- 3 months ago
Not every Marvel character gets the treatment they deserve! Join us as we count down the heroes and villains whose potential was wasted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From intimidating comic book threats reduced to jokes, to heroes whose development happened offscreen, these characters deserved better than what they got!
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down art picks for the characters from the
00:09Marvel Cinematic Universe whose personality, development or design were in some way failed
00:14by their role in the franchise.
00:1910.
00:22Iron Man 2 In the comics, Yvonne Vanko sets out for revenge
00:26on Tony Stark after someone in a stolen Iron Man suit kills his entire village.
00:3010.
00:31If you can make God bleed, then people will cease to believe in him.
00:36It's a simple, easy to understand motivation.
00:38But in Iron Man 2, Vanko's convoluted plans and his father's previously unmentioned connection
00:42to Tony's father are much harder to care about or understand.
00:47Plus, Whiplash's suits are not the most well designed.
00:53Mr. Mickey Rourke does the best he can with what he's got, but it's a sad state of
00:57affairs when the most memorable thing about MCU Whiplash is his attachment to a bird.
01:019.
01:02Sith – Thor Franchise
01:03A frequent love interest of Thor in the comics and his wife in Norse mythology, Sith is one
01:21of the God of Thunder's staunchest allies and a powerful Asgardian warrior.
01:26However, Sith's presence in the MCU has been, decidedly, minimal.
01:2810.
01:29There are nine realms.
01:30The future king of Asgard must focus on more than one.
01:3410.
01:35While this is partly due to actress Jamie Alexander being busy with her starring TV role on Blindspot,
01:40Sith's appearances before and after appearing in the show aren't exactly major either.
01:45She isn't Thor's primary love interest and she only has slightly more prominence than
01:49Thor's other friends and shows up in a few TV shows.
01:5210.
01:53Sith – You conniving, craven, pathetic worm.
01:56You did this!
01:5711.
01:58What?
01:59Much like her relationship with Thor himself, Sith simply doesn't get the intention she
02:02deserves.
02:038.
02:04Emile Blonsky – A.K.A.
02:05Attorney at Law
02:06We could've included just about everything from The Incredible Hulk on this list.
02:1010.
02:11If you'll just get back on the table, I can fix this!
02:1611.
02:17Thanks to rights issues, plenty of characters from it have been ignored or failed.
02:21More on that later.
02:22But Blonsky gets it pretty bad.
02:24One of the Hulk's most powerful and determined enemies, the soldier is obsessed with what the
02:27Power Gamma mutation can bring him in his first appearance.
02:3011.
02:31How do you feel?
02:3211.
02:33I'm pissed off.
02:34I'm ready for round three.
02:3512.
02:3612.
02:37However, once he returns in She-Hulk, Emile is now a reformed character after being
02:41in prison.
02:42He's super chill and is running a group therapy retreat.
02:4412.
02:45What?
02:46Who wants to see a villain turned into a self-help guru?
02:4712.
02:48Jennifer, darling, I'm gonna need you to sit in the calming chair right now.
02:5113.
02:52Right now.
02:5313.
02:54Actually, that does sound interesting in concept, but not when it means sacrificing
02:57an existing character to do it.
02:597.
03:00MODOK – Ant-Man and the Wasp – Quantumania
03:01Welcome back to the Quantum Realm, Scott.
03:0413.
03:05I've been waiting a long time for this.
03:0714.
03:08In all fairness, doing justice to a big-headed bad guy stuck in a hover chair is no easy
03:13task.
03:14The character of MODOK is kind of ridiculous to begin with.
03:1614.
03:17Why are you just a floating head?
03:1815.
03:19Maybe you could walk us through this, Darren.
03:2015.
03:21You left Darren to die in the Quantum Realm.
03:2315.
03:24Changing Ant-Man's previous antagonist Darren Cross into MODOK was certainly a choice.
03:28Even so, it's extremely difficult to take MODOK, and indeed the movie in general,
03:33he's curious with how abysmal and uncomfortable the effects used to render him are, particularly
03:37on his face.
03:3815.
03:39I don't know what to be.
03:4015.
03:41Tell me what to be.
03:4216.
03:43I don't know.
03:44Just don't be a dick.
03:4516.
03:46Distracting, laughter-inducing, and pretty decent nightmare fuel, MODOK is the worst part
03:50of an already disastrous film.
03:5216.
03:53God Butcher.
03:54Thor Love and Thunder.
03:5517.
03:56With all this talk about chopping off heads, I wanna have a go.
03:5918.
04:00There are many issues with Love and Thunder, but getting its villain wrong arguably hurts
04:03it the most.
04:04In the comics, Gore is among the most deadly and successful villains in Marvel.
04:0718.
04:08So this is my vow.
04:1019.
04:11All gods will die.
04:1219.
04:13His genocide against the gods is peak antagonist stuff.
04:14Unfortunately, despite Christian Bale's exceptional performance, we don't see Gore the God Butcher
04:22do much god butchering.
04:2419.
04:25Some gods do you.
04:2620.
04:27You know nothing for being a god.
04:3019.
04:31Gore often takes a backseat to Thor and Jane's issues, which leaves the movie feeling overstuffed.
04:3520.
04:36When you factor in the wild, tonal inconsistencies between the movie's goofy humor and Gore's
04:40decidal revenge quest, you've got a recipe for why Gore's character ended up getting butchered.
04:4520.
04:46I know your pain, but this isn't the way.
04:4820.
04:49James Rhodey Rhodes, aka War Machine, Secret Invasion.
04:5220.
