10 MCU Changes That Make Zero Sense if You Know Anything About Comics

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe condensed decades of comic storytelling into one decade of captivating films, and it’s still going. Like every adaptation, some things had to change to fit the new format. Some of those changes are logical and enhance the storytelling, making characters and plot elements more palatable to moviegoers. Other changes don’t appear to serve any good purpose.

Several origin stories, interpersonal struggles, and fizzling attempts at misdirection made significant changes to the comic source material that did not serve the adaptation. It’s easy to notice when things change for no reason because they feel unresolved or out of place. The MCU is usually very good at honoring their source material in their quest to create something new and exciting, but sometimes they change things for seemingly no reason.

10

Fury’s Famous Family Is Gone

The Nick Fury fans know from current comic books that it isn’t a redesign of the original S.H.I.E.L.D. director. The comics first introduced Samuel L. Jackson’s portrayal in the comics in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, but Nicholas Fury Junior of Earth-616 is actually the son of the original Sgt. Fury. The Fury family’s ocular impairment is not hereditary, but their penchant for action certainly is.

In the MCU, particularly in Secret Invasion, Fury mentions his father, Jack. Jack is the name of Fury’s grandfather in the comics, and his father led the Howling Commandos before becoming a CIA Agent and branching into other organizations from there. Fans already saw the Howling Commandos and had no ties to Fury. It’s a fun connection that would’ve worked on-screen, but the MCU didn’t catch it in time.

9

Kamala Khan Is A Mutant

Kamala Khan entered the MCU at a weird time. With the mutants inbound but several properties floundering, she had a lot of weight on her shoulders in her big reveal, and the changes to her powers are strange and pointless, apart from further separating her from her mutant heritage.

In the books, Kamala is a mutant/Inhuman hybrid with powers that let her enlarge and reduce parts of her body. The MCU banked on the success of The Marvels to carry Kamala along until the X-Men arrived. However, the choice to replace her powers with light constructs, bringing her closer to the Marvels and leaving her mutation an afterthought, wasn’t well received.

8

Pym’s Creations Became Stark’s

Hank Pym’s legacy complicated Ant-Man and everything around the character. Relegating him to retirement and setting him up as a mentoring hero of yesteryear was a clever way to circumvent the domestic violence he enacted on his wife in the books. However, it also changed several key elements of the stories the MCU chose to focus on.

Vision is played by Paul Bettany, who has voiced Jarvis since the first Iron Man film. While it’s a very cool adaptation of the synthezoid superhero, Tony Stark had less to do with him in the comics. Stark also isn’t responsible for Ultron in the comics. Giving Tony these weird details and mistakes that got out of his control deepened his character because flaws make characters seem real, but removing Pym from the story changed key features of both AI personalities.

7

Groot Isn’t Dumb

Groot is a fun character across all media. Regardless of his role as a hero or villain, watching a big tree stomp around and talk funny is almost always amusing. The movies play into his potential for comic relief and use him as the team’s muscle, but they neglect a huge part of Groot’s story. Contrary to popular belief, the original Groot was a genius-level intellect thanks to his royal upbringing.

Groot was next in line to rule Planet X when he fled home. He has advanced engineering and theoretical physics knowledge, and his unusual speech patterns result from wooden vocal cords. He’s designed rockets with Mr. Fantastic and Tony Stark, and the choice to make him seem dumb in the movies was funny sometimes, but overall, it was a reduction of the character.

6

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Founding Failures

In the comics, S.H.I.E.L.D. is a covert governmental agency specializing in counterintelligence and espionage. The founders are nameless, faceless figures and the people in charge usually stick to the shadows. The MCU’s choice to elevate Peggy Carter and Howard Stark was cool when S.H.I.E.L.D. were the good guys. Still, when the whole organization became a Hydra front, it convoluted those founding members’ relationships with the organization.

It’s not unreasonable for people to find an organization and slowly lose control of it over time. Still, the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MCU created the agency after their conflict with Hydra. Operation Paperclip was a real thing, and hiring Nazi scientists is the film’s explanation for the infiltration. However, giving the founders important faces was a choice to make fans’ heroes fail, whereas the comics employ betrayal by faceless, shadowy overlords.

