The MCU Diaries is Blake Larsen’s craft-first Marvel essay series for people who love the MCU but want more than recap, Easter eggs, or empty hype.
This is where I break down what Marvel stories are actually doing under the hood: character pressure, moral debt, value shifts, structure, theme, and the choices that make something hit — or miss. These essays are built around one idea at a time, with on-screen receipts to prove it.
That means you’ll find writing on Loki, WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the bigger road to Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. Sometimes the question is about a single episode. Sometimes it’s about a saga-level move. Either way, the goal is the same: figure out why the story works, why it doesn’t, and what it teaches us to watch for next.
If you’re looking for smart Marvel essays with a character-first lens and no sacred cows, you’re in the right place.
Start Here
- RDJ As Doctor Doom: The Mirror Villain Move
- What Secret Wars Is (Defined In LOKI Season 1)
- Why Doctor Strange Matters to Marvel’s Multiverse Saga
- Secret Wars Explained Through Loki Season 1
Prefer audio?
If you'd rather listen than read, the companion podcast lives here: The MCU Diaries podcast.
Latest MCU Diaries Entries
What Quantumania Is REALLY Doing (The Consent Line)
A storycraft read of Quantumania that frames the movie around one core question: when fear spikes, who gets to choose?
The Multiverse Has One Weak Spot (LOKI S2)
Loki Season 2 doesn’t just end a show. It installs the multiverse rule engine. The finale turns reality into a load-bearing system—and Loki into the failure point.
What Anchor Beings and Incursions Are Really Doing in Marvel
Anchor beings and incursions are not just multiverse jargon. They are Marvel’s attempt to turn reality into something breakable, costly, and finally worth fearing again.
Doctor Strange’s Moral Debt Engine
Marvel keeps turning Strange’s control under pressure into moral debt — and that craft choice is why a Doom alliance can feel inevitable instead of random.
What Secret Wars Is (Defined In LOKI Season 1)
Secret Wars isn’t about collecting universes — it’s about forcing an impossible choice under pressure, then living with the scar. Loki Season 1 proves the engine Marvel needs to...
RDJ As Doctor Doom: The Mirror Villain Move
RDJ as Doom isn’t a stunt—it’s Marvel externalizing Tony Stark’s core flaw (control) into the saga’s opponent. Here’s the craft tool and what it means for Doomsday.