The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) TV shows are more enjoyable than their recent movies. The sentence is blasphemous to some. However, there’s a possibility you’re nodding your head in agreement about this statement.
Take the recent premiere of Disney+’s Ms. Marvel as an example. If it were a summer movie blockbuster, the kind Marvel typically makes, we would’ve been introduced to Kamala Khan 20 minutes into the film—long after the movie’s villain was introduced.
Audiences would then be given just the next 20 minutes or so to understand Kamala through a quick examination of her personality and those of her family members.
Instead of the revised origin story used in the TV show, which focuses on Pakistani legends, the movie version of Kamala would get a similar treatment as her comic book counterpart, who gains her inherent Inhuman abilities from the release of the Terrigen Mists. Most likely, this would connect to an upcoming Inhumans film because cross-promotion is necessary for the MCU.
The rest of the Ms. Marvel cinematic blockbuster would comprise millions of dollars in CGI effects as the hero initially succeeds against the antagonist and then fails horribly. Of course, there would be valleys among the action peaks where the audience would watch Kamala and her supporting cast jokingly discuss her new powers and her reluctance to be a superhero. However, since the movie’s producers anticipate a sequel to be released three years later, theater-goers would only get a taste of Kamala’s strengths and weaknesses. After all, why address them in the first film when it can be a plot point in the long-awaited second installment?
Instead, the movie’s script would have Kamala save a family member or her best friend Bruno from the villain’s diabolical scheme. She would learn more about her inner strength, successfully defeat the antagonist, land in her family’s good graces, kiss Bruno as she always wanted, and receive an end-credit scene featuring a prominent MCU character.
It’s almost too easy to imagine what the Ms. Marvel movie would be like, because the MCU’s cinematic output has become formulaic to a fault. The predictability of it all is almost cynical, and it’s a trap that the Disney+ series refreshingly avoids. In fact, watching Ms. Marvel feels like watching a different kind of Marvel project entirely.
That kind of MCU storytelling set up worked for movies like Iron Man, Avengers, and the Spider-Man series, and was a major, if exhausting, strategy in the first three phases of film releases. However, things have changed since the MCU-based TV shows on Disney+ became part of Marvel’s Phase Four plans. It’s why the MCU TV shows have, by and large, become far more enjoyable than the movies.
Today’s fans want more from the characters they adore, which brings us back to Ms. Marvel’s debut. It doesn’t spend its first minutes dissecting the plans of a would-be galactic emperor. Instead, we get to see what Kamala is all about. It turns out she’s a seemingly normal 16-year-old high school student.
Kamala is relatable from the first beats of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” that start the program. She loves superheroes, particularly Captain Marvel, and has a vlog that concentrates on their achievements and gossipy theories.
Three-quarters of Ms. Marvel sets up her parents’ suffocating strictness and her urge to attend AvengerCon and immerse herself in a comfortable universe. Even 60 minutes at this fanfest will help get her through days of sameness and frustration.
Every viewer can connect to some part of Kamala’s life. Teenagers gasp and say to themselves, “This is, like, what I’m going through.” Adults think, “Man, this is what I went through.” The internal thoughts of parents start with, “Is this what my child is going through?”
When Kamala gains her powers in the last 10 minutes of the premiere, she sees an opportunity to get away from it all. She doesn’t change her mindset after her mother catches Kamala sneaking into her room from AvengerCon. When her mother asks her daughter if she wants to be normal or some sort of cosmic superhero, Kamala chooses the latter as she looks at her hand sizzling with energy.
You don’t get this in a two-hour MCU movie that focuses more on action than character development.
The current situation shouldn’t be a surprise to executives. Before Disney+, Marvel Studios produced several well-liked live-action series based on comic book street heroes like Luke Cage, Daredevil, and Jessica Jones. Their popularity was so immense that fans screamed for them to air on Disney+, which they eventually did in March of 2022.
Yet, when Marvel decided to integrate its next batch of streaming shows directly into the MCU, they were unsure of previous successes. Meanwhile, fans of the grittier Netflix-produced programs believed new shows would be shoot-em-ups like Captain Marvel or Endgame. WandaVision shifted this mentality.
The first MCU streaming program took Scarlet Witch’s relationship with Vision, briefly seen in Infinity War, and metaphorically blew it up. We felt Wanda’s pain as she tried to hold together her family through magic. For many fans, WandaVision is the perfect mix of grief and nostalgia. Plus, it established a scenario about Wanda’s emotional state and the destruction she caused in Multiverse of Madness.
WandaVision provides another example of why the MCU’s TV shows are more popular: they now influence what goes on in the movies. The events of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Hawkeye will most likely play into the next phase of MCU films. By then, fans will have an intimate knowledge of the characters. Because of this, they’ll enjoy the big-screen installments more with background information at hand.
The interest in MCU’s TV shows is more about the characters’ personalities. It’s also in how these series use the canvas of a multi-episode arc. From the films, we know Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye is a crack shot, has a loving wife and children, and that’s it. His 2021 Disney+ show revealed his humor, strength of character underneath an imperfect surface, and a reluctance/eagerness to train a new generation of heroes.
There’s also the opportunity to utilize some of Marvel’s A-minus-list and B-list characters in their live-action and animated programs. Again, Ms. Marvel is a great example. Since her 2014 introduction, she has received overwhelming fan and critical support. Kamala’s positive attitude among chaos presented an opportunity for her to become an Avenger.
In addition to this, she’s a teenage superhero, and that’s a small population in the Marvel Universe. Young adolescents relate more to Kamala and Miles Morales than Thor. Although the Trinity of Captain America, Iron Man, and the son of Odin are fun to watch, teens think of them as empty vessels with powers.
Ms. Marvel represents a new phase of MCU production. Rather than expanding on film-established personalities, they’re turning to other fan-favorite comic book characters. Case in point, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Scheduled for August 2022, the series focuses on Bruce Banner’s cousin, Jennifer Walters. She’s not only an attorney but also has the Hulk’s powers, thanks to an injection of Bruce’s blood.
There’s still anticipation for the MCU movies like the July release of Thor: Blood and Thunder. Yet, the fervor established by Endgame or No Way Home isn’t there anymore. Conversely, there’s continual chatter about Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and the new seasons of Falcon and the Winter Soldier and What If? Viewers want to know everything about them and their connection to the rest of the live-action galaxy.
Shows like Ms. Marvel prove the MCU TV entities are more enjoyable than its films. It may sound simple, but after so many years, so many hours of film running times, and so many millions of dollars spent on action-heavy set pieces, the reason for this seems practically revelatory: It’s because they focus on the characters over the pew pews.
