The MCU Diaries: Essays On Marvel Storycraft & Meaning
New mask. Same podcast. The MCU Diaries is a smart, craft-first Marvel podcast hosted by Blake Larsen—built for people who love the MCU but don’t want a 4-hour recap of everything that ever happened. Each episode is an essay you can listen to: we focus on the story choices that actually matter—character pressure, turning points, theme, and consequences—and we track how those choices set the table for what’s coming next. This isn’t “hey remember when…?” fandom. It’s what worked, what didn’t, why, and what it means on the road to Doomsday and Secret Wars. Expect selective coverage (not checkbox coverage), big swings, and zero sacred cows. Spoiler note: We talk full spoilers for whatever we’re covering.
Episodes
If Sadie Sink is playing Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the movie may be doing more than setting up the X-Men. It may be using Jean to expose the wounds behind Punisher, Hulk, and Peter Parker — while quietly building the control problem that leads toward Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars.
That is why this possible Jean Grey reveal matters. Brand New Day already has Spider-Man, Punisher, Hulk, mutation language, and...
Read The Main Deadpool & Wolverine Essay
This podcast episode is part of our MCU Diaries coverage of Deadpool & Wolverine, the Honda Odyssey fight, the Marvel multiverse, and the road to Avengers: Doomsday.
Read the canonical article: Why The Honda Odyssey Fight Is The Heart Of Deadpool & Wolverine
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MCU Diaries Entry 6: Deadpool & Wolverine — ...
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The Consent Line — What Quantumania is REALLY Doing from Mary & Blake — Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a messy movie with a sharp moral engine. In this entry, Blake defines The Quantumania Consent Line — the moment protection becomes control — and proves how Janet, Kang, and Scott each turn that question into the saga’s clearest test of ...
Loki Season 2 gives Marvel’s multiverse the one thing it desperately needed: a real cost.
For most of the Multiverse Saga, the MCU has asked the audience to care about timelines, variants, incursions, branching realities, and cosmic rules. But rules only matter when they force someone to make a choice. Loki Season 2 finally makes that idea emotional by turning the multiverse into something fragile, painful, and dependent on o...
Read The Full Doctor Strange Essay
This podcast episode is part of our MCU Diaries coverage of Doctor Strange, moral debt, Doctor Doom, and Marvel’s Multiverse Saga.
Read the full canonical essay: Doctor Strange, Moral Debt & Doom’s Path Explained
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The Multiverse of Madness Moral Debt: The Bill Always Comes Due from Mary & Blake — Doctor S...
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MCU Diaries Emergency Entry: Spider-Man: Brand New Day Trailer — When the Mask Becomes Skin from Mary & Blake — The new trailer lands because it stops treating Peter Parker’s loss like background sadness and turns it into active story pressure. This is a Spider-Man movie where the hero’s erased identity starts writing itself into the body, and that ...
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Secret Wars isn’t a cameo buffet; it’s a story engine built on pressure, impossible choice, and irreversible consequence. Loki Season 1 is the cleanest on-screen blueprint.
Spoilers: Full spoilers ahead (including Loki Season 1).
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Robert Downey Jr. coming back as Doctor Doom isn’t a “remember Iron Man?” victory lap. It’s Marvel making a very specific craft play: the mirror villain. Same DNA. Same obsession. Different moral math.
Spoiler warning: full spoilers for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame.
Episode Snapshot
In this pilot entry, we set t...
The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats the LOKI season 1 finale: episode 1.06 – For All Time, Always.
Blake discusses why we have to go back to the beginning to understand the end, why Jonathan Majors is exceptional as He Who Remains, and why this episode feels like a Smashing Pumpkins song…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats 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…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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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The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats The Falcon And The Winter Soldier: episode 1.02 – The Star Spangled Man.
Blake discusses what it means to be “Captain America”, emotional validation versus choosing what’s right, and why there is no chance John Walker remains Cap beyond this series…
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The MCU Diaries Host Blake Larsen chats the season 1 premiere of The Falcon And The Winter Soldier: 1.01 – New World Order
Blake discusses how TFWTS echoes previous MCU films, our characters defining their purpose in new world, excellent direction in the therapy session, and why the episode begins and ends with “Captain America”…
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