The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a cultural phenomenon and one of the greatest film franchises of all time. For 18 years, the MCU has been dominating the film industry by bringing many of Marvel Comics’ most iconic and beloved characters and stories to life. And while the MCU certainly tells amazing original stories that have pushed the boundaries of the superhero genre, it has also drawn great inspiration from the comics from which it was founded. Whether through direct adaptations or by incorporating elements into their movies and shows, the MCU has been based on some of the best and most influential stories in Marvel Comics history.
It’s always a treat to see some of Marvel’s most defining storylines be adapted for the big screen. This list won’t consider how closely the MCU follows the storylines or how well the adaptation is overall. Instead, we will solely focus on ranking the greatest comics that inspired the greatest film series.
In WandaVision, Scarlet Witch entraps a small town in an idealized fantasy world so that she may be with her deceased lover, Vision, and have two children with him. While the show is much smaller in scope, the premise takes clear inspiration from the monumental House of M event. In the comics, after losing her sons, Scarlet Witch suffers a mental breakdown. She then rewrites the universe in a way that not only restores her children, but also makes mutants the dominant species on Earth and Magneto its ruler. Eventually, the heroes remember their old lives and fight Scarlet Witch to restore their world to its authentic self. Like WandaVision, House of M is a tragic and emotional tale that explores Scarlet Witch’s grief and reveals her infinite reality-warping potential.
Despite the film Avengers: Age of Ultron taking its name from a well-known Avengers storyline, the movie’s plot draws more inspiration from another incredible tale, “Ultron: Unlimited.” Like the film, the comic story involves Ultron invading a European country and committing genocide with the help of legions of drones that are extensions of his will. As always, Ultron’s end goal is to exterminate all biological life, but he surprisingly finds himself dealing with emotional and existential problems as well. Like his MCU portrayal, Ultron has significant father issues with his creator, who in the comic is Hank Pym. The comic is an incredibly action-packed, tragic, and nuanced tale that explores the Avengers’ artificial foe in ways no comic has before or since.
One of the biggest problems with Thor: Love and Thunder was how it almost completely stripped away everything that made the two-part “The God Butcher/Godbomb” storyline so compelling. The story introduced Gorr the God Butcher, who wields the Necrosword and seeks to eradicate all gods after the loss of his family. However, the comic takes things even further by pitting Thor’s past, present, and future selves against the God Butcher, who takes all three of them across time and space. The comic also does a far better job at examining the role and impact gods have in the lives of the mortals who worship them. “The God Butcher/Godbomb” is an epic of mythical proportions.
For decades, Hawkeye was considered almost a joke member of the Avengers in the comics, but his 2012 storyline “My Life as a Weapon” not only inspired his MCU solo series but also helped revitalize the character for a new generation. The Hawkeye TV show’s entire plot and characters are almost identical to the “My Life as a Weapon” comic. Like in the show, Kate Bishop, the second Hawkeye, is taken under the wing of Clint Barton after her rookie vigilantism gets her in trouble with the local criminals, including the Tracksuit Mafia. The comic also introduces Lucky the Pizza Dog, who’s featured in the show. “My Life as a Weapon” is a grounded and engaging character study that adds new layers to the superhero archer.
Few events were more impactful in both the comics and MCU than Civil War. Although Captain America: Civil War changes some details, the overall premise remains the same as the groundbreaking comic. A disaster caused by superheroes inadvertently motivates the government to pass legislation requiring heroes to work for them or be incarcerated. This leads to a split within the superhero community between those who favor the Registration Act and those who oppose it, with Iron Man and Captain America leading the opposing sides. This thought-provoking story explored the themes of freedom vs. security. Like the movie, Civil War was a dark story that pushed many heroes past their moral limits as they fought friends for their ideals.
Where the TV series crashed and burned, the original Secret Invasion storyline is one of the most iconic and tense arcs in Marvel Comics history. While both stories deal with Skrulls abducting and replacing humans, the threat they pose in the comic is far greater. The comic goes into far greater detail about the extent of Skrull infiltration of the planet. It emphasizes the fear and paranoia such an invasion brings to heroes who can’t distinguish friend from foe. And where the danger of one Super-Skrull was a driving threat in the show, in the comic, there’s an entire army of them who engage in an action-packed battle against the Avengers to determine the fate of Earth. Overall, the Secret Invasion storyline was far more impactful, suspenseful, and epic.
In one of the strangest examples of the MCU taking inspiration from the comics, the greatest Hulk story of all time was adapted almost entirely off-screen. As a subplot in Thor: Ragnarok, the MCU revealed that the Hulk was abducted and forced into slavery as a gladiator on the planet Sakaar. This subplot clearly references the “Planet Hulk” story arc, where, after being banished from Earth by the Illuminati, the Hulk goes from slave to freedom fighter to ruler of Sakaar. With the Hulk as the central focus rather than a side character, the story examines how, for the first time in his life, the Jade Giant is seen as a hero rather than a monster.
In case the title of the revival series Daredevil: Born Again didn’t make it obvious, both this series and the original Netflix show took heavy inspiration from Daredevil’s greatest storyline. In Netflix’s Daredevil Season 3, Kingpin deduces that Matt Murdock is the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen and, with this knowledge, he causes the hero to lose everything in his personal life. The comic follows a similar plot, but it’s even darker because in the original story, Kingpin discovered Daredevil’s secret identity by bribing the hero’s ex-girlfriend Karen Page with drugs to give up the information. Both the comic and the show masterfully depict Daredevil at his lowest point, desperately trying to reclaim his life and get revenge on Kingpin for all the pain he caused.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is among the best MCU movies, in large part for how it expertly adapted the original comic. Like the movie, “The Winter Soldier” is an intense and nuanced political thriller that explores Captain America’s psychology and morals. Additionally, the comic saw the return of Captain America’s best friend and sidekick, Bucky Barnes, after being thought dead for over 40 years. However, Bucky had spent those years as the brainwashed Soviet super-soldier assassin known as the Winter Soldier who must now battle Captain America. “The Winter Soldier” took Captain America lore in a bold new direction, reinventing Bucky into one of Marvel’s best anti-heroes and offering a gripping, psychological story about memory, change, and redemption.
One of the greatest events in comic book history, the original Infinity Gauntlet Saga inspired the similarly monumental Infinity War and Endgame films. Although the movies take significant departures from the source material, the original story still served as the backbone for the first three phases of the MCU. In the miniseries, Thanos obtains the six Infinity Gems, which he harnesses through the Infinity Gauntlet to become omnipotent. In his quest to earn the love of Lady Death, Thanos snaps away half of all life in the universe. The surviving heroes must then band together to stop Thanos and restore all those who had been killed. Infinity Gauntlet is full of shocking twists and turns that forever raised the stakes of Marvel events.
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