As 'Captain America: Brave New World' Implodes at the Box Office, the Creator of 'Deadpool' is Calling for Kevin Feige to Get Fired

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If you're at all a fan of movies or even remotely aware of the cultural zeitgeist, then you know that Marvel Studios had an unprecedented run of hits over an 11-year span. Beginning with Iron Man and concluding with Avengers: Endgame, no other studio in modern times has had such a string of hits. And speaking as someone who read stacks of Marvel Comics in the back of my sainted mom's Griswolds-like Country Squire wagon with the faux wood paneling to in order to pass the time on trips up to my uncle's rental house in Maine, that series of films was one of the great entertainment experiences in my life. Something 11 year old me could never have thought possible. 

But if you know about Marvel's string of successes, then you have to also be aware that since Endgame, they've been on a losing streak that even the 2024 White Sox can look at and say, "Wow, these guys blow." Through their movies and Disney+ series, they've tried and failed to build the next phase around the Multiverse concept. Had to scrap an entire cinematic universe around Kang the Conqueror when star Jonathan Majors was convicted on domestic violence charges. Took big swings and misses with The Marvels and The Eternals. 

Then the fate of the MCU fell to their latest project, Captain America: Brave New World. Which quickly ended up in production hell, with rewrites, reshoots, bad reactions from test audiences, which led to more cycles of rewrites and reshoots as the budget ballooned. Then just before the movie was released, the eponymous star of the film didn't do the project any favors:

It opened to a couple of room temperature reviews from both Clem and Chris Klemmer:

And did even worse with the public, posting the lowest CinemaScore rating the MCU has ever had:

In spite of it all, and perhaps because there's not a lot of competition for your entertainment dollar in mid-February, Brave New World did respectable numbers at the box office in its first week. But then, due to either word of mouth or just superhero burnout, those numbers quickly fell off a cliff the size of the one Black Widow pitched herself off of to secure the Soul Stone:

Which brings us to today. And how at least one member of the team who's made a ton of money off Marvel's success wants heads to roll. Which is to say, one head. The head head:

Source -  Rob Liefeld is turning up the heat on Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige. The Deadpool co-creator has publicly urged Marvel to move on from Feige following this weekend’s disappointing performance of Captain America: Brave New World, marking another escalation in his ongoing feud with the studio.

Liefeld took to social media to voice his frustration after seeing Captain America suffer a steep 82.4% Friday to Friday drop in its second weekend at the domestic box office. The film would go on to see a 71.8% decline from it’s holiday weekend opening. 

Granted, as the article goes on to explain, Liefeld already held a grudge against Feige:

This comes on the heels of Liefeld’s decision to officially sever ties with Marvel after years of what he describes as dismissive treatment toward comic creators.

“Kevin Feige does not treat comic book creators well. That is my personal experience,” Liefeld said previously, pointing to his exclusion from events like the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere.

But still, someone in Feige's sphere of influence, who's intellectual property just made a billion dollars for Disney Marvel speaking out like this would've been unthinkable a year or two ago. Which is to say, about four total creative and financial turds ago. The only successes under Feige's watch since the Avengers saga ended were Deadpool and Wolverine and the movie that brought all the SpiderMan universes together. So fun but totally unoriginal ones. Every other decision he's made has cost the studio hundreds of millions. And this Captain America is guaranteed to do likewise once you factor in the marketing costs. (Those Super Bowl ads don't buy themselves.) 

So now the Golden Child of Hollywood who could do no wrong is now catching strays from (formerly) one of his own. Now we wait and see if Liefeld's criticism gives other insiders cover to start doing the same. For sure Disney will start hearing from investors who'll want to know how Marvel has managed to fuck up such an unfuckable IP in such short order. Show business is a cruel mistress, and has no interest in sparing the feelings of anyone. Not even the undisputed King of the industry from 2008-2011. Leaving us all to wonder how much longer this losing streak can continue before he meets the same fate Thanos did. It looks like Fantastic Four better be exactly what its name suggests.