New mask. Same podcast. MCU Diaries breaks down what matters in the MCU—why it works, why it doesn’t, and how it all points to Doomsday and Secret Wars.
The MCU Diaries is Blake Larsen’s craft-first Marvel podcast and essay series for fans who love the MCU but want more than recap, lore-dumping, cameo hunting or empty hype.
This is Mary & Blake’s front door for Marvel storycraft, Avengers: Doomsday, Secret Wars and the Multiverse Saga — including Doctor Doom, incursions, anchor beings, Loki, Spider-Man, Deadpool & Wolverine, Doctor Strange and the story choices that actually matter.
The Road To Doomsday
The MCU is moving toward Doctor Doom, collapsing realities and Secret Wars. Our job is not simply to predict who walks through which portal. We want to understand the argument underneath it: what happens when heroes who refuse to sacrifice the people they love are confronted with a crisis where reality itself appears to demand a cost?
That is the story we are tracking now.
If you are trying to understand where Marvel is heading next, these are the pieces I would start with.
The MCU Diaries
Each MCU Diaries episode is basically an essay you can listen to: Marvel storycraft, character pressure, theme, structure, consequence and whatever ridiculous rabbit hole Blake has decided deserves several thousand words this week.
Doctor Doom is not interesting because he is powerful. He is interesting because he believes he is right. The best version of Avengers: Doomsday does not simply give the Avengers another opponent they have to punch harder. Doom should attack the beliefs that make these heroes who they are.
That is why we are tracking the road to Doomsday through moral debt, control, incursions, alternate realities and the impossible choices Marvel has been quietly priming across the Multiverse Saga.
New · The Doomsday Assignment
Marvel’s official Doomsday watchlist runs from X-Men and The Avengers through Loki, No Way Home, Deadpool & Wolverine, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. We think the choices reveal more than which characters matter.
They appear to be priming the beliefs, relationships, rules and unresolved costs Doctor Doom can attack.
The MCU’s multiverse only matters if it creates pressure. Anchor beings, incursions, variants, timelines, the TVA and the Sacred Timeline are not interesting simply because Marvel gave them names. They are story rules, and good story rules eventually force somebody to choose.
Secret Wars should not be cameo bingo. It should be the point where Marvel’s multiverse chaos finally costs something.
The story becomes interesting when broken worlds, Doctor Doom, Loki’s burden and collapsing realities force heroes to decide whether saving existence gives them permission to choose who gets sacrificed.
What Is Secret Wars?
Why the multiverse needs to become Marvel’s moral engine. →
Secret Wars Explained Through Loki
How Loki Season 1 begins building the MCU’s multiverse engine. →
Listen: What Secret Wars Really Is
The MCU Diaries podcast version of our Secret Wars argument. →
Not everything has to be about the fate of the multiverse. Some of our favorite MCU Diaries pieces take one scene, relationship or craft choice and ask why it works — or why it absolutely does not.
The MCU Diaries Rule
A portal opening is not automatically a story. A familiar face is not automatically a payoff. Lore is useful only when it creates pressure on somebody we care about.
The bigger Marvel’s movies become, the more important character becomes.
The Deeper Room
Support Mary & Blake and join us for bonus podcasts, deeper story analysis, community conversation and all the extra nonsense we keep making because apparently we do not know how to behave.
MCU Diaries is an unofficial fan podcast and essay series from Mary & Blake Media. We are not affiliated with Marvel Studios, Disney, or the Marvel productions.
The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats LOKI: episode 1.05 – Journey Into Mystery.
Blake discusses “theme vs. anti-theme”, why this might be his favorite MCU episode yet, and why there absolutely needs to be an Old Loki and Alligator Loki spinoff…
The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats LOKI: episode 1.04 – The Nexus Event.
Blake discusses the narrative use of twists, why the big twist for this episode is not the one you’re thinking of, and why he wants Loki’s hair flip put on a 24 hour loop…
The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats LOKI: episode 1.03 – Lamentis.
Blake discusses why love is knowing and accepting fault, why there is an odd structure shift half way through the series, and why it feels like all is not what it seems…
The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats the LOKI: episode 1.02 – The Variant.
Blake discusses how the show goes beyond it’s “hook”, Free Will vs. Determinism, and why The Falcon And The Winter Soldier should be furiously taking notes from Loki…
The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats the LOKI season 1 premiere: episode 1.01 – Glorious Purpose.
Blake discusses the exquisite use of exposition to break down character, how the show uses striking visuals and action to highlight the exposition, and why that leads to such an incredible emotional payoff by episode’s end…
The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats The Falcon And The Winter Soldier season 1 finale: episode 1.06 – One People, One World.
Blake discusses Thesis and Antithesis, the cathartic arcs for Sam and Bucky, and why this episode is the MCU at it’s best, but also it’s very worst.
The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats The Falcon And The Winter Soldier: episode 1.05 – Truth.
Blake discusses the push and pull of the main character’s stasis, getting the big fight out of the way, and why THAT cameo is such a big deal for the MCU…
The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats The Falcon And The Winter Soldier: episode 1.04 – The Whole World Is Watching.
Blake discusses the significance of THAT final shot, the emotional fulcrum of this series, and why a freshman psychology major would have done better than the American government…
The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats The Falcon And The Winter Soldier: episode 1.03 – The Power Broker.
Blake discusses the plot informing character, another gotcha cliffhanger, and why this felt like John Wick Lite…
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