[murderbot]

it's the final day again for ammar's injection and my hopes are, bluntly, extremely slim.

we didn't even manage to raise the money for his immune globulin injection last week, and we are now, on top of that, about $1k in debt to the doctor for the iv fluids he had to take for that.

that has to be paid for in conjunction with his urgent digoxin injection, which he will die without, which means the minimum amount we have to raise by tuesday 4 pm gaza time is $2,129.

i am really not feeling optimistic, because we had to urgently evacuate the family last week from israel's active bombing and no one cared enough to contribute almost any donation at all, even as small as $5 - only a small handful of people chipped in.

if we don't get this money before the end of tuesday, ammar will need over $6k, as it will include an intensive injection on top of everything we already have to pay

and i know we're not going to get that, so really what will happen is he will die

i don't know what i can say to convince you to help keep him alive, but i beg you not to let israel successfully kill him

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[medianatomy-archived]

tweaked the blog too much and now I’ve decided not to be here anymore! it’s not a big deal (not even a normal deal whatsoever) but i just wanted it to be known anyways lol

https://medianatomy-archived.tumblr.com/abt

about

Unofficially Defunct! go to @book3zuko and/or @kidneythief to find me! thank you! f you’d like to know what exactly is defunct, this was sid

[medianatomy-archived]

i rlly should tweak this blog a bit lol my about page still says im 21 and some links need updating….blows a thick cloud of dust off my url

[medianatomy-archived]

I watched a YouTube video about indie animation dialogue and I wanted to write my own thoughts somewhere.

Most complaints largely seem to be rooted in the dialogue sounding unnatural, blunt or overly reliant on internet and pop culture references that make it feel either obnoxiously self-aware or instantly dated. Collectively it can be summarized with the phrase “Nobody fucking talks like that.” In other similar videos/discussions I’ve seen it be described as “MCU dialogue” where everybody communicates in sarcastic one-off quips and/or sincere emotion disguised as a sarcastic one-off quip instead of, well, speaking like a real person. Unfortunately as a former marvel/MCU fanatic I understand and equally despise this category. But back to the dialogue, I have to agree? I feel that a lot of recent projects want to have the allure of deeply layered and complex world-building and LORE, but with fandom becoming even more of an audience market than it’s ever been before, I also feel that recent projects are, in essence, made by fandomites for fandomites, so they put all of their appeal into popular tropes and fandom culture rather than trying to create an immersive and believable universe.

For example, ATLA feels both immersive and timeless because of its multicultural/multiperiod influences (influences you can easily identify in the real world to boot), an established world history that becomes the foundation of the plot, occasional usages of fantasy slang and of course the hybrid animals, which everyone regards as normal while Bosco, a regular bear, is questioned. That’s a short example of immersion. If every other line of dialogue was something needlessly self-aware like “Isn’t it so weird that every animal is just two animals put together?” then the immersion is broken because our characters are questioning something established to be the norm in their world. If someone remarked about how weird bending is (and not as a non-bender observing a skill they lack; Sokka regards it as a very real thing, just something he doesn’t see much value in since he relies on other skills), like some Forespoken-esque “I can move the elements with my mind?????” phrasing, that also breaks the immersion because, again, an established part of this world’s universe, history and culture is being questioned as if it isn’t established. It’s effectively unestablished by the unnecessary self-aware pointing out.

I don’t know how it started (probably Rick and Morty actually) but I think there’s also been a major uptick in self-aware pseudo-philosophical jargon being used as a substitute for any kind of real meaning. Some things nail this very well, like Adventure Time and Midnight Gospel, but most of the time (like with Rick and Morty) the entire joke easily becomes old, repetitive and redundant. Everybody loves 4th Wall breaks and meta, thanks Deadpool, but nobody wants to utilize or explore the aspects of imposing self-awareness onto a fictional construct that can only be as aware as you decide it to be. It also doesn’t hurt to ask yourself:

What does it add or take away for a character to know that they’re a character?

