It’s no secret that Marvel has been pretty unsuccessful when it comes to creating compelling romantic relationships. In fact, a lot of fans have taken MCU romances into their own hands by sharing their views on various social media platforms, where they discuss which characters should have ended up together. There’s still a lot of romantic pairings fans want to see on screens, but Marvel Studios has yet to give viewers what they’ve been asking for, either ignoring canon comic relationships entirely or killing off characters before they had the chance to play out the love story people actually wanted to see.
That’s not to say that all Marvel romances have been terrible. Phase 4 did a great job telling Wanda and Vision’s story in WandaVision, and the relationship between them was incredibly charming. Their dynamic was well-written and actually had a lot of emotional depth, which is something the MCU has struggled to accomplish with their romantic pairings in previous projects. However, Marvel’s real strength is family.
Phase 4 has done a lot of exploration with the familial relationships the heroes have, starting off with Loki, which performed exceptionally well upon it’s Disney Plus release. Fans were primarily interested in Loki’s journey towards self-discovery, which included him finally admitting to his real feelings towards his family. A lot of viewers felt the best parts of the show were when Loki was fostering his first real friendship with Mobius, or when he was working towards becoming the person Thor and Frigga always knew he could be.
Viewer feedback started to take a downwards turn when Loki developed a romantic attraction towards Sylvie, which both confused and upset a lot of fans since they’re basically the same person. Their feelings toward each other once again prove that the MCU doesn’t know what fans want when it comes to writing romance.
Phase 4’s Black Widow also set its sights on the importance of family, and Marvel fans have been gushing about Yelena Belova and her sibling bond with Natasha ever since the film was first released. Natasha Romanoff has fallen victim to sexualization and unnecessary romantic subplots far too many times in previous films, which neither Scarlett Johansson nor MCU viewers were extremely fond of. Black Widow’s true success came from the fact that Natasha learned her value by rekindling her relationship with her adoptive family, something fans were far more interested in than seeing her flirt with the other male Avengers.
Even Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings avoided repeating the romantic crises that have befallen previous heroes, focusing primarily on the tensions between the new hero and his father. The director, Destin Daniel Cretton, even went out of his way to make sure there were no romantic elements present in the film, given how forced it would have felt amongst all the family drama.
Phase 4 projects like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier were also void of romance, mainly depicting the budding friendship between Sam and Bucky, which fans loved to see play out on screen. Their mutual loss of Steve, in addition to the challenges they had to overcome about what their place was in the world, made for both a humorous, heart-wrenching story that viewers were completely absorbed in. Nobody had to fall in love for the show to perform well amongst the Marvel audience, and a lot of fans were actually relieved to see that the series touched on more important real-world issues, in favor of creating an awkward romance.
In essence, the highest points for characters in Phase 4 have come from platonic relationships and self-reflection, which is something the MCU should stick to moving forward. Upcoming movies like Guardians of the Galaxy 3 should use this winning, family-focused formula that fans have been thoroughly enjoying over the past year.
Guardians of the Galaxy actor Seth Green says the third installment of the series will be centered around Gamora and Nebula, which gives hope that their complicated sibling rivalry will get some more attention. The Gamora fans will see in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is from the year 2014, so she’ll have to go through some major changes to be reminiscent of the Gamora fans have grown to love. A huge part of her development in the series came from her relationship with her sister, so giving them the time they need to rework through their issues in the new film would make for a far more interesting (and realistic) story, than having Gamora fall for Peter Quill all over again. Gamora has no idea who Peter really is in this timeline, so it makes more sense for her to keep building the newfound relationship between her and Nebula.
Given all the multiverse hype in the current Marvel era, there seem to be far more pressing issues than whether or not the hero will fall in love. With the amount of attention characters have been giving to the ruptured multiverse, sticking in a romantic relationship here and there would feel out of place and underdeveloped. Until the timeline is restored, it appears as if restoring previously established relationships and family bonding is the best way to go for Marvel's heroes.