My top 10 most nerfed characters in the MCU

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

In your opinion which character in the MCU is the most nerfed compared to their comic/616 incarnation?

Here's my personal top 10 list with a brief explanation why.

10) Drax the Destroyer: Even though his modern incarnation is very depowered compared to 1970's Drax and the dumb 90's Drax, DnA's Drax is a very skilled wrestler/martial artist who can go through waves of bug monsters in Annihilation and managed to kill Thanos with a punch from behind. MCU is just comic relief and the Worf of the Guardians.




9) Gamora: In the 616 comics she is considered the deadliest woman in the Galaxy, very agile and skilled in martial arts, sword fighting and infiltration She can regenerate after being almost burned alive by an artificial sun, she can paraliyze her opponents by striking their pressure points and she defeated a large platoon of human soldiers. Picture She-Hulk with Daredevil's kung fu and you'll get Gamora.

8) Hulk, punching the leviathan in the first Avengers movie was a good feat but he was never defeated by Hulkbuster Iron Man in the comics, and he gets stronger the angrier he gets, to the point of going Worldbreaker mode, which makes half of new york crumble with a foot stomp. And even his weaker grey hulk incarnation was able to smash a planet size meteor.

7) Loki: Honestly this might be true. Comic Loki is a straight up beast of a sorcerer and actually warrants that title of God of Mischief. Remember in Avengers when Cap is going toe to toe with Loki at that museum? Like come on. Cool scene and all, but the real Loki can kill Cap in under 30 seconds.

6) Thor: Classic Thor pre-2007 has vast powers, including the ability to shoot through Mjolnir a devastating energy beam called God Blast (sometimes called Bolt of Anti-Force) quite similar to Dragonball's Kamehameha. Thor can fight Galactus as well, and whereas Movie Thor passed out after tanking a star, comic Thor STOOD in a star completely unphazed while fighting Silver Surfer. I don't even want to mention Rune King Thor and Old King Thor.

5) Ultron: in the comics, Ultron is a proper villain for a superhero team, he has as an adamantium body that can tank a 100 megaton bomb, he can lift more than 100 tons, has an AI powerful enough to take over the minds of the Phalanx and the Kree empire, and in Ultron Unlimited, he killed the entire population of a small country by himself. In the MCU he is a wisecracking jackass who had to rely on Scarlet Witch and struggled against Cap, and was pwned by pretty much everybody.

4) Doctor Strange: MCU Strange needed the Time Gem to manipulate time, both classic and modern Doctor Strange in the comics can do that without mystical macguffins. Although this can be forgiven since MCU Strange is still a novice.

3) Thanos: Hard to believe but yes, Thanos was nerfed in the MCU. In the comics he has a variety of powers even without the Infinity Gems, including shooting from his eyes and hands energy beams powerful enough to briefly knockdown galactus, psychic powers strong enough to make him impervious to great telepaths like Mantis and Moondragon, and he only gets a bloody nose from planet busting Attacks like Black Bolt's scream at point blank. And he managed to fight characters like Odin and Tyrant to a standstill.


2) Odin: Pre-Aaron Odin in the comics had this Amazing power source called the Odinforce, which basically turns you into Ultra Istinct Goku with the spellcasting ability of the Fairy Oddparents, making him the embodiment of ''a wizard did it''. His battle with the egyptian god Seth caused the destruction of a bunch of solar systems. His only weakness was that he had to do the Odinsleep everytime he used the Odinforce.

And the number one most nerfed character in the MCU is:

The Kyln prison: In the comics the Kyln is a billion years old fortress of unknown origins used as a prison for the most Dangerous criminals in the universe, and it was able to hold Kosmos (a mentally ill incarnation of the Beyonder) and two proemial gods Aegis and Tenebrous. In the GOTG movie it looks like a mere county lockup.

Now, let's see your top 10 on who you think is the most nerfed character in the MCU.

[Anthony W]

Get ready to add Taskmaster to the list.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

Get ready to add Taskmaster to the list.

