In the S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary: Mockingbird one-shot, Bobbi is now in a relationship with Lance Hunter, a character she had never shared a comic book panel with before, because they're Amicable Exes in the TV show.
Similarly, Daisy Johnson was Retconned into being an Inhuman, half-Chinese, and longhaired in order to match her portrayal on the show. She also got "Skye" (her name on the show prior to her big reveal) as a nickname as part of these changes.
The Secret Warriors (2017) series was relaunched as a team of Inhuman heroes, much like on the TV show.
The series came up with the idea of giving Donnie Gill ("Blizzard") actual cryonic abilities, rather than having them come from his costume or Powered Armor. This change carried over into the comics, where Blizzard was revealed to be an Inhuman.
The new Henry Hayes version ofDeathlok is very similar to the show's character Mike Peterson, bordering on Expy status. Tom Brevoort later confirmed that Hayes was indeed created in response to the show's use of Peterson as Deathlok.
Giant-Man's redesign in Avengers Academy was based on the Giant-Man design from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Hank returning to the Giant-Man identity in the first place (despite not having used it in years) was also likely influenced by the cartoon.
Cassie Lang's Stinger identity originated in the MC2 continuity, where Cassie was now grown up and a member of the Avengers. When the mainstream version of Cassie lost her Stature abilities following her death and resurrection, she became Stinger in the pages of Astonishing Ant-Man.
Darren Cross was an extremely obscure villain who was Killed Off for Real in the early 1980s after just two issues of Marvel Premier. His role as the Big Bad of the Ant-Man film got him resurrected, as well as in possession of Sizeshifter abilities and a suit of Yellowjacket Powered Armor like he has in the movie.
Killmonger was traditionally depicted as clean shaven in the comics, but following the movie, he's now drawn with facial hair, much like Michael B. Jordan. He would later be given the ritual scars of his movie counterpart in the 2019 Killmonger mini-series.
Likewise, Okoye originally had long hair in the comics, but was given a shaved head and tattoos to resemble her movie counterpart.
The Marvel Mangaverse introduced us to a sister of T'Challa for the first time, here called T'Channa who also is this universe's version of Doctor Doom and lost the combat to the Black Panther-mantle against her brother. Years later, T'Challa's sister Shuri was introduced to the main continuity, having a similar origin minus the supervillainy.
Following the movie, Shuri was also heavily redesigned to look more like her movie counterpart, right down to her formerly short hair being replaced with the same long braids sported by Letitia Wright. Her personality was also tweaked to be closer to that of the MCU Shuri, including the character suddenly gaining an interest in science and engineering. Additionally, she now wields the same vibranium blaster gauntlets she used in the film.
The opening arc of Ta-Nehisi Coates' second Black Panther run takes place in an alternate reality, which features parallel versions of M'Baku and Nakia that are heavily based on their more heroic movie counterparts. The symbiote costume worn by the alternate Killmonger is also very obviously inspired by the design of Killmonger's movie outfit.
The "Wakanda forever!" salute and cry from the film were later canonized in the comics, while the "Yibambe!" war chant showed up for the first time in Empyre.
The Avengers (2012) contains a memorable quote where Natasha refers to her time as a ruthless assassin as having "red in [her] ledger." The term has since been used in the comics to describe her past, and was even the title of a story arc.
The original Red Guardian, Alexei Shostakov, was revealed to be alive after having been dead for decades, due to his appearance in the Black Widow (2021) movie. He was also now depicted with a beard to match David Harbour's portrayal of the character.
Similarly, Yelena Belova, who usually wore a black Spy Catsuit in the past, began wearing a white outfit like the one sported by Florence Pugh in the movie.
Blade's original power was being immune to vampire bites and nothing else. He later picked up enhanced senses, but didn't really become "super" in any sense of the word until his film came out, which led to a storyline in Peter Parker: Spider-Man where Blade gained the enhanced strength and reflexes of his movie counterpart after being bitten by Morbius. The 2006 Blade ongoing series took this even further by retconning his origin so that he was always a Dhampir/Daywalker, making him even more like the movie version of the character. He's also since been shown wielding the same throwable glaives he used in the films.
The popularity of the MCU films led to Captain America donning an outfit that looks greatly inspired by his appearances in Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengersnote Of course, the costumes seen in the aforementioned films were directly inspired by Cap's outfits in the Ultimate Universe as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch. Said costume does away with the flared gloves and buccaneer boots, replacing them with more utilitarian gloves and combat boots. The familiar chainmail of his old costume is replaced with a more modern-looking armor design, as well. Finally, a blue helmet with painted-on wings takes the place of his winged mask, and it has a chin strap like most of his MCU costumes do. He returned to his classic look, head wings and all, following Secret Empire.
