I Apologize for Making "The Marvels" Bomb So Hard

My bad

It’s my fault, everybody.

When Iron Man came out in 2008, I really liked it. Tony Stark had never really interested me in the comics, once I realized I was never going to be rich enough to build my own flying armor. But Robert Downey Jr. gave the character something he’d never had before: a personality.

Then, every few months for the past 15 years, there’s been another Marvel movie. And another. And another. Usually, they’ve been pretty good. Especially for children of the ‘70s and ‘80s, who grew up with the Incredible Hulk live-action show, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, and the occasional TV movie.

To give you an idea how bad it was, this was supposed to be Captain America, on a Friday night in the late ‘70s on CBS:

I know, right? But we loved it, because we didn’t know any better. We had nothing to compare it with. All we had were three networks and almost no superheroes.

So the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a lot of fun for aging nerds. Finally, those amazing superheroes were getting the big-budget treatment they’d always deserved.

But then…