http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ReimaginingTheArtifact/MarvelCinematicUniverse
Due to being a
Live-Action Adaptation of
decades-old comic books, the
Marvel Cinematic Universe has understandably been known to
revise outdated elements from the comics to accommodate modern sensibilities.
- In this film, Steve Rogers properly earns the military rank of "Captain" here, rather than it just being his codename as "Captain America".
- Furthermore, the movie takes the comic-book re-imagining of Bucky Barnes one step further and makes him a grown man—the sequel has it that he's actually a year older than Cap. He's also a Chick Magnet who enlists in the army before Steve does. He does look comparatively younger and less intimidating next to post-serum Cap, but that's about it. This Age Lift circumvents the uneasy moral conundrum of having Bucky as a Kid Hero.
- The Mandarin's Yellow Peril persona is refitted for the 21st century by having this version of the character ultimately revealed as an actor hired to play up foreign terrorist stereotypes to cover up for the real mastermind, the white Aldrich Killian. A short film, All Hail the King, would later reveal that there was an actual Mandarin who was not happy about Slattery posing as him. This true Mandarin would later appear as the lead villain of the 2021 film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. This iteration also makes it clear that he's never called himself the Mandarin, it was a Western invention that he specifically blames on Killian, even mocking the Westerners who decided to name him after a type of duck/orange just because it's Chinese-sounding. He eventually accepts it as one of his titles because he thinks it's Actually Pretty Funny that Killian managed to make such a silly name terrifying to the West.
- Baron Mordo, one of Strange's biggest foes, is a fairly Flat Character in the comics without much personality other than Dormammu's willing servant. In the films, he is subject to Adaptational Heroism as one of Strange's magic instructors at Kamar-Taj and they become Fire-Forged Friends while fighting against Dormammu's forces, before he ultimately undergoes a Face–Heel Turn and becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist due to his Black-and-White Insanity. Per Kevin Feige, this was done to make him a rounded and complicated antagonist with a personal relationship to Strange.
- Wong, for decades an infamous example of Ethnic Menial Labor in the comics, is made an Adaptational Badass and fellow sorcerer who serves directly under Strange after he is made Master of the New York Sanctum. In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings it's revealed he also serves as a trainer for Emil Blonsky and assumes a Nick Fury-like role to Shang and Katy in the mid-credits scene. Spider-Man: No Way Home even reveals he became the Sorcerer Supreme on a technicality after Strange's death at the end of Infinity War.
- In general, Doctor Strange's Origins Episode is layered in some anti-Asian stereotypes and ugly Orientalism. For this reason (combined with concerns over how the character's ties with Tibet would play with Chinese censors), the Ancient One was changed from a mystical old Asian man to a mystical white woman of ambiguous age, and the whole business with Wong has already been described above. Furthermore, Wong's later appearance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings helps better integrate some of the originally Orientalist elements of the Doctor Strange mythos into actual Chinese, Tibetan, and Hindu mythologies so it comes across as less appropriative.
This film also slightly alters some aspects.
- The movie removes M'Baku's "Man-Ape" pseudonym due to the
Unfortunate Implications of associating a black man with an ape. Additionally, he is less of a supervillain and more of a Hero Antagonist who ultimately sides with T'Challa against Killmonger, while his Killer Gorilla motif is updated to be more in line with modern day understanding of gorillas; namely, they're generally peaceful unless provoked, which describes M'Baku very well here. Particularly, his first real interaction with Everett Ross, a white American agent who's in Wakanda for relevant reasons, has M'baku and several other Jabari hoot at him like gorillas and threaten to cannibalize him if he interrupts the Wakandans' conversation again, only to laugh off the man-eating ape stereotype a few seconds later and point out that the Jabari are vegetarians, much like real gorillas. - The Dora Milaje in the comics were a group of kid sidekicks that not only served as his bodyguards, but also served as ceremonial wives-in-training to the Black Panther. To avoid any Unfortunate Implications involving the hero having a government-mandated harem made up of girls way younger than him (even if they don't look like it and him never having pursued them romantically), they are simply made his normal bodyguards, are aged up and shown to have their own romantic relationships, such as Okoye dating W'Kabi.
- For decades, Carol Danvers' Origins Episode has been criticized on the grounds that since she gained her powers against her will and that they are a copy of her male Love Interest's powers, it sends the message that these powers are not truly hers, and that the most important experience of her life depended completely on a man. An important plot point in her movie is Carol realizing that her powers are her own, and that she must trust herself as the authority on how to use them. Her powers stem directly from a choice she made, and Mar-Vell (the above-mentioned love interest) is reworked into a radically different character. This version of Mar-Vell is a woman, has no powers besides standard Kree physiology, and is Carol's mentor and Parental Substitute. She was sent to Earth to study the planet's resident Infinity Stone, the Tesseract, in hopes of weaponizing it for the Kree. When she learned that she was on the wrong side of an unjust war, she converted her space ship into a haven for refugees and enlisted Carol to help her destroy the Tesseract-based engine. This led to Mar-Vell's death and Carol getting imbued with the engine's power as she destroys it.
