After a string of lukewarm releases in Phase 4, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is looking to cut the volume of shows produced in order to get back to the quality product that was once synonymous with the brand. Comic book collectors Pete Rock, Rob Markman, and Just Blaze sat with MACRO’s newsletter, UpRising (subscribe here), to discuss Deadpool & Wolverine, a film that Marvel Studios president Kevin Fiege says marks the beginning of the mutant era in the MCU.
“Marvel knows they've been making a lot of mistakes,” said Pete Rock, whose joint album with Common, The Auditorium Vol. 1, has had a deep impact on adult contemporary hip-hop fans. “This is a way to reinvent and come back anew by killing off everyone and starting a whole new universe.”
“I think it's going to lean on what we saw in the Loki series with the TVA and time variants,” adds Markman. “You're going to see different variations of so many characters. To me, the multiverse is cool, but it becomes a crutch. It's the easy way for them to get out of whatever they messed up, like, “That didn’t really happen.”
This is indeed a love letter to the MCU and a nod to IPs that were parts of Fox’s uneven universe. Marvel fanatics will find it appealing in the moment. The integration of character such as X-23 (Dafne Keen), Wesley Snipes' Blade, Gambit, and Elektra, is good for some in-house cheers from moviegoers, but ultimately this side crew feels hollow as the film discards them fairly quickly post tussle with Cassandra Nova (Emma Corin), Professor Xavier’s evil twin sister.
There was a fear that the film would fall victim to the Disney-ficaton of Marvel’s profanity-obsessed mercenary. Its R rating and several cheeky scenes including Deadpool's mention of being pegged in the past alleviated those concerns. What does suffer in the mix of all the cameos is a plot that fails to act as a sturdy bridge to the remainder of Phase 5. But perhaps the suits and writers on upcoming projects have it all figured out.
Just Blaze isn’t letting himself be consumed by the elite-level storytelling that Marvel fans put on these franchises. “We're watching comic book adaptations, not Shakespeare,” says Blaze, who also goes by the moniker Megatron Don. “I'm not looking for the holy grail of storytelling. I'm not gonna go crazy over it. A lot of us want them to stick to the original comic book lore. Objectively, if they did that, it probably wouldn't be that good.”
Pete Rock is tapping into his inner child, hoping for what he says is his holy grail superhero battle. “I'm crossing my fingers hoping the rumors [that Wolverine battles the Hulk] are true,” says the Chocolate Boy Wonder. “But I'm going to be critical. He's gotta be the Monster Hulk. He can't be looking like Mark Ruffalo. That shit be pissing me off. I know how the Hulk looks when he's fighting Wolverine—he looks like a monster! That's what I want.”
Read the full Q&A at MACRO.
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