10 MCU Storylines We’ll Never Get Closure On

The biggest cinematic franchise in history loves to leave plot threads dangling...

MCU Daredevil Bullseye
Netflix

For a cinematic franchise selling itself on a shared universe where everything is connected, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is fraught with inconsistencies, plot holes and dangling storyline threads.

Part of that is a business issue, of course: for example, it has yet to be seen how Marvel’s recent divorce from Sony will affect Peter Parker, the child caught in the middle, or the cliffhanger that Spider-Man: Far From Home left the character on.

On the other hand, Netflix’s awkward split from Marvel Studios left the streaming giant no option but to announce the cancellation of every Netflix Marvel show - Daredevil, Jessica Jones, the lot. Reports indicate that Marvel Studios can’t legally revisit those properties on television for two years (although it’s not clear when that moratorium begins or ends).

Perhaps more importantly, Disney+ doesn’t allow for shows without a family-friendly remit, so any resurrection of the Netflix shows would need to be on a different platform - and the longer it goes, the less likely the various casts and crews will be available.

But there’s also the creative issue caused by the culmination of the Infinity Saga. Characters have died, and actors have moved on to other projects, leaving loose threads ready to unravel.

Here’s ten examples of the MCU storylines we’ll never get closure on - and just so you know, here be spoilers...

10. Luke Cage Is The Kingpin Of Harlem

MCU Daredevil Bullseye
Netflix

Your mileage for this may vary depending on how much of a cliffhanger you believe season two of Luke Cage leaves us with.

By the climax of the season, crime boss Mariah Dillard was dead, poisoned by her daughter in prison, and Harlem was in chaos as other New York crime families rushed in to fill the void, only to violently bottleneck at the door.

To keep the fragile peace, Luke Cage - local hero and crimestopping vigilante - decided to add another string to his bow. Rather than keep fighting fires all over his home neighbourhood, he decided to take control of who set the fires and when: he became Harlem’s newest crime lord, potentially putting himself at odds with superpowered friends like Daredevil or Iron Fist.

That's a rationale oddly similar to the one used by Wilson Fisk: the Kingpin.

If you only know Cage from the Netflix shows, that’s the kind of storytelling that raises eyebrows, but little more. If you’re familiar with Cage from the comic books, you know him as one of the most righteous heroes in the Marvel Universe: a no-nonsense, upright man in a changing, changeable world.

For that man to make a decision like this is wildly out of character, and fans were on tenterhooks trying to figure out what might happen next.

The answer, of course, was a deafening nada: Netflix’s cancellation of the show alongside those of Cage’s fellow Defenders Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist put paid to any possibility of that story being resolved.

Contributor
Contributor

Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.