Throughout 2020-2021, while audiences struggled with how to spend all their COVID-related free time, Disney+ graced us with several Marvel spinoffs. At the time of writing this article, there have already been 5 releases with more planned – including the soon-to-be-released Moon Knight.
Now that they’ve had a chance to age it seems like a good time to rank each of these spinoff series to see how they stack up.
Note: We are not counting Disney’s recent acquisitions from Netflix and ABC (ie: Jessica Jones, Punisher, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., etc) as those shows are in a league of their own – intended for a different platform and demographic.
#5: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Much like the other Captain America films, this series is more of an agent thriller. While Steve Rogers is “indisposed” his two friends Bucky and Sam (Sebastian Stan, Anthony Macky) team up to find out the mystery of emerging super soldiers within an anarchist group: The Flag Smashers (subtle name).
This series gets somewhat clunky when it tries to handle its political commentary. There are some problems with the way it tries to humanize the villains/activists leading the Flag Smashers. She blows up both property and kills unarmed victims and, in some scenes, smiles with satisfaction when people die and yet this is the villain was supposed to sympathize with. They try to play it half-and-half as to whether to portray the antagonists as sympathetic revolutionaries or cold-blooded killers and it just didn’t work. Also, while I liked seeing Erin Kellyman from Solo: A Star Wars Story getting more screentime, I don’t feel that she was the right actress for this kind of role.
I also have somewhat mixed feelings about the show’s meta, in that it spent the whole season teasing Sam/Falcon’s approaching rise to becoming the new Captain America – all while fully bracing for the inevitable fan backlash to what would be a new black hero as the face of the MCU. The show’s finale is essentially Sam’s soapbox to declare “Your next Captain America is a black man – deal with it“.
For me, I never felt that Sam’s race defined him – and nor should it be. Granted, The Falcon taking up Captain America’s mantle *did* happen in some of the more recent comics, so it is not like their being unfaithful to the material to push an agenda. I also liked the revelation about an experimental black super soldier in the Korean War whose service records were all buried and forgotten. There’s a real tragic element to it that has sadly been a case for many African American vets from back then.
This was also the first Marvel series to address the real consequences of reversing Thanos’s snap – as the world was beginning to recover from losing half its population only to be doubled again creating a huge socioeconomic crisis. The world united when half the population was away. Now that they’re back, that goodwill is going the opposite way.
Despite its interesting themes, this is the show I remember the least, in that I have a hard time remembering its actual plot. However, its themes and exploration of the larger MCU universe from the perspective of more “normal” people are what I continue to find fascinating.
#4: Hawkeye
In many ways, Hawkeye was the weakest of the Avengers – as all he had was a bow and that’s about it. Fortunately, the films do try to expand the character by giving him a family and even having him adopt the Ronin persona after the snap wiped away his family. Now with family returned from the snap, Clint is desperate to reconnect with them while trying to bury his “Ronin” chapter behind him.
Released during the holiday season, Hawkeye is the most lighthearted series of the bunch as it absolutely leans in on the Christmas decor and cheer. In truth, this show barely counts as a superhero series – but rather serves as a holiday heist that Clint Barton just haphazardly gets roped into. In some ways, it is a refreshing take since I’ve never seen a Christmas-y superhero series
Despite the title, the show’s real protagonist is Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) who took up Hawkeye’s mantle in the comics. Despite my personal preference of seeing Jeremy Renner in the role, Hailee Steinfeld is still very likable, and they do make a strong mentor-student relationship. It does still have its fair share of the action too – especially the car chase scene that used up all of Clint’s trick arrows. This showcased his wide arsenal of flying tricks – including (but not limited to): quantum arrows, sticky arrows, and the ever-so-deadly plunger arow (believe me, they’re far more effective than they sound). We also get the brief return of Kingpin from the Netflix spin-offs – whom I hope to keep seeing around in some form or another.
Despite this show being more light-hearted, it does deliver some heavier and grounded elements like Hawkeye’s gradual hearing loss gained over his decades of dodging explosions left and right. It also delves into issues such as grief as well as Hawkeye still struggles at dealing with the loss of his longtime partner Natasha (Black Widow) who was killed off unceremoniously in Avengers: Endgame. This comes to a head when Clint confronts Natasha’s sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) from Black Widow. Ironically, this conflict gave better closure to Black Widow’s story than the actual Black Widow film.
