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Who are the best Marvel Comics characters left still to be adapted to the MCU?
Recently, we began a decade-by-decade look at the Marvel comic book characters still waiting for the call to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We began in the foundational '60s, where most (but not all) of the publisher's oldest iconic properties have already made the live-action jump.
Next up was the creatively fertile '70s which produced a handful of classic characters still waiting to make their MCU debut.
Now if the '60s and '70s established much of what we know as the basis of the core Marvel superhero universe, the 1980s was unquestionably the decade of mutants.
Spurred by the breakout sales and critical success of Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men, the '80s saw an exponential expansion of the X-corner of the MCU. Characters and concepts introduced during the decade include (it's fun to read this like Ramona Flowers rattling off flavors of tea) … Kitty Pryde, Dazzler, Rachel Summers, Siryn, Rogue, the original New Mutants, Lockheed, Callisto, Magik, Cypher, Forge, Husk, Legion, Firestar, Strong Guy, X-Factor, Rictor, Excalibur, Jubilee, and Psylocke…
Whew … [deep breaths, and no, we didn't make any of those up]
So as our original ground rules of this exercise established, we are not including characters who have already been adapted by the now-defunct Marvel Television and are therefore somewhat in MCU canon limbo. And, of course, we're not including Spider-Man or X-Men characters, as Sony still has some control over the former, and Marvel Studios will one day get to the entire X-verse in future phases.
So who will join '80s' alums She-Hulk ('80), Elektra ('81), Cloak and Dagger, Rocket Racoon, and Monica Rambeau (all '82), and US Agent ('86) in the MCU in future projects? The pickings are a little slim because of our self-imposed no-mutant rule, but there's still some value here...
Beta Ray Bill
Thor's original supporting cast has been pretty much wiped off the MCU map (although to be accurate, since they're all in Valhalla as seen in Love and Thunder so their returns are on the table).
Valkyrie, Korg, and Sif are still around, and now he has his adopted superpowered niece (the daughter of Gorr), but if Thor is going to face off with Hercules and other angry gods from around the MCU, he's going to need some new, powerful allies and there's no better candidate than Beta Ray Bill.
Yes, the name is funky, and yes, he kind of looks like a horse-Thor, but the Korbinite warrior worthy of carrying Mjolnir has been a fan favorite since Walter Simonson introduced him in 1983 during the creator's signature run and is a long-time friend to the God of Thunder.
In comic books, Beta Ray Bill is given his own Asgardian weapon by Odin, called Stormbreaker, which of course is already in the MCU and in the possession of Thor's niece/daughter these days.
Seen as an easter egg giant statue in Thor: Ragnarok, Beta Ray Bill is definitely on Marvel Studios' radar and one of the more likely additions should Thor's promised return happens in a fifth solo film.
Warlock
Okay, this one's a bit of a cheat, as Warlock is firmly a part of the X-Men universe, but he's not a mutant, he's an alien (well, he's a mutant of his alien race, we're asking for some leeway here), and one with significant cinematic potential.
Created by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz in 1984 (and there was never a more Bill Sienkiewicz-ish creation), Warlock is a kind-hearted member of the Technarchy, a race of beings that repopulates itself by infecting other living beings with a "techno-organic" virus. Think zombies meet the Borg, but much-less humanoid.
The Technarchy would make a terrific MCU threat and Warlock - something of a mash-up of Groot, a heroic Star Wars droid, and a loyal puppy who'd look great on film - could wind up a breakout star with broad appeal.
Longshot
And so long as we're going to cheat with Warlock we might as well keep it going with Longshot, another X-Men character who's not really a human mutant.
Created by writer Ann Nocenti and artist Art Adams in 1985, Longshot is a genetically-engineered fugitive former slave from another dimension who is … wait for it… the clone of his own son from the future.
Trust us, it helps if you don't think about it too hard.
Arriving on Earth with amnesia, Longshot discovers he has the power to positively affect probability. In other, simpler words, he has super-good luck, somewhat like Domino in Deadpool 2.
Marvel Studios is all about multiple dimensions these days, so Longshot would fit right in, but if Zazie Beetz returns as Domino in the MCU's Deadpool 3 (and we really hope she does!) it might make Longshot a tad redundant.
Truth be told, we just wanted to get in that "clone of his own son from the future" thing.
Power Pack
This one's a layup as it's well documented that Power Pack has been on Marvel Studios' shortlist before there even was a Marvel Studios.
The team was one of the ten properties Marvel Entertainment was going to both develop as feature films and use as collateral to fund the creation of Marvel Studios and as of last year's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Power Pack is the only property of the ten that hasn't made it to the MCU yet.
Created in 1984 by writer Louise Simonson and artist June Brigman, sort of DC's Green Lantern meets the Fantastic Four meets the Disney Channel demo, Power Pack are four pre-teen siblings - Alex, Julie, Jack, and Katie Powers - who gain superpowers after an encounter with a kindly alien.
The Marvel Studios-Disney strategy is all about reaching broad demographics, and a squarely PG-rated MCU film, live-action, or animated streaming series for young fans starring kid heroes but set firmly in the MCU is pretty much a matter of not if, but when.
Death's Head
Something of a cult favorite, Death's Head has one of the oddest paths to being a Marvel character in the publisher's history. He was created in 1987 by writer Simon Furman and artist Geoff Senior for Marvel's Marvel UK imprint, which in the '80s created original stories for the UK market starring Marvel characters and original creations.
But he was also originally conceived as a guest star in the UK version of a Transformers comic book series Marvel licensed from Hasbro at the time. Assuming if he made his first appearance in a Transformer comic book the copyright to the character would fall to Hasbro, Marvel UK instead had Death's Head debut in a one-page story published in its various titles before his initial appearance in Transformers UK #113. He'd soon garner fan support, including from Stan Lee himself.
Got all that?
A time and dimension-hopping robotic bounty hunter with an attitude, a droll, British sense of humor, and a quirky, Yoda-esque speech pattern, Death's Head would be right at home in the eccentric and off-center James Gunn and/or Taika Waititi cosmic corners of the MCU. Or having served as an agent with the Time Variance Authority in his past, would be a good candidate for season 2 of Loki.
Night Thrasher/Speedball/New Warriors
We couldn't conclude our look at '80s characters without at least namechecking the then-popular, younger, cooler version of the Avengers, and their 'extreme' founder Night Thrasher, who just got in under the wire debuting in December of '89.
Night Thrasher is quintessential '80s. Because he was a teen with an attitude and it was the '80s, he rode a skateboard … because 'extreme! The popular skating magazine 'Thrasher' inspired his name, with the 'Night' adjective thrown in because what superhero name isn't cooler and more extreme with "night" in it?
Created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz specifically for the New Warriors (later popularized in an ongoing series by Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley), Night Thrasher was joined by Speedball, who was created by DeFalco and the legendary Steve Ditko the year before. As Ditko's involvement suggests, Marvel tried to recapture the spirit of Spider-Man in his first years when Peter Parker was still just a high schooler with Speedball.
The MCU is now ripe with a bevy of superheroes in their teens and 20s who we expect will eventually form the basis of a next-gen Young Avengers team of some kind, but we shouldn't forget about the New Warriors, the predecessor to the Young Avengers and the more recent teen-team the Champions.
Speaking of the '80s, check out our look at the best Marvel character to debut in each year of that decade, including two characters that made the list above.