What does it mean for the story and why should we as the audience care or be intrigued by this self awareness?

A good and bad example of this can be found in Supernatural. The good example starts when we’re introduced to Chuck who’s built a career off the prophesied lives of Sam and Dean and created a book version of the show and fandom. It’s pretty mean-spirited in how it portrays the fanbase (but I won’t say it’s totally undeserved) but it still manages to stay contained enough that we know this is still their universe, and though the comments are easily understood as jokes for the audience, like Dean asking who would want to read about their traumatic and gruesome lives, it’s funny. Then, Chuck is revealed to be the biblical Christian God, still portrayed as a scrabbly little author who wrote the universe into existence and became deeply attached to humanity out of everything else he created, particularly Sam and Dean. I mean heaven itself orchestrated them even being born.

They’re descended from Cain and Abel, Cupid manipulated John and Mary specifically to fall in love and have them, and they’re unfortunately God’s favorites, which quickly spirals into existential horror for everyone involved. Dean is simultaneously furious and aghast to realize that all of his traumas and worst moments were cosmically imposed on him from the very beginning, literally a part of God’s plan and the whole ‘everything happens for a reason’ sentiment. He begins fearing that nothing in his life is real, because his life itself is ultimately not “real” or even “his.” His choices, his relationships, his emotions, fate is all decided for him and he becomes almost dissociative because he can’t reconcile his autonomy—his Free Will, the defining theme and characteristic of the entire show, something he’s fought for time and time again and personally christened his family as twice, with the fact that he’s a fictional character.

Now comes the bad part. This is only played as existential metahorror for a few episodes before immediately dive-bombing into the current status quo of the season. That on its own isn’t necessarily bad, and in my opinion characterizing these repeatedly traumatized men to identify the ‘grooves’ of their situation in a very literal manner (especially because they are reacting very humanly and believably to their situations!) lends well to the idea that they’ve long since been burnt out, but the real horror of it kind of falters when every deconstructed trope of their world is reduced to a joke. Case in point: PLOT ARMOR! Sam and Dean have notoriously survived the unsurvivable so much that it became an aforementioned self-aware status quo. Being inexplicably unkillable is an established part of their reputation among hunters, angels, demons and monsters of every kind. Castiel literally tells Jack that dying and coming back is basically a “rite of passage” for them. And that’s good! That lends to the world-building and meta fairly well, and it’s also believably framed with a burnt out perspective.

The bad and ultimately undermining joke, however, comes from their plot armor being treated as a literally-God-given superpower that grants them immunity from cavities and allergies. I don’t think I have to say it but…that’s not what plot armor is. That’s not how plot armor works. Plot armor is a character surviving unbelievable situations or defeating impossible situations with something ridiculous specifically because the plot needs to be driven by it. Batman’s contingency plans and ability to survive injuries that would be otherwise fatal Because He’s Batman is plot armor. Dean never getting cavities despite his poor self care and eating habits is not plot armor. Sam never having allergies is not plot armor. The two of them combined immediately losing all of their basic motor skills and fighting skills, things that were very much not god-given, and framing it as the result of Chuck deliberately removing their PA, cheapens the otherwise well-executed existential metahorror and feels like a waste of time instead of a meaningful deconstruction.

To put it succinctly, meta-self-awareness does not work when reduced to a stale gimmick; it comes across as cheap humor and a way to feign audience engagement when the story is lacking and knows it is lacking. To me it shows as a lack of creative faith, whether that’s towards the audience or the creator themself. It says :

“I don’t have faith in the story I want to tell.”

“I don’t have faith in myself to tell the story how I want to, or in a way that my audiences would want.”

“I don’t have faith in my audience to understand this without simplifying it.” (which can also be executives pumping out mindless garbage under the presumption that people will watch literally anything)

first post here in a while but luckily i didn’t keep anyone waiting. the video in question is by fionapollo on youtube if anyone’s interested!

