The talk about Disney needing a creative person near the top of the food chain had me thinking of who I would put in that spot, and honestly I keep falling back on Kevin Feige. Personally, I would hate it because it would mean someone else would be overseeing the day to day at Marvel, but it’s hard to argue with his track record. Feige started with Marvel not having access to their A-list heroes (Spider-man, X-Men, and Fantastic Four), so he took the B and C tier and turned them into a multi-billion dollar behemoth. And I don’t think people realize how difficult that task was with some of the choices; characters like Dr. Strange and Black Panther had a cult following at best, while the Guardians straight-up had one of the smallest Marvel fan bases you can have while still being relevant. And yet Guardians is now looking at it’s 3rd movie, Dr. Strange landed one of the most in-demand actors in its lead role, and Black Panther was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
While I think Marvel has had some missteps (the TV division has never been particularly strong outside Agents of Shield, and the Netflix series were average to terrible), it’s easy to look past them when looking at the totality of their success. Feige got Marvel Studios to the point where Sony came to them to make a deal so that they could fix Spider-man. And when Disney bought Fox, Feige was smart enough to recognize that they shouldn’t rush new X-Men movies into production, but wait awhile. That’s excellent brand management, and exactly what Disney needs at this point.