Prior to this, the Marvel Knights Captain America series slightly tweaked Cap's costume by giving him a utility belt fitted with pouches, a design element taken from his look in The Ultimates. The belt remains one of the few alterations to the classic costume that has actually remained to this day.
The Falcon briefly wore the same armored costume he wore in the short-lived The Avengers: United They Stand animated series. However, when he rejoined the Avengers a few years later, he ditched the threads.
After becoming the new Captain America, Sam was redesigned and given a new costume that incorporates his red goggles and wing-pack from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Even after he returned to using the Falcon identity in 2017, he still continued to use the red lenses.
Bucky Barnes has received several redesigns for the MCU. His MCU counterpart sported a black half-mask for much of his first appearance, and so the comic book Bucky started wearing one for certain stories too, beginning with Winter Soldier: The Bitter March. In a strange case, he also regrew the long hair he'd previously cut, so it was long like it is in the MCU, which has Bucky sporting the appearance he initially had as the Winter Soldier in the comics before he cut it. However, by the time MCU Bucky similarly cut his long hair, comics Bucky was still sporting it.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier introduced a drug that Bruce Banner had designed to control Hulk-Outs. Though it proved ineffective on Banner, Nick Fury discovered that it could be easily used to create a Faux Death effect on normal people. This drug (with the same origin!) later appeared in All-New Invaders.
The United States of Captain America also saw Sam Wilson retake the Captain America mantle (which he'd previously given up after Secret Empire) due to the influence of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He also now has a beard as Cap to match the MCU version.
After having previously sported short hair, Captain Marvel was redesigned with long hair to look more like Brie Larson's portrayal of the character in the MCU.
Doctor Minn-Erva previously wore a red costume based on the original Ms. Marvel design, but was later given a green Kree military uniform like the one she wore in the movie. Similarly, Captain Marvel herself donned her black and green Kree uniform as a stealth outfit during the "World War She-Hulk" arc of The Avengers.
Monica Rambeau returned to using the codename Photon (which she had used in the 90s before changing it to Pulsar, and later, Spectrum) because that's what the character is called in The Marvels (2023).
Bullseye originally wore a costume with a mask that had a bullseye design on it. In the 2003 Daredevil movie, Colin Farrell's Bullseye instead dressed like a biker and had a bullseye scar directly on his forehead. The comics followed suit by having Bullseye adopt the biker outfit in Kevin Smith's Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target mini-series, and Brian Bendis later incorporated the scar by having an enraged Daredevil carve a bullseye into the forehead of his nemesis. A variation of the movie-style design was also used in The Punisher MAX.
The Ultimate version of Elektra wears a black costume similar to that of her movie counterpart. After Elektra appeared in Daredevil (2015) season 2, the mainstream version of Elektra began wearing an outfit similar to Elodie Yung's.
After many years in Comic-Book Limbo, Claire Temple returned to the Marvel Universe thanks to her appearance on the TV show. She was also redesigned to resemble her TV counterpart, with her afro replaced by the same long hairstyle sported by Rosario Dawson. The comic version of Claire now operates as a doctor who specializes in treating injured superhumans, referencing the way she helps out the members of the Defenders in the various Netflix shows.
Season 2 of Daredevil had the "P." in "Franklin P. Nelson" stand for "Percy", something the comic shortly made canon.
One of the villans of the movie, Kaecillius also started sporting the same eye-marks in the comics that he had in the movie.
The alternate universe Earth X mini-series introduced a few things that later became canon in the mainstream Marvel continuity.
A key plot point is that Earth has experienced a drastic superhuman boom due to Black Bolt releasing Terrigen Mists into the atmosphere, which ended up granting superpowers to a number of people. This would later be reused for the Inhumanity storyline that spun out of Infinity.
Norman Osborn manipulating his way into a high ranking position of authority over the American people would also be used in the mainline canon during Dark Reign. He would also adopt his Earth X moniker of the Goblin King during Superior Spider Man.
Eternals (2021) (a relaunch of The Eternals by Kieron Gillen) incorporates a number of elements from the live-action film, such as the reborn Makkari, Ajak and Sprite now being women (and black, in Makkari's case) and Sersi now resembling an Asian woman. This is an interesting case, however, since the comic actually came out before the film (due to the film being delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic).
In the lead-up to the first movie, Marvel had Star-Lord adopt the Badass Longcoat worn by Chris Pratt in the film. He was also rewritten to have a less serious personality, much like his film counterpart, though this was later reversed when Donny Cates took over the series. Also, much like the Killmonger example mentioned above, the formerly clean shaven Star-Lord is now usually drawn with facial hair, further mirroring Pratt's portrayal of the character. Star-Lord's past was also altered so that he is now a former member of the Ravagers, the team of space pirates Yondu led in the movies.
