What Could Have Been / Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

The following have their own pages:

• The Avengers
• Captain America
• Fantastic Four
• Marvel Cinematic Universe
• Spider-Man
• X-Men
  • Wolverine

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Various

• Contest of Champions (1982):
  • The story was originally going to be a tie-in to the 1980 Olympics. However, the project ended up in Development Hell after President Jimmy Carter decided to boycott the games, thus rendering the crossover pointless. It was revived two years later and the premise was changed to remove the Olympic tie-in aspect.
  • Carol Danvers originally had the role held by She-Hulk in the finished story, and the art had to be changed since Danvers lost her Ms. Marvel powers sometime after the original series was drawn. This is why She-Hulk appears to be flying in certain panels.
• The original outlines for Marvel crossovers Civil War (2006) and Secret Invasion have some major differences to the end products. Civil War would have originally included what would become World War Hulk (in drastically different form as Hulk, his new wife, and their children invading Earth) and involved a plot device "Power Stealing Electric Chair" that would have stripped Speedball and Captain America of their powers; whilst the original ending to Secret Invasion would have massively depowered The Sentry and killed off Hercules and Jessica Jones and Luke Cage's baby, as well as having Norman Osborn just out of the blue STEAL the Avengers name from the real Avengers. Instead, Wasp was the hero who died, and Norman Osborn killed Skrull Queen Veranke so his Dark Avengers could be legitimate.
  • Erik Larsen had wanted to reveal that Elektra was a Skrull back in 1999, a full eight years before Secret Invasion. However, Larsen says this is because he found the way Marvel resurrected Elektra to be disrespectful to Frank Miller, rather than any attempt at starting a wider Crisis Crossover story involving the Skrulls.
  • Also, in the original outline for Civil War, one of the victims of the Stamford explosion was the son of Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, which would explain Iron Man's motivation for supporting the SHRA (Super Hero Registration Act).
• Marvel's 1997 Micronauts (Marvel Comics) relaunch series was to be written by Shon C. Bury, with pencils by Cary Nord and ink by Dan Green. Five issues were scripted, three penciled, but was cancelled when the Micronauts license was not granted to Marvel.
• There was going to be a Marvel tie-in comic for the cancelled Micronauts animated series.
• WCW S.L.A.M.Force was going to be a twelve issue regular series with artists Chris Bautista and J.J. Kirby, following mini comics from WCW Slam Force toys by Toy Biz and a seven page teaser comic by Ruben Diaz, Bill Rosemann and Michael Ryan, featuring WCW wrestlers Chris Benoit, Kevin Nash, Bill Goldberg, Bret Hart and Sting as the "Secret Legion Against Monsters" superhero team versus Dr. Von Ghoul. Guest starring Spider-Man and Captain America.
• Christopher Priest had wanted Quicksilver and Justice as part of his short-lived title The Crew to help offset the perception of the title as a "Black Avengers" book. When he found himself unable to use Quicksilver, he thought about Dagger before settling on Alex Power of the Power Pack. That eventually fell through as well, and after deciding to get rid of Justice too, Priest decided to use Junta.
• According to James Fry, if Marvel had approved of more Slapstick stories after The Awesome Slapstick, his Rogue's Gallery would have included established Marvel villains such as The Toad Men and the poultry-based team-up of The Black Talon, Gamecock, and Bantam — revealing them to be rival siblings in a battle that would have ended with all the heroes doubled over with laughter at their expense...
• World War Hulk was supposed to lead to a new team book called The Renegades, which would have starred Amadeus Cho, Hercules, Angel, Namora and the Carmilla Black version of the Scorpion. Despite the team getting a Poorly Disguised Pilot in the pages of The Incredible Hulk, editorial ultimately passed on the series.
• Jean-Marc Lofficier's Shamrock & The Peregrine was going to be a four part story for Marvel Comics Presents, clarifying details of the Frankenstein family. Story elements later used in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #37.
• Jean-Marc Lofficier's Book of the Vishanti backup stories in The Tomb of Dracula would have given additional details to horror/mystic characters. Yellow Claw and Fu Manchu were brothers affiliated with the Immortal Nine, a group exposed to Dracula's Pool of Blood, including Cagliostro and Aged Genghis.
• What If... The Fantastic Four had been defeated by the Dark Raider? was going to be a 22 page story by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier, continuing the X-Men as vampires universe in What If? Vol 2 #24 and What If? Vol 2 #37-39.
• Timequake, the story running through What If? Vol 2 #35-39, had a different ending explaining the Time-Keepers using time as an energy battery, and their involvement with the Time Variance Authority.
• Mockingbird was originally going to be an entirely separate character from Bobbi Morse, who was going by the name "Huntress" at the time. Mockingbird would have had the same design she eventually sported, but would have been African-American. Also, she would have first appeared as an enemy of Spider-Woman. When the Huntress name became unavailable thanks to DC publishing their own heroine by that name, the decision was made to merge Huntress and Mockingbird into a single character.
• Dwayne McDuffie had also worked with Tom DeFalco (the future creator of Spider-Girl) and Mark Gruenwald on a pitch for a series of interlocking street level books set in the Marvel Universe. The titles would have included a new Heroes for Hire, a radical retooling of Shang-Chi, and a team book led by Monica Rambeau which would've incorporated the Shadowline series from Marvel's Epic imprint. The plans fell apart when DeFalco left Marvel, Gruenwald passed away, and Marvel itself went bankrupt during The Great Comics Crash of 1996.
• Matt Fraction's The Order (2007) was originally going to be a revival of Champions (1975), but it turned out that Marvel had lost the trademark in the years since the original volume's cancellation.
• Speaking of Fraction, he was supposed to spearhead Marvel's massive Inhumanity launch, but left the project due to creative differences. He's since left Marvel entirely to focus on his creator-owned work.
• There were plans for a RoboCop comic book series set in the continuity of the films. It never happened, but the basic premise was recycled for the successful Deathlok series.
• Spider-Girl (Anya Corazón), Mania, and Galactus' daughter Galacta were all supposed to have been part of the Fearless Defenders at one point or another, but were shot down by editorial.
• There were plans for a crossover between Harvey Comics and Marvel Comics, wherein a miscast spell by Wendy the Good Little Witch swapped Casper the Friendly Ghost with Ghost Rider. Marvel signed off, but Harvey got cold feet and backed out.
• Kurt Busiek had plans for a Y2K story called Y2Kang where time travelling villain Kang would do something that, when midnight struck on December 31, 1999, it would suddenly be January 1, 1900, transforming Marvel Earth into that time era, including the heroes. However, by the time the storyline was approved, it was too late - comics were already set for January, 2000 and the earliest open slot was in April. The editors were willing to keep going with the story, but Kurt complained that "no one would care" and, thus created Maximum Security instead.
