Marvel Studios no Longer Pretend to Adopt Comic Book Stories

After more than a decade into the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Marvel Studios has finally confirmed that they will stop pretending they “adopt” the stories from the comic books. It might seem opposite from the idea of the MCU itself, but looking forward to upcoming movies, it is reasonable to suppose that the company is taking an entirely new trial.

Indeed, Marvel movies are majorly based on the stories from the comic books, which brought some of the most famous names in the Marvel universe to the big screen. However, from the very beginning, there were significant differences in Marvel Studios adaptations of the storylines from comic books. Moreover, after ten years of movie production, it built up to the point where the distinctions are inevitable.

The MCU’s first phase was initially the times of the Origin Story, as the movies were following the original storylines for the most part. The sources of inspiration were the classic comic books such as Captain America Comics #1 or Tales of Suspense #139 (the story of Iron Man) and 2000s Marvel’s Ultimate relaunch, where the heroes were put in the present day. Marvel Studios decided to follow the example.

However, one key difference popped-up in the first movie of the first phase – Iron Man (2008). In the ending scene, Tony Stark called himself a hero, confirming his identity as an Iron Men. It was a defining moment for the MCU as this gave them an opportunity to tell the public another kind of superhero story.

Moving away from the classic stories, numerous movies have been pretty open about their comic book origins. For example, the Captain America: The Winter Soldier movies are an adaptation of Ed Brubaker’s 2005 work: the story narrates about Steve Rogers’ colleague from the times of World War 2, Bucky, who had been brainwashed as a killer called the Winter Soldier. The movie Captain America: Civil War is based on the Civil War miniseries (2006-2007). The Winter Soldier plays a significant role that is way different comparing to the comics, plus the entire movie is under the influence of Sokovia destruction tragedy from the Avengers: Age of Ultron. By this time, the differences between the movies and the comics had already been taking place, becoming quite visible.

The classic example is Avengers: Infinity War which appeared to be a mix of Thanos Quest by Jim Starlin and Infinity Gauntlet miniseries, where the cliffhanger ending is directly taken from the comic book. However, simultaneously, many crucial details have been switched up, like Thanos’s motivation in the movie is so different that he does not seem to be the same character as he was the comics. However, the simultaneously of the film insist this be because the actions of the movie take place in a different universe.

Previously Marvel Studios had a reputation of comic-book-accurate, but, the times have changed. The studio has stated many times that the stories itself are not that important as the characters are. Yes, Iron Man has revealed his identity in the very beginning of his story, Thor had no counterpart, and the Avengers got split over Bucky in the Civil War movie, but despite all of these events, the characters remained at their core. In the Spider-Man: Homecoming a lot of Peter Parker ephemera was not shown at all, but every decision was made according to the decades of printed story. The appearance of Black Panther is inspired by Brian Stelfreeze’s artwork, which also redesigned Wakanda’s nation look in the twenty-first century.

For the Marvel Studios, it was never about identical copying of the comic book stories directly to the film. It was to take the classics and put a spin on, and this is what Marvel keeps doing from the very beginning.

This article was written using Microsoft Word. While formatting I used such features: page numbering, text aligning, picture aligning, character spacing (the original one), and bold text.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

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[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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