User blog:Angel Gro/"Fixing" the MCU "mistakes"

The MCU is an amazing thing that has lasted so long. However, many believe that there are some movies, TV shows and content in general that could have benefited from a little more time in the writing room or more planning. The following are some little or big changes that could have made these members of the MCU a little better. Not all of these changes are made to series or movies that were necesarilly bad, but rather would have made it a little better, or generally more fun to watch (rather they be adding certain comic book characters, easter eggs, or changing the names or roles of a character.)

Iron Fist Season 1 - The Main Villains
Considering all of the improvements that season 2 had, it's really impossible to see season 1 without feeling disappointed. The clunky dialogue, the lack of a focused characterization for Danny, and the mess that was explaining the Hand are some of the common complaints that are thrown in articles, blogs and critics. Even though I did enjoy on first watch the show, I wasn't oblivious to these flaws. I feel that of all of these, the Hand could have been done so much better, and that same sentiment also goes for the main bad, Harold Meachum.

To fix I am going to use the Cottomouth route with Harold, aka. killing him in the first half so the true antagonist can arrive. This antagonist should be none other than the one and only Zhou Cheng, who we saw in the show, but doing his drunken master routine greatly. The only change that I would make to that is he wouldn't be drunk, and that he would duel Danny as a representative of the Hand and lose, which would make him harbour resentment as he was trained to be an Iron Fist killing weapon, and that would have lead him to gain the powers from the Ch'i-Lin.

Once he arrives on Rand's offices and sees Harold trapping the Iron Fist and trying to manipulate him into destroying the Hand for him, Zhou Cheng appears and confronts him telling him how "the Hand is disappointed in how he has been dealing with Danny" and that "he is no longer useful to them", so he passes his fist through Harold, which not only shows how powerful he is but demonstates his status as the true threat. Both Joy and Ward would be present in this event, and the motive for both Joy's resentment to Danny and Ward's bromance (since both were treated badly by Harold at this point), also with Danny, would stem from this same moment.

The Hand would also be made more threatening by this move, and this would also allow for a more complexly choreographed finale and a better antagonist than the real season had. The reason for having the character of Zhou Cheng being the main villain could also set up a key motivation for the Hand for both this season and Defenders (which will be addressed later on in this blog), which is that the Hand wants its own Iron Fist, either by manipulating him, forcing him, or by making their own, which is the reason that Zhou Cheng has its powers, as among them lies the ability to take the Iron Fist powers from Danny. Of course, this would mean that Zhou Cheng would have to die, but it would leave the season with one great tie into Defenders.

Another purpose that this would serve is also givng the season a theme, which would be identity and purpose, as both themes apply with Zhou Cheng and Danny Rand, given the fact that the antagonist had a role he prepared for his entire life which he failed, and he is determined to take back what was "rightfully" taken from him (and yes, that seems exactly like motivation of Steel Serpent, but we are going full Doctor Strange and giving the first antagonist the goal of the more recognizable antagonist, sans the overexpecting parent issues) and Danny is literally backwards as he has two different purposes and he must accept one and leave the other, which is different but still ties the characters in the fact that they are both trying to do whatever they have in their power to acheive their imposed purpose, but one is unable to escape this compared to the other one who has a chance to change.

Thor: The Dark World - Overhaul the whole thing
Now first of all, after seeing all of the concept art that was released from this movie, we can see that there were plenty of characters that could have made an interesting movie. At least the should have used most of them in designs for the Marauders. So for this movie, I will only take certain elements from the original movie, such as Malekith as the main villain (but with a complete character change), an invasion of Asgard (but more similar to Siege, with multiple rogues of Asgard), travelling to different realms (with certain areas that are portals from one realm to another), and the reality stone as the main McGuffin.

Regarding Malekith, his arc in his first appearance should be an inspiration to the storyline, since he served as a minion of a larger threat, which in this case was Surtur. We would also take elements from both the character of Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean (the way that he serves someone more powerful and tries desperately for others to follow Calypso's plan) and Squidward - i mean Ebony Maw - from Infinity War (his manneurisms and way of talking primarily). His motivation will not be clear at the beginning, but as in this version he will be one of the last remaining Dark Elves that joined Surtur's army and/or Cabal against Odin's and the Asgardians regime, he will have more backstory revealed until  Raganarök. He will try to bring back Surtur, who has been either imprisoned or killed by Odin years ago.