• Age of Ultron was written before Avengers vs. X-Men, it required some hasty last minute rewrites once AvX had been released:
  • The role of the team telepath was originally going to be filled by Professor X, but was changed to Emma Frost when Xavier was killed by Cyclops near the end of AvX. You can still see certain panels where Emma appears to be limping, as she was drawn over an illustration of Xavier using crutches.
  • The book was supposed to take place before the events of Marvel NOW!, explaining why Captain America and several other heroes are still clad in their classic costumes.
• Grant Morrison once proposed a rather radical Nick Fury series that would have revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D. kept Fury in action into the present day by injecting his personality into unassuming test subjects—essentially brainwashing innocent people into serving as the perfect secret agent. The idea was deemed too much of a change of pace for such a classic character, so Morrison instead reused the idea for their original comic book series The Filth.
• The New Universe line was originally conceived as a complete Continuity Reboot of the entire Marvel Universe ala Crisis on Infinite Earths, but it was decided that it'd be a waste since sales were already pretty high at the time.
• After the character's surprise appearance in The Avengers (2012), Marvel announced a Thanos mini-series called Thanos: Son of Titan. Written by Joe Keatinge and drawn by Richard Elson, the series would have explored Thanos' origin and rise to villainy. The project was cancelled before issue #1 was released, with Stephen Wacker citing a change in plans for the character.
• During his time working on Udon's Street Fighter books, Jim Zub pitched a Marvel vs. Capcom comic to Marvel. Writer Frank Tieri also claimed that a comic mini-series for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was in the works at one time, but the project was shelved due to the companies being unable to reach an agreement.
• According to Disney CEO Bob Iger, his predecessor Michael Eisner was the one who initially floated the idea of the company acquiring Marvel. However, the rest of the board found the brand to be "too edgy" for Disney. One has to imagine how the publisher, not to mention the Marvel Cinematic Universe, would've evolved without Disney's backing.
• Empyre was originally much bigger, but due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the miniseries found itself condensed and the amount of tie-ins were forced to be scaled back, removing numerous tie-ins. Consequently, this left certain plot points (most damningly Thor returning in the final issue of the main title with control over plantlife and the embracement of his heritage with his birth mother Gaea) coming out of nowhere. The tie-ins removed:
  • Empyre: Thor, which would have seen the Odinson seeking to find out what has caused Gaia to fall ill during the invasion.
  • Empyre: Spider-Man, which would pit the webslinger against a Skrull warrior.
  • Empyre: Stormranger, which would have Kamala Khan's former nanotech Kree costume-turned-independent being fighting in the war.
  • Empyre: The Invasion of Wakanda, which would have Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda defend the kingdom against the alien invaders.
  • Empyre: Ghost Rider, which would put two Spirits against the alien invasion.
  • Empyre: Squadron Supreme, which would have Coulson's hand-picked hero team protecting America from the invasion.
  • The Order, a mini-series featuring a group of United Kingdom-related heroes. It ended up becoming The Union, a tie-in mini-series to King in Black instead.
    • Relatedly, Strikeforce got cancelled one issue before it was supposed to tie-in with the event.
• The Shogun Warriors was originally comprised of Raydeen (Brave Raideen), Great Mazinga (Great Mazinger) and Dragun (Getter Robo G). However, Marvel realized late in the planning that they didn't have the rights to use the latter two, thus replacing them with Combatra and Danguard Ace.
• Disney Kingdoms was supposed to have a third Figment series, but it never saw the light of day for unknown reasons.
• While still working on Uncanny X-Men Chris Claremont and John Byrne came up with an idea for a new story: What if Magneto Had Formed The Original X-Men? Professor X dies in his fight against Lucifer, without him, the X-men never existed, and Magneto unites them in his Brotherhood of Mutants; They defeat the other superheroes, or imprison them in Asteroid M and Magneto manages to conquer the world. Finally Galactus arrives and consumes the world, leaving only Asteroid M wandering through space.
• Ms. Marvel:
  • Kamala Khan was originally envisioned as a mutant. However, Marvel starting its self-embargo over X-Men and Fantastic Four forced creators Sana Amanat and G. Willow Wilson to have her being one of the new Inhumans. Her Marvel Cinematic Universe counterpart, and eventually the original comic book character herself in 2023, get to fix this.
  • The one shot Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel was originally solicitated simply as Fallen Friend, with a teaser image◊ saying it will be properly revealed on May 31st, 2023 — which happens to be the release day of The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #26, in which Ms. Marvel heroically dies. Unfortunately for Marvel, they were forced to fully reveal the one-shot two weeks early due to a Content Leak.
• Tom Brevoort revealed that Bill Jemas once floated the idea of merging the Ultimate and 616 Marvel Universes together back in the early 2000s. It never really went anywhere, especially since soon after, Jemas was kicked out of Marvel.
• In the Devil's Reign storyline, there was a mini-series called Luke Cage: City on Fire focusing on the former Power Man and his family. The title would introduce a group of Corrupt Cops named the Regulators, lead by Jo Rockhead, who can turn people into stone and has something in common with Luke. However, just before the mini launched, Marvel suddenly cancelled the title. In February 2023, it was revealed that Marvel cancelled it due to the subject matter similar to things like the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter Movement, Marvel fearing that putting the book out would put a target on the creators for right-wing nutcases. As well, the book would have been released around the time of the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, adding to the poor timing.
• Following her work on Deadpool, Gail Simone was offered a chance to write a new Night Nurse miniseries alongside Jill Thompson that she conceived as a mix of medical drama and Vampirella. Unfortunately, Bill Jemas wanted the series to be a Buffy the Vampire Slayer clone, and Simone was not familiar enough with that show to have any confidence in imitating it, so the project was abandoned.
• After DC and Marvel collaborated on their MGM The Wizard of Oz comic, Marvel made a comic adaptation of The Marvelous Land of Oz using character designs and characterizations from the movie where applicable, with plans to adapt more books. It fancast Margaret Hamilton as Mombi the Witch and, if authors' notes are to be believed, was going to use MGM Glinda's design for the Witch of the North while Glinda retained her book design. Unfortunately, due to low sales and licensing issues it was never meant to be, so the closest we get to MGM Dorothy and Ozma meeting is this splash page◊.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy

