Book review | ‘MCU - The Reign of Marvel Studios’ review: The thrilling big business of superheroes

'MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios'.

Love it or hate it, but you can’t ignore it. In the past 15 years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has carved itself a pretty big slice of the world’s attention. From the moment that a little independent film called Iron Man dropped in 2008, till the juggernaut called Avengers: Endgame rolled into theatres in 2019, Marvel’s fortunes grew into a multi-billion dollar business. We’ve all seen its rise; indeed, we’ve all helped it get there — flocking to theatres to watch each of their 31 feature films, bringing up their worldwide gross to over $28 billion, as of April 2023.

Never mind what Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino have to say about the MCU. Marvel has undeniably dominated pop culture completely — with its multiverse of meta jokes and post-credit scenes, a galaxy of stars essaying unforgettable characters in ever-more outlandish stories told with ever-better visual effects. Cinematic triumph or not: that might be debatable, but its success is not.

What fresh thought can someone bring to the discourse around one of the most talked about, most scrutinised, most loved and most criticised, pop culture phenomena of this century? Turns out — a lot. Through years of exhaustive research, three American pop culture journalists — Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales and Gavin Edwards — have produced what might be the definitive inside story on Marvel Studios.

There have been attempts in the past to tell the story of Marvel, most prominently the authorised (read: Vanilla) version by Disney itself. The writers of MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios establish their objectivity by stating at the outset that many of their interviewees (and it’s a long long list) declined to speak with them on the record, or at all — that they were being blocked by Disney.

Still, through exhaustive research, both primary and secondary, they put together a fully fleshed out portrait of a studio that is, depending on your perspective, either the most disruptive force in Hollywood in the 21st century (so far), or a really interesting case study from the entertainment business.

Beginning in 2019, prompted by the wild success of Avengers: Endgame, Robinson, Gonzales and Edwards began to dig deeper behind the scenes of Marvel Studios, which has been notorious for its secrecy. In the book, told with relish, they trace Marvel’s origin story as a supporting act in a toy business — rising from failure and bankruptcy at a time when comic books had found their audience and were beginning to go mainstream — and transition into the highly valued IP that Disney bought. They also flesh out the many enigmatic real-life actors that have built and unbuilt its fortunes.

“I always like to know,” Robinson told LA Times, “who’s making the story, who’s controlling the story, who has the final say in which heroes are going to be put in front of us? That’s always something I’m curious about.” Which is why when the three pop culture journalists set out to make this book, they weren’t just interested in fan service — even if their affection for the franchise is clear.

“I was already interested in characters like Ike Perlmutter, who was the head of Marvel and was sort of this hero of the Marvel bankruptcy in the ‘90s, but then kind of becomes the villain of the MCU story,” Robinson added.

Perlmutter was a mysterious, enigmatic Israel-origin guy who made his fortune in the 1980s with a chain of discount stores and eventually bought Marvel to push toys at ToyBiz. The writers establish at the outset that it is difficult to so much as even find a photo of Perlmutter—except for one outside Donald Trump’s estate, who he is believed to be friends with.

If Perlmutter is the villain, then Kevin Feige is the unequivocal hero of the Marvel Studios story—the man who presided over a Hollywood chapter that, among other things, forever transformed the perception of comic books characters into mainstream cultural forces. Feige was the architect of Marvel’s multi-phase plan for world domination.

We learn of how, watching Star Wars, Feige would conclude (correctly) that the “campfire scene” or huddle is where a superhero film’s heart would lie. And how, for instance, when Chris Hemsworth felt Thor could benefit from his knack for comedy, Feige set about making it happen—because he was always about letting the best idea win, no matter where it came from.

MCU lionises Feige, as well as Disney chief Bob Iger, and paints Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee as the jovial creative maverick, a brand in himself, who bridged Marvel’s comic book audience with its wider movie audience. But this is not a hagiography.

The writers do not lose sight of the larger developments in the world’s most successful entertainment industry. They also regard the minutiae of Marvel Studios’ work against major socio-cultural phenomena such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, the queer movement, even the ongoing writers strike. As they expertly zoom in and out, it becomes clear this book is as much a reckoning with Hollywood history as it is about Marvel.

Nor do the writers lose sight of Marvel’s dwindling star in the post Avengers: Endgame phase. They consider why Marvel’s post-pandemic products — Ant-Man: Quantumania to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — have failed to strike a chord. With the demands of Disney+, did quantity become more important than quality to feed the streaming void? Did the multiverse really spin out of control, and could Feige have brought it back with his plans for Avengers 2025 and 2026 movies—one of which was supposed to literally collapse the multiverse back into a single universe?

Will the audience ever really care about new superheroes in the same way they did about Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and the Black Widow? Or is MCU’s moment really over, by dint of a new generation of teenagers in view, ready to be seduced? The writers reckon with all of these broader questions too.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever see Endgame happen again,” Robinson has said. “But that has almost more to do with the larger way we ingest stories or the monoculture in general. House of the Dragon comes along from HBO. Is it still very popular? Yes. But it doesn’t feel like we’re ever going to see another Game of Thrones. I don’t think it’s a Marvel question. I think it’s a larger cultural question.”

Pop culture savants, business school cadets or fans—there’s a lot to gain from digging into the voluminous MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios for pretty much any kind of reader. Aside from fascinating facts (double and triple-checked), the book is stuffed with anecdotes, imbued with the pace and intrigue of a thriller’s plotline.

What’s the link between James Cameron and Spider-Man? Where does B-movie mogul Roger Corman come in? Why did Feige refuse to collaborate with Edward Norton as the Hulk? What’s going on with Brie Larson—is she actually disillusioned with the idea of working with Marvel and what does that portend for the future of the female superhero angle? Robinson, Gonzales and Edwards spill the tea — and it is delicious.

MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios is available to buy on Amazon