The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had almost two decades of incredible movies and characters, but not all MCU characters match up with the comic book characters they depict. In some cases, there have been some masterful casting choices. Chris Hemsworth is a perfect Thor, and there might not be anyone better than Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. to play the parts of Captain America and Iron Man. Several other casting choices improved on the comic book characters, with Dave Bautista being a better Drax than his comic book counterpart and Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger becoming better on the big screen than his comic book character ever dreamed of being.
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However, there are also several characters that the MCU brought to the big screen who failed in every way to match up to the comic book characters they were based on.
5) Quicksilver
Avengers: Age of Ultron introduced the Maximoff twins, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. While Wanda Maximoff became a massive part of the MCU and Elizabeth Olsen was perfect casting for the character, Aaron Taylor-Johnson was hugely miscast as her brother Pietro. It wasn’t just the casting, but the portrayal of Quicksilver was a terrible page-to-screen adaptation.
Quicksilver lost all the arrogance and self-assurance that his comic book counterpart possessed. He wasn’t anything like the comic book character and was nothing more than a plot device, making his sacrifice at the end of the movie mean nothing other than how it affected his sister. What makes it even worse is that Fox also had a Quicksilver in Evan Peters, who was better in every way. While that version of Quicksilver was also nothing like the comics, he was at least entertaining and fun, while the MCU Quicksilver was nothing more than forgettable.
4) Malekith
In Marvel Comics, Malekith was a destructive and dangerous villain who almost conquered the entire world. In the MCU, he was the villain in the most forgettable movie the franchise ever put out, and a villain that virtually no one remembers anything about. Thor: The Dark World was the first disappointment for the MCU, a movie whose original director (Patty Jenkins) was fired, and then it barely did anything better with her replacement (Alan Taylor).
There were some big things in the movie, such as Loki’s start in his face turn, and the death of Thor’s mother. However, the main villain was Malekith, the King of the Dark Elves, and despite the fact that Christopher Eccleston played the villain, it is hard to remember anything about him that stands out from any other villain in the MCU’s early movies. Even the final battle was a blurry haze of special effects, and by the end, Malekith was the worst villain in MCU history.
3) Ultron
Ultron has been one of Marvel Comics’ signature villains for decades. In the comics, Hank Pym built him to help save the planet from all threats. When Ultron decided the biggest threat to Earth was humanity, he set out to destroy humans to save the planet. It was an incredible story device, and the MCU used the same idea. The only difference is that Tony Stark built him instead of Hank Pym.
However, where the MCU Ultron really fell short was the way he was depicted. Instead of being robotic and totally evil, he learned his dialect from scrolling the Internet and had an almost lackluster, calm demeanor. It never felt like Ultron, and he barely felt like a threat, even though he obviously was. What If…? brought back Ultron and did so much better than Age of Ultron did with the character, showing what a disappointment the MCU movie version actually was.
2) Taskmaster
There is a big reason that Black Widow changed everything about Taskmaster. This movie needed to have Taskmaster as a different character to play into the storyline of the Red Room and as a plot device to make Dreykov (Ray Winstone) such a huge threat. In the MCU, Taskmaster was Dreykov’s daughter, who was injured in an explosion caused by Black Widow in the past. Her father then trained her to be an unstoppable fighter for his cause.
However, the most disappointing thing about Taskmaster for comic book fans is that Tony Masters is such a fantastic character. Of course, Tony is Taskmaster in Marvel Comics, a villain with photographic reflexes that allow him to mimic any fighting style after only seeing it one time. He is often funny, with a biting, sarcastic sense of humor, and he is extremely popular. It might have been better to have Dreykov’s daughter as a different villain, because stripping the MCU of the chance to have Tony Masters as Taskmaster was a considerable loss.
1) Adam Warlock
Nothing against Will Poulter, but he was a terrible choice for Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and that character was one of James Gunn’s only real fumbles with that franchise. In the comics, Adam Warlock is one of Marvel’s most powerful characters and someone who stands toe-to-toe with Thanos and doesn’t blink. In the MCU, he was basically a newborn with an attitude problem and no distinctive personality whatsoever.
When Fantastic Four: First Steps changed Silver Surfer into Shalla-Bal, it at least made sense in the alternate Earth timeline and still left the door open for Norrin Radd to eventually show up down the line. Poulter’s performance as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 was a colossal misstep. It destroyed what could have been one of Marvel’s most powerful and important cosmic characters, and instead turned him into a walking joke.
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