• Jim Valentino has an entire thread here for this Trope. Essentially: Starhawk and Vance Astro would both die, the team would fight Kang and several of their groups of enemies (who would be redesigned to turn them into even more blatant Legion of Super-Heroes analogues), the Protege would turn out to be the Beyonder, and by the end of Valentino's planned run, the group would morph into a Legion of Super-Heroes type organization with a roster of over several dozen heroes.
  • After Jim Valentino proposed the Guardians of the Galaxy 1990 series be set in the 31st century, Tom DeFalco suggested the series be set in the 35th century, an idea used for the Galactic Guardians in issue #8, and a planned "Galactic Guardians" miniseries. Issue #19 was to feature the 1000 year old Wolverine after Rancor had already appropriated his skeleton. A character based on The Beast was featured instead. Issue #22 was to be titled "Enter: Shadowhawk", the new name for the dark Starhawk. This was overturned by Tom DeFalco, and the name was used for an Image character instead. Jim Valentino's run ends at #27 and does not officially count #28-29, two throwaway plots brainstormed with Rob Liefeld before leaving the book. The two issues were intended to have a Masters of Evil team with Absorbing Man and Yellowjacket II, who would betray the team, ally with the Guardians, and leave Vance Astro at the Avengers Mansion, with guest appearances by the New Warriors and Marvel Boy.
  • Issues #30-51, if continued by Jim Valentino, would have continued the plot of the Guardians in the 20th century, meeting the Starhawk re-living his life in an earlier time period mentioned in #7, and the repercussions of Vance idolizing Captain America in #30-34. #35-36 would have featured a War of the Worlds and Killraven story. #37-39 would take place in one of Kang's alternate realities. #40 would be a double-sized issue featuring a wedding between Vance and Aleta, with an older future Gladiator flashing back to the wedding in #41-43 and the future Galactics encountering a remnant of the Shi'Ar Empire confronting the Badoon invasion. Doctor Doom, appearing in #23, would have returned in #44. #45-50 would be the grand finale featuring the invasion of Earth and the death of Galactus and Vance Astro. #51 would be the epilogue, featuring Vance's funeral, followed by a year's worth of stories exploring new worlds with no ties to the Marvel Universe. Other story plans included the female Adam Warlock joining the Galactic Guardians, and Yondu's god Anthos being somehow related to Thanos. Another miniseries was planned to follow after the funeral, focusing on the evolution of the Guardians from 500 years in the future, with thousands of members, including those who abused their powers as dictators of other worlds.
  • Major Victory was named after a Timely character. Vance travelling into the past during Timely Comics' creation would have established a stable time loop by leading to the creation of the company Marvel Comics.
  • Jim Valentino proposed a Guardians of the Galaxy reboot similar to Supreme Power, with four story arcs outlined.
• The now iconic Abnett and Lanning relaunch of the franchise (the one that would later serve as the basis for the movie) almost didn't happen. Originally, the plan was to use Annihilation: Conquest as a Backdoor Pilot for a new Quasar series starring Phyla-Vell. However, the readers really responded to the subplot about Peter Quill leading a Dirty Dozen-style team of cosmic criminals on a suicide mission, so the decision was made to have the surviving characters band together as a new team of Guardians.
• Al Ewing originally planed for the 2020 series to be much darker in tone than it already was, which was reflected by the Arc Words "Things can always get worse." However he soon felt that the planned story was going in too depressing of a direction and toned these elements down as he prepared to start the New Age of Space era.

