Remaining classic Marvel characters

[MasterCat]

Hey everyone, let's discuss "classic" Marvel characters, which I'll define as "appearing no later than Star-Lord (1976)", who are legal to use but have yet to make a film appearance. Who should appear and who's best forgotten?

1. Ditko Spidey villains other than the Vulture and Mysterio. These include the Scorpion who's already been teased, the Green Goblin/Norman Osborne, Doctor Octopus, the Sandman, the Lizard, Electro (used in older Spider-Man films), Kraven, and Chameleon. Most of these characters never bother anyone but Spidey, and it's not clear if the Disney-Sony agreement allows Disney to put any character in the Spider-Man license but Peter Parker himself in a film. If villains can cross over, I think it's important to revisit the Osbornes sooner rather than later. Otherwise it's best to tell good Scorpion and Kraven stories before any redo, after which I think an Aunt May/Doc Ock romance would be spectacular.

2. Daredevil. As a non-powered hero (seriously, his super power is sonar making up for blindness), I think he's better suited to TV/streaming, even if that means a reboot after Disney severs ties with Netflix.

3. The Kingpin. Originally a Romita Spider-Man villain who became Daredevil's main villain, what should they do with him after Disney cuts ties with Netflix?

4. Amora the Enchantress. As an Asgardian who spends most of her time on Midgard in the comics, I'd like to see Thor having to deal with her after bringing the remnant of his race to our world.

5. Hercules. Introduced to Marvel as a foil for Thor, I'd love to see him in this role. Unfort, the Olympians may be rejected from the MCU because Jack Kirby's Eternals are based on characters of Greek mythology.

6. The Black Knight (villain Nathan Garrett). This Giant-Man *** Avengers villain could be interesting. I'll be disappointed if they skip to...

7. The Black Knight (hero Dane Whitman). ... this guy. He can be interesting as an Avenger, but only with the slow burn to his "I'm a villain's nephew" motivation.

8. The Leader. Evil genius Samuel Sterns was teased in The Incredible Hulk. He's a loose end unless Marvel Studios disowns that film as canon, but hard to say where he'd fit without a movie titled "Hulk".

9. Eternity. As a Doctor Strange character Thanos fought in Infinity Gauntlet, I think he's coming sooner rather than later.

10. Adam Warlock. Repeatedly teased by James Gunn and then used and rejected in Infinity War drafts, expect this guy soon.

11. The Savage Land & Ka-Zar. I don't know...

12. Wonder Man. Again, I don't know...

13. Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man. No way, unless there's a recast Iron Man franchise. Even then, how do you handle the Communist part?

14. The High Evolutionary. Oh man, this one I definitely want. I expect he'll be introduced as a "cosmic" rather than Earthly character, but I really hope they keep his backstory as a human scientist and Wundagore, even if the New Men living there is too silly for MCU Earth. It goes without saying that Rocket should be a Terran raccoon he genetically modified as one of many "New Men."

15. MODOK, leader of Advanced Idea Mechanics. Um...

16. The Grim Reaper. A gadget-based villain who fights the Avengers because he blames them for the death of his brother Simon Williams (Wonder Man). Very situational!

17. Mephisto. deep breath Introduced as a Silver Surfer villain, he's kind of the ruler of people who go to Hell ("kind of" because there are other "Hell-Lords"), especially ever since he was retconned to be Satan from the Ghost Rider comics.

18. Madame Hydra/Viper. She kind of replaced Baron Strucker as leader of Hydra, then she left Hydra and changed her name? Captain America/SHIELD villainess, basically.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[satyendra.singh]

Hi. This is a nice list. You can also add Ghost Rider on this.

 

[MasterCat]

19. Man-Thing. The Marvel Swamp Thing doesn't, I think, cross over with superheroes much. His abilities don't seem expensive to film, so TV? Or best ignored?

20. Ghost Rider. This guy should be able to carry a film, right?

21. Jack Russell, Werewolf by Night.

22. Dracula. Yes, please. Expand into horror, then use Glad as a crossover villain.

23. Blade. The most popular good guy from Tomb of Dracula, goes with Vlad.

24(&25). Tigra. Kind of a convoluted character. You could skip Freer Nelson's first phase as a human in a powered catsuit, but then you lose the superheroine Hellcat (Parsy Walker, originally a romance comic protagonist!) Who took the suit after Tigra became a werecat. There's no reason for either of these characters to have movies, except they both become Avengers (and Hellcat a Defender) and no one from TV gets to cross over.

