"Fixing" the MCU "mistakes"

The MCU is an amazing thing that has lasted for more than 10 years. However, just as anything, they are far from perfect. For that reason, I chose tp create this blog to share some of my ideas on how to solve some of the common and not so common complaints of one or more projects made throughout the years.

Not all of these changes are made to series or movies that were necesarilly bad, but rather things that could've increased the connections to the world, tapped into the MCU's comics roots, or just made it more enjoyable to me personally.

I do however have to set limits to this, such as not using characters, locations or others not previously available (no X-Men, FF or Spider-Man before acquisition) and keep as close tp the original plots.

Disclaimer: The fact that I'm doing this doesn't mean I believe I could have made it better. There are far more better writers, actors, directors and others with much more experience. I just happen to have the benefit of hindsight.

Also, if you are a returning reader, and notice characters or events got taken out, it's probably because a project did it and I want to keep them current. Without further ado, have fun reading!

Phase 1

Iron Man 2 - Demon in a Bottle/The Beginning of the End

This movie, to be honest, has been a nightmare to try to "solve". It makes me envious of Jon Favreau, for his skill in directing both installments, and also having a role in them.

The main issue for me is trying to make the villain interesting, while still keeping the storyline from the movie, as well as keeping in the War Machine and alcoholism concepts. I've tried a couple ideas, including an Armor Wars story, a Demon in a Bottle story with Iron Man becoming the alcohol of the equation, but there hasn't been a story I personally connect with.

Then I recently stumbled into the character of Alexander Nemsky, aka one of a billion Crimson Dynamo. His story is that he was the protegé of Anton Vanko, and his death made him a bitter enemy of Iron Man and his government. This caused him to work for Cord Industries and create an armor for himself. Now, that sounds very much like Ivan's motivation and journey, just with the difference of him not being Anton's son.

Now, I imagine a version of the movie in which that is pretty much Whiplash's journey, although, I really don't think the Whiplash character should be the main villain. Rather, it would be in my opinion better, if Crimson Dynamo was, and we had multiple villains. Now, after Spider-Man 3, there has been this aversion to do that, but since 1) X-Men did it, and it went fairly well and 2) There's literally an animated movie with the Sinister Six and one coming up soon, then I'm going to have a little fun.

So, this version of Crimson Dynamo who, because I want a connection to Black Widow, would be named Yuri Petrovich (aka. another one of 20 Crimson Dynamos). He would have been the mentee of Anton Vanko, who came to America alongisde him, as a way to solve the Cold War and create a new source of clean energy. However, Vanko was assassinated, with Yuri only barely escaping with his life (Probably at the hands of the Winter Soldier). This lead to Yuri breaking, and both sides of the Cold War, hiding the incident under the bus.

It is only when Yuri sees on the TV that Tony Stark uses a miniaturized arc reactor, that he finally finds the will to escape prison. Together with his group of prison mates, such as Bruno Horgan (Melter), Donnie Gill (Blizzard) and Marcus Scarlotti (Whiplash), they create a way to flee the prison and meet with Justin Hammer.

Yuri and Justin could be previous acquiantences, correspondants from jail, or whatever you'd like them to be. In any case, Hammer would see the usefulness of the guy who assisted in designing the arc reactor in creating an army of armored soldiers. However, Yuri's only condition is that he arm his fellow prisoners as well, as each one has a certain usefulness, according to Petrovich, to which Hammer agrees, after his several test failures.

The events of Monacco would occur the same, except I'd add Blizzard as a partner. After Tony defeats them, Whiplash escapes due to Blizzard making an ice wall, and Tony is taken to a private area, only to come face to face with Yuri. Tony would lash out at him, with Yuri trying his best to be calm and collected, only asking Tony that he gives credit to Anton Vanko for the creation of the arc reactor, and that he vouches for him to be able to return back home and see his family again. Baffled by his request but also not in the right mindset after the battle, he metaphorically gives him the finger.

This disappoints Yuri who would then decide to take his anger on Stark and his loved ones, and with Rhodey basically gifting Hammer Industries an Iron Man armor, the plan is coming together quickly. He, along with Horgan develop series of armors, for a demonstration on the Stark Expo. Personally, I'd love to see them do different designs for the Crimson Dynamo armor, as well as the Titanium Man or even things like Force, and other armored characters.

In any case, we get Yuri piloting the Crimson Dynamo armor, and working with Whiplash against War Machine and Iron Man. And on the other side, we'd see Bruno being in control of the other armors and Blizzard fighting Black Widow.

At the end, both Whiplash and Yuri die, with Blizzard and Melter escaping, and Hammer being blamed for all of it. Tony surprised by the impact just one man had on Yuri's life, is reminded of how Yinsen made him change his life, and decides to honor Yuri's wish of restoring the good legacy of Anton Vanko.

Phase 2

Watching back, Phase 2 was watching how the universe tests the concept of the hero. The two best movies (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians 1) question if heroes can adapt and if heroes can come from anywhere. Additionally, Iron Man 3 questions if the hero is the "power" or the person, and Ant-Man asks us if someone who has made mistakes can still be heroic. Overall, I like this phase, but there are ways to question heroism to a greater degree.

 Age of Ultron

The HYDRA Super Agents

I've thought of several characters who could theoretically have taken the place of the HYDRA army at the beginning of the Age of Ultron movie. The characters would have to be someone that we'd probably never see again, but that still could present a challenge to the team. That lead me to remember a team who has been employed a lot on the Avengers Alliance videogame, the HYDRA Four. The characters, known as Militant, Hammer, Bowman and Tactical Force.

So, put simply, the Avengers would fight pale imitations of themselves, with Black Widow and the Hulk being classified as the most dangerous, and thus requiring the twins. Taking the idea of HYDRA using Chitauri tech in the armor, we'd see the copycats using the aliens as a way to upgrade their weapons. This could also give Tony the ideas for upgrading their costumes, such as the magnetic shield used by Militant, or some specialty arrows from Bowman.

Now, most of these characters have no secret identity, which gives us the opportunity to bring in other characters, such as Clinton McIntyre as Militant, Buck Chrisholm or Joe Emberlin as Bowman, Ragnarök as Hammer, and Titanium Man as Tacitcal Force.

Ant-Man 

Crossing the wrong people

Darren Cross is what I call a starter villain. He is just an average comics villains to be a tech mogul, with his unique atribute being that he has a rare heart condition that complicates his life and that he looks pink.

The movie decides to turn this character into the former protegé of Hank Pym, who feels betrayed by his mentor, and changes things up by making him Yellowjacket. With the kind of blank canvas given to us by this, I believe it's best if we try and focus on making him the anti-Hank Pym.

My goal here is to change the villain to fit more of the Killmonger and Vulture model. We would also add two dragons to the movie, in the form of William Cross and Sonny Burch.

One of the things that the things I'd change, is that Darren Cross offers to give Scott what he wants, aka a stable job and lifestyle, so he doesn't want to do what Pym is asking of him. Cross knows full well that Lang desires to see his daughter, and is willing to give Scott an out, if he helps him tell the authorities that Hank is conspiring against him.

This would show that Cross isn't stupid, which he would later reveal in the scene where he is showcasing the Yellowjacket suit. The scene in question would be in Luis's apartment, which Cross himself would visit and propose to Scott to join his company, telling him that he's had his eyes on Scott for a while, specially taking into considerations his acheivements, other than the Vistacorp incident. He would also show empathy for a guy who had so much potential in becoming a great acheiver.

Darren would geniuenly not want to hurt Scott, as he, in his own way, thinks Pym is going to do the same to him as Pym did to Darren, and thus believes Scott is not at fault. Thus, at the end when they face off with the suits, Darren would not attack the daughter because he is driven mad and know Scott's weakness is his daughter, rather he believes he must show Scott was he's putting at risk, in a misguided attempt.

Another thing that would be an interesting change is taking an aspect of Yellowjacket's story and fitting it to Darren, which is his inferiority complex. In the comics, Hank felt inferior compared to Iron Man, Hulk, the other Avengers, and even Wasp herself. As a twist, Hank would be the reason Darren feels inferior, as he could never truly feel that  he was on the level that his mentor is. This would also be caused by the fact that Darren reminds Hank of Elihas Starr, which would give us a tie-in to the sequel.

William Cross would be introduced as the chief security officer of the Cross facility, and would be the one shooting the ants on the plane, as well as training Darren in hand-to-hand combat so as to demonstrate the capabilities of the suit. He would also hint in a very tongue and cheek way that William is a former CIA. All of this would make an excellent payoff once Luis knocks him down, since the most qualified character in the movie, is beaten by an "average Joe". PS. He comes back in pitch for AMATW

William would also reflect on the theme of family in a very particular way, since in the moment when Scott and Darren have that moment I mentioned before, regarding his job opportunity, Darren would tell Scott, "I know what it's like to have only one person who is by your side, someone who believes in you, even after you did your worst mistake"

As for the character of Sonny Burch, we could just make him the guy in the original movie who was turned into a pile of goo, aka Frank. Sonny, in this version, would attack Darren's insecurities, so he can get to sell the suit to the highest bidder. Darren would then lash out at Sonny, using the pile-o-goo gun, and thus killing him. And now, instead of having a funny moment, it further develops the character into a more tragic one.  

The wrong Avenger 

I've wondered for plenty of years how would things have happened if Ant-Man had come out in Phase 1. I imagine that, along with several changes (maybe doing a young version of Hank and Janet rather than Scott and Hope), they would have brought in a different Avenger to that of Falcon, he wasn't introduced yet. And I honestly think that the best character to have done this with is Hawkeye.

Now, I've been thinking that the role that Hawkeye would play would be fairly similar to that of Black Widow in the second installment of Iron Man. However, I'd like to imagine that whereas Natasha is a fairly good spy, Clint usually does things his own way. Still, I'm going to try to work with the constraints of the movie (ie, Scott's the protagonist, we have to feature an Avenger, it's post first Avengers, and some others).

So, picture this idea. Hawkeye would infilitrate the Cross Technological Enterprise, posing as a security guard and since Hawkeye is one of the least popular Avengers, so he wouldn't have a problem being recognized (yeah, I'd be taking shots at that. Also, there was a time Hawkeye did work at CTE, so two birds with one stone.)

Fury had informed him that Darren Cross had created a new weapon based on old SHIELD designs, the Ant-Man costume, and that he was tasked with stopping Cross from selling it. He'd basically be in the background of some shots for a couple minutes of the movie. Maybe even Hope and Clint recognize something (because liars know when they're lying)

We'd then replace the fight at Avengers compound, by a scene in which they're planning that heist, only to be interrupted by Hawkeye. Both Scott and Hope would go and attack him, and it would end up with Hawkeye tied up. He'd explain that both of them are after the same thing, which he figured out. And he's basically offering them a sort of olive branch, by bringing them the item they need.

And finally, we'd see him take the role of Luis and the two of them doing some fight scenes together, ending up with the crew blowing the place up. Hawkeye would tell Scott that he can consider himself a reserve for the Avengers, and that, he will be called when needed. Hank would also have a little more respect for the Avengers, or at least one.

Winter Solider - The traitors among SHIELD

Now, it may be a very minor complaint I have, but the movie only bothered me in one very particular aspect. There are two comics characters that were misutilized by the movies, that could have been either replaced without not affecting that much the story. These are Alexander Pierce and Jasper Sitwell. While the movies have never really cared for Jasper, comics-wise he had some importance, being a part of the Deltite Saga and becoming a member of the Undead Howling Commandos. Similarly, Pierce was also a key player in the Deltite Saga, as well as forming a part of the Secret Warriors team, which is even cooler because of the look he sports in the comics. 

If anything, the movies could have treated us to seeing other agents become evil, though that would be really complicated when we consider the amount of people that we've met in the MCU that are also SHIELD agents, and not exclusive to the shows. 

This idea could allow us to also help us develop a character that was a bit underutilized in the MCU, who goes by the name Agent John Alexander Bronson, better known as Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker. Instead of having the character of Alexander Pierce, we would have Strucker become the SHIELD director, as well as the Hydra Supreme. It also helps that Robert Redford can give us a powerful portrayal for a character of his stature. 

We would see that Strucker is a dark mirror of Fury, as he is a leader and is capable of being at the same level to that of a superpowered individuals. The fact that both would have their own supersoldiers and agents makes the conflict between both sides. Both would respect each other as individuals, though he secretly sees Fury as an obstacle to their goal. His warped sense of security would also fall more in-line with what Zola spoke of in his scenes.

The main difference change that this does is that the story regarding the events of Bogota is completely altered. Now Strucker would have tried to be a pacifist member of HYDRA, who solved the problems by convicing his enemies. However, his encounter with Fury, who saved him and his recently born son (who we know as Werner), changed Strucker's perspective, and made him consider that he needed a different method to combat these problems. 

This is why he ended up following in the steps of Arnim Zola and his algorithm. while also specializing in working wih the Winter Soldier program, where he became fascinated by the idea of using super-powered individuals to acheive his goals, but instead of showing them, he would keep them secret, away from the public.

The other interesting thing that can be done, is that like with Crossbones, he can be saved from the rubble, losing one of his limbs, thus allowing us to see him in Avengers: Age of Ultron, with his own metallic arm, that at the same time wields more powerful weaponry. This move also streamlines and allows for a more compelling character in both Age of Ultron and Winter Soldier, with one affecting the other in another way.

More to come...

Guardians of the Galaxy - Operation: Galactic Storm meets Maximum Security

So, I like the idea of the Guardians of the Galaxy that James Gunn proposes, of this ragtag group of warriors, bounty hunters and a manchild fighting to save the universe, but in a way, something that never really fit in that narrative was Ronan the Accuser. If we're honest, Nebula could have very well done the same role, by her just following her father's orders to eliminate Xandar. It would have been an intersting twist on the Avengers formula.

However, the pitch I'll attempt instead will take the concepts of two of Marvel's 90 comics and do something much more interesting. Rather than Ronan leading a group of Sakaarans, I'd have him still be part of the Kree Empire. In this version, the Kree have been fighting a war against the Skrull Empire for decades (something that would be hinted but not explicitly), and the Nova Corps, has interfered in this war, thus becoming a nuissance to the Kree Empire.

The Kree in retalliation would "accuse" the Nova Corps of interference, and since the Kree have no respect for the Nova Corps nor races that interfere with their expansion, the veredict of the Accuser is to eliminate the planet and their inhabitants. First part is isolating the planet by engulfing it in a bubble, and releasing Kree Soldiers.

What we'll learn over the course of the movie, is that the plot is much more complex, as the Kree have allied themselves with Thanos, as he's promised that in exchange of the power source of the Nova Corps, he'll in return give them the weapon to eliminate the Skrulls species once and for all, a Nega-Bomb, made from the same power source.

Phase 3

Civil War - Changing Zemo

Captain America's rogues' gallery boasts a colorful cast, but none pique my interest quite like Baron Zemo. From the classic mastermind behind the Masters of Evil to the cunning leader of the Thunderbolts, Zemo's comic book legacy is rich. So, when "Civil War" introduced a new Zemo, I was eager to see his adaptation.

While the film's Zemo displayed tactical genius and manipulation skills, I craved a character closer to Doctor Doom - a regal figure with combat prowess and a complex relationship with the hero. However, the MCU's Zemo captured my attention in a different way.

My vision for Zemo builds upon elements from both "Civil War" and "Falcon and the Winter Soldier." Here, he's not just a vengeful Sokovia soldier, but a powerful figure. Imagine Zemo as Sokovia's UN representative, spearheading the Commission on Superhuman Activities (CSA), a regulatory body overseeing the Avengers. This Zemo doesn't seek direct confrontation; he prefers to damage the Avengers' reputation and control their actions.

However, a simmering resentment towards the leaders, particularly Steve and Bucky, fuels his desire for accountability. To achieve this, he employs Crossbones, but with a twist.

Crossbones' intro fight, while cool, could benefit from a team dynamic. Enter a proto-Thunderbolts/Masters of Evil team! Zemo meticulously handpicked villains like Klaw, Razor-Fist, and Taskmaster, each possessing unique abilities that counter specific Avengers.

This team's first mission: framing Bucky for the bombing at the UN hearing. Klaw, disguised with a robotic arm, would orchestrate the attack, drawing Black Panther into the conflict. Zemo, meanwhile, manipulates General Ross into supporting the CSA, exploiting their shared grief over lost loved ones.

Zemo's brilliance lies in his ability to manipulate and stay hidden. He'd orchestrate events like acquiring the Winter Soldier files and eliminating Karpov, leaving no trace. This mastery of deception and strategy elevates him beyond a simple revenge-driven villain. Furthermore, Zemo's influence could extend to swaying ordinary citizens, highlighting the devastating impact of grief. This adds a layer of complexity to the character.

The iconic mask reveal could still occur, perhaps during Black Panther's intervention. Instead of a fight, Black Panther delivers the line "The living are not finished with you," signifying a different kind of justice. Zemo is taken to Wakanda for punishment, then returned to the U.S. for trial. The final scene reveals his disfigurement, a consequence of "what happened back there."

This reimagined Zemo presents a formidable foe who challenges the Avengers on a political and psychological level. He's a cunning strategist who utilizes others rather than brute force, making him a truly intriguing villain for Captain America.

Doctor Strange - A more significant human villain

Don't get me wrong, Scott Derrickson did an amazing job in bringing to life the origin of the Master of the Mystic Arts. However, that doesn't mean that weren't thing that could have improved a little bit the story. I do indeed love Dormammu being featured in the movie, and Mads Mikkelsen's portrayal of Kaecilius is definetly a highlight, along with great performances from the supporting cast, including Benedict Wong, Tilda Swinton,& Chiwetel Ejiofor. I must first take all of my praises, before I start going all nitpicky on this. I adore the special effects, the idea of merging magic and martial arts was brilliant, most character designs I really dig, and the set pieces are fantastic.

Now, my biggest gripe with the movie is the human villain, Kaecilius. I know this a very weak complaint, but from a comic book aficionado perspective, he isn't even a main Doctor Strange villain, - hell, he only has 8 appearances, and is only the lackey of Baron Mordo. I question their decision to not use some other sorcerer, especially considering the plethora in Marvel comics. 

As a matter of fact, there is another sorcerer, with a name starting with Ka- that has ties to Kamar-Taj and the Ancient One, and that would more than likely not be used in other Marvel media, due to his importance to the Doctor Strange world, and that character would be Kaluu. Now, sure, you maybe saying, he is not a primary Doctor Strange villain, or not in the level of Dormammu, Nightmare or Mordo, but he is at least recognizable to comics fans, at least Doctor Strange and/or Mighty Avengers fans. 

So, for this version, we would instead focus on a mirror image of Mordo's and Strange's relation, which would be the Ancient One and Kaluu. Kaluu would be a former student of the previous Ancient One who resents the current iteration for taking the position that was "rightfully his". To obtain revenge for this, he started winning over various students of this new Ancient One, as well as knowledge and relics to gain more power for him and his followers, so they can properly overthrow her. For this she would have banished him and his pupils to the Dark Dimension.

It is only after Strange faces him in the Sanctum, just like he did with Kaecilius in the movie, that we learn what his motivation really is. While I love the idea that his motivation ties into the Infinity Stone, Kaecilius's backstory was barely addressed in the movie, and that just makes it less compelling. We would then learn that he was  just a child when he was abandoned by his family,and while he looking for a place to belong to, he stumbled into Kamar-Taj (keeping the idea that broken souls come to this mystical place to heal).

Once he felt he belonged somewhere, he aimed higher, and looked to become the Sorcerer Supreme, and despite all his efforts, he was defeated for that position by a person he considered a friend. Though they were strong friends even with the two having a strong desire to help the world, which is shown by the fact that Kamar-Taj is in a limbo state of time, he couldn't stand the idea of his friend taking something he deeply desired and did a lot of effort to get .Feeling not only betrayed, but without a purpose, he left Kamar-Taj in search for himself. And while he did various other things (like, I don't know, possibly join an Avengers team in the 1970s ;) ), he grew resentful against the Ancient One and the new Sorcerer Supreme. 

At this point, we would have already seen Kaluu obtained the power that he desired from Dormammu, and that he was willing to give the Earth to this powerful entity to prove a point to the Ancient One, of how she has failed, and he deserved to be the Sorcerer Supreme. Not only that, but he is willing to give an Infinity Stone to him, in exchange for whatever his heart desires. He would, of course, fail, but we would instead of kill him, would see him captured inside of an ancient relic prison. 

Other things that I would add are that the more time passes the more mindless his followers beocme (as in becoming the Mindless Ones), and also a moment in which Kaluu tries to persuade Mordo into his side, by telling him "don't you see,  that you will eventually follow in my path?". Also, I would add that his followers are the counterparts of Mordo's Minions (which include Kaecilius), while also incorporating minor villains like Lucian Aster, as in the movie, to be part of the Zealots. Kaluu could also allude to many other magic based heroes and villains, such as Shuma-Gorath, the Black Knight, the Fear Lords, and the Hell Lords, as well as other deities like Asgardians and Olympians, just to name a few.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 -

The Universal Church of Truth

The character of Adam Warlock is someone I've been very excited to see in MCU for quite a while, given his importance in many of the events like the Infnity Gauntlet, Infinity War and Infinity Crusade, or his role in the Guardians of the Galaxy. In the past years, he has been relegated to a more minor role, given the increase in popluarity to Star-Lord. I believe that Guardians 2 could have helped in hyping Adam's appearance, by bringing in one of the elements that characterized the amazing weirdness intrinsic to the character.

The element I'm using for this movie is the Universal Church of Truth, who seem to have inspired the Sovereign in one form or another, and elements introduced in other media like the Silver Surfer series and the animated Guardians show.

Let's start by doing something that the movie tried to do, make Ayehsa the Matriarch of the Universal Church of Truth. Contrary to what we saw in the movie, we would see that she is being coerced into telling her followers and the Guardians whatever she is told, by her superiors. In this version, she is basically a puppet leader, while the Cardinals choose the path of their institution, which is to subjugate other alien species so they may increase the number of followers. This would make her a unique antagonist, as she is being forced into this role, since she is not really a villain in the comics.

However, one thing they cannot do or are unwilling to is get their hands dirty and kill non sentient species like Abillisk, which is why tge call upon the services of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Guardians are then invited by the Matriarch to join them for a gathering (aka. a space mass), where they would honor the Guardians' effort. This would give us a chance to allude to Magus as their messianic figure, as well as giving them Nebula as the tribute, which they found on a planet they recently converted.

Personally, this is were I'd introduce Mantis as an inhabitant of this planet (aka the Cotati) where she was viewed as the Celestial Madonna, which of course made the UCT not happy with them, as only the Magus is king.

Using her empath powers, thr Guardians leave with Nebula and Mantis to make the Guardians take her with them. The story would then take the same route as we see in the movie, and we would give Mantis the opportunity of learning the fact that Ego is villanous, by him touching her, which causes the empathic abilities to activate.

We would later give the same type of scenes to Drax and Mantis, Mantis would explain that she was taken by the Universal Church of Truth due to her status among the Cotati (who rather than being a plant like species like the comics, would take a more Mantis like appearance). The Church considering anything outisde of their beliefs as heressy, captured her, and were about to execute her, until they found a purpose with her empath powers, to keep their followers in a state of trance.

