Marvel is doing just fine — for now. But some fans are at a ‘tipping point’
LOS ANGELES — Kristen Parraz still gets teary when she talks about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As co-owner of Geoffrey’s Hi De Ho Comics in Santa Monica — the oldest comic book shop in L.A. County — Parraz has heard just about every conceivable opinion on the MCU. Launched in May 2008 with “Iron Man,” the Marvel Studios juggernaut has produced 31 films and eight TV series (plus two specials, and 12 more related shows during the Marvel Television era), garnered 26 Oscar and 42 Emmy nominations and earned more than $28 billion at the global box office. It’s been celebrated as the catalyst for a new golden age of superhero stories and derided as a glorified assembly line of screen content. Lately, it has become an object of concern.
Is Marvel in its “flop era”? “A rut”? “Dying”?
Not if you ask Parraz.
“I want to see more of the same,” she says, citing both “Black Panther” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” for
