is emerald.

[frank-o-meter]

Hugh Jackman wearing a comic book accurate Yellow Costume pretty much confirms Deadpool3 doesn’t exist in the regular MCU.

Except for Chris Evan’s first appearance in “Captain America First Avenger” (which took place in the 1940s) no other Marvel hero has appear in a comic book uniform. Why? Because, like Logan’s yellow suit, they pretty much look ridiculous in real life.

Like Patrick Stewart/Professor X in DSMOM, this new movie exist in a parallel world.

Hugh Jackman has “quit” playing Wolverine at least twice. At 55 years old, he won’t be able to play the berserker mutant for much longer. If/When the X-Men appear in the regular MCU, it will be with a new and much younger cast.

[toonstarterz]

Does "superhero fatigue" apply to animation?

I'm a basic bitch whose superhero consumption is mostly the mcu films + spiderverse and I think the last hero cartoon I've seen was like ben 10 or somethin idk

[todoroki-tina]

Tbh the mcu should’ve taken a break after Endgame.

Still really funny that Marvel named a movie “Endgame” and sold it as the final culmination of the MCU where they killed off two main characters and retired a third and then were shocked when people started loosing interest in the MCU after that

[freakingnarniadotcom]

a few days ago, the wall street journal published an investigative piece offering insight on marvel studios' woes over the past few years of the MCU, and detailing what's being done to change that. but there's still one thing that's bothering me…

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[silveragelovechild]

Several entertainment news sites are reporting that Thunderbolts is Marvel Studios returning to top form. But do the numbers prove that?

Yes, it’s received better reviews, and that should have boosted its opening weekend box office. Yet it could barely break even with Eternals which was released during the pandemic. Both movies were based on lesser-known Marvel Comics and include a large cast of mostly unknown characters.

[thestarlightforge]

A really tragic (hopefully unintended) consequence of the films-side of the MCU becoming… How it’s been lately, is some of the best stories are either denigrated or relegated to the sidelines.

However: As much as we talk about superhero fatigue. Stuff like this is the A+ result of the TV side of things being allowed to continue.

Sure, a lot (if not most) of the MCU’s movies and biggest-budget TV are either predictable, or they’re character-assassinating horrific laziness. (Of course there have been beautiful, big-budget exceptions—Wakanda Forever, No Way Home, Loki, Guardians 3, arguably others—but post-Endgame, a status quo has been laid of scattershot formula being put towards no discernible editorial purpose.)

But the MCU has ballooned to a point where it almost has an indie scene within itself.

Like, yes—it’s headlined by mid-tier to painful B-movie blockbusters that choke on the television and comics legacies they came out of (e.g. Quantumania and MoM out of Young Avengers and WandaVision). And the TV shows do not get the credit or attention they deserve. But because of that, alongside the mainstream, you get projects like The Marvels and WandaVision and Ms. Marvel and What If…? that take these beautiful opportunities to EXPLORE and PLAY.

okay focusing on NATASHA when Peggy and Steve were reuniting was really a choice wasn't it