In today’s theaters, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come to dominate many of the most popular films in the last decade. These films are generally well-received by fans and perform well in ticket sales. However, despite Marvel’s success in many of their films, it is difficult to please all of their beloved fans. Fans who are harsher on these movies are generally ones who have read the source material that forms the basis for Marvel’s movies. One of the biggest points of criticism that comes from these fans is the fact that a lot of the elements in the films are not always accurate to the comic books. In spite of this, I believe that these changes are often not too much of a problem because the film and the message can still get across fine.
An example of a change that has occurred in the movies is Thor’s character. In the comic books, Thor is not the loveable goofball he is in the recent movies. He is much more stoic, less humorous, and generally more serious. Thor actually behaved more like his comic counterpart in his first 2 stand-alone films, but that all changed after his third film Thor: Ragnarok. In Ragnarok, he became more childish, and this led to some criticism from fans. However, this change was not something that truly hurt his character or the movie. At most, all that happened was that he became more light-hearted, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be serious when he needs to be. Thor is still able to show maturity when faced with dire circumstances like the ones he faced alongside the Avengers in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The main messages of his movies don’t change just because he has become more immature.
Alongside this, another big change in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is with Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben. In the MCU, Uncle Ben was not mentioned often, and he appears to not have a substantial role in Peter’s life. In contrast with comics, Uncle Ben is the one who delivers the famous “With great power, comes great responsibility” line. Uncle Ben essentially serves as Peter’s reason for being Spider-Man. After the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the famous line was finally delivered by Aunt May instead. This change of not having Uncle Ben around essentially has no real effect on this Peter Parker. At the end of the day, Peter still got the message and learned what he should be doing with his gifts. Furthermore, an issue many fans took with Peter in the MCU is the fact that Iron-Man became a role model in his life that seemed to hold his hand through many issues via his advanced technology. Regardless, a change like this is not entirely bad because it takes the character in a new direction. Peter’s entire character arc in his first movie was to learn that he does not need the advanced technology in the suit to succeed as Spider-Man and do the right thing. Iron-Man essentially helped him become an accurate version of Spider-Man just through a different method. At the end of the day, as long as the main theme and idea are still logical, a change like this isn’t so bad.
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