Back in the Phase One days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seemed as though there were a ton of villains who were fully off the table. Some of them were due to rights issues, e.g. the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, but that particular issue has been almost entirely eradicated by Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox (of which 20th Century Fox, now 20th Century Studios, was a division) and its collaboration with Sony to incorporate the webslinger. Other issues had to do with heroes or, especially, villains, whose powers seemed incredibly difficult to put on screen. Yet, Mephisto ended up in Ironheart and Sentry ended up in Thunderbolts*.
Videos by ComicBook.com
But the following villains seem like they’re going to remain off the table. Most of it has to do with controversial aspects of their character, but there’s an occasional power issue, as well.
7) Mandrill
A controversial Marvel villain for good reason, Jerome Beechman aka Mandrill was born to white parents, who then rejected him because of his fur and ape-like appearance. Then there’s his power, which has him exude pheromones that entrance just women, never a man, at which point he essentially makes them his slaves.
There’s nothing about Mandrill that would ever work in an MCU movie. It probably would have only flied if the MCU started in the ’70s, which is when Mandrill was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. That said, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law had an Easter Egg reference to the character when Jennifer Walters was researching the misogynistic Intelligencia.
6) Baron Blood
A Marvel villain more powerful than Captain America (who Cap beat anyway), Baron Blood would probably be left off because of his Nazi origins. For one, Captain America: The First Avenger already outright did Nazis while Captain America: The Winter Soldier also did it more subtly (with the word Nazi essentially replaced by HYDRA).
Two, Nazism is once more a major talking point, at least in the United States. Marvel probably doesn’t want to shovel $200 million into a project where the lead villain is a Nazi vampire. Which brings us to the third reason a Nazi vampire wouldn’t be included: the failure of Morbius (which wasn’t MCU but tanked hard enough to likely keep vampires out of it for quite some time).
5) Ultimate Blob
Kevin Durand played a version of Blob in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but he was nothing like the grotesque Ultimate Blob, who makes Penguin in Batman Returns look clean-cut by comparison. Covered in pimples and with a mouth full of nasty teeth, he would make kids run out of the theater.
Then there’s something he did in Ultimatum. After a tidal wave pretty much annihilates New York City, a few Ultimates died, including the Wasp. Ultimate Blob ate her drowned corpse, dripping blood out of his mouth which, at that moment, was curved upwards in a smile. Hard pass on the MCU ever feeling the need to adapt that.
4) Marcus Immortus
For one, Marcus Immortus was the product of his father assaulting a woman he was exerting mind control over. Two, Marcus himself then does the same thing to Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers then, as opposed to Kamala Khan, as seen in the MCU).
Then there’s the weird part, which is how Ms. Marvel then gave birth not to Marcus’ son, but Marcus himself, who had been trapped in Limbo. Nothing about Marcus Immortus would remotely play in the MCU.
3) The Liberators
Introduced in Ultimates 2 #9 the Liberators was essentially the Sinister Six if the Sinister Six was chock full of problematic characters. On one hand, they had the backing of governments such as China, France, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Syria, which would ding the movie or TV series overseas market potential.
As for the members of the team themselves, The Colonel is a Muslim boy who became a super soldier to get revenge on Captain America after Cap led the invasion into Iran while another is Schizoid Man, whose name alone excludes him. However, a few of the Liberators have been adapted, albeit in version very different from what was seen in Ultimates. Specifically, Loki, Abomination, and Crimson Dynamo.
2) The Yellow Claw
Between the Mandarin, the Yellow Claw, and the next entry on our list, Marvel sure does have a history of creating characters based off of Asian stereotypes. As for the Yellow Claw, he’s out based on the character’s name alone.
Not helping matters are the long fingernails, the long, straight moustache, and his motives, which usually were a play on Americans’ fears of Communism. He hasn’t been seen in about 25 years now and it seems likely to stay that way.
1) Fu Manchu
Another of the most cringe of cringe Marvel characters, Fu Manchu, aka Zheng Zu, is a walking talking stereotype. The reasons for his exclusion are pretty much identical to the reason why the Yellow Claw would be left out of MCU projects.
The MCU got away with the Mandarin by dialing the stereotypes way back and by focusing on his relationship with his family. It worked. If you dial Fu Manchu back as much as you need to for him to work there’d be nothing left. The reason Fu Manchu ranks one notch higher than the Yellow Claw? The licensing would be a little tricky, as only the first three books (Fu Manchu is not a Marvel original) are in the public domain in the United States. Why go through the hassle for something that won’t work and offend folks?
Most Viewed
-
Courtesy of Disney -
Image courtesy of XYZ Films
