by Riley Voss

Marvel is an incredibly popular franchise, with millions of fans all over the world. With over thirty movies and series to watch, and an endless amount of comics dating all the way back to 1939, Marvel has a rich and storied history. However, with all of the lore to keep track of, Marvel becomes a hard franchise to follow and be a fan of. That is why I feel that Marvel is overrated. The sheer amount of characters and stories and the amount of work needed to learn about all of them make Marvel not worth following anymore.

For fourteen years, Marvel has been releasing movies in “phases”, slowly telling the convoluted and confusing stories of their hundreds of Marvel characters. From Iron Man all the way to Thor: Love and Thunder, the MCU has released over thirty movies and shows since 2008, and plans to release up to thirty-seven more over the course of their “Multiverse Saga”. This is a lot to keep track of, with over seven hundred characters with different backstories and adventures, all represented in the MCU. With so many stories to keep up with, and new movies coming out every year, it can be difficult for even the most avid fans to stay current. This is part of what makes Marvel so overrated and not worth following: new fans could end up spending months, even years catching up with all of the lore in the MCU alone. It is incredibly difficult to be a well-educated fan of Marvel, even for someone who has been following it all their life.

In addition to the MCU, Marvel has even more comics to read that introduce hundreds more characters we haven’t even seen in the movies yet. There are over twenty-seven thousand Marvel comics to read, with over eight thousand characters to learn about. This makes being a loyal fan of Marvel even harder, as it could take decades to get through all of these comics and learn the full lore of these characters. This also makes it hard to come into the fandom new, as many of the lifelong fans of Marvel will patronize you for not knowing everything about the characters in the comics. This can cause new fans to feel left out, and makes the  Marvel community an often very toxic place. With so much to get through, it is very surprising to see the amount of people who are fully invested in these stories; it is a lot of work to keep up with them, and staying knowledgeable about the lore takes up a lot of time.

Marvel has proven to be one of the most popular franchises to follow, yet it is highly confusing as to why so many people love it. The amount of characters sprinkled throughout the movies and comics make it a very difficult franchise to keep up with. This is what makes it so overrated: in order to be considered a “real fan” by the toxic fandom, you have to know everything about the upwards of eight thousand characters in their arsenal, a feat that takes a lot of time and work to accomplish. This amount of time and work should never have to be put in in order to be part of a fandom. It simply isn’t worth it.