In the last ten years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has released 23 movies. With each movie, it introduces a new comic book character to the silver screens. Even the unpopular and unknown characters and heroes have found unprecedented fame and fandom. Since the films cannot adapt every intricacy of the books, the creative team steps in with a modified plot and vision. This has served well to the fans so far. But the changes in the character arc of certain Marvel heroes and villains weren’t met by comic book fans with the same enthusiasm. These characters were brutally either sidelined or undermined in the movies. Here are the comic book characters that didn’t get justice in the MCU movies.
1. Betty Ross
The MCU was so focused on teasing us with Black Widow and Bruce Banner’s romance that it decided to miss out on a significant member of Bruce’s life. After replacing Edward Norton with Mark Ruffalo, MCU chucked out Betty Ross as if she never existed. The studio did revive characters like Martin Starr and General Ross but conveniently chose to forget his daughter Betty. Betty was Bruce’s love interest and wife and even went on to become the Red She-Hulk.
2. Sif
Sif is one of the strongest and most useful allies of Thor during his battles. None of Thor’s adventures were written without acclaiming Sif’s contribution. She was also the protector of the Bifrost in Asgard apart from Heimdall. But the MCU reduced Sif’s role to almost nothing in the first 2 movies of Thor. Later, she completely disappeared from Thor: Ragnarok, an event that such a major warrior wouldn’t miss. But it is said that Jamie Alexander’s schedule didn’t line up with that of the MCU.
3. Quicksilver
Quicksilver had the most tragic story arc in the MCU. No hero in the history of the superhero has had such a short time on the screen. His character was wiped out even before we could explore his origin. Quicksilver was Magneto’s son and a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants. He started as a nemesis of the X-Men but eventually emerged as a hero.
4. The Nova Corps
The Nova Corps was represented as an army present on Xander whose only job was to show their faces in the Guardians of the Galaxy. The movie chose to give more importance to Groot than to such a powerful and great army of the Marvel Universe.
They have the ability to radiate energy from his minds and even shoot up like rockets. The comic book pages are filled with Richard Rider’s alliance with the Star-Lord on several adventures in the cosmos.
5. The Wasp
Janet van Dyne aka Wasp is one of the original Avengers and the founding member of the team. The team is incomplete where her shadow and support. Janet dedicated her whole life to serve the Marvel superhero team. But the movies took the liberty to skip her part and wipe out her existence for most of Phase1 -3. She didn’t appear until Ant-Man and the Wasp after Scott Lang rescued her from the Quantum Realm where she got lost while stopping missile attack.
Now that Janet has finally hit the silver screen, we expect to see her remaining contributions in the upcoming phases of the MCU.
6. Sharon Carter
Sharon Carter was introduced in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and later revealed to be Peggy Carter’s niece. The comic books had exalted her extraordinary abilities as a Secret Avengers and the director of SHIELD. But the movie reduced her status and splendor to a spy watching Steve Rogers.
7. Ghost Rider
The most prominent Ghost Rider that fans remember from the big screen is the one played by Nicholas Cage. After finally earning rights to the flaming skull, Marvel brought him on the small screen in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. But fans’ expectations were diffused pretty soon as such a significant Marvel hero got a very short screen presence.
8. The Mandarin
The Mandarin is one of Iron Man’s biggest and most evil nemeses. Through the pages, the sinister man gave hard time to Stark with his cruel and cold acts and genius mind. Fans couldn’t help but build crazy ideas about the intimidating villain who was to finally appear in the Iron Man trilogy. The movie started on a good note by displaying exactly what Mandarin was made of. But as the story proceeded, he turned out to be a joke, a phony played by a drunkard actor. On realizing its blunder of destroying a potential villain, the franchise took steps to indicate the existence of the real Mandarin in the universe.
9. Maria Hill
Maria has shown up in every crisis and saved the Avengers’ a**es. She is an asset to SHIELD for her bravery, loyalty, intelligence, and combat skills. Yet, Maria just can’t seem to get out of Nick Fury’s shadow. The question is not about the screen time but the quality of the spotlight that her character gets. Her presence and decisions in the comic books had a powerful impact. It’s high team Maria get control of things as she had on the pages and is also given a story of herself.
10. Beta Ray Bill
Beta Ray Bill is a cosmic veteran and one of the entities worthy of the Mjolnir. After he defeated Thor in a face-off and wielded the hammer, Odin produced him with the Stormbreaker that Thor was seen sporting in the Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
Since then Beta Ray Bill became an ally of Thor and fought beside him through major God-level crisis on Asgard like Ragnarok. After a lot of anticipation, the character appeared in the MCU but as a head on a tower. He was supposed to have a significant role in Thor: Ragnarok but the producers and directors didn’t want to undermine the character in the rush of filming.
