Warning! Spoilers ahead for Thunderbolts*.
It’s no secret that Marvel has been caught in a creative spiral. Since breaking the MCU down to its raw foundations in Avengers: Endgame, the franchise has struggled to build itself back up. It’s thrown everything at the wall, from a new Thanos-type figure in Kang the Conqueror, to the threat of multiversal incursions. Until Robert Downey Jr. announced his return as Doctor Doom, and Marvel set a release date for its Fantastic Four reboot, nothing managed to stick. Now the franchise has a new endgame to build towards, but with only two years to do it, it’s trampling over everything in its path to get to the next Avengers movie.