...and the Ravagers

I commend so much the work that James Gunn and the crew that make the Guardians of the Galaxy movies for bringing several obscure characters to the forefront. Really, I never thought that Taserface would even get a role, much less a major one in the movies. 

Having said that, for all that effort that he put in populating the universe with diverse species, and characters, I think there was an opportunity to take names from several characters from the comics, even if the Ravagers were eventually meant to die. For example, Nebula had her own pirate crew in the comics, and characters like Levan, Skunge and Gunthar would've fight in right into the Ravagers. The same thing could've been done with the Thanos-Thralls, who featured characters like the Blood Brothers, Jalin, and Qu'Lar. Just like Nebula's friends, we know that they won't get a starting role soon, so might as well, just use them, rather than create new characters. It might even make some fans surprised, who knows!

Ant-Man and the Wasp - Scott, the more active protagonist

I like Scott. He's funny and I enjoy how he's always an amazing straight man. However, I feel like's always treated as the dumbest guy in the room, or as lesser. With that in mind, this idea could eventually evolve into a part of his storyline, in which Scott tries to do more in order to feel accepted by both the superhero community and Hank and Hope.

This could tie in to his decision to Cap's side in Civil War, because he thinks that Ant-Man should be considered a superhero, and help with issues that affect said superhero life. Add that to the concept that he justifies not telling or including Hope because he doesn't want to put her in danger, ironically putting the Pyms into more danger. That is where Power Broker and his goons decide to enter and steal Pym tech for themselves, while the government is also trying that themselves.

Scott, while in house arrest, would also try and do a little bit of research regarding quantum physics, learning whatever he can, and even taking an online course, instead of that bit of magic he learned. Even then, he could try to explain, to the best of his knowledge what he learnt to Cassie, who could also understand a little. Cassie would also try to tell him that he's already a hero in her eyes, and that sentiment would be echoed by Hope, who despite her remaining resentment over Scott's actions would soften up and understand his motives.

It would be until further in the movie when Scott and Hank have a controntation that eventually evolves into a heart to heart, that he explains to Scott, that he's been through this before. Not only did he not feel an equal to his own wife, but he sometimes felt insecure among his scientific colleagues, like Dr. Foster, Dr. Starr, or Stark. This would also mirror how in the comic he also suffered from insecurities. He would then encourage him and tell him that he's a good man, that he doesn't need to have the scientific expertise that they do, and that he is an important part ot the team.

Captain Marvel -  The Kree-Skrull War

Captain Marvel isnt the magnum opus that fans expected, that is for sure. It has some faults, yet it also has the introduction of some interesting concepts, like the Skrulls, the Kree-Skrull War, the creation of the Avengers Initiative, among many others. If anything, it is not the actor's fault or the screenwriter, it just feels like it could have been two different movies, which I personally wouldn't have minded. However, given all the parameters we have established (ie, only one movie and featuring all the characters), we could probably try and make a better movie.

First stop, is the Skrulls, since it is one of the most divisive moments of the movie. The Skrulls aren't the best alien species in the comics, though they were originally good until the Kree sort of screwed them over. If they are trying to adapt that concept, I completely applaud them for doing something we haven't seen in other media. However, given that people expect a sort of Secret Invasion, we can try and make a bit of a tease, while also showing that Carol isn't willing to take sides. 

So, Talos's mission would remain the same, though the difference lies on the scene in the Rambeau family. He would add that he has been forcibly drafted into the Skrull army and excelled at it, though he did it, so he could try and end this conflict so he could unite with his own family. He would then ask for Carol's help in locating the refugees hidden in Mar-Vell's ship, so he could help in reunite as well as protect them, and get them to a safer location, away from the Kree-Skrull War. This would show that though Talos isn't the nicest person, he is just trying to help his people, thus making him the lesser of two evils, rather than just an all round good guy, as he's shown in the end. 

As a nice mirror to that of Talos, we would have Yon-Rogg. He would be an important member of the Kree military, just like in the movie, and would have been responsible in retreiving Carol from Earth and taking her to Hala. However, he would have conflict with hiding secrets from both Carol and most of the Kree. Him and the Supreme Intelligence, along with probably some others, have been hiding that they've secretly made a deal with the Mad Titan so they can acheive the extermination of several undersired enemies, such as the Skrulls. So, Yon-Rogg would try to the defy the Supreme Intelligence's wishes, though he would be punished by his powers being reduced (Yes, Starforce's members, as well as Mar-Vell, would actually have powers, insetad of those weapons). Therefore the mantra of "what can be given can be taken" is not just a reference to Carol, but to them as well. It would also be a reason why he values hand-to-hand combat, since that is not something the Supreme Intelligence can't control. Carol's problems would increase after landing on Earth, since she would have to deal with a malfunction in her powers, which is why she'll find it useful to team-up with Nick Fury.

Speaking of Starforce, one my gripes of the "team" is the simplicity with which they get beaten. I supposed that the Supreme Intelligence chose them for the team because of their skill. If possible, we could counterpart the Avengers, with Yon-Rogg being the Anti-Cap, Att-Lass being the Thor or Iron Man analogue (featuing the Nega-Bands that would make the fight much more formidable), Bron-Char being the Hulk counterpart, Korath being the Hawkeye and Minn-Erva the Black Widow. Even when they are a team, the point of Starforce is having a contingency plan in case Carol ends ups betraying them, which the Supreme Intelligence had already predicted. After Carol demonstrates that she is capable of defeating the contigency plan level 1, Ronan is sent to deploy the Kree Sentries (which were promised in concept art, and I still wished had made it into the movie). It is when neither the might of Starforce nor the mechanical superirority of the Kree Sentries fail, that the Kree leave Earth alone.

As for Mar-Vell, there is only one little detail that I wish they avoid: killing her. At this point in the Captain Marvel, Carol hasn't earned the title, since nobody has called her that, which is why she shouldn't as of yet die. This instead could be a part of an entire second movie's arch, with Carol, Mar-Vell and the Skrulls in space facing off against enemies, and across a period of time, Mar-Vell notices that she has acquired a sickness, alla cancer, that she cannot fight. And if we're supposed to know her as Captain Marvel, why not give the false narrative to Carol that Mar-Vell is a hero to the kree, and is actually the one they are rescuing, instead of Soh-Larr. Since the Kree can't stand traitors they've made the false narrative that she has been in several missions, and is currently fighting the evil of the Skrulls around the universe. The Kree would use imagery of Captain Marvel fighting several alien species, with them nodding to several of Mar-Vell's comics.

An important thing that I would add is that Yon-Rogg and Mar-Vell are both fighting on becoming the role model for Carol. Yon-Rogg would've vowed to give her the kree blood transfusion, the trainning and the position in the Starforce, but would also try to mold her into what he wants from her, just like an abusive parent. Meanwhile, Mar-Vell is giving her the chance to follow what Carol wants, and encourages her, though she also asks of her to help in something that is way too dangerous. So, just like Carol choosing who to ally with in the Kree-Skrull war, she would have to join one mentor and confront the other.

Finally, we have the character with the other controversial change, Nick Fury. Again, we would keep one thing from the movie, him losing his eye. Not because it wasn't funny or anything, but because I feel that should be a part of another movie, like Black Widow or his own series. The thing I would work with is, making Fury the "guy who knows a guy", which is something we can see glimpses of when he visits PEGASUS. His status as a liason could be demonstrated when he talks to Carol about details that Skrulls couldn't replicate, and he would tell Carol that he has "the phone numbers of Hank Pym, Howard Stark and the President, not that you knew who they were" to which Carol would reply "Who are they?", as a little nod to another Marvel movie. He would also be useful in tracking Wendy Lawson's location, as he is the guy with the connections. Of course, those connections would turn out to be Skrulls searching for Wendy as well, so Wendy's both the R2-D2 and the Luke Skywalker of the movie, to put it on Star Wars terms.

Spider-Man: Far From Home

The Proto-Sinister Six/Continuing the thread of SM:HC

So, remember that tease that Scorpion made in Homecoming of there being some friends on the outside? Still wondering who those guys were. However, I'd instead like to see some friends of Toomes joining Beck's crusade. First off is Chameleon, who we kinda saw in the original movie, but honestly could have been anyone. Personally, I like this version of Dmitri to take the role of Gutterman in being the guy who creates the story of the Elementals and plays the secondary roles, like the driver.

Next up is William Ginter Riva's replacement, the Tinkerer, who besides his knack for reverse engineering tech is also a really good programmer, and thus would come in handy with the drones. Speaking of drones, we'd have Janice Lincoln, the one who designed the drones, codenamed "Beetles", for their Volkswagen looking exterior. Continuing this mix of old and new characters, we'd see Steven Hudak aka. Scorcher

The Threat of the Spider-Bots

One of the things that feels out of place in a Spider-Man movie is the EDITH drone army, and that's saying something considering things like Spider-Ham work. But the main issue really is that it feels like giving the nuclear codes to a child. I think instead of making it more Stark focused, it should be more rooted in the kind of character Peter is, and I believe the best place to begin, is by going to the Superior Spider-Man story.

While not a Mysterio centric story, Superior Spider-Man did feature a plot in which "Peter" (who at the time was really Doc Ock in the body of Peter), created an army of Spider-Bots (much like how he originally created the Octobots). However, the Green Goblin eventually hacked them so that these tiny drones could not detect any of the Goblin Nation's activities.

What makes this even more baffling is that it's not like the Spider-Bots are not known to Marvel Studios, as at that time Disney Parks were developing a ride around the concept of these robots. Granted, we don't know as much of the development of that ride, but the synnergy that could've given them is really interesting to think about.

With that in mind why not take that idea. Just like after Superior Spider-Man, Peter is now given charge of a surplus of Spider-Bots Tony created for him to be able to monitor crime. In that Stark nature, he believed that giving him such a tool would make him able to focus on larger scale issues while the bots take on the neighborhood tasks.

The issue now is that just like movie, the Stark employees are pissed at being fired, yes, but add to that how they believe they should take at least part of the credit for the weapons and equipment the heroes use. Now Mysterio and his gang are out for revenge.

Where are the Avengers?

I read a while ago that they originally envisioned for Peter to meet with Sam Wilson as Captain America in the film, but apparently they scrapped it. Same thing with New Asgard, which they were going to visit at some point. And that really is a missed opportunity, that of having Peter having a pep talk not only with non-Iron Man related characters, but also talk with other legacy Avengers (ie, Falcon to Cap and Valkyrie to Thor). Plus, there is another weird rule I want to follow in which every Spider-Man movie features at least two other superheroes (Homecoming with Cap and Iron Man, and No Way Home with Doctor Strange and Daredevil).

So first, I want to address that Tonsberg/New Asgard scene. Rather than taking him to Netherlands, despite the funny joke that its people are far to friendly, I'd like a scene that serves two purposes. Number one is showing that Valkyrie has the power of Death Perception, which allows her know when a person is in critical condition, which, after Mysterio's attack on the "Interpol HQ", Peter was in. Thus she went all the way to find Peter (as warriors don't let warriors die an unworthy death), and took him back to New Asgard, where they gave him a Xorrian elixir, and then some.

The first part of the lesson would be given by Valkyrie, in which he is blaming himself for what he did, and how he's endangered his friends. Valkyrie tells him that he shouldn't let his decisions burden him, otherwise, he'll "end up in a wasteland of a planet living a miserable existence". Peter asks Valkyrie for help in facing Mysterio, but she tells him that she's very busy running an independent country, and was only there as a favor. However, she says she called a friend, which is where Happy and Sam come in.

Since Happy never really piloted a plane until this movie, I would like to see Sam do the piloting, as he has already flown a couple Quinjets in the past. Next on the lesson list is Peter feeling burdened by the expectation that he must be the next Tony Stark, while Happy tells a part of this, it's Sam who tells him that something similar happened with him and Steve, but he isn't Captain America because he's the next Steve, but rather, because he's Sam Wilson. For this I'm assuming that Sam is already Captain America and that the series is thus a prequel.

So, in this final battle, we'd see a team-up between Sam and Peter, in which, Peter calls the shots, and Sam ends up helping Peter's schoolmates, while Peter faces off Mysterio. In the end, Sam and Peter shake hands, not as old man and child, but as equals. Happy meets with Fury and repeats the previous scene, And all is well and good, until the end, in which we see that Mysterio frames Spider-Man for his death.

Avengers: Endgame - The Friends made along the Way

There's something really specific about Avengers: Endgame that has bugged me for a few years now. It's not the time travel, or the death of Tony Stark, or even Thanos' regression.

It's the characters we see at the finale battle. Not the core characters, like Avengers, but guys like the Ravagers, the masters of the Mystic Arts, and several other characters we just don't know or recognize. You might think, then what should have happened? Should the MCU TV characters have appeared? As much as I'd like to say yes, there are other characters that the movies have left hanging. 

Taking a page from Ready Player One, the entire battle works because we are invested in the characters, but we should be able to feel rewarded on rewatches, because, since our attention is not necessarily on the plot. My focus for this, is that, while we can have a big army of sorcerers, Wakandans, Asgardians and space pirates, it could be more impactful to see the friends that each hero made along the way. I pitch it as a reward for seeing every Marvel film, as we'd see characters ranging from Jimmy Woo, to Lady Sif.

I'm going to first say, "Where the hell was Nick Fury and Maria Hill in this scene?". As the true founder of the MCU, he deserved to be bringing his goddamn Hellicarrier, powered by freaking Tesseract energy, and shooting those Leviathans. Just picture 4 Hellicarrier, each piloted by a different character (Fury, Maria Hill, Sharon Carter, and Jimmy Woo), and with actors who played S.H.I.E.L.D. agents before, like Galaga Guy and Cameron Klein on them.

Second, and this is something different. One might say these characters wouldn't join the conflict. but since we've seen them in Far From Home, it would've been amazing to see Talos and a crew of Skrulls fighting among them.  Maybe Talos and Captain Marvel make some maneuver, or Nick and Talos communicate, but that would be far more impactful than a whole army of nameless Masters of Mystic Arts.

And to make these Skrulls much more unique, I'd imagine that they are refugees who have adopted some of Earth culture, and thus superhero culture things, like one guy would have a Grasshopper suit for no reason (other than as an easter egg) and another Skrull dressed up as Captain Marvel. Similarly, some other Skrulls would have taken on other superhero identities, like Crusader, Revolutionary, and Virtue. They might, or might not have other powers, but the point is that they fight for the Earthm as it was their refuge (technically, they were in our orbit, and they had several pop culture and history on that ship).

Third and this sounds like the most expensive: Stakar and his original crew. This the guys I'd replace with most of the nameless Ravagers, even Howard the Duck. Just imagine a single line in which Stakar says "for Yondu!", and the Guardians all attack

Fourth, it's the Nova Corps. One might say that Thanos wiped them out, but honestly a) that'd be the death of Nova as a potential character, and I don't think they'd do that, and b) Thanos' MO is all about leaving half alive. So maybe the remaining half of the Nova Corps is looking for justice for the deaths of half of Xandar. I'd even half Glenn Close return as the lead pilot.

Fifth, the Asgardians. There is only one character that deserved to be in that lineup, and that is Sif. Again, this army should be about the allies that the heroes have made on their journey, and nobody represents that better than Sif, who for the first 2 movies was the most loyal character of the whole Asgardians. If we'd like to add some other characters, there's also Tyr, who was in Thor 2, and given that Endgame is making Thor more watchable, why not bring him back.

As for Wakandans, it'd be something interesting to see W'Kabi back with them. Not just because Daniel Kaluuya needs to be in more Marvel movies, but because I think that one of BP's best friends deserves a redemption story, and this could be a good way to redeem him.

Phase 4

Wandavision -

House of M(arvel) - Honoring the past shows (not just MCU adjacent)

Rarely do i want to cast specific people on a project, since the casting usually surprises me. However, since Wandavision is the end of an era of Marvel shows, it would be a good way to bring back actors who have worked on previous projects, and even make it part of the plot, since in hindsight, Wandavision is the least multiversal of the 4-part Multiverse saga.

My suggestions for actors from previous Marvel shows are the following:

• Eliza Dushku - She-Hulk in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
• Seth Green - A-Bomb in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. (as well as Howard the Duck in the MCU)
• Eric Allan Kramer - Thor in the Incredible Hulk Returns
• Clyde Kusatsu - Wong in the Doctor Strange pilot
• Wayne Knight - Egghead in Super Hero Squad
• Jamie Chung - Blink in The Gifted, among other roles
• Ross Marquand - Both Red Skull and Ultron in the MCU

Each actor would take on the role of one of the citizens of Westview. For example, Eliza Dushku would be Sarah Proctor (renamed either Alice Farrell or Adrian Lynn), Eric Allan Kramer as "Arthur Hart" (renamed Jake Olson, which is a nice nod to Elizabeth's last name), Clyde Kusatsu as Stan Nielsen (renamed Jason Lindmer), and so on.

Now, how this ties into the Multiverse is primarily on the end of the show, when Agatha reads out loud a couple of passages from the Darkhold, one of which touches on how the Scarlet Witch's powers tap into the Multiverse, and how even unconsciously, she has brought a group of variants of her friends from other dimensions.

And in a simple effect, she can see all these citizen's variants as either the villains, mutants and Avengers that they are. Agatha then uses that to her advantage, controlling the citizens of Westview to attack Wanda, with some of their alternate powers coming with them. Thus, that moment in which Wanda tortures them, it is instead in self-defense.

Agatha All Along?

One of the things that bothers me is how after a while every speculator was pitching Agatha as the bad guy of the show, because, while she has at points done less than likable stuff, she's more of an anti-hero, or a chaotic good. So, I think there is a more interesting solution for this, that still makes us keep her bop of a song, but also give her a new twist. This being, Wanda is changing her role.

What do I mean about that? You see, Wanda is controlling reality and the same time is having a mental breakdown, so one of the ways we could see that, is that she starts thinking that people around her are acting against her. As we've seen with Monica, she has hints of that already, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch that Agatha, when she is revealed to be the "antagonist", that she's still being pupeteered.

How would I in turn reveal that she's not evil? In the episode in which they go through her memories, we change it to Doctor Strange giving Wanda a contact of a certain witch, as while he's an expert in some types of magic, he knows Wanda's requires an expert on it. So gives her Agatha's address, and we see the "therapy flashback", but rather than the evil witch who wants to learn more from her enemy, she acts as someone who is willing to help. She then reveals what Wanda's powers truly are, and what she can do with them, but not so over the top.

Once she finishes the session, Wanda goes to Westview and does the same, except Agatha tracked her down, because what she saw in the future was the Hex, and thus she's concerned. And then, we return to the episode, and Agatha is trying to return from the sunken place, so her lines, while delivered as a villain, are actually meaning to help, similar to how people like Wanda might misinterpet the intentions of others.

So Wanda would fabricate the entire fight with Agatha, until Agatha regains enough control to show her that the people in the town are suffering because of her, thus she releases them, and along with them Agatha. Agatha then makes a truce with Wanda because Hayward, being the a-hole that he is, did not come alone with just soldiers, rather he brought other enhanced to deal with them, along with White Vision. Therefore, it'd be a team-up of Wanda, Vision, Agatha, Monica and the twins, against the "Comission on Superhuman Activities" Response Division.

The Mutant Agenda

Let's take a moment to acknowledge something about the Ms. Marvel show and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. They had the courage to say two words I didn't think I'd hear in this phase: Inhumans and Mutants. For a while there's been rampant speculation regarding when and where the mutants would make their debut, and of course I would be remiss to not mention Wandavision as the place where the speculation started. So, for the word mutant to have been uttered without any sort of big disaster causing the birth of mutants in the universe (like how in the comics the Phoenix Force in AvX caused a new surge of mutants, or the Inhumanity series after Black Bolt dropped a Terrigen Bomb), it is a pretty huge deal.

However, it feels that of all the characters more deserving of such a moment, one in particular got snubbed. Well a pair actually, but one is dead. So, what if we got a chance to correct that tiny mistake, and again, just like in the aformentioned Ms. Marvel, it just takes a really, really small mention. In the scene where Baron Von Strucker's men use the mind stone to see its effect on people, they first bring Wanda in. During the scene we could see them chatting about how she was selected from the group of potential test subjects, with one of the lab assistants saying something akin to "she possessed a mutation in her DNA, which intrigued Dr. List". Later on as the test finishes and her powers show, the duo of scientist then state "we must try it on her twin. Perhaps they share that potential."

Earlier on in the series, we could also see Hayward and S.W.O.R.D. analyze the information obtained from HYDRA's Sokovian base to find a way to neutralize her powers. and them having Hayward maybe create the term "mutant", as someone with a genetic predisposition to develop powers, rather than the classic Enhanced term.

Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Sam, the Mediator

Captain America: The Winter Solider introduced audiences to Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon, as a former soldier turned veteran counselor, who in the past lost his friend Riley. Within this statement I see a couple of elements that could've better informed the story of this show, as well as define the characters better.

First off, is his relationship with John Walker. While I do enjoy Sam and Bucky's disdain for him, it got to a point where I started to feel bad for John. He's clearly suffering from some ill defined mental instability, and yet the two of them almost seem to enjoy barating him for just trying his best. So, I'd much rather see Sam trying to give the guy a chance, due to his training as a counselor, he is at least trying to be sympathetic, the same way he later does in the show with Karli. John is just as eager to work with Sam, due to him being one of the few heroes, aside from War Machine and Cap to have served in the military, and as such he became a hero for a couple of his military buddies. Despite this, he does drop afew comments such as "the Blip did certainly make the return home, as there were less homeless" or akin, that do certainly indicate his tendencies.

Next up is Karli, who rather than just believing that the Blip was better, and taking a cue from the real life events happening at the same time, believes that the Blip just showed the ineffectiveness of governments, and as such, creates the Flag-Smashers as anti authority resistance, which looks to both give power to the poor and disenfranchised. However, her being a teenager, she is still easily manipulated by the Power Broker, who would push Karli to do far more extremist acts of protest. As such the end line of "a misguided teenager" would make much more sense in the long run.

Karli would also try to bring Sam to her side, appealing to the fact that it was the government who imprisoned him during Civil War, and treated him like a criminal during Infinity War, and that's not counting that time HYDRA attempted to kill him. Since Sam is African American, she believes that he would understand why they want to abolish government, but to her surprise, Sam would tell her that he has actually worked for the government's Department of Veteran Affairs, and while, yes some people aren't the best, you shouldn't generalize. Sam would still attempt to reason with her, but at this point, she's not having any of it, especially after Johnny comes in guns blazing, trying to kill her as revenge.

Sam, knowing what it feels to lose a friend, twice even, tries to calm him by doing what he did when Riley died, but it is useless, as John is unable to express his anger thru any other means other than violence, leding to the brawl. But still, the point is that Sam is trying other ways of fighting, without starting with physical violence.

Loki

Are these really Apocalypses?

Let's be honest, when Feige said that Loki's (show) effect on the MCU would be big, I was expecting something interesting. Not introducing Galactus or doing Secret Wars (that comes later), but at least new characters. And I like that for the past few weeks, we've gotten small teases to AIM, Roxxon, etc, and well Lady Loki and the TVA. But, is Roxxcart and the Lamentis I episodes enough? For me, not really.

If I can make a suggestion, I propose two events that could replace Lamentis that would have big, but not that huge, ramifications on the rest of the universe. First, is the destruction of Skrullos, because, unless Secret Invasion will feature the event, Loki is one of the only places in which we can see it. Second, the destruction of Korbin. One, this will allow us to see the Korbinites more than just in Avengers: Endgame, and as an easter egg for Beta Ray Bill, as the guards could have the same armor as Bill.