Why? He doesn't have the ability to copy his opponent moves?

[ETMike1988]

Don't forget about Star-Lord! He is such an idiot in the MCU....

[Force de Phenix]

Don't forget about Star-Lord! He is such an idiot in the MCU....

A lot of people became idiots, like Mantis. She's too childlike.

The Black Order was not only nerfed to the max, but they were also ignored the most. When Cap caught Proxima's spear, it didn't mean much because they didn't convey the fact that that's her thing to the audience.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

Don't forget about Star-Lord! He is such an idiot in the MCU....

We are talking about powers not characterisation. Although it bothers me they turned Thor into a goofy fratboy who doesn't talk with a poetic dialect.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

A lot of people became idiots, like Mantis. She's too childlike.

The Black Order was not only nerfed to the max, but they were also ignored the most. When Cap caught Proxima's spear, it didn't mean much because they didn't convey the fact that that's her thing to the audience.

Yeah, i get why Steve Englehart was unimpressed by MCU Mantis.

I probably should have put the Black Order as honorable mention, even though i never really liked them because they are so un-Starlin.

[Blind Wedjat]

Pretty much every MCU character is nerfed except for the supersoldier types it seems (Cap, Bucky, BP) because some of this stuff being put to film could decrease narrative tension.

That being said, Mantis should be on the list in place of Thor.

[DragonKent17]

Scarlet Witch is another example in the comics as she warped reality with three powerful words and also one of the strong sorceress with Chaos Magic to her own right. The MCU version changed her powers into telekinesis and telepathy although the upcoming WandaVision and Doctor Strange 2 might change that in the future if you ask me.

[KOSLOX]

Pretty much every MCU character is nerfed except for the supersoldier types it seems (Cap, Bucky, BP) because some of this stuff being put to film could decrease narrative tension.

That being said, Mantis should be on the list in place of Thor.

BP had his brain nerfed a bit. Bucky got a huge upgrade. He isn't a supersoldier in the comics.

[Blind Wedjat]

BP had his brain nerfed a bit. Bucky got a huge upgrade. He isn't a supersoldier in the comics.

Right about that. I'd argue in terms of raw power all three are more powerful than their 616 counterparts though.

[GenericUsername]

Scarlet Witch is another example in the comics as she warped reality with three powerful words and also one of the strong sorceress with Chaos Magic to her own right. The MCU version changed her powers into telekinesis and telepathy although the upcoming WandaVision and Doctor Strange 2 might change that in the future if you ask me.

She didn't do Mday on her own though. That was with the life force. At her own power level she is pretty much a telekinetic. That's one of the abilities from the fraction of the power of Chthon that she holds. So I'd say with her being able to destroy stones and hold her own with Thanos, she's pretty on par. It just took them a bit to get there for her. Which is also kind of fair, since it took her a while in comics. Now the nightmare/telepathy stuff, they just went in left field with that. I think Whedon was just trying to do Jean lite.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

Pretty much every MCU character is nerfed except for the supersoldier types it seems (Cap, Bucky, BP) because some of this stuff being put to film could decrease narrative tension.

That being said, Mantis should be on the list in place of Thor.

I might also add the Destroyer Armor to the list.

[your_name_here]

I don’t see a problem with them being needed, tbf. Cinema is a different beast, and some of the feats we see in comics just wouldn’t translate as well in cinema. That’s the beauty of comics, I suppose.
Drax fits perfectly for films.
And though not as powerful as his comic counterpart, Thanos was just as scary and threatening.

On the flipside, I’d argue Cap got a big upgrade. And Wintersoldier.
Captain marvel is probably the one almost exactly the same as the comics, but it doesn’t necessarily work in the favour of other characters who’s abilities have been knocked down.

[U.N. Owen]

Comics also have a massive legacy to build off of. Marvel has been around, give or take, since World War II. Because of various factors like world building, we don't get the power creep and escalation we have in comics like we do in cinema.