The Franchise Devouring ItselfA Critical Analysis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Reflexive Turn

  1. Sebastián Martín, Miguel 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Salamanca
    info

    Universidad de Salamanca

    Salamanca, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02f40zc51

Revista:
REDEN [Nueva época]: Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos

ISSN: 2695-4168

Año de publicación: 2024

Volumen: 5

Número: 2

Páginas: 20-42

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.37536/REDEN.2024.5.2338 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_opene_Buah editor

Otras publicaciones en: REDEN [Nueva época]: Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos

Resumen

This article proposes that a "reflexive turn," which is particularly visible in some of the MCU's new streaming series, has taken place with the beginning of the franchise's Phase Four, the first phase of the new Multiverse Saga. Taking the first seasons of She-Hulk, What If...?, WandaVision and Loki as illustrations, my analytic focus falls on the reflexive devices and the narrative structures of these four series, which together seem to have established the grounds for a recurring metafictional allegory whereby the diegetic multiverse is made analogous to the franchise's own "multiverse" of complexly interrelated narratives. Thus seen, my interpretation of each of the series pays special attention to how reflexivity has allowed the MCU to speak about itself in this transitional moment, in a way that ambivalently reflects not only about the franchise's continuing dominance within the contemporary culture industry, but also about fears and concerns that the franchise's power may not last very long if it loses its narrative coherence along the way. It is in this sense that the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to have started devouring itself, turning into a kind of "narcissistic" and "autophagic" narrative precisely at the time when it is beginning to generate a sense of exhaustion and saturation among its fans and followers. Although the reflexive elements of these four series acknowledge this sentiment in ways that approximate self-parody and self-critique, in the end they all arrive at the cynical and/or conformist conclusion that, for better or for worse, there is no alternative to the franchise's planned continuation.

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Fuente de los datos: Dialnet