Black Widow

Ieronim Dreykov, the Mandrill

Something that I find quite interesting is the way the movie took a bunch of Black Widow villains, and chose to make them not only allies, but family to Nat. Either Red Guardian, Yelena or Melina could've been great adversaries in this movie, and yet they chose Taskmaster, a character who really hasn't interacted that much with her, and Dreykov, who along with Hayward doesn't really matter in the long run.

That being said, something that I did find interesting is the amount of parallels to the character of Jerome Beecham, who in the comics has mind-controlled the Black Widow using pheromones and has also had an elite squadron of Warrior Women who he views as lesser. I assume these parallels are mere coincidence, just like the "Ship of Theseus" thing in Wandavision, but if I am right about this, please let me know.

So, since they already changed Taskmaster's origin, might as well take the absurd character and bring them into the pantheon of pheromone mind-controllers that would make Kilgrave proud. For starters, we'd mix a bit of Jerome's and Kilgrave's comic backstory, and also some lore from the Red Ghost. In this version, Dreykov had heard of this experiment involving apes, in which a friend of his, Ivan Kragoff, had successfully awakened abilities in them. Wishing one of those in particular, he asked him to replicate the Mandrill's skill, which are mind control through pheromone, as that specific Mandrill could control the females of his species, to you know, to do his bidding.

This would also give us a more distinctive look, with the process leaving a change in his physical appearance, with more hair growing in his face, and taking more inspiration from the real-life Rasputin, rather just a picture of him.

What If...?

What if Captain Carter and the HYDRA Stomper.... fought Thor?

Did you know, there's this issue of Invaders in which Thor fights on the side of the Nazis? I really, really felt that Red Skull trying to invoke this ancient figure was heading up for that. And while that tentacle monster could arguably be a Shuma-Gorath or anything like that, you could arguably go in a darker direction.

Picture this, Red Skull opens the portal, and ends up invoking Thor, who's still very much pre-worthy. Schmidt bows before the man and starts showering with praises. He then asks for his favor in helping fight agains the evils of America and shows him what "Captain Carter caused", which would be his scarred face.

Thor, angered that his "people" have been affected in such a way, promises to end these evil Midgardians. However, Carter and Rogers end up being too much for him, specially with the powers of the Tesseract on Steve.

This ends up in a draw, in which both sides end up defeated. Disappointed, Red Skull arrives in the battleground, and picks up Mjölnir. He exclaims, "Now I have the power of the gods!", and fights the trio, with Thor previously noting the compassion Carter feels towards Rogers. Eventually, Red Skull breaks the HYDRA stomper, but loses Mjölnir in the process. However, he activates the Tesseract, and with Carter in the crossfire, both Red Skull and Captain Carter are lost.

Minor Easter Eggs

Additionally, we could have a couple easter eggs related to the comics and the MCU. For example, the HYDRA grunt she faces could be revealed as Willhelm Lohmer, aka. The Master Man. Similarly, the location of the final battle could just be the HYDRA research base from AoU, and could even be revealed as Castle Zemo, with that sword being his iconic weapon.

What if Doctor Strange tried to save ... his family?

There's a deleted scene in the original movie that showed Stephen's sister dying in an accident while swimming. Now, in the comics, Stephen Strange has a history of family members dying, rather that be his parents, his brother or his sister. So, what if, he was never able to grieve properly, and when he arrives in Kamar-Taj after his accident (rather than the death of Christine Palmer) he learns of the book of Cagliostro, and learns a way to save his family's life.

He travels back in time, and saves his brother first, as he wasn't present there for the event, and therefore finds it less traumatic, and one by one, revives all but his sister Donna. This is because he feels unable to face the childhood trauma, and thus, is afraid to go back.

To avoid suspicions and eliminate regrets, Strange splits himself in half, creating a new character all together. This creature would have the look of Paradox, sans mask while in normal form, but when threatened, turns into Mister Misery. Paradox/Mister Misery stays in the New York Sanctum, though he has been absorbing the emotions of visiting sorcerers, ironically creating a threat for them.

Eventually, the combined actions of Mister Misery and Doctor Strange would cause the collapse of this universe, as Mister Misery has killed nearly all of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, leaving the Earth without defenses, while Strange has tampered with the events of his own timeline. This ends with Strange and his own Misery being the last survivors, as the threats from the multiverse who conquered this world want to torture the man who destroyed his own universe.

Eternals - The Past of the Marvel (Cinematic) Universe

Recently, I've seen a lot of criticism on whether the Eternals as a movie should've been a series or a multi-movie series. Both of them I agree on, since the cast of characters does certainly limit the amount of screentime for each one. So to do away with some of them, I picture the movie set in a different era entirely, similar to my Inhumans pitch.

Why I want to do so, is that a few days ago, Marvel Comics released a couple of quotes from the upcoming event Judgement Day, which seems to imply that mutantkind are evolved from Deviants. So, not only do I want to leave open the door for that idea, but I also like the idea that, as time moves on the Eternals stay the same, but the Deviants evolve as a threat, and taking the form of the dominant species, with attributes of the apex predators.

This is where Kro turns from a mindless antagonist, into an interesting one, as we'd see him influence world events, such as the Conquista of Tenochtitlan, or World War II. And this is where the Arishem plot comes in. Rather than it being the increased pressence of living organisms that awakens Arishem, it's a massive surge of energy, which is why the movie would end in the aftermath of the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

The four main periods would be Babylon, Medieval England, Tenochtitlan and WWII.

More to come...

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Deadpool, and the Street-Level Hero

Recently, another concept art was released. This time of a battle between Deadpool and Proxima Midnight on Xialing's Wrestling Arena. And I feel that a cameo like Deadpool would've better established Shang-Chi as a hero not like Asian Black Panther, but like what he is in the comics, which is more of a street-level hero, and a vigilante. To put it on other terms, more of a Batman, instead of a Green Lantern, or in Marvel terms, more Spider-Man, less Doctor Strange. Someone who deals more with criminal organizations, rather than Kaiju, although the latter can still happen in an Avengers crossover.

So, let's swap Wong for Deadpool. As for who the opponent is, I have a few suggestions. First, we can keep Abomination, although I have no idea how he'll go back. Maybe Deadpool gives him a ride? Second option, we introduce a new villain to this universe, like say, Silver Samuari or the Juggernaut. However, there is a villain who I'd be more interested in seeing here, is the one and only Taskmaster.

Still, we can have easter eggs for Wong and Abomination, like the announcer teasing the fight after that being "Abomination v. Wong". After the fight, we could have an interaction with Deadpool being wowed by Shang-Chi and even asking for a photo, or even giving him his number, in case he needs someone for a "super secret mission", hinting that Deadpool, Domino and Shang-Chi may team up later.

However, the post credits scene can include Wong, therefore teasing both directions (the street level route and Avengers direction in the future).

Ten Rings is not the Hand

I've been thinking for a while, that the armies of the MCU do need to be more distinct from each other. Like, besides power sets and uniforms, what is the difference between AIM and HYDRA? The Flag-Smashers, for all the flaws in the script, got a mission statement, which is admittedly something we can understand and even empathize.

So, what makes the Ten Rings army distinct? Only the fact that Wenwu and Razorfist have different powersets, because the rest, including Death-Dealer and the rest have arguably just "ninja skills". So, my pitch for this is to think of the Ten Rings as the oldest pyramid scheme ever, combined with a martial arts school. Meaning, we get to see a base foot soldier costume, a modified one (with more bells and whistles), and the top assassins (which would be more than just 2), would have special garments. However, despite all their freedom of expression in the costumes, and the climbing of ranks, Wenwu is still the king, and as such, is never at the risk of a coup.

This means we get more visually interesting antagonists working for the lead villain (and as such more toys), but it also gives visual storytelling.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

A bigger Spider-Verse

This hurts even more considering that there exists concept art of an entire Spider-Verse, which I'll hopefully be able to add in the near future to my other blog.

Either of the options shown below could have either replaced a Spider-Man (Tobey or Andrew) or joined as a member.Personally, a Six vs. Six fight would've been much fairer, but 1) they were only five, and 2) they needed to find an organic way to involve them, which I attempted to do.

Insomniac Spider-Man (Miles Morales)

For as long as the Spider-Verse hit the screen people have been asking for Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield to meet, and well, ... that came true. But the fact that it was three variations of Peter does kind of feel weird. Like, other than the face and costume, they are pretty much the same. I was recently watching troyoboyo17's pre-write in which he had the idea of rather than three Peters, it was a Gwen, Miles and one I can't quite remember, and with Tom Holland mentioning that there is a reference to that game, I thought there's a cool way to integrate that into the universe.

Let's say that in the scene in which Ned is trying to get Peter using the sling ring, he calls for a Spider-Man, and since it is shot from a far and in the dark, they cannot see the costume, until he gets in and they see it's a black and red costume, and that's Miles' introduction. The actor who plays Miles in the game has experience doing live-action, so he could just play the Multiversal version of him, no questions asked.

This gives us a chance to bring in an additional villain to fight which could be our Sixth member. My favorite picks right now are either Prowler from Miles' universe and Mister Negative. Mister Negative's dynamic on the team could pretty much be the corrupter that Norman is, but since his powers cause negative emotions, he's more of a wild card than Norman is, and arguably could cause the entire final act by himself.

As for Prowler, it would be a great nod to Into the Spider-Verse, where Prowler was a part of the Sinister Six, but it also adds a lot of weight to the final battle, being that he is his uncle. Plus, his skillset is fairly different to that of the other villains, and thus has a chance to stand out.

Spider-Gwen (Emma Stone)

There were a couple of rumors that she was going to appear, and honestly, that would've been cool, but they never mentionned if she would've been Spider-Gwen or just regular Gwen Stacy. Personally, I think she should've been Spider-Gwen, cause it allows us to see her fight the Lizard, which is her first foe in the Spider-Gwen comics. Now, if that were the case, I could totally see them go high on the comic accuracy and instead of Rhys Ifans, they have her fight Andrew Garfield as an alternate Peter Parker. Plus, we could've still had Electro be surprised of his skin color, as the Peter of his dimension seems to mirror this one.

However, if we keep Rhys Ifans, and slightly change Gwen's backstory, we could still see her face Lizard, as in that movie, Dr. Connors is responsible for George Stacy's death. Another thing that would be a nice role reversal, in my opinion, is that instead of Andrew saving MJ, it is Gwen who does this, with help of Andrew's Peter on indications. There's this really touching moment in the Spider-Verse comic in which 616 Peter and Spider-Gwen promise to protect each other, and I wish we could see that in the future.

Spider-Girl/Spiderling

Into the Spider-Verse gave us an old Peter Parker, so rather than just repeat that with Tobey Maguire, I feel like there is a cool opportunity to add onto it. Rather than just appear alone on the portal we can see Tobey's Peter and his daughter walking towards the portal, and sensing Andrew and the others' powers, they all react.

Named May Parker, in honor of you know who, she joins the meeting of the Peters, and finishes that iconic phrase. Peter then learns the girl's name, and decides that he must return to help the remaining villains. She then interacts with MJ, revealing that in a way, she's her mother's counterpart, giving the scene a little levity.

She then is told to stay as the girl in the chair, despite her training as Spider-Girl, and still she gives commentary, like asking "Wasn't Goblin supposed to be dead?". At the end she calls the other Spider-Men her uncles, and hopes to see them again, of course hinting at a bigger Spider-Verse movie.

While the spell used by doctor strange does mention the multiverse, there is a lack of explanation as to how it works. And I have an idea on how to fix it.

How the Spell Works

Something that has been bugging me for a while is how the spell that Dr. Strange did work? They mention the Multiverse being involved in it, even though it is pretty much a forgetting spell. So rather than doing so, we can explain it in another way, this time using one of the most crucial X-Men comics tools, the divergent timelines. Rather than just causing the people to forget, the spell intends to create two Earths in the process. Think how Loki explains alternate timelines, but applied to magic.

That not only sounds like a more dangerous endeavour, but it gives a bit more logic as to why was the fabric of reality breaking at the end, but more importantly, it gives more of a reason as to why the villains end up appearing, as when the spell is being cast, the barriers between realities are non-existent, meaning that if the spell goes wrong, the MCU's main reality collides with others, thus why Doc Ock, Electro, Sandman, Lizard and Goblin end up coming to this universe.

The key thing here is that such as spell is limited to absolutes, meaning if want wishes to say "make people forget he's a superhero", then no one will remember his identity, So any document that links Spider-Man to Peter Parker will not exist, nor will people's memory of Peter Parker being Spider-Man, and in so doing, all the development he had with people after this discovery. However, the events happened in a similar way, such as the trip to Europe, and of course, the death of Aunt May.

Hawkeye

The Bar With No Name

In the comics, there are several locations that are unique to Marvel's New York City. There's the X-Mansion, the Baxter Building, among others. But there is one that fits so perfectly with the concept of the Hawkeye show, which is the Bar with no Name. This bar serves patrons of the C and D List villain variety, and is just the perfect kind of establishment for a group like the Tracksuit Draculas. And considering it is a bar, there are things like darts and pool tables, and beers, so the perfect place for a man whose power is that they never miss. It is so perfect, I'm almost amazed it never happened. So for this idea, we could have Kate and Clint trapped in the backroom of the Bar (rather than the abandoned KB Toys), having to escape. Thankfully, the Draculas are hammered, and don't really put up much of a fight, to Maya's and Kazi's dismay.

However, Echo has their equipment hidden (as in the show), so they have to get creative and use as much of the items available to them to fight, such as billiard sticks, balls and darts to stun or scare the bar patrons from fighting. It also gives us a chance of having some cameos, from characters who have fought Hawkeye in the past, like some members of the Death-Throws (rather than just having them be namedropped in later episodes).

Moon Knight: Welcome to New Marvel

Before I have any changes I would like on the show, I want to praise the efforts of Mohammed Diab, Jeremy Slater and pretty much everyone involved to represent a diverse population. Not only did they retool Marlene into Layla, which makes the character infinitely more interesting, but they also made Marc into a Latin American Jew, which, as a Latin American, is refreshing considering how we’re stereotyped into only being Catholic.

Plus, it has an opportunity to tap into other cultural aspects of Judaism, rather than just focusing on the effect World War II had, as the Inquisition and its impact on forced conversion, or the migration of Jews to Latin America, and how they cooking traditions were incorporated into the countries, is rather fascinating, and I recommend learning about it. And that’s nothing compared to the Egypt of it all, with them showcasing the reality that just because it’s considered a third world country, doesn’t mean it’s all ancient buildings and poverty, which I definitely give high praise.

That being said, I would've appreciated it if the show had included more elements from Marvel Comics, particularly the characters of N'Kantu the Living Mummy and the Earth Force. This for two reasons. Number One is the fact that recent projects have really focused on featuring less well known characters without fear of them not being loved by the public, and second is the fact that seeing as both Marvel Supernatural and Marvel Gods are being pushed into the forefront in Phase 4, it may be useful to have more of them featured, even if as cameos.

For the Living Mummy, the solution is pretty much staring us right in the face.Combining the character of the Heka Priest with Alexander the Great, aka. Ammit's avatar. In this version, N'Kantu became the avatar of Ammit as revenge for the slaughter of a good chunk of his people (who I'd like to be the precursors to modern day Wakandans).

However, Ammit soon became more power hungry, forcing N'Kantu to ally himself with the other Avatars, and committing voluntary mummification to be the last in the line of Ammit's avatars. However, Ammit cursed N'Kantu with eternal life, but keeping the natural decomposition of the body.

Due to him having been an Avatar, N'Kantu is blessed with All-Speak, since as we see in the series, all Avatars magically speak English. N'Kantu confronts Marc and Layla, believing them to be looking to free Ammit, until the misunderstanding is resolved. However, Harrow intervenes, and pushes N'Kantu off the cliff, keeping the possibility of him returning.

As for the Earth Force, it's mostly turning them into the Avatars of the Ennead, with other added characters to be equivalent to the number of members in the series. Each one can be far more easily linked to the Gods, as their costumes, although conceptually ridiculous, can still be adapted. So, for example Skyhawk would be Horus' avatar, Earth Lord would correspond to Geb, and Wind Warrior to Shu. Other suggestions include the villains Quicksand and Mongoose representing Seth (as Seth is also a God of the Desert) and Atum (who has been linked to the Mongoose).

Ms. Marvel

Inhuman Condition / Origin Transplant

Personally, if you look at it, they overcomplicated the origin of Ms. Marvel. Not because of the mutant gene confirmation, but rather the Djinn/Clandestine aspect. If you were to compare it to the original comic, in which she's just an Inhuman, they took a blender and made her an amalgam of Armor (with her powers), Nightcrawler (with his lineage being from another dimension/having powers related to a malignant creature of their respective religion) and well original Kamala Khan.

So, if they still wanted her grandmother to be a special alien who can unlock the bangle, which is definetly Kree, but also wanted to keep it simple and in line with the comics, we could just take elements from Kamala's idol, who's recent comic origin had an alien marry with a human and have a child.

Rather than have Aisha being a Clandestine, we'd have her being a Kree, sent to retrieve the Nega-Bands on Earth, but falling in love with the culture and choosing to stay. Since we've seen Kree like Korath the Puruser, with darker skin, it is not uncommon, so Aisha being kree is not out of the ordinary.

This would in turn would allow us to replace the ClanDestines with the remaining of the Starforce, whose goal would be the retrieval of the Nega-Bands. As such, we can have Minn-Erva turn into the main antagonist, replacing Gemma Chan in the role. It would also give us a chance to have the rest of the Starforce as the real antagonists, which makes sense, considering the roles that Bron-Char, and Att-Lass had in the original film, plus giving us other members such as Ultimus and Shatterax. It also makes Kamran, a kree descendant, since any of the members could take the role of one of Kamran's parent.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

Josh, the Awesome Android

At the point of writing this, the show has yet to conclude, but if there is anything I feel needs more of, is of the members of the Intelligencia. Granted, the previous villainous groups in the Disney+ shows have left a lot to be desired, but if there is one group whose membership is interesting to sat the least, it is these guys. And thanks to the Fox acquisition, we're able to see several more of their members, and I figure that at least two of them might just be perfect enough to connect the episodes much more than what we've had so far.

In the show, we have already seen Donny Blaze and Todd being not the best of people, and it just feels right to see the two of them as part of the Intelligencia, but rather than seeing them as the show does, having them become villains in their own right. First, Donny Blaze, who I believe can perfectly become the character known as The Wizard. While technically, we don't know his legal name, and as such, there is still time for him to become the character, the origin of Bentley Wittman in the comics is linked with being a disgraced stage magician, so they got that part all ready.

The second character who fills this criteria is Todd, who in the case that he's the HulkKing, as is widely speculated, could've been much better as the Mad Thinker. Not just that, but having him create Josh, would make him even more nefarious. Considering how people in the real world create fake profiles to get dates, having Josh, who'd be renamed Awesome Andy or Andy for short, just to be able to take Jen's blood, would take the threat of the Intelligencia much higher, without leaving the social commentary out of the picture.

Granted, this may leave Awesome Andy out of the picture from future storylines involving She-Hulk's lawyer career, but it still services the story. And also, since the 3 characters have been linked to the FF, it separates the from the rivalries they have with the group (or maybe not? if they play the cards right, Mad Thinker could be a peer of Richards, or Human Torch might've heckled Wittman at a show, causing a petty desire for revenge), but then again, there are dozens of FF villains waiting to appear, so might as well have some right now.

Villains Anonymous

Frankly, this change is fairly simple. While in prison, Emil Blonsky does reform, and learn to be a better person. His new goal is to be able to do the same for others, and with a charitable donation, builds his new organization, Villains Anonymous. Granted, this organization may be owned by Sony due to its appearances on Spider-Man adjacent comics, but still, it is an interesting concept to ponder. Besides two of the members of Villains Anonymous in the comics are Man-Bull and an iteration of Porcupine.

It also feels more akin to something a villain like Blonsky would do, than just a general self-help and meditation retreat.

Secret Invasion

The First Crossover Series of the MCU

If there's something the Arrowverse had that I wish MCU shows did was the annual crossover. Whether it's Crisis on Infinite Earths, Crisis on Earth X, Invasion or others, the truth is that those events had the feel of an actual event comic, instead of a one and done movie. And while we've had shows in the current D+ era, most of them, save for She-Hulk, have been anything more than a limited series, with 6 or so episodes focused on a single story. And a story like Secret Invasion really does require the crossover nature the comics had. Considering how the only real crossover characters are Rhodey, Rick Mason and Everett Ross, while the rest of the cast are mainly Captain Marvel or S.H.I.E.L.D., it does make you wonder what kind of story would a bigger budget could bring.

For starters, I want to focus on some of the core ideas the show presents and then chooses to not delve that much into:

1. the Skrulls came during the Snap,
2. Skrulls have taken the appearances of deceased humans,
3. Fury's fear is that the Skrulls have taken over the Avengers.

With that in mind, let's think about who our other crossover elements would be. Starting with:

The remaining Avengers

Aside from Rhodey, there are only a few heroes left that have been a part of the team since Age of Ultron/Civil War. From that list we can take Sharon Carter (who would take the role of G'iah aka. Talos's daughter, though I'd rather call her Lyja), Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne (as the scientists captured to help create the Super-Skrull procedure, which would also lead into a similar confrontation like the one with Bob Fairbanks with Hope in the place of the child), and Hawkeye (who would have his wife be the Skrull, mirroring the event in the comics, as well as him seeing his children are half Skrulls, like Tigra's).

Other Familiar Faces

In the topic of characters, there are a lot of characters involved in the show that are frankly redshirts, i.e. original characters that you know are going to definetly die, particularly those that have been replaced by Skrulls. As such, it would be ideal to go to the source, and take a look at roles that can be renamed, starting with Martin Wallace. It is ironic that for a show that does a lot of mentions of things like Dreykov or the Ten Rings, that not once did we get a mention of the Flag-Smashers, and since the Flag-Smashers serve basically the same role as Americans against Russia in the show, why not merge the two, and give us Flag-Smasher II, aka Guy Thierrault, or in keeping with the Skrulls posing as deceased characters, it could be an appropiate time to bring back Erin Kellyman as Karli Morgenthau.

On that same boat, we have Pagon. Given that the comics show him as taking the form of Elektra, and that hasn't been touched yet by Marvel Studios, it would be interesting to see him take on the role of another antagonist from a previous project. And after a while of thinking, I thought it would be fun to have an Iron Man 3 henchmen return, Eric Savin. With both Karli and Savin returning, it lends plausibility to how the Skrulls obtained samples of Extremis or even super soldier serum.

Then there's the one character who has been my biggest issue of the show, Gravik. Since the show shied away from the Veranke "religious plot", they chose to go and create a new villain, but again, that wastes an opportunity to bring an actor back but allow him to fully change their performance. And I think that who better to bring back than an A-Lister villain, which is Erik Killmonger. What makes this even more perfect is that if he actually plays K'lrt, he can nod to the FF's powers, and get the closest to replaying Human Torch.

As to how this is addressed in the plot, in summary, terrorist groups AIM and the Flag-Smashers have allied under the leadership of mercenary Erik Killmonger, a citizen of the US, thus causing an international dispute.