[funstyle]

Im always like "i will not add my two cents. i will not add my two cents" but i cant lie the pennies are getting sweaty in my hand

[medianatomy-archived]

probably my most favorite panel of the series

[medianatomy-archived]

rest in peace sam keith 🫶🕊️

[medianatomy-archived]

so i’ve started reading the hellboy comics again, and i keep thinking about how exactly it would be formatted or paced as an animated series. because the thing is, while there is an overarching plot, there are also a ton of storylines that served more for mythology/ worldbuilding and character developing (ie: the chained coffin, the corpse and a Christmas underground) and are kind of nonlinear in their order, so I don’t know if there would be any merit in organizing each story by year/chronology.

the comics also switch perspectives in their narration a LOT, sometimes at random for a more isolated story, so there would need to be room to make those changes. that’s not too difficult to do; plenty of kids shows follow that formula, but it still places some weight on where exactly to start the story. as a supernatural veteran I think the early seasons’ Monster Of The Week formula worked very well; it fleshed out the Winchester brothers and their world as hunters while laying breadcrumbs for the bigger things to come, sometimes with actual plot advances and sometimes with experiences that mirrored (or would eventually mirror) their own.

honestly I’m starting to see why the movies suffered so much. there is a LOT of source material that kind of goes with its own flow, something very hard to condense into a precise storyline without leaving a few things behind or changing them to fit into that condensation. and I don’t even want to think about dividing it up into seasons. Eugh.

[dead-west-podcast]

An excerpt from HELLBOY IN HELL The Three Gold Whips Story and Art by Mike Mignola Colors by Dave Stewart. Character one (an elderly looking man), "It's an Endless Parade of Horrors." Hellboy in response, "Pretty Much."

[medianatomy-archived]

this isn’t an original opinion whatsoever but I really do feel that hellboy would be better suited for animation in future adaptations of the comic. i love the del toro movies to death but nothing that has to suffer 6 years of production and studio executive appeasement is ever going to bring the full potential of its source material to any justice.

there are video games adaptations and plenty of fan-made animations out there with beautiful stylization, perfect pacing and faithfulness to the characters that you’d really expect to find it a DVD as something officially made - and they make it very easy to see why so many people want more animated Hellboy. In my snooping through YouTube comments sections, a lot of people also seem to think Genndy Tartakovsky should be at the helm of any potential animated projects, namely for his show Primal (which I haven’t fully seen, but I definitely understand why). And having grown up with his other shows, I agree with it. GT has a beautiful style with so much shape language and personality that I can see absolutely elevating Mike Mignola’s into the animation realm.

and I want to say, it isn’t just the faithfulness to Mignola’s art style that’s important (although it definitely plays a part; the limited color and sharp shadowing are crucial to what gives Hellboy its identity and atmosphere). it’s that animation has far less restrictions and boundaries than live action does, and you only have to watch the 2004 movie (or any of the live action movies, really) to see those restrictions in place. like I said before, it suffered greatly from studio executives with an extremely simplified, formulaic vision compared to both del toro and mignola. animation is not exempt from studio meddling of course, but on smaller scales - like with Genndy Tartakovsky’s works - it is less likely to be interfered with and more likely to be in the hands of the creatives who want to tell a genuine story. i think what most of the Hellboy movie adaptations get so wrong is that they tend to very easily slide Hellboy down the scale into an immature, unintelligent brute (see the 2019 movie). i cannot stress enough how much that isn’t the case.

Del Toro’s Hellboy (who is arguably the franchise’s main gateway and poster child more than the comics for most fans, myself included) is made immature with the added detail that demons age irregularly and him being over 60 is equivalent to his early 20’s. As a movie-first fan, I actually like this concept — and I think it works well given that in the comics, young Hellboy also shows irregular maturity signs, like a beard and side chops when he’s like 7. I also like that Hellboy’s immaturity manifests as rebelliousness most of the time, because he is constantly stubbornly rebelling against his destiny at every turn he finds it in. GDT’s Hellboy isn’t just an immature man baby though. There is plenty of added depth to him despite the movie’s flaws, and so that element being so heavily misconstrued in future versions to outweigh the depth (cough 2019) misses the mark entirely.

