Stephen King may not be a fan of Marvel movies, but that hasn’t stopped him from defending its latest entry, The Marvels, from “very unpleasant” “fanboy hate”.
Starring Brie Larson, the new film acts as a follow-up to 2019’s Captain Marvel.
At the US box office, the film had the worst opening weekend in Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) history – a milestone that has been celebrated by internet trolls.
Addressing the critics on X/Twitter, horror author King wrote: “I don’t go to MCU movies, don’t care for them, but I find this barely masked gloating over the low box office for The Marvels very unpleasant.
“Why gloat over failure?” The Shining writer questioned, hypothesising that “some of the rejection of The Marvels may be adolescent fanboy hate”.
“You know, ‘Yuck! GIRLS!’” he said.
Nia DaCosta made history as the youngest and first Black female Marvel director for the film.
Led by Larson, the movie sees her Captain Marvel team up with Ms Marvel star Iman Vallani and WandaVision’s Teyonah Paris as their powers become entangled.
The film was already predicted to have low box office takings due to fan complaints of “Marvel fatigue” (that the franchise peaked with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame and has oversaturated the market).
And while it’s been panned by several critics who found the film to be a “disjointed mess” with a “rushed” final act, it has been praised by others who found themselves “pleasantly surprised”.
The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey suggested that DaCosta had “been thrown under the bus”. “This poorly promoted sequel is marvelous,” she wrote in her four-star review.
“Marvel has reached a crisis point – caught in a thunderstorm of its own making, its profits dwindling in the face of exploitative labour practices and overstuffed production lines,” Loughrey added. “So, isn’t it ironic that the project that the studio has publicly shown the least amount of faith in is the one to provide them with a blueprint for their own survival?”
The Marvels is in cinemas now.