The reality stone would also be different in the sense that only the idea that it is a magical floating Kool-Aid the remaining element from the original. It will be revealed that scattered throughout Asgard lie the stone, divided into the Casket of Ancient Winters, the Eternal Flame, and the chamber in which Odin sleeps. The last one will then reveal that where Odin's powers come from is actually the most quantity of the Infinity stones, which he denominated the Odin Force, as a nod to the comic books. The reality stone is the only thing that can liberate Surtur from his current fate, which is why Malekith would invade Asgard.

He would join forces with many ot the characters in the concept art, like Durok, Grendell, Mangog, and also Ulik the Rock Troll, Kurse and many alien enemies, that have united against the Asgardians ruling the Nine Realms (and adjacents). For this they would distract Thor by sending a small group of bounty hunters for Jane Foster (yeah, this would be a reason they broke up in Ragnarök), which would make the siege way harder to see as the hero arrives to late to the battle.The rest of the events would continue as in the regular movie, as Thor's mother would also die in this version, as well as Loki's fake death, Odin's madness and "exile" from Asgard.

What would be different is that both villains would end up winning, despite one of them perishing. Malekith would liberate Surtur for his final brawl against Thor, but would end up dying and sending his master to Muspelheim where he would remain hidden for a while. And Loki, posing as Odin, would then recupperate the rest of the stone fragments and bring them back to Asgard.

Thor would then choose to go to Earth, as he has grown disillusioned with his "father"'s rule and chooses to go with Jane and the rest of his Avengers fellows, unaware that the process to end Asgard as he knows it just started.

Agent Carter - Adding more 40s comics characters
One of the smaller things that I always thought about when I saw Agent Carter is that they could have incorporated more characters that were created at that time (like Leet Brannis or Zandow) instead of characters linked to more modern day comics (such as Madame Masque and Blackwing). This sentiment was then increased by the fact that characters like Patriot and Whizzer were used in both Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Jessica Jones respectively. And while that second one was funny in the way it was used, I feel that adding them to Agent Carter would have made it a more comics accurate portrayal. In the case of Jeffrey Mace, he should have been shown as a young reporter that worked for the New York Bulletin, giving him both his comic book career and a fun nod to the inner MCU continuity. He wanted to report on something exciting, just as he did when he worked on during WWII, where he personally met and interviewed Captain Steve Rogers. He would be just as excited to meet Miss Peggy Carter as he had heard of her from the Captain, and he would love to expose her as the hero that she was, despite her desire to remain anonymous at that moment. He could also have alluded to the fact that General Ross is techincally related to him, by saying that his fiancée's family expected a military man, not a reporter.

-As for Whizzer, he should have been part of the SSR, a son of a former German scientist who fled the country similar to Abraham Erskine, and then joined the Allies in the formation of weapons to add into their arsenal. He, inspired by his father's work joined his father's employers and became disillusioned with his current status, until Carter recruits him as a Q-style for Agent Carter's Bond. He would also have at least one moment in which he became awed by Howard Stark's presence, just like Spider-Man had with Tony, and would also own a pet mongoose as in JJ.

- Another fellow friend of the Liberty Legion that should have appeared in the show, should have been Jerry Castairs, aka the Thunderer. In this case, he should have taken the place of the lead voice actor inside of the Captain America radio show. He would coincidentally have been rescued by Cap, just like Jeffrey, and would also be another of the people that would be interviewed by Jeffrey.

- Other characters that should have joined Carter in her escapades are Kevin Marlow (aka Destroyer), Jack Casey and Mary Morgan as fellow worker of  Jeffrey in the New York Bulletin, Louise Grant, as a fellow worker of Peggy, who is inspired to follow her in her adventures as the Blonde Phantom, and John Watkins (aka Citizen V) as a close friend of Peggy's family in the UK who has been tasked with helping her by the British Government.

