The Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Five is repeating a number of key traits from Phase Two. Following the success of The Avengers as the culmination of Phase One, the MCU moved into Phase Two and achieved even greater popularity and box office fortunes with hits like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. By the end of Phase Two, the MCU had achieved such mainstream success as to make even smaller movies with lesser-known characters like Ant-Man into must-see event movies.
More recently, Marvel has finally kicked off Phase Five with the early 2023 release of Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, with the Phase also to serve as an important building block for the MCU’s Multiverse Saga. While Marvel is going in a new direction with many new characters in Phase Five, it is also repeating a number of the standout elements of Phase Two, which is both a strength and a weakness of Phase Five on numerous different levels. Here are the five ways Marvel’s Phase Five is repeating Phase Two.
5 Genre Diversity
One of the great strengths of the MCU’s Phase Two was the movie’s taking place in a wide spectrum of genres that blended with their superhero elements. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of the MCU’s crown jewels in this regard, with its spy thriller story of HYDRA manipulating S.H.I.E.L.D. for decades. Guardians of the Galaxy similarly brought a space adventure into the MCU for the first time, with Ant-Man being a heist movie. Phase Five looks to be continuing that tradition of Phase Two.
Both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Marvels will be new space-trekking stories, while the MCU’s Phase Five reboot of Blade will be the MCU’s first vampire movie. Captain America: New World Order and Thunderbolts likewise seem to be returning to the government conspiracy stories of The Winter Soldier. This is not exclusive to Phases Two and Five, with Phase Four’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings being a martial arts film and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness being the MCU’s first horror movie. Nevertheless, Marvel looks to be placing as great an emphasis on genre diversity in Phase Five as Phase Two.
4 Focus On Setting Up The Next Phase
Like Phase Two, Phase Five also shares a strong drive towards laying the groundwork for the big event of the Phase that will follow it. Phase Two notably did this in Avengers: Age of Ultron, including Thor’s visions used to lead into Thor: Ragnarok, itself setting up Avengers: Infinity War. Phase Five is doing this with movies and Marvel’s Disney+ shows, the latter of which are connecting more directly to the MCU movies than Marvel’s Netflix shows did.
Marvel’s Secret Invasion is bringing the shape-shifting Skrulls in as major players for Phase Five, but the real destination is the Phase Six two-parter of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars with Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) as their villain. While there are still some unanswered questions, like where Spider-Man will fit into Phase Five’s larger story after the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Phase Five parallels the setup to a big event that Phase Two similar set up.
3 Focus On Setting Up The MCU’s Big Villain
Both Phase Two and Phase Five also share a mandate of teasing the arrival of the arch-villain of their respective MCU saga. In the case of Phase Two, that villain was the fearsome and determined Thanos (Josh Brolin). With a few cameos and supporting roles in The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thanos was teased as pursuing the Infinity Stones as his ultimate aim in order to wipe out half of all life in the universe. Thanos ultimately arrived as the villain of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, while Phase Five has a new antagonist in mind, Kang the Conqueror.
With a Kang variant known as He Who Remains first appearing and being killed off in season one of Loki, Kang was properly introduced in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania. With hundreds of Kang variants shown in the movie’s end-credits scene, Kang is intended to oppose the MCU’s new crop of heroes and those remaining from Phases One through Three, with their conflict similarly culminating in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. While this might be the most direct parallel between Phases Two and Five, there are a few more that also deepen their similarities.
2 Phase 5 Is Big On Sequels
Another interesting parallel between Phase Two and Phase Five is each is significantly dominated by sequels. Of the six Phase Two movies, four of them were sequels, namely Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Phase Five is curiously exactly as enamored with sequels as Phase Two.
Phase Five kicked off with Ant-Man & The Wasp Quantumania and will also include Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, and Captain America: New World Order. Like Phase Two, Phase Five similarly encompasses four sequels out of its six movies. Disney+ series add to this, with a Loki Season 2 on the way.
1 Marvel Phases Two & Five Have A Lot Of Comedy (& Arguably Too Much)
A common complaint of Phase Five is the same as Phase Two: the strong emphasis the MCU has placed on its well-known comic relief. Marvel has been big on comedy since 2008’s Iron Man, but its emphasis on humor increased quite noticeably in Phase Two with Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. Phase Five seems to be starting off with a similar emphasis on humor in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is likely to similarly be very comedically driven (though it also promises to deliver on heartwrenching drama).
Comedy, unfortunately, has become Marvel’s biggest issue, with Thor: Love and Thunder‘s comedy taking Marvel’s penchant for jokes overboard. That is not to say that Marvel needs to abandon its predilection for jokes, with comedy sure to be an expected asset of most upcoming projects. With that said, the shakier reception of Phase Four (particularly to Love and Thunder‘s unapologetic goofiness) and Quantumania‘s mixed response could signal that Marvel might want to consider balancing its jokes and drama more carefully in order to not wear out their audience.
While the MCU’s widespread popularity and immense box office success are continuing its momentum, the overall reception to Phase Four and the early stages of Phase Five has nonetheless been visibly rockier compared to Phases One through Three. In repeating much of the general blueprint of Phase Two, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has many of its well-tested tools at its disposal, while some of its weaker elements are simply a byproduct of how long the MCU has been running. Hopefully, Marvel’s Phase Five slate can sharpen some of the areas where Marvel has gotten weaker to make the Multiverse Saga as engaging as the Infinity Saga.
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