Marvel Comics has been pushing the boundaries of what a superhero comic can be for decades now. This started in the Silver Age, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby put their heroes in a place that was just like the real world, giving them more realistic problems and putting them in a shared universe. Their comics were looked at as more mature than their distinguished competition’s and this has been something that stuck over the years. Marvel’s creators have taken their heroes in all kinds of directions, with some characters pushing the envelope in ways that made them extremely controversial, their actions echoing in the real world.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Sometimes, these controversies have been overblown and didn’t really even deserve to be controversial, but some people can’t help themselves when they see something that breaks from their world view. Other times, creators took the characters in directions that look terrible in the light of the modern day. These are the seven most controversial Marvel heroes, each of them causing an uproar for various reasons.
7) Sam Wilson as Captain America
Sam Wilson is the MCU’s Captain America, a mantle he also holds in the comics. While the vast majority of comic fans were happy he became the Sentinel of Liberty in the mid ’10s, there was a small yet very vocal minority who were against it for what can only be called racist reasons. To them, Captain America represented the nation and they didn’t want an African-American man holding the shield. Fox News got mad when he battled the Sons of the Serpent at the US/Mexico to save undocumented immigrants, because Captain America was beating up on people that had the same beliefs of them. Sam stepping into a mantle he had spent years preparing for shouldn’t have been a controversy, but that’s what happens when you have culture war tourists.
6) Captain Marvel
Speaking of culture war tourists, let’s look at another character they complained about. There have been numerous Captains Marvel in Marvel history, with the latest being Carol Danvers. She had definitely earned the upgrade, but a bunch of culture war tourists took umbrage at a woman stepping into a man’s mantle… despite Carol not even being the first. Or the second. In fact, if you don’t count the Skrull Captain Marvel from Secret Invasion, more women have been Captain Marvel than men. Add in the various idiots who hate Brie Larson’s MCU version of the character, and you have an entire grifter ecosystem who have sprung up to hate on Captain Marvel.
5) Reed Richards
If the Fantastic Four is the First Family of the Marvel Universe, then Reed Richards is its father. The original Fantastic Four comics started in a very different time and Reed was a man of that day. He was very much a misogynist and has slapped Sue more than once over the years. In the present day, he’s sometimes a pragmatic scientist and other times a devoted family man, creating a minor controversy with fans who want him to be diagnosed with autism. Honestly, it’s weird that fans don’t talk as much as about his very misogynistic past, especially in light of another hero on this list and his treatment by fans.
4) Spider-Man
Spider-Man is Marvel’s most popular hero, but there have been numerous controversies with the character in the 21st century. The biggest, of course, is the whole thing with his marriage to Mary Jane and everything that’s happened since. “One More Day” did away with it and since then, there has always been a vocal contingent of fans who have hated the decision. Spider-Man fans are some of the loudest on the Internet and Marvel has given them good reason to complain, never listening to their critiques and doing things that anger them. Maybe one day, the relationship between Spidey’s fans and Marvel editorial may get better, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen any time soon.
3) Hank Pym
Hank Pym was one of the original Silver Age Marvel heroes and a founding member of the Avengers. He’s worked under numerous codenames – Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, Wasp, and his own name – and created Ultron, but that’s not the act that made him a controversial character. No, that would be that time when he was in the midst of bipolar mania and slapped his wife Janet. This moment has basically defined the character in the years since, as he’s become known as the “wife-beating Avenger”.
2) The Punisher
The Punisher was one of the first anti-heroes and has become something of a Marvel legend. Frank Castle is a man obsessed with killing criminals and this has made him something of an icon among the law and order/military crowd. However, these culture war tourists have never actually read any of his comics, because Frank knows that he’s a bad guy. He isn’t on some righteous quest, he’s just a killer and he knows it. He doesn’t want the police or the military to be like him and he has killed ones who tried. Punisher co-creator Gerry Conway had to step in and set the record straight on the character, but you can still find Blue Lives Matter Punisher skull stickers all over the place, especially if your town voted red.
1) Starfox
Starfox is the brother of Thanos, an Eternal of Titan will all the powers that implies. However, he also has another power, the ability to make people do whatever he wants and that’s where the problem with the character arises. Starfox has used his powers on women before and made them like him, with a She-Hulk story from the ’00s revolving around a sexual assault charge on the hero. While he was found not guilty, the story heavily implied that he wasn’t innocent and did use his power to sexually assault women. The fact that they brought him into the MCU (even if only for a moment) knowing that these stories existed is one of the most tone deaf, brazen moves Marvel ever made.
What Marvel heroes do you find controversial? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of Madhouse -
Crunchyroll / Sony Pictures Entertainment -
Image Courtesy of The WB -
Image Courtesy of Studio Bind, Inc.