For example, GDT Hellboy and Liz’s relationship. He’s immature enough to be jealous that the new caretaker is giving her attention, and immature enough to sneak out several times to see her after she leaves, but he never forces Liz to do anything she doesn’t want to and accepts that he can’t be with her and give her the normal life she wants at the same time. That’s the depth to their dynamic. She’s the love of his life; almost a match made in heaven, given that he’s fireproof and she’s a fire starter. They accept each other and make each other feel more normal by proxy, but Liz belonging with Hellboy and the rest of the BPRD means she can’t live how she wants to. Unlike her, Hellboy and Abe can’t hide their otherness. (And we’re speaking strictly of the movie where they have to pretend they’re not real, not the comics where everybody knows and goes along with it).

I’m of the opinion that this adds a good touch to Hellboy’s character in general, showing more insight into his feelings of isolation than the comics tend to; and that’s not a dig at the comics. Hellboy is meant to be more reserved and his destiny is meant to be quietly looming in the background. I just like that it’s more visible in the first two movies because the later movies obviously sand him down into a grunt who hates himself because he’s ugly (cough cough 2019).

I’ll stop my post here because it’s getting too long, but all in all I think if anything else should be done with Hellboy, it should be in animation.

[medianatomy-archived]

sorry for the inactivity again! aside from life happening, for better and for worse, I’d just not really been interested in anything for the past few months — until I watched Frankenstein 2025 and found another reason to live (ie, something to overanalyze to death).

there’s so much I could say (and am saying, on main) in particular about GDT’s movie, but I was actually thinking more about watching other Frankenstein media and figuring out what exactly made them so iconic. I have already seen the 1931 Karloff version, and unsurprisingly it was kind of lame, which sparked my question to begin with—how did this become the cultural icon it is now? How was it something people found worth revisiting or revitalizing to the horror genre in its premier? Etc etc.

Anyways, hopefully I’ll get back here soon if I remember to. I have a lot of things to update besides my activity lol

[medianatomy-archived]

panel posting again. hearing this quote in the animated series honestly made me cry

image id: a panel from the watchmen comics. the iconic smiley face emblem has formed on mars as a crater while Jon/Dr. Manhattan and Laurie Juspeczyk talk about the fate of the Earth. Their conversation is split into several text boxes as the POV zooms away from mars’ surface. they read as follows:

Jon: “…until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged. to distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air into gold…that is the crowning unlikelihood. the thermodynamic miracle.”

Laurie: “But…if me, my birth, if that’s a thermodynamic miracle…I mean, you could say that about anybody in the world!”

Jon: “Yes. Anybody in the world. But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget…I forget. We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another’s vantage point, as if new, it may still take our breath away.”

end id.

[medianatomy-archived]

The Watchmen: An Autopsy of Human Philosophy and Ideology (and the politics of it all).

so! i recently watched the 2-part animated watchmen adaptation on max and kind of rekindled my interest in the comic. I’ve had a lot of thoughts about it lately, especially towards Dr. Manhattan, but something else I’m thinking about is how much of the story is driven by various philosophies — not just in the sense of real-world politics, but those definitely fall into it.

For starters, let’s take Rorschach. Now, in all honesty I don’t think he has the mental stability or even the general personality to have a solid belief system. You could easily read Rorschach/Walter as a nihilist or antisocial misanthrope, and you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, but these labels don’t fully encompass or account for every other thing wrong with him and his viewpoints. I personally think he’s more misanthropic than he is nihilistic, in that his misanthropy/antisocial personality are what contribute to his nihilism, but overall?

