Is Marvel Studios having the rights to all Marvel Characters a good or bad thing?

[Fincher]

If you diversify and do interesting things with the products, then it's a good thing.

Shazam, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman- all DC films in the same universe, all vastly different tones. With the MCU, yeah people make the argument that the movies feel like they just come off an assembly line with the same sort of humor, especially after Guardians of the Galaxy.

One of the nice things about the Netflix shows and, though I never watched them, Cloak and Dagger or The Runaways, is that because they weren't doing things that impacted the films and were on different avenues instead of on film, you could do different things. Admittedly, episodic format grants you that versus a film, but the tones of those shows isn't something, at least the Netflix shows, isn't something you've seen on film.

Even the X-Men series did this later on with the likes of Deadpool, Logan, Legion on FX, and everything that Boone has shown of New Mutants. So in short, while it's probably nice for fans that Marvel Studios has the rights to a chunk of its characters, it doesn't matter in the end if you don't do something interesting or make something noteworthy of them. Something that leaves a lasting impression, you know?

I feel like tying everything together as one universe under the same creative leadership is going to tend to produce common DNA, even if you're trying to avoid that. Suicide Squad, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman aren't the same, but there's a similarity there that's hard to articulate, probably because they're born of a shared universe. They may not have the same tone, but they have the same vibe. Joker feels free of those sorts of expectations.

I only saw the first two episodes of Cloak & Dagger, but it was very different from the MCU films. However, it also wasn't under Marvel Studios and had limited ties to anything else. As long as Feige is governing everything Marvel in live action (except for Sony's Spider-Man spinoffs), his instincts are likely to influence the direction that everything takes, and that's not getting into the overlapping of properties and the streamlining that entails, the common MCU aesthetic, and the risk that X-Men will end up too jokey.

 

[sherman]

Both Sony and Fox started well but then let their standards drop. The best long term stewards for the rights are likely Marvel themselves. I’m glad DC didn’t have any of these issues.

I agree that Marvel should definitely have the rights to all of their characters now, however looking back it may have been a good thing if DC had those issues to deal with. Maybe they would've had to become more creative and delved into their lesser known heroes as well.

 

[Josh Ward]

Before Spider-Man Homecoming I would have said yes. But then again I've been told by many that the creative decisions were all Sony.

 

[Drizzle]

We'll see how they handle them. I love the MCU, obviously. But, we haven't really seen the movies venture out of that family friendly comfort zone. Until they do it, I think it's valid to worry. Especially since they've actively avoided it for well over a decade.

They've avoided it because they weren't ready to take that risk at the time considering their entire focus was on the first three phases. Now that Endgame has come and gone, they can breathe a little, take a step back and concentrate on which of their properties they can work with without having to worry about the family friendly comfort zone. Bob Iger has said that Deadpool should remain R-rated and I'm sure Feige agrees. Personally, I'd be shocked if Blade is anything less than R when it comes out.

But for what it's worth, I think they began stepping out of the comfort zone a little bit in Phase 3. The themes in Black Panther were pretty heavy for an MCU film, Infinity War ended with the death of half the universe and two of the main heroes died in Endgame. Not to mention the surprisingly gory parts where Gamora slits Thanos's throat in IW, Thor decapitates Thanos and Hawkeye cuts a Yakuza's throat in Endgame, and the disturbing moment from Far From Home where an undead Tony rises from the grave in Mysterio's illusion. That's not even including the raunchier jokes from GOTG and Ragnarok.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

You gotta admit. Having the crossover element gave us some of the biggest payoffs in box office history in the Avengers series.

 

[PsylockeBlackWidow]

For MCU X-Men I hope they make it different and unique from other MCU films.