When it comes to superheroes, everyone’s got an opinion. But since Marvel Studios is openly struggling, and The Marvels may have a truly disastrous opening, we thought it would be a good time to see what some of the diehard fans have been saying online.
I scoured Reddit for the seven most unpopular opinions about the MCU, which I’ve reproduced below, followed by my thoughts on each one.
7. Premature multiverse
“Marvel jumped the gun with the Multiverse Saga. It should’ve been the next phase or next saga. Secret Invasion should’ve been the next saga after the Infinity Saga and not only a show,” via Reddit user Schoolhater18.
Kind of hard to disagree with that. The Multiverse Saga hasn’t really come together yet, and Secret Invasion left a lot on the table that seemed to be underexplored. This is a prime example of an unpopular opinion that’s slowly becoming popular as Marvel churns out one disappointment after another.
6. Eternals had a better speedster than The Flash
“Eternals had the best on-screen depiction of a speedster. You actually felt how aggressively fast Makkari was going. In The Flash, the running scene just felt like he had no weight to his steps,” via Reddit user warf3re.
Kind of an easy target there. Everything looks better than The Flash, including The Flash TV show from The CW! Still, if you think of someone who runs fast in the comic book world, it’s The Flash, not some obscure Eternals character.
5. More love for the Eternals
“I loved the Eternals and like all the characters and understood their motivations. It’s easily the most interesting movie of Phase 4 for me,” via Reddit user WatermelonCandy5.
“Most interesting movie of Phase 4” is a bit of a stretch. Eternals isn’t the best Marvel movie, but it’s far from the worst. “Most interesting” though? It’s hard to be interesting when all the characters are out-of-touch intergalactic flesh robots who seem above it all.
4. Relitigating Iron Man 3’s Mandarin twist
“I like Trevor Slattery/faux Mandarin and found him to be one of the more entertaining parts of Iron Man 3. The twist was executed decently as well,” via Reddit user MagicBez.
Ben Kingsley can make almost anything work. But having Kingsley’s Trevor and the real Mandarin in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings went a long way towards redeeming that controversial Iron Man 3 twist.
3. Black Widow should have been a Disney+ series
“The Black Widow movie would have worked better as a series,” via Reddit user Darkmania2.
Good luck getting Scarlett Johansson to sign on to any series for six episodes or more. But sure, Black Widow could have definitely used more development and a bigger spotlight for her solo stories. Still, the movie was a big hit for pandemic times, grossing nearly $400 million at the box office and millions more from that day-and-date VOD strategy.
2. Target: Hawkeye
“Not sure if this is unpopular or not, but MCU Hawkeye just doesn’t feel like Hawkeye. And it’s not Jeremy Renner, he’s great, it’s just the lines and character development overall (if you can say he has any at all outside of [Age of Ultron] and Endgame). He always sounds like a boring S.H.I.E.L.D. agent rather than a smart ass super spy and that made me so mad because he’s my favorite comic hero,” via Reddit user silver-surfer998.
This is actually true. The MCU’s Hawkeye was largely based on the Ultimate Universe incarnation of the character, who was more personality-free than his original comic book incarnation. The Hawkeye series attempted to add a little more flavor to Renner’s take on the character, but he’s still a family man rather than the roguish hero he was in the comics.
1. The MCU and Spider-Man should be overly comedic
“I have an actual unpopular opinion. I like that the MCU is so overly comedic. I’m so tired of this cynical hero bull[bleep] that we’ve had for the last decade. We get it you people are edgy, but I’ve seen “Superman” go rogue way too much at this point. We had Injustice, we had Watchmen, we had The Boys, we had Brightburn, we had Invincible. You’re not special anymore, let me have fun with my stupid fun fictional characters.
Let Spider-Man enjoy himself you self-loathing [bleep]. He’s not only relatable when he’s miserable. I already had five movies of him getting pushed around and slapped by Harry, his boss repeatedly abusing him, his father figures dying left and right, killing his girlfriend’s dad and then his girlfriend, killing his best friend, having no money, fired from multiple jobs, getting his stuff stolen. Let Peter have fun and make simple decisions like either going on a date or being a hero. I’m tired of his life being [bleep], being spider man would be fun sometimes it’s not always hell,” via Reddit user UrFriendlySpider-Man.
This Reddit user kinda misses the point about Spider-Man’s appeal. The superhero is an everyman, a relatable person who just happens to have superpowers, because of his misery. Ever heard of “the Parker luck”? That’s Spider-Man. That’s Spider-Man in the comics, that’s Spider-Man in the movies, that’s Spider-Man in video games like Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2. You can’t have the power without the responsibility.
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