Gamora also got a variation of her movie costume for a time.
Nebula gained a vertical stripe running down her face like she has in the movie. The 2016-2017 Gamora solo series also retconned Nebula's past to make her Gamora's adopted sister, another element that originated in the MCU.
In the comics, the Nova Corps was wiped out quite some time ago, but All-New Guardians of the Galaxy later introduced a new, fledging Nova Corps patterned after the one seen in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
The Collector is now usually drawn more like his movie counterpart, complete with fur on his outfit.
During Civil War II, the Guardians of the Galaxy's spaceship, C.I.T.T. (Cool Interstellar Travel Travelship), was accidentally destroyed by The Vision. They ended up stealing a replacement vessel from a Nova Corps impound lot in the 2017 Free Comic Book Day special, which turned out to be the Milano, Star-Lord's ship from the movies.
Around the time Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 came out, the comics did a storyline where Groot was shrunken down to a miniature size as the result of a villain's plot. This was Marvel's way of mirroring the Baby Groot plotline from the movie.
The comics began referring to the Infinity Gems as the "Infinity Stones" and their colors were changed to match the movie versions.
The 2019 run gave Star-Lord and Gamora a romantic arc mirroring the movies.
The Hulk's reintroduction into the Avengers was also motivated by the films. In the original comics, he quit after one issue, but the Marvel NOW! relaunch has since seen him return to the team as a main character.
In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Bruce's ex-girlfriend Betty Ross became She-Hulk (as a Decomposite Character, unrelated to Jennifer Walters). The idea was well received, which led to Marvel reviving the Earth-616 Betty and making her into the Red She-Hulk.
In Hulk, Brian Banner, as a mythology gag to the '70s show, underwent Adaptation Name Change and was named "David". During House of M, "David" was made Brian's middle name.
Inhumanity: The whole premise of various humans across the planet having dormant Inhuman genes that were activated by a Mass Empowering Event exists because of the plan to use Inhumans as Mutant Expies in the MCU, since the X-Men franchise was initially off-limits due to its film rights being controlled by 20th Century Fox. The very idea of unknowing Inhumans being "sleeper agents" of sorts originated in an unproduced screenplay for an Inhumans movie.
Tony ended up with an arc reactor in his chestnote While Tony did originally have a pacemaker-like device to keep his heart beating during the Silver Age, the arc reactor was an invention of the movies. after Secret Invasion because of the movies.
Iron Man's personality was gradually changed to resemble Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the character. While Tony could always be a bit sarcastic, he was still generally depicted as being very serious when it came to his business. After the movies, Tony started acting snarkier and more overtly comedic, and began to take on some of his cinematic counterpart's Manchild and Bunny-Ears Lawyer tendencies.
The version of Whiplash seen in Ultimate Spider-Man is heavily inspired by Mickey Rourke's portrayal of the character from Iron Man 2, right down to the arc reactor harness and Russian ethnicity.
The "Grounded" arc from Guardians of the Galaxy also featured the Iron Legion drones from Avengers: Age of Ultron, who were depicted as A.I.-controlled sentries guarding Stark Tower.
The Hulkbuster design from Avengers: Age of Ultron eventually made its way to the comics, notably during the fight against Ultron in Uncanny Avengers.
Pepper's Rescue armor was originally red, but the new version she began wearing in the 2020 Rescue limited series instead has a purple color scheme, taken from the suit's design in both Iron Man: Armored Adventures and Avengers: Endgame.
Retconning that the Mandarin was involved in the kidnapping of Tony and Yinsen.
The tombstone for Howard Stark in The Crossing shows his full name as "Howard Walter Stark". Howard being called "Walter" was initially a case of Adaptation Name Change in season 1 and retconned to be a case of Middle Name Basis for season 2.
The titular Ten Rings make their way into the comics as Shang-Chi's signature weapon. Prior to the film, he almost always fought bare-handed. The Marvel Universe had featured the Mandarin's Ten Rings for decades, but they weren't anything to do with Shang-Chi - and were finger-rings, whereas Shang-Chi's are arm-rings, modeled on the Hung Gar-inspired ones in the movie.
The mystical realm of Ta-Lo, previously only briefly glimpsed in an issue of The Mighty Thor, was redesigned based on the film and introduced to the Shang-Chi series. This also includes the various Chinese mythological creatures from the movie, such as Dijiang (the species Morris belongs to) and nine-tailed foxes.
Villain Razor Fist has grown a beard and changed his costume design, so now looks much closer to Florian Munteanu's film version of the character.