Other Supporting Characters (Non-Skrulls)

Time for the UK centric part of Marvel to truly debut. Aside from Black Knight and Lance Hunter, we haven't really touched upon it, save for one Braddock mention in Endgame. There are a couple of characters we could've had on this show but sadly we didn't. And I have three proposals.

Spitfire

Despite Olivia Colman's age, I figure she could play an older version of Jacqueline Falsworth in the show. Especially with how excited she was to have super-powers, and thus the possibility of her coming back. And besides, Claire Foy could play her younger self once she gains her vampiric/human torch powers.

Lancaster Sneed

it's weird that there are so many British Soldier's in the show, and yet the guy with the last name Sneed is an American soldier. I get that Shang-Chi media has been shying away from the British Spy angle, but it would be nice to see one of the people impersonated by a Skrull being Lancaster, especially, since he could come back as an antagonist later on.

Mortimer Grimsdale

Speaking of obvious choices, it's funny that Tony Curran is one of the few actors to have played three MCU characters. And given he is the superior to Sonya, who is also taken by the Skrulls, I had the curiosity to check whether there was any equivalent and lo and behold, there is a one to one parallel in the comics, which does makes me wonder, why not simply use him? Sure, he's MI-13, not MI-6, but still.

More to come...

Marvel TV

Runaways

Runaways has one of the best and most diverse group of characters that Marvel TV ever had, and that is something I really adore about the show. Definetly makes it great to see a diverse group of friends in a TV show, who must come together to fight their parents (who aren't really bad guys in the regular sense). I have nothing but praises for that part of the show. Sure, it's not as enjoyable as Daredevil or SHIELD, but it's meant for a different audience than the other TV shows, save for Cloak and Dagger.

Taking a cue from the show of Teen Titans, I'm going to try to do every season focused on one character, though I'm probably going to divide it into arcs. 

Season 1- PRIDE's members

• The Minorus

The one thing I feel that the show really wasted an opportunity on, is keeping at least a little of the comic book background that gave the origins to the heroes. A simple example of that is Nico. Now, I welcome the addition of an older sister, and the story that she brings in the season, but turning the magic-based origin into a tech staff is, for me at least, jumping the shark. While I get it, making her more of a tech based character kind of ruins her whole role in the team as "the mystical" hero.  Instead of that, I would keep Nico's parents as them being former wizards, who used their powers to collect magical artifacts, such as the Staff of One, the Abstract, and the Dagger, among many others.

To masquerade their crimes, they became very well-known antique and art valuers, which ensured the fact that they wouldn't have diffculties with their income. We would, from a certain point of view, merge the Minorus' and the Yorkes' comics backstory, since time-travel wasn't really established, and while I would love the idea of introducing it in the show, its better to take the other option of them artifically creating a Deinonychus, since we don't really know how they looked, and I'd rather they go more akin to what Doctor Strange did, with them having magical artifacts . We would also give an interesting rivalry with the Steins, as the Steins would see them as selfish and mostly fake, similar to Stark and Strange's rivalry in Infinity War. They could also keep the roles that Tina and Victor are technically speaking the leader of their respective family. The Minorus could for example tell the Steins' that "we could simply do that sacrifice with just some "magic spells" in less time that it took you to build that machine"

• Steins

I find Runaway's obsession with creating like a thousand companies in the MCU to be fascinating. The Minorus have Wizard, the Steins have NEMO, the Wilders have a construction company, and none of them are at least from the comics. Of the three, I'm leaving the Wilder's in, as I like that twist. I like to think that Victor considers himself a genius whose potential has never truly flourished as much as he wanted, and I think the perfect opporunity for that is him being second fiddle in a company. In this case, the company should be a subsidiary of Hammer Industries, Transcorp. He was offered a job there, and all the patents are his, as long as he makes a x amount of projects per month (If he doesn't, he loses the patents, per contract). I like the idea of this, as it would "make sense" why he lashes out against his family, with the stress and pressure would lead them to. The same could be said on why he's very overexpecting of Chase, as he doesn't want him to end up like him.

Season 2 - Giving each Runaway it's own arc

Now, this might seem like an excuse to include more comic book villains, and while yes that is certainly an aspect of it, it's also a way to give each character their own storyline, without them having to do generic "love stories", as I feel that is really cheap. Instead I propose to use as a way to ask the question "Can their parents be redeemed, and if so, who deserve it?". It would basically run like the premise of the first two episodes (ie. from different perspectives) for 6 or so episodes, with each one dedicated to a particular Runaway.

• Giving Molly a different arc

I'm sorry, but Molly deserves better. Sure, it's cool that she gets a mirror opponent in the form of Topher, but honestly, she herself could've gotten her own arc in which she abandons the team in search of information regarding her powers. She'd ask Nico for information regarding this, and thinking it may calm her down, Nico obliges.(maybe Moly invokes Amy's name saying "Amy would've helped", and Nico feels as if she has to)

In her way, she meets one of her parents' collaborator, Maximilian Stone, who was been developing powers. PRIDE would have screwed him over, and thus he's angry at the rest of the kids, and even more against Molly, as because of her parents, he's currently workless. With Earth-Mover (aka Max Stone) we cover the similar villain to the hero, and we use a minor Iron Man villain we would've never seen in movies.

As for our boy Topher, I'm going to tangle him with another character by the name of Provost. Thinking that she shouldn't go back with the other Runaways, as she thinks that they'll repremend her for leaving them, she chooses to find her way on the streets, where she's captured by this delusional guy calling himself Provost, who uses other kids that have powers for acts of theivery. This is where we could introduce both Topher, and new character to the show, Klara Prast. Molly would go full on-Katara in Avatar: the Last Airbender and upstage a revolution to fight Provost (after all, he's powerless). The rest of the kids would end up leaving, save for Klara and Topher, though the one would become an antagonist, while Klara would be a new ally to them.

Runaways in General: Easter Eggs

Now sure, you might say that there are easter eggs in the form of Atlas Academy, or Timely Coffee, but for me, the kind of easter eggs that could've been used are LA comics specific. For all the representation in the MCU, there's really not a ton of heroes in other places different ot New York, safe for Ant-Man, Iron Man (kinda), Black Panther, Runaways, C&D, and the Black Widow character. Of those, the ones that I feel really focus on the place are BP and C&D. 

California has certainly been featured prominently in comics, having its own team, the Champions for a few years. I understand that Ant-Man can't quite explore that much locations or characters from the state due to time, but Runaways certainly had the time to use some locations. Take for example the Coffee Shop. In Iron Man comics, we had a coffe shop called Atomic Café, which sure, is fairly minor, but it could've served as a nice easter egg. The same could be said for Victor's Stein's Corporation, which could've just as easily be called Transcorp.

We could even have a riff on that Gobernator joke from the comic, with Jonah mentionning that they got Thomas Bradley, former actor to become mayor of LA, when he promises Frank Dean a reward for his information in Season 1. Same thing with Jonah instructing PRIDE to open the hole in the zone of Imperio, California. The examples could be endless, so I'd like to see more in the comments.

Helstrom -

Fitting it inside the MCU a little 

With all the recent debate about Helstrom being, or not being, inside the MCU, one could ask, "Is there a way to stop this question right from the start?". Luckily, there is.

This is only one of the possible answers, and this comes in the form of the profession of Daimon.Put simply, Daimon could teach Religious studies, and in a lecture he could explain how ancient people believed aliens who came and protected the Earth ended up becoming venerated by gods, with a picture of Thor in the background.

If we wanted to go even deeper, we could even see him referencing the Eternals, but probably not because of the movie not being announced at the time of development.

He could also go even further in explaining how, as dominant religions arose, the started taking attributes from others and either portraying them in a bad light or giving them to their protagonists. 

Another thing that could be done is Ana Helstrom referencing both the Darkforce and the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, asking if in his other job as an "exorcist", he has encountered any of the two. At the same time, Daimon could speak of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, saying that studied there for a while, as well as researched ways to get rid of his curse.

Science, not magic

With the MCU based a lot on magic, it comes to sense that Helstrom might've avoided the trappings of the Horror-genre, ie. focusing on fear of demons, exorcisms and prophecies. It would've been interesting for the show to analyze how these primal fears could work on a world where aliens, magic gems and other dimensions exist, rather than just stay in the same old bag of tricks.

Say, instead of a demonic possesion, it's "quantum entanglement", or instead of demons they are from another dimension, like how Izel was in AoS. This would not only separate this show from the specific religious context, like how Thor is treated, and more as a more logical.

By this logic, we could question how a hybrid of two species, or dimensions, could work. Honestly, there is still a lingering question I personally have as to how Captain Marvel, Coulson, Quake and probably others have survived considering that the merging of blood from different species could be complicated.

Agent Carter - Stories that use the setting and characters to their advantages

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. Now, I feel that Season 2 could have brought some very deep-cuts, while also introducing the concept of the Liberty Legion/Invaders/All-Winners Squad, and also that there were two Seasons meged together instead of one more cohesive story, which is why I will divide Seasons 2 and 3, into two parts.

Season 1 - Incorporating more Cap and Iron Man lore

• Bernie Rosenthal replacing Angie Martinelli

Season 2 - Focusing on Hollywood and the Maggia

So, for this we would do one thing that not only uses the Hollywood setting, but allows to see Carter to face a different type of villain to what we have seen in the MCU, as we tend to see antagonists that have a hands-on approach with their nemesis. The things that would be kept from the real Season 2 are the Hollywood setting, Madame Masque being a main villain, The Jarvises, and the will they wont they relation between Souza and Carter.

My main focus for my Season 2 revamp is making Madame Masque more of a crime boss, than a scientist. As much as I love the idea of a homage to Hedy Lamarr, a brilliant inventor and actress, I feel that it just doesn't fit the character, as her intelligence is not something she's primarily known for. We would still see ideas like being engaged to Calvin Chadwick and having a previous relation with the Maggia. The thing with the Maggia is that Whitney would be a daughter of a great Maggia crime boss, whose name wouldn't be said just for fun, and also a childhood friend of Joseph Manfredi, another child of a Maggia crime boss. She would have ended up as an actress, as her "associates" used the power to make her a star.

Given that Whitney is more in the medium of movie making she decides to use a similar method to Mysterio, by making Peggy enter one of the studio stages. Jarvis, who isn't a fan of the studios' horror movies, tells Agent Carter that there are stories that tell that this area has been haunted  (as a nod to the Phantom Theater in Universal Studios Hollywood), to which Peggy would reply "This is not Mister Stranger or Hash-Head, Mr, Jarvis. No phantom or weird creature will jump over to attack us!".

We would eventually learn that some costumes and props are people that Ms. Frost hired as goons, and their clothes match comics villains Robin Hood (Joshua Blaine), Hunchback (Craig Talbot), The Phantom Hound of Cardiff Moor (Murdock), Dr. Fear (Ambrose Meek), among many others. We would then see Whitney, covered by a gold mask reminiscent with either the style of classic greek theater mask or a renaissance mask, and with a wig with black hair, nodding to her comic book look.

We would also see that Madame Masque has been using her husband's affiliation to the government to get certain "permissions" for the Maggia, which we would later, as they will have mayor ramifications on the next season. For now, we would learn that the heads of the Maggia have decided to take some of the immigrants coming to the US as labor workers and goons, as they are considerably cheaper and that would allow them to have more power. For this, Whitney would have to ask for Calvin's assistance in allowing a shipment of "props" coming from Europe, Asia and America, for a new movie. Peggy, after getting information of this shipment of props, suspects Whitney is hiding something, and after reading the specifications for the shipment, decides to investigate, suspecting a weapon.The twist, just like in Civil War, is that there is no real weapon, but rather for a mano a mano fight between Whitney and Peggy, because if Whitney Frost has something that makes her unique from other versions, is that she is someone who wants a big premise for a fight, and that wants a good twist, since she is into theatricality. Whitney makes some Maggia thugs distract the SSR agents, while Carter and Frost fight, and Madame Masque decides to play mind tricks on her, telling her that "my husband and I have the power to take everything away from you", "I can make the SSR public enemy number 1, or maybe I could give you something worse". It isn't until Frost taunts Peggy with telling her "You know, after I finish you, I'll make a movie of your precious Captain America, and I'll play you as the pathetic person you are" as Whitney wants Peggy to truly fight, as she is holding back. The thing that Peggy doesn't realize is that Whitney has an ace up her sleeve, by filming this encounter, and using it as leverage against the SSR.

Season 3 :The Secret Empire

Now, in the case of my version of the season 3, we would use the Secret Empire and the press in a fun back and forth conflict in which Agent Carter should be in the middle of the conflict. We would see that she returned to New York, due the closure to the division of the West Coast (as a fun nod to the cancellation of the West Coast Avengers comics), and that now they have limited resources given their interactions with the Maggia.  This gives Peggy the idea to use some of her contacts on the press to help boost the SSR, to which they agree under the condition that 3 members (a chief, a scientist, and an agent) get interviewed to demonstrate the good men and women working there. We would see comics characters such as Jeffrey Mace, Dick Jones, Jack Casey, Kevin Marlow and Mary Morgan working inside of the New York Bulletin. We would see that the three characters that are chosen for this interview are Peggy as the Agent, Robert Frank as the scientist, and Earl Everett as the chief.

We would then see a version of the Secret Empire, which would feature some characters we've seen before, like Calvin Chadwick, Hugh Jones, along with new faces, like Thomas Gloucester, William Taurey, and the main villain of this season, Cheer Chadwick. She is the first woman to gain the command of the Council of Nine, and is eager to take control of this organization for her own goals. For this, she manipulated her brother, Calvi, who would act as her puppet in exchange for her sister's help in assisting Whitney, his fiancée from last season. 

The only inconvenience that she has is that, for the last year, the SSR has been tracking Calvin's connections to the criminal underworld, and found some links that tied into the Council, which is why both her and Whitney eventually came up with the plan to frame Miss Carter for a crime, as mentioned earlier. As you may have noticed, I've taken the aspects that we aren't using of Agent Carter's Whitney, and applying them to Cheer Chadwick. So in this version, Cheer had a scientific mind, with a penchant for control, since all of her life, she was the one being controlled by her strict parents.

It is at this point that we would incorporate the Darkforce that we saw in Season 2, along with Jason Wilkes, and a ton of other things, secretly headed by Cheer Chadwick, using the Roxxon Corporation as a place to experiment with the Isodyne substance, as they nicknamed it on the show. The events of the show would be exactly the same until the point at which they have to use Dottie to enter a fundraiser, as in the show, however, in this event we would actually learn the Marvel Comics counterpart, as Howard (instead of Jarvis), would introduce her as Nancy Turpin - instead of just wasting Yelena Belova, like many predicted.

Eventually, the more that Cheer gets control of the Darkforce, the more she becomes the character Harridan, though instead of getting older, she would become paler and would become very aggresive, and with no one with the same powers, her aspects would become much more extreme. Eventually, she would kill her brother, which would cause her to break mentally down, and blame it on Peggy Carter.

Now regarding the side story, it would allow us to see the flashbacks, her interactions forming a new team that would consists of the reportes, and the new agents of the SSR. Most of the characters that would surround her this season would be reminders of either her time at war, or of Steve, or her family, as we would also see several British agents helping her getting particular information on the case against the Council of NIne.The more she learns of each of them, the more she would become a leader on par with Rogers, which she would inspire by saying that "If we do this, no matter how hard it may be for us, how much we may lose, we will all win. We all get a chance to become heroes, honoring whoever we lost before".

Agents of SHIELD - Adapting some comic plots

Season 1 - Operation: Cold War, and other mini-stories

• The Fire Next Time

Taking the place of Rising Tide, Freedom's Light is a hactivist group of disillusioned citizens of the world who have been spreading some of SHIELD's classified information through the internet, putting their agents at risk. This would motivate Fury to create a team of specialized agents who would track down the mysterious Ebon Flame, the leader of the organization.

• Operation Cold War

In the comics SHIELD has plenty of interesting moments, and one of them that honestly would've been really something is the attack on SHIELD HQ by HYDRA. This moment could replace the SHIELD academy episode, but would follow the HYDRA uprising. With SHIELD formally ousted as being inflitrated, the leaders of HYDRA have no use for the SHIELD Academy. They give the students an ultimatum, join and be part of something greater, or die along with the building in ruins. 

Coulson and co., in trying to do the good thing, would find a way to help the people escape thru ventillation shafts, hidden rooms, and use comics weapons. And if we want to go full on Macgyver, we leave Fitz and Simmons in it, as like in the original episode, they were meant to have guest lecture, which now has gone awry.

• Mindstorm

What happens when you get shot by a bullet that makes you go insane? A hell of an Agents of SHIELD episode, if you ask me. Nuff said. 

To be continued

• Steel City Nightmare

For as much as I like the Scorch and Asgardian episodes, I'd like to give an option that combines the two. Instead, I'm taking minor character Joseph Conroy, who calls himself Inferno, and merging the two stories. Let's say that after the battle with the Destroyer, Joseph got a piece of the monstrous robot, and has kept it as a souvenir. However, this piece has also affected his abilites, causing him to be able to shoot fire. SHIELD would try to contain him, but as we'd learn, this character is involved with the wrong people. 

• S.P.I.N. / Project: Achilles

• Project 13/F.A.U.S.T. (Maybe this one goes to Season 2)

• Project Deathlok

Now as much as I like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Season 1 wasn't the strongest way to start. Sure, the next seasons did an absolute fantastic job of reinventing the overall premise (since the organization doesn't really exist in the larger universe right now and is free to do whatever they want, as long as it doesn't affect continuity). The first thing that people really didn't like is the Deathlok arc, but it shouldn't have. Agents of SHIELD had the oportunity to reinvent this cyborg, - and they indeed tried -, I have an idea that could help a little better.

Before we start, we need to consider what we'll keep, which are setting up the character ti become Deathlok in the beginning, and Cybertek being a part of its origin. We will mostly see the character of Deathlok following the story arc of Michel Collins's version of Deathlok, as it is the one that the ties it mostly to both SHIELD and Cybertek, though they can change the name to keep the twist.

The other primary change that we would have is the character of Harlan Ryker, which would replace Ian Quinn, as he could instead become the primary antagonist instead of John Garrett. While the late Bill Paxton did a phenomenal job portraying the descent into madness and desperation brilliantly, we could have seen a more cohesive story, in which Harlan Ryker faces Deathlok. Instead of Garrett being the main villain, we would instead see him as a more violent and out of the norm SHIELD agent, whose methods are questionable but is still likeable, which we would then see that Ward would damage Garrett, and then he would require the Deathlok treatment, and creating a version of the Super Agents along with Deathlok. 

So, Ryker's motivation would be sort of a dark reflection of Deathlok's and in a way, Coulson's (as technically Daisy, Fitz and Simmons are sort of his and May's children). In the comics, - and in this alternate version - Ryker became the CEO of Cybertek, and started working on the Deathlok project, which would be a program designed for the military that turns damaged soldiers into cyborgs (a mashup between Robocop and Terminator, which the original Deathlok predates).

We would also Vulture/Zemo the villain, which means that motivation would come from previous events. Harlan has lost his family, save for his daughter, in the Avengers's Incident, and has had to use his knowledge in cybernetics to save his daughter. After being able to save her, he realized how his story could make him earn a profit, and given his influence in the government thanks to his brother Simon Ryker (in case they don't have the rights, use John Ryker), he became one of the most powerful heads in the Roxxon subdivisions. 

He would then start recruiting test subjects for this project, like Eric Savin (who wouldn't appear in Iron Man 3, and instead were to be replaced by Sunturion or Firebrand), Richard Bloom (Tracer), Ian Wajler (Mainframe), Luther Manning (Demolisher), Cathode, among many others. He would use them to protect their laboratories, which would give the team some threats to face (like in The Magical Place), and an episode in which we learn at least of the cyborgs' backstory (like the Bridge).

So, once we discover that HYDRA has infiltrated SHIELD,  Harlan would then learn that one of the benefactors was HYDRA and that many of his scientists and co-workers were also infiltrators from HYDRA. If we had the opportunity, I would add Nobert Ebersol and Marvin Flumm as the lead HYDRA agents who manipulate (psychically) Ryker against SHIELD, since after they faced, he has become very desperate in eliminating that threat, and since he will eventually lose control of the prime Deathlok, he would have to plan for a showdown with Coulson's team. In case, Fixer and Mentallo aren't available, any version of Supreme Hydra, who may threaten his daughter's life if Ryker doesn't face SHIELD by any means necessary. Therefore, we see another project in which Harlan was working on, with the codename Hellinger, which is a protective exo-skeleton made of cybernetic implants and armor. We would see a battle between the over-powered Hellinger, and Coulson like in the original season finale.

Season 2: The Inhumans, Cal's Team and HYDRA

Agents of SHIELD's second season was a vast improvement from the first. Even so, there are plenty of elements that are quite disappointing. The notion of HYDRA was pretty exciting and it did some terrifying things, until it was destroyed faster than Quicksilver died. The civilization of Inhumans was an interesting concept, until the internal Civil War came in knocking, and the plots clashed for attention. Even minor characters like Cal's Slicing Talons team left me underwhelmed. So for this season, I'm going to do what Lincoln Campbell said in season 3, and find the purpose of each of the plots. For all elements that you think are 

• HYDRA and its new goons (Arc One)

There's something that still fascinates me from the period in which Agents of SHIELD had crossovers, and it's that for all intents and purposes, they could've helped hype certain events, like the movie Age of Ultron. If you think about it, the fight at the beginning and the fight at the end have not much different, save for probably the goons changed skin, and there's civilians in it. So, to both give the HYDRA story something to do, and to have the tie-in be worth it, I'll make it integral to the movie.

If you know about Baron Von Strucker in the MCU, you may remember he did some genetic experiments to create superhumans, like Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and the Absorbing Man. My proposal is that the beginning of season 2, until the crossover, they lead up to that idea, by having both HYDRA and SHIELD try to capture the escaped inmates from Season 1 (the ones Garrett liberated from the Vault), while at the same time, being tested by new villains, created by Strucker to derail the Agents of SHIELD from getting the information they need.

The characters that HYDRA eventually regains control of, they will send to the fortress in Age of Ultron, where they'll face the Avengers, thus making it more of a challenge, and visually, more entretaining. So, we keep Absorbing Man and Blizzard, and add characters like Grey Gargoyle, Griffin, Firebrand. Living Laser, Whirlwind and Radioactive Man. As you can imagine, all of these have powers that are tied to their appearance and genetics.

At the same time, we would have HYDRA send their top tier hunter/assassin to retrieve their precious creations by any means necessary. Therefore, it is vital for both Simmons and Morse to be inside of HYDRA, as with SHIELD becoming underground, they don't have the same level of technology they once used, and therefore can't track as fast as HYDRA does. So, it will be Kraken against a squadron of SHIELD agents in a globe trotting adventure. Btw, Kraken won't die this season.

• Cal's new Band

Cal, knowing full well that some of the people that are featured in the previous arc might as well escape, tries to hit two birds with one stone. First, destroy SHIELD with an armada of superpowered individuals, and second, get to be with his daughter, by any means necessary.

It'd be an interesting twist that Cal ends up recruiting what he deems people like him. So, he goes to John Horton, a father who was considered dangerous for trying to evolve himself into a better human, that in the process lost custody of his daughter, David Angar, an activist for the rights of superhumans that allowed himself to be experimented on. Other characters can include Poundcakes, a would be heroine with similar powers to that of Quake except it occurs when she stomps the floor, Absorbing Man, who we'd seen before, Whirlwind, among other characters.

