“Fantastic Four” Crashes and Burns: Why Even a Good Marvel Movie Can’t Save the Brand from the Cankerous Legacy of Woke! By James Reed
Once upon a time, Marvel was untouchable. Billion-dollar box office hits. Massive crossover appeal. Characters who felt iconic, timeless, and fun. And then … Marvel went woke. And now, Marvel is broke, culturally, creatively, and commercially.
The recent Fantastic Four: First Steps was different. Reports say it steered clear of identity politics, restored family dynamics, and even tried to reintroduce masculine heroism and feminine grace, and family. It was the kind of Marvel movie that might've soared in 2015. But today? It's flopping, and that should terrify the Marvel.
Why? Because Marvel may have permanently burned the goodwill of its core audience.
The Woke Years Poisoned the Well
For years now, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been on a mission, not to entertain, but to indoctrinate. Instead of grounded storytelling and compelling character arcs, we got:
Thor and Hulk turned into a joke and stripped of their masculinity.
Endless girlbosses who scold instead of inspire.
"Representation" by quota, not character.
Lesbians and gay couples shoehorned into scenes with no narrative weight.
Race- and gender-swapped icons with zero audience connection.
A relentless campaign against traditional male-female dynamics, sex appeal, and even common sense.
This wasn't just a phase. It became the MCU's identity. And it's one the audience overwhelmingly rejected.
Marvel wasn't just pushing politics; it was insulting its fans. If you noticed the propaganda, you were told you were fragile. If you preferred Scarlett Johansson in a catsuit to a scolding feminist activist with a buzzcut, you were part of the problem. Fans were gaslit and mocked while the box office began to slide.
And now, years later, even when Marvel does something right, audiences have stopped caring.
Fantastic Four: A Victim of Woke Fallout
First Steps is reportedly everything Marvel used to do well, heroic, heartfelt, fun. No lectures, no race baiting, no gender studies in spandex. It should have been a slam dunk. But it's not.
Why? Because the Marvel brand now means something to audiences, and not in a good way. It means fatigue, smugness, disappointment. It means you'll walk out of the theatre feeling talked down to. It means cringe humour, awkward diversity inserts, and heroic group hugs instead of earned sacrifice.
That perception lingers. Audiences have been trained, by Marvel itself, to expect woke rubbish. And once trust is gone, it's hard to win back.
Disney's Media Lapdogs Still Won't Admit It
The legacy entertainment press is scrambling to explain the flop, too many movies, superhero fatigue, still recovering from the pandemic. They'll try everything except the obvious truth: woke killed Marvel.
The same press that cheered when She-Hulk twerked, when female Thor showed up, when "Black Girl Magic" was treated like a superpower, now pretends not to understand the collapse. But audiences know. They remember.
And until Disney publicly disowns the propaganda era, not with PR spin, but with real creative risk, they're not getting that trust back.
You Can't Unpoison the Brand
That's the harsh truth. Marvel's name no longer signals fun, epic, or cool. It signals politics, condescension, and decline. The rot ran deep, too deep for one film to reverse.
It's not that Fantastic Four failed because it wasn't woke. It's that it failed because audiences no longer believe Marvel can make a good movie.
And unless Disney starts purging the activists who took over the creative process, and apologises to the fans they alienated, Marvel's future may already be over.
This is confirmation of the maxim: go woke, go broke!
"Now that the collapse of the Disney Grooming Syndicate's Marvel brand is no longer in dispute, the far-left entertainment media continue to deceive their readers by blaming everything except what's really to blame — Marvel's lunatic embrace of woke.
"Woke," of course, means that Marvel put identity politics above effective storytelling and relatable characters. Woke cares only about pushing a left-wing propaganda message that seeks to normalize homosexuality, spread the lie that women are physically as strong as men, girlbosses are appealing, and everyone wants to talk about feminism and race.
In short, woke is anti-merit and anti-art.
And woke has killed the Marvel brand, a death that is no longer in dispute after Fantastic Four: First Steps took a dive at the box office this weekend. The Marvel brand is so damaged that a legitimately good movie that was proudly anti-woke is unlikely to turn a profit, much less make the billion dollars the pre-woke Marvel once made globally on a regular basis.
Forbes blames the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) collapse on too many TV and theatrical releases, on losing its core cast of heroes, casting off new ones after a one-off movie, and excessive nostalgia.
And…? And…? And…?
That's it?
The far-left Wrap makes a complete fool of its sycophantic self by shamelessly aping the Disney Grooming Syndicate's excuses that blame Marvel's implosion on streaming and still — yes, after five years — the pandemic.
At least I'm willing to admit that some of this played a role. But these gerbils refuse to even go near the truth.
You don't think feminizing and emasculating Thor played a role?
How about all that "black girl magic" nonsense in The Marvels?
How about two hairy men necking in The Eternals?
How about removing all the female sex appeal in everything?
How about a "group hug" saving the world in Thunderbolts?
Lesbians, gays, obnoxiously unappealing girlbosses, racial resentment, basing the virtue of characters on their skin color… Nobody wants to watch that cr*p.
This is what's known as whistling past the graveyard, and I'm all for it… If the entertainment media are so corrupted by Disney's access and Disney's advertising dollars, not to mention their sympathy with Disney's obnoxious politics, that they refuse to report the truth, then good. The more Disney fails, the happier Normal People are.
The MCU was once a universal phenomenon, something we all shared and enjoyed. That's a very special and unique thing. But instead of honoring, respecting, and being grateful to the fans who made that possible, Marvel alienated, betrayed, and insulted us with this woke push, and now a franchise that was once infallible has delivered six flops out of its seven most recent releases."
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