Age of MCU: Top 6 Decisions We Hated About the MCU

Okay, so, we all love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, right? Nobody is calling that into question. But on occasion, decisions have been made that we have taken exception to. Still, there have been more decisions we’ve loved than hated, so I’d say we’ve had a pretty good time of it overall.

Nevertheless, it’s time to take stock of the, albeit few, things about the MCU we don’t like. *Sigh*. Let’s just get this over with. Quick and moderately painless.

 

DISCLAIMER! The following is my own opinion. If you have a different opinion then it’s clear that you need another turn on the whipping rack. *Whip* You will learn obedience!

 

6. No Familiar Faces

I’ve gone on and on about this before, but it’s still relevant. Why did Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. initially have all original characters? There was a plethora of already established characters from the comics that they could have used! Clay Quartermain, Jimmy Woo, Izzy Cohen, Kate Neville, Dino Manelli, La Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine! Why are we not seeing any of these guys?

Granted recently we’ve seen Bobbi Morse, a.k.a. Mockingbird, Lance Hunter, Mack, and the Koenig’s, who were all  comic characters related to S.H.I.E.L.D. But lets face it, they’re not the first people we think of when we think of S.H.I.E.L.D. Granted the first person we think of his a guy in an eyepatch.

 

5. Hawkeye Go Bye Bye

He had a brief cameo in Thor and returned in spectacular fashion in Avengers Assemble, but we’ve not seen much of Clint Barton, have we? Thing is he was supposed to have a cameo appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, buuuuuut due to scheduling conflicts among other problems, the scene, which may or may not have been partially filmed, had to be cut.

According to the Russo brothers, the scene would show an encounter between Cap and Hawkeye after Steve goes on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. Hawkeye looks to be trying to take him down, but it turns out it was just a ruse and he’s still on Cap’s side. It sounded really cool, but sadly Jeremy Renner is a busy guy, so we’ll never see it.

 

4. What the Phantom Menace?

I love Avengers. You love Avengers. We ALL love Avengers. But if we had to choose one itty bitty, tiny winy, microscopic nit to pick… it’d have to be this. Why did blowing up the Chitauri mother ship cause all their soldiers in New York to fall over? They weren’t robots! They were organic! Sure they had some technological components, but that’s not enough to make them just go… floof!

I get the feeling that Joss Whedon (Praise be unto him, Lord of the Geeks) had a perfectly good explanation lined up for this, but it got cut or a script editor messed up or something. And it’s a shame. This was a near perfect film and if they’d have just taken ten seconds to explain this then it would be 100% perfect.

3. No More Norton

Again, we all love Mark Ruffalo. Nobody is saying otherwise. But I think we can all agree, we were rather disappointed to learn that Ed Norton had left the role of the jade giant behind. He was so great in the first movie, we just couldn’t let go! And yeah, it turned out for the best. But I can’t help but wonder… what might have been?

I guess it all goes back to continuity. The MCU is well known for having that in spades, but when an actor gets replaced, it can be a little jarring. Norton looks nothing like Ruffalo, so it seemed odd to us. Ultimately, performance outranks looks though. Still, do you reckon Norton regrets his decision?

 

2. Malekith Mishap

The weakest thing about Thor: The Dark World, we can all agree, was the villain. Christopher Eccleston did a fine job playing the Dark Elf, but the character was just too one dimensional. And what makes it even more frustrating is the fact that it seemed like he wasn’t going to be.

Eccelston said before the film was released that: “There is a kind of tragic quality to his quest. Because he’s lost his wife, he’s lost his children. He’s lost everything. And he returns for revenge. And the agent for his revenge is the Aether. If he gets hold of that, he is omnipotent.” See, that sounds really interesting. Why didn’t we see that in the film? According to director Alan Taylor, all of the scenes dealing with this stuff had to be cut. Ugh.

 

1. That’s NOT The Mandarin!

What the hell? Who’s this guy? I thought he was the Mandarin? He’s not the Mandarin? Well who is the Mandarin? This other guy was the Mandarin the whole time? That’s not the Mandarin! Where’s the real Mandarin? Oh, there is a real Mandarin that we haven’t seen? Okay. When will we see him? What do you mean “you don’t know”? That’s not good enough! AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!

So yeah, turns out the badass Mandarin we saw in the trailers for Iron Man 3 was just a drunken actor called Trevor. Aldrich Killian was the Mandarin all along. Except, in the Marvel One-Shot All Hail the King, it turns out that there is real Mandarin, and Aldrich had just given himself the title after he heard about it or something. I don’t know. I’m tired. Can I go home now?