26. Luke Cage. His cheap-to-film powers and "hero for hire" big both lens themselves to serialization, where we currently find him.

27. Shanna the She-Devil. A female Tarzan. OK...

28. Moondragon. Drax's biological daughter... in his last life. A psychic as powerful as Xavier who got her power by following an alien religion. Drax's actor wants her to be in Guardians sequels.

29. Starfox, Thanos brother. Titan is still alive in the comics, so the MCU seems to have a scorched earth policy regarding Thanos's people.

30. The Son of Satan. Haha no.

31. Shang-Chi, son of Fu Manchu. No.

32. The Punisher. Not Disney film material, doesn't much cross over with characters who are.

33. Iron Fist. He's TV material, like Luke Cage.

34. Moon Knight. The Werewolf by Night supporting character fans apparently want more than Jack or even Dracula.

35. Nova. Well, he's been set up by GotG3 and Infinity War, so maybe.

 

[halo10]

Should be Netflix's next series:

Morbius the Living Vampire

the Midnight Sons

Nick Fury's Howling Commandoes

Shang Chi Master of Kung Fu

Rom Spaceknight

Moon dragon

 

[Chance Jackson]

Rom belongs to hasbro
Marvel no longer has any right to reference full manchu so just make someone else his father like say The "Real" Mandarin

 

[MasterCat]

Should be Netflix's next series:

Morbius the Living Vampire

the Midnight Sons

Nick Fury's Howling Commandoes

Shang Chi Master of Kung Fu

Rom Spaceknight

Moon dragon

Disney is expecting to cut ties with Netflix. The shows are segregated from the films, so putting Drax's daughter Moondragon there instead of with him would be a huge waste.

 

[Shoppy]

Rom belongs to hasbro
Marvel no longer has any right to reference full manchu so just make someone else his father like say The "Real" Mandarin

Absolutely ..... In fact, roll the Mandarin, Fu Manchu and the Yellow Claw into one character

 

[chamber-music]

Marvel revealed fu Manchu's real name is Zheng zu in secret avengers and he has gone by that name in the comics since 2011.

Marvel doesn't really need change much with Zheng zu/fu Manchu.
All zu needs to be is a Asian crime lord that his son Shang chi rebels against. I imagine a Shang chi movie would be about him finding out his dad is a crime lord and teaming up with others to dismantle his father's organization.

Shang chi could team up with mi6 like in the comics or shield or fbi agent Jimmy woo or cia agents everrt ross and Sharon carter.

Shang chi could also battle his siblings who work for his father as he did in the comics

 

[Silvermoth]

There’s starfox but hed definitely wouldn’t work post #metoo.

Someone mentioned Shang chi, oh my gosh I’m dying to see him appear

 

[chamber-music]

Nova
Captain Britain
Union Jack
Adam Warlock
Moon Knight
Midnight Sons
American Eagle
U.S Agent
3-D man/Triathlon
Jack of Hearts
Machine Man
Daimon Hellstorm

 

[The Sand Master]

Just flicking through my set of 1976 Marvel Super-Heroes Stickers and amongst those whom have yet to appear are:
Morbius
Werewolf by Night
Kid Colt the Outlaw
Kull
Frankenstein’s Monster
Warlock
Hercules
Ka-Zar
Volstagg

 

[Yowza]

Most of the below info. is derived from wikipedia or marvel wiki abbreviated and organized to make easier reading hopefully.

I'll post some stuff I found while reading through the net today as follows...








1) Golden Age "All Winner's Comics" (1941-1946 1-21):
1941: Issue 1: separate stories of pre-existing characters like Captain America, Namor, original Human Torch, Black Marvel, and original Angel

1941: Issue 2: Other pre-existing characters like angel and black marvel replaced by destroyer and whizzer until issue 12 (1 shot appearance black avenger in issue 6). Later stories included Blonde Phantom as well.

