I find it funny that you say that now they\'ve run out of their mainstream characters, when the MCU never depended on their moneymaking characters in the first place. Prior to his first movie, Iron Man was a nobody in Marvel. He was barely even a B-lister, probably a C-list character that got cameos in the Spider-man cartoon and that was it. Same with Thor. Oh, and Ant-man? The Guardians of the Galaxy?
Marvel\'s mainstream characters were sold off years ago - X-men, Spider-man, Fantastic Four. Almost none of the MCU characters were ever mainstream because they sold the mainstream characters to Fox/Sony ages ago.
It feels like you are just restating my own argument. After all the most mainstream characters got bought up by others, Marvel started releasing movies in order of perceived mainstream appeal. It still took Marvel 4 movies to get to Thor and 10 to get to Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel is incredibly risk averse, and they waited until they thought they had an audience before rolling out the cheesy lightning gods and the obscure, misfit raccoons. Not for nothing, but it\'s taken them 21 movies, and the incredible success of DC\'s Wonder Woman, just to finally risk having a female protagonist.
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It just sounded to me like you were saying Black Panther was their first \"non-mainstream\" character when the entire MCU has always been non-mainstream from the very beginning.
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The Decent Movie Where Nothing Much Happens
On one hand I am utterly sick of assembly line Marvel movies that come out every quarter. On the other, I'm pleased that they've finally exhausted their supply of mainstream ones, and now have to resort to the lesser known, weird and interesting super heroes. Cue Black Panther, a movie I've been waiting yonks for, about the superpowered King of a secret, hyper-advanced African Nation called Wakanda.
It's good, and not just in the typical boiler plate way Marvel makes perfectly adequate, disposable movies. It's hard to point to a specific reason for why it feels so much better, but a lot of it seems to be just down to the pure charisma of its cast. Everyone has a natural charm to them in a way distinct from the usual Marvel smart arse, one liner, Whedon sock puppets. There is also some difference in the approach, with an emphasis on handy gadgets, nonchalance, and spy craft that feels far more in common with a James Bond movie than anything else. Even the villains, which are usually the last thing Marvel bothers to think about, feel like a breath of fresh air here, using a bad guy with a genuinely sympathetic motivation beyond "Tony Stark was once a jerk to him".
Finally, there is the inherent political baggage which comes in telling a superhero story set in the only un-colonised nation in Africa, and I'm glad that the movie doesn't hide from it one bit. Both hero and villain share a similar perspective on Africa's place in a world blemished by imperialism and slavery, even if their approaches to dealing with that baggage are quite different. Also, I like that the show addresses one of the main criticisms of the premise of Wakanda, in that it can't reasonably justify not sharing its knowledge with the rest of the world.
There is kind of an issue though in that whilst the characters and vision is there, the story kind of isn't. When T'Challa becomes the Black Panther and King of Wakanda, the main threat comes in the form of a jolly arms dealer called Klaw who has already done all his villainous things before the story starts, and Killmongor, a man who says he is going to do bad things but it isn't apparent how soon that will be an actual problem. Lord knows we don't need another superhero movie about stopping a blue skylaser from blowing up the earth, but Black Panther's alternative doesn't have anywhere near the sense of urgency. In fact, there isn't a lot going on with the plot at all; it's ultimately a character driven thing that has kind of been squashed into a Marvel super hero Structure.
The final product introduces a cool setting and characters, but does not have much of a story to take home afterwards.