Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase 4

Didn't they mention Phase 4 will be more cosmic? With Earth playing a much smaller part continuing in the MCU.

With the loss of so many heroes in Infinity War, I'm reminded of a time in the comics when everyone faced a world without heroes- Onslaught.  In the wake of that storyline, a group of supervillains decided to don new names and costumes to fill the void- The Thunderbolts (Justice, Like Lightning!)  There have been several incarnations of the Thunderbolts over the years.  The original team started out just running a scam on the public.  Later incarnations were along the familiar lines of the Suicide Squad.  Another was led by General "Thunderbolt" Ross during his time as Red Hulk, and served as a paramilitary unit of volunteers.

If Feige decides that the Thunderbolts is a way to go for Phase 4, the options available at the moment are limited.  Since Ross is now the Secretary of State, he doesn't really have time to be very hands-on, although he could always resign or get fired.  The Abomination and The Leader survived The Incredible Hulk.  Justin Hammer survived Iron Man II, although he didn't seem to be particularly competent as anything more than a basic weapons designer.  A real Mandarin was alluded to in the bonus short for Iron Man 3, but he's not really a team player.  Zemo survived Captain America: Civil War, and was the leader of the original Thunderbolts team under the alias of Citizen V.  The Vulture, the Shocker and the Tinkerer survived Spider-Man: Homecoming.  Hawkeye is still around, and served as leader of one or two incarnations of the team.  
There's also the matter of dangerous tech floating around, and people who can figure out how to use it.  In the comics, Hank Pym's tech has been getting ripped off for decades, resulting in various incarnations of Ant-Man, Yellowjacket and Goliath/Atlas, many of whom have been on the team.  The upcoming Ant-Man & The Wasp appears to involve Hank's tech being stolen to create Ghost, who has also been a member of The Thunderbolts.

Oh the same one with Ajit Pai as the lead? You're right. They've been so hard on big business so far.

So sounds like they need guardians to really begin this phase. Must suck being beholden to Gunn's schedule now.

True. Very True. But consider this: The Batman comes out June 2021, a month before Suicide Squad. It won’t start shooting till first quarter 2020. James Gunn is shooting Suicide Squad in August.

Also, Endgame was shot before Captain Marvel but Captain Marvel was released first.

Supposedly, Black Panther 2 got delayed cause they were trying to “figure out” the villain. Maybe Doctor Doom is the big baddie.

I thought it had already gotten out of hand. I was wrong.

Alright, I have a couple of thoughts:

Start with these TV shows, I don't know which is worse: the shows having nothing to do with the movies or the shows having a lot to do with the movies and the movies suffering because of it. On one hand I think it's completely lame that they baited people into watching their current shows (Agents of Shield, Daredevil etc.) with the promise of them tying into the films only to have them basically be nothings, but on the other hand making the watching of these shows a pre-requisite of seeing the movies would obviously be terrible and lead to an Enter the Matrix situation.

As far as the Black Widow feature... I don't give a shit. Black Widow in her supporting character form never did much for me and I've never gotten this drive for her to have a solo feature. Also if this is a prequel it probably won't do much to drive the overall story forward. That this is going to be the first MCU feature after a long wait is disapointing.

I've never even heard the name "Shang-Chi" before, not sure what to expect, but Tony Leung as the Mandarin is enough to sell me.

That Doctor Strange title is weird.

The last two Avengers films saw the "for real" deaths of five characters and... three of them are already being resurrected.

Natalie Portman is going to be the new female Thor? Natalie Portman is an amazing actor but... she's also a very tiny person. Not seeing how that's going to work.

50-50

Shang Chi? Wha?

Sony forced Marvel to release Spider-Man sooner than it wanted. Could have been Spidey with something else wrapping up Phase 3.