One other thing that caught my attention was @Jaffe referring to disengaging with the MCU almost in a “getting clean off drugs” way. I’ll be the first to say that I do not like the MCU and its rabid fanbase, and I’ve long held the feeling that the way people engage with the MCU is not unlike how users of harder drugs engage with them. There’s a real sense of “if you don’t watch the MCU then there’s something wrong with you” that I get even from people that would not otherwise engage with any other pop/nerd culture. Side note, I frequently get “but you like videogames, I would have thought you’d like Marvel too” comments from colleagues, and it’s a little tiring to not totally shit on people’s fandom when you work with them.
Lately I’ve been seeing this more and more, I feel every year that I read some MCU film has broken some sort of record, and when the latest Avengers film came out anyone that I knew that had an interest would not relent talking about it with more unhinged enthusiasm than when I was planning my first trip to Japan. It’s really quite something when any MCU release kerb-stomps anything else released in its vicinity. That’s another topic for another day but it’s indicative of how much people almost need the films for a dopamine hit. The TV shows seem to be a way of giving people smaller hits whilst stringing them along until the next big release.
I would really like to think that it’s all just flavour of the week but I suppose when it’s been like that for coming up to two decades then perhaps I need to rethink that stance. On another side note, perhaps I’m a bit more disproportionately attentive of this as I see every other dating profile page mention an obsession with, or “I geek out with” the MCU, and more often than not I just want to scream at them to maybe watch one other film.
I realise that this is perhaps deeply incoherent but I’ve just woken up from a dreadful night of sleep.
No offence to any MCU fans on the forum either, of course.