10 Annoying Tropes Marvel Needs To Abandon To Save Phase 3

5. Villains With A Chip On Their Shoulder

In a Marvel movie, things always get personal when it comes to the relationship between the heroes and their villains. There are numerous examples of this throughout Phase 1 and 2, including Ivan Vanko's family grudge against the Starks in Iron Man 2, Malekith's grudge against Thor's grandfather in The Dark World, and HYDRA's reappearance in the present day in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Even Ultron had some serious daddy issues! There's nothing inherently wrong with the villains having a reason to target the heroes, but is it necessary? No, and giving this a rest in Phase 3 would make for a nice change of pace. Villains can sometimes just be bad guys who want to do terrible things, and Captain America's battle against Red Skull in The First Avenger was a good example of that working. You have to hope that The Avengers taking on Thanos will just feel like Earth's Mightiest Heroes being forced to take on a great threat rather than them prioritising a personal grudge over the world's safety. If a personal connection between the hero and villain is something they're insistent on, have the bad guys make it personal after they attack the Earth for their own (valid) reasons. Their motivation shouldn't revolve solely around revenge as it not only makes them all feel the same, but possibly even robs them of coming across as dangerous as they should.