Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been following along as the MCU has expanded from a single Iron Man and Hulk film to a plethora of Marvel heroes brought to life on screen. Over the course of a decade, fans have watched as some of their favorite heroes and villains have been given new life and reached greater heights than ever before.
Though fans have flocked to theaters to see the next installation of the ever-expanding movie universe, some fans have more than a few bones to pick with the MCU at large.
10 Weak Villains
Sure. The Marvel Universe at large has some of the greatest villains to ever hit comics, but have they really had their chance to shine in the MCU? Well, the short answer is no. Sure, most fans remember the big ones—The Winter Soldier, Thanos, Obidiah Stane—but what of the rest? Quick! Name the villain from Thor: The Dark World! Few people could even talk about what his drives were or what his goal was. The point is that while the MCU may have done justice to some of the greatest villains in Marvel, there are many more who suffered for it.
9 Lack Of Women-Led Films
This is a big one that has only recently been addressed. Sure, Marvel finally decided to give fans a film with a woman as the titular character and leading role when they released Captain Marvel, but after almost a decade, it’s not like they could’ve held it off much longer. Fans have been clamoring for a Black Widow film since her character first appeared in Iron Man 2, and they’re still waiting for it. Yes, Marvel is slowly and steading trying to correct this, but it’s been a long time coming.
8 Fractured Universe
The fact that the MCU hasn’t been a whole, fully-formed version of the Marvel Universe, has been weighing the MCU down since the very beginning. The noticeable absence of heroes like The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and even Spider-Man for a significant portion of the MCU has forced Marvel Studios to get creative and build stories around heroes that may have been kicked back to B players if they had the full roster.
While this has given heroes like Iron Man and the Guardians Of The Galaxy plenty of time in the spotlight, which has admittedly been great, it has left some very noticeable gaps in the MCU.
7 Genre Fatigue
It is now 2021, which means that the last time fans got to flock to the theaters to see a Marvel movie was way back in 2019. Marvel’s last theatrical release, Spider-Man: Far From Home was great and fans loved it, but after a decade of multiple releases per year, it was starting to wear on fans. Yes, fans love the MCU. Yes, they love seeing their favorite heroes brought to life and continue to expand the MCU. But by the time Spider-Man: Far From Home had hit theaters, fans have seen the release of three MCU movies every year for the past three years. It literally took a global pandemic to get Marvel to give movie fans a breather.
6 What Happened To Scarlet Witch’s Accent?
So, remember when Scarlet Witch had a Sokovian accent? Well, apparently Marvel doesn’t either cause that accent disappeared faster than Peter Parker after the snap. Sure, it’s not really a big deal, and it’s explained away easily enough, but it just feels like something that was tossed aside for no real reason. If T’Challa had started out in Civil War with a Wakandian accent and slowly reverted back to a standard American accent, would Marvel have tried to explain that away or simply ignored it as well?
5 Thor: The Dark World
Yes, Thor: The Dark World was mentioned earlier, and yes. It’s going to continue to be kicked while it’s down. Thor: The Dark World holds a special place in the MCU, because it is arguably the greatest failure in the franchise. There are so many things wrong with this outing that it’s not even possible to list them all here, that is if they can even be remembered.
Some standouts though are the lackluster antagonist with his forgettable appearance, goal, and pretty much everything else, the subpar plot and writing. Sure, Thor: Ragnarok came and really gave the Thor franchise something to be proud of but the second movie was a huge disappointment.
4 Iron Man 3
There seem to be two trains of thought when it comes to Iron Man 3. The first being that it’s actually not as bad as most people say it is. It shows Tony Stark at arguably his most broken, reeling from the trauma of the invasion of New York and coming face to face with his mortality. A decent character study of the billionaire, playboy, philanthropist who has finally come to face something he can’t simply outsmart, overpower, or buy.
And the other, well, lackluster villain, who again is simply a mirror of Tony. Not like fans haven’t seen that in each and every Iron Man movie before it. Especially when Marvel brought in The Mandarin only to pull its punch and give fans someone as forgettable as Killian Aldrich.
3 Not As Faithful To The Comics As Some Would Like
Ah, yes. The dreaded ‘the book was better’ argument. It goes without saying that there will always be fanboys and fangirls that will spend their lives arguing that the comics were, in fact, better than the movies. There are some definite points to be made, for sure. Was Thanos a better villain in the comics? Maybe. Are the comics a more complete and thus, a better version of the Marvel Universe? Sure. What kind of Marvel Universe doesn’t have mutants?
2 The Dark Mirror Effect
This is a point that more or less works as an adjunct to the ‘Weak Villains’ point from earlier. The MCU has a habit of making its villains almost exact copies of its heroes. Specifically when it comes to Tony Stark. It’s a hard thing to understand because Iron Man has been around for so long. He’s faced off numerous villains and a good portion of them aren’t simply ‘Tony Stark, but a total jerk’. The MCU has done an amazing job of highlighting some of the heroes that fans either didn’t know or never expected to see on film. It’d be great if they gave their villains the same consideration and treatment.
1 Plot Holes
If Thanos was so set on collecting all of the Infinity Stones, why did he give the only one in his possession to Loki before he attacked New York? If Tony Stark has an arc reactor, an unlimited source of energy attached to his chest, then why does he charge his Iron Man suit with a car battery in Iron Man 3? So, the Bi-Frost bridge was destroyed at the end of Thor, remember? So how’d Thor get back to Earth in Avengers?