Somewhere around Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it became difficult to review Marvel movies in isolation. While any number of punters could roll up at the theater, see the latest installment of their favorite superhero’s adventures and leave happy, having experienced callbacks, Marvel Comics references, and fan-pleasing moments, your average critic might have left a bit baffled. How do you objectively review a movie that’s part of a wider universe, another cog in a narrative machine decades in the making?

As the pile of MCU movies got higher and higher, critics were still expected to review them, whether they were fans or not, and if one got a lukewarm (or worse) reception, some grew more comfortable responding to those reviews with the defense that Marvel was making them f

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