04:53Basically, nobody comes out of this much-mocked miniseries looking better than before, but
04:56we'd argue Rhodey is done the dirtiest.
04:5820.
04:59There are Skrulls inside the US government.
05:0320.
05:04Midway through the show, we learned that the James Rhodes we've been following is, in fact,
05:08a shape-shifting Skrull impersonating him.
05:10That's not what got everyone upset, though.
05:1220.
05:13No checking behind the doors.
05:14You really are a Skrull.
05:1520.
05:16It's director Ali Saleem's revelation that Rhodey may have been a Skrull as far back as
05:20Captain America Civil War.
05:21So, the Rhodey who lost his best friend Tony wasn't even Rhodey at all.
05:2520.
05:26Colonel Rhodes?
05:2720.
05:28How long have you been in here?
05:3020.
05:31He's already not the most prominent MCU character, and losing some of his character development
05:35had fans up in arms.
05:36We may have to wait for the long-delayed Armor Wars to find out the truth.
05:404.
05:41The Mandarin
05:45If you ask Marvel Comics fans who the Mandarin is, they'll tell you he's Iron Man's
05:50arch-inimate, the martial artist who uses the power of ten mystical-slash-alien rings.
05:5420.
05:55There's just one lesson left, President Ellis, so run away, hide, kiss your children goodbye,
05:59because nothing, not your army, not your red-biting-blue attack dog can save you.
06:0320.
06:04But if you ask MCU fans who the Mandarin is, you'll get three different answers, and that
06:08confusion is thanks to this movie.
06:10At first, the Mandarin is the apparent moniker of a terrorist, played by Ben Kingsley.
06:14Except this figure is later revealed to be a pathetic British actor Trevor Slattery.
06:1920.
06:20The Mandarin?
06:21See?
06:22It's not real.
06:23The man behind Trevor is Audric Killian, the real Mandarin.
06:27Except he's not.
06:28He's just yet another scientist guy with a grudge against Tony Stark.
06:3220.
06:33You said you wanted the Mandarin?
06:34No.
06:35You're looking right at him.
06:37The actual real Mandarin only appears in Shang-Chi, and only after Iron Man is already
06:43dead.
06:44What a trainwreck.
06:4523.
06:46Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, Avengers Endgame.
06:48If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?
06:52Thanks to the aforementioned rights issue, Hulk spends large sections of the MCU playing
06:57second fiddle to everyone else, but arguably the biggest blow to his character happens in
07:01Avengers Endgame.
07:02After a time jump, we pick back up with Bruce Banner as Professor Hulk.
07:05I'm so confused.
07:06These are confusing times.
07:08Between the time the Avengers killed Thanos and when Ant-Man returns, Bruce has merged
07:12his intellect with the Hulk's might, merging both sides of himself into one.
07:16The Hulk personality was in some ways a separate person or at least identity.
07:20I'm okay.
07:21I'm okay.
07:22I'm okay.
07:23And the MCU basically killed him, off screen no less.
07:26All that time spent on Sakaar becoming his own person down the drain.
07:29I'm sorry I said those things.
07:32You're not the stupid Avenger.
07:34No, nobody calls you the stupid Avenger.
07:37Even leaving the Hulk personality aside, it's like they skipped to the end of Bruce's
07:41character development.
07:422.
07:43Taskmaster, Black Widow in Thunderbolts
07:54In the comics, Taskmaster, aka Tony Masters, is a villain to many Marvel heroes, battling
07:59him using his unique ability to mimic any and all of their fighting style.
08:02However, in the MCU, Taskmaster is instead Antonia Dreykov.
08:06I had to put a jeep in the back of the neck.
08:11In the back of the neck.
08:13Now, the character being gender swapped, while potentially divisive, isn't what the franchise
08:17managed to ruin about the character.
08:19For most of Black Widow, Antonia is essentially a brainwashed drone.
08:22While she maintains the cool fight-mimicking abilities of her comic counterpart, she's robbed
08:34of any agency as the character.
08:36But what's worse is that in her very next appearance after being given her free will
08:40back, Taskmaster is unceremoniously killed off during a fight early in Thunderbolts.
08:44So much potential wasted.
08:46I'm not here for you.
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09:021.
09:03Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver, Age of Ultron and WandaVision
09:15The degree to which bad timing and writing have tarnished Quicksilver in the MCU is staggering.
09:20Pietro Maximoff had potential in Avengers Age of Ultron.
09:23The speedster is a powerful and long-running member of the Avengers in the comics.
09:27Unfortunately, before he had a chance to really develop, he's abruptly killed off in
09:31the film's final battle.
09:34Mind you, the deck was stacked against him to begin with.
09:37The X-Men series had done Quicksilver in a more memorable way just a year earlier, with
09:41Evan Peters' take on the character.
09:46Things looked hopeful when Peters was brought in as Quicksilver in WandaVision.
09:53But then, it was revealed that his character was merely a brainwashed guy named Ralph Boner.
09:59How's that for a legacy?
10:01You're Ralph Boner?
10:04Boner.
10:06Is there an MC character let down by being left off our list?
10:11Call out your favorites down in the comments below.
10:13And don't forget to like and subscribe for more WatchMojo videos.
10:15Hey!
10:16There you are!
10:17Hey!
10:18I was just calling you.
10:20I was just calling you.
10:22NO!
10:23No!
10:24No, stop!
10:25We're you!
10:26No!
10:27No, stop!
10:28No, no, stop!
10:29No, stop!
10:30No, stop!
10:31No, stop!
10:32The X-Men's arc here!
10:33You ought to replace us.
10:34You ought to start to move on to the milestone, of daily content!
10:36No, stop!
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