12 Marvel Movie Scenes That Were Way More Brutal and Disturbing in the Comics

Marvel has a tendency to make their heroes fight darker, mirror-versions of themselves in their films, and the first Captain America movie is no different. In Captain America: The First Avenger, Cap faces off with his arch-nemesis the Red Skull, who is revealed to be created by the same serum that turned Captain America from a shrimp into a beefcake. Although his rhetoric and demeanor matches more closely with the original character, his power level and origin matches more closely with the Ultimate version of the character. In that world, Steve Rogers has an illegitimate son who's taken and raised by the government. He has the same powers as Captain America and seems polite and kind, but on his 17th birthday, he reveals himself to be a true psychopath, butchering over 200 people and slicing up his own face in a way that makes him look like a Red Skull. This is way more brutal than anything Marvel would want in their films, especially when it was still trying to launch its cinematic universe. 

This example may not be as brutal as others on this list, but it's pretty upsetting. When they were introduced in the film Avengers: Age of Ultron, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were shown as siblings who deeply cared for one another. In the comics, that relationship was taken to the extreme when one storyline had them become lovers as well as siblings. That's something you'll likely never see in the family-friendly Marvel Universe. 

When Marvel made Ant-Man, they made a bold decision to not focus on the original version of the character, Hank Pym. Instead, they chose to focus on the lesser-known Scott Lang. Hank Pym was still in the film, played by Michael Douglas, but one of the most infamous moments from his comic history was unsurprisingly left out. Out of everything he has done, the comic book version of Pym is perhaps most remembered for hitting his wife Janet out of anger. It's been an unfortunate stigma on the character since it happened, and while the movie mentioned that Pym had a temper, it never suggested that he resorted to domestic abuse. 

One of the biggest ways the Guardians of the Galaxy film differed from its comic was the depiction of the Kyln, the prison where all the characters were sent and started to work together. In the film, the prisoners seemed rowdy and dangerous, but there was never a clearly defined sense of danger.

The prison in the comics would eat the prison in the movies for breakfast. It's not only one of the most dangerous places in the galaxy, it also has a 99.999% inmate mortality rate - most don't survive more than three years. It doesn't sound like a place where a gigantic tree can just walk up and take a battery off a wall. Again, Marvel is in the business of making mostly family-friendly entertainment, so depicting a prison where people are brutally murdered left and right probably wouldn't fly. 

In Captain America: Civil War, the plot really kicks into high gear after one of the Avengers' missions go horribly awry. Scarlet Witch turns Crossbones into a human grenade and sends him flying into a building filled with civilians. This event (adding on the collateral damage caused by the other movies) is what leads to the idea of government registration. In the actual comic, the inciting incident is much more brutal. 

In the comic books, a group of barely-recognized heroes called the New Warriors attempt to take down a powerful villain named Nitro. Being unable to stop him, Nitro unleashes a powerful blast that kills over 600 civilians, many of them innocent children. It's a much more violent opening that you probably won't see ever in Marvel's popcorn-fluff films. 

Marvel movies have been criticized in the past for being unwilling to kill any major characters (Quicksilver barely counts, stop acting like he does!) so when a movie adaption of Civil War was announced, more than a few eyebrows were raised. The comic ends with the assassination of Captain America in a brutal sniper attack, but as long as Captain America brings in cash (and Chris Evans has movies on his contract), it seems unlikely that Marvel will him off in a movie. 

A few people thought that Captain America's death would be 'transferred' to another character, but that turned out to not be the case. Nobody died in Civil War (the movie) and the only character who suffered any long-term consequences was War Machine, who ended up with a broken back. Edgy stuff, Marvel.