I’ve made no secret of my love of superheroes. At the genre’s best, it presents issues of class, race, sex, integrity, principle, relationship, and on and on, in a very relatable way. This sounds ridiculous because we’re talking about super-powers, monsters and space aliens. But really, it’s only the context that is fantastical. Thor discusses worth v. insecurity, ego v. selflessness, and finding our place in families, communities, and the world(s) around us – this is a discussion that is happening in almost every one of us from grade school to the grave. Captain America is a love story, where the main character (a misfit in a world in which he doesn’t belong and that he can’t possibly understand) fights evil, but is also betrayed by an organization that he serves, while pursuing his best friend at any, and all, costs. Who couldn’t understand that? The Hulk is a never-ending battle to reconcile his anger. Spider-Man is an unsure, insecure teenager (is there any other kind????) trying to figure out how to balance passion, duty, romance, love, and using his great power responsibly. The more we see, it wouldn’t be crazy to suggest Hallmark movies and rom-coms have less in common with our real lives than the MCU.

That is, until this multi-versal business.

The Infinity Saga introduced characters we loved learning themselves, living as heroes, sometimes very uncomfortably, while one big bad wolf, Thanos, loomed over all of the individual films with their individual villains, collecting stones for a completely rational purpose. Each seemingly unconnected story was tied together by these stones. There was consequence and depth.

Endgame eliminated a little of the consequence, bringing back ‘dead’ characters, but we understood. Those 3 hours were a gift to the invested, serving us exactly what we wanted. And we are grateful.

I saw Deadpool & Wolverine last week and loved every second. (I don’t think we’ll get into the Christian uproar just yet, maybe we never will.) But it did clear up why the MCU has lost some significance lately, at least for me.

It’s dumb.

My mom saw it, also loved it, and admitted that she didn’t really know exactly what it was about, and as I explained (anchor beings, time rippers, TVA agents, Dog-, Lady-, Head-pools, etc), I honestly felt pretty silly. She was right, the plot had almost nothing to do with the movie. And that is the problem with the multi-verse.

It’s all stupid (plots are wholly nonsensical). There’s no relatability (I could try to connect flerkens with our love for pets and their unpredictability, but why?), no consequence (if a character dies, who cares, we’ll see them later, from another universe – as Luke Skywalker said in The Last Jedi, “No one’s ever really gone.” Sure, Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man is dead dead, but is coming back anyway AS A DIFFERENT CHARACTER!), and appear to exist only as vehicles for the next gimmick (Wolverine’s dead bones, a million Deadpools & Dr. Strange’s, the place-shifting of the Marvels, hyper-evolved ants in the Quantum Realm).

I liked Quantumania, really liked The Marvels, and Dr. Strange & The Multiverse of Madness (we’ll get back to this one in a second), but didn’t care about any of them. I still cry when Steve & Bucky fight on a falling aircraft, maybe I’ll cry right now as I type the line, “because I’m with you to the end of the line.” Sheesh. We really cared about that, about them. Thor sacrificing himself to the destroyer in the 1st Thor, Tony Stark giving his life in Endgame – these things mattered. Do you think there is a multiverse where anyone could possibly care about She-Hulk? Of course not. It was the worst.

The 2 exceptions are Loki and Wanda. Loki sacrificed everything he’d ever be so that all of us can have a future. Maybe we’re not holding the tree of time together, but how can we not understand the conflict of offering ourselves (time, money, opportunity, etc) for others. Wandavision and then Multiverse of Madness served as meditations on grief and the lengths we’d go to spend one more moment with the people we love. It’s heartbreaking and real and, sure, she’s a witch, but she’s me and you, too.

Those 2 exceptions give hope that the MCU could regain some of it’s former beauty and significance. Or maybe they’ll become what they have become, exceptions, and the meaningless buffoonery of Love & Thunder (when I say She-Hulk is the worst, I do it realizing that it’s a tie with this piece of garbage) will be the rule. My guess is that it’ll be somewhere in the middle. It’ll be Deadpool & Wolverine. There will be scenes that mean something (like when Deadpool asks Wolverine to help just because he wants to rescue those he loves) and we’ll enjoy it. It’ll be like a Snickers bar. There are peanuts, which do have protein and substance. But mostly it’s delicious and we’ll love it while we eat it, and then 30 minutes later, we’ll be hungry again, as if we never ate in the first place.