Do not come for me when I say Phase Four might be the best
Marvel merely began with comics, and I grew up reading them— perhaps the first book I ever read. Since then, I have followed Marvel for all of its phases. Post- endgame was believed to be the downfall of Marvel since most of the characters that started the Marvel Cinematic Universe were dead, but I had hope.
Phase four gave fans everything they had to offer. TV shows like Wanda Vision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Hawkeye and What If, paved the way for future movies. Apart from the amazing plots, scripts and characters, we see the great team behind-the-scenes. For the first time in a while, we saw female directors in the MCU. For example, Chloé Zhao directed the movie Eternals and Kate Herron directed the show Loki. Along with the amazing team working behind-the-scenes, the movies themselves have also improved in terms of characters. In the movie Eternals, Makkari uses sign language, and we have seen the representation of LGBTQ+ as well. This is a significant step up and allows everyone to relate to and enjoy the MCU.
I remember growing up and feeling disappointed by the lack of diversity within the cast. All of the main characters in the MCU were white cis males and females until the featuring of Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War. I believe that the children growing up with phase four will see a little piece of them in the movies through this kind of representation.
Marvel has also given a chance for adults to relive their childhood nostalgia with the new Spider-Man movie, No Way Home, where we see three generations of Spidermans. This was a huge surprise, and unreal for some. But this is not the end of surprises for the MCU; Doctor Strange: The Madness of the Multiverse is rumoured to have the Fantastic 4, X-Men and Deadpool. While Stan Lee and others designed all the characters, their rights were given to Sony and Fox. Disney bought Fox’s rights in 2019, allowing the MCU to merge with X-Men and the Fantastic 4, causing even more excitement for the fans.
I also love that all the side characters are given their spotlight through their shows. This provides the audience with more content and understanding of the characters and the timeline of the movies. Moreover, Marvel has tried to bring back the animation into the MCU through the show What If, where most of the voices of the animation are the actual actors who played the characters.