20 Most Ridiculous Moments In The Marvel Cinematic Universe
1. The Mandarin Twist - Iron Man 3
The Moment: Tony Stark visits The Mandarin's lair only to discover that the man he thought was the supervillain is in fact an actor named Trevor Slattery, whose rendition of King Lear is said to be "the toast of Croydon". He is nothing more than a PR puppet employed by the "real" Mandarin, Aldrich Killian.
Why It's Ridiculous: Many comic book fans went to see Iron Man 3 with the expectation of Iron Man taking on one of his most iconic foes...but instead got a smug, highly controversial switcharoo done largely for shock value.
Yes, it was actually pretty funny once all the foaming fanboys calmed down about it, but it was still absolutely mental that Shane Black and Drew Pearce essentially wasted an awesome villain on a fairly one-note joke, and then had Guy Pearce say, "I am the Mandarin" at the last minute.
The backlash was so strong that this was then ret-conned in the short film All Hail the King, where it was confirmed that there is in fact another, definitely real Mandarin waiting in the wings (who we're almost certainly never going to see). If this nonsense isn't the definition of ridiculous, then what is?
Which MCU moments most shocked you with their absurdity? Shout them out in the comments!