Marvel's Disney+ shows could help the MCU do justice to the comics more than the films ever could
Marvel Studios has done a pretty great job adapting their comic book properties to the big screen. Over the course of a decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown into an international cultural phenomenon but there are still those die-hard fans who will insist the books are always better.
There is some merit to this argument. While they may have made a ton of money, the MCU films haven't always been able to capture the full breadth of their comic book counterparts. Someone who is solely familiar with the movies and not the books might get the impression the comics are a quick progression from one massive event to the next but nothing could be further from the truth.
Marvel earned their place in the comic book industry because of their realistic, human portrayals of these fantastical characters. More than the cool action and bright costumes, it is the drama and conflicts between characters that have made the comics so very popular.
Even with the bigger events like 'Civil War' or the 'Infinity Saga', there was always months worth of build-up that allowed the major moments to have the sort of impact they did. Sure, the MCU did a great job planning and setting up the 'Infinity Saga', over twenty-odd movies, but the same cannot be said for all the other storylines they have adapted.
While a movie budget might allow for much cooler effects, superhero movies quite often tend to be just cool action flicks and not the compelling narratives about "the world outside your window" vision that Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and all the other greats behind Marvel Comics wanted their work to be. Though movies like 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' do exist as exceptions, this trend is still quite common, a case in point being Marvel's 'Civil War', which went from being a huge months-long conflict in the comics to a quick brawl between co-workers in the films (pictured above).
Now that Marvel is getting into TV shows in a big way on the upcoming Disney+ platform, the studio has a chance to rectify this problem. With a whole season to tell a story, creators have a better shot at building up huge moments so they have maximum impact. The approach might not be equally successful as with all their properties but it is an experiment definitely worth getting into.
Moving forward, fans can hopefully expect Marvel's Disney+ shows to provide us with a better understanding of the characters and what really makes them tick. If the goal is to tell compelling stories about ordinary people with extraordinary abilities, the series route is certainly the way to go. Conversely if making money is the only real concern, Marvel can just keep doing what they've been doing and the big bucks will continue rolling in, though the world would be poorer for it.