The 2022 relaunch of Midnight Suns was made to cash in on the video game, with the roster of the new team (most notably the inclusion of Wolverine, Magik and Nico Minoru) being heavily based on the one from the game. The same series also saw Agatha Harkness get deaged so that she'd resemble Kathryn Hahn's breakout portrayal of the character from WandaVision.
Heimdall was portrayed as a black man in the all-ages Thor: The Mighty Avengers series to match Idris Elba's portrayal of the character from the first Thor movie.
Near the end of Young Avengers Vol. 2, Loki was re-aged after having previously been reincarnated as a child. Loki's new design was very heavily based on Tom Hiddleston's much more handsome version of Loki from the movies.
Thor ("Odinson" at the time) gave himself an Important Haircut in The Unworthy Thor #3 so that he'd look closer to how he does in Thor: Ragnarok. Hela was also eventually redesigned to look more like Cate Blanchett's portrayal of the character from Ragnarok.
Following the release of the LokiDisney+ series, Marvel officially adopted the show's term "Variant" as a descriptor for multiversal counterparts of existing characters.
Loki’s dynamic with Frigga from the MCU is slowly but surely making its way into the comics. During War of the Realms, Loki is killed (he gets better) saving Frigga from his biological father Laufey and Frigga is distraught. A flashback in that same event shows Odin reprimanding Loki as a child for transfiguring Thor into an Ox. Frigga on the other hand can’t help but laugh at Loki’s latest trick.
Before the stop motion animated M.O.D.O.K. (2021) came out, the head writers Jordan Blum and Patton Oswalt (who also voiced M.O.D.O.K.) were invited to write a M.O.D.O.K. comic book for Marvel. Since the show was about M.O.D.O.K. and his family, who didn't exist in the main Marvel universe, they decided to have the 616 M.O.D.O.K. start having memories of said family. However, the last issue revealed that they were false memories that he made to forget the trauma of his own father turning him into M.O.D.O.K. In the end, M.O.D.O.K. actually creates his family from super-Adaptoids, so he can have it all.
Ms. Marvel: Kamala Khan was revealed to be an Inhuman/Mutant hybrid in the 2023 X-Men: Hellfire Gala one-shot in order to match her Adaptation Species Change from Ms. Marvel (2022), which depicted her as a Mutant rather than an Inhuman.
The 2023 relaunch of Thunderbolts is based on the premise and roster of the upcoming film, with the group ReTooled as a black-ops unit that includes Winter Soldier, Yelena Belova, U.S. Agent, Red Guardian and Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine.
Around the time of Iron Man 3, Tony started dressing up like Iron Patriot. The Iron Patriot armor was later destroyed, allowing him to return to the Iron Man identity.
Hawkeye's design was altered in Ultimates 3, and the character was turned into a Death Seeker after the death of his family. He was reverted to the initial version in Ultimate Hawkeye, just in time for the debut of Hawkeye in the MCU in Thor, which was based on his initial Ultimate version.
When the Ultimate Marvel universe ended during Secret Wars, certain elements were integrated into the mainstream continuity. Ignoring the big Canon Immigrant cases like Miles Morales, there were story elements like the Triskelion or the use of the name "The Ultimates."
The 2024 Web of Spider-Man one-shot features an appearance by Mobius M. Mobius and Ouroboros, looking closer to how they appeared in the Loki TV series than they did prior.
What If?, despite its nature, had several issues that were either made part of the official Marvel canon, or at least predicted future developments in the Marvel Universe. These include:
Issue #4 came up with the idea that after Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes went missing during the closing days of World War 2, William Nasland and a boy named Fred Davis secretly took over as Captain America and Bucky, with Jeffrey Mace later becoming the new Cap after Nasland's death. This issue was eventually integrated into the Marvel canon wholesale, with it being used to retroactively explain that the Captain America stories published from the end of the war until the title's cancellation in the late 40s had actually starred either Nasland or Mace as Cap and Davis as Bucky.
Issue #9 introduced an alternate version of the Avengers that consisted of 3-D Man and the largely-forgotten Golden Age characters Marvel Boy, Venus, Gorilla-Man, Jimmy Woo and the Human Robot. This specific team would later be Retconned into the history of the mainline Marvel Universe as the Agents of Atlas.
Issue #10 dealt with Jane Foster becoming a female version of Thor after finding Mjolnir, which would become a major plot point in Jason Aaron's Thor (2014) run.
Issue #30 asks what would have happened if Spider-Man's clone from the original Clone Saga had lived. However, it was eventually retconned that the clone had indeed survived the original storyline and changed his name to Ben Reilly.
White Fox's costume was modernized for her appearance in Marvel Future Fight, and the changes were imported to the comics when she returned during the War of the Realms event.
