Hi, there! I’ve been obsessed with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) ever since Iron Man was released in 2008 — the irony is that I only went to the movie because my Robert Downey Jr.-obsessed cousin dragged me to it. However, that was it…I was hooked.

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I was soon an MCU fanatic, seeing every single Marvel movie in the theater the week it released, sitting patiently through the credits just to see what kind of scene would air at the end (Marvel TRAINED US to do that, y’all). I lived through the pain of Avengers: Infinity War and the triumph of Avengers: Endgame. After that, though, Marvel seemed to lose its footing, it didn’t really know where to go after such an epic saga came to an end. Now, we’d already had SOME Marvel TV shows on Netflix, but Disney started making Marvel shows for Disney+ — and you know what, I think that’s where some of Marvel’s best stories are.

It all started with WandaVision, which had a quirky concept that somehow just WORKED. Marvel picked up with the story of Wanda Maximoff after the events of Endgame and told a beautiful story of how grief could change and shape a person (and cause them to create a whole other reality to live in). One thing that WandaVision showed us is that a TV show could really delve into both the hearts and minds of Marvel characters in a way movies cannot.

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The reason this show worked so well, too, was its episodic nature, which each episode an homage to a different classic TV sitcom that Wanda was acting out to deal with her grief. Eventually, she became the Scarlet Witch and dealt with her issues and came into her power. Then Marvel went and ignored all of that character development in Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness (and I’ll never forgive Marvel for erasing Wanda’s development from WandaVision). So TV show: 1, movie: 0.

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Marvel then brought another MCU character back for a TV show with Loki, which took the Trickster God on new adventures with the Time Variance Authority into two seasons of a lot of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey situations. And it was brilliant. Loki finally got some breathing room as a character that he did not get in the movies. Again, TV wins.

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The next Marvel show was The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which aired later in 2021, that basically gave us the buddy cop series we didn’t know we needed. It also set up Sam Wilson as Captain America, which leads us to Marvel’s latest film release, Captain America: Brave New World, which is getting mixed reviews. The TV show, though? Another great example of how to tell the story of two characters who seem to have nothing in common, but somehow mesh. Do you see a pattern here? TV shows have more freedom to tell these characters’ stories SO much better than movies.

The Falcon and the Winter Solider

That was followed by Hawkeye, who somehow made one of the most boring MCU characters way more interesting (because he had a chance to HAVE a story) while handing the reins to the next generation. Moon Knight brought us an all-new MCU character and made him and his adventures compelling. She-Hulk was a completely different kind of story (as it was in the comics) and made us laugh. Ms. Marvel gave us the joy that is Iman Vellani portraying Kamala Khan. TV knew how to tell these stories in a way that movies just couldn’t.

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We also can’t forget the specials, like Werewolf By Night, as well as the animated What If…? Both of these shows managed to tell Marvel stories many people had never heard about before in entertaining ways.

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Okay, so we do have to talk about the one TV show that just didn’t hit with audiences. That was Secret Invasion. This felt like a misstep by the studios, although how you can manage to mess up a show starring Samuel L. Jackson is beyond me. But with all the Marvel content being released on Disney+, the track record is still pretty good, although many might call this series a dud.

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But that leads us to the current slate of Marvel TV. Echo set up the return of Kingpin, who we’ll be seeing more of in Daredevil: Born Again. These shows are a change of pace for Marvel TV on Disney+ because they’re going to be darker than what we’ve previously seen, taking a page from the Netflix shows that came before them. Daredevil, in particular, is going to be HUGE, because this will be the first series from Netflix that is getting new life on Disney’s streamer.

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Okay, I waited to save the best for last, because Agatha All Along would never have even worked as a movie. This is a show that defies explanation, except that it’s a spin-off of WandaVision starring Agatha Harkness, a character no one would have ever given top billing in a movie. So this witchy little show was a huge hit with viewers and gave us a song we’ll all be singing every Halloween…down, down the witches road…down the witches road.

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There are also plenty more Marvel shows to come, including the highly-anticipated Wonder Man and Vision Quest. And I for one am grateful because at this point, I’d rather watch these shows on Disney+ and get to know these characters than see them have character development for all of five minutes between explosions on the big screen. The epicness of the Infinity Saga is never going to be repeated on film, so let’s focus on more character-driven pieces instead. Marvel should focus more on TV because it’s the best form of media that lets these characters stretch, breathe, and grow.

Stay tuned to DFB for more.

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What do you think? Do you prefer Marvel movies or Marvel TV? Let me know in the comments!