Marvel 2099

Marvel 2099

• The line as a whole was meant to end in a completely different way. According to the initial plans, all the heroes in 2099 would be eventually wiped out and make way for the Marvel 2101 line up, which would feature characters living in the post-apocalyptic Savage Land. Those plans had even been briefly alluded to in a crossover between Spider-Man 2099 and the original Spider-Man. Obviously, Marvel 2101 was never launched, and the 2099 line ended with the one-shot 2099: Manifest Destiny after a massive Writer Revolt following the editor getting fired. Elements of the original plans can still be seen in 2099: World of Tomorrow. The overall result was that the plans for every single 2099 title were completely derailed.
  • Mark Waid had a proposal for a multi-issue Daredevil 2099 title. What happened was completely different. Daredevil appeared in 2099 A.D. Genesis had only the most vague references to this draft, and in 2004, there was a one-shot Daredevil 2099 who established DD 2099 as a completely different character. This second version became canon to 616 via Spider-Man 2099 in 2015.
  • The cast of Ravage 2099 were always meant to be Put on a Bus, but the specifics were very different in the planning phase. Originally, Doom 2099 was going to send Ravage and all the denizens of Hellrock Island to another dimension, and then destroy the island. What actually happened was one of the most thorough cases of "Everybody Dies" Ending in comicbook history. Doom kills everyone with liquid adamantium and hurls them in space.
  • By the time of the Writer Revolt above, Fantastic Four 2099 was shaping up to be one of the line's best selling titles. There were only five issues released at the time. The comic only lasted for eight.
  • There was going to be a video-game named Marvel 2099: One Nation Under Doom, released on the original PSX. It was cancelled the last minute.
  • Spider-Man 2099:
    • What happened to the corpse of Aaron Delgado? The original idea was to have the corpse used by Venom as a host, and after that was scrapped, possessed by Thanatos. Neither of those things happened; Thanatos was revealed to be Rick Jones during Peter David's run on Captain Marvel, and Venom 2099 became Kron Stone via Rogues' Gallery Transplant. Aaron Delgado remained a bloody stain in the asphalt.
    • Before the Writer Revolt, Peter David intended for the real identity of Goblin 2099 to be Father Jennifer, the sister of Miguel's dead fiancée. The following writers didn't like that and made Goblin to be Miguel's brother Gabriel. Then the same writers Retconned it saying it was a shape-shifter. When Peter David picked up the title again in 2014-2015, he ignored all the above and made Goblin 2099 Jennifer.
    • The critically panned cartoon Spider-Man Unlimited was originally supposed to be an adaptation of Spider-Man 2099. It took on its current form when DC Comics and Warner Bros. coughed up the superficially similar Batman Beyond around the same time, also a series set in the future and starring a Legacy Character.
  • After the end of Spider-Man 2099 vol.3, were plans to start a new series named Defenders 2100. This would feature several 2099 heroes such as Captain America and Strange (not a doctor), and a Sequel Hook that indicated Miguel was going to try reunite with his family. Those plans were discarded as the original 2099 run was Ret-Gone in 2019 due to In-Universe events and then rebooted.

