The Marvel Cinematic Universe has gone through many, many changes since it was launched in 2008 with Marvel Studios’ first independently-produced project: Iron Man. Once upon a time, the existence of a Shared Cinematic Universe comprised of Marvel characters was a wish or a dream, but when Samuel L. Jackson showed up as Nick Fury during Iron Man‘s post-credits scene to talk to Tony Stark and then Robert Downey Jr showed up at the end of The Incredible Hulk to share a scene with William Hurt’s General Ross, those dreams became a reality and Cinema would be changed forever. Today, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the most successful film franchise of all-time. MCU films produced by Marvel Studios have grossed over $31-billion worldwide while MCU films produced by Marvel Studios own nine of the ten spots in the list of highest-grossing superhero films: Avengers: Endgame (# 1), Avengers: Infinity War (# 2), Spider-Man: No Way Home (# 3), The Avengers (# 4), Avengers: Age of Ultron (# 5), Black Panther (# 6), Deadpool and Wolverine (# 7), Iron Man 3 (# 9), and Captain America: Civil War (# 10). The other film on that list is Pixar’s The Incredibles 2 (# 8).
As the MCU broke records and continued to expand, boundaries were shattered. Bringing Spider-Man into the MCU to share the screen with Kevin Feige’s Marvel heroes was very exciting. Then, the expansion to Disney + was a big deal and initially garnered widespread acclaim due to the success of shows like WandaVision and Loki. Soon, mutants began to slowly but surely show up in MCU projects, ranging from Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel), to Namor (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), to Professor X (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), to Beast (The Marvels), and then several more in Deadpool and Wolverine, including of course, Deadpool and Wolverine.
The Marvel Studios team have gradually embraced this expansion of characters, using the narrative of the Multiverse to connect the how’s and why’s that these characters are suddenly being utilized. For 10-years ago, Spider-Man was exclusive to Sony, Marvel’s mutants were exclusive to Fox, and Marvel Television’s Netflix shows were not considered MCU canon despite being advertised as such. Now, in 2025, we have Spider-Man, Wolverine, Deadpool, and Daredevil all part of the same Shared Cinematic Universe!
Pretty cool!
With all of that being said, and my love for the MCU having been clear across my various reviews on this site, I have to admit that I’m not a fan of Marvel Animation. I’m just not.
The first two Seasons of What If ā¦? had their moments, and Sony’s Spider-Verse films were pretty great, but with the third Season of What If ā¦? dropping over the Holidays, and the trailer for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man dropping as well, I, despite my immense Marvel fandom, find myself ā¦ underwhelmed.
I’ve often heard that if something you routinely do begins to feel like a chore, it’s no longer a hobby.
It has become work. And to be completely honest, watching the third Season of What If ā¦? felt like a chore.
Not only did I not enjoy it, but I also began to dread writing about it. What would I say about what I saw? How could I make the post worth the read for you, my wonderful readers? It’s not live-action, so one really isn’t writing about the performances of actors, and it more or less becomes me writing about what happened in each episode, and that gets redundant here on the internet; you can find such things on dozens of sites.
So, as I was preparing to write about Howard the Duck marrying Darcy Lewis and the two of them spawning a child and the bestiality of it all, I decided, you know what? I’m not going to review it. And I’m not going to write about a Hulk with Godzilla powers, or Agatha Harkness going to Hollywood, or the trials of The Watcher either.
And the simple reason is, I don’t have much to say about any of it. As a writer, all we have are our words and convictions, and how we convey such things to our readers. And if I’m being honest, I just don’t have a lot to say about any of that because I pretty much hated it. Now, I could go on and on about how much I hated it, but I get no joy out of that. I’m sure that everyone that worked on What IfĀ …? Season Three poured their hearts and souls into it, but for me, it just didn’t land and again, a lot of that has to do with the format.
I am an unabashed comic book reader. Sitting down with a good omnibus or hardcover collection and reading is one of my favorite ways to pass time and I love seeing my favorite characters and storylines come to life in live-action! However, cartoons, or animation, just don’t give me the same sort of satisfaction. I’ve already seen these characters and storylines as cartoons (for lack of a better word) in my comics. I don’t need to see it recycled as moving pictures. It’s just not my thing. I’m well aware that we saw a cartoon world in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and that animated realities exist within the MCU Multiverse, but it’s not all that exciting to explore for me, and its importance to the narrative has been extremely lacking.