5

Civil War Is An Argument

The MCU’s Civil War introduced a new Spider-Man and featured fun, tense political intrigue, but it’s a far cry from the comic adaptation. The explosion Wanda caused was pretty bad, but it does not compare to the destruction of the Stamford Incident. In the comics, many children and more adults perished in a battle where many heroes were present, and the complexity of that grief and the privacy of U.S. citizens tear everything apart.

The MCU’s Civil War is pretty civil by comparison. There are fights and viewers get the sense that, without friendly interference, some heroes may have crossed points of no return. Still, the struggles of those opposed to the act in the comics – particularly mutants – are more personal and poignant than patriotic idealism. Goliath is killed by a rampaging Thor clone and Captain America eventually falls, marking a serious low point for basic freedoms in Marvel Comics.

The Incredible Hulk is more than a big green rage monster. Professor Hulk and his chemistry with the rest of the Avengers are faithful adaptations of the Jade Giant. Still, the simplification of Banner and Hulk’s journey to that point cut many essential parts out of the character. The MCU severely depowered Hulk, and the complete removal of the Fixit persona and other dark aspects of Banner’s psyche is an unnecessary retraction from the character.

Ragnarok, Infinity War, and Endgame gave fans glimpses at the Hulk and Banner’s internal dialogue, but the refusal to play with Hulk’s skin tone more than slight variations in green saturation came after Funko released the grey savage Hulk pop vinyl figure for Age of Ultron. A grey, potentially more violent or cruel Hulk was meant to appear and show Banner’s worst nightmare. Scenes like Banner grabbing the spear in the first Avengers glimpse his darkness, but in the comics, Hulk is the protector and Banner can be a bit of a monster.

3

Lacking Mutants Complicates Everything

Most fans know that Fox owned the rights to most of Marvel’s mutants when the MCU first kicked off. Writing X-Men out of conflicts allowed creative teams to focus on the stellar Avengers lineup and build the heroes fans know and love today, but it also brought complications. Introducing the Maximoffs without Magneto further diverged from the comics, bringing confusion about Inhumans, X-genes, and anomalies, as the MCU called them.

The reasons for writing mutants out of Marvel’s conflicts make sense from a real-world financial standpoint. Still, it poses serious concerns and questions about beloved heroes and their roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The X-Men already missed the conflict with Thanos and all the other threats featured throughout the MCU’s legacy, and introducing them to the world now will require great excuses or a stellar portrayal of a modern civil rights movement, both of which would be big swings for Disney.

2

Ego Didn’t Have To Be Ego

There is no reason Kurt Russell’s Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 needed to be Ego. Ego the Living Planet is a long-time C-list cosmic threat in the Marvel Multiverse, and he is not the father of Peter Quill. In the books, Quill’s dad is an alien king named J’son. It’s a dumb and silly name, but imagine how fun it may have been to see the Guardians tease the leader of the Spartax Empire.

Ego is an incredibly interesting concept; the film did him well. It was cool to see the Living Planet come alive, manipulating its energies in new and familiar ways, but tying him to Star-Lord served only as a setup for heroic deeds in later stories. It was weird and unnecessary to the events of the film itself. Meeting J’son or his empire on Ego could’ve left things open while letting Ego remain the weird, cosmic oddity he’s always been.

1

The Mandarin And Extremis Mess

Xu Wenwu, Shang Chi’s father, is the actual Mandarin of the MCU, as evident by his mastery over the legendary ten rings of power. His eventual reveal is the payoff to a hanging mystery leftover from Iron Man 3, but forgiving fans might forget how weird the villain’s setup was in that movie. Trevor Slattery looked exactly like the comic version of the international terrorist, and Aldrich Killian didn’t seem like the guy everyone feared.

Tying the Mandarin to Extremis was another huge change to Stark’s lore. In the comics, Tony becomes godlike when he releases Extremis, an airborne plague of nanobots. He does crazy stuff like curing Daredevil’s blindness without asking, clearly showing a slip into near-madness and extreme egotism that comes later in the MCU. Changing the Mandarin and Extremis meant they were both still out there, and Extremis was still unaccounted for. Tony also didn’t stop building suits, so it’s almost like that whole movie was for nothing.

“}]] The Marvel Cinematic Universe took some liberties when bringing iconic comic book characters to the big screen, which may have turned off a few fans.  Read More