Marvel UK

Marvel UK

• Several new projects were about to launch when Marvel's financial problems collapsed the imprint and cancelled the existing books.
  • Warhide would have been a Russian communist who was captured and flayed by the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, then saved and enhanced with a diamond-hard liquid carbon skin. The character appeared on the cover of the Body Count promotional book, but his own series was never published.
  • Loose Cannons was a Warheads spin-off miniseries written by Dan Abnett and guest starring Death's Head II. The art and script were almost entirely finished when it was cancelled pre-publication (and were subsequently put online by the creative team).
  • There were going to be further stories of the Warheads, wormhole-travelling mercenaries funded by Mys-Tech. All There in the Manual details were given in Overkill magazine. Warheads: Black Dawn mentions two planned miniseries to appear in 1993. The all-female Virago troop was to be featured in the cancelled four issue Loose Cannons limited series by Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison.
  • Dark Guard was about Marvel UK characters teaming up to fight Mys-Tek, and was going to be followed by Dark Guard Gold.
  • Death's Head Gold, by Dan Abnett and Liam Sharp, was published as Death Head's Gold #0, the flip cover of Death's Head II Vol 2 #14, followed by Death's Head Gold #1. Issues #2-3 were intended to follow, wherein Tuck is seduced by Cicatrice, Death's Head II becomes a sort of god and meets his future self.
  • Wild Angels was a Europe-exclusive Dark Angel and Wild Thing crossover published by Panini/Marvel Italia.
  • Death's Head II had an unpublished story where Death's Head II and Tuck team up with the Punisher. The Punisher would also have appeared in Super-Soldiers #9.
  • Wild Thing ended with issue #7; Super-Soldiers ended with issue #8. The Red Mist crossover, about the Red Mist 2020 virus introduced into the Super Soldier program, would have gone through the cancelled Super-Soldiers #9-10, Wild Thing #9-10, Bloodrush, Death Duty, and 'Roid Rage.

Marvel Zombies

• Marvel Zombies:
  • The original idea for the series had Luke Cage as one of the last surviving heroes, with the idea being that his unbreakable skin made him immune to the infection (which would have made a decent Omega Man-like story). This was changed when Kirkman found out that Greg Land had already drawn Cage as a zombie in Ultimate Fantastic Four, something that hadn't been specified in Mark Millar's script.
  • Another idea that was considered was Hawkeye escaping in a Quinjet and trying to live in the arctic until the zombies find him and he has to be on the run again (admittedly, this could have made a decent cat-and-mouse chase story).
  • The opening pages were supposed to have Superman as the virus-carrying superhero from another dimension. This was changed to the Sentry with an obvious recolor.

Ultimate Marvel

Ultimate Marvel

• Ultimate Marvel being a Continuity Reboot imprint almost never happened as editor-in-chief Joe Quesada initially planned it to be a imprint focusing on new heroes but eventually approved of the reboot proposal instead.
• Civil War (2006) was initially drafted by Millar as a story for the Ultimate universe. But the editors liked it so much that it was turned instead into a Crisis Crossover at the mainstream comics.
• Originally, Grant Morrison was going to pen an Ultimate Universe adaptation of The Kree-Srull War, which would have revealed the enemies the Chitauri were fleeing from in The Ultimates Volume 1 as The Kree and that the original Super-Soldier serum was made by Kree Scientists (who had been in hiding on Earth) from Chitauri DNA. However, Morrison returned to DC and this mini-series and the plot-lines it planned to introduce were thus abandoned.
• Before Jeph Loeb came aboard, Mark Millar planned to follow up The Ultimates Volume 2 with an ongoing series titled Ultimate Avengers, which would have detailed the original Ultimates team (now called by their mainstream name of The Avengers) operating independent from SHIELD out of Stark's New York townhouse. Millar later recycled story ideas he had for this series into the actual Ultimate Avengers series he would later pen.
• When he was first announced for the Ultimate Fantastic Four, and still ignoring that he would have a short run, Millar announced that he would use Dr. Doom and Galactus in the first year. Only Doom appeared. Galactus would be used in Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, by Warren Ellis.
• Bendis had an idea for a story for the Ultimate Fantastic Four, but the editors rejected it: it was better suited for The Avengers. So he was allowed to write it for the Avengers instead. It was Avengers Disassembled.
• The Ultimates were initially drafted as just a remake of the Avengers in modern times. But then, the 9/11 happened. Millar redefined then the project, and added the political content to it.
• Samuel L. Jackson was not consulted for the use of his likeness for Ultimate Nick Fury and nearly sued Marvel. Had they not worked things out amicably, the comic could have been derailed due to lawsuits. Fortunately they did.
• The revival of the line in Ultimate Invasion and Ultimate Universe (2023) was originally meant to be handled by Donny Cates, but then came the car accident that seriously injured him and gave him amnesia about the six months of his life prior to that, as well as his divorce, so the revival was handed to Jonathan Hickman.