Inhumans - Another Overhaul
Now if you had read my blog regarding movies and projects that I would like Marvel to do, you might have noticed that I wanted the Inhumans to be a good franchise inside of the MCU, either it being a movie or a TV show. As many may know, the Inhumans was part of the phase 3 line-up before being taken from it after Spider-Man was brought into the universe, and thus the TV division ended up adapting it, to a misfire of a show. So, if I was going to "fix" Inhumans, I would have to take certain things to consideration. First of all, most of the cast that was a part of the series would be mantained, as I believe that when given good material any good actor can develop it. The second is that the budget would be more well adjusted to what the characters and locations that are required. Third, is that the script and production would be given much more time, so that costume designing finds a clear identiy and that they are given a better representation of what the characters are in the comics.

Fourth consideration is that we will be changing certain roles of the characters, especially as characters like Crystal and Triton were barely given a personality and a reason to be there, which is something that is really sad considering their roles in various comic events. One of the things that I agree is that both Gorgon and Karnak are really good characters to group with, and I think that, taking a page of that and the Russo Brother´s recent acheivement of Infinity War, we should pair characters so we can bounce off their different traits. For that the pairing I would most likely agree are the best for the story, are Karnak and Gorgon (of course), Triton and Crystal, and Black Bolt and Medusa. Triton and Crystal would be assigned to finding the Inhumans on Earth - with Lockjaw retreiving them in case anything happens, Black Bolt and Medusa being the rulers of Attitlan (since that is their role), and Gorgon and Karnak working as the leaders of the military and religious branches of the Inhumans.

I would also like to put attention to certain character, Auran, who was completely messed over. Sure, she's not the only comic hero turned adaptation villain in the MCU, but the role she was given could have had a very interesting twist, which makes much more sense if you read what's in the next paragraph. Given that her character was working for Maximus for most the season, she could have made a Ward turn (Grant Ward, not Ward Meachum) and revealed herself to be working for ........ The Royal Family as a spy for Medusa - yeah, not Black Bolt, because that would somehow be predictable.

Fifth, is having one or more themes for the series. Given that the point of making this series was basically "just cause we can", they didn't consider having a core message or something for people to grab to. Personally, with a character nicknamed the "Silent King", it is hard for me not to think about the idea of secrets, especially after taking into consideration that they kind of try to use this with the secret bunker and Triton's dead/alive status. Another one that might have fit the story, given the ending that they were trying to do, is the idea of migrants and migration in general, since it's a bunch of people that are foreign to the current world, with rules, culture, beliefs and behaviors different to us. This even makes more sense when we consider characters like Kamala Khan, Dante Petruz, Daisy Johnson (AoS Version) and Kei Kawade are part of the Inhumans.

More ideas on this subject under way....

Jessica Jones Season 2 - Modifying the Villain
In concept, the idea of making a parent an antagonist of the story is as classic as Shakespeare and Star Wars. However, as people demonstrated with both Defenders and Jessica Jones Season 2 before premiering, the audience wants to see more comics characters in these shows, and both Alexandra Reid and Alisa Jones have proved the theories of many people in the internet wrong. There is a simple solution for this second character that might give Jessica a more formidable foe than what she's used to. Given the fact that Jessica's world is inspired by film noir and the world of Private Investigation, it is fitting to give the antagonist a power useful against that, and that's where Alisa's new identity would come from. As many comic fans know, not many characters are part of JJ's rogues gallery besides Purple Man, which means she has to take villains from other heroes, such as Karl Mallus and Nuke, which have faced everyone from Daredevil to Captain America.

This therefore means that she needs someone that opposes her skillset and that somehow can be tied to either, one of her opponents or one of her allies. And that's when we find a character like the Death-Stalker (the second unnamed female version). Now, sure, the character is barely known, but she has powers of teleportation and can stay hidden from people while still spying on them (aka Phantom Mode) and the character appeared in the Villains for Hire series as a member ot the group created by Purple Man of the same name as the comic, so it works on the two fronts. This also works on the sense that her mother has been stalking Jessica for quite a while in the series and has literally killed her boyfriend, which makes the name way more appropiate, and if we consider that the same people that worked on the IGH program also worked with Kilgrave, we could assume they added any type of regenerative serum that might have backfired and given her "death touch" .

More ideas on this subject under way....

