NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
The MCU is juggling way too many things to really hammer home the right ones. It seems they’re trying to set up a new Avengers team, a Young Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and somewhere in there, they have to put X-men as a priority, or the purchase of Fox was dumb, right? One of the biggest areas to explore is their darker universe, but they seem to be investing all their time and effort into Blade when they could be attacking more of the Agatha/Scarlet Witch. Honestly, there’s enough room in their cinematic universe to tie in both stories.
If you’re not caught up on Agatha All Along, this might be a good time to stop reading.
Those who are have to wonder where they’re going here. In the latest episode, and with a spoiler by Funko Toys, that Rio is actually Death. Yet, we’re not sure where they’re going with the character. Is she just a one-off to tell the full story of Agatha’s journey, or will it lead to a larger MCU down the road? Could it be why making the Blade film has been so troubling? The two might not have anything to do with each other, but they could and should.
Both characters seem out of place in the bigger picture of a shared universe. WandaVision brought Agatha into the MCU, and now Agatha All Along is showing there’s more story to tell. With a Scarlet Witch stand-alone movie on the horizon, one common theme in all three properties is death. If Marvel is going to introduce the character of Death, played by Aubrey Plaza, then why not tie all three stories together in their Dark MCU?
There’s a comic precedence as well. In the comics, there was The Darkhold: Blade, where he becomes the “king of death.” If we’re talking about this in the sense of the multiverse, it wouldn’t be that hard to connect the stories and carve out a path in the MCU going forward.
Take Doctor Strange and his exploration in the multiverse as Wanda searches for the Darkhold, tie in the Wanda movie to explore her character more and develop the Dark MCU, bring in Death as the puppetmaster of the whole thing, lead them to an alternate universe where Blade finds the Darkhold and takes over as the king of death and develop the story as we advance.
If the MCU wants Blade to be the tentpole of a grittier MCU going forward, maybe it’s time to stop trying to rewrite his past to appease fans and write a great story going forward. You can’t tell me a vampire with all the skills and desires to hunt vampires has nothing to do with death/Death.
The MCU seems like they have too many half-baked ideas going right now and need to start buckling down and tying some things together. If the cookie-cutter superhero films are leading to “superhero fatigue,” a darker MCU with an almost horror vibe is right there to explore.