Iron Man

• There was an Iron Man issue where Madame Masque was apparently killed and replaced by a new woman who wanted the identity for herself. This famously set off a series of confusing developments, including multiple new Madame Masques appearing, as well as the debut of an Avengers ally named Masque. Kurt Busiek finally Retconned the whole thing away by revealing that all of the women involved were clones of the real (and still-living) Madame Masque, but the original intention behind the story that started the mess was quite different. The idea was that Madame Masque's killer would have been revealed to be Rae LaCoste, who was one of Tony's love interests at the time. Unfortunately, the plan to make her the new Madame Masque ended up as an Aborted Arc, which led to all the confusing attempts to continue the story. Additionally, Rae was going to be revealed as Scott Lang's ex-wife.
• Dwayne McDuffie once pitched an idea for a mini-series called "The Killing Machine," which would have revolved around The Punisher stealing a suit of Iron Man armor and painting it black. Iron Man and the Punisher would then spend the series fighting for control of the new suit. There were also plans for a sequel which would have seen James Rhodes donning the black Iron Man armor and eventually being spun off into his own title. It never happened, but McDuffie has said he liked to think the pitch had some influence on the eventual creation of War Machine. And then they gave Punisher the War Machine armor.
• Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross attempted to take over the Iron Man title after John Byrne left it. Not much is known of it, but Ross and Busiek co-created the Iron Man armor to be used during that run, which ended up being used by Busiek when he took over the title following Heroes Reborn.
  • Speaking of which, Busiek was supposed to write a mini-series called Iron Man: Look Back in Armor, which would have explained what happened to the teenage Tony Stark from The Crossing. For whatever reason, the series never happened, and Busiek wound up clarifying the final fate of Teen Tony in the 2001 Avengers Annual.

Thunderbolts

• At a very early stage in pre-production, Kurt Busiek had wanted Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara) to be one of the main characters in Thunderbolts. Busiek had planned to explore her backstory in greater detail, such as revealing that she was living under the name of her dead best friend after being pursued by the mob. Yellowjacket ended up being Killed Off for Real during The Crossing, making any future plans for her moot.
• Issues 6-8 originally had the Kree instead of the Elements of Doom, possibly changed because of delays with Heroes Reborn.
• One day, two fans of Thunderbolts showed a fake ad for a 'Tastee Fruit Pies' starring the characters to Kurt Busiek, who liked it enough to show it to editorial. They came up with the idea to reillustrate the ad by giving it to Marie Severin, who had drawn many of the infamous Hostess Pie ads in the seventies. Unfortunately she was not available, so the task was given to the regular artists of the book, resulting in readers getting the uncannily-odd sensation of seeing authentic pictures of the Masters of Evil ranting about 'tasty fruit filling' and the like. You can read the entire bittersweet-tasting tale here.
• James Gunn had expressed interest in making a movie of the series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Kevin Feige said that it was a possibility if Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) did well enough at the box office. However, Guardians was a huge success (especially for a team that was relatively obscure even to most comic book fans), and plans were shelved so Gunn could work on the sequel. Amusingly enough, he's been hired to work on a Suicide Squad movie; which is also about supervillians doing heroic things.

Runaways

• The series went through a few changes before publication. One of the big ones was Nico Minoru's source of power. Originally, she found a book of dark magic hidden in a shed in her backyard. Being heavily Christian, she hated it but sacrificed her beliefs to use one of the spells during the first fight with the Pride. Some aspects of this were left, including her being a former altar girl and a comment when she first sees her parents as dark magicians ("This isn't like you, Mom! We go to church every Sunday!") Also, Chase's name was originally "John".
• Joss Whedon's run on the series was supposed to be longer and involve the team travelling to other parts of the world. Unfortunately, Whedon's schedule caused a lengthy hiatus a few issues into his run, and Marvel insisted that the team had to participate in a Secret Invasion tie-in, and thus his run was truncated and the series was re-tooled.
• Kathryn Immonen's run was supposed to end with an alternate-universe version of Gert Yorkes joining the team, which ended up happening in Runaways (Rainbow Rowell).

