By Chris Snellgrove | Published
You can make many Marvel fans cringe quickly with one word: variety. The variety was meant to add flavor and spice to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but quickly became a storytelling crutch that emphasized fun cameos over actual storytelling. Doctor Strange and Assorted Madness is a great sinner in this. Many fans want Marvel to completely abandon this storytelling stick, but I have a different recommendation, true believers: instead of focusing on endless cameos that enter the main universe, Kevin Feige and his team should give us all the films set in other universes.
Make Various Mines
In other words, my suggestion for Marvel going forward is that it should be “different” What if…? television series that have been adapted into feature films. Like the comics it’s named after, that show shows how the regular universe could be very different if something different had happened to change the timeline. However, I don’t believe the MCU should be limited to “what if?” animated legends and should instead take a page out of Sony’s book by creating a live-action equivalent of the Spider-Verse films.
To keep things simple, Marvel can simply look to their publishing history for ideas on what multiverses can do in Marvel movies. The low-hanging fruit would be an adaptation of the original Ultimates line of comics that introduced unique and updated versions of iconic heroes as a way to attract new readers who might be intimidated by decades of cult comics.
A movie or an entire series of movies set in this universe would provide the perfect excuse to bring back dead MCU heroes like Iron Man while broadcasting as needed…after all, it’s these comics that originally gave us Black Nick Fury (modeled after him). Samuel L. Jackson, no less). And, like the original comics, such movies can take whatever fans and writers loved about the old universe while giving everything a much-needed modern twist.
An Amazing Variety of Choices
But Marvel comics have given us other multiverses that would make for great movies, including Earth-65, the original home of Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy) who is up against an evil version of Matt Murdock. Of course, making a live-action Spider-Gwen movie would mean Marvel would need to work with Sony again, but both studios could use a win. At this point, Marvel hasn’t done anything good lately Deadpool and Wolverineand Sony’s only superhero blockbusters have been the Venom and Spider-Verse films. In fact, a live-action movie focusing on Spider-Gwen (a known amount to fans) would be a hit for both studios.
As a longtime fan of Marvel comics, there are other multiverses that I think need the big screen treatment, including the one with Squadron Supreme (it’s like Justice League but cooler). Also, while we need to get a proper MCU X-Men before we get a diverse cinematic universe, Age of Apocalypse and Force X comics represent, respectively, old and new takes on diverse revolutionary storytelling. Heck, if Marvel can get over its stand alone Hulk movies (where’s our live-action Planet Hulk movie, you cowards?!?), a Future Imperfect movie would be, well…perfect.
In addition to giving Marvel fans great new movies to enjoy, this approach will keep the MCU endlessly fresh. New actors may play old roles as well as current actors against the usual cast of characters. Disney writers would have carte blanche to adapt the best comics or just do something completely new. What I mean is that it’s time for a special event What if…? adventure: what if Marvel stopped worrying about preserving its sacred timeline and just told the kinds of cool, independent stories that won fans in the first place?
The ball is in your court, Marvel. And if you need a wise mentor to give you this really clear advice on a regular basis, my prices are quite reasonable. Especially when compared to Plan A, which has been bringing in truckloads of money for Robert Downey Jr. whenever you are worried that your franchise is failing.
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