- The Skrulls were created in The '60s and reflect Cold War paranoia of a Communist infiltration hiding in plain sight. The Skrulls of the MCU primarily draw on The War on Terror: they are refugees from a war-torn planet whose physical traits and culture are easily demonized by those in power, namely the Kree Empire. While the Skrulls admit that they have done unsavory things in the past, absolutely nothing justifies the intensity of the war that the Kree are waging. All they want is to reunite with their loved ones and find someplace to live in peace.
- invoked A relatively minor case, but in the comics Carol Danvers has the rank of "Major" or "Colonel" Depending on the Writer instead of "Captain", making her use of the title fall a bit into Fridge Logic. Here, her rank and her codename align, justified by the fact that she was in the US Military in The '80s when options were much more limited for women.
- In his original comics appearances in the 1970s, Shang-Chi was established as the heroic son of Fu Manchu who rebelled against his father and became a crime-fighter. However, there is a twofold reason why this backstory would not work in the 21st century; Firstly, there is Fu Manchu's reputation as the definitive Yellow Peril villain. Secondly, there is how Marvel no longer has the rights to Fu Manchu. To do Shang-Chi's characterization as the "heroic son of a villainous father" justice and work around the lack of the Fu Manchu rights, the movie simply has Shang-Chi instead be the son of the Mandarin.
- More on the Mandarin. The other reason why the Mandarin is the Big Bad of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is because, as was the case with Iron Man 3, the Mandarin's Yellow Peril persona would not resonate well with 21st century audiences, especially if he were to go up against a White Male Lead such as Iron Man. However, if the Mandarin instead fought an Asian lead, then the Yellow Peril implications would be considerably mitigated.
- The writers wrote a list of stereotypes they wanted to avoid with the Mandarin. Notably, he mocks the title in good humor as people being afraid of an orange. The character is never actually called the Mandarin by anyone in the movie, instead using his name Xu Wenwu.
This film series updates several aspects that originated in the Sixties but don't really hold up as well 50-60 years later
- Peter's supporting cast used to be entirely white in the initial comics. Several characters from the comics are given a Race Lift because times change, and given New York's status as a cultural melting pot with several immigrant communities it's more plausible for Peter's high school to be ethnically diverse.
- Aunt May is Younger and Hipper, which is more plausible in terms of her being Peter's aunt given his young age and the present setting. That and cultural views of a mother figure have aged down considerably. Peter keeping his identity a secret is therefore less about her being physically unable to handle it and more about him not wanting to give her something to worry about when she's still mourning the death of Uncle Ben.
- Originally, Peter being a nerd made him a social outcast. These days, nerdiness is more mainstream, and Peter's aptitude for science means he attends a SciTech magnet school. He also has a group of friends and classmates who genuinely like him, including his Best Friend Ned, with his social isolation translating to not being popular in general due to his dorky personality.
- Michelle "MJ" Jones is a Broad Strokes modern reimagining of Mary Jane Watson. Original MJ was a '60s free spirit, more worldly and social than Peter despite coming from the same working-class background that he did, and was highly liked by fans for being a more modern character than the rest of Peter's gang who were still stuck in a late-50s time-warp. Since much of the context and dynamics have changed, a modern MJ represents a third-wave feminist, social activist common to the millennial generation, which still makes her stand out significantly among her peers, and is also changed to a mixed race girl (played by Zendaya).
- The comics version of Eugene "Flash" Thompson started as a grab-bag of old-timey ideas of how The Bully looked and acted — i.e. a stereotypical blonde-haired, white-skinned, underwear-yanking meathead Jerk Jock who played American football a lot. This version of him is changed to a dark-skinned smug rich kid and faux-intellectual Nerdy Bully who goes after Peter with verbal insults and name-calling, e.g. "Penis Parker". This not only gels better with the changes to Peter's high school setting, but also reflects new understandings of how bullies look and act and the understanding they can come from any walk of life. Far from Home reveals his Freudian Excuse has been adjusted to fit this new paradigm as well, going from a physically-abusive father to two emotionally-negligent parents.
- Mysterio is a villain who was widely thought to be a little too cheesy and gimmicky to be in the MCU, known for making comic book concepts believable, especially with his trademark Fishbowl Helmet. Impressively, they managed to pull it off, albeit by making changes to the core concept. Instead of being a failed actor, he's a former Stark Industries employee who designed the company's cutting-edge "B.A.R.F." hologram system before being fired. His illusions come from said holograms rather than smoke and mirrors, and he relies on a support team of artists and technicians who consider Mysterio a Collective Identity. Even the costume, which is maintained faithfully to the source (fishbowl helmet and all), is lampshaded as being ridiculous; designed by a team of artists specifically to play into Superhero stereotypes.
- invoked The Stinger, following the same vein of logic as its predecessor reimagines The Daily Bugle - which has been traditionally depicted as a standard newspaper - as a disreputable news website known for resorting to sensationalist news, which was also done previously in Spider-Man (PS4). The reason for this was that back in the 1960s, more people were more willing to take the news at face value than they were in the 2010s. Coming off of this and related to news media being increasingly corrupted by Strawmen Political, J. Jonah Jameson is reimagined from a semi-trustworthy Love to Hate media mogul to a loathsome Hate Sink whose operation are inspired by small-time far-right talk show hosts a la Alex Jones of Info Wars infamy.
