Not another one: Has the MCU overstayed its welcome.

On Monday Marvel dropped the first teaser trailer for its latest offering in a long line of Marvel comic films. The familiarity of what was being shown was so repeatedly similar to just about every other trailer the studio has given the world that I couldn't help but groan at its completion.

In spite of its gothic visual tones that brought to mind shades of the first two blade movies it was so in tune with Marvel's previous offerings that there was little to get excited about. Yet again we are being given another, so called, underdog story where the lead character, through accident or greater destiny has to overcome a seemingly crippling character flaw and rise above to fight a greater evil.

While this is a common theme in fiction, especially sci/fi, fantasy and horror, after twenty years of being shown the same magic trick the thought of having to sit through yet another formulaic plot line fills me with a level of weariness that filters into apathy.

This is of course no fault of anyone involved in Morbius's production. The film was commissioned and has attracted exactly the right sort of people it needs in order to ensure its ascension to the cinema. But does that mean it will truly be any different than anything else Marvel has turned out for the cinema going public.

If history is anything to go by then a hard no would be the safest answer to give.

After roughly twenty years of Marvel films "gracing" cinema screens its hard to truly be original but with the Disney corporation backing the MCU's production and marketing you have to admire just how much they're able to make each new flavourless dish seem like the best meal you've ever eaten. Morbius may not have the same corporate machine behind it, being backed instead by Columbia pictures, but the resultant effect is one that is bound to spawn a tepid franchise that will culminate in a three picture trilogy and collectively bore the tits off us all.

I say all this not so much to disparage Marvel, even though I'm not particularly a fan of the publisher, but instead to say that comic book movies need to do something different if they're to keep us going to see them.

It can be safe to assume that Morbius, along with the dozen or so other Marvel titles that are forthcoming, will draw in a crowd regardless of how good or bad it is.

It would not be so bad if each story actually was different in some way. From Iron Man to Captain Marvel, each Marvel film has pretty much done the same dance and given us the same heroes albeit with a different coat of paint. The villains are no less interchangeable, with none of them posing even the merest shred of a threat to our protagonists safety. This in turn has lead to a level of disbelief, at least in yours truly. The villains are not present in Marvel films except to be foils for the heroes. They are to line themselves up just to be knocked down with little to no character development lest the audience possibly be split.

This may have worked in the early stages of "Phase One" and through the middle of "Phase Two" but now we're into "Phase Three" its fucking boring and I for one am sick of going to see the usual formula play out with different characters.

I have in previous Blogs extolled my praise for DC's stand alone Joker film for its originality and humanity but this is not a DC vs Marvel issue, this is a good writing vs bad writing issue. Every year we're given the same tasty treats but after a while one needs something more sustaining than candy floss and therein lies the difference between films such as Joker and Marvel's entire back catalog. Joker was intelligently written and even as the audience thought they knew where the plot was going ended up swerving them in a way that left them gasping.

No such reaction can be said of the MCU or its affiliated projects.

Now I know that there will be detractors out there who will no doubt throw things like Captain Marvel and the last two Avengers films as examples of so called "Shock" moments at me. But if we're being brutally honest with ourselves, we could see those moments coming a mile off. All someone has to do is watch Jude Law's introduction in Captain Marvel to know that something's not on the up and up. And as for Avengers: Endgame, which one of us didn't see Tony Stark's death coming right at the moment we saw his new family with Pepper Potts? Who can honestly say that reset button wasn't in the cards right from the moment Infinity War's credits rolled? The film ended with all of the "New" heroes dying so Endgame was always going to be the story of bringing them back to life.

It was cheap and lacking of consequences and as such thoroughly unsatisfying.

This is not to say that Marvel have not had intellectually successful projects. Without a doubt, Season 1 of Jessica Jones was both intellectually and creatively successful as was Season 1 of The Punisher. Both of these shows knew that they were catering for an adult audience with adult appetites and adjusted their creative directions accordingly. Actions had consequences and the heroes grappled with the weight of their decisions which gave weight to everything they did and added a sense of gravitas that was lacking in the MCU.

Yet, even with The Punisher and Jessica Jones's creative success they were still, at heart, Marvel products and preached the Marvel message with the Marvel formula (albeit over a longer period).

If we are to see more comic book adaptations, which we assuredly will do, then movie studios need to look outside the big two to find fresh material.

At the time of writing season 2 of The Boys has wrapped and offers further development on one of the finest comic book adaptations of the last twenty years. The Boys hit the amazon streaming service like a freight train from hell, incorporating real life scandals such as the Weinstein scandal and the #metoo movement as well as showcasing the very real and dark corporate heart that lies at the core of the very corporations who produce these films for our entertainment. It was new, fresh, exciting and did not placate its audience with an overabundance of fresh faced heroism.

While The Boys shows everything that comic books could be, something that began with Alan Moore's Watchmen it is still not enough to stem the tide of the Marvel machine. If studios truly want to set themselves apart in the adaptation department then they must turn to the wealth of material at their fingertips.

For every Captain America there is a Rogue Trooper, for every Guardians of the Galaxy there is a Nikolai Dante and for every Morbius: The Living Vampire there is a Requiem: Vampire Knight. Comic's that have taken a similar theme or character setup and done something truly exceptional with it. They have told finite stories that had a beginning, middle and end that took the audience on a journey that would reach its inevitable conclusion instead of rehashing/rebranding the same heroes time and again.

While titles such as Rogue Trooper are currently in development (a positive sign for the future) the need to get other titles out for public consumption must come soon lest the audience at large finally grow weary for something other than Comic book films.

Only time will tell where and what shall be adapted but, hopefully, we can look forward to different plates being offered up