A common complaint for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that there is simply too much of it to keep up with now. The weird thing about this claim is that, by the numbers, Marvel has actually slowed down in terms of releases since 2020.
It’s easy to forget exactly how massive the entire Infinity Saga that made up Phases 1 through 3 actually was. Between Iron Man in 2008 and Spider-man: Far From Home in 2019, Marvel released 23 films. That works out to just over two films a year.
In that regard, yes, the MCU has gone a bit overboard since 2020. They’ve released nine films since Far From Home, three a year.
However, if you pull back and look at the total scope of the MCU, Phases 4 and 5 have been much more restrained.
Following the success of the first Avengers movie, Marvel launched a staggering number of spin-offs that directly linked to the events of that film. These included Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, The Netflix shows (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Defenders, and The Punisher), Inhumans, Cloak and Dagger, and Runaways.
Note on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: I’ve only counted the first five seasons that were released during the Infinity Saga and directly reference the MCU, as the last two seasons are of dubious canon and very hard to quantify.
Every one of these shows either referenced the Battle of New York or had crossovers with shows that did. Altogether, they contain 350 episodes of MCU canon television, or 31 episodes a year. Even that’s being generous since all the shows started in 2012 or later. By that metric, fans were expected to watch 50 episodes a year, almost one a week for the entire time between when the Avengers first assembled and the reveal of Spider-man’s identity.
And that’s not even the full count of Marvel properties that came out in that time. There were seven X-Men movies and five seasons of television, another series for Daimon Helstrom, as well as films for Spider-man, Ghost Rider, and Venom. If those movies are added into the mix, then even Phase 4’s explosive rate of releases is smaller than all the Marvel films released during the supposedly leaner years.
As of this writing, Marvel Phases 4 and 5 have released 65 episodes of television (including two holiday specials) on Disney +, 81 if you count the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur cartoon. While the Disney + shows are numerous, they are also far shorter. Most are six episodes, with only a few running to nine. Fans have to watch 21 episodes a year to keep up, shorter than a single season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. If you add Moon Girl. It’s still only 27 episodes a year.
No matter how you slice it, there is less Marvel being released now, during the supposedly oversaturated world of superhero fatigue, than there was in what was considered a more restrained time.
However, there is one wrinkle worth mentioning. Many of the projects released during the Infinity Saga were done by studios not directly controlled by Marvel Studios. The Netflix shows, the Agents series, and others were generally developed outside the tightly controlled ship of the MCU.
This kept the brand from being spread too creatively thin by a small pool of producers. There’s no arguing that most of the spin-offs in Phases 1 through 3 have their own identity distinct from the larger cinematic universe, something that is sorely lacking in the more homogenized Multiverse Saga.
Disney’s iron grip on Marvel may be robbing its shows of separate and equal personalities, but the problem is not that there is too much Marvel overall. It’s just too much Marvel from one source.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
