Cameron Saves the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Sinuses Infected 

I’m asking for extra grace around typos this week because I’m battling a sinus infection and editing this thing on cold medicine. So that should be fun.

Platform Updates

Instagram & Threads

• Instagram Makes Reminder Ads Available for Stories Placement

• Instagram tests collaborative carousels your friends can add to

• Threads Is Developing an API, Though Remains Wary of News Content Influence

• Instagram Expands Marketing API To Facilitate Product Tagging via Third Party Apps

• Facebook will let creators test different versions of Reels

The Rest of Meta 

• Meta Announces Ad-Free Subscription Program in EU

• Artists Allege Meta’s AI Data Deletion Request Process Is a ‘Fake PR Stunt’ (I agree with the artists here) 

TikTok

• TikTok’s Spotify competitor adds indie artists to its library

• TikTok Announces New Integration With Salesforce Marketing Cloud

• TikTok Streamers Are Staging ‘Israel vs. Palestine’ Live Matches to Cash In on Virtual Gifts (what is wrong with these people?) 

YouTube

• YouTube is getting serious about blocking ad blockers

Google 

• Google launches generative AI tools for product imagery to U.S. advertisers and merchants

Amazon

• Amazon made $1 billion through secret price raising algorithm -US FTC

Twitter, Sorry X

The Product 

• X Launches New Price Tiers for X Premium, Including an Ad-Free Premium+

The Dumpster Fire

• X, formerly Twitter, valued at $19 billion in new employee stock plan

• X runs ‘timeline takeover’ ad promoting anti-trans film

Culture Movers 

Film & TV

• HBO Bosses Used ‘Secret’ Fake Accounts to Troll TV Critics 

• Netflix’s ad-supported plan will reward binge watchers with ad-free episodes

• Plex becomes a social network with public debut of ‘Discover Together’ (no thank you, none of you need to know what I’m watching on Plex) 

• Disney to acquire all of Hulu, heralding more mergers, higher prices

AI 

• President Biden’s new plan to regulate AI

• Sunak to launch AI chatbot for Britons to pay taxes and access pensions (this feels like a very bad idea)

• IAC warns regulators generative AI could wreck the web

• Microsoft launches probe after AI poll on woman's death sparks blowback

Scams

• Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty of fraud

How Would I Fix The MCU

It’s pretty safe to say that Disney’s Marvel mega-franchise isn’t looking so marvelous these days. Critics and audiences haven’t responded well to this year’s slate of TV and film offerings. Upcoming projects like The Marvels are reported to have undergone costly reshoots. A planned Daredevil show seems to have been largely scrapped and reworked. Plus, Jonathan Majors, who was set to anchor the next phase of films as the big villain Kang, is about to go on trial for charges related to an alleged domestic violence incident. I felt personally victimized by the CGI slugfest that was Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Diseny-Marvel-Sheinhardt Wigs clearly knows about these issues. Marvel higher-ups are reportedly considering pivoting from Kang to other villains. They are reportedly shifting their TV production process to better mirror traditional TV development vs treating each season like a long movie. There are even rumors that Marvel’s considering bringing back the original Avengers cast (please let those poor actors move on). We’ll see if these changes resonate with audiences. Personally, I’m skeptical. I’ve written about my own MCU fatigue in the past. But here’s the thing: as burned out as I am on MCU projects, I still love Marvel. 

I’m a big comic book reader. I get new issues of X-Men each week and subscribe to Marvel Unlimited to read their back catalog of comics. I love these stories and characters. My MCU blues come from wanting these films and shows to succeed and knowing they are missing the mark. I’d love to see Marvel continue to bring these amazing characters to more audiences and translate the fantastic stories to new mediums. So today, I’d like to play armchair studio executive and propose two big changes to fix the MCU.

Embrace Reboot Cycles 

The first three MCU phases (Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame) took roughly 10 years to play out on screen. Roughly 20 films building up to the epic story of defeating Thanos. This feels like the high point of the MCU to me. There are post-Endgame projects I enjoy (Wandavision, She-Hulk, etc.), but overall, the quality and urgency haven’t been the same. The characters and stories that initially hooked audiences are done. Many of the original Avengers cast have moved on. The current focus on multiversal plots is difficult to follow (in part because each project seems to have slightly different rules for it). Marvel is currently trying to build up new characters and storylines but giving themselves the handicap of the past films’ continuity.

Sure, this is how Marvel comics work, but also not really. Need a character that died in-universe four years ago for your story? In comics, you can just write a reason for them to come back to life (cosmic cube, demonic deal, cloning accident, etc.). In live-action films and television, you’ve gotta renegotiate a deal with the original actor (expensive) or recast them (cheaper). If it takes roughly 10 years to tell one of these epic stories and for the cast to be ready to move on, then embrace that. 

I’d start planning on rebooting the MCU on roughly 10-year Cycles. Each Cycle takes place in a different universe of the Marvel multiverse and focuses on a different epic story. The first MCU Cycle was an Avengers story. Maybe next, we’d tell a story that starts with The Fantastic Four, then the X-Men, then cycle back to the Avengers. Actors who are down for another 10-year project could stay on or pop up in cameo roles (maybe The Fantastic Four occasionally get on the phone with Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man to solve a problem). Otherwise, the multiverse gives you permission to recast new talent as these unaging decades-old superheroes. Each new Cycle gets a fresh start to set the scene for the story it wants to tell, instead of needing to spend screentime resolving the fallout of past stories into the next saga’s setup. 

Focus on Collaboration 

The past few years of X-Men comics have been some of my all-time favorite comic books. Starting in 2019 with Jonathan Hickman’s interlocking stories House of X and Powers of X, there’s been a real renaissance in the approach to telling superhero stories from the X-Books. Comics are a highly collaborative medium. A writer, penciler, inker, letter, editor, and often other creatives all play a role in making a single issue happen. In a shared universe like Marvel, comic creators collaborate with past continuity to tell new stories and with other contemporary creators to tell cross-over stories between their books. Post HoX/PoX X-Men took that collaboration a step further with a deep level of shared storytelling across multiple books and creative teams, building out a fresh and intriguing new look at Mutant society. The collaboration was so good that Hickman dropped his initial plan for ending the arch started with HoX/PoX to let new stories that emerged through collaboration play out. It’s really good y’all; please read it. 

Contrast that with the MCU, where Elizabeth Olsen has confirmed the writers of Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness didn’t know about her character’s arch in Wandavision. If you’ve seen both projects, that fact will immediately explain some things for you. Without meaningful communication and collaboration, I don’t know how anyone expects these creative teams to build a compelling set of interlocking stories. Opening up the grand vision of a single Cycle to a larger shared creative team would allow Marvel to create the kind of compelling worlds with these movies and shows that actually get audiences excited. 

I honestly think if Marvel embraced these ideas, it could turn the ship around. And if that fails, they can focus on my other idea, which is to just do a Grey’s Anatomy style prime time soap opera with the X-Men where Jean/Scott/Logan is the central love triangle (and eventually happy poly relationship) of the show. Call me Kevin Feige, I’ve got ideas.

Some Fun Ads

Bed Bath & Beyond is dead. Overstock.com absorbed the brand. Bed Bath & Beyond is back. Long live Bed Bath & Beyond. 

This one is just so fetch. 

P.S. Here’s a good marketing read