While it’s not a show I will be coming back to anytime soon it did give me surprises and still delivered on characters and drama. There’s apparently a spinoff for Echo in the works, and there are definitely fan hopes for Kate Yelena to team/rival up with Kate Bishop again.
My only hope for future spinoffs is this: Florence Pugh, you may be a goddess, but can you please drop the fake Russian Accent?
#3: What-If?
Much like Star Wars: Visions, this is not official canon in the MCU. However, it does work its way into where it could have worked since the upcoming films will look in the multiverse. As this series follows alternate timelines it takes full advantage of its scenarios like “What if Agent Carter was given the super serum?”, “What if T’chala leads his own Guardians of the Galaxy?”, or “What if Killmonger led Tony Stark’s weapons program?”.
Related Article: Read our Star Wars: Visions episode ranking HERE!
My personal favorite and the most tragic is the one with Doctor Strange trying, again and again, to revive his girlfriend, Kristen, only for all of them to ultimately fail and drive him to use darker magics, creating an evil Steven Strange. They even seem to be adapting this premise into the upcoming Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness.
Some scenarios are simple while others are more creative. Sometimes they would just throw in a random scenario like a Zombie Apocalypse or Hank Pym destroying the avengers singlehandedly. Perhaps the funniest is just an episode where Thor throws a galaxy-wide party in Las Vegas that he had to hide from his mother like a high school farce. A great strength is that a lot of its MCU actors returned to voice their respective characters. The most sentimental of them was this would wind up being Chadwick Bosman’s final work as Black Panther.
Despite being mostly episodic they do tie together as in one timeline Ultron succeeds in building his organic body and seizes all infinity stones and begins to take over the multiverse. The new “Guardians of the Multiverse” assemble their alternate counterparts including Captain Carter, Party Thor, and Strange Supreme in a fight against Infinity Vision. While this may not be official canon in the MCU, it laid the groundwork for the multiverse the series is going to tackle for phase 5.
PS: “Guardians of the Multiverse” is a stupid name, but seeing as the best we can come up with is “Alter-vengers”, I guess we can give it a pass.
#2: Loki
There have been several teases that the MCU would be focused on multiple universes or “the multiverse”. This series made it official.
Rather than focus on the canonical Loki we’ve been following on the MCU, this focuses on the Loki that escaped back in 2012 New York when the real Avengers time heist went wrong. This was considered by the Time Variance Authority [TVA] to be a deviation so Loki was detained and later hired to track down the alternate Loki including a female variant named Sylvie. Of course, the Loki falling for another of his variants is strange conceptually, but in a bizarre way, it makes sense. Loki loves himself most of all.
So already this show is dripping with “Rick and Morty” vibes – which makes sense since one of Loki’s writers, Michael Waldron, worked extensively on both shows. As such it is entertaining watching multiple versions of Loki including (but certainly not limited to) old man Loki, psycho kid Loki, president Loki (complete with followers), Loki as an Alligator, and even Thor makes a cameo as a frog. This makes me very intrigued about what multiverse shenanigans will come next as it is confirmed that Loki has been approved for a second season.
#1: WandaVision
This was the zaniest of the MCU series, with people originally left wondering whether this was a spoof or canon. It turns out the truth laid somewhere in between – the whole twist that the was Wanda taking over an entire town and creating an entire forcefield to play out her dreams is flat up disturbing, in concept.
Each episode satirizes a specific decade of TV sitcoms from Dyke van Dyke, Full House, Malcolm in the Middle, and Modern Family. They also did an extensive job recreating the look of these shows from the shots to the sound mixing. The most notable was when the change aspect ratio whenever the real world is brought up.
The only real problem I had was the Twist villain. Wanda’s visions were also being pushed by a new Villain named Agatha the Heartless, who is quite possibly the most eccentric antagonist ever – which may be one of the show’s biggest problems. When the show gets more and more serious Agatha keeps hamming it up like a Power Rangers villain.
I honestly would have preferred it if this series dropped the need for a conventional villain and just say that the real antagonist was Wanda’s inner psyche and her struggle to let go, instead we just get another generic CGI sky-portal battle.
Nevertheless, this was the most creative entry to the MCU so far. If Disney+ is willing to greenlight content that is this creative with its look, style, and overall aesthetic, then I look forward to seeing more in the future. Just give the “it’s all connected” stuff a break.