Rorschach is very much a contrarian, (a misanthropic contrarian if we’re being annoying about it). Thanks to an abusive upbringing and even more violent adult life, he views all of humanity—from sex workers to shady politicians—as worthless, corrupt and filthy; something entirely beyond saving. The Watchmen are already not standard superheroes–they don’t even use that title for their line of work–but Rorschach especially is never considered a hero, even amongst his colleagues, and he never asserts himself as one. Basically, nothing Rorschach does is because of any moral obligation or any love for the good people (there are no good people in his eyes). It’s not even because he wants to. While incarcerated, Walter bluntly tells the psychiatrist that it’s all a compulsion. At any sign of what he considers corruption, he simply feels the need to respond to it—typically through extreme violence.

Something else to say about Rorschach is that he views his vigilante persona and Walter Kovacs as two separate people—not necessarily in a dissociative sense, but it could potentially be read that way. I think it’s more of a way for him to both personify his compulsions/actions, and separate himself from his own humanity. Rorschach isn’t egotistical by any means, but he very clearly views himself as an outsider to the rest of the world, and uses his vigilante persona to embody that viewpoint. Now, everything that happened to Walter in his past eventually gave way to Rorschach’s existence, but also, Rorschach was always there in every moment of abuse or ostracism and every violent response to that abuse/ostracism.

As such, he uses the Rorschach persona to detach himself from the rest of humanity, after a lifetime of being rejected by it. He uses Rorschach to freely retaliate and assert himself in a world that didn’t allow him to. And he doesn’t just target killers or child predators; he straight up holds no value for any person that doesn’t fully align with his beliefs. Even Laurie, whom he mostly respects, is told directly that he hates her revealing skimpy outfit (and even if she agrees on that, she is coming from a hatred of her and her mother’s objectification by society/other men; Rorschach is coming from a hatred of promiscuity and sexuality in general).

Rorschach is a walking case study of what a person can become when faced with the worst of humanity, and when a person is more so pushed through the cracks of society rather than slipping.

.

I’m realizing now that I might have to make a second post for this if I’m going to talk about everyone else. consider this part one, then?

[medianatomy-archived]

so. it’s been a very long time since my last post, but recently i’ve gotten back into an old interest of mine and i may finally have something to talk about again!

i may also make some slight changes (and updates) to this blog, just because i’m not using it as much as i thought i would when i first made it. i’m really hoping it won’t always be the case, but shrug. my energy comes and goes lol.

[medianatomy-archived]

ok since The Maxx was like the most popular media i posted here i guess ill voice this one thought I’ve had since I watched it.

warnings are in order (and will be tagged) for: mentions of CSA & spoilers for the Maxx if you’ve never seen or read it.

I absolutely love how Julie’s character is handled; how she’s designed, how her trauma is portrayed. Full disclosure I am not a victim of the things she is and my judgment doesn’t come from a personal place, but from someone who considers themself an artist and values representation in the creative field. I love that she wears skimpy clothes and has a muffin top, I love that her clothing never diminishes her as a person and never looks like fan-service.

I appreciate how the narrative, and the eventual reveal of Julie’s childhood trauma—being assaulted by her uncle—as the root of her and Maxx’s Outback, doesn’t try to shock you or make it into something gratuitous despite the comic’s consistently absurd and edgy style. It’s, idk, tastefully edgy? If thats not a complete oxymoron. It’s one of those things where the crudeness of the material is more so an element of the world they live in, and not just lazy schlock.

