The Four Color Media Monitor

What's next for the Marvel movieverse? Though not officially confirmed, it could be an adaptation of the 1984 project that ruined major superhero comics for years to come, Secret Wars:

Secret Wars hasn't been officially announced by Marvel and Disney yet, but it seems inevitable that the iconic comic book story that united all characters in a 12 issue miniseries will be brought to the big screen. And when it happens, Joe and Anthony Russo may be the only ones who can get the job done.

It's been speculated that Joe and Anthony Russo will be done with the MCU once Avengers 4 is in theaters. It will be their fourth Marvel movie after Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War and Avengers 4. They have these Marvel superhero wars down pat. And Secret Wars, which has the potential to be even bigger than the two-part Infinity War arc, could entice the Russo brothers back into the fold.

Secret Wars may be one of the few ways to raise the stakes when it comes to taking the MCU into the future. Joe and Anthony recently held a Q&A for Infinity War at the Arc Light Theater in Hollywood, where they refused to answer any questions about Avengers 4. Especially in terms of determining when the first trailer might drop. They did field some other interesting inquiries. And the pair were asked to confirm that Avengers 4 was their final MCU movie.

The two brothers brought forth a surprising response. Some took their tone as a joke, but it's hard to say, as they proclaimed they would be staying away from Marvel studios, "until they're ready to make Secret Wars."

What if this is truer than suggested? If they were hinting what their next Marvel project would be, it's honestly not something to look upon admirably, seeing the damage it did in the long run, along with DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths. Sure, Secret Wars may have been where the groundwork leading to the creation of Venom began, for example, but even so, it didn't have to done within a crossover story proper; it could all have been done within a stand-alone miniseries that didn't rely on the idea of affecting the MCU entire with all sorts of different quasi-related storylines and elements.

And, as I've sometimes thought to myself, what would the average moviegoer think if they knew this kind of film was based on a book that led to a ruinous effect on superhero comics? One advantage the original SW does have over COIE is that, unlike DC's followup, SW wasn't built on the idea of killing off characters just to allegedly provide motivation for successors, as COIE did with Barry Allen and Tula, the original Aquagirl. But SW was still the catalyst for only so many crossovers of all sorts, that it's not something to truly admire, as a result. Mainly because to date, Marvel/DC have vehemently refused to cease concocting them.

So whatever one thinks of SW (and COIE), I don't think it makes for a great movie wellspring, because there was plenty in it that could've been done without making it part of a company-wide crossover, and also because it's getting tiresome by now.

Labels: crossoverloading, marvel comics, msm propaganda