Adaptational Villainy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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Marvel Studios
- Iron Man 2 does this to Anton Vanko. In the comics while Vanko was the original Crimson Dynamo, he actually defected from Soviet Russia due to the compassion Tony and others gave him and after developing a touching friendship with Tony he pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to stopping Soviet agents (including a certain femme fatale) from stealing Stark technology. In Iron Man 2, Ivan is the Big Bad who hates and tries to kill Iron Man (due to Tony's dad getting his dad, named Anton, imprisoned) and is perfectly willing to kill civilians who get in his way and one of the drones he builds almost killed a child (later retconned to be a young Peter Parker) too. Then again he is Vanko in name and ethnicity only, being a Composite Character with another villain Whiplash (who also isn't as psychotic as the Whiplash in the film either). Funnily enough "Crimson Dynamo" would be one of monikers of Red Guardian from Black Widow (2021) who like the original Anton defects from Russia to be a hero.
- In the comics, Yellowjacket is an alias of Hank Pym, and at worst could be considered an Anti-Hero (although later comics would make Hank a outright Fallen Hero). In the Ant-Man movie, Yellowjacket is Darren Cross, the unapologetic Big Bad of the movie.note
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Jasper Sitwell and Alexander Pierce are HYDRA moles secretly implanted in SHIELD, the latter also being the Big Bad Mole in Charge, and Nick Fury's superior, due to being a Composite Character with Aleksander Lukin, Winter Soldier's handler and the villain of the original Winter Soldier arc. In the comics, both characters are loyal SHIELD agents. This continues into the arc of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that ties into it, as John Garrett is the Big Bad. This was done deliberately so the viewer feels the same betrayal and doesn't know who to trust. Especially Sitwell, not only an unambiguous good guy in the comics but a Mauve Shirt from the films and series with a big role in Item 47; one of the writers mentioned that he was chosen because "Bob from Accounting who you've never met" proving to be a mole just wouldn't have the same impact.
- Guardians of the Galaxy:
- Yondu is depicted as a ruthless space pirate who despite some Pet the Dog moments, is not a very nice guy. His comic counterpart is a hero and member of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, but this version of him already became part of mainstream Marvel Comics. The sequel, while eventually showing Yondu going out in a Heroic Sacrifice at the end, shows that all of this universe's version of the original GotG were Ravagers like Yondu.
- Its Big Bad, Ronan the Accuser's comic counterpart is a Knight Templar but otherwise is devoted to his people and eventually joined a team of space heroes called the Annihilators and helped the Avengers during the Infinity storyline. His film counterpart is an extraterrestrial terrorist who defies his people's peace treaty with Xandar to destroy them. Ironically, in the comics Star-Lord and Ronan ended up on friendly terms.
- Eson The Searcher (who has a cameo in the scene where the Collector explains Infinity Stones) is depicted as a tyrannical being who genocides an entire race on a planet using the Power Stone. This strongly contrasts to the comics where Eson is a Gentle Giant compared to other Celestials, his main duty being to observe like the Watcher and he has many Pet the Dog moments including deeming Earth worthy and even aiding the Avengers against the Final Host. Although given how the rest of the Celestials are portrayed in the MCU, it does line up In-Universe.
- The High Evolutionary in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 gets this up to eleven. In the comics while a formidable and ruthless antagonist, he’s actually an Affably Evil Anti-Villain and Well-Intentioned Extremist with plenty of Pet the Dog moments (genuinely treating Adam Warlock like his son and actually caring for his animal creations) and is frequently willing to aid the heroes against larger threats. MCU High Evolutionary on the other hand gives even Thanos, Red Skull, Green Goblin, Hela and Ego a good run for their money being a loathsome, vile, petty and diabolical piece of shit who happily experiments on enslaves and kills defenceless animals and children to the point where you’re practically begging for his comeuppance. At one point he annihilates a planet full of innocent animal people he created, after learning a single person had displayed a flaw and has an extremely petulant vendetta against Rocket simply for being smarter than him. His comic version’s redeeming qualities are nonexistent, abusing Adam on a whim and he doesn’t care for his creations in the slightest. Rocket puts it best when the High Evolutionary tries offering up his motive of making everything perfect: “You didn’t wanna make things perfect. You just hated things the way they are”.
