Avengers Disassembled

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is virtually unstoppable at this point, not only have they made Captain America and Iron Man household names, but they've managed to make lesser known heroes like The Guardians of the Galaxy relevant. But as great as the MCU might be, it's sadly incomplete without three superhero properties. Properties you may know from a different source. Today I'll explain why The X-Men, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four cannot be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The beginning of our Marvel movie-verse began in 2008 with the first Iron Man movie, this film came long after other Marvel movies like X-Men, Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four which all premiered in 2000, 2002, and 2005 respectively. You see Marvel sold the rights to make a movie out of these comics back then before the idea of a shared universe was ever conceived. For example, the rights to make X-Men movies belongs to 20th Century Fox, as long as Fox keeps making X-Men films every couple of years the rights will remain theirs and Marvel Studios/Disney-the coupled company that makes the MCU films-will not be legally allowed to produce X-Men movies. Despite it being eight years since the last Fantastic Four film, Fox still owns the rights to that franchise as well because they are scheduling a reboot of the Fantastic Four for 2015. Spider-Man is where it gets complicated because with Spider-Man 3 being critically disliked Sony Pictures-who have had the movie rights to Spider-Man since 2002-rebooted the franchise with "The Amazing Spider-Man" in 2012. With the X-Men movies earning their own movie universe separate from the MCU, series like Fantastic Four and Spider-Man would benefit from being more connected to other franchises. The reason these franchises suffer from reboots and rushed sequels is because Fox and Sony want to hang on to the movie rights as long as possible. Most likely to keep Marvel Studios/Disney from making more money off of the FF's and Spider-Man's inclusion into their successful movie universe. Disney and Marvel are all ready making more money than they ever have, so being able to use the full library of Marvel Comic's history would only skyrocket them over 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures. Although Fox is doing decently in the superhero movie department, Sony is reaching its end as "Amazing Spider-Man 2" is considered the worst movie of the franchise. Through the recent leaks of Sony's private files, it's been revealed Sony and Marvel/Disney almost reached a deal to share the Spider-Man movie franchise, but this deal possibly fell through. To simply put it, characters like Wolverine and Spider-Man will not be joining The Avengers anytime soon. Villains like Doctor Doom, Magneto and Galactus won't be challenging Marvel's mightiest heroes. As great as these divided movie franchises may be, Marvel as whole will be unable to promote the full potential of their universe.

It does sadden me that fleshed out characters like Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic can never match wits, how Wolverine and Captain America can never share war stories or how Spider-Man can never call Black Widow out for stealing his arachnid-motif. But there is always some hope, comic books have been known to go back on their word and change the natural order of things. Maybe in the future-if Marvel/Disney doesn't get these movie rights back-these three companies can bury the hatchet and realize they could all make oodles and boodles of cash by sharing their toys. And if even one of you asks "Where's Batman" at the Avengers 2 premier, I will personally send you into Dimension X with my Necroplasmic blasts faster than you could say "Anung Un Rama". Thanks for reading!