Avengers: Age of Ultron - Giving the opening a "purpose"
When the character of Ultron was made the villain of the second Avengers installment, I can assure you I was ready to see it no matter what weird choices they did, and that same sentiment increased when Vision was also confirmed. for the movie. And while I was disappointed the first time I saw it, despite many moments being really good, I felt there were small details that I felt were kind of pointless, such as the beginning of the film basically making HYDRA complete trash, creating "regenerative tissue" but not using it to save Quicksilver, or the Thor scenes having no point in retrospective in the story of the movie, except for the creation of Vision (Sidenote: I do like the movie, and I watch it from time to time, but I don't love it, and it is not on my Top 10 MCU films).

If you have seen the episode of Nando v Movies where he "fixes" Ultron, you have seen how I would probably treat that character and how I would have also treated the introduction of Masters of Evil as a part of this movie. From that idea I would keep both ideas from that revision, but I would add, or in this case mix 3 of the minor complaints that I mentioned in the last paragraph. And that would be all mixed into one single character that I would add, and that would be Eric Williams.

While the character of Eric Williams in the comic is known as a Maggia and Hydra Thug who got his powers from a cybernetic enhancement from the Tinkerer who started due to revenge for the death of his brother, this version would be vastly different to serve the purpose of the story. First of all he would be a member of Baron Strucker's HYDRA division who specializes on cybernetic prosthetics and weaponery - which means he would take the place of Doctor List. This would also explain the amount of robotics that are inside of the HYDRA castle, as both Strucker and Williams specialise on it. Another thing we would learn at this point is that they have both used the mind stone as a way to access knowledge to know how to make efficient robotic parts and, also find a way to give Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

This HYDRA facility is taken down by the Avengers, just as the original version, but instead of being killed like List he is given to the authorities for safe keeping in the Raft. Howver, as the rest of the movie progresses, and Ultron starts recruiting his Masters, he arrives at the Raft to pick up Eric, where Ultron monologues a bit about Eric's backstory and how the world has taken things from him, comparing him to his brother Simon (Wonder Man), and in general using his vulnerability against him. He then brings him one of Williams's creations, a scythe that can regenerate tissue and is electrically charged that it can regenerate life or take it away, and tells him, "it is time to take back what they stole from you, a life." And this is the point at which he becomes the Grim Reaper, and joins Abomination, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Klaw and Crossbones in the fight against the Avengers.

However, Ultron has another purpose for the Williams, as he will be the one to create the new body that would end up being Vision, since in this version, just like in the original film, Tony has been using the research made by HYDRA to create synthetic adaptable skin, but hasn't been able to control it, and Eric's scythe is the only one capable of doing such feat, something that Ultron has foreseen. Given that Crossbones and Abomination are incapacitated at this point, and Klaw has fled to fight another day, there are only three other members of Ultron's team remaining, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Grim Reaper. It is only when Wanda and Pietro discover his plan to drop a city, that they flee and the only remaining member is Eric who is fully commited to the plan, but is then taken down after the Avengers locating the HQ of Ultron, right after completing Vision.

Later in one of the post-credits scenes, we end up seeing prison rooms tagged with the names Blonsky, E., Rumlow. B., and Williams, E.. We see a visitor arriving to "see his brother", when we he is asked name, to which he responds Simon Williams. The guard recognizes him and says, "could you sign this? And also this, please? I'm a big fan of your work". He continues walking after signing the paper, being followed by another figure, who we recognize as Klaw. The guard seems startled by Klaw's appearance but is ultimately distracted by the fact that he got an autograph that he's going to sell. Suddenly, the place is loosing its electricity and Klaw disarms the guard after he notices that the autograph is fake. Once Klaw is informed by the rest of the crew who attacked the prison, "Simon" passes through the cells, to which Eric reacts baffled, as he is ignored and he opens Crossbones's cell. The scene ends with a shot of the autograph, where we see that "Simon " seemingly wrote Zemo which Helmut burns.

That last scene would tie the movie to Civil War, as Zemo would "hire" Rumlow to be one of the causes of the Sokovia Accords. This last thing would tie-in into the role of Zemo that I would give for Civil War.

Captain America: Civil War - Changing Zemo
To be done later

Iron Man 2 - Adapting more than only one story (in a Cohesive way)
To be done later