I can’t pick only one, I have to name three:
Moon Knight.
Pugh elevates everything she’s in. Half her roles are serviceable on paper but incredible on screen
For me I think it’s Kamala and Moon Knight. As characters, bear in mind, not necessarily their projects.
When Thanos snapped his fingers, half of my enthusiasm for the MCU vanished.
Understandable, but that means you still have half your enthusiasm left? Or do you despise everything that came since?
Not OP, but these were my issues with Marvel:
I was fine with each individual hero and their universe. I ran into problems when the universes started to mix: science fiction with fantasy with space opera with magic. It was just too much trying to be jammed into one not-coherent theory. I learnt to at least partially ignore it, though it still bothers me.
When they started to merge the heroes’ storylines in the movies (I guess phase 2/3), that was fine - but then they started dropping inter-movie continuity bits into the comics. You could watch the movies without reading the comics, but there were things that would make a little more sense if you’d read the comics. And I get that, you want to maximize your profit, get people into your other products, keep their interest.
And then they brought in Agents of Shield. Suddenly it’s not just three movies a year and you can watch them when you have time even if it’s three months late for some reason. No, now you have the tv series every week, and there’s a timeline there: you have to watch up to this point before you see a movie, but you can’t continue the TV series without seeing the movie or you risk being spoiled. Suddenly it’s no longer something for casual time, it’s a commitment.
But you like the characters and the story and you’ve gone along this far and you want you see them play it out, so you keep going. And they’re introducing even more heroes and more threads to keep track of and it becomes annoying. And then Endgame happens and you breathe a sigh of relief: your commitment is over, this time suck is gone.
Some of the new characters and storylines are interesting, I’ll give them that. But I spent 15 years on the MCU, had my favorites and my passions, and … I’m just burnt out on it. I’m not going to bother getting attached to a whole new set of characters. There are some I find intriguing, either because of the actress/actor or because of the storyline, but I just can’t be bothered. There’s too much content and I’m not interested in investing that much time and effort and energy into the MCU anymore.
Who asked
Moon Knight. That dude is crazy.
Does Shang-Chi count? I think I liked pretty much every character and creature in that movie.
Kamala. A lot of folks are giving her the “also Kamala” but for me she stands above.
The Marvels was a fine film, but importantly Kamala is what made it fun.
Her own series struggled to find a good ending, but it was fun to watch.
I’m excited to see her put together a team.
Absolutely. If they finally give her a proper flashed-out project she could be a focus character for the MCU going forward.
Wemwu.
But since he’s dead now, I’ll go with Shang Chi
John Walker
He’s such an amazing morally grey character. I kept expecting him to go full bad guy and they just refused to go there. Pretty much everyone did him wrong and he still came out with his integrity intact.
I’m really excited to see more She-Hulk. I haven’t seen The Marvels yet, but I’m excited to see more Ms Marvel. I really want to see Shang-Chi interact with supers. (Bring back the Defenders.) I liked a lot of the characters from Eternals. Adam Warlock and Cosmo speak for themselves.
I’m kinda conflicted on Moon Knight. Interesting character, but it was a let down and I’m mostly interested in solo stuff from him. Him v Taskmaster would be fun. Kang is awesome every time he’s on screen, but they’ve kind of struggled to use him properly. Plus the domestic abuse is bothersome.
I like John Walker a lot but if I remember correctly I wasn’t a fan of his “redemption”.
When he chooses to save the truck instead of going after the villain. His mission was the villain, not the truck. He should have chosen the mission. He can be conflicted about it, but the mission comes first.
I can’t say I agree. He’s definitely portrayed as practical heroic, but still heroic in essence. I didn’t even see it as redemption as much as just reiterating his heroicism. He’s not a monster even if people see him that way.
Ennui
She Hulk or Ms Marvel. I really like Kamala’s energy and She Hulk’s 4th wall breaks.
Not on here but definitely Sonya Falsworth
Good call! I had to make some choices on who to fit on that grid, in the end I decided against including anyone from that series. But Falsworth definitely is an interesting new character
Moon knight and then Agatha I think. She hulk is up there with Kamala and Kate bishop too
Dora the Explorer
