10 MCU Complaints That Make No Damn Sense

3. They Ruin The Source (And Childhoods)

Marvel Villains
Marvel Studios

The Argument

The MCU doesn't care about Marvel comic book fans or the sanctity of the source material: they reinvent, they steal the names of major narrative events without adapting them purely and they drag iconic characters through a mangle.

The Rebuttal

As much as it was always on the top of fan wishlists, Civil War would never have worked in its pure form as an MCU film: it would have required a 6 hour run time, it would have required an unearned major death (Goliath not Cap) and it would have required Spider-Man to unmask before his own first stand-alone movie. Move on.

Ultron is another frequently trotted out complaint: and in particular how blunted he was. But in reality, he was as vulnerable, as arrogant and as much of a showman as Tony Stark and the decision to give him all of his creator's flaws was inspired.

The Mandarin too couldn't have been adapted purely, because the MCU would have been shut down by accusations of rampatn racism.

And all of this ignores the point that purely adapting a comic book (or a book or another film for that matter) leaves precious little space for imagination. Sure, there's scope to interpret and visualise, but there's no story-telling scope. And that's basically what everyone complains about when "superhero movie fatigue" comes up for discussion.

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WhatCulture's former COO, veteran writer and editor.