10 Great Marvel Characters Failed By The MCU

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Secret Invasion
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) See at Disney+ The Marvel Cinematic Universe has proven its uncanny ability to develop characters across its dozens of projects, but among the numerous success stories sit a few heroes and villains that never quite reached their potential. While the Iron Mans and Captain Americas of the MCU, with their fully fleshed-out stories and notable character development, are the norm, it's inevitable that others receive the short end of the stick. Thought it's rare, these missteps are never-the-less disappointing.
From Phase 1 classic characters to new heroes from the MCU's Phase 4 & 5, there are several reasons why the MCU has failed some iconic Marvel mainstays. Some were reduced to one-project villains without much depth, while others were taken in unsatisfactory or illogical narrative directions. Others yet had their biggest moment relegated off-screen. Whatever the reason, these characters never got to live up to their full Marvel potential.
10 Maria Hill In Secret Invasion Maria Hill was introduced back in Phase 1's The Avengers, but the right-hand of Nick Fury never really got her time to shine as the experienced and effective agent she is. Each appearance teased a potentially brighter future to come, so it was exciting when Phase 5's Secret Invasion series presented for Maria to return to the spotlight for longer-form storytelling. However, despite a promising start, Maria Hill is killed in Secret Invasion episode 1. Hill's death is an effective close to the series premiere, but it highlights the fact that the MCU never gave one of SHIELD's top agents her due while she was around.
9 Malekith In Thor: The Dark World Thor: The Dark World is rarely remembered among the best the MCU has to offer, and a big reason why is that Malekith is a disappointing villain. The Dark Elf of Svartalfheim is one of Thor's most notable and dangerous villains on the pages of Marvel Comics, but his on-screen counterpart never rose beyond a generic villain with the overdone goal of power and conquest. Malekith's plan was forgettable and his dialogue was bland, all made worse by the fact that they wasted an actor as talented as Christopher Eccleston.
8 Baron Mordo In Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Mordo is a particularly disappointing MCU failure because of how well he was set up in Doctor Strange. A magic user that grows increasingly disillusioned by the practitioners of his own art after being exposed to magic's effect on reality is a fascinating villain origin, and Doctor Strange ended with Baron Mordo on a quest to kill anyone practicing the mystic arts. However, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness introduces a multiverse variant of Mordo and leaves the original's quest untouched. He may appear in the eventual Doctor Strange 3, but even so, his quest going ignored for so long has killed any momentum his character arc had.
7 Wasp In Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania Hope van Dyne's Wasp has constantly seemed ready to step into the spotlight but has been repeatedly sidelined in favor of other characters in the Ant-Man movies. While hope had a more significant role in Ant-Man and the Wasp, her significance took a step back in Quantumania. While it's great that the original Wasp, Janet van Dyne, is given such narrative significance in the trilogy closer, it's disappointing that it seemingly came at the expense of Hope's development and involvement.
6 The Warriors 3 In The Thor Movies Though technically three characters, the Warriors 3 as a group are left largely unexplored throughout Thor, Thor: The Dark World, and Thor: Ragnarok. Presented as close friends of Thor in his first MCU outing, the trio simply never got much to do. Worse yet, Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun are unceremoniously killed by Hela in Ragnarok, barely getting more narrative attention than the waves of nameless Asgardians killed in Hela's attempted coup.
5 Hulk In Avengers: Endgame Of all the characters in the MCU, Bruce Banner/Hulk has arguably had the most interesting behind-the-scenes journey. The only original Avenger to be recast so far, Hulk's complicated film rights meant that he only appeared in team-up movies after The Incredible Hulk. Despite that, Banner and his alter ego still underwent the beginning of a fascinating character arc in which he started to develop a relationship and understanding between his halves. However, the character journey is awkwardly resolved when the unification of Banner and Hulk takes place entirely off-screen between Infinity War and Endgame, resulting in the hybrid "Professor Hulk."
4 Sif In Thor: Love & Thunder While the Warriors 3 were never given much development in the Thor franchise, there were signs that Sif would grow into a more important figure across the first two Thor films and an appearance on Agents of SHIELD. However, the Asgardian warrior failed to appear in Ragnarok, and her return in Thor: Love and Thunder was a disappointment. Her reunion scene with Thor after she'd been nearly killed by Gorr was largely played for a laugh before her character disappeared once again.
3 Taskmaster In Black Widow Taskmaster was significantly changed in translation from the pages of Marvel Comics to the Black Widow movie, and while some of the changes make sense on paper, the result is a dull villain that fails to make an impression. Taskmaster's swap from mercenary-for-hire to a survivor of a past Black Widow assassination makes sense in theory, but the decision to turn the character into a speechless, mind-controlled drone robbed her of any personality. Fortunately, Thunderbolts can still fix Black Widow's Taskmaster mistake, as the character has surely developed in the in-universe years since her last appearance.
2 Quicksilver in Avengers: Age Of Ultron After the breakout success of Evan Peter's Quicksilver in Fox's X-Men: Days of Future Past, Marvel studios had the difficult task of presenting an equally memorable interpretation of Pietro Maximoff that didn't seem like a ripoff. Unfortunately, the talented Aaron Taylor-Johnson wasn't able to do much with a script that made the speedster an overly serious plot device that only seemed to exist to die and motivate his sister. The character deserved better and could have gone on to have a large MCU future like his twin, Scarlet Witch.
1 Ultron in Avengers: Age Of Ultron The trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron teased a horrifying version of the titular villain that could inspire terror in Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Unfortunately, his ultimate characterization failed to live up to this potential. The result was a villain more interesting in quips than inspiring fear, and while this makes some narrative sense given his mind is partially created from Tony Stark's, Ultron fails to stand out as a particularly menacing or effective enemy compared to his contemporaries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


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