Daredevil

• Frank Miller's first issue was actually pushed up a month because the previous story, a two-parter dealing with the topic of drugs in schools, was censored by the Comics Code. An altered version wound up being published over a year later after Miller had become a big enough superstar to push it through.
  • According to Shooter, Miller wanted to quit the title shortly after becoming penciler due to his dissatisfaction with then-writer Roger McKenzie. Shooter managed to talk him out of it, and editor Denny O'Neil later promoted Miller to writer.
  • The Owl was going to be the main villain of X-Factor, and there were clues planted towards it, until Apocalypse was created for that role.
• Following "Fall from Grace", D.G. Chichester's run went to #332. He planned to continue until issue #350, which was written by J.M. DeMatteis instead.
• Brian Michael Bendis was originally going to have Bullseye appear in Daredevil #36 as part of the storyline where Matt Murdock's identity was leaked. However, Kevin Smith had called dibs on writing Daredevil and Bullseye's next confrontation, so Bendis used Elektra instead.
• In his original run, Smith had wanted to do a story about Matt regaining his sight, but had to nix that plan after learning that Scott Lobdell had already written a similar story. He almost skipped out on the gig entirely before coming up with the iconic "Guardian Devil" storyline.
• Before the Netflix show, there had been several attempts at a Daredevil TV show. In the 70's there was a pitch for a live-action series starring Daredevil and Black Widow, but it wasn't picked up. In 1985, ABC was on board to air to air an animated series featuring Daredevil and a guide dog named Lightning, but a dispute with someone at Marvel led to it being dropped. In 1999, Fox Kids was approached about an animated series, but it was pushed back to air alongside a potential live-action movie that was never made.
• A Daredevil video game was being developed in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Initially featuring a series of fight scene vignettes emulating the comic stories, the game was reworked as a Wide-Open Sandbox game to take advantage of Daredevil's radar abilities, then was reworked as a level based game where the radar abilities became more useless in the game's narrower environments. The game was cancelled, along with an Elektra game planned as a followup.

New Warriors

• At the height of the New Warriors' popularity, Marvel strongly considered launching a spinoff series starring a West Coast Team. The idea was partly set up in the comics, with Night Thrasher looking at the large roster of team members & regular allies and considering splitting the team in two. This never ended up happening, as the series' readership dropped sharply when the comic-collection bubble burst in the mid-1990s.
• Fabian Nicieza had wanted Squirrel Girl to join the team and develop a crush on Speedball. He left the book before this could happen, but was able to utilize the idea of a Speedball/Squirrel Girl romance years later in one of the I (Heart) Marvel one-shots.
• There was a serious attempt to make a New Warriors sitcom set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which would've starred Squirrel Girl and Mr. Immortal alongside Night Thrasher, Microbe, Debrii, and Speedball. The show was originally developed for Freeform, even getting as far as having a pilot; while executives reportedly liked the pilot, Freeform ultimately wound up passing on the series, and after it was shopped around to a few other networks, the series was scrapped. (Although it's still possible that it could be revived on Disney+ in future.) The only leftover was the casting of Milana Vayntrub as Squirrel Girl carrying over to the Marvel Rising projects.
• The 2020 relaunch of the series as part of the Outlawed storyline. The mini-series would have reunited Night Thrasher, Justice, Silhouette, Speedball and Namorita to recruit a group of young heroes to train in the wake of the passing of Kamala's Law. However, after Marvel stopped production of comics temporarily as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the Outlawed-related titles were temporarily shelved. As of December 2021, this is the only title not to have been printed. Many believe that its abrupt cancellation was due to the critical thrashing the title got due to its out-of-touch new heroes, with the worst being the characters Snowflake and Safespace - psychically linked twins who had cryokinetic powers and psychic shields respectively - who were named after terms used to mock left-leaning demographics as oversensitive. Not helping things was that Snowflake would have been Marvel's first non-binary superhero and was roundly criticized for being designed in a tone-deaf and insensitive manner. Kibblesmith would later use B-Negative in Darkhold: Blade, as an alternate-universe character, but his 616 counterpart is still unaccounted for.

