I enjoy the MCU quite a bit, but am leery about others attempting to do the same. Could work, but sometimes when people try to recreate lightning-in-a-bottle they just get burned

It was pretty cool to see the Avengers assemble back in 2012 mostly because before that, people were saying something like that would be impossible in a live action comic book film. Now its pretty much the norm for super heroes to be showing up in each others movies.

I like the idea of a shared universe, and there's some potentially cool stuff you can do with it, but as far as the MCU goes.... I'm getting kind of burned out, I guess? There are so many superhero movies and shows and stuff to keep track of, and all of them do nods to one another and have stuff going on in the background and yeah. It's getting to be a bit too much.

I think I'd do better if they didn't release a couple of new things every single year. I'm having a hard time keeping up.

... That said, I'll probably watch Civil War next year, because I'm a sucker for Bucky Barnes.

Also, some of my burn-out/dislike might have to do with how sore I am over the fact that they cast Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, the only superhero character I actually care about outside of the movies. I'm not super-fond of Cumberbatch as an actor.

I tend to like self-contained stories. I loved the Avengers movie, but I watched it with a friend who explained what I was missing by not having seen (a) Thor or (b) Captain America -- and when I found out there was going to be a second Avengers movie my reaction was basically ".....okay, but I liked the first one, I don't need another one." I felt the same way about Guardians of the Galaxy.

I don't think I have ever actually finished a series of any kind.

So I guess the MCU is the opposite of what I like in fiction?

[/whispers I'm.... actually kind of the opposite of Anna for Doctor Strange, tho; that's the only Marvel movie I'm already planning to see. He's a character I never got into in comic form despite him being Obviously My Type, so a semi-contained story about that character in movie-form is something I'm kinda looking forward to ;u; ]

I have to admit, I'm getting a wee bit tired of the MCU franchise and I believe that's mostly the fault of the horrible spin-offs I've been seeing that were popping up after the first Avengers movie was released. One of them is a low-budget, poorly written Japanese anime called Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, where the Avengers were reduced to.. Digimon-esque sidekicks that get summoned by kids and teenagers. And another is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1.

I still have some appreciation left for the films and I still kind of look forward to future ones. I used to get so hyped when I saw the after credit scenes of Thor, Captain America, Ironman, etc. that built up to the plot of the Avengers movie -- I thought that was really neat. Can't say that I'm as hyped for the later movies. I know there's only so much left in the barrel Marvel can scrape off before their stories and twists become forced or redundant.. I just hope they know when and where to draw the line XD;

Meanwhile, keep making featured films and series' of other Marvel comics and characters, Marvel! Guardians of the Galaxy was awesome

I'd prefer stand alone series.

I enjoy the MCU, and I'm not opposed to shared universes. It really depends on whether I like the setting and whether or not it has an interesting cast of characters. Certainly, if someone comes up with a world I like, then I'm happy to see more stories told in it. From a writing perspective, as long as you can keep your timelines straight, it's quite handy not having to come up with a new world for every story. The biggest risk is that it becomes so bloated and complicated that it becomes inaccessible to new fans.

That always seems to have been a big problem for Marvel in the past (though it's also plagued DC as well). Continuity gets too big for its own britches combined with the fact that some writers on certain books throw out plot twists not to write a good story mind you, but more in the name of shock value as a way to thinly veil their poor writing chops.

Back in the 90's, 616 continuity had just that problem and then some with characters newer readers couldn't really relate to and the fact that while nerd-dom was flocking towards cool badass characters in leather outfits who looked like and spoke like real people, Marvel at the time was still publishing stories that read more like a kid's wild imagination with one dimensional goofy villains saying narmy things you would expect to see in a Saturday morning cartoon, not a comic book

i.e think about every time Mystery Inc. on Scooby Doo busts the bad guy of the week, he/she always cries that if it weren't for those meddling kids and their dog, he/she would've gotten way with their plan.

Hence the creation of Marvel's "Ultimate" Universe in 2000. An alternate universe where Spider-Man, X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four went back to square one in their super hero careers, but in the then modern times of the Turn of the Millennium with simplified origin stories and more plausible explanations for most everything. No prior explanation as to why, no prior knowledge of the character needed. Nothing. Just a simple universe where you could easily get caught up on what was going on in a few days at most. Fans of the MCU owe it to the Ultimate Universe for why the MCU even began in the first place.