The main goal of this is to

• The Inhuman Colony/Set-Up

For this piece of the arc, I will take a cue from Fantastic Four vol 3. In that series, there was a colony of Inhumans called the Hidden Ones, which will be our equivalent of Afterlife. Just like the story of Daisy's mom, Jiaying, the Hidden Ones where experimented on by the Nazis, or in this case, HYDRA.

So, the following events will remian the same: Cal met Senso, aka Jiaying, and had a baby together. However, having heard of HYDRA coming back to the region in search of test subjects. Senso left Cal, and returned into their hidden city. With HYDRA wishing to return to those experiments, they would embark on getting back to the Hidden City, only for Senso and her people to strike back, and wishing to be left alone, so the atrocities done to them can never be repeated, they'd try to send Terrigen powered bombs to major cities, hoping that gets them enough distraction.

What will change are the population of Inhumans at Afterlife. Since we know that the show is leading up to a Secret Warriors team-up, we can start by setting up characters here. So, we'd have to see which character can replace which. Due to budget, I'm going to have to take three characters from the roster for now, and that has to be Stonewall, Druid and Hellfire.

What we'd have is Eden Fesi, aka Manifold, and Alexander Aaron, aka Phobos, take the places of Gordon and Raina in the story, and replace Alisha with Elena Rodriguez, aka Sligshot. This notion reinforces the idea that Afterlife is a safeplace for Inhumans from the rest of the world. And at the same time, it gives us the opportunity to know these characters before they become their heroic selves, and have by proxy more development.

Senso would appeal to them, exclaiming that she was the mother most of them never had, but Aaron would be the first to betray them, just like Lincoln in the original show, but the difference here lies in the fact that Aaron's precognitive abilities allow him to know what she plans to do. Nearly avoiding death he sides with SHIELD, but also advices the team that they are just being manipulated.

This also gives us a chance for Aaron to showcase his swordsmanship skills, as Phobos would tell Daisy that he was trained in that for years, and kept one in his dorm in Afterlife. This would lead us to the same one on one fights with Manifold and Yo-Yo, though in the story, Phobos helps incapacitate the two, rather than allow Eden to die. This would leas us to have an injured Eden being kept at SHIELD HQ, before having him back in action.

Season 3: The Secret Warriors, HYDRA and Damage Control - A Globe Trotting Adventure*

Season 3, for me, is a mixed bag.  After the show truly impressed me in S2, we then abruptly lost the Secret Warriors after a while of set-up, and that also applies to Lash, and the origins of HYDRA and SHIELD. My pitch will mostly consist of changes that would allow the Secret Warriors to be a main focus, and give other characters some good roles, while also taking elements that despite being interesting, were never expanded on correctly. So, for this "modification", we would eliminate Lash for this point.

*Forming the The Secret Warriors (Arc 1)

Taking the recent pitch from the previous season, in which some members were seen on Afterlife, we have 3 other members pending appearance, Stonewall, Hellfire and Druid. For now, I'll use Hellfire, although there will be nods to other potential recruits, such as Ellis Love or Cornell Gray, just to name a few, but the point is that S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying their best to bring Inhumans into the force, and make it a good transition.

Replacing the ATCU

One of the hardest things to try to "improve" is to have a proper role for the ATCU. Now, this has led me into several ideas, ranging from doing H.A.M.M.E.R., to New S.H.I.E.L.D., to even Damage Control. But thanks to the Civil War comic, I've landed on the Superhuman Restraint Unit. Due to there being little to no characters other than deceased ones leading SRU, we'd also take elements from S.T.A.R.S.

First off, we gotta give Luther Banks a new alias, and there's just a perfect character for it, called Eric Marshall. Though not the most likeable character in the comics, the story could make him a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the future.

More to come...

*The Globe-Trotting History lesson

I rememeber in one of the episodes of season 3 we saw the history of the Space program that lead us to the 4,722 episode. It is definetly disappointing to see that and to never get those types of lore in this season, and instead be worried all the time about the "end of the world" type scenario. Instead, I would have much rather, seen and learn the lore behind HYDRA, with visiting the island of Gehenna, seeing the story of the foundation of this, and tying it into previous season, like the reason why HYDRA knew of Inhumans, and preferably take some elements from the comics' lore, especially Secret Warriors comics, and the SHIELD comics from 2010.

Season 4 - The Deltite, Maria Hill and Ghost Rider

Given that the writers and producers divided this season into pods, I'll do the same thing taking into consideration all of the events ocurring on previous seasons and in the MCU. I'll also take a shot into doing stories like the Deltite Saga, as I believe that Marvel TV had the opportunity to do that story. 

Ghost Rider Pod

As much as I love the entire potrayal of Gabriel Luna's Robbie Reyes, the effects, and the amazing Dodge Charger, I got to say that the rest of the mystical aspects of the season, like the ghosts and his uncle being a villain were a bit underwhelming. For this, I'll do certain changes that might help us improve this pod as a whole, while also allowing us to see more comics characters into the show.

The thing I've noticed thanks to another blog I'm doing where I analyze which comics are "adapted" in the MCU, is that you can see if they are merging some characters. Like, take Carol Danvers and Peter Parker. Both of them take elements from Mar-Vell and Miles Morales respectively. In this same regard, Robbie Reyes is an almagam of the Latin American hero and another version of the Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch.

Granted, several of the elements that one considers iconic to the Ghost Rider come from Danny Ketch. For example, the iconic weapon of the chain was first used by him. Same case for the Penance Stare. It kind of reminds me of how things like the Speed Force were created in Wally West's run with the Flash.

Since there haven't been that many Ghost Rider villains in the MCU, I like the idea of having a small gang of supervillains face the Spirit of Vengeance. In this case, we'd have four characters be members of the Maggia (replacing the Aryan Brotherhood), but they're running from the Spirit of Vengeance. These guys would be Tatterdemalion, The Orb (Drake Shannon), Scarecrow (Laughton) and Enforcer (Delazny, Jr)

Rather than be responsible for all of their deaths, he'd only kill Delazny, Jr. and take Orb for torture, and Tatterdamelion being rushed to the hospital after the car crash. This would lead to Orb's burned face, and him being found and rushed to the hospital. Scarecrow, faking death by shock, would be the only one to escape the event, only for him to retrieve a package for his boss, The Count (aka. Count Nefaria), which instead of containing Lucy Bauer's spirit, has the Darkhold. Opening the book out of sheer curiosity, he is imbued with the power to induce fear. This ends up leading to May's hallucinations, and an eventual confrontation with Ghost Rider, leading to him being burned.

In regards to the costume, I imagine that inspired by guys like the Item 47 robbers and the Watchdogs, they've made masks of their own with some aesthetic looks. For example, Orb would have his motorcycle jacket, with a custom helmet with an eye. Meanwhile, Enforcer would feature a more classic robber aesthetic, with a skull bandana covering his mouth, and cross-straps, referencing his look in the ultimate universe. Tatterdemalion would look exactly as he does in the comics, while Scarecrow would wear a a potato sack mask, a green shirt with dungarees, and wields a scythe.

The story would end with a showdown between Count Nefaria, or even just a wannabe mobboss by the name of Lloyd Bloch, who thanks to the Darkhold has replicated the powers of various enhanced individuals (just as Count Nefaria does in the comics) plus gaining the skill of creating matter, before being defeated by Ghost Rider and being burned.

Director Hill

I've debated for quite a while on who deserved the position on director of S.H.I.EL.D.. I liked Jason O'Mara's take on Jeffrey Mace, but the character never quite fit the profile of a character that should be given the position. And once I started thinking of characters who have been the director in comics, I reallized something. So, my idea for the director consists in bringing in Cobie Smoulders's Maria Hill. Considering really how limited her role has been for the past years, it wouldn't be a bad decision to give her something to do, even if it is this show.

Storywise, Stark and Gen. Ross could've made an agreement to put her in charge of the organization, based on her knowledge of it. She would do a restructure of the organization similar to what they did in the show. We would also see that, since the days of her working for Stark Industries, she has become far more stern in her way of working, with a no secrets policy, and strict protocol. Of course, this would also derive from the fact that she's now having to answer to a higher authority in the form of the United Nations and Secretary Ross.

She would also recruit several new members to the team so as to maximize the number of operations done by the organiztion. This would allow us to meet the various new cast members of the SHIELD team, like Clay Quartermain, who would be the primary assistant to the director and liason to Coulson's team, and Gail Runciter, who is our analogue for Piper. We'd also see her very own liason in the form of Glenn Talbot, and as an added bonus, some intel sharing from Agent 13, aka Sharon Carter, who, to avoid conflicts with other shows, would just make a "skype call" every so often.

More to come...

Budget Cuts (from Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

One of the thing that has seemingly always bugged me from the start, is that, like most shows that deal with a big organization, S.H.I.E.L.D., tends to have a really small cast of characters at the center. That is, of course, because shows with big casts and needing tons of SFX are expensive (particularly if you want big names in the cast, or you want HBO level effects). Thankfully, the comics, as well as real-world politics,  have a simple solution for that.

You see, some governments tend to reduce funding on organizations that they find are not doing their job properly, so as to see if they " can do more with less". So, in an effort to legitimize SHIELD, and avoid people who are just in for the money, President Ellis has decreed that as part of the deal is to reduce personal and only focus on giving results, not doing research, which is where we would see a conflict due to the LMD crisis.

Machinesmith and the Deltite Saga

Something that never quite made sense to me is that a minor character such as Holden Radcliffe became one of the primary characters of SHIELD. While I appreciate the confirmation that Machine Man's rights (and thus Machine Teen's) are with Marvel, it does disappoint that they didn't do something akin to what they did with Mr. Hyde.

So, for a bit of retooling I chose a character who's known for having a robot body, working with LMDs, and having a villanous side. And it just so happens that I had one on my MCU villain wishlist. Machinesmith.

In this version, Samuel Saxon was a transhumanist scientist, who had a particular love for machines. For a while, he worked for HYDRA, until he was fired for not alligning with the organization's goals, and went underground in Moldavia. That is until Season 3's events, which ended with him being pardoned by S.H.I.E.L.D.. We then see him again restoring the LMD program, in which he worked on when he was working for S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA. As an easter egg, the model he starts working on is specified as the "Deltan"

He nicknames his first LMD, which can still be AIDA, but I like the idea of using the HYDRA Queen's name of GRACE. Rather than her being the consort of Zemo, she'd become a former partner of Saxon, who died in a mission for HYDRA, thus revealing that he didn't get fired, rather he quit.

When Grace gets a hold of the Darkhold however, she gets sentience, and starts attacking the team, using LMDs of Erik Koenig, Clay Quartermain, as well as members of the core crew. Eventually, even Machinesmith is killed, and replaced with an LMD of his own, which, would later be stripped of his skin, showing a comics accurate version of his costume, while another version of himself is linked to the computer, and is living his best life with Grace.

However, Saxon's journey is far from over, as we'd see him back for next season, as part of a General Scarbo's campaign.

The Land of Nowhere, and the HYDRA Queen

For this plot point to work, we'll have to retool a certain character, called Vijay Nadeer. Rather than having FitzSimmons create the Framework, we'd see that Jimmy who can still have the last name Nadeer, is an inhuman with the power to travelling between dimensions and manipulate reality, although none of the team is yet aware of. For a moment, he's killed, and thrown into the water, until he's saved last minute by AIDA, who puts him into a machine that links his mind with hers.

Using his powers, she creates a world of her own, in which HYDRA reigns supreme. At the same time, she captures the rest of team, and one by one, they become part of this universe. The key difference in the plot is rather than having AIDA/Grace gain powers, she'd want to turn the MCU into a version of her universe, which requires more than just a comatose Jimmy, and instead the full extent of the Darkhold.

Season  5 - The Rigellian Recorders, Killraven, Skeleton Crew, and more

One of the things that most disappointed me was the hype made surrounding the fifth season's space arc. Now sure, it was good, but it definetly was sad to see such a powerful concept of having a colonized space port and seeing an influx of powerful alien individuals was such a good opportunity, to not use any famous comics characters.

Rigellian Recorders

The first thing I would have done is adapt the Rigellian Recorders, replacing the Chronomicoms. The Rigellian Recordes may not be as recognized by fans as much as the Watchers, but they still have the same role and work pretty much like them. In the episode dedicated to Fitz and Hunter, we could see that the Enoch is known by the number 211, and he has been lead to help them since they have learned information that may affect the Earth. Enoch would also reveal pieces of information, such as the fact that the species that he serves, the Rigellians, wish to ally themselves in future events, which he doesn't mention.

He also warns them that according to the current chronology, Earth may be destroyed sooner than later, which would affect this deal, and as we saw in the show, ended with the humans being subjected to mistreament by the Kree. We would learn from Enoch very toung and cheek clues like him mentionning the word "Myriad", and the Ruul coming leading the charge. Before he can ever die, he then tells them to find 418, who will be found inside of the Lighthouse (in the past-present). Eventually, Fitz ends up travelling to the future, thus causing him to see the dire consequences of this aftermath, and also understanding who the Ruul actually were (an alias for the Kree). 

Killraven and Co.

Marvel has a ton of future worlds and dystopias for them to just not use them in adaptations. One of these is the Earth-691 future, where the Original Guardians of the Galaxy come from, along with the character I'm interested in for this, Killraven. Here's the thing, I've long considered options for this part of the story, especially considering how people really dislike the "Future Lighthouse" part of this season. I've thought about maybe legitmizing the Inhumans by bringing their progeny into this part, as well as bringing in other heroes's children alla Next Avengers, but considering all of that, I came upon this character of Johnathan Raven. He may not be as well known, but to his credit, he has been rumored at least once to be given an adaptation, even if right now, those chances are pretty slim. What I propose SHIELD could've done, is gone to the future, helped train the rebellion, and found the monolith, and would help liberate the people of Future Earth from their alien overlords, just as the Avengers did in the Avengers: Forever arc.

We could still keep several elements like the selling of Inhumans, though in this case, they would be characters that are related to the 691 reality. The twist I really want to do is all about Killraven. Similar to one Sarah Connor, I'd like to see a version where Robin is the mother of Johnathan Raven. How would this relate to the comics? Glad you ask. In recent years, the character of Maureen Raven, aka John's mother, has been expanded on, and given the power of Clairsentience. Despite that being atributed to a mutant gene, it seems logical that they could just change it to be because of her inhuman gene. 

Other elements, like the True-Believers, which basically died, can be retooled as the Freemen, and the Martian Invasion of the comics changed to suit the Kree or whoever we wish it to be. Also, the reason they're in the Lighthouse can be justified as it being the gladiatorial grounds. There's even precedent of Killraven coming to the present, so he could take the place of Deke in the show. Only downpart of this is we'd probably not see the grandson of Jemma and Fitz, but that can be replaced by Carmilla Frost.

• The Myriad

There isn't a true precedent for the events in the final pod of AoS Season 5 in the comics, though there are various elements that can be mixed in with the storylines. One of the things we would use is a group from the Squadron Supreme comics known as the Myriad, who are an organization comprised of different alien species that desire to gain the Earth's resources for their own. This version of the Myriad would be an alliance between several species and the Kree. The Kree would've ended up giving the territory known as Earth to the Gnobians, a species seen in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. In exchange of giving the Gnobians control of the Earth, the Kree would take the Inhumans that appear on the planet, since they would see them as the only useful thing in the planet, after it is decimated by Thanos's efforts. The Gnobians would've first made contact with the organization known as HYDRA years ago, and seeing the organization's desire to "help" in the betterment of the species, decided to give them their support in experimentation and weaponry. It was thanks to them, that the LMD program was even initaited in S.H.I.E.L.D., given the involvement of HYDRA scientists in the organization. The species would be a part of a coallition of several races in the Marvel comics, such as those seen in the show. I'd like to add, that instead of using aliens from the Avengers comics, we could've seen aliens related to the other shows , for example, the Byan'Hantnadu from Cloak and Dagger, Queega from Daredevil, Tzin for the yet to be released New Warriors, and the Majesdasians/Gibborim from Runaways. That could also tie into Runaways's season 2, if they wished it to be.

More to come...

Skeleton Crew

So, we got Machinesmith introduced in the past season, and in Season five, it's main antagonist not only dresses as Mother Night, but pretty much acts like her. So, we're two to go, and missing. Of the original members, we can discard Jack O'Lantern, Cuthroat, Blackwing and Crossbones, either because they a) have already been introduced in other properties, b) their special effects would make it too expensive to do or c) their backstory requires explaining additional characters.

So, we might as well introduce new characters that haven't been a part of such a crew. First is another character I've been dying to see just because it's freaking ridiculous and worth attempting, and that is none other than Commander Kraken. For this story, he'd take the place of the Superior, as other than being an LMD, the Anton version of Red Guardian is pretty much than a pirate with a submarine.

Also joining is recurring HYDRA member Werner Von Strucker, who might get a bit of an upgrade.

More to come...

Season  6 - Space Stories from S.H.I.E.L.D., The Legion of the Unliving, and the Space Phantoms

• Lohan, the Space Monster

From my investigation, Nick Fury has had a few adventures in space in his comics, and one of them is facing off against this satellite monster, who was originally a human. In my version of this story, Daisy, Davis, Jemma, and Piper would find themselves in need of fuel, and for this, they'd have to become "bounty hunters". This would lead them to find a job facing a human, which they would scoff at. The aliens, clearly know that this human has been experimented on by another race of beings, before being left to wander the universe. The alien who hired them knows that humans are not to be messed with, as he's heard of one who defeated a Kree and held an Infinity Stone, as well as another one who destroyed an entire Chitauri fleet. Daisy and friends would face off agains him, and seeing that Lohan is less man than machine/monster, and isn't willing to cooperate, they would send him orbiting to an abandoned planet, where he would perish.

• Doom Must Fall

Another interesting plot worth adapting is where Fury tries to stop an asteroid from falling to Earth. However, to make the plot different, we would see that in search of Fitz, SHIELD would go to a planet (to make it even more interesting, let's say it's the planet Kitson, which would still be a gambling place), where the race called the Others reside. One of the astronomers, which Piper and Davis would fight on nicknaming (one thinks he looks more like a Randy, while the other believes he's more of a Cliff, thus he chooses the nickname "Cliff Randall"). 

Cliff believes that planet is doomed to have an asteroid crash onto their planet, and wants to save its civilization from destruction. He asks that, in exchange for the information regarding Fitz (who recently came into the place, and left with his life.) They ask him why he hasn't asked the rulers of Kitson for help, to which he replies that they didn't believe it was beneficial for profit to alert the population (mixing up elements from the Jaws franchise and Superman's origin).

So, Daisy, Jemma Piper and Davis would get into hijinks, drink at the bar, and all, before almost getting executed for saying what they're about to do, only for "Cliff Randall" to save them, and in return, Daisy uses her powers on the asteroid, thus saving the planet. And just for fun, the rulers of Kitson play that off as a "one in a lifetime experience entretainment".

• Space Phantoms and the Legion of the Unliving

There was a long speculation that Season 6 was going to be the end for the series, and, if they were going to finish it here, there was a great opportunity to do that, by using the Space Phantoms to lead them into an arc dedicated to honoring the entire history of AoS.

Picture this: the character of Blackout, once he is defeated is sent into another dimension, though not the Darkforce Dimension or anything we know. He is in between life and death, a Limbo of sorts, where the Space Phantoms reside. Here he's taken over by one of the Phantoms, and returns into the world, seeking to take control of Coulson, as per the Space Phantoms, "he's the one who got away". Blackout would tap into the new dimensions and let other Phantoms possess the bodies of other deceased heroes and villains.

By the time the season starts properly, we see that there's somebody in possession of Coulson's body, which would trigger the whole "Is he still Coulson?" thing from the series. And if that wasn't enough, the role of Izel would be taken over not by a new actress, but by Constance Zimmer's Rosalind Price.

Another thing that I'd make happen is that, having made a deal with the Spirit of Vengeance, Coulson knew full-well that his body would be possessed, and thus had passed on that knowledge to Mack when he became a director. With no incidents of new Coulson for a few years, he assumed it wouldn't happen, though it now did.

The Space Phantoms would act not as a prophetic "End of the World" bringers, but rather a "balance checkers" for death. Think less of a Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and more of a bunch of Grim Reapers for the multiverse. This is also why they are obssessed with eliminating Deke, since like Coulson, he's an annomally.

Season  7- Agents of T.I.M.E.

• Chronoanarchists

• Godseye

• Hickman's S.H.I.E.L.D.

Inhumans - Another Overhaul (Currently, Under Maintenance)

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, and most important, is treating the show as it should have been, Marvel's version of Game of Thrones, with treason, murder, and third parties all looking for the ultimate power, with of course, better writing, costuming, and a better defined identity.

I would take a cue from Captain Marvel by setting it in a different period, and though it may be weird for some people since it wasn't long ago, we would see the story unfold in the early 2000, as it would fit with the primary allegory I'll be using, -which is immigrants,since there were significant movements of immigrants to the US during the start of the decade. Plus it allows us for some simpler storytelling, since humans don't yet know about the Avengers, and barely about Captain America.  This use of the allegory also helps us distinguish them from the X-Men as we would primairly focus on a single group of people that are affected by current day situations and, given that the Inhumans currently are very similar to the group of people with a paritcular ethnical and cultural background ,that are unknown by first world countries, until they start appearing in them.

The first two episodes would start with the city of Attitlan being in a state of stagnation, as Attitlan is suffering through a Dark Age of Inhuman society, with no artistic creativity or scientific discovery, which is why the city is only with grey colors and terrible holograms. Despite Black Bolt's and Medusa's being more progressive rulers than the previous one, - which we would see later - , and other Royals like Crystal and Triton cooperating by bringing in food, technology and resources, the Inhuman society feel like the rulers have failed them.

This is when Maximus finally decides to start his coup d'état, ordering his followers into taking down each of the members of the Royal Family. This would have lead on a chase scene between Crystal and some of Maximus's followers, a six against one fight between Medusa and some Crimson Cadre members, a flight/fight scene for Black Bolt, and Karnak and Gorgon doing a hallway fight. This is primarily for the focus of presenting the powers and abilities of the characters, but also set up the stakes, as similar to the show, it would culminate in Medusa losing her hair before being saved by Lockjaw.

Lockjaw starts taking some of the Inhumans to Earth, in groups of two, into what he considers a small city (because he's a good boy). This would allow us for some character development between each of the pairings, which are Karnak and Gorgon, Triton and Crystal, and Black Bolt and Medusa. Once they arrive into the city, both Medusa and Crystal realize that they know this city and we would start seeing the origins of some of the Inhuman Royal Family, starting with Crystal and Medusa.

For this pitch, I'll make an arc for each one of the characters, starting from simpler to more complex

• Karnak:

Based a little on the Karnak comic, by Warren Ellis, we'd see a retooling of the story from the original, in which we see Karnak fight "drug dealers", but rather than them planting weed, we'd see them harvesting Terrigen, in a makeshift lab, while working for the human antagonist, Terrence Haller, Jr. The trio who would be in charge of this Terrigen Operation, would be Painter (Rusoff), Zen Gunner, and led by Terrigene.