Doctor Strange

• Frank Miller was planned at one point to collaborate with Roger Stern on a run of the comic, but due to being considered for the comic adaptation of For Your Eyes Only (a role that eventually went to Howard Chaykin), he bowed out, and Marshall Rogers took over for Miller. Considering how Miller revolutionized Daredevil (and later, revamped Batman), and that Roger Stern is considered one of the best writers of Strange in comics, and that Rogers' run with Rogers is well regarded for classic stories like "To Have Loved and Lost" and "The Montessi Formula", one can't help but wonder what Miller's run would've looked like, or if he would have gone and continued as a writer on the character.
• The 1978 Pilot Movie was set to be riffed by Mystery Science Theater 3000, and had gotten pretty far into writing their jokes when they were informed they couldn't use it due to licensing issues.
• Warren Ellis' run on Doctor Strange lasted only one issue - Ellis was apparently going to take the character into a less superhero-oriented direction, towards fantasy and horror, but he quit after the editor who handpicked him for the book was replaced by one with a preference for classic-style superhero stories.

Deadpool

• Jim Calafiore wrote and drew a one-shot Deadpool story called "Deadpool Almost Destroys the Marvel Universe", which would have seen Deadpool starting an intergalactic incident after accidentally killing an alien ambassador by sneezing on him. This would have led to a massive battle with all of the heroes of Earth joining together to fight the vengeful aliens, and nearly perishing as a result.
• Blind Al was originally going to be the first Black Widow, but Joe Kelly left the Deadpool book before this could be revealed.

Captain Marvel

• When Mar-Vell first appeared he wore a white and green costume with a finned helmet that vaguely resembled that of a gladiator. The white and green color combo was one of a couple of test color schemes by the artist, the preferred one being made up of primary colors, but Stan Lee chose the white and green color scheme after looking them over, presumably to help differentiate Mar-Vell from all the other Marvel superheroes who were running around in primary color schemed costumes. Some fans liked it, but the artists themselves never did, so when the chance came to make a new one, they made sure that it would be red and blue.
  • For that matter, Stan Lee and their team might've come up with something rather different had they known they had a full five years before DC and Fawcett would get their acts together and revive their Captain Marvel.
• In the 80's, there were plans for an X-Men animated series which would've seen a teenage version of Carol as one of the main characters. She would've been renamed "Lady Lightning," and presumably would have been a mutant.
• Before the show was picked up by Netflix and officially announced as part of the MCU, there were plans to have Carol as a supporting character on Jessica Jones (2015) (the two being friends in the original Alias comics). She was subsequently Adapted Out and replaced by Patsy Walker, presumably to avoid conflict with the upcoming Captain Marvel movie.
• Kevin Feige has confirmed that Carol was present in early drafts of Avengers: Age of Ultron as Captain Marvel. She was written out after they realized introducing her without providing an origin or context could lead to Continuity Lock-Out for casual audiences.
  • The Russo Brothers and Feige have confirmed a similar scenario for Avengers: Infinity War, where she was originally meant to appear, but was cut for both the reason above, and there were already too many characters fighting for screen time. However, Brie Larson was seen on the set of Infinity War and Endgame, and appeared in the latter.
• Before settling on Warbird, Kurt Busiek considered giving Carol the codename Nemesis during his Avengers run.
• Carol Danvers almost didn't get to become Captain Marvel. Bendis had wanted to graduate Carol into Captain Marvel ever since House of M, but the bigwigs weren't convinced. At one point, the character Gravity was supposed to become Captain Marvel, explaining his death in Beyond!, but when that fell through, the character was revived instead in Fantastic Four.
• Kelly Sue DeConnick originally wanted to use Anya Corazón as a recurrent character in her Captain Marvel run, but was denied her use. Anya's role would been the one Wendy ended up doing.

Marvel MAX

• The cancelled Ant-Man and Deathlok series by Daniel Way.
• NYX and the Frank Cho run of Shanna the She-Devil were both allegedly intended to be MAX.
• James Gunn, who would later go on to write and direct the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy for Marvel Cinematic Universe, pitched a Marvel MAX revival of the Power Pack. The series would've dealt with the now-adult members of the team, who would have been screwed up due to their insane childhoods.

Black Panther

• Jack Kirby initially pitched the character as "The Coal Tiger". The costume was similar to the one T'Challa eventually debuted in, but lacked a mask and had a much brighter color scheme.
• Another alternate cover for Fantastic Four #52 had Black Panther in a slightly tweaked costume, complete with a Batman-like cowl and Underwear of Power.
• There was a movie in development in the mid-90s with Wesley Snipes playing T'challa. The studio was uneasy about the setting being changed to being about the Civil Rights movement (he would have been a member of the Black Panther Party) and felt like CGI at the time wasn't good enough for what they needed so it was shelved.
• Before the introduction of the ill-fated Kasper Cole version of the Black Panther, there were several other plans to shake up and ReTool the franchise. Christopher Priest had suggested T'Challa undergo a Face–Heel Turn, while Mike Raicht suggested that Queen Divine Justice become the new Black Panther.

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