We’ve been hearing for years that the comic book bubble is readying itself to burst at any second, and while that hasn’t been proven true as of yet, cracks are most definitely beginning to show in the foundations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
For well over a decade, there was a widespread belief that Kevin Feige’s franchise could do no wrong, with the regular procession of feature films all bringing in big bucks at the box office and enjoying undying adulation from critics, fans, and casual audiences. However, the reception to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has brought things into sharp focus.
At the time of writing, Peyton Reed’s threequel holds a crushing Rotten Tomatoes score of only 53 percent, which is bad enough to see it rank as the MCU’s second worst-rated installment on the aggregation site ahead of only Eternals. Even more concerningly, Thor: Love and Thunder is directly above Paul Rudd’s third solo adventure, meaning that the comic book saga’s three weakest entries have all arrived since November of 2021.
When you add She-Hulk: Attorney at Law into the mix – which has rather unfairly been deemed by the general public as the single worst film or television title of the entire Marvel Studios era by virtue of a 33 percent audience approval rating on RT – then the MCU has conspired to deliver its four most widely-panned efforts of all-time in the span of under 13 months.
Conversely, Ms. Marvel and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special may have been deemed among the best of the best on Rotten Tomatoes, but we’ve become so used to the sprawling mythology knocking it out of the park that such a slew of rapid-fire duds is a serious cause for concern.