- Iron Man 3:
- In Warren Ellis' Extremis storyline, Aldrich Killian is a normal civilian scientist who becomes wracked with guilt and eventually commits suicide after selling the Extremis formula to some domestic terrorists. In the movie, he's a Smug Snake and one of the major villains, filling the role that Mallen filled in the original Extremis arc, and is also the founder of AIM, as well as the true Big Bad of the movie, Word of God and Killian's own boasts stating he's the real Mandarin.
- Killian's right-hand man Eric Savin was never outright villainous in the comics as he is in the film. In the comics, he's the cyborg anti-hero Coldblood.
- The Mandarin, or rather Trevor Slattery, is an inversion as he's nothing but a fraud. However, according to Word of God, Killian, not Slattery, is the real MCU version to the Mandarin (as well as the Scientist Supreme of AIM). As of the Marvel one-shot All Hail The King, neither Trevor nor Killian are the real Mandarin. The real Mandarin is a mysterious and ancient Asian villain from whom they both just borrowed the name. Ironically he real Mandarin gets the opposite of this in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
- Thor:
- Thor: The Dark World: In the Thor comics, Algrim/Kurse does work for Malekith for a time, but Malekith betrays him and Algrim — a noble soul — swears loyalty to Thor and Asgard, in fact being the one to kill Malekith himself. In Dark World, Malekith does sacrifice his own people but doesn't betray Algrim personally. Algrim has Undying Loyalty towards his master and becomes Kurse as a result. The sons of Odin ultimately have to kill him to curb his brutal assault.
- Believe it or not Hela gets this in Thor: Ragnarok. In the comics, Skurge is described as "the one to whom even Hela bows her head" for his last stand at Gjallerbru, and his stand against her was a result of having finally grown fed up with being openly treated as Amora the Enchantress' dumb muscle. In the film... he joins her because he's too scared to challenge her, and she kills him when he finally does. Also comparing the movies and the original myths, Hela was just a bloodthirsty megalomaniac and was imprisoned because she had been so brutal in war. Hel on the other hand, was sealed away when she was a child, not because she had done anything, but because the Aesir didn't know what she'd grow up to become.
- Also in Thor: Ragnarok, Odin the All-Father himself gets a massive amount of this when the history of Asgard is fully revealed. Now in the comics Odin thanks to Depending on the Writer is hardly God Is Good, being a Manipulative Bastard who constantly toys with his son Thor’s life, is extremely unfair to his other son Loki who ultimately just wants his love and approval and cheats on Frigga with both Gaia and the Phoenix Force’s host Firehair. Some comics such as Fear Itself particularly skyrocket Odin’s douchery with even Tony in a rant dubbing him a “cycloptic bully” in disgust; but otherwise Odin is still a Big Good who safeguards the Nine Realms and greater Marvel Universe. Thor: Ragnarok however reveals Odin conquered the Nine Realms and built Asgard through the bloodshed of billions of lives. He did ultimately regret his actions to the extent of covering them up and trying to be benevolent, but that doesn’t change what he did. While Odin’s actions were likewise often amoral in Norse Mythology as well, neither the comic or mythical Odin went to the level of the MCU version.
- In fairness to Odin, Thor: Love and Thunder confirms the rest of the gods such as Zeus are hardly any better being Jerkass Gods who refuse to help Thor and exploded one of his allies Korg with a lightning bolt. The Stinger has Zeus and Hercules revealing they are pissed Earth worships superheroes instead of gods with Hercules intending to kill Thor himself. While Zeus is prone to this kind of utter dickery in both the myths and comics, Hercules at least is generally a hero.
- Thor: Love and Thunder also has Rapu, the god of Gorr’s planet, be a hedonistic prick who didn’t care that his worshippers were dying of starvation and thirst. This greatly justifies Gorr’s Rage Against the Heavens along with the aforementioned gods. In the comic the movie loosely adapts, the god of Gorr’s planet was implied to be unable to help his worshippers due to fighting another evil god, later retconned to be Knull, the creator of the Symbiotes and the Necrosword (the sword that Gorr wields).
