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| She-Hulk by Mike Mayhew |
With the recent DisneyFox deal the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is going to be full of amazing characters.
For some background, during the 1990s Marvel licensed out the live-action movie and television rights to different studios like 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and more. Starting in 2008 Marvel Studios started releasing their own movies into a single shared universe, but was limited in the number of characters they could use.
Over the years, they’ve gotten rights to different characters back and the biggest deal was when they bought the rights from Fox to bring in characters like the X-Men. You can check out our popular chart for the full picture.
But, sadly, Marvel still has a long way to go before it can use every character in the Marvel comic book universe. Here is a list of the biggest losses to the MCU.
1. She-Hulk
After getting into a car accident Jennifer Walters gets a blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce Banner. That blood gives her superhuman strength like the Hulk. Unlike Banner, she can change at will, has her full mental faculties and prefers her green look.
She-Hulk was created by John Byrne and is one of the greatest female superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Besides being a member of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Heroes for Hire, the Defenders, Fantastic Force, and S.H.I.E.L.D. she’s also a highly skilled lawyer. Her adventures over the years have taken her from fighting Doctor Doom to defending the rights of the mentally ill.
The live-action movie rights to the Hulk are still tied up with Universal. In 2005, after Universal failed to make a sequel to Ang Lee’s Hulk, the license lapsed and Marvel regained the film production rights. But they held onto the distribution rights. They can’t make a solo movie with him and they can’t make a solo movie with She-Hulk. She-Hulkie is a wonderful character, but there’s no way they could use her without Bruce Banner which means she’s out.
Update: Since this post, Marvel announced a Disney+ TV show. This is probably a loop-hole around Universal’s distribution rights since they only apply to movies. Plus, she was an Avenger. They’ll probably have to tweak the origin.
2. Namor
Namor the Sub-Mariner is a mutant underwater superhero that has super strength, can breathe underwater and fly. The live-action movie rights to Namor were purchased by Universal Studios along with Hulk in the 1990s. They never used Namor and never made a movie although some planning for a movie was done in 1996.
When asked about the rights for Namor Kevin Feige said, “It’s slightly more complicated than that. Let’s put it this way – there are entanglements that make it less easy. There are older contracts that still involve other parties that mean we need to work things out before we move forward on it. As opposed to an Iron Man or any of the Avengers or any of the other Marvel characters where we could just put them in.”
So, for now, Marvel can’t make a Namor movie without some work and money changing hands. Since most people haven’t even heard of Namor it’s not a huge draw. But then, how many had heard of Iron Man or Rocket Racoon before the MCU?
3. Namora
Along with Namor is his cousin Namora. Her first appearance was in Marvel Mystery Comics #82 (1947). She’s from Atlantis and is the daughter of an Atlantean father and a human mother. She is the cousin of Namor the Sub-Mariner. Just like Namor, she’s a hybrid mutant with superhuman strength and the power of flight by using the wings on her ankles just like her cousin.
She’s a wonderful superhero. During the superhero Civil War crossover event over government registration, Namora joins Amadeus Cho, Hercules, and Angel to aid the Hulk in fighting it. Marvel might be able to use her since she was in the Avengers in the 1950s.
But, just like Namor, there are a bunch of legal entanglements with using her. So she’s not up for grabs.
4. Namorita
Namorita first appeared in Sub-Mariner #50 (1972). She’s a mutant clone of her mother, Namora, and a member of the New Warriors. Marvel doesn’t own the rights to show her in her own movie and since she’s never been an Avenger they can’t use that as an excuse to use her.
She’s pretty awesome though. Namorita has a lot more attitude than her “mother” or her Uncle Namor. Unlike her other relatives, she can secrete corrosive acid or paralyzing toxin from her hands, and change her skin color as camouflage. Plus, she’s got twice the attitude.
5. Venom
Spider-Man used a parasitic alien for a costume for a while before ditching it because it was turning him evil. The Symbiote bonded with a photographer and borderline psycho Eddie Brock. The Symbiote gave Brock powers like Spider-Man including strength and speed and organic web-shooters.
Sony bought the rights to Spider-Man in the 1990s and made a series of successful movies. In the third Spider-Man movie, they introduced Venom played by Topher Grace and planned to make a spin-off. That never happened but they held onto the rights.
