Has the MCU fanbase humbling finally arrived?

It’s been days since reviews started pouring in for Eternals, the next Marvel Cinematic Universe film to be released, and it still isn’t certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

To say that the natives have been restless over the delay would be an understatement.

Generally speaking, MCU films have achieved certified fresh status in 24 hours or less after review embargoes drop, and for a franchise that hasn’t a single rotten rated film in its entire existence, the fanbase has come to accept the expectation that critics will always hold them in high regard no matter what.

That hasn’t been entirely the case with Eternals however, at least out of the gate. The early returns on Marvel Studios 26th film since 2008 are using terms like “bloated,” “uninspired,” “dull,” and “disappointing” among others, which is more than surprising to…well, just about everyone.

On the one hand, it’s been widely expected for the past number of years that every review of an MCU movie, especially the early ones, would use some variation of the phrase “best Marvel movie ever” in its hyperbole. On the other hand, many have been waiting for the shoe to finally drop, given that the last MCU movie to not be certified fresh was Thor: The Dark World, back in 2013. In fact, some of the more polarizing and maligned MCU films among comic book movie fans, like Iron Man 2, Thor: Ragnarok and Captain Marvel, have all been certified fresh.

So maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that with Eternals not getting the standard high praise from critics, the MCU fanbase is reacting scornfully at the same people whose praises they’ve been singing for years, like Brandon Davis of Comicbook.com who gave the movie a 6.0 out of 10 and called it “an uneven, overstuffed story,” despite also saying he liked the film. Suddenly the guy who’s professionally been one of Marvel Studios biggest cheerleaders in recent years, was besieged by fans telling him he can’t be trusted anymore, or trying to discredit him because he gave Black Widow a 9.0 out of 10 and once called Thor: The Dark World his new favorite movie.

But since Davis wasn’t the only one to have a widely “meh” reaction to Eternals, the vitriol from MCU fans prompted a reflective discussion about how the franchise has been treated by critics over the years, leading to this enlightening exchange on Twitter:

What film critic Scott Menzel is saying here isn’t a revelation for many of us. In fact, if you’re a DC fan that's beyond exhausted from seeing your favorite comic book movies get dragged by Rotten Tomatoes and trolls since 2016, you’ve been screaming Mendel’s words from the rooftops this whole time, only to be branded a jealous, toxic “Snyderbro” for your efforts.

But now here we are, at a point in history where an actual critic is confirming what so many of us already knew about the power and influence of Marvel Studios under Disney, and how that has been manipulated by critics and others for popularity and promotion. To quote Tony Stark, “How about that?”

The thing is, there’s always been the other side of this that the critics and bloggers love to ignore, which is the highly egotistical toxicity inherent within the MCU fanbase. When you have a franchise that is constantly praised by “professionals” and a fanbase that never feels the need to “defend” any of its films, a tendency towards entitlement definitely springs up, and when that entitlement is challenged in any way by a negative review or tweet, that’s when the toxic voices get louder and attack those who are “disrespecting” their beloved franchise.

Funny how those words have been used to describe other fanbases over the years, particularly those of a single director that recently migrated to Netflix, along with others as well. Indeed, the very idea of MCU fans being toxic, at a time when the franchise has been called and considered “the gold standard,” has been laughed off as petty and ridiculous posturing. Yet we’ve seen it any and every time a high profile director like Martin Scorsese or Denis Villeneuve comments on Marvel movies, or when some reviewers didn’t care for MCU movies in the past.

Now we’re seeing what might be the first case of an MCU not being widely praised by multiple critics at once, which is hardly a new thing for just about any other fanbase, especially DC, but the MCU fans aren’t handling it well, which again is to be expected at this point.

So are we finally seeing a human element to the MCU’s dominance as a franchise? Eternals likely won’t be a rotten film and might even rise to become certified fresh as more reviews come in, but the early reviews can’t be taken back, no matter how many other more positive reviews people like Davis share and retweet presumably to get the toxics off his back. Eternals may be the very first time that MCU fans have to face the prospect of a Marvel Studios film not being instantly and widely praised by the critics that have been in their corner for years. Will this finally lead many of them to the path that much of the rest of us have already chosen, which is to disavow film criticism in favor of our own opinions and perspective?

One can only hope so, as some of us have been waiting for that humbling to hit their fanbase for awhile now, and when they finally decide that critical acclaim and Tomatometer scores aren’t nearly as important as they’ve claimed them to be over the years, the rest of us can look at them and simply say “Better late than never, but welcome aboard.” Finally.