The Six Moments Of The MCU I Would Change For The Better

The Six Moments Of The MCU I Would Change

Hey All!

As the amazing Infinity War comes to fruition before our very eyes, I thought it would be a good idea to explore the Ten Moments of the MCU I would change for maximum dramatic effect and storytelling appeal. As usual, debate is welcome!

Let’s dig in!

1. The Death of Crossbones (Civil War)

Let’s be honest. Frank Grillo is an amazing actor. Star of such projects like Wheelman, The Purge: Anarchy, The Grey, and (of course) Captain America: The Winter Soldier Grillo has been a gold mine of talent. Weaving menace and vulnerability over a career of roles spanning more than twenty years, the actor has a rabid base of supporters and fans. And rightly so!

So why did Captain America:Civil War kill Crossbones off so early? Why waste another physical antagonist? What was the point? Could the script really not have called for the bomb to be somewhere remote and not on Crossbones, Scarlet Witch finds it, and still fails to get it out of the atmosphere in time? Pardon me, but if Chris Evans is on his way out as Cap, then keeping Grillo alive an old antagonist for either Bucky or Falcon would have done wonders for the MCU villain roster. And we all know that villain roster could use some filling out due to so many deaths and disappearances. (Looking at you, Red Skull!)

    2.  The Beginning of Civil War (Civil War)

This will surely be a controversial issue. For those of you unfamiliar with the comic book source material, Civil War begins with the villain, Nitro, letting off a massive explosion that kills a bunch of New Warriors (who are trying to televise his capture!!!) and elementary school children. The next panel shows Cap and Iron Man, hours later, standing in the middle of the aftermath. It is quite clear from that point on that government interference is not only needed, but maybe necessary. The MCU could have easily taken this premise and made it work for them. By assimilating the foot chase that Captain America: Civil War starts with and ending with the collateral damage of children, the dramatic stakes would have been given a serious overhaul and even upending that balance of heroism and villainy that both Cap and Iron Man seemed to have in the book. Let’s be real: Not many came out the film on the side of Tony Stark and this would have made things a lot more messy.

   3. The Joke of the Mandarin  (Iron Man 3)

The “Trevor Slattery” dilemma has produced so much bile from so many fans that they literally had to create a One-Shot just to retcon his arc. That’s saying something. For most Iron Man fans, The Mandarin is his Joker villain equivalent and to make him a joke was a slap that many have still not recovered from. Sorry to say, but I’m one of them. The saddest part is that Ben Kingsley was doing so well. His Mandarin in the first half of that movie was (not only NOT racially offensive) captivating, dangerous, maniacal, humorous, and exhilarating to watch. To undercut that for a less impactful storyline just seemed so wrong. It also doesn’t help that the teasers and trailer promotion sell only the tone of the first half as well. Another glorious villain lost.

  4. Ultron’s Plans...and maybe Ultron (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

It’s hard for me to come to terms with this because despite Ultron being a little underwhelming, I totally dug James Spader’s performance. The problem with Ultron as a misfire is that Whedon created him in a compelling way, but didn’t give him anything compelling to do. His configuration of Vision and continuous work on destroying Sokovia doesn’t fully gel until the last 40 minutes. Why not have him cut off the internet? Power grids? Electricity? Actually cause all the absolute chaos he had been talking about for the entirety of the movie? Because of this lack of follow through, his villainy becomes small in a movie intended to be epic. It doesn’t help matters that the ending is still a straight-forward smash-em-all like the first one giving the audience not needed deja vu.

  5. Killing Villains/Disappearances That Lead Nowhere (Phase 1 and Phase 2)

I’ll be brief here. The Red Skull, Malekith, The Abomination, The Leader, The Mandarin, Yellow Jacket, The Iron Monger, Whiplash, Justin Hammer and many others. Everyone knows the MCU has a villain problem and I commend Phase 3 for producing a fantastic roster credible and dynamic foes, but we're on a runaway train now. Avengers had Loki. Avengers 2 had Ultron. Avengers: Infinity War has Thanos. There is no possibility of a team-up of physical foes for the Avengers to fight. This may just be wishful thinking on my part, but if Age of Ultron could have been The Red Skull (maybe Sin too?!), The Abomination, The Mandarin, The Leader, Crossbones, and The Enchantress against the Avengers? I’m just saying, that’s a whole different ballgame, my friend.

 6. Not Killing Captain America  (Captain America: Civil War)

My final entry would be the death of my favorite MCU character: Captain America. I won’t deny the fact that I love Captain America:Civil War wholeheartedly. The Russo’s did a bang-up job balancing story, action, character, music, and spectacle that features some of the best Superhero fights and stunt work ever put on film. But in my heart, I know that I would deem it a perfect score if it had the guts to follow its source material and kill of Captain America allowing him a triumphant return sometime in Infinity War or Avengers 4. The death of Cap occurs in the comics when Cap realizes the destruction of the Avengers battle is not what the people want. Guilted by this, Cap turns himself in and as he’s escorted to the courthouse, he is then shot and killed. There is a scene later on between Tony talking to Steve’s dead corpse lamenting on how they got to this point and why they fought. But at the end of Tony’s speech, he says:

“It wasn’t worth it.”