While Sony let Marvel use Spider-Man for movies like Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming they decided to make their own shared universe of movies including Venom starring Tom Hardy.
Many are glad that Venom isn’t controlled by Disney and it looks like Venom is going to be a much more violent character than your typical MCU hero. But it’s still a loss to the MCU and who without Spider-Man he’s just not the same. The rivalry between the two is the best part.
6. Carnage
Similar to Venom, Carnage has a history related to Spider-Man. He’s a convicted serial killer who shared a cell with Eddie Brock. When Brock escaped from prison he left behind a part of the alien who bonded with the nutcase. It’s hard to imagine a villain worse than Venom, but Carnage is what would happen if Spider-Man had a baby with the Joker and raised the guy in the woods with Hannibal Lector. He’s got a lot of Spider-Man’s powers, but adds the shape-shifting power of Venom with an extra 50% crazy.
Just like Spider-Man Sony owns the movie rights to the character. Just like Venom, Sony is planning to make it’s own movie featuring Carnage in it’s own movie universe.
It’s hard to imagine Marvel or Disney giving Carnage the kind of blood and guts comic fans would want. Still, it’s a shame to lose a great Marvel villain and he’s one of the most popular.
7. A-Bomb
Rick Jones best known as the best friend of the Hulk, but he has another side. First appearing in The Incredible Hulk #1 (1962) he was on the Gamma Bomb test site when it was about to go off. Bruce Banner ran onto the site to save Jones and turned into the Hulk. Because of this Rick Jones always felt a pang of guilt for this and worked hard to befriend the beast becoming his sidekick essentially.
The MCU movie The Incredible Hulk changed the Hulk’s origin and made it a failed lab experiment instead of a bomb. This means Rick Jones was written out of the movies by Edward Norton. But besides being a sidekick he also got superpowers. A supervillain team known as The Intelligencia transformed him into a hulking brute nicknamed A-Bomb. He has superstrentgh and a tough bulletproof skin
Just like She-Hulk, the rights to the character is still tied up with Universal. Why should A-Bomb be in the MCU? Because he still has Rick Jones’ wisecracking personality. He and Tony Stark could riff for hours while knockin’ fools out.
8. Red Hulk
The Inteligencia has a few more creations and the best one is Red Hulk. Knowing how much General Ross hates Bruce Banner and the hulk they gave him superpowers like the Hulk so Ross could kill him. He’s known as Red Hulk
Besides super strength he has so much radiation that he gives off intense heat and anger lets him burn anything he touches.
General Ross appears in several Marvel Studios films like Incredible Hulk and Captain America Civil War but doesn’t get much screen time because of the same rights issues as Hulk.
That means we’ll never get Agents of S.M.A.S.H. which is an underrated show by the way.
9. Red She-Hulk
Betty Ross has always been known as Bruce Banner’s girlfriend but one of the Inteligencias other creations is Red She-Hulk.
Betty gets super strength and durability like Hulk but also her keen mind. She’s stronger than She-Hulk because her powers come from more than a blood transfusion. She’s so strong she can punch a hole in dimensional barriers between different universes. Plus Betty can turn back and forth from her Hulk form to her normal body.
The MCU needs more strong female characters and there aren’t any stronger than Red She-Hulk. Plus her connection to Banner would be wonderful. It would give me meaning to the term “crazy ex-girlfriend”.
10. Skaar
Skaar is the son of the Hulk and the alien Caiera. He first appeared in Planet Hulk #1 (2007) after Hulk became the leader of the planet during the Planet Hulk storyline. Hot-headed and impulsive he has his father’s super strength, his mother’s ability to absorb power from the planet and he also wields a sword. He’s Conan but without the Austrian accent.
Marvel couldn’t legally use the original Planet Hulk storyline so they included parts of it into Thor: Ragnarok. That means they can never introduce Skaar in the way he should be seen.
The best moments with Skaar are with his father Hulk. Mark Ruffalo shined as a father in Infinitely Polar Bear (2014) and would be amazing as a superpowered dad.
One day the MCU can feature awesome characters like She-Hulk and Namor but till then we’ll just have to keep waiting.
Which of these characters would you like to see in the MCU? Is there someone we missed?
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