Marvel Cinematic Universe: 10 Things That Could Prematurely End It
5. A Lack Of Good Villains
A superhero franchise can live or die by its villains. Ask someone what the most memorable part of The Dark Knight was and theyll probably point to Heath Ledgers Joker. Ask someone what went wrong with Spider-Man 3 and theyll probably mention something about too many villains crowding proceedings. Its rather worrying, therefore, that Marvel has a very poor record with getting villains on the big screen that can stick in the public consciousness. Theyve been shooting themselves in the foot on this front. Marvel had a really good chance to bring some brilliant bad guys in with Phase 2. However the Mandarin became a punchline, Malekith got overshadowed by Loki and the Winter Solider and Ronan had less screentime than was needed to really develop their characters This means theres still no-one filling the void. Ultron really needs to step up to the plate. Thankfully the early signs are promising. Ultron may not be enough, though, if Phase 3 manages to properly execute as few great portrayals of villains as Phase 2 did. Without a great antagonist for the heroes to face, and having used up iconic baddies like Red Skull, Marvel risk running out of villains from the source material with the potential to give our heroes a run for their money, and losing audience engagement as a result.
