The MCU is dead. The MCU is back. The MCU is dead. The MCU is back. Someone put a fork in it. She’s cooked. But just you wait until the next one! And on and on the content carousel spins. Even as someone who had gripes with the Marvel machine well before Endgame, I found myself tossing out more than a few positive reviews in that era. In fact, there was a time when I felt rather pot-committed to the whole enterprise, even when its storytelling got obnoxiously self-aggrandizing and interconnected. Post-Endgame, it’s mostly been a tragic slide into mediocrity with some blips of quality. A few titles have become the lone bright spots in an otherwise bleak Phase 4/5 wasteland. Meanwhile, Ant-Man: Quantumania, The Marvels, Thor: Love and Thunder, Eternals, Captain America: Brave New World, and Thunderbolts all earned a solid splat from my little corner of the internet. Now, with James Gunn’s DCU breathing heavily down Marvel’s neck and the franchise’s future hinging on two upcoming Avengers movies (featuring Robert Downey Jr. returning, but as Doctor Doom, for reasons not disclosed here), The Fantastic Four: First Steps from director Matt Shakman arrives with downright heroic expectations. Expectations that are promptly crushed under the weight of its own blandness.    Read More