- While the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver do make a Heel–Face Turn and join the Avengers like their comic counterparts in Avengers: Age of Ultron, much like their Ultimate Marvel, X-Men: Evolution, Wolverine and the X-Men (2009), and The Super Hero Squad Show (though Wanda does similarly reform there) incarnations with Magneto, they're willing allies of HYDRA and Ultron here (the latter of whom Wanda masterminded the creation of by manipulating Iron Man into creating him in the first place), as opposed to being forced to work for Magneto like in the original comics, only turning against Ultron when they realized he would go too far beyond what they wanted. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness actually doubles down on Wanda’s Adaptational Villainy. In the comics while she performed one truly heinous act (which she truly regrets) in House of M, it was a result of her being manipulated by others, suffering several mental breakdowns and literally having her brother nearly killed in front of her. In Multiverse of Madness on the other hand Wanda lacks many of those excuses and is being a mass murdering Dark Messiah almost completely * of her own accord to get her sons back. Also for all comic Wanda’s mistakes, she never went as far as butchering her way through the Multiverse, trying to steal the powers of America Chavez, and possessing an innocent version of herself in order to be Billy and Tommy’s mother again. Played with though as Wanda seeing how terrified her sons are of her, does ultimately realise how far she’s fallen and destroys Wundagore Mountain as a last act of redemption.
- In the comics that inspired Captain Marvel's story, the dynamics of the alien empires were a little different than in the film. There, the Skrulls were a wealthy free-trading Evil Colonialist monarchy of shrewd shapeshifters (a little like an exaggerated bad guy version of the British Empire in space) and the Kree a former dependency of theirs which had revolted and since turned into a paranoid and militaristic garrison state that fanatically hated its old masters. In the movie, the Kree are simply space Nazis without the elements of sympathetic backstory from the comics, persecuting the innocent and defenseless Skrulls for no reason except bigotry and hatred.
- After the events of The Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos comes to realize he's not worthy of wielding the god-like powers of the Infinity Gems, and becomes sort of an Anti-Villain. No such redemption happens in Avengers: Endgame, where Thanos thinks wiping out half the life in the universe was worth it, and destroys the Infinity Stones to ensure his actions won't be reversed. And when the heroes discover Time Travel and retrieve the Stones from the past exactly to do this reversion, they end up bringing the attention of the past Thanos who was a Galactic Conqueror, and thus arrives in the future hoping to instead destroy the whole universe to remake it in his image. His overall goals, which paint him more as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, lean towards the opposite trope.
- In the comics Quentin Beck aka Mysterio while selfish and occasionally cruel is still pretty Affably Evil overall (barring Old Man Logan). He’s far less despicable than a lot of Spidey’s Rogues Gallery and is even willing to work with Spider-Man against a greater foe. In Spider-Man: Far From Home any likeable traits Beck has are removed and after The Reveal he proves to be a megalomaniacal sadistic bastard who’s willing to kill his allies and even teenagers (he does initially show some regret for being forced to attack Spider-Man, but that regret goes away once he does it) to make sure everything goes according to plan, something comic Mysterio would never stoop to.
- Eternals would surprisingly give this treatment to Ikaris. In the comics Ikaris is The Cape being noble and kind having aided Earth’s heroes against Thanos and the dark Celestials. Ikaris's worst traits in the comics are being somewhat haughty and aggressive, with the only time he was ever an outright villain was when the Kree brainwashed him with God's Whipser. In the film he initially seems like a pure Nice Guy, until its revealed he set up the death of fellow Eternal Ajak for her opposing Celestial Arishem's plan of destroying humanity by birthing the Celestial within in the Earth and by the end comes into conflict with of the rest of the Eternals when they learn his true Beware the Superman colours. Although Ikaris does have a My God, What Have I Done? moment at the end and kills himself by flying into the sun.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home:
- Max Dillon aka Electro was a Tragic Villain in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, being a Loony Fan of Spidey who was dealt a cruel fate in life and once he got his Shock and Awe powers Jumped Off The Slippery Slope. Upon returning in No Way Home conversely Max is notably less sympathetic, rather than being out for vengeance, he is Drunk with Power hungry for the energy in the MCU and mocks Doc Ock for succumbing to sentimentality and goodness. Max does however get an affable moment at the end where he puts his differences aside with the Webbverse Spider-Man and recalls the adoration he previously had for the hero.
- Curt Connors aka The Lizard, like Electro was pretty sympathetic in his debut being a misguided Evilutionary Biologist who genuinely thought he was doing the right thing even in his Superpowered Evil Side where he was more animalistic. In No Way Home Lizard displays a truly sinister and conniving intelligence and is notably happy at the chaos the other villains are causing, he also tries to kill MJ and Ned himself. Averted in the end as like the other villains, Connors does come back his senses upon being cured of his Lizard form.
- Norman Osborn aka Green Goblin is an interesting case. In Spider-Man he was nicer than his comic counterpart being a genuinely caring father and while he did feign innocence to surprise attack Spidey with the Goblin Glider, after being impaled by it himself he asked Peter not to tell Harry before dying, a level decency he lacks in the comics. In No Way Home Norman is Truer to the Text, as in a case of Bait the Dog he reveals he enjoys being evil and persuades the other villains to accept their powers as “Gods”. While he is eventually cured of the Goblin persona, it’s only after he’s killed MCU Aunt May in front of MCU Spidey to try to goad him into murder, irreversibly damaged the Multiverse, and forced him to make everyone forget his existence.
- More like Adaptational Antiheroism but in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Earth-838 Peggy Carter aka Captain Carter and Maria Rambeau aka Captain Marvel, both good and compassionate women in the comics and MCU are (unlike in the comics) ruthless members of The Illuminati whom coldly executed their universe and other universes Stephen Stranges with impunity. They’re also quite antagonistic and callous compared to their other selves (although Peggy is still a Steve Rogers-esque Determinator). Ironically inverted with Mr. Fantastic and Professor X, who while actually members of The Illuminati in the comics instead get Adaptational Nice Guy being genuinely patient and kind, unlike their often arrogant and morally dubious comic versions.
- WandaVision
- Agatha Harkness, in the comics, served as a kindly mentor figure for Wanda, who has worked with the Fantastic Four and other heroes on multiple occasions. In the show, however, she's more closely based on her eviler depiction in the Ultimate Marvel canon, a megalomaniacal witch who psychologically manipulates Wanda in order to make her more vulnerable, so that she can steal her powers for herself.
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier:
- Batroc the Leaper; the comics (especially Gwenpool) have all shown he is an extremely Affably Evil Noble Demon who expresses respect to his opponents especially Cap and his allies. Batroc’s first MCU appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier touched upon this judging by the “I thought you were more than just a shield” line but in Falcon and The Winter Soldier Batroc Took a Level in Jerkass and is more of a Smug Snake, who happily joins the Flag Smashers for the sake of petty revenge after Sam defeated him.
- Shockingly Sharon Carter aka Agent 13 gets this. In the comics and previous films she’s a heroic and compassionate ally to Cap as well as his Love Interest. Her worst action in the comics, killing Steve Rogers, was done while she had been brainwashed by Doctor Faustus. In the show Sharon has become embittered having been essentially abandoned by Team Cap after the events of Captain America: Civil War and now works as a hustler in Madripoor. It’s even revealed she’s one who freed Batroc from prison and hired him to hijack a Air Force plane. She's ultimately revealed to be the Power Broker, the person behind the events of the series and she's just begun...
- What If…? (2021):
- "What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?": Hank Pym, unlike his normal MCU self and the comic version, underwent a Face–Heel Turn due to Hope van Dyne's death and murdered the Avengers while framing S.H.I.E.L.D. for it, becoming his violent Yellowjacket identity from the comics to do so (when in the MCU the Yellowjacket identity went to the outright villainous Darren Cross). His original comic self did questionable things like build Ultron or strike Janet van Dyne, but didn’t turn into a supervillain over all of it, and his MCU incarnation had retired before and not done any questionably moral actions, whereas this depiction of the character turned straight up into the very thing his MCU counterpart despised Darren for becoming. Granted Hank would become a Fallen Hero for real in more recent comics, but unlike the What If... version it wasn’t under his own volition having his body and psyche fused with Ultron.
