Marvel Needs To Keep One Thing In Mind For Spotlight Banner Projects

Highlights

• Marvel’s Spotlight project aims to highlight lesser-known MCU characters through smaller stories, helping to recover from recent disappointments.
• The first project, Echo, featuring a complex character with ties to the Kingpin, promises a darker and edgier tone compared to mainstream Marvel efforts.
• While the Spotlight projects can explore darker themes, Marvel should avoid making all stories edgy and should consider the individual character’s tone and audience expectations.

With the release of Echo in the new year, Marvel will have officially launched their Spotlight project. Similar to the comics banner of the same name, it seems that the project is intended to shine a light on some of the lesser-known characters in the MCU without all the weight that the wider universe or a theatrical release would provide. This seems to be yet another initiative from Marvel that will assist in recovering from the less-than-stellar reception of many of their recent projects.

The issue with any new initiative, or like with any kind of reboot, is that there are a lot of things that the studio needs to keep in mind for success to be found. The Marvel Spotlight idea is a great way to bring in smaller characters in smaller stories, but Marvel also needs to avoid falling into the same old traps that they have been falling into. Uniqueness is key, something that further extends to tone and focus, something that Marvel needs to keep in mind.

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Marvel Spotlight Projects Can Be Edgy And Dark

With the first Marvel Spotlight project, Echo, focusing on an interesting deaf character with abilities similar to that of the more well-known Taskmaster who also just so happens to have a complicated history with the Kingpin, it’s safe to say that the series will likely be a bit darker and edgier than many of Mavel’s other efforts. The kind of grit and realism that goes with the street-level Marvel heroes will likely lend well to the Marvel Spotlight brand of projects. When a character is tied to someone as infamous as the Kingpin, their story is bound to have some twists and turns. Compounded by the fact that Echo has come into conflict with Daredevil in her origins, this just further adds to the dark and edgy aspect most people are expecting from the series.

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In reality, all of the Marvel Spotlight projects can be edgy, especially if the intent for them is to be more experimental in nature while showing off smaller characters. The real world is filled with horrible threats, and when street-level heroes are stuck dealing with violent thugs and foes like the Kingpin, it only makes sense that some of their storylines would be starkly darker than what most people are used to in the MCU. It’s the fact that this new initiative seems poised to tackle the new additions to the MCU that makes edgy and dark stories even more acceptable, as these new ventures allow the various mini-series or shows to stand out from what’s come before. In an interview with Variety, the head of Marvel’s streaming initiative Brad Winderbaum had this to say about what’s to come for Marvel Spotlight:

“gives us a platform to bring more grounded, character-driven stories to the screen, and in the case of ‘Echo,’ focusing on street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity. Just like comics fans didn’t need to read ‘Avengers’ or ‘Fantastic Four’ to enjoy a ‘Ghost Rider’ Spotlight comic, our audience doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what’s happening in Maya’s story.”

Signaling a new era of the MCU isn’t inherently a bad idea, especially when many critics and fans are having a much harder time enjoying what they’ve been releasing. Instead of going for the standard action set-ups that see heroes who don’t normally quip quipping left and right, Marvel Spotlight can allow Marvel heroes and anti-heroes to feel like real people. While many people do deflect with humor in tough situations, it’s hard to believe that every MCU hero would have humor like that. There’s just something inappropriate about the idea of a street-level hero dealing with some kind of assault only to begin quipping in the presence of the victim.

Stories Should Only Be Edgy And Dark If They Have To Be

The issue with Marvel Spotlight stories having the ability to be darker is that Marvel needs to be careful that they don’t just make the Spotlight brand the one that’s used to tell edgy stories. Just because characters like Echo, Daredevil, and the Punisher all tend to deal with darker, grounded, and more human themes, that doesn’t mean that they can’t have plenty of moments of levity. With how a character like Daredevil has been presented to MCU fans thus far, it really wouldn’t make sense for him to suddenly have a Marvel Spotlight series that makes him into an edgelord. At the same time, introducing other lesser-known street heroes like White Tiger, Jessica Jones, or Cloak and Dagger under the Marvel Spotlight brand shouldn’t mean that they immediately require dark and edgy stories.

Any of those characters could have darker tales under Marvel Spotlight, but that doesn’t mean they all should, and that doesn’t mean that their stories have to be endlessly bleak. A Ghost Rider Marvel Spotlight series could deal with subject matter that is a bit darker, but depending on the focus of the series and the writers, the series could also be quite light and comedic despite dealing with a more demonic side of the universe. Like the many other aspects of the MCU, Marvel needs to have a plan going into each and every series, something that will help them avoid the slip-ups that have recently occurred like with the upcoming Daredevil series.

If Squirrel Girl got her own Spotlight series, there isn’t a single person who would be able to take her seriously in a dark and edgy story for her first outing. That’s not to say that the character couldn’t have some darker stories eventually, but introducing the world to a character with the abilities of a squirrel is going to lead most people to think they’re in for a comedy series. It’s all about doing what makes sense instead of following the trends that provide Marvel with hints of success, something that can be squandered by trend-chasing.

Echo is set to be available to stream on Disney+ on January 10th, 2024.