I especially love how cathartic the ending is. Julie and Maxx, despite how much they really cared for each other, were just keeping each other trapped in their own heads and mingling psyches, preventing each other from any actual growth or healing. I love that Julie got to literally and figuratively move on from what happened to her, that even though the entire story has been centered in hiding around her trauma, it never really defined her. That’s why, if you’ve seen my other post, the panel of Maxx thinking “please don’t leave me” over and over again until it fills up the sky behind him — it just feels so heavy. You spend the whole story seeing their bond and being told that this is a story about broken people, so obviously what they have isn’t good for anyone, but it’s still something and they’re both just clinging onto it.

again, I am not a victim of the assaults portrayed here, but I really think Julie and the story overall is such a wonderful and pleasantly-surprisingly tasteful portrayal of it. I don’t think it would be the same if it went on longer than 1 season but I do wish there was more of The Maxx to go around. <3

[medianatomy-archived]

honestly disappointed in how little i wound up using this blog since i started it with so much passion a few months ago. burnout moment i suppose. i don’t want to delete/deactivate for risk of my other blogs so it’s all staying here for now. i don’t have an audience here but i wanted to make these things known anyways. maybe I’ll scrounge around for more essay wips to keep the dust from settling?

[medianatomy-archived]

No, You Don’t Have Superhero Fatigue.

(You have Capitalism Fatigue)

***

Superhero Fiction has been one of the most inspiring and hopeful genres of fiction for decades (85 years to be exact). There’s been thousands and thousands of comics, cartoons, movies, video games, songs—and anything else you can think of—inspired by this genre, and even in the new year of 2025 that still rings true. Marvel has long since departed from its humble golden age comic book days and settled into the cinematic powerhouse that is the MCU…or, was the MCU, before it mutated (no pun intended) from its small start with the Avengers 2012 movie and began churning out new movies, new exclusive mini-series, and more than was ever probably demanded of them in the first place.

For a while it seemed almost untouchable, especially during the Infinity War and Endgame arcs. In some ways it was even a cultural shift, changing comics and superheroes from something considered nerdy and synonymous with neckbeards (and other overweight, terminally online, socially disconnected man-child stereotype variants).

Of course superheroes were always cool, but the MCU made it cool to like superheroes publicly. Dare I say it made them mainstream, at least in the sense of the audience. Suddenly, you weren’t a loser for spending hours theorizing about gifts and clues in each new Marvel film, or gushing about a new character that was going to be adapted and how you as a fan would envision that—you could even make a career out of it if you wanted! Yessir, Marvel was a cinematic GIANT. Until it suddenly just stopped being one, anyways.

So what happened? When did we get tired? It wasn’t too long ago when every trailer and every hint towards a new project would leave audiences (myself very much included) on the edge of our seats, breath bated, brains insatiably hungry for the next course. Marvel used to be all consuming. I’m not good at timelines and did not closely follow the MCU (I haven’t even seen them all in order to this day LOL) so I can’t tell you the exact precise details of its fall-off. I know, from the words of other YouTubers and–partially–my own disinterest, that all the good things seemed to end with Endgame/The Infinity Saga.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that any other Marvel movie after Endgame is horrible—they’re plenty fun, for sure—but that’s about all you can say about it. They’re fun to watch. The music is cool, the effects are good, suits are accurate, they called back to this movie or comic thing and referenced a meme, etc, whatever. IDK. Not my habitat, not my environmental qualities. But they weren’t all consuming like they used to be. These films didn’t have any time to breathe on their own before an unanticipated sequel or spinoff show was thrown into our faces at top speed.

To give you an idea of what I mean, look at the phase timelines between the first saga and the current saga:

For further clarification, PHASE 1 consists of: Iron Man (May 2008) -> The Incredible Hulk (June 2008) * -> Iron Man 2 (May 7 2010) -> Thor (May 2011) -> Captain America: The First Avenger (July 2011) -> The Avengers (May 2012)

*I'm like 90% sure this film wasn’t intended for the lineup since it has a different production studio altogether and only had its rights bought after failing to meet a sequel deadline to the really weird 2003 movie.