1946: Issue 19 and then again issue 21 both included self-contained story combining characters into "all winners squad" of Captain America w/bucky sidekick, the Human Torch w/toro sidekick, the Sub-Mariner, the Whizzer, and Miss America

Oddly, the series is known for decreased pgs. due to paper shortages during the war as well as a screwed up numbering system common for comics at the time to save on postage (no issue 20 of "All Winners" for instance; the 2 teamup issues simply replaced "All Teen Comics" and "Young Allies Comics" for that particular month).

1948: Volume 2 "All Winners Comics"

A second volume ran one issue (Aug. 1948) before being retitled and reformatted as the Western anthologies All-Western Winners (#2-4, Winter 1948 - April 1949), Western Winners (#5-7, June-Dec. 1949), the Western masked-crimefighter series Black Rider (#8-27, March 1950 - March 1955) and Western Tales of Black Rider (#28-31, May-Nov. 1955), and, finally, the anthology Gunsmoke Western (#32-77, Dec. 1955 - July 1963), that last primarily starring Kid Colt

After 1960, the "All Winner's Squad" was retconned into Marvel continuity as can be see by rest of groups listed below.












2) Invaders (retconned version of Golden Age "All winners squad"; all Invader's comic stories take place during the war):
1969: Avengers 71 (first appearance); time travel story in which current avengers run into timely hero's of past during WW2; whom now retconned as a team in WW2 instead of not being in same issue together until post ww2.

1975:"Giant Sized Invaders 1": Captain america, bucky, namor, toro, human torch save Winston Churchill from Master Man; Churchhill suggests they form team and that known as Invaders

1975-1979: "The Invaders" series Issue#1-41
*Meet james fallsworth (original union jack) who provided base of operations for invaders in england; 2 kids spitfire and brian (later union jack) would join team as well

*Issue 5/6 and marvel premiere 19/20 introduced liberty legion (another retcon ww2 team assembling various Timely and Atlas comics characters)

*Invaders team later added Miss America (Madeline Joyce) and super-speedster the Whizzer (Bob Frank), during a battle with the Super-Axis.

*Later, against the threat of the Battle-Axis, the team was assisted by the Blazing Skull and the Silver Scorpion.


2004: Avengers 82-85 vol. 3 (present day incarnation of Invaders) 2004-2005: New Invaders 2004-2005 spunoff Avengers storyarc

2007: Avengers/Invaders 12 issue series
*Premise: The original WWII team of Bucky, Captain America, the Human Torch, Namor, and Toro (leaving Spitfire and a wounded Union Jack in the past) brought to the present-day Marvel Universe by the Cosmic Cube, which had fallen into the hands of the villain D'Spayre

2010: Invaders Now!

2014: New Invaders series launched







3) Liberty Legion (retconned version of other Golden Age hero's not included in the "Invaders" team above; takes place during WW2 as well):
1976: Invaders 5-6 and Marvel Premiere 29-30 Debut of Liberty Legion; a team that in-continuity with the Invaders existing alongside them in the 1940's

Publication History according wiki:

The Invaders #5 (cover-dated March 1976) featured cameo appearances by fellow Timely characters Miss America, the Patriot, and the Whizzer, who would go on to the Liberty Legion, and the Fin, who would not.[1] The team was formally assembled and named the following month in Marvel Premiere #29 (April 1976), with additional Timely superheroes the Blue Diamond, Jack Frost, Red Raven and the Thin Man joining.[2] The team went on to star in two more installments of this four-story arc, in The Invaders #6 and Marvel Premiere #30 (June 1976),[3] all written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by various artists.

Never headlining its own series except for those issues of Marvel Premiere, the Liberty Legion went on to guest-star in The Invaders #35–37 (Dec. 1978 – Feb. 1979); in the final two-thirds of a three-part story arc running through The Fantastic Four Annual #11, Marvel Two-in-One Annual #1 (both 1976), and Marvel Two-in-One #20 (Oct. 1976); and in issue #3 (June 1993) of the 1990s miniseries The Invaders.

The Thin Man would go on to co-star in the 2004–05 series The New Invaders.

Fictional history according to wiki:

"America's Homefront Heroes of World War II", the Liberty Legion differed from the Invaders by confronting Axis plots and influence