Today we are talking Marvel. It's the cinematic universe that's made over $30 billion at the box office (and that's just the Hollywood piece). Our guest today is Joanna Robinson, Podcaster and Culture Critic for The Ringer. Joanna wrote "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios," a revealing behind-the-scenes history of the cultural phenomenon.

We cover the history of Marvel from the pre-Disney days through what led to the explosion of what happened over the past 15 years and what seems like a fall from grace in recent years. She has had so many conversations with insiders and we can't recommend the book highly enough. Please enjoy this conversation on Marvel with Joanna Robinson.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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Show Notes 

(00:02:13) - (First question) - The evolution of Joanna's relationship with Marvel

(00:05:22) - Ranking the importance to the success of The Marvel Cinematic Universe

(00:07:00) - The importance of technology early on with the films

(00:08:27) - How Marvel thinks about the distribution of its intellectual property

(00:11:18) - The lessons from Marvel's strategy to focus movies on B their grade characters

(00:14:26) - Joanna's opinion on whether the success of The Avengers also might have led to Marvel's downfall

(00:17:41) - Whether MCU's success was an organic result of timing or if there's a replicable formula for success today

(00:23:10) - How David Maisel pulled off the Merrill Lynch financing deal

(00:27:06) - Kevin Feige's long-term plan and whether the interconnected universe was always a core idea

(00:30:16) - The unique ownership situation of the Hulk between Marvel and Universal

(00:34:16) - Marvel's retention of autonomy key to the Disney acquisition

(00:37:52) - Post Avengers Endgame and possible reasons why MCU has struggled

(00:41:12) - The effect Disney Plus has had on MCU

(00:43:23) - The difficulties Marvel faces with creating TV content

(00:47:17) - Moving forward and future potential with iconic properties like the X-Men and Fantastic Four

(00:51:17) - Joanna's opinion on the statement that Marvel has ruined movies

(00:55:29) - Debrief