Whether you watched What If ā¦? Seasons 1-3 or not, as an MCU viewer, you really didn’t miss anything.
The Watcher’s role was never really fit into the overall MCU narrative in a way that makes sense and none of the characters featured during the series are likely to actually show up in either of the next two Avengers films.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Along with What If ā¦?, there is the MCU’s I Am Groot. As far as I can tell, these two seasons worth of animated shorts were written to have transpired upon the the Sacred Timeline, but my reviews of these shorts stand out as my worst reviews on this site. With each episode lasting around 3-5 minutes, it was very difficult to write about, other than saying āGroot is cuteā or āGroot is funny.”
Next, let’s talk about Sony’s two animated Spider-Verse films. Are they enjoyable? Absolutely. In fact, they feel less like cartoons than the other MCU animated stuff. The soundtrack is loud and cinematic, and the style of the animation is very unique. While both films are worth a watch, in terms of MCU continuity, these movies have very little connection to what Kevin Feige and his Marvel Studios team have created dating back to 2008.
Standing out above most everything else is the labeling of the Sacred Timeline as Earth-19999, as opposed to Earth-616; Marvel Studios’ designated numbering of the Sacred Timeline. From there, most of the Spider-Verse references involve references to Sony’s other Marvel movies such as The Spot encountering Mrs. Chen from Venom and glimpses into past events involving Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man on film. Outside of that, Donald Glover reprising the role of Aaron Davis (this time as The Prowler) after previously portraying the character in Spider-Man: No Way Home is the biggest connection to the MCU, though this is probably merely a Variant of Davis and not the actual Davis that shares a scene with Spider-Man in Homecoming.
Now, with Beyond the Spider-Verse being significantly delayed by Sony and Marvel Studios working overtime to end The Multiverse Saga as quickly as possible (Spring of 2027), Beyond the Spider-Verse may not even come out until after Avengers: Secret Wars which would make the conclusion to the Spider-Verse trilogy irrelevant to how ever the Marvel Studios team decide to end The Multiverse Saga.
Back to Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige recently signed off on productions being divided into distinct divisions.
Marvel Studios handles the theatrical stuff, Marvel Television handles the live-action Disney+ stuff, and Marvel Animation handles the animated streaming shows. Everyone ultimately answers to Marvel CCO Kevin Feige, and the logos for the television / animation divisions share the traditional font of the Marvel Studios logo.
One of the most acclaimed projects under this new structure was X-Men ’97; a project that I decided against reviewing since it doesn’t take place upon the Sacred Timeline, and well ā¦ cartoons.
Fans of the 1990’s series and new fans alike loved this show, and I’m happy for them, I really am, but me? I just couldn’t get into it. Another thing that has affected my enjoyment of the MCU animated shows is the recasting of voice actors. While we have gotten the likes of Tom Hiddleston, Sebastian Stan, Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Mark Ruffalo, most of the rest of the MCU’s biggest stars have been nowhere to be heard.
No Robert Downey Jr, no Chris Evans, no Tom Holland, no Scarlett Johansson, etc. Even the upcoming Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man show on Disney+ will not feature Tom Holland and from what I’ve seen, it feels like this shown is going to be Marvel’s attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the Spider-Verse movies by producing their own animated Spider-Man movie and I don’t think this series will boast anywhere near the quality of those other two films. I don’t have high hopes forĀ Marvel ZombiesĀ or the Black Panther prequel series Eyes of WakandaĀ either.
So, I’ve said all of that to say this: I will not be reviewing the animated stuff going forward. I’m going to watch and write about the things that interest me and that I enjoy, and for me, that boils down to live-action vs animation, and my preferred choice is live-action. I may still reference the animated side of things in the Fun Facts section of select reviews if I feel it’s necessary, but overall, this site is going to be dedicated to live-action projects moving forward. I am removing the previously written animated reviews from the drop-down menus, but you will still be able to find these previous reviews if you search the site. For now, anyway.
In closing, thanks so much for reading and as I always say: to each their own. The world is a mess. Wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, famine, disease, political upheavals, wars, oppression, sickness, and death ā¦ let’s all try to enjoy what we enjoy and be grateful for the escape that we can derive from sports and entertainment. As Tony Stark once said: āIt’s an imperfect world but it’s the only one we’ve got.ā
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