Summary
Fanhype surrounding Marvel moviesis not a new thing. While it may never reach the heights of the culmination ofthe MCU’s Infinity Saga,comic book fans have been excited to see their favorite heroes on the silver screen dating back to the firstX-Menmoviein 2000.
With that said, Marvel movies that generate a lot of fan hype leading up to their release don’t always live up to that anticipation. Despite the overall success of the MCU,not every entry in the franchise has been a smash hit.However, the ones that have been do more than just make money; they reward their fans' anticipation and excitement with a worthy adaptation of the stories they grew up with.These Marvel movies had a ton of hype around their release, and each one managed to live up to those expectations.Some even managed to exceed them.
In the early 2000s, superhero movies were still a fledgling genre; financially successful, but still niche in terms of audience hype and expectations. The firstX-Menmovie and Sam Raimi’sSpider-Manstarted to change that, but nothing could have prepared audiences for the pure comic-book awesomeness that wasX2: X-Men United.
From the opening scene with Nightcrawler using his powers to bust into the White House toMagneto’s brilliant escapefrom his equally brilliantly designed prison cell,X2did everything that X-Men fans wanted from a sequel. It further progressed the backstory of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and essentially made him the protagonist of the trilogy, and it captured the “mutants vs. humans” dynamic in a way that many thought Hollywood would be too gun-shy to attempt.X2laid a significant amount of the groundwork for what would later become the MCU, and it did so without any of the genre’s foundations in place.
WhenSamuel L. Jacksonstrolled out of the shadows at the end of the firstIron Man’scredits and started talking about “the Avengers Initiative,” comic book fans felt like they were living in a dream. Many had resigned themselves to accepting that big-budget Hollywood superheroes would only ever exist in standalone formats. Prior to this moment, the idea of these heroes teaming up in a feature film, as they did in their comic inspirations, was little more than a fantasy. Four years later,The Avengershit screens around the world.
To say the hype around this film was at a fever pitch wouldn’t do it justice.The Avengerswas a big deal, both for comic fans and for the MCU. By this point, Disney had fully committed to this shared Marvel universe, and this was the make-or-break movie that would decide if that choice was a success or a misguided fumble. Unsurprisingly, it was a huge success, and the rest is history.
In the same way that Disney had a lot riding onThe Avengers,they had a lot riding onCaptain America: Civil Waras well. Adapting one of the most popular Marvel Comics runs of the modern era was already a tall task, but this was also the movie that took the opportunity to introduce two major Marvel heroes to the MCU: Black Panther and Spider-Man.
While it featured an ensemble cast akin to anAvengersmovie, this was still a story about Cap and his struggle to be the hero he needs to be, while pressure from his government and his fellow Avengers tries to push him to be something else.Civil Warpulled it all off, delivering an excellent adaptation of the comic book run it was based on, introducing iconic interpretations of both T’Challa and Spidey, and setting the stage for the home stretch of the MCU’s Infinity Saga.
For many young black Marvel fans, Black Panther wasthesuperhero. Not just because he was black himself, but because of the mythos he represented: a technologically advanced African society hidden away from the world, with a stunning and altogether unfamiliar blend of advanced society and ancient tradition. Adapting this character into a feature film required a delicate touch, and following the character’s debut inCivil War,there was considerable hype leading up to this movie’s release.
Starring the late Chadwick Bosemanin an immaculate depiction of T’Challa,Black Pantheris still one of the best standalone Marvel movies to this day. Even without the broader connections to the MCU, Ryan Coogler’s depiction of Wakandan society is enthralling all on its own. Michael B. Jordan plays a wonderfully sympathetic version of Killmonger, who remains one of the MCU’s best villains. Every element works towards cementing the success of this film as more than just another Marvel movie, but as a moment in black cinema history that was a long time coming.
The story of how Spider-Man found his way into the MCU is almost too ridiculous to believe, especially given that, whenThe Avengerscame out, Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker was off doing his own solo thing as Sony tried to create a shared universe out of just Spider-Man properties. However, an underwhelming reception toThe Amazing Spider-Man 2,a North Korean hack of Amy Pascal’s emails following the release ofThe Interview, and the skyrocketing success of the MCU, all worked together to get a deal in place between Sony and Marvel to get the webhead a new lease on life in Disney’s shared universe.
While Tom Holland’s take on the character first appeared inCaptain America: Civil War,he established himself as the modern take on Spidey inSpider-Man: Homecoming.Holland got a lot more screen time to flex his skills here. More importantly,Homecomingpresented a distinctly different take on Spider-Man, retrofitted for the MCU, without rehashing the character’s origin story for a third time. Add to that Michael Keaton’s inspired take on Vulture and an expanded cast of Peter’s close friends, and the MCU did in one movie what Sony had struggled to accomplish with Spider-Man in two multi-film series.