Terrigene, wishing to become an Inhuman herself, gains the trust of Karnak, just like the girl from the original show, but this way she obtains a sample of Karnak, to be able to analyze his genes. We'd later learn that reason why he fell off the cliff was that Karnak was under an illusion from Painter, which is a power he is unable to combat.

Terrigene, would later report to Terrence Haller, Jr. that she is now on the possession of a sample of Inhuman blood, which, theoretically, she could use to synthesize Inhumans.

• Gorgon

• Medusa

In episodes 3 and 4, the focus would be on the character of Medusa. We would see in flashbacks that Medusa and her sister were exiled after the Unspoken executed their parents, as the Unspoken had been taking down every single threat to his dictatorship. They are sent to the city of Madison, Winscosin, where Medusa became a thief, and a little bit after a vigilante (we would see a makeshift comics accurate costume) to protect her and her sister. Black Bolt, feeling guilty not doing anything against his older cousin the Unspoken, decided to sent Lockjaw to give some food and other things, until Black Bolt eventually brought them back to the city of Attitlan (when everyone in the city forgot about the execution). Black Bolt and Medusa, along with some of the members of the Royal Family decide that the Unspoken should be exiled, and so they staged a coup d'état, which they suceed in. They made him leave the city and forced the entire city to forget the name of the Unspoken.

• Maximus

Episodes 5 and 6 would focus on the main villain, Maximus. We would see Maximus's traitorous nature as he promised the Mr. Haller that he would give him the cure for "immortality" (since the Inhumans have a longer life-span than average humans), which he needs for his son, who is dying. This is were we would start flashbacks telling us about Maximus's turn to villainy. As we would see in the other flashback, Black Bolt and Medusa had started planning to overthrow the Unspoken, which Maximus thought would be a magnificent opportunity for him to take control. He thought the Royals would fight between themselves and destroy each other leaving him the spot to take the lead. However, since he had yet to control his powers correctly, his small plan failed. With the passage of time, he became tired of constantly failing, both with his powers and plans, until one faithful day, he learned how mind control some one, with the use of his techonological expertise.

He would then start the series of events in which he would become the King of Attitlan, by stalling progress of the city, killing some of the best and brightest minds or giving them to Haller Industries for research, using some of the religious figures to spread his ideas, moving the resources of Attitlan to secret stashes or only distributing them between his followers, as to increase loyalty. We would learn that this way of planning these strategies he took from the Unspoken, as he had taken the throne from his uncle, king Agon, in the exact same way. And given that the historical records of the Unspoken were taken off the Inhuman archives, there was no way for the common people to know about Maximus's plagiarism of a plan. This would also be a way to literally explain that Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. 

• Black Bolt

he final backstory, - which will be shown in episodes 7 and 8 -,we would learn from the three protagonists is that of Black Bolt, as he would be the focus of the last three episodes. Given that the Royals are now imprisoned inside of the Haller Industries facility and with power dampeners, courtesy of Maximus's genius. We would start to see that Black Bolt feels like he has returned to how he started, alone. Given his royal status he was forbidden from interacting with other children that weren't from the same power status that he was, and though he had his cousins and brother, this all ended once he got his powers after Terrigenesis. Their parents, weary of the power he had, designed a special Quiet Room that dampened his powers, but allowed him to interact with them. They also decided to gift him his pet dog, Lockjaw, a dog powerful enough to resist his sonic blast, who is also the most loyal and friendly.

Once the Unspoken took the lives of his parents, and blamed them on Black Bolt, his cousins and his brother, fearing for his life, sided with the new ruler. Hearing about what happened to a couple of children who also lost their parents after a failed uprising, he felt empathy for them, which made him share with them whatever he was given for food. Thanks to the fact that he brought Medusa and Crystal back, as I mentioned before, Maximus joined his plan of overthrowing, as not only did he want an opportunity, but he also considered the need for a queen.

Black Bolt, after revisiting his past, starts to devise a plan to escape, which is using Lockjaw, who was left in an abandoned warehouse, where the Inhumans had regrouped, to avoid scaring the population. He uses a frequency that only Lockjaw can detect, which brings him into the room in which Black Bolt and the rest of the Royals are locked up. We would see Lockjaw in a POV continuous shot, taking down the guards at the place, while also liberating the members of the family from their cells. 

While the flashbacks occur, we would also see that the Royals are escaping from two fronts, the Crimson Cadre, Maximus's elite military force wearing red, and also a group of "government agents" led by the enigmatic Mr. Chase. We would eventually learn that Mr. Chase is working for Haller Industries,a health corporation located in Chicago. The leader, Terrence Haller Jr., who is secretly working for Maximus (as we saw in the show, but incorrectly), would eventually bring them into Chicago, claiming to be a friend to them. 

Karnak and Gorgon would then wreck the place by taking down the remaining security that leads into Haller's office, and decide to ask the king what they should do with him, to which the king replies nothing, but a small smirk and left him there and then ordered the rest of the Royals to destroy all but one vial of sample of Inhuman blood, and with the rest of the blood Black Bolt writes on the wall,"Left to die for imprisoning people. The best of intentions don't justify terrible actions, Terrence "

The entire Royal Family then returns to the city of Attitlan, which has been turned upside down by Maximus's regime. Black Bolt challenges his brother in a one against one duel between him and his brother, fully taking into consideration his brother's desire to prove himself a worthy combatant. However, what Black Bolt doesn't yet know is that Maximus created an exo-skeleton armor that can counteract his powers, and given that Maximus has the power to alter the rules, given his status as a despot.

Despite Black Bolt winning after a very hard fight between both brothers, Maximus, in a final blow, shoots Gorgon's legs, incapacitating him. Black Bolt surprised/angry with his brother shouts at him "NOOOOO!!!", which makes his brother lose his hearing and having his ears bleeding. The rest of the Inhuman Royal Family goes to comfort Black Bolt and Gorgon, who are still in pain, while no on, not even his followers, go to tend to Maximus. Still, he had another plan in case he failed, to destroy the city.

This is when every one of the Royals decide to save all of the people from Attitlan and send them to Winscosin, where they would ask for Sanctuary. Black Bolt would eventually decide to save everyone, except for his brother, to whom he would only say "sorry, brother. I cannot save you", with some tears in his eyes. Once everyone arrives on Earth, and the Lunar city is destroyed, Black Bolt gives Medusa a nod, signaling her to give a speech that would take some of the words both him and Black Bolt used to inspire each other during their youth. 

There would be also two post-credits scenes. The first one would be a scene in which Agent Daisy Johnson comes into New Attitlan, as she has a meeting scheduled with the king. Medusa, with the hair completely regenerated greets her and brings her into the throne room. Quake bows before the king, and then tells the Silent King that "it is time to talk about the main issue: the increase of the Inhuman population around the world. We may need your help with that, your majesty", and the scene ends. The second scene would make bring back the Unspoken to the ruins of the Lunar city, where he would retrieve Maximus, but we would never see his face.

Cloak and Dagger Season 1

Roxxon Rules New Orleans

I find it interesting that the MCU change the primary villains of C&D, since in the comics they fought things like the Maggia, criminals and drug cartels, but now that their origins are tied to Roxxon and NOPD, they shifted to fight corporate leaders and government officials. So, if I were to change a little to that show, is the fact that Roxxon should be at least as threatening as the Waterbottle Lady, aka Ashlie. We should make it way harder for the heroes to fight back.

For this we would have a certain character from the comics come in to a new role. Simon Marshall, known to be the one responsible for the creation of D-Lite, which gives them the powers, would be our lead villain, with him filling the role that Scarborough has. He also would have a tie to another character called Falcone, which would be the new name for Connors (as I'm just waiting for him to become the Lizard).Falcone and Marshall would be in kahoots, since they are both powerful people in positions that benefit them, and additionally they are part of the same family. Therefore, Marshall is the powerful people that Connors refered to as being the help he needed after he killed Billy.

Marshall would work in a high position in Roxxon, and would often be the one in charge of keeping the good image of the corporation, usually after the events of any catastrophe or failed experiment. This is often the case, which is why he ends up having to resort to Falcone, who in exchange, gets drugs he can sell from failed medicines produced by Roxxon. Most of the NOPD would be in on Roxxon's pay roll and therefore be harder to help Tandy and Tyrone on their case against Roxxon, save for Bridgid, giving us a sense of dread and distrust not seen in Marvel shows as much, save for Daredevil and AoS.

Joining Marshall, we'd see a bunch of other Roxxon execs from the comics, such as August D'Angelo, Simon Krieger, Calvin Halderman, among others.

Cloak and Dagger Season 2 - The Possession of D'Spayre

Though I like the fact that Marvel had the audacity to do a freaking otherworld entity in the level of Nightmare in C&D season 2, I feel that they went a little too safe by making him a human who gains powers. I do enjoy the connection he has to the world, like Deschaine being a former musician and him being in a very vulnerable state. If anything, I feel the character could've benefited from taking some aspect from two villains, Mephisto and Venom. D'Spayre should still be an otherworldy pressence, though we may be unable to see him the entire season. However, he would choose Andre as his avatar, seeing that his vulnerability allows D'Spayre to fully take control. As an advantage, Andre would keep his basic abilites, and throughout the course of the season would be drastically changing the way he dresses so as to ressemble more and more his comics counterpart, just as we saw in the show. It would also be interesting if D'Spayre were to contact Andre in the exact moment he's about to take his life, potentially even using Andre's own voice to convince him to help D'Spayre's cause.

This concept would also give actor a bit more ability to chew scenery, as him having a dual role could be a good opportunity to contrast one from another. It would also show another interesting parallel with Mayhem, as the conflict of their being two different personalities, is very similar to that of Bridgid, though where it takes Mayhem the season to fully commit to her doppelganger, D'Spayre would be already in sync with his host, or at least have been for quite a while. Lia, aka Avandalia, would remain the same, though, if anything, I'd like her to wear more clothing more akin to her counterpart, like maybe her using a ponytail or the color purple in some ocassions. If anything, I would also have added a sort of festivity ocassion where the 2 previouse characters I've mentioned have the opportunity to dress up as the counterparts, since it would give us a fun nod, and an oportunity to see them face C&D in their classic forms.  Now, as for the final battle of the season, it would make no sense for Andre to want to become a Loa. If anything, it is D'Spayre who wants to be able to walk the Earth, so as to feed himself with all the despair of other people, without necesarilly having to take a human as a host. However, for this, D'Spayre requires to take a certain amount of souls with him, which is why Andre must perform a blue note.

Marvel Netflix shows

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 this I will  use the Cottomouth route with Harold, aka. killing him in the first half so the true antagonist can arrive. Harold would instead be more of tragic figure, who is always losing. Instead of only being a greedy buisnessman, we would discover that Harold had come from a lower income family with only a dream of becoming a successful person. Losing every sinlge member of his family, he became very protective of what he had left of them. He had to put a lot of effort to have a decent enough education, and wasn't until he met Wendell, who shared his dream of creating something better. 

We would then see the character getting married, running a multi-million company, and having kids. But just as he started, his wife becomes ill with an unknown disease, which makes him desperate to find a cure. It is at this point that he meets the Hand, who have promised him the power to bring her back, but only if he decides to kill Wendell and his family, and give away control of the company. He would not only be unsuccessful, but would discover that this deal was actually a ruse, and since he learnt that he killed himself as to be unable to complete the deal of giving the Hand power over the company. He would of course regret that, since now the Hand would revive him and force him to pupeteer his son to do his dirty work, just like in the show.

After Harold the focus should go to 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. 

Iron Fist Season 2 - Tournament of the Inmortal Weapons

If showrunner knew that Iron Fist Season 2 was going to be the last season for the character, I think M. Raven Metzner might've gone for broke, even with a Netflix sized budget. So, let's take a story such as the Tournament of the Immortal Weapons, and give it a Netflix twist.

Instead of just taking the title of Iron Fist for himself, Davos would've left for the rival city of K'un-Zi, and home of the Crane Sisters, in there he would train to become their champion, and set forth the challenge to the other Seven Capital Cities to meet them on New York City as the battleground.

The challengers who would answer the call are the following: Fat Cobra, Tiger's Beautiful Daughter ,Bride of Nine Spiders, Dog Brother and Steel Serpent. However, Danny would be unaware of such a conflict, and is taken aback by this. He is then warned by Orson Randall (who would be an amalgam of Prince of Orphans and the other Iron Fist).

Below what once was the tunnels where the dragon bones once were, lies the Heart of Heaven, where each of the contestants must fight. Davos challenges Danny, and enhanced by the Steel Serpent powers, he destroys the Iron Fist, and tries to absorb his powers, though he is unable due to challenge laws.

Encourage by the tournament laws, Danny takes the rest of the Inmortal Weapons around the block, and shows them NYC. This leads them to explain that since K'un-L'un won the last challenge, they are the only city allowed to visit Earth.

Danny believes this to be amoral, and wishes to challenge such an archaic law, but law says that only the winner of the tournament can do so, and only if it goes according to the citizens of his city. Finding a loophole, due to K'un-L'un having been destroyed in the past, he wishes to use that to his benefit.

Davos, sensing that such an action would spell doom for his plan, attacks Danny outside of the battlefield, and leaves him without the Iron Fist. Although Danny cries foul play, the judges allow it, and Danny can still fight, but without the fist. Next up, Davos goes for more, trying to take the powers of other Immortal Weapons.

Since Davos' backstory remains the same, he would not only become resentful of Danny, but of all immortal weapons, and believes the only way to prove himself is through the death of the Immortal Weapons as a whole. With such power, he could make the Capital Cities of Heaven his, and he could "bring peace, security and order to his new empire....". In other words, he's Killmonger meets Thanos.

Of course, this means that the brawl between the Immortal Weapons would have to be a battle of wits and skill over a power of sheer strength and power. Finally defeated, Danny would do a "Space Jam", and use a ball to return their power. The representatives of each of the Capital Cities take Davos to be judged for his actions. Seeing that Danny gained the respect of the Immortal Weapons, the elders made it that Danny is the default winner, and he chooses to unite the other cities in K'un-L'un, to bring back his city and allow the rest of the people to visit the rest of the world.

Daredevil (Seasons 1 and 2), Iron Fist and Defenders - Expanding The Hand*

Most of Daredevil Season 1 did a great job of hinting at the Hand, especially considering that they only featured one member of this crazy ninja death cult. Of course, the rest of the Netflix tv shows, did not give the same care to the Hand, instead of keeping the Hand both threatening and with plenty of mystique. The TV shows have also avoided many members and just gave us generic foot soldiers (not to be confused with the "Foot Clan"). 

From the original Netflix series, we can keep certain elements, like the Hand having multiple leaders and sects, being involved with Colleen Wing and K'un-L'un, Stick being one of their main enemies, and their interest in New York. The rest is simply going to be taken out the window, unless it is mentioned later. 

So, for starters, we would see the five factions of the Hand being:

- Snakeroot: The Criminal Organization, focused toppling governments through selling and training of individuals. Led by Kenji Oyama.

- Red Dragon Academy: The Youth Center, focused on creating soldiers for the Hand. Led by the analogue of Bakuto.

- The Nail: An elite group of women warriors, specialized on infiltration and assassination. Led by the show's version of Alexandra, renamed Yuki.

- True Believers: The Drug side of the operation, led by this version of Madame Qwa.

- Chaeyi: Human-Trafficking Operations, led by Hirochi.

The reason they will unite is that after years of remaining separate the five Fingers of the Hand want to unify the group, under the leadership of a new, young face. Each of the members have presented their candidate, which are as follows:

- Qwa: Dragonfly

-Lord Dark Wind: Kirigi

- Hirochi: Lady Bullseye

- Bakuto: Blindspot

-Yuki: Elektra

Each of these characters are what The Hand deems a Black Sky. An assassin so lethal that "it can bring darkness where the sun once stood." They're tested on five fields: loyalty, adaptability, leadership, sacrifice, and power. The first test is to go after a former friend or family member, without knowledge of who it is.

Blindspot would at first attempt to go after the Iron Fist, but after meeting Colleen and reconnecting from their past experiences, Sam seizes his mission, and joins the good guys, informing them of all the troubles they're in for.

Meiko Yin goes to attack Karen Page while on assignment, since she knows of her connection to Daredevil. However, this goes sour when Karen goes to work and meets Angela Yin, Meiko's sister. Unsure of whether to choose loyalty over family, she also desists, and tries to reunite with her family.

With two competitors out of the race, it's up to Kirigi, Lady Bullseye and Elektra to take the spot. Next up, adaptability test is a way to see how well the member blends in society. Maki Matsumoto passes as the lawyer Matt faces in a courtcase, and even manages to shake his hand, without raising suspicion. Elektra, under the pseudonym Giselle Salvatore opens a dance studio, near Jessica's office, without avoiding suspicion. This is where Kirigi falls off the list of leaders.

Finally, it's up to a battle between Lady Bullseye and Elektra, which she does well against, but spares her life, which makes Elektra lose the leadership. In reality, Elektra had gained some powers due to the effects of the resurrection and had used her telepathy to agree with Lady Bullseye and Kirigi on betraying the members of the Hand without any usefulness. So, they say their goodbyes to Lord Hirochi and Lord Dark Wind.

While all this is happening, the Hand has pretty much arrived on New York and under the leadership of Kirigi has started the assault on the street heroes of NYC. To prevent any one from leaving they use the powers of Yuki to create a snowstorm that isolates them for a while.

Elektra has understood that to truly become the leader of the Hand, and commune with the Beast (aka. their spiritual leader), she must sacrifice a hero with a pure soul, and thus must execute one of the Defenders. However, the members of the Hand tell them that she must kill Daredevil, which creates conflict within her.

Meanwhile, the rest of the fingers fight the other heroes, along with a reformed Blindspot, Colleen and Misty, and even some help from Patsy Walker, fight the hordes of Hand ninjas, led by Bakuto.

Finally, with Daredevil and Elektra being the last one's standing at the fortress in what once was the hole of Midland Circle, they have one final fight, culminating in an explosion, and the end, for now of the two.

Punisher

Season 1- Duke'm Nuke'm 

I haven't heard a lot of people talking about the Punisher TV show in quite a while. I personally did enjoy most of it, though I felt it a little slow, especially after we knew his origin. However, as the show was more of Micro's own adventure, it made it a little more enjoyable, especially with Ben Barnes's Jigsaw being there.  Now I'm going to tackle one of the most controversial characters in the series, Lewis Wilson, and how I would have done it. I don't hate the actor, or how he played the role, but I felt that he could have been written so much better, despite many good moments that gave me genuine emotion. 

I would start first by merging that role with another character who wasn't liked either by many fans, Will Simpson, aka Nuke. Now Nuke may not be the first thing you would associate with the Punisher, but it's kind of the same deal with Jessica Jones. With him being a former soldier in the comics, it could parallel Frank in what he does. We would also see Frank has some larger links to this Netflix-verse by bringing Nuke into his world. We would also see his origin, and see a twisted relationship between him Will and Frank, as Will's father would have served in Vietnam, and Will, inspired by his father (who coinicidentally is named Frank, like Nuke's original name from the comics) went to join the US Army, to fight in many of the wars that the US has recently participated.

We would then see that he is trying to see a way to "return to society", especially after what he has seen with JJ S1, by joining into Condor Private Military Company, (which would replace Anvil as Russo's company). We would then see him try out to impress Billy, so he can get a job in the company. Rawlins, having heard of what Simpson had been part of, which we could later be shown in the TV show, thinks that he could be a tool to eliminate the threat of Frank Castle. Rawlins would then, by using Russo as a medium, control Simpson, into thinking that Frank is now an enemy that he should fight, while Russo would play Frank into believing that he is not responsible. At the same time, Simpson would start to bond with Mr. Castle. Once Simpson just loses it- after the entire psychological manipulation - , we would see an episode in which he plans to eliminate the Punisher by bombing Stan Ori's interview, just like in the show, though instead of making it an issue regarding gun control, it would be more into vigilante laws in New York City, so it is more subtle.

To be continued later...

"With the benefit of Hindsight..." - Establishing characters in movies before they appeared

Black Knight and Sersi - Thor, Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Wandavision

Now, you might be asking, "Why use the Black Knight in Thor?". Honestly, the idea is so baffling interesting, I chose to run with it. One of the least beloved characters is Darcy Lewis, who thankfully got to shine in Wandavision, and I think that, with a little tweaking, she could've become a mayor player in the movie universe. Similarly, Eric Selvig, for as much as it's delightful to see Stellan Skarsgard in this film is really not much of a character in this films. 

My idea for this is, instead of having Darcy and Eric as Jane Foster's companions, we have Dane Whitman, a physics major and friend of Jane, and Dane's girlfriend Sylvia. We could still have Dane take the role Selvig does, in that he is a bit protective of Jane and him being knowledgable about Norse myth can just be attirbuted to his family just being really into mythology, and some of that knowledge rubbing onto him. Even that could be tied into Sylvia (aka Sersi), whose could be very knowledgeable of mythology, hinting at her Eternal connections.

We'd later see Dane join SHIELD as part of a study on the tesseract technology in the post-credits scene. Then, in the Avengers, he'd be mindcontrolled by Loki's sceptre, which would have later ramifications in his character, as in, he'd also know a lot more about the universe (i.e., he'll also make that chalkboard drawing) and he'll gain some combat ability thanks to the sceptre "openning his mind".

That would later come in handy in Dark World, as he would use a sword in Dark World, which he would've taken from an armory (just like in Far From Home), and fought the Dark Elves with it. He might, in one of the post-credits scenes, even discover he descends from the Black Knight, teasing his arrival someday. I'm still undecided on whether or not he becomes the Black Knight after Dark World, though he should definetly cameo in Age of Ultron, even if just for the fact that he is one of the people who knows of the potential risks of using the Mind Stone. 

As for Sersi, it wouldn't be until the first Snap, that she'd finally recognize that she herself was an Eternal, as, per the logic of the MCU, the stones awaken latent memories or powers. And maybe due to the death of Dane does she decide to also live in isolation until he comes back. And in that time she also rediscovers how to use her powers, maybe even teaching Wanda a few tricks or two in her show.

And that's how we can tie everything up until Eternals!

Dr. Strange, Shang-Chi or Spider-Man - Iron Man 3

Spider-Man

Spider-Man in this movie could serve as a substitute for Harley Keener, while still being Spider-Man. In this version, Iron Man asks JARVIS to send him to NYC so he can get to another armory, so he can upgrade him armor. However, the armor just barely reaches Stark Tower, and falls on a garbage can on Queens. Spider-Man barely misses him, and rushes to his help. He opens the armor, and takes him to his hideout. There, he helps him charge his armor.

There Peter shows him that he has faced off against some of these Extremis soldiers before, even showing some burns in his suit. This character could be either Molten Man or Scorcher, who are both Spider-Man villains.

And just like Quicksilver in Days of Future Past, we'd have a fun team-up scene with Spider-Man, only to leave him behind and going back to Los Angeles.

Shang-Chi

Recently, I've thought of other characters who could take the role of Aldrich Killian in the movie, and there's kind of a perfect solution for it, Ezekiel Stane. In the original Avengers he was almost a secondary villain, so we can make a hypothetical What If? in which he finishes his father's work. Imagine the first flashback being of Zeke getting his doctorate, just as he is notified of his father's passing. Suddenly, a very elegant man approaches him, and tells him that he knew his father well. While the report on the news says that it was of natural causes, this man shows what truly happened. The man then tells him, "We seem to have a common enemy. And I can help you get revenge."

