Unpopular Opinion: MCU Synergy is a terrible idea to fit in the Marvel Universe

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Aside from all that, I've always thought movie synergy was a completely ridiculous trend. If any such thing like that should happen, it should be handled in the same way the Batman: The Animated Series handled it: the slow introduction of a few well-regarded elements from the show into the main mythos, yet done in a way where that element doesn't intrude on the established lore (Harley Quinn, etc.).

Synergy with adaptations is a mug's game. Nobody has figured out how to do it.

The Adam West Batman show in the '1960s for instance brought a lot of interest in the Batman comics of the day but then the show ended and the readership of Batman fell really low and so the DC editors decided to greenlight a darker take and that led to the Denny O'Neill - Neal Adams - Englehart era that is basically the start of modern Batman. You know "Joker's Five Way Revenge". And that's what led to higher comics sales on Batman titles. The Christopher Reeve Superman movies, okay they were big for its time, but it didn't lead to super-normal or super-charged sales for the comics either at that time. Stuff like Byrne's THE MAN OF STEEL and later THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN did.

Ultimately what sells comics...are comics.

I mean the thing about bringing readers in from adaptations is that you are hoping or banking that the versions of characters they are introduced to will automatically be available to them on panels. No matter what you do, Robert Downey Jr. the actor cannot be translated to word balloons, panels and grids and splash images. If it's a video game...actually swinging around a digital Manhattan will always feel more boss than seeing an artist draw that on page. You are trying to introduce readers to another medium which doesn't have the properties and qualities of another.

The comics which really sold over to "Civilians" are stuff like Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, Superman versus Muhammad Ali, Star Wars ('70s and also the Disney era), SECRET WARS 1984, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (aka Peter and MJ get married which was the biggest comics event in the '80s in terms of prime time coverage), The Death of Superman, and also CIVIL WAR to some extent (mostly for Peter getting unmasked).

So basically it's unpredictable, spontaneous, and difficult to predict. Lighting in the bottle in the truest sense.

[your_name_here]

If a Shang Chi film is coming out, put a Shang Chi comic out or give him a little out-of-the-ordinary push. Not bothered with synergy, but it just is a no brainer to capitalise on new attention.

[H-E-D]

marvel should be like dc and fail to capitalize on literally every instance of media success

What do you mean, they only took 17 years for them to try Red X in the comics. Talk about striking while the iron is hot!

[Ptrvc]

All I know is keep the MCU stuff as far away from the Hulk as possible.

[Albert1981]

All I know is keep the MCU stuff as far away from the Hulk as possible.

Yeah, Hulk should NEVER hand out tacos and dab in the comic books. I'm really hoping he's "redeemed" in She-Hulk.

[PCN24454]

What do you mean, they only took 17 years for them to try Red X in the comics. Talk about striking while the iron is hot!

Be real here. Red X isn't necessary to a Dick Grayson story.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Yeah, Hulk should NEVER hand out tacos and dab in the comic books. I'm really hoping he's "redeemed" in She-Hulk.

Heh...handing out tacos and dabbing would sorta suit She-Hulk, if we're being real.

The MCU keeps changing Hulk with every appearance. Ed Norton's Hulk is different from Whedon's Ruffalo Hulk ("I'm always angry") and then you have Taika Waititi's Banner (which in my view is the best and only true take on the Marvel character) followed by the lackluster Russo Bros' version in the Thanos movies.

[Overhazard]

If a Shang Chi film is coming out, put a Shang Chi comic out or give him a little out-of-the-ordinary push. Not bothered with synergy, but it just is a no brainer to capitalise on new attention.

There's a Shang-Chi mini out right now, its being written by Gene Luen Yang. He's pretty good.

I have two main thoughts about the synergy. 1., I feel like its an insult to the intelligence of the audience, the average moviegoer, the legendary new reader that marvel wants to reel in, people like my brother, are smart enough to understand the the movies and the comics aren't exactly the same, in fact it's better that they aren't.

2. The synergy doesn't bother me anymore, I get that it's here to stay. I'd just like it if they were honest about it.

[Frontier]

marvel should be like dc and fail to capitalize on literally every instance of media success

Has Marvel had any example of a character created in media and imported to the comics becoming as big as Harley Quinn has? I think DC takes this one.

Attachment 102875

Yep that's DC-Thought all right.

-- "We have a massive cartoon success with a black Green Lantern...what're we gonna do?"
-- Dude who interned on Donner's movies: "Let's revive that white guy we killed back then for being lame and not capitalize on all the heat the new guy's got...and also stick him and his mythos into the upcoming movie that will surely not fail."

-- "Wally West Flash by Mark Waid and the cartoon flash has become "the" Flash for kids."
-- Dude who interned on Donner's movies: "Let's revive the lame guy killed in COIE for being lame and annex the Speed-Force mythos developed for Wally and the qualities of Wally on to him in all adaptations".

One could argue DC does do synergy when you see how much they pushed Barry and Hal when they came back in the comics, for better or worse.

[Snoop Dogg]

dc failed to capitalize on
the teen titans cartoon
the young justice cartoon
the justice league cartoon
the wonder woman movie
the shazam movie


they were good at synergy
last century

[Agent Z]

Has Marvel had any example of a character created in media and imported to the comics becoming as big as Harley Quinn has? I think DC takes this one.

One could argue DC does do synergy when you see how much they pushed Barry and Hal when they came back in the comics, for better or worse.

DC also integrated Mr Freeze's characterization from the DCAU into the comics and they brought Kaldur into the comics before YJ even aired. They may not do synergy as often as Marvel but the few times they do are generally better than the MU's often clumsy attempts.

