6 Things In The MCU That Are Not Canon In The Comics

The MCU has done a great job of bringing the world of Marvel Comics to life on the big screen. The franchise is currently one of the highest-grossing movie series in history, and it shows no sign of slowing in the near future, with two more Avengers movies slated to be released in the next couple of years. Part of the reason for this success comes from how well the MCU has adapted the likes of Iron Man and Captain America to the big screen.

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Staying faithful to the source material has allowed the MCU to show audiences why their heroes are so great. However, there have been a few times in the past when the franchise had to deviate from things that are established in the comics. Most of these changes have managed to work, but some audiences are unaware of what exactly has been changed.

6 Hawkeye’s Family

The Archer Is More Of A Lone Wolf In Comics

The first Avengers movie had the difficult task of balancing six big characters in a way that gives them all the spotlight. As such, it was inevitable that one of these heroes would be sidelined in the movie. It was just unfortunate that this character happened to be the expert archer, Hawkeye. Therefore, the franchise needed to find a way to make him more compelling in the sequel.

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That is why it is revealed that Hawkeye has a secret family living on a farm in Avengers: Age of Ultron. This change took everyone by surprise, especially comic book fans. That is because the character of Hawkeye is more of a lone wolf in the comics. He has had romances with other Avengers, like Mockingbird, in the past, but giving him an entire family was a big step for the archer.

5 Spider-Man’s Role in Civil War

Spider-Man Switched To Team Cap

• Captain America: Civil War

When Marvel announced that the third Captain America movie in the MCU would be adapting the Civil War storyline, many comics fans knew the story would be very different. That is because the 2007 Civil War event from the comics featured a conflict that included most of the heroes in the Marvel universe. At the time of the movie’s announcement, the MCU was yet to introduce many of the characters needed to adapt such a story. However, the studio had just made a late deal with Sony that allowed them to use the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in their movie universe.

In the comics, games-ranked/”>Spider-Man has a big role to play in the Civil War event. He begins the story by siding with Tony and reveals his secret identity, but later sides with Captain America when the war starts to go awry. Captain America: Civil War was the first appearance of this version of Spider-Man in the MCU, so the movie kept things simple by having him only being recruited by Iron Man in a move that has worked out well for the character.

4 Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s Origin

The Mutant Children of Magneto

Marvel Studios has recently acquired the rights to use mutants in the MCU, but these characters were still owned by Fox in 2015. That is why Avengers: Age of Ultron had to change the origins of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to use them in the MCU.

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These two characters ended up being experiments by Hydra in the movie instead of powerful mutants, so the pair could join The Avengers in a necessary change. Now that Marvel has the right to use mutants, they may retcon this decision. However, the change to these two characters was fundamental for bringing these Avengers into the MCU without breaking any rights agreements.

3 Thanos’ Motivation

The MCU’s Big Bad Wants To Court Death, Not Bring Balance

By the time the credits had finished rolling after the first Avengers movie, audiences got their first tease of the Mad Titan, Thanos. In his exchange with a servant, there is a mention of Thanos trying to court death. This is because Death is a physical manifestation in the comic books (and Deadpool lover), one that Thanos tries to win over by gathering the Infinity Stones and wiping out half the universe.

However, there is no mention of Death when Thanos starts his crusade in Avengers: Infinity War, and his motivation for wiping out half the universe stems from trying to preserve the universe’s resources. This motivation makes Thanos a more understandable and reasonable villain, which is probably why the filmmakers decided to make this change.

2 Ultron

The Creation of Hank Pym, Not Tony Stark

Ultron is one of the biggest threats to The Avengers in the comic books. That is what made him a great choice for the villain of the second movie. Unfortunately, this psychotic AI was created by the first Ant-Man, Hank Pym, who had not yet appeared in the MCU by the time Ultron was to be unleashed.

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Luckily, the MCU had another established character in the movie universe with the background and resources to bring Ultron to life. As a result, Tony Stark was the one who created Ultron in the movie and the results are essentially the same as how they are in the comics.

1 Secret Identities

The Final Words In Iron Man Changed Everything

There was a very relaxed approach to the first Iron Man movie. The studio has explained that a lot of the film’s dialogue was improvised, and Robert Downey Jr.’s iconic and immortalized line, “I am Iron Man” at the end of the movie is a full circle moment 10 years later. This reveal changed everything for the MCU, as most of its heroes no longer had to worry about hiding secret identities like they do in the comics.

Tony Stark is traditionally portrayed as a billionaire who uses Iron Man as a bodyguard, and Thor is a doctor named Donald Blake in the comics. There have been a few nods to these ideas in the MCU, and some characters like Spider-Man and Daredevil have kept their identities secret. However, the MCU is largely unconcerned with the idea of secret alter-egos from the comics and has been able to tell stories with these characters operating in the public eye.

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