Also, my original idea for this was to say, “hey Phase One had more space between its projects to let them be their own thing and to ensure more time and care goes into the next project because they actually cared about it at some point long ago,” but I might have actually proved myself wrong! Especially with the added information that Marvel just bought out Universal’s rights to make a movie about Hulk because they failed to make a sequel on time…good Lord. Good thing I’m only writing to myself :)

But as my hypothetical audience will see shortly, Marvel’s tendency to prioritize producing content as opposed to creating movies is a running theme in their company, and it bleeds painfully into the MCU—as is apparent with the hundreds of “The MCU is dead/dying/crumbling/declining/ and other synonyms for all those things” video essays that nitpick the same or similar issues with recent movies. And more to the matter, it’s why the phrase “superhero fatigue” even exists.

If you went back in time to 2016 during the height of SJW culture and fourth wave feminism and asked any Marvel film-bro why he thinks the MCU is done for, he would inevitably respond with something like “The SJW Feminazis” or “The Woke” or whatever. And that’s if you completely ignore how deeply rooted in politics the genre has been almost since its conception, and the inherent politics of any media featuring the U.S. government and military, and the fact that the MCU has been peddling propaganda behind shiny CGI along with every movie to ever feature the government and military.

If you asked someone now what ruined it, they’d probably say something about “the woke” or the fact that they just don’t want the stories the MCU is giving out anymore, because the stories themselves are weak and bland and scarily unprovoking. What I’m getting at is that you do not have superhero fatigue. You have Capitalism Fatigue. While I’m never one to praise industries for anything, especially since I am in a certain position of informational access and societal progression where most people are aware that Hollywood has always been an abusive greedy shithole of a place (and Walt Disney was a Nazi), it would just be wrong and an utter disservice to pretend there weren't good people with genuine passion in their work trying to make waves in the only system that allowed them to, because they always did and still do.

But the system itself, however many passionate people helped build it, has unfortunately always existed to make money, even at the cost of what they’re trying to sell. The problem lies in seeing art as a product. The problem is, of course, capitalism. Capitalism is the system that demands money above everything—above your time, health, relationships, and livelihood, and that doesn’t stop at art, because capitalism sees everything and everyone as a source of exploitation to become even richer.

For example, the artists behind Marvel’s CGI, VFX, costuming etc are overworked and underpaid and often get very little in return for what they do.

———

[harleycao]

I want to help further put their release schedule into perspective because it's honestly worse than I think a lot of people realize.

Marvel is releasing something almost every month this year

Credit to a the Instagram account I sbapshotted this from, @/marvelmovies . (I just googled marvel' 2025 release schedule).

There are only 12 months in a year. And they are releasing 9 shows/movies.

We used to get one, maybe two.

[medianatomy-archived]

No, You Don’t Have Superhero Fatigue.

(You have Capitalism Fatigue)

***

Superhero Fiction has been one of the most inspiring and hopeful genres of fiction for decades (85 years to be exact). There’s been thousands and thousands of comics, cartoons, movies, video games, songs—and anything else you can think of—inspired by this genre, and even in the new year of 2025 that still rings true. Marvel has long since departed from its humble golden age comic book days and settled into the cinematic powerhouse that is the MCU…or, was the MCU, before it mutated (no pun intended) from its small start with the Avengers 2012 movie and began churning out new movies, new exclusive mini-series, and more than was ever probably demanded of them in the first place.

For a while it seemed almost untouchable, especially during the Infinity War and Endgame arcs. In some ways it was even a cultural shift, changing comics and superheroes from something considered nerdy and synonymous with neckbeards (and other overweight, terminally online, socially disconnected man-child stereotype variants).

Of course superheroes were always cool, but the MCU made it cool to like superheroes publicly. Dare I say it made them mainstream, at least in the sense of the audience. Suddenly, you weren’t a loser for spending hours theorizing about gifts and clues in each new Marvel film, or gushing about a new character that was going to be adapted and how you as a fan would envision that—you could even make a career out of it if you wanted! Yessir, Marvel was a cinematic GIANT. Until it suddenly just stopped being one, anyways.

