This has lead to some hilarious mental gymnastics and people making statements that are just out of line with reality. Is Black Panther another average MCU film that got massively overhyped because of its majority black cast? Sure, you can happily make that argument. But to imply it's some kind of failure or signalling the downturn of the MCU? No. A film featuring a C-List comics character that's critically acclaimed and grosses over a billion dollars isn't a failure by any stretch, yet I've seen people imply this multiple times. It's perfectly okay to laugh at Bob for masturbating over the film as he has. It's also okay to not like the film. But to try to find any reason to put it down just to disagree with Bob is kind of pathetic.
While I agree with the crux of your argument, I thought I would add my thoughts to the matter. I think that much of the a-logging of the MCU is a knee-jerk reaction to the blind praise
Black Panther received from largely "progressive" critics (including Bob) and the Pavlovian-style marketing. Bob and his confederates would have us believe that there has not been a superhero film with a black lead (despite the fact that we have had films like
Blade and
Hancock) and
Black Panther is a genuine phenomenon, but the question is: is it?
I cannot deny
Black Panther's box office success, but one factor Bob intentionally ignores is domestic and worldwide gross adjusted for inflation.
Gone With the Wind grossed slightly over $400 million worldwide after it's 1939 release, but when you adjust for almost eighty years of inflation, it
grossed nearly $3.5 billion in 2014 dollars. Similarly,
Star Wars grossed
$460 million in 1977 and that is $2.85 billion adjusted for inflation. In terms of ticket sales,
Black Panther does not even reach half of either and will likely not come nearly as close as I expect it to be pulled from theatres before its home release in May.
I believe the main concern with
Black Panther's success is that it may represent a shift where activism will take precedence over storytelling, and many here expressed concern over the MCU stagnating. Bob obviously does not care as he gets his pop culture pablum from his favourite mother corporate and will sing their praises because he believes that it will bring the world closer to his vision of a "superior future." One of the reasons why
Infinity War is getting all this hype is because Marvel has been building up its cinematic universe up to this point since the first
Avengers film. I want
Infinity War to be good because I will be pissed if it isn't. Methinks I am not the only one here and a-logging it is unnecessary.
The real test will be if there can be an MCU after
Avengers 4 with Captain America's likely death (as Chris Evans is done with the MCU) and Iron Man's possible retirement (I don't think RDJ wants to be Tony Stark forever.) I know there is the Fox deal to consider, but will fans come in droves for what amounts to a second
X-Men reboot? Let us also consider that the "X" brand is not as strong as it once was in the 90s and early 00s. However, only time will tell. The only thing we know for certain is that Bob will be sperging about it on Twitter with his prosthetic hands after the 'beetus claims his arms.