5Logan
Nothing Ever Ends Well
Hugh Jackman remains the longest-tenured actor in a single superhero role in history, but that run almost came to an end in 2017 withLogan.The movie was marketed as the final appearance of Jackman’s Wolverine, and that was seemingly everybody’s intention at the time. As such, the hype surrounding the film’s release was higher than for any recentX-Menmovie because of the implications of its self-proclaimed finality.
Loganpresents audiences with an old and haggard Wolverine. His healing factor works more slowly, his claws take longer to emerge, and he’s generally a very depressed man living in a dystopic future where mutants are all but extinct. Upon encountering a group of orphaned mutant children, Logan, along with an aging and dementia-riddled Professor X, embarks on one of history’s most depressing road trips to try to get these kids to safety.Loganis an unusually bleak superhero movie that presents only glimmers of hope in a very dark and violent world. It’s a movie that will break the hearts of many longtime FoxX-Menfans, and at the time, had seemingly committed to concluding Wolverine’s story. But nothing ever ends well…
Seven years afterLogan,Hugh Jackman was back, and finally sporting a comic-accurate Wolverine costume. Conceptually,Deadpool & Wolverinewas a vehicle to introduce two of the most popular live-action X-Men characters into the MCU after they had been restricted to Fox’s Marvel universe for the better part of two decades. That alone was enough to generate a ton of hype for the movie, only for the result to be something greater than anyone initially expected.
Deadpool & Wolverinewasn’t just a way for Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman to bring their characters over to the MCU, it was a celebration of every Marvel movie made by Fox. Several well-known actors reprised their Marvel roles, including Chris Evans as the Human Torch, Jennifer Garner as Elektra, and Wesley Snipes as Blade. Furthermore,Channing Tatumfinallygot a chance to play Gambiton the silver screen. These weren’t just one-off cameos either; they were fully realized characters, with many of them getting multiple scenes in which to shine. The credits montage celebrating Fox’s history with Marvel was the icing on the cake, neatly wrapping up one era of Marvel movies and opening the door for the next.
The build-up to the climactic fight with Thanos inAvengers: Infinity Warwas something the MCU had been focused on for nearly a decade, after introducing the first Infinity Stone in a post-credits scene in 2011’sThor.While Marvel fans knew this fight was coming, they had no idea how epic or devastating it would ultimately turn out to be.
Thanos’s first true appearance in the MCU was the stuff of nightmares. Every member of the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and any hero orbiting those teams arrived on the scene to fight off the Mad Titan, and in the end, they all lost. Despite their best efforts, some well-laid plans, and some of the MCU’s best fight scenes to date, Thanos managed to gather all the Infinity Stones and snap half the universe out of existence, which included some of Marvel’s most popular characters, ending the film on a cliffhanger for the ages.
The hype surroundingGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3was different from other MCU projects. It wasn’t so much about what the movie would mean for the Marvel universe as a whole, but what it would mean for these characters. After all, the Guardians were virtual nobodies until James Gunn brought them into the mainstream with an unprecedented degree of success. Following the release ofGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,James Gunn was departing the franchise to take the reins of DC’s movie universe, effectively saying goodbye to the characters that fans had come to love so dearly.
They say it’s better to burn out than to fade away, and the Guardians did just that. From Rocket’s tragic backstory to a fantastic take on Adam Warlock, to introducing one of the MCU’s greatest villains in the High Evolutionary,Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3did so much more than give these characters the send-off they deserved. It elevated them once again, cementing this group of misfits, which even Marvel fans had overlooked before 2014, as one of the greatest superhero teams of all time.
If the hype aroundAvengers: Infinity Warwas frenetic, then it boiled over during the year-long wait for the release ofAvengers: Endgame.Fan theories dominated social media, and photo leaks were rampant, creating a nervous energy surrounding any conversation about Marvel. The shocking conclusion toInfinity Warleft fans around the world desperate for anything that would reassure them that the heroes who were snapped out of existence weren’t gone forever.
CallingAvengers: Endgamea success is a severe understatement. The movie is a stunning accomplishment, period. It wraps up over a decade of MCU storytelling, gives proper due to every hero that appears in it, and manages to weave in Marvel’s trademark humor, character development, and action, all while finding time for someimmensely satisfying fan service.Among all of that,Endgamealso manages to end on a pitch-perfect note, saying goodbye to some longtime characters while giving those who remained a reason to carry on. The movie achieved everything it needed to and then some. Regardless of where the MCU ends up in the long term, it has firmly placed itself in the annals of history by pulling off one of the most astonishing connected-universe conclusions we’ll likely ever see. Lived up to the hype?Endgameconverted all that fan excitement into pure movie energy, creating one of the most monumental cinema moments of the 21st century.
