It’s entirely possible that gazing at the Infinity Saga with rose-tinted glasses has a hand in the sentiment, but the Multiverse Saga has just had one too many bumps in the road now for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to breathe as easily as they would probably like to.
Indeed, it’s no unfair statement that the fandom has struggled with marked quality droughts in recent times, and if you find that hard to believe, look no further than the fact that Thor: Love and Thunder, one of the most wildly lambasted movies of the whole saga, can now lay a claim as the best of the worst of the Multiverse Saga.
Per Rotten Tomatoes, Love and Thunder boasts a relatively precarious 63 percent approval rating, yet according to critics, it still comfortably outshines the likes of Secret Invasion (56 percent), Eternals (47 percent), and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (46 percent). Considering how unthinkable Love and Thunder‘s poor critical performance was at the time of its release, taking a step back like this paints a rather dire picture.
Credit where credit is due, though; Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Spider-Man: No Way Home rightfully won over the hearts of millions, WandaVision, Loki, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel were all fantastic spearheads for the franchise’s television shows, James Gunn went from strength to strength with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and the creativity that the studio has shown with Werewolf by Night and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law shows a sleeping-giant side of the canon that we hope gets plunged into further.
For what disappointment we have seen from the Multiverse Saga, there’s been plenty to love as well, so until these bumps in the road become relentless jagged spikes, we’ll pull for each and every landing the MCU tries to stick from here on out, even if none of them will be beyond critique.