Cut to 2013, and Stane has copied Stark's aesthetic, with an assistant/girlfriend of his own. The movie follows as it is on the movie, with the difference that the assistant replaces Savin and Ellen Brandt, and who, for all intents and purposes, I'll call Sasha. The main difference now, is that Harley Keener is now Shang-Chi. Rather than setting the origin of Shang-Chi a few years later, this Shang-Chi is here to protect Iron Man, as S.H.I.E.L.D. has learned of a plot to destroy Stark.

This would be further complicated by the fact that Shang-Chi, Sasha and the Mandarin are all related, because plot twist, this movie would kind of be a back door pilot for Shang-Chi with three of it's main actors already cast. Anyways, Stane and Sasha would be responsible for the creation of Extremis, which would grant its user pyrokinesis or electrokinesis (just learned that was also a side-effect, and I'm bummed we didn't see that). With the Mandarin's tactical genius, they would commit acts of terrorism, with the final act being the death of the president and of Tony Stark.

Notes:

• This version doesn't really need A.I.M., but it would still feature Happy, Pepper and Rhodey pretty much as they were. Now, if we were to use AIM in the movie as the Ezekiel's front for terrorism, why not hint at the most iconic thing AIM has ever done, and honeslty, this is a simple way to incorporate him. So, you know how Iron Man has JARVIS, right? Why hasn't anyone else done something like that? In this version, AIM could have it's own artificial intelligence incorporated into their technology in the form of M.O.D.O.C., developed by Dr. George Tarleton, whose voice would be the basis. Now, I really couldn't think of a voice who could do it justice more than Keith David himself!

• One could say that the Mandarin here would act much more like Darth Sidious in The Empire Strikes Back, but really that is much more of a Thanos figure, who we know is out there. And I like the idea that although Iron Man doesn't physically fight him, he is still an antagonist of Iron Man. I figure that this version has so much power that he doesn't need to fight Iron Man.

• Now, whether Ezekiel dies or lives in this version, is honestly, unimportant to me. He'd serve as a reminder of what Tony Stark was as well as what he's doomed to do later in Civil War.

Purple Man and Jigsaw - Daredevil

Did Kingpin's group really have any purpose on the first season? Like, of course there were some interesting and colorful baddies like Madame Gao, but they really had nothing to except be bashed on the head or thrown off elevators.

Let's say that instead, we kept Owl, a member of the Hand, Madame Gao, and replaced the two Kynazevs with Billy "Beaut" Russo and Kevin Thompson, aka Kilgrave. Billy, who has been in the drug trade for a couple of years (as seen in the Punisher show) has been hired to protect the assets brought on by Madame Gao, while Kevin Thompson's operations are in charge of distribution, mostly thru his network of underground businesses, like casinos. This is done to avoid suspicions of his powers, as despite the benefits it brings, he's scared of being caught, due to his fear of being isolated.

Over the course of the series, Kingpin would get rid of each one of the less powerful players, though not everyone is getting the brutal treatment. Personally, Kilgrave would be the unfortunate one, though not to the level of brutality of chopping the head off. Instead he would be the living crap out of him, and then quip something like "Just like my dad said 'Hope this makes you stronger for next time'", as Kingpin has detailed files that tell that Purple Man's abilities come with a regenerative tissue.

As for Russo, when his contract is up, both men agree not to snitch on each other, as they both have information they might find useful. In any case, Kingpin remarks that he might need his services again soon.

Power Broker and Taskmaster- Ant-Man and the Wasp

So, both the Power Broker and Taskmaster have debuted in the MCU. Now I can cross them off my bingo card. That being said, not everyone is satisfied with their portayal, and honestly, I get it. So, I'm gonna do my best here and use elements from both properties and incorporate them into one movie I would be interested into seeing improved.

So, for what reason would we see the Power Broker in Ant-Man and the Wasp? Well, Walton Goggins's character teased that he works for an unnamed buyer, so why not tease the Power Broker, Inc. as the organization he works for, or better yet, why is he not the Power Broker.

The question now would be, why does the Power Broker care for a Quantum Tunnel? The answer is that, with Wandavision showing us White Vision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier bringing in U.S. Agent, and akin, it would make sense that a businessman or the government would be readying themselves for the imminent demise of current heroes, and thus would be preparing to replicate these superpowered people.

This version of the Power Broker would be mashing the versions seen in the Ant-Man comics from 2015 and the Captain America comics from the Gruenwald run. So, we'd see him with an entourage of characters like Whirlwind, Magician, Hijacker, Hardball and others. The thing is, he could be our first Power Broker, since in the comics, there have two of them, thus leaving space for Sharon to kill him and take his place, potentially.

But, you may be asking, how does Taskmaster fit into the movie. Well, since Black Widow, we've learned that Ant-Man and the Wasp happens after that one. So, what if, after the events of that movie, the Widows find out that Taskmaster is uber-annoying, or quippy, to the point they just kick her out? And then, well, she's gotta survive, and thus has to do some mercenary work, but she's still super quippy, and with her helmet using a voice modulator, it would much more annoying to the rest of the guys.

This allows Taskmaster to evolve as a character, developing a new personality, separate of her father, and allows for more comedy inside of the movie. Even so, she could theoretically, replace Ghost, as the lead villain.

Nathaniel Richards/Kang the Conqueror/Immortus - Wandavision

With Loki bringing in Johnathan Majors as He Who Remains, it got me thinking about how everyone expected Mephisto in Wandavision. I did kinda wish Mephisto happened in WV, but I also thought that the theories hinged mainly on just that time Mephisto absorbed her children. Other than that, Mephisto isn't that involved in Scarlet Witch's world. So, rather than going for that story, I'd rather choose someone who has a far bigger connection to Wanda's life, Nathaniel Richards.

See, Hayward in the show could've been any comic character, but if you think about it, if any character could bring both Vision and Quicksilver from the dead, it is Nathaniel Richards. Just the sheer fact that he has created a Legion of the Unliving in the comics goes to show how this connection could've happened.

Using a time travel villain is also a neat excuse for why the flashback episode occurs. Now, as for reasons for Kang/Immortus/Nathaniel to want to fight Scarlet Witch could be that, since she is who she is, he could ensure his future happens, thanks to the probability hexes. In exchange, Kang can promise her whatever she desires, be it her husband, kids, brother or parents back.

This would of course, change the role of Agatha a lot more. This could either make her take the place of Monica Rambeau, or more of a mentor role. Imagine that, as a twist, the scenarios in which Wanda uses magic, were all meant to train her in magic on the real world. That way the previous episodes pay off in the finale. With this, Wanda ends up in a place in which she has a devil and angel on her shoulders, one pushing her to continue in her quest to avoid grief, and another who pushes her to move on and to confront the consequences of her actions.

However, neither of the two figures, Agatha or Immortus/Kang/Nathaniel, are the best people in the world. Nathaniel could use the Ravonna love story to empathize with Wanda, while Agatha could be a very strict and judgy mentor, repurposing lines like "A hero doesn't do that", as a critique of taking a town hostage.

Villain Transplants

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Monica Rappacini

Thanks to the newly released game, Marvel's Avengers, people are getting to see this character in the limelight. However, it would've been bigger, had she been introduced first in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. On this "One Small change" concept, I'd erase not only Ian Quinn but Raina, and make her a constant adversary similar to that of HYDRA in this show.

So, basics of Monica in this version, is that she's doing a "rebranding campaign" for AIM, and being her lead scientist, has created this new serum for creating a new kind of metahuman, which would be based on her plans from the comics, in which she injects people with toxins. These toxins would not only help these enhanced individuals commit acts of terrorism, but instead of what Iron Man 3 did, they would be untraceable.

All the while, AIM would be continuing to gain a better reputation, giving new products to the public, and in general, trying to replace SHIELD in its endeavour of investigation and protection. This would correspond to the first arc. Then, we would continue with the Deathlok arc, and finally culminate on the HYDRA arc. So, with ultra-mega hindsight, we'd do a Season 4 situation.

Mordecai Midas

With Doc Ock debuting in the MCU, characters with ridiculous names can now be added to more than one episode, without it being too far fetched. Mordecai is a rich man with an exo-skeleton, who surprise surprise, wants more power. So why not let him take the place of another excentric billionaire, by the name of Gideon Malick.

Of course, this would mean a redesign of his costume, that would take the color scheme, but adapt to a more serious version, until he wears his more Greco-Roman inspired Battle armor.

Abner Doolittle

Remember that episode with the Stan Lee cameo? So, what if, instead of a train, it was a disappearing street. Having tracked the hiding spot of the Clairvoyant, they arrive in Zero Street. However, the place they're looking for, an Assylum, has been overrun by the mental patients. That is because of Abner Doolittle, who's working with Centipede, Cybertek and Ian Quinn. In exchange for his services, Abner would be able to get out of this place, plus getting funds for his inventions, only if he proves his latest one works.

Abner activates a teleporter, or so he thinks. In actuality, he created a machine that makes it seem as if the area disappeared. Thus, Ward, Coulson and a local known as "Texas Jack" must find a way to locate the missing agents. On the other side, the rest of the crew must survive and find a way to deactivate the machine.

Vibro

Nathaniel Malick feels like an opportunity to do adapt the Iron Man villain Vibro, especially since the classic look is so ridiculous it could work. Now Vibro has never really been a top tier, neither was Mister Hyde, and yet he became a really interesting antagonist.

Jakar, Threkker, Stardancer, and Quantum

The behind the scenes story of Pachakutiq/Sarge for Season 6 reminds me a lot of Marvel's M.O.D.O.K. show on Hulu. You see, in a scene set in the Bar With No Name, they had intended for Stilt-Man to be used, but where unable to due to legal trouble (more than likely the Netflix deal regarding Daredevil characters), leading it to be replaced with Drake Shannon aka. The Orb. In this case, the charatcer of Ord from Astonishing X-Men was the visual and story inspiration for Sarge, although he is literally not named nor looks like him, due to X-Men characters still being at Fox at the time. So, in the spirit of Marvel's M.O.D.O.K., I got the idea to find a character that can still be legally used, and while looking through the sister site, I found one with a similar profile.

Jakar is a being from another dimension whose planet was devastated in an accident. He discovers a portal to Earth, and takes the guise of another being (in that comics, that being is the Stranger), and his plan is to have his people reanimated using the souls of humans on this Earth. Based on that description one could imagine how he could take the place of both Sarge and Izel at the same time, but even if he just took the place of Jakar, that would be enough.

The story would go thusly. Jakar arrives on Earth working with his motly crew, who I'm taking from Quasar #16, including Threkker as the muscle, Stardancer taking the place of Snowflake, and a character I've been trying to find an organic way to integrate to any pitch, Quantum as Pax. This gives us the benefit of seeing something we haven't seen from alien species (aside of Sinara and her balls), actual super-powered aliens.

This group, who I'll affecionately call Starblasters (because that's another thing I've been trying to find a way to feature on my pitches) have come to Earth to lay low, since they've been on the run from intergalactic forces like the Nova Corps. To blend in, Jakar takes the form of Phil Coulson, who he sees days before he died, while vacationing. Since the rest of the memebers look human enough they start snooping around and start commiting crimes to survive.

As a sideffect for that shape-shifting, Jakar absorbs a little bit of the original "host", which has made it hard for him to remember his original mission. However, he has sudden flashbacks to the Monoliths, which reminds him of the portal he came through. He becomes of two minds, as one wishes to restore the lives of his fellow species, but the other wants to take the place of Coulson. This doesn't last long, and he betrays both SHIELD and the Starblasters, prioritzing the life he once knew and rediscovering his powers.

He takes the remaining Monoliths, and kidnaps a bunch of humans to serve as the vessels for his people. With no members left from the Starblasters, the challenge to defeat grows bigger, and only May showing him that this isn't right, that Jakar stops, and leaves, choosing to live his final days on his world.

Runaways

Plantman, Cobalt Man and Eel

These three characters have at one point or another been linked to the X-Men, but really, I don't think their rights might've stayed with them. So I'll reuse them for some fun villainy.

First off, Cobalt Man would be none other than Victor Stein, whose project armor was scrapped when another famous engineer did his own, and patented it. However, he did try to use it, but ended up with a tumor in his brain. When PRIDE's benefactor tells the group to catch their children, Victor has no other choice but to use the prototype he built.

Plantman would be Dale Yorkes, who in the process of developing a genetically modified Deinonychus, created a couple of serums, among which is one that controls plants. He injects it, and goes along with Victor to stop their children from leaking their information.

Next up, is the Eel, another Marvel Comics character, whose backstory is pretty much unnecessary, but that at one point was a boss in the Maggia, so it'd be interesting to see combined with our resident gang member, Geoffrey Wilder. Given to him by Victor, this suit was originally meant to handle riots in prisons, by tasing the people causing it, or those that touched the guards.

Face the Unicorn

I really don't know why but I'm just fascinated by the fact that the villains I'd use for this show mostly come from Iron Man's Rogues Gallery. And the Unicorn is not the exception. Now, one might ask, what relation would the Unicorn have with the series?, and that is a good question. The Unicorn, traditionally has used a mechanical "power horn" which shoots lasers from it, and it's utterly ridiculous. However, there have been people who've used organic power horns (notably Yegor Balinov and the Ultimate Universe's Unicorn), and that's were this story would go. By the way, I'm gender-swapping, just cause I can.

In a way to understand better their powers/find people who could testify in court and send their parents down, the team investigates several different people who were screwed over by their parents. Gert's mission is to find a person by the name of Mila Blomfeld (I'm mixing and matching several of the character's lore). As she arrives on Mila's appartment, she is immediately put off by the stereotypical amount of female paraphernalia. With this character, Gert would have an adversary who not only represents what she dislikes, but also her beliefs and antithesis (she, is powerless without Old Lace, and Mila isn't, and Mila is also stereotypically femenine).

Mila would explain that she was working with Gert's parents on genetic manipulation, which would end up creating extinct or mythological animals, which is were Old Lace came from. Not only was the experiment meant to bring them back (or to reality), but it was also meant to give them powers. After the parents succeeded in creating Old Lace, they killed the program (as at the same time they were asked to join PRIDE, which consumed all of their time), and the animals withered with it.

Mila, having grown overly attached to the Unicorn, in particular, went crazy (as most supervillains do), and made a costume to wreak havoc on the people responsible (made from the hair and horn of the creature, which shoots lasers of it, and yes, that's pretty dark), and since now she has their daughter, she will take her revenge.

The Phantom Saboteur

Chase's arc would take him to meet a man who tried to destroy his father's company, but failed, and got shot by a deaging weapon, which is the basis for the chamber that PRIDE uses to siphon the life force of its sacrifices.

To be continued...

Slug

Alex Wilder's dark mirror

Cloak & Dagger

Biohazard

Mina Hess is a character I wished turned to be a cannon character all along, and with New Warriors not happneing at the time of the filming. Admittedly, not only am I gender-swapping, but also making the character Asian. Still, I saw several similarities between the Hess story and Biohazard's, so only a few things would change. Similar to what they did with Graviton and AoS, I would only tease the character's alter ego, just so she would end up being a Finale villain. As in the show, her father is a former employee from Roxxon, who would end up falling into a comma. She would be a part of the Bio-hazard unit, in charge of doing clean-up, and preventing any other oil rig failure.

However, we'd eventually come to realize that inside of her lies a certain darkness, though not the dominant personality. Just like Tandy, she's eager for revenge against the corrupt businessmen of Roxxon. Plus, his father's accident has caused her to absorb some Darkforce and Lightforce radiation, which is undetectable by traditional means.

Due to budget constraints, we'd limit her powersets to becoming toxic goo, dissolving, and basically turning into a shinning Flubber.

Killer Shrike

There's a small character that appears in Season 1, who is affectionally called Watertbottle Girl. And although, I love when we have these unknown characters, I'd imagine another version in which we actually get a menacing figure in the form of Killer Shrike, aka. Simone Maddicks.

Maddicks has history working for Roxxon, and thus is perfect for use in this show. It of course, gives us a chance for a one-on-one fight between Dagger and Killer Shrike, in which both use light projecticles. And while Dagger has powers, Maddicks' close quarters combat would balance this battle. With Simone eventually defeated, she'd be taken to Roxxon, and given her upgrades.

Jessica Jones - Giving Her a Rogues' Gallery of her own

Jester

I remember an interview they did with Charlie Cox in which he was asked which villains he wanted to see, and he mentioned both Stilt-Man and Jester. The latter one makes me intrigued since unlike Stilt-Man, it can be done with a simple budget, but it must be appropiate to the story. And I think it can work, but not as a Daredevil villain per se, but as a Patsy Walker villain.

Now, for this to work, I might have to take out Griffin Sinclair and Max Tatum out of the story, thus sadly taking the "cray cray" song. In this version, Trish knew Johnathan Powers from her days as a teen icon. John had his own show, in which he was a magical court jester, alla I Dream of Genie, but with him as the lead. They meet once again in a social event, and he tells her about a current production he's working on, and he'd like her to promote the show by doing an interview. However, this is all a front from IGH, who want to keep Trish and co. under surveillance, as they know they've been snooping around.

In reality, John had been hospitalized due to drug overdoses, which IGH promised to fix, in exchange for being their double agent. Not only that, but a sideffect of the procedure is his obsession with his former character, and his need for dressing up as him.

Quicksand

One of the things that has always confused me is the fact that DC's Clayface hasn't really done a Noir story, considering he's a shapeshifter. But since I'm not writing a blog about DC right now, and Jessica Jones fills that detective story really well, I'd like to pitch a version of this story.

Nguyet, first name unknown, is a person enhanced by IGH, whose powers of turning each ounce of her body into little grains of sand has granted her several abilities. Deciding to use these powers against anyone who did her dirty in the past, she starts on a killing spree.

It is only when Jessica finds a couple grains of sand moving strangely in a crime scene, that she is intrigued. She then finds this character impersonating other people, among them being child star Trish Walker.

Chemistro and the Owl

Imagine a Luke Cage Team-Up, in which they face off against a Walter White type villain, with a knowledge of chemistry so great, he can use it to face-off against two brawlers. If that sounds like the first season episode when they face off against Loan Shark, but much more intricate, it is for a reason.

Calvin, and his brother Curtis would be working for Lee Owlsley. Their operations would be guarded by Lenny Sirkes, a brute. So, imagine the scene being Luke and Jessica tag teaming against this tough guy, only to be facing these two guys in lab coats. However, the two of them throw a substance that creates fire, distracting the two heroes,

This battle would allow the heroes to show their

Death-Stalker (female)

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" .

Luke Cage

Brianna Muldoon, the Cowled Commander - An antagonist worthy of Misty Knight

Although this character was meant to homage Jack "the King" Kirby, I think it would be very difficult to have an actor with his likeness, so rather than that, I'll have the character take the place of Nandi Tyler, and thus gender and race swapping Muldoon. Rather than the colorful alias of the Cowled Commander, she'd just be Brianna Muldoon, a cool, confident and liked member of the NYPD, who took the place of Misty and has been climbing up the ladder. In secret, she has been working with Bushmaster, eliminating his enemies under the guise of arresting criminals.

Her long game is not really to help Bushmaster, but rather control both sides of the conflict, but given that her duplicitous nature was known to Misty, she is concerned about her involvement.

Iron Fist - Into the Daredevil-Verse

Mr. Fear

Before I start this pitch I must address the similariy created by this alteration to Batman Begins. Since my change occurs on Season 1, the comparison will be even more noticable, as the plot can be sumed up as "a clan of ninjas with the help of a theatrical chemist obssessed with fear facing a boy who lived in the mountains and trained to become a crimefighter + having to return to his home city and restore his father's company.

So, while I also have a pitch for Iron Fist Season 1, which entails stunt-casting the parents of Danny and the Ward siblings with Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, giving us synnergy with that other Netflix show about martial arts, the Mr. Fear pitch will have to do for now.

For this, we must take an existing character from the show, and I have just the guy. Radovan Bernivig, aka The Chemist, is the guy who created the Steel Serpent heroin, and other than dying and having a kidnapped daughter, has no real purpose on the show. So, let's take that thread, and do some reworking.

First off, is choosing which version we'll see of Mr. Fear, and honestly, I know just the name, Lawrence Cranston (which gives us an added reference to another TV show, Breaking Bad). Using this name also gives us access to an interesting plot point from the Daredevil comics, the Without Fear story, in which Mr. Fear creates a drug that inhibits fear on its users. Lastly, since Season 1 deals a lot with Danny's trauma, why not do the most sesnible thing and make Mr. Fear the root of this.

So, let's combine these threads and make the perfect story for this character. A former chemist for Rand Enterprises, Cranston was offered a far more exciting job as part of the Hand by Madame Gao, being the creator of a drug that makes the perfect army of men without fear.

Interrogating a distributor of the drug, he learns where Cranston is being kept, and Danny decides to go along with Colleen and save him, as Danny believes that Cranston, being a former employee of Rand, could be incapable of such evil. While Larry plays along for a couple of minutes, he attacks Danny, eventually shooting him with fear gas. This leads Danny to lose all the years of meditation and self-control in a matter of seconds, and revert to the scared child on the day of the crash.

That fear eventually leads to anger, and it's a one on one fight with Cranston, which with the added training given to him by the Hand, makes him on par with a fear gassed Danny.

This concept would take out the flashbacks and put them until the episode in which they meet the chemist, and would also take out the daughter character. But in exchange we get a unique villain, who would end up being saved by the Hand, leaving it open to appear on either Defenders or a future Daredevil season.

"It's all Connected" - Connecting all the movie and tv show threads

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.- The Promise of the Cameo/Team-Up Series

One of the biggest expectations to the show, is that we would see more heroes and villains of the Marvel movies in the show, even though due to budget concerns wouldn't allow that many of them to appear. Despite that, there's an alternate version of Season 1 that includes some characters (Not all of them). Granted, these would mostly be actors who are accostumed to work on television, so that we wouldn't have any problems getting them, and we would have to metaphorically, bend over backwards to accomodate them into the show.

War Machine and Justin Hammer

James Rhodes comes to visit the S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, as he's heard of this superpowered individual who has gotten a stable version of the Extremis serum. Well aware of the serum's strengths, he wishes Mike Peterson's help. James is saving an asset trapped in a war torn nation, and requests a special team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, including Mike. So, basically, it is the episode we know as "The Asset", except it features the one and only Justin Hammer, in the role of Ian Quinn. And as for the Assets, they'd be villains like Blacklash, Blizzard and the Melter.

Doc Samson, Abomination and The Leader

Given Ty Burrell has appeared before as Doc Samson and that ABC is the producer of Modern Family, it isn't impossible to see the actor appear as Coulson's therapist, treating him for his "near death experience". However, a more interesting angle to the story is that, just like Darcy in Wandavision, Samson becomes a sort of superhuman pscyhologist, who tries to cure his patients from their violent tendencies. This would lead to inevitably lead to him developing his super-powers, but primarily, we'd see him facing off against the Absorbing Man and working alongisde General Talbot.

Sharon Carter and Jimmy Woo

[Insert villain/organization here] believes that the problem is that despite the dismantling of S.H.I.E.L.D., corruption still exists as its agents are still working for other organizations. Thus, they are targeting former agents, like Sharon and Jimmy, thanks to the data leaked by Natasha Romanoff in The Winter Soldier. The FBI, which is were both Agents work don't take that threat to seriously, so it's up to S.H.I.E.L.D. to protect their former comrades. Pretty much like The Writing on the Wall, except later.

