Marvel Comics vs the MCU: 15 Biggest Page-to-Screen Changes

Important Characters Missing

The most obvious difference is probably the absence of mutants from the X-Men comic book series and the Fantastic Four characters, for which 20th Century Fox has owned the rights for many years.

It must be said, however, that one of the Fantastic Four superheroes does appear in the new movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Twins

The absence of the X-Men in the MCU had a direct impact on the origins of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, also known as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. In the movies, the two are represented as ordinary children who gained their abilities as a result of experiments on humans using an Infinity Stone.

Their story is slightly different in WandaVision, but their origins are just the same: they are children of ordinary Sokovians, who were victims of a rocket explosion. But in the comics, their father was Magneto himself!

Natasha Is Just A Spy

Natasha Romanoff, or Black Widow, was not just a super spy trained by the Soviet Intelligence services in the Red Room (as the movie has it), but to some extent, she was also a superhuman — thanks to scientific experiments that gave her extreme strength, flexibility, endurance, and even accelerated healing abilities. In Natasha's solo movie, we only learn that she can't attack her former boss, Dreykov.

Hawkeye Can Hear

In the comic books, Hawkeye (aka Clint Barton) is hard of hearing, and he also has a superhero brother. The movies don't follow these details, but the Hawkeye series does reveal that a series of traumatic events took their toll on the character's hearing.

The foundation of the Avengers

Both in the comics and the Avengers movie, the superhero team was drawn together to defeat Loki. The only difference is that, in the comics, he simply tried to pit the Hulk against Thor, while in the movie, Loki devised a clever plan to set the heroes against each other and take over the Earth.

Drax, Destroyer, Human

Drax the Destroyer, one of the Guardians of the Galaxy, is actually a human character in the comics, unlike in the movie. And his real name is Arthur, by the way.

Fury's Marines

Remember the brave team of the U.S. Marines that Cap saves in The First Avenger? It consisted of Timothy "Dum Dum" Duggan, Gabe Jones, Jim Morita, James Montgomery Falsworth, and Jacques Dernier. More importantly, this team worked with Nick Fury in the comics, not with Captain America.

The Founders of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In the movies, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded by Peggy Carter and Howard Stark to oppose HYDRA, whereas in the comic books, the organization has a long history, and Carter and Stark are just two of many of its leaders.

Fake Mandarin

In Iron Man's third solo film, we get to meet one of his main adversaries, the mighty Mandarin. It turns out, however, that the Mandarin is just a British actor hired to intimidate the public. Aldrich Killian, the man responsible for the hoax, mumbled something about him being the Mandarin, but it didn't sound very convincing.

In the comics, of course, everything was different: the Mandarin was an actual villain, and he did cause a lot of trouble to Iron Man.

Spidey's New Friends

The Marvel Cinematic Universe gave us a new impersonation of Spider-Man by Tom Holland, and the character also got a couple of new friends: instead of the usual Harry Osborn, Mary Jane, and Gwen Stacy, we get to meet MJ and Ned Leeds.

Star-Lord's Father

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, we learn that Peter Quill's father is a celestial named Ego. In the comic books, Star-Lord is the son of J'son, the Emperor of Spartax.

Ultron's Creator

According to Age of Ultron, this artificial intelligence was created by Tony Stark. But in the comics, his father is Hank Pym, aka the first Ant-Man.

Phil Coulson

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent became very popular with the movie fans, but we have to point out that this character is completely new to the superhero world: Phil Coulson was never mentioned in the comics.

Original Avengers

In the comic books, the original Avengers team was very different from the one presented in the movie: it included Ant-Man and the Wasp, but Black Widow was not on the list.

Baron Zemo

A character named Zemo appears in Captain America: Civil War. According to the movie, he takes revenge on the Avengers for his family who died in Sokovia during the battle with Ultron.

In the comics, Zemo carries the title of Baron and prefers to act with brute force instead of subtle psychological manipulation.