I like the MCU. I used to love the MCU, but nowadays, I like 'em just fine. In the early days of Marvel, every film felt idiosyncratic and remained slavishly accurate to the source material without alienating new fans. Before 2013, Marvel movies could vary tonally from film to film, allowing each character and their respective movies to feel unique. However, once Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers became runaway hits for the MCU, Disney decided to ditch originality and began to force every character on Marvel's roster into the same marketable "goofy comedy" mold.
What's that, you say? Doctor Strange is a psychedelic mystic that grapples with arcane enemies from the astral plane? "Screw that," says Marvel, "let's make him spout pop culture references ad nauseam and turn his cape into his sidekick."
"Is Thor grappling with the loss of his homeworld, father, brother, and friends?" asks Marvel. " Let's have him get really fat and play Fortnite. C'mon, it'll be a laugh."
At this point, there's no moment from Marvel's illustrious catalog that the MCU can't undercut with bathos in the form of a poorly-timed fart joke.
Spider-Man: Yuck! I feel like I just scrolled through Tik Tok.
In the video linked above, the YouTuber Paul E.T. made a perfect parody of what The Batman would look like if Marvel ran it through the creative meat grinder they call a studio.