Baron Strucker

Just bringing him back for the show's second and third season. Wouldn't be a leap in logic in that HYDRA made it's own version of the T.A.H.I.T.I. project, or just had some blood viles hidden somewhere. It is just disappointing that of all the things in the Secret Warriors comics, we never get 1) a proper Secret Warriors team, and 2) 2/3 of the HYDRA High Council in the same room (Madame Hydra, Baron Strucker, Kraken and Hive).

The Incredible Hulk, Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, among other projects - The General Ross of it all

Keeping up with the theme of What ifs, imagine if General Ross was a part of the World Secuity Council, taking the place of GIdeon Malick. Given the interesting relation he has with S.H.I.E.L.D., the government appoints him as the representative for the US in the council. This in turn gives us a reason for why the Council chooses to nuke New York City, as General Ross is the kind of guy who does that sort of thing.

Later in the Winter Soldier he goes for a meeting to unveil project Insight, which he's in favor off, but with Fury and co. doing some light avenging, Ross is paralyzed by the electro-shock thing, and requires a heart transplant, and thus is abscent from Avengers 2. And finally, he returns to the movies in Civil War, with no changes whatsoever, but with a vendetta against Nat, Cap and Hulk, just to name a few. This does give the heroes some ammo to respond to Ross's criticisms, but since he's in a position of power, this is dismissed as a petty criticism.

The thing is that although he's an antagonist, he is doing his job, and has some redeeming moments, such as in the Winter Soldier, where he does try to fight back against Pierce, or in Civil War, in which he checks on the injured people in the Interpol fight. It will also show some character growth, as Ross would go from a rage machine against Banner for what he inflicted on his daughter, to more of a concerned citizen with the right intentions, but not the best judgement.

Wandavision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Ms. Marvel - Comission on Superhuman Activities

So, as much as I'm excited to see what they do with S.W.O.R.D. or what other organizations we'll see in the MCU, I felt like they didn't really do SWORD, rather they just wanted to repeat the first Thor movie, and had to feature a discount Blue SHIELD (unrelated to that superhero). So, rather than that I suggest bringing another group from the comics, whose motives would make far more sense. And within that, we can see members of other organizations, such as S.W.O.R.D., Damage Control and others.

Now, in this version, the Comission would have been created after Superhuman Civil War, as a way to monitor their activity, regardless of whether or not they were part of the Sokovia Accords. After the Blip, the heroes have been given certain liberties back, but there is still distrust. The CSA wants there to be a superhuman team that they can trust, preferably sans "daddy issues".

Members of the CSA could include people like General Thunderbolt Ross, Agent Wally Declun (a version of Agent Deever from Ms. Marvel), Peter Henry Gyrich (as the director of SWORD), among others.

Led by Valerie Cooper (who would appear instead of Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine), the CSA would detect the Maximoff anomaly and quickly connect with other agencies as SWORD, FBI and others, as they require experts of people who have been enhanced by Infinity Stones (Monica Rambeau), reality warping (Darcy Lewis) and well, Jimmy Woo, as he was the first to notice the anomaly. For all intents and purposes, the CSA is just bureaucreats, not scientists, who respond directly to the United Nations, but really don't understand the capabilties of these superhumans.

And after the fiasco of the Maximoff incident, they decide to do some PR management, by bringing a new Captain America, but again, the organization, to quote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "chose poorly" the next Cap. Not only that, but they end up sending Walker to attack the Flag-Smashers, which ends up making this formerly "Robin Hood" type people, into a more violent group.

And with both Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel, they would perform arrests on any young superhuman, as they see them as still emotionally and training-wise as dangerous, given that if a grown man is capable of putting in danger a whole country with its pet project, then having a teenager with powers is very much a danger. Ironically, both Ms. Marvel and FaTWS had teenage antagonists at the final point of the story, meaning they're kinda right, but well, they never address that point, and stay with the whole ICE metaphor.

Captain Marvel and the Inhumans (and maybe Agents of SHIELD) - The Kree-Skrull War

Knowing how Maria Rambeau becomes a founder of SWORD, it became interesting to me how she and Fury create such an organization. So for this, I thought "What if Maria Rambeau was in the Inhumans show?". This necesitates some changes to the show, primarily moving it along the timeline, to be in the late 90s, which not only gives us some cool music to play, but also allows for Maria's character to be developed outside of her relation to Carol. Now, it's up to us whether Monica reappears here, or if she stays at ther New Orleans home. It'd be interesting to see a scenario in which, just by sheer coincidence, Monica and Maria are vacationing in Hawaii, after Maria has been working hard with Fury to establish a space division, and just bumps into the Inhumans by chance.

This also means that Maximus's plan involves the reapparance of the Kree Armada on Earth, with which he made contact after the events of the movie. Ronan the Accuser, seeing an opportunity to balance the scales on the conflict with Carol, allies himself with Maximus, giving him resources and Kree Weapons, in exchange for the toughest of Inhuman soldiers. This leads to Maximus exiling the rest of his family, safe for Crystal, who Maximus promises to Ronan. That is until the Royal Family, along with Maria and Monica as the tagalongs join the fight.

How this ties into Agents of SHIELD is TBD.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and Avengers: Infinity War/Avengers: Endgame - Enter Adam Warlock

What if, the golden guys from Guardians of the Galaxy served a larger purpose in the MCU?

Imagine, if you will, if the Sovereign had the Soul Stone, and that is the reason they can create, what they call, the perfect beings. Because let's be honest, in the MCU we don't know how these artificial beings have a soul, and I don't really think the heads of the studio want us asking it, so it's a simple answer.

Now, in keeping with the soul for a soul idea, I wouldn't put them above the Sovereign, or really, the Universal Church of Truth, to sacrifice lives of other "lesser" species to create more of them.

In any case, Rocket being himself would steal something from them, just not the Soul Stone as he has a new "no infinity stones near" policy, after the last movie. Basically, we're just saying "yes, here's its location. don't think about it." Because of their ego, they will deploy everything they got to destroy the Guardians.

Now, returning to the post-credits scene, Ayesha, having been defeated resorts to madness, choosing to sacrifice herself and the rest of her species, to give life to this new superior version of them, which she calls Adam.

Cut to Avengers: Infinity War, where Gamora and Thanos travel to the Sovereign planet, to find it lifeless, except for a single beacon of light. They travel to it, just to find a meditating Adam Warlock, who greets them, and tells them to follow him. On their way, he can explain to Gamora and Thanos that what his people did, and that for the past few years, rather than going to attack the Guardians, he stayed with the stone, as it has spoken to him, and asked for him to guard it, in exchange for high understading of the universe.

The events of the movie continue, with Adam being present during the death of Gamora, and handing the stone to Thanos, before being asked by the Mad Titan what was he doing next, before Adam just peaces out.

Now, we've established Adam Warlock, a personality that is different to that of the rest of the Guardians and what his pówer level is like. And if we'd like, we can add him to the roster at the Endgame battle, along with Howard the Duck.

Wandavision, Loki S1, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - An America(n) Tale

I remember when the four projects mentioned above were announced as part of a four part story that involved the Multiverse. It of course excited me, because well, Spider-Verse had shown the potential of it, and having the equivalent of 4 "movies" leading to it was an interesting proposition. But then I got to see them and realized that it seems each project's vision seemed fairly different.

One can't discount the issue of COVID restrictions on the appearances of other characters like Doctor Strange on Wandavision, or America Chavez in SM:NWH, but still, there are ways to handle it, like how Captain Marvel was inserted onto her own movies post-credit scene, or the Disney Cruise Line appearance of Ms. Marvel. As such, I'd like to envision a more cohesive story, with an arc divided between projects, just like how Mark Ruffalo had with Hulk.

So, to do so, we have to choose the literal crossover character, and the ideal one just happens to be in Dr. Strange 2. See, I have a bit of an issue with Sylvie as a character. Nothing against the crew that helped create her, but if they were going to do an adaptation of Enchantress, this just doesn't seem like the best way, especially with how some fans have interpreted as self-incest. Granted it's still a really well done story, but the love aspect may not have been the best written. As such, I think we can replace her with another character who can serve the same purpose. The similarities with Sylvie include LGBT+ background, tragic backstory involving jumping between universes, and established comic interactions with Loki. Granted we would lose both the magic aspect and the relationship, but I think it's for the best,

So, this version of America was previously captured for being an anomaly, ie, not having variants and being able to travel from universes, thus risking the possibility of an incursion. Those aspects would make her infinetly more of a risk than Sylvie is to the fabric of this Multiverse. And since she doesn't really know Loki's history with the Avengers or Asgard, he gets to show her a side of him different to what we've seen, an honest version. And since we want America to have her hands clean, we give Loki the killing of He Who Remains, using his "evilness" for an act of good, allowing her to be free to find her mothers without fear of being followed. Not just that, but we get to see Loki be the one who teaches her to use her powers, even though that evneutally leads the TVA to find them.

Cut to NWH, where instead of the Dr. Strange trailer, we see in the post-credits scene her finding Supreme Strange, who learns of her in the Book of the Vishanti and decides to help. And now we turn to Dr. Strange 2, where the events that transpired in the movie are pretty much repeated, with the exception of her being imprisoned, rather they use the happy memory device to keep her calm while the Illuminati interrogate Strange. Now instead of her arc being about learning to control her powers, it is about learning to stop running from danger, as Wanda's threat is much different than the TVAs.

Iron Man 3, Ant-Man, Black Panther, The Inhumans, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - The Book of the Ten Rings

If there is one thing I find underwhelming about the Ten Rings as a group, is that other than in the Iron Man movies and Shang-Chi they haven't really done much. Yes there are sometimes easter eggs to them, such as the guy in Ant-Man or the All Hail the King short. So, to show that he truly is a criminal mastermind, and that he's something to fear, I'd like to give him the Thanos treatment. That is, debuts in a movie (in this case Iron Man 3), and his influence is felt in Black Panther and Inhumans before finally becoming the main antagonist in Shang-Chi.

Now, to preface this, we will take the Iron Man 3 pitch which features Ezekiel Stane, Mandarin, Sasha and Shang-Chi as part of this alternate universe. At the end of this film, one of the post-credits scenes would be of Tony Stark, uniting a group of individuals, including T'Challa, Hank Pym and Black Bolt, with a couple of seats left for future members.

There, they would discuss the threat of people like the Mandarin, who has an army and control over certain regions, and thus presents a threat to the security of the world. This would eventually lead to them learning of the Ultron project, as a way to increase their efforts, without creating more heroes. If by now you haven't noticed, this is the origin of the Intelligencia, thus making the Mandarin responsible for one of the most secretive organizations in the MCU.

After Iron Man 3, we would have different nods or plots relating to the Ten Rings throughout the MCU. For example, instead of Killmonger discovering his heritage thanks to books and records, he would've repressed those memories, only to have fought in the Sin-Cong, where he was tortured, only for the Ten Rings to learn that his lip still has the markings of a Wakandan. Intrigued by this, they take him to their leader, who thanks to good therapy skills, helps Killmonger remember who he is. He points him in the direction of Ulysses Klaw and promises his support, as Wenwu has also seen the negative effects of imperialism on his homeland.

The next impactful appearance would be in the Inhumans, which we can consider as either a show or movie. In summary, rather than having contact with Dr. Declan from the show, Maximus would have allied himself with the Ten Rings, in the hopes of exchanging some Terrigen Crystals. In exchange for presenting hunting Nuhumans that are being rescued by Triton, Maximus would provide protection towards the Ten Rings by not attacking them and providing him with Terrigen Crystals so that Wenwu may create Inhuman lieutenants for his army.

Other references could include a member of the Ten Rings (Madame Macabre) being responsible for the death of Janet Van Dyne, or even having Mandarin being the one who has taken Loki's sceptre, as HYDRA and the Ten Rings have worked in the past before, and Mandarin's base is believed to be one of the safest compounds.

Having hyped the Ten Rings to this level, one would think it would take the Illuminati or the Avengers to take on the Ten Rings, but that is why the group would go underground for a few years, as they seek to have an army that is capable of facing the Avengers, until Thanos's Snap occurs, leaving only Shang-Chi to face him. So while the rest of the world is fighting Thanos, Shang-Chi and his friends to face the army.

Black Panther, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Moon Knight, and Thor: Love and Thunder- Twilight of the Gods

In Thor: Love and Thunder we get to see Omnipotence City, where deities of several religions congregate. What's curious is that we see various gods from pantheons that connect to other projects. We see Bast from Black Panther, the Jademurai God (aka. the Jade Emperor from Ta-Lo, Isis (the Egyptian goddess), and Quetzalcoatl (the Aztec equivalent of the Mayas' Kukulkan).

With this in mind, it becomes much more of a mystery as to why, for example, the Jade Empreror did not make an appearance in the movie, especially given the casting of an actor like Yuen Wah for such a minor role.

As such. we could see these four stories connect by having a theme of the "Old Guard vs the New Guard", with the Ennead, Zeus and the Jade Emperor believing that helping Shang-Chi, Thor and Moon Knight fight the villains is no longer part of their job, as heroes have supplanted them. As such, their decisions of neglecting the actions of Wenwu or Harrow, or even deiciding to stay rather than fight Gorr come less from just self preservation, rather than just an animosity towards the Avengers and the heroes getting all the praise they once got.

What would make this even more interesting is having the Necrosword be one of Chthon's creations, just like the Darkhold. Since the MCU will probably not be able to touch Knull, as that is a Venom and thus Sony character, giving All-Black to this Elder God would change this to just a god killing weapon to "the last laugh of an ancient enemy of the gods". As such, the Gods would have to decide whether or not it is worth destroying the weapon if it means risking their lives.

Other small things they could do is have:

- Bast and Quetzalcoatl having a chat, nodding to how on Earth the two factions of Talokan and Wakanda are fighting while the two of them don't really mind

- Have Isis seem distracted during the ceremony, likely hinting at the Ennead meeting happening in Moon Knight

- Have an Eternals reference, with Minnerva rolling her eyes

- Have the Jade Emperor enter the event full of battle damage on the armor, only to magically take them off, hinting at the events of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Agent Carter and Black Widow- Leviathan

So, the Agent Carter show set-up a lot of the Black Widow lore, particularly, seeing the Red Room and learning that it was a program working alongside Leviathan. And well, we never saw Leviathan, like ever again, unless you consider the fact that it was sort of mentioned in the prelude comic. Based on this information one can assume that the organization seized to exist, but it's legacy lived on, but what if it didn't?

In the movie, we see that the Red Room also have guards, which although one can assume are also women, it's unlikely that Dreykov had only women in staff, especially since the Red Room has had both male and female agents in the past.

As a side note, it's also worth mentioning that the more Black Widow agents that the movie creates, the more the "special"-ness of Nat and Yelena, just like how some may argue that the Spider-Men and Women dillute the value of Peter Parker. I have the same problem regarding Dr. Strange and the Kamar-Taj Masters in the MCU.

So, rather than just stay with an army of nameless Black Widows, we get maybe a small team, due to Dreykov only keeping the best assassins alive, with at max, the quantity of Black Widows, that Wakanda has of Dora Milaje. Not only does that increase the threat of said Widows, but it also goes to show why Dreykov is such a threat.

This means that Leviathan will need base guards which will be promptly defeated, which can be people in Red Guardian-esque costumes, as we saw on Black Widow & Punisher: Confidential, which can be fun to see Yelena defeat them on her way out, as a way to nod to her love/hate relation with Alexei. Or we could have cybo-guards that would hint at the twist of Taskmaster being a mix of human and tech, but again, easier to defeat than the Widows. And these guards can be inspired by the design of Orion or the comic book Leviathan soldiers.

And it'd be an inspired choice if we wanted to delve in the Black Widow spider theme, and have the heads take on a more spider-like form, rather than the Brood technology from the Secret Warriors comic.

All Shows -The Civil War Aftermath

If there is something that I'm quite baffled by is that the opportunity for interesting stories was right there. Marvel Comics is known for doing tie-ins with other events in the comics, and despite what some people might think about those tie-ins, storywise, it would change the status quo of the series. Personally, I think that could have let into a sort of Underground Avengers/Secret Avengers/Occupy Avengers, where Daredevil and co would have to help citizens while also facing the authorities and people more hesitant to trust them. 

S.H.I.E.L.D. is the closest to deal with said Aftermath, but I personally think Quake's story regarding that could've seriously benefited from interaction with more heroes, just like she did with Ghost Rider. Even taking into consideration the fact that most street-level, and TV level, heroes are more diverse than movie characters, it would've presented an interesting angle to the registration, since some heroes, like Luke Cage and Quake could've protested to it targeting minorities and not actually defending citizens against actual criminals.

Add to that the concept used in the comics of the Pro-Registration side employing supervillains and then you have not only an opportunity to bring more comic characters but also, can argue whether the extremes they are going to (to force them to sign) are truly worth it. Even inside of S.H.I.E.L.D. there could be an argument for whether them being asked to police against superpowered individuals is truly moral, even if they are against the law.

This is especially interesting considering that S.H.I.E.L.D. had a civil war of their own, even before the Avengers did, but even so, a division between super-powered agents like the Secret Warrirors and the more human element could help with explaining why Quake dresses like an emo kid, or a heavy element of police and FBI involvement in later seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Cloak and Dagger, just to name a few.

The Origins of the Initiative 

Look, it bothers me that Ant-Man and the Wasp weren't founding Avengers, and I think that Captain Marvel was on the right path, until it wasn't. I have no problem with Nick Fury starting the Avengers Initiative, however, I'd like to propose a more "interesting" version of this. Picture a homage to the original Iron Man post-credits. 90's Nick Fury is escorted to a dimly lit room, two people standing in shadows in front of him. They ask him about his report on the "mysterious blonde superwoman". He explains that she goes by Captain Marvel (giving us that namedrop, since it's techincally her title in the universe), and that she was fighting an alien military.

The two figures discuss the alien military thing, until they decide to step out of the shadows and reveal themselves as Peggy Carter and Howard Stark. "if what you're saying is true, and I'm guessing it is due to the level of detail in your report... then we need to be prepared for those sort of threats". They then hand him a couple of files with names like Ant-Man, Wasp, Black Panther, Sorcerer Supreme, Red Room, and because we have to, Captain America and Captain Marvel. Now, granted, Janet was MIA and some S.H.I.E.L.D. as a whole might not really know about, but I imagine someone like Howard Stark would consider all options. It's also a nice Agent Carter easter egg since technically Carter encountered the Black Widow Program long ago.

The only thing this would require is moving the movie a year before it released, as Howard Stark died before the events of Captain Marvel in the current timeline.

The Night Nurse Thing

Yeah, this one doesn't get the more interesting name. If we're honest, the Defenders shows and Doctor Strange had a little thing that they could've done so as to give us connectivity. That thing being, made Claire Temple and Christine Palmer the same character, but instead of using either alias, just use the character they intended to use from the start, Linda Carter, the original NIght Nurse.

Sure, that means everyone at Marvel (Studios and TV) had to get along and play ball. But, frankly, Feige was trying to do that all the way from Spider-Man 1 when he tried to get Wolverine to cameo. Now for this, let's say that the Doctor Strange movie showed the beginning of the Night Nurse character, in which we see that she was a co-worker of Strange, that could've had a former romantic relationship, but we won't really care about that.

What will be of importance is that Linda Carter (if the similar last name is a bit distracting, we can change it to Palmer or Temple) is both torture and help for Stephen, as she a morally virtuous person, which Stephen can't stand, but her good nature makes her push Stephen to do good things at the hospital, which is beneficial for our protagonist. She recognizes that Stephen has the capacity to do good, but isn't willing to do so.

Once Stephen ends up fully pushing her away, we can see her as part of Daredevil, where she's no longer the same. Without the "best frenemy" by her side, she's a bit more jaded. It's until she finds Matt Murdock battered and beaten, that she impulsively goes to help. They talk and eventually she starts thinking about maybe helping Matt more often. If they're going to do good, might as well help the people who are trying to change the world everyday, is what her mindset is now on. Cut to Jessica Jones, where she would notice Jessica enter the MGH with an injured Luke Cage. Seeing this less as a coincidence, and instead a signal, she decides to help, and little by little.

By Iron FIst, we would see that she's starting to get some contacts in the city, and that she's even got the attention of Danny Rand, who fascinated by the idea of a superhero hosptial, has decided to buy a place in Chinatown, where she can practice her profession of helping superheroes.

Cut back to Doctor Strange, when he is injured. I'm going to do an adjustment and say that the Sling Ring can also teleport you where the person you're looking for is. And if you want them to address it, then just have them say "After you were gone, I needed a hobby. Thankfully, one came to me."

Luckily, good ol' Night Nurse has a new clinic, equipped with every type of equipment necessary to cure superhero injuries. And that's how you not only satisfy the Netflix shows fans, but also give movie fans a more interesting character than the one they got. 

Spider-Man: Freshman Year and Sophomore Year -

So, usually I wait a little until a show or movie is actually released to judge, but with SDCC 22 just releasing stills and character designs, I might as well do a What if situation in which the show actually went and did the in continuity origin of Peter Parker in the main MCU timeline. Granted this would mean several things:

1. No cameos or characters that would break the timeline of events
2. No villains who have been established as non-existent in the MCU
3. No breaking canon

This seems fairly simple, but that seems to imply that several of the ideas shown in the SDCC panel would be thrown in the trash, right? Not entirely. See, I'm a strong believer in reducing, reusing and recycling, so might as well. For example, if Marvel Animation is keen on bringing a Norman Osborn figure who designs costumes for Peter, why not bring in, Roderick Kingsley, who is a fashion designer and in the past has made a business of creating costumed characters. Wouldn't be the first time that Hobgoblin appeared before Green Goblin, but it would also be the second time Roderick was portrayed as African American.

Roderick's story could be the following. He's interested in creating the next big brand, and with superheroes being relevant he decides to find himself a superhero. One of his associates sends him a Youtube clip of Spider-Man with his normal costume, and being the fashion designer he is, he finds him, takes him to dinner, and decides to show him various designs, although they are not Spider-Man. Here is where you would see Dusk, Prodigy, Hornet and all those costumes from the Identity Crisis/Slingers era.

And since they already have Bentley Wittman (or Whitman, for the show) in it, why not replace Doc Ock's role with him. Not only that, but we could recycle the idea for Vulture being Peter's teacher and apply that to the future Wizard, and maybe even use the chance to set up his archenemies, the Fantastic Four. Alongside that, we still can see Speed Demon, Scorcher, Tarantula (Maria Vasquez) and Unicorn. But alongside that we have the introduction of both Rhino and Tombstone, which can later return for other movies.

And those are just the concepts that have been shown in the presentation. Want to explain why Electro looks different in the MCU? Then we have an introduction of the main MCU Electro, this time with a mask. And this guy can have the yellow energy, and just like in TASM2, he disappears after he gets supercharged, meaning that when alternate Electro appears, he is now a combination of the two.

Maybe they want to have Peter interact with Nico Minoru? For that one just has to look at how the Supergirl and Flash crossover managed it. Have Nico fighting, and just when she's about to use the Staff of One, the foe breaks the staff, sending her all the way to NYC. End of explanation. No need to make them besties. Same with Daredevil, just have him fight any of the announced villains, and at the end have Daredevil say "I owe you one". And just like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it respects the canon, and still has a chance of telling new stories.