7 Best Changes The MCU Made To Iconic Marvel Villains

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has always had to make changes to characters from the comics because some things won’t work well on the big screen. Sometimes, they don’t work out well, such as when the MCU changed Taskmaster into an entirely different character, robbing fans of seeing Tony Masters in a movie, or when it changed MODOK into a joke rather than the quirky villain Hulu fans got to love in the animated series. However, for every bad change, there have been changes that actually improved the villains in the MCU. In fact, some of the character changes have been so good that Marvel Comics changed them in the books as well.

From Marvel villains where the MCU made massive changes to two of the best MCU villains in history, here is a look at seven times the MCU made changes to villains that improved them.

7) Ghost

When looking at the Thunderbolts* in the MCU, some of the characters were very loyal to the comics, such as Winter Soldier and U.S. Agent, and others were close enough, such as Yelena Belova and Winter Soldier. However, two were changed drastically. Taskmaster was gender-swapped, but ended up nothing like the original character, who was a beloved Marvel Comics villain. A second was also gender-swapped, but this one actually improved on the character.

Ghost in the comics was a mysterious character who was a forgettable Iron Man villain, a corporate saboteur, and a thief. He first appeared in 1987 and is someone no one talks about anymore. However, the MCU made Ghost into a former SHIELD operative who was trained to be an assassin for the U.S. government when an accident made her unable to be touched. Bill Foster (the former Goliath) helped her master her powers, but she wanted a cure, and that turned her into a reluctant villain. She has since been rehabilitated, and the MCU version of Ghost is more interesting than the comics version ever was.

6) Abomination

Abomination, in his original appearance in The Incredible Hulk, was close enough to his comic book counterpart. However, instead of being a spy from Russia who was caught in a gamma incident, he was a U.S. military soldier who was given his powers after Hulk broke every bone in his body. He then turned evil, and Hulk had to stop him. It was close enough to his original comic book character not to make a big difference.

However, the Disney+ series She-Hulk reconfigured the character, and it was brilliant. Instead of always being the Abomination, he could now turn into Emil Blonsky, and he kept his intellect throughout it all. He got out of prison and started a therapy group for former bad guys, and wanted to help people get better. It was a brilliant change, and was nothing like the comics, making Abomination interesting rather than just another brute-force gamma villain.

5) Grandmaster

In Marvel Comics, Grandmaster and The Collector are Elders of the Universe. Neither character in the MCU was an Elder of the Universe, with The Collector (Benicio Del Toro) just a man who collected different species, but didn’t seem powerful at all. He was wiped out easily by Thanos. At the same time, Grandmaster also had no superhuman powers at all and was nothing like the immensely powerful character from Marvel Comics.

Instead, Jeff Goldblum played Grandmaster like a grifter, setting up his gladatorial games on Sakaar with an army doing all the dirty work for him. He was funny and sarcastic, and one of the best characters in Thor: Ragnarok. While some comic book fans might have been disappointed to see Grandmaster as nothing more than a regular guy pulling the strings, Jeff Goldblum helped the character steal every scene he was in.

4) Ulysses Klaue

Klaw in the comics had an almost alien look, and his right hand was turned into a sonic canon that allowed him to unleash his full powers. The MCU version was very similar in appearance to how the character looked in Marvel Comics in the past, before he was changed into the solid sound bodied villain that most comic book fans know him from. However, it was his personality that the MCU changed for the better.

When Ulysses Klaue first appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron, it was disappointing. However, when he reappeared in Black Panther, it was a revelation. Played by Andy Serkis of Lord of the Rings fame, Klaw was a hilariously arrogant arms dealer who helped Killmonger in his attempt to take over Wakanda. He stole every scene he was in, especially with his talk about his musical career and mixtapes, and Klaw was more entertaining than he has ever been in the comics.

3) Fake Mandarin

Iron Man 3 was one of the most polarizing MCU films when it was released. The biggest complaint was that the movie used a bait-and-switch with the character of the Mandarin. A lot of fans wanted to see Iron Man battle his Marvel Comics nemesis in a battle of science vs. magic, and it never happened. When the movie revealed that the terrorist Mandarin was actually an actor hired to play the role for the real villains, a lot of fans rebelled.

However, this was a brilliant moment in Iron Man 3. It turned everything on its head, and while Aldrich Killian didn’t turn out to be a very good villain in the end, Trevor Slattery was a brilliant creation. The switch he flipped between his role as the Mandarin and who he really was was perfection, and it was one of the MCU’s best moments. When he returned in Shang-Chi with the real Mandarin, he was even better, and he returns in 2026 in Wonder Man. Trevor Slattery is a fantastic character, and better than the Marvel comics version of Mandarin ever could have been.

2) Loki

In Marvel, Loki was, for years, one of the most dangerous villains in comics. He was someone who was always a threat to Thor, and he was so powerful that he caused the Avengers to team up for the first time. That is exactly what happened in the MCU, first in Thor and then in The Avengers. However, there was something the MCU did differently that forced significant changes to the character. The year that Thor came out, Tom Hiddleston turned Loki from an evil villain wanting conquest into something a little more sympathetic.

It was Shakespearean, with one son feeling neglected and wanting to claim what was his. That same year, Marvel changed Loki up in the comics, too, and along with the MCU, they both began to make him a little less evil and a lot more sympathetic. The Loki in the MCU is nothing like the comic character used to be, but thanks to the MCU, he has become more of an antihero in the comics now as well.

1) Killmonger

The Marvel villain who changed for the best in the MCU is easily Killmonger. Both the comics and the MCU had Killmonger as a man who wanted to conquer and take over the leadership of Wakanda. In the comics, he succeeded, but the herb rejected him, and he ended up in a coma, never able to really fulfill his goals. He was mostly seen as a blunt force villain as well, someone who rushed in and fought his way to victory.

However, Michael B. Jordan did something much more interesting with the character in Black Panther. He was charismatic and won people over as much with his words as he did with his might. He had a tragic backstory, and he had every right to feel that Wakanda had taken his birthright from him. He was the most sympathetic villain in MCU history, even as he was also the most violent. Killmonger is the best MCU villain of all time, and no one who knew him from Marvel Comics could have ever predicted that.

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