- "What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?" of course by the title does this to Strange himself. Unable to deal with the grief of losing Christine, Strange tries to use the Time Stone to prevent her death and when that fails over and over (as it turns out trying to prevent her death would undermine the reason he became a sorcerer in the timeline, every time he tried to change her fate she died differently), he turns to The Dark Arts. Absorbing countless magical beings into his body, he fights and defeats his good counterpart from an alternative timeline and resurrects Christine who is horrified by what he’s turned into and the entire universe disintegrates along Christine leaving Stephen alone. Played With as it’s also a case of Adaptational Heroism for Strange since he became a sorcerer out of grief over Christine rather than wanting to just selfishly wanting fix his hands like in the comic and film. To keep his actions in check and still show him as a hero, the regretful Strange later joins the other Guardians of the Multiverse to defeat Infinity Ultron, and helps imprison the traitorous Black Panther Killmonger and the Arnim Zola AI that hacked into Ultron's body, but in the end, he ends up turning to villainy again in season 2, trying to sacrifice "universe-killers" so that he can use their energy to restore his universe.
- "What If... Zombies!" gives this treatment to Vision. In the Marvel Zombies, a zombified Scarlet Witch (working for zombie Kingpin) holds Vision captive as a jamming device device to block and trace back all transmissions from possible human survivors. In the show’s version the dynamic is totally reversed with Vision holding a zombie Wanda prisoner and feeding her survivors and even pieces of T’Challa. Viz does ultimately perform a Heroic Sacrifice however. The showrunners likely tweaked the events of the comic since it was too similar to WandaVision where Wanda held Viz prisoner.
- In What If... Nebula Joined the Nova Corps? Irani Rae a.k.a. Nova Prime of all people pulls off a Face–Heel Turn after her plan to evacuate Xandar from an attack of Ronan backfires and turns the planet into a crime-rotten city, teaming up with Ronan to invade the planet and end the crimes. Moreso, as she's the leader of the Nova Corps, nearly every other member joins her and Yon-Rugg in their plan.
- In What If... Captain Carter Fought The Hydra Stomper?, thanks to Natasha killing Dreykov off for real in this timeline, Melina Vostokoff becomes the leader of the Red Room, never pulling off a Heel–Face Turn like in Black Widow.
Marvel Television
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
- In the comics, Deathlok referred to multiple characters, all of which were heroes. In the show, "the" Deathlok is a basically good person named Mike Peterson, but Trapped in Villainy when Project Centipede / HYDRA puts an explosive robotic eye in his head and threatens his young son Ace. "Ragtag" also reveals that the original Deathlok is also The Clairvoyant, the Season 1 Big Bad.
- The Clairvoyant is ultimately revealed to be Agent John Garrett, a loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in the comics. This ties in with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where some agents who were good in the comics are part of the HYDRA infiltration of SHIELD, including Jasper Sitwell, who made a few appearances on the show prior to his reveal, though was killed off in the movie before he could confront the main characters of the show. Just like the heroes themselves, the audience no longer knows who to trust.
- It ends up happening a second time when a young John Garrett is recruited by Nathaniel Malick before he can get caught in the accident that made him the prototype Deathlok and later a HYDRA agent. This younger version of Garrett thus is part of Nathaniel's alliance with the Chronicoms and is later turned into an Inhuman when Nathaniel transfuses Gordon's teleportation powers into his body. Once he is captured and Nathaniel no longer needed him, young Garrett has a Heel–Face Turn his older self never received and helps teleport the SHIELD agents out of their base to a SHIELD safehouse, unfortunately leading to a young Victoria Hand gunning him down and Phil Coulson still labeling him an enemy afterwards.
- Iron Fist (2017):
- Harold Meachum is part of Season 1's Big Bad Ensemble, while his comic book counterpart played a more passive role being old and crippled, he was by no means a saint there either. Whereas both counterparts are involved in the accident that left Danny orphaned, comics!Harold merely facilitated the death of Wendell Rand because he was in love with his wife while tv!Harold arranged the death of all three Rands because Wendell was about to discover his ties with the Hand.
- The most notable example is Colleen Wing, who is revealed to be working for the Hand, er, Bakuto's faction of the Hand who preached that they were against the actions of the more renegade Madame Gao's faction, while her comic book counterpart did no such thing. However, she turns against them and becomes a proper hero after realizing that Bakuto's Hand was, while still against Gao, not much better than her faction.
