Productions such as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange 2, and Ms Marvel helped to familiarise audiences with themes like global political turmoil, magical space bangles, and the universe. However, these are mostly side dishes, not the main entrée. For those larger battles to grow into Phase Six, it is likely that Marvel’s heroes will take a considerable number of Ls in Phase Five, especially given that it all concludes with a bunch of antiheroes banding together under CIA guidance.
Furthermore, the official hype for Thunderbolts, as well as reported narrative leaks for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, as well as the teaser for the former, all suggest bleak prospects for the good people. Scott Lang needs to save his daughter Cassie, which will very certainly lead Kang to get precisely what he wants from him. Furthermore, given that Ant-Man is one of the MCU’s biggest comedic reliefs and no one except Loki knows who Kang is at the moment, it’s not difficult to envision Scott dying at the conclusion of the film or discovering he’s done something bad.
In the same vein, the title of Captain America 4 is “New World Order.” This may delight conspiracy theorists as well as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, especially given her Wakanda Forever goal. Val wants to get America’s hands-on Wakanda vibranium, and having a national hero like Bucky Barnes in her Thunderbolts may be just what she needs.
Except for Marvel’s new “street-level” characters like Echo, Blade, and Daredevil, it doesn’t appear like superheroes will be doing very well for a long time. It could be time for the Avengers to reassemble.