Much like the Ultimate Universe in its heyday, the MCU too is a place where you need to have no prior knowledge of who's who and can reasonably get caught up in about a week or two without having to worry about continuity all that much. That said, the MCU tends to draw more from the classic 616 verse than it does Ultimate although certain elements of Ultimate are used like Cap and Bucky being childhood friends, Tony Stark's MCU personality portrayal drawing more from Ultimate Tony Stark (him being an egotistical shameless drunken womanizer) as opposed to 616 Tony Stark though the 616 origin is used, and of course, Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D being the reason for why the Avengers assembled (though even that uses Loki as part of the reason why much like 616)

However, all good things have to come to an end and by the mid 2000's the Ultimate Universe slowly began to lose its luster as elements that made it unique compared to 616 started being incorporated in 616 such as its distinct slower paced cinematic style of storytelling. Combined with terrible writers on certain books cough Ultimates 3, Ultimatum cough and the fact that after Ultimatum, it became a hassle to catch up on events to learn why Reed Richards turned evil or why there's a black Spider-Man swinging around town, its probably no wonder why Marvel chose to cancel it earlier this year during the 2015 Secret Wars company event. After all, 616 became far easier to follow once it took what made Ultimate so good early on and with the MCU combining the best of both 616 and Ultimate, Marvel's once critically acclaimed alternate universe outlived its purpose.

tl;dr 616 used to have the problem of being uber bloated and too complex to follow and ironically enough, Marvel's answer to that, the Ultimate Universe which was made with the intent of simplifying things that 616 made confusing started having that problem in its later years until it was canceled in 2015. MCU is doing fine so far with being easy enough to plausibly catch up on in a matter of days even if you've never read a comic book before in your life, though now that we are on Phase 3 of the MCU not to mention all those TV shows we've got like AoS, Daredevil, and now Jessica Jones (with more on the way), it shall be interesting to see if the MCU will suffer the same problem or not.

I like the idea of MCU-like things but only if it wasn't obvious I'm being poked at for every single dime I own. :I

Some Marvel movies are so filler it's annoying and it feels more like a waste, I just got bored and stopped following it. (Don'tgetmestartedonDoctorStrange. There were so many great potentials and pop culture is limiting their actors to the top 10 in every movie, it's like playing Bingo. Benedict Cumberbatch? Chris Pratt? Scarlett Johanson? Idris Elba? Chris Evans? Bingo! )

Not dissing their performance, more of the casting director's repetitive choices to play it safe instead of being varied. Cumberbatch as DC's Martian Manhunter? GREAT. As Doctor Strange? Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.

And yet when I read Joann Sfar's comics and he does little shout-outs of his other comics and works, I eat that up and buy the other comics. The execution is great and fun and not necessary for the overall plot. It's optional.

It's how you do it, really. Relying TOO much on continuity and limiting people when to start is hurtful for your expanded works. It works for Marvel because....well it's Disney/Marvel and they started well enough, but they already lost me, personally. :I

Hell, Cosmic Fish is going to have cameos like Joann Sfar's works but I dont have plans on forcing people to read the other things to be able to follow the original comic. You're reading this comic, it's what you get. If you want to know more, then yeah read the other one, but there's no obligation.

I actually love shared universes because, when done right, it allows viewers to see different aspects and perspectives of the same setting, making the world feel more lived in. Like how Avengers shows the big world-ending events while Daredevil shows the smaller, personal crimes of Hell's Kitchen, NYC; or how Agents of SHIELD shows how the agents in the background deal with the movie events.

The problem is when the creators put too much focus on making a universe and not a story for the main characters. Like, Ant-Man was great, but I don't think it really needed that fight with Falcon half-way through. Coulda used that time to make a better villain. Marvel's actually pretty smart otherwise, since mostly it's just cameos of characters or quick acknowledgements of recent events from the movies/shows.

I'm more worried for DC's movies. Every time I hear about the new heroes and villains they keep needlessly adding to Superman vs Batman, I keep getting annoyed.

To be honest, i'm also not sure what other movie genres right now aside from superheroes warrants a shared movie universe.
Also also, before reading your post I thought that the title of this forum was asking if a Tapastic Universe would work........probably not.....it'd be cool, though.

I love crossovers and huge universes with multiple stories set in them. It just makes everything feel much more real and alive!

Well, I might be biased because I'm a part of it - I actually have one between myself and my partner called the Jahanniverse - but I really enjoy them. It adds much more potential to characters who would otherwise be forgotten once their main story is told!
For example, the main cast in my current comic Flirting With Death will play a major role in the sequel. They will also be a part of stories to come, along with people in their lives. I think that building a world can take multiple stories sometimes! It also gives readers something to dive into.