Winner: Marvel
The shaky release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania made some people wonder “Is Marvel over?”—but those questions have since died down a bit, as the comic company had the number two and three films of the summer. On the Marvel Studios side, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 lived up to its lofty expectations, both critically and financially, giving James Gunn a poignant send-off to the competition. On the Marvel at large side, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was far and away more successful than its Oscar-winning predecessor. It seems Marvel isn’t over, as long as the Marvel product is good.