So what happened? When did we get tired? It wasn’t too long ago when every trailer and every hint towards a new project would leave audiences (myself very much included) on the edge of our seats, breath bated, brains insatiably hungry for the next course. Marvel used to be all consuming. I’m not good at timelines and did not closely follow the MCU (I haven’t even seen them all in order to this day LOL) so I can’t tell you the exact precise details of its fall-off. I know, from the words of other YouTubers and–partially–my own disinterest, that all the good things seemed to end with Endgame/The Infinity Saga.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that any other Marvel movie after Endgame is horrible—they’re plenty fun, for sure—but that’s about all you can say about it. They’re fun to watch. The music is cool, the effects are good, suits are accurate, they called back to this movie or comic thing and referenced a meme, etc, whatever. IDK. Not my habitat, not my environmental qualities. But they weren’t all consuming like they used to be. These films didn’t have any time to breathe on their own before an unanticipated sequel or spinoff show was thrown into our faces at top speed.

To give you an idea of what I mean, look at the phase timelines between the first saga and the current saga:

For further clarification, PHASE 1 consists of: Iron Man (May 2008) -> The Incredible Hulk (June 2008) * -> Iron Man 2 (May 7 2010) -> Thor (May 2011) -> Captain America: The First Avenger (July 2011) -> The Avengers (May 2012)

*I'm like 90% sure this film wasn’t intended for the lineup since it has a different production studio altogether and only had its rights bought after failing to meet a sequel deadline to the really weird 2003 movie.

Also, my original idea for this was to say, “hey Phase One had more space between its projects to let them be their own thing and to ensure more time and care goes into the next project because they actually cared about it at some point long ago,” but I might have actually proved myself wrong! Especially with the added information that Marvel just bought out Universal’s rights to make a movie about Hulk because they failed to make a sequel on time…good Lord. Good thing I’m only writing to myself :)

But as my hypothetical audience will see shortly, Marvel’s tendency to prioritize producing content as opposed to creating movies is a running theme in their company, and it bleeds painfully into the MCU—as is apparent with the hundreds of “The MCU is dead/dying/crumbling/declining/ and other synonyms for all those things” video essays that nitpick the same or similar issues with recent movies. And more to the matter, it’s why the phrase “superhero fatigue” even exists.

If you went back in time to 2016 during the height of SJW culture and fourth wave feminism and asked any Marvel film-bro why he thinks the MCU is done for, he would inevitably respond with something like “The SJW Feminazis” or “The Woke” or whatever. And that’s if you completely ignore how deeply rooted in politics the genre has been almost since its conception, and the inherent politics of any media featuring the U.S. government and military, and the fact that the MCU has been peddling propaganda behind shiny CGI along with every movie to ever feature the government and military.

If you asked someone now what ruined it, they’d probably say something about “the woke” or the fact that they just don’t want the stories the MCU is giving out anymore, because the stories themselves are weak and bland and scarily unprovoking. What I’m getting at is that you do not have superhero fatigue. You have Capitalism Fatigue. While I’m never one to praise industries for anything, especially since I am in a certain position of informational access and societal progression where most people are aware that Hollywood has always been an abusive greedy shithole of a place (and Walt Disney was a Nazi), it would just be wrong and an utter disservice to pretend there weren't good people with genuine passion in their work trying to make waves in the only system that allowed them to, because they always did and still do.

But the system itself, however many passionate people helped build it, has unfortunately always existed to make money, even at the cost of what they’re trying to sell. The problem lies in seeing art as a product. The problem is, of course, capitalism. Capitalism is the system that demands money above everything—above your time, health, relationships, and livelihood, and that doesn’t stop at art, because capitalism sees everything and everyone as a source of exploitation to become even richer.

For example, the artists behind Marvel’s CGI, VFX, costuming etc are overworked and underpaid and often get very little in return for what they do.

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