The Illuminati In MCU Explained - What To Expect!

9. The Rocky Beginnings

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Illuminati
Marvel Comics

Rather than Tony Stark merely getting a bunch of fellow heroes together and all immediately agreeing with Stark's plans, there was instead initially a major amount of pushback towards ol' Shellhead's ideals from his cohorts.

Sowing the seeds for what would eventually be the Civil War story arc a year later, Tony believes that superheroes need to be governed, and that's what he thinks the Illuminati should be doing.

For Namor, he baulks at Stark's proposal of governance due to how certain superheroes operate as aggressive outsiders. In the case of Professor X, he doesn't want heroes to have to face the kind of hatred he and his mutants have at times faced. As for Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards questions how viable it realistically would be to run such an organisation. For Doctor Strange, he believes that such governance would go against the anti-establishment fundamentals of some.

While Black Bolt remains as quiet as ever on these matters, Black Panther goes one further than all of his other heroes and outright refuses to participate in any of these Illuminati plans. In T'Challa's eyes, such an arrangement will eventually lead to selfish, self-serving actions from those running the group.

Still, Iron Man, Namor, Black Bolt, Mister Fantastic, Professor X and Doctor Strange do at least agree to secretly meet in the future to exchange information.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.