[Jabare]

I don't really see the problem with MCU Hulk. They've jsut taken stuff from the comics. Fro the first films he's kind of standard Hulk. Then they did Professor Hulk to kind of wrap up his story.

The only noticeable shift is they made him clearly more heroic then certain incarnations, instead of just a destructive force of nature, they kept him strictly on the hero side of things (the Avengers 2 fight doesn't count, that's mind control/manipulation)

I remember twenty two years ago, I wanted comics Blade to have supporting characters and villains like movie Blade.

honestly Marvel just got the Blade Synergy right in the last 5 years, before they tried this hamfisted strategy of just altering the character with the Morbius bite


Now finally someone understood the beauty of the movies and just revamped the character. Officially, he's always been a dhampir now. They've fixed his look, his swag, stats and fighting styles. I think in part it has to do with Millenials who grew up loving Blade from the movies, and the slow recognition of how influential the character is and can still be.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Has Marvel had any example of a character created in media and imported to the comics becoming as big as Harley Quinn has? I think DC takes this one.

Historically Marvel doesn't encourage the creation of adaptation OCs because they gave licenses to companies for the longest time and they were worried that they'd lose rights to IP for anything created in adaptations. So they often discourage that, or whenever possible...i.e. creating She-Hulk, Spider-Woman pre-emptively create those character types that adaptations might consider. Whereas DC for a variety of reason didn't have the problems so characters like Jimmy Olsen, Barbara Gordon, to name a few were created for adaptations (the George Reeves TV show and the Batman 66 TV Show respectively) and then imported into the comics no problem.

So it's not the same thing.

...and even then, X23, a character created for X-Men Evolution and then imported into the comics as the female Wolverine, and then featuring again in the LOGAN Movie, is an example of Marvel doing that.

There's also Firestar.

One could argue DC does do synergy when you see how much they pushed Barry and Hal when they came back in the comics, for better or worse.

Aside from some TV Shows which have basically okay ratings, they don't have much to show for it in terms of where the money really is (movies, games).

[Albert1981]

Heh...handing out tacos and dabbing would sorta suit She-Hulk, if we're being real.

The MCU keeps changing Hulk with every appearance. Ed Norton's Hulk is different from Whedon's Ruffalo Hulk ("I'm always angry") and then you have Taika Waititi's Banner (which in my view is the best and only true take on the Marvel character) followed by the lackluster Russo Bros' version in the Thanos movies.

Yeah, I hated it when different writers and directors wrote the same characters over time. There's definitely a lack of consistency there which I don't enjoy. I mean, Steve and Natasha got close in Winter Soldier and were on a mutual first name basis at the end of that movie. And then in Age of Ultron they were calling each other "Rogers" and "Romanoff". And I thought Black Panther was WAY cooler in Civil War than in his own movie. I do agree that She-Hulk would be interested in doing the taco and dabbing thing. I just think they misfired with the Hulk. To be fair to the Russos, I thought they made Banner really funny in their movies. It's just their interpretation of the Hulk that left a lot to be desired in my view. Waititi's Hulk AND Banner was great. I think Renner's a fine actor, but he always seemed to be the most "disengaged" actor/actress of the MCU. He should advocate for Clint the way Hemsworth did for Thor. I was surprised Bettany and Olsen were bringing ideas to the set of WandaVision too. I just really appreciate it when the directors and actors/actresses "give it their all" when guiding and portraying the characters from the comic books. But back to the topic at hand, for the most part I've been impressed with the MCU versions of the comic book characters. And I even enjoy the cringey cliche humor too. I have no problem having the screen adaptations having a significant influence on the books if the onscreen ideas are sound. But I think the comic books in my opinion sometimes veer towards "edgelord fan fiction" territory which I truly dislike.

[Frontier]

dc failed to capitalize on
the teen titans cartoon
the young justice cartoon
the justice league cartoon
the wonder woman movie
the shazam movie


they were good at synergy
last century

Some of the original characters from the Teen Titans cartoon actually appeared in the comics at the time of the show. We also saw later influences like with the Rebirth roster which was the five cartoon Titans (with Damian as Robin and Kid Flash filling in for Cyborg).

Young Justice had a tie-in comic that, for Young Justice, was actually kind of important to read for wordlbuilding.

They didn't make a lack of attempt at synergy with the Justice League cartoon. I think John becoming a GL again and joining the Justice League coincided with the cartoon and influenced Dwayne McDuffie's run.

What kind of synergy would one expect from the Wonder Woman movie? The Oddfellows popped up in the comics. Steve Trevor was Diana's main love interest again. I guess it took a while before they made her an immortal in Man's World but the jury's still out on how well that will work in the comics.

Geoff Johns finally wrote another Shazam volume so they would have material to base the second film around.

Historically Marvel doesn't encourage the creation of adaptation OCs because they gave licenses to companies for the longest time and they were worried that they'd lose rights to IP for anything created in adaptations. So they often discourage that, or whenever possible...i.e. creating She-Hulk, Spider-Woman pre-emptively create those character types that adaptations might consider. Whereas DC for a variety of reason didn't have the problems so characters like Jimmy Olsen, Barbara Gordon, to name a few were created for adaptations (the George Reeves TV show and the Batman 66 TV Show respectively) and then imported into the comics no problem.

So it's not the same thing.

...and even then, X23, a character created for X-Men Evolution and then imported into the comics as the female Wolverine, and then featuring again in the LOGAN Movie, is an example of Marvel doing that.

There's also Firestar.

I'm a fan of those characters but I wouldn't put either of them up there with Harley.

Aside from some TV Shows which have basically okay ratings, they don't have much to show for it in terms of where the money really is (movies, games).

Barry was in the Justice League movie (even if he wasn't really Barry), he and Hal have been in a few video games, they've been in cartoons and animated movies...