The Avengers became the centerpiece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that wasn’t really a surprise. Phase One of the MCU was all about introducing the team members, which paid off in 2012’s The Avengers. The movie was a huge success and opened the door for many of the greatest Avengers characters, both heroes and villains, to debut on the big screen. There’s no doubt that MCU has done some amazing adaptations of Avengers characters, but not every character has turned out so well. The MCU may be the most beloved superhero cinematic universe, but they aren’t always perfect at adaptation.
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The MCU has done a grave injustice to some classic Avengers characters. The irony is that many of these characters still became popular, but multiple factors led to them not being as great as they should have been, especially looking at the source material and previous MCU appearances. These five Avengers characters were ruined by the MCU, kicking mud all over characters that could have been so much more.
Thanos
So, let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: Josh Brolin’s portrayal of Thanos is phenomenal. Avengers: Infinity Wars is considered by many to be the greatest MCU film and Thanos is a huge reason for that. Thanos is easily one of the most hated villains in the MCU, but that hate is informed by how much everyone watching the movie loved every single second Thanos is on screen. However, that doesn’t mean that the MCU didn’t ruin the character of Thanos.
To begin with, there’s Thanos’s reasoning for destroying half the universe in the movies. Thanos believes that killing half of everything will somehow save the universe. His entire idea is nonsensical, at best. Why didn’t he just use the Stones to make more resources? His solution is also temporary, as one day, the number of beings will reach what it was, putting all existence in danger again. However, the biggest problem with this is what it does to Thanos as a character.
MCU fans, when they find out that Thanos in the comics is in love with Mistress Death, love to point out how dumb of an idea that is. However, Thanos’s love of Death in the comics is a clever metaphor; Thanos is a nihilist. He doesn’t believe in the value of any life. His love of Death is the ultimate act of a nihilist. This is a much better version of Thanos than what we saw in the MCU. The big-screen Thanos is shortsighted and, honestly, kind of dumb, while the comics Thanos is a deep character with layers.
Ultron
Avengers: Age of Ultron is considered to be the weakest Avengers movie by many fans, and Ultron is a big reason for that. Ultron in the MCU is the definition of everything wrong with how Marvel Studios adapts villains. Ultron in the comics is a scary, genocidal monster. His hatred of humanity is visceral and it’s all wound up in his Oedipal enmity for his creator Hank Pym. In many ways, Ultron is a member of the Avengers’ family, which makes their rivalry that much more personal. Ultron doesn’t make jokes, he’s deadly serious at all times. Calling him “inhuman” would be a compliment to Ultron. The Avengers were more afraid of Ultron than they were of Thanos, which really says it all.
MCU Ultron is basically Loki as an android. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki always steals the show because he’s clever and funny. Avengers: Age of Ultron tried to make Ultron into that kind of villain. Ultron was quipping, Ultron was funny, and Ultron was clever. The one thing that Ultron wasn’t is scary. James Spader did a great job in the vocal role, but he definitely wasn’t Ultron. MCU Ultron discarded all the things that made Ultron a great villain in the comics, destroying the character. Hopefully, if Ultron returns to the MCU, they’ll get the villain right and make him the chilling monster he should be.
Baron Zemo
Technically, Helmut Zemo in the MCU never appeared in an Avengers movie. However, Helmut Zemo has mainly been an Avengers character since he took his father’s place as Baron Zemo in the comics. On top of that, many fans out there jokingly call Captain America: Civil War “Avengers 2.5,” so we’re counting him. Captain America: Civil War is one of the more beloved MCU films, but Zemo, played by Daniel Brühl, is actually one of the worst parts of the movie. He’s something of a cliche — he hates the heroes because of the deaths of his family — and barely comes across as a one-dimensional character in the movie. Zemo’s next appearance in Falcon and the Winter Soldier is a little better, since it adds another facet to the character, but it also makes him more of a joke than an actual threat to any heroes.
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Baron Zemo in the comics is also something of a cliche — evil Nazi legacy villain — but it’s a much better cliche because it’s basically the perfect villainous cliche. Zemo in the comics is a great tactician and hand-to-hand combatant, able to fight Captain America to a standstill. He became Bucky’s archenemy when Bucky was Cap. Comics Zemo was even funny, just in a different way than the MCU one. Comics Zemo was over the top and melodramatic, and this made it easy to laugh at him at times. Unlike MCU Zemo, though, he was never a joke. That’s an important distinction, and it’s distinctions like that are why MCU Zemo isn’t a great character.
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch, played by Elizabeth Olsen, is a very interesting character. Wanda Maximoff was introduced alongside her brother Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron and has become a beloved part of the MCU. Olsen has done a fabulous job playing the character, becoming a fan favorite. However, Olsen can only take what she’s given and what she’s been given since Avengers: Endgame has ruined the character.
Scarlet Witch having a loss in her personal life and going evil is a common trope for the character. It’s happened in the comics multiple times. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The MCU pulled one of the latter. Scarlet Witch in WandaVision is a monster — she enslaved an entire town to play out her fantasies to the point they begged for death — and the show tries to pretend that she’s justified. Scarlet Witch in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is at least portrayed as evil, but there’s something missing from her as a character. Say what you will about WandaVision, but it showed the layers of Wanda. Multiverse of Madness jettisoned all of that and basically poisoned the well for the character. Many fans want Scarlet Witch to return to the MCU, but it’s almost impossible to imagine her being redeemed. Scarlet Witch in the comics has come back from some pretty heinous things, MCU Scarlet Witch’s actions don’t feel redeemable.
Black Widow
Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow first appeared in Iron Man 2 and fans loved her. The MCU’s Natasha Romanov was a great character, and The Avengers cemented that. Her next appearance in Captain America: Winter Soldier was also brilliant, and it would be easy to say that Black Widow was one of the best MCU characters. Things took a turn, though, with Avengers: Age of Ultron. Black Widow felt like she stepped into the background, her relationship with the Hulk seemingly more important than anything else about the character. The movie also included the most panned Black Widow moment: talking about the Red Room taking away her ability to have children. This is a super controversial moment; in some ways, it makes sense to sterilize femme fatale assassins, since pregnancies would slow them down. The problem isn’t the idea, however, it’s the way the movie frames this idea.
Black Widow never recovered from Age of Ultron, and the MCU kept doing damage to the character. She lost the tenacity and humor that had been the hallmark of the character. Sometimes, it made sense, like in Avengers: Endgame, but most of the time it just felt like no one felt like writing her anymore — and then they killed her. Black Widow’s death was a tragedy, but after years of marginalizing the character, no one was surprised. They waited until after she was dead to finally give her a solo film, a movie that had its highlights but was overall disappointing to audiences. It’s mystifying.
It’s not so much that the MCU ruined the comic version of the character; they certainly did towards the end, but it feels like they had already stopped caring about Black Widow at that point anyway. Marvel Studios did a tremendous job of building Black Widow into one of the best parts of the MCU, so her precipitous downfall is even more grievous. Hopefully, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Bolova Black Widow, who has also started very, very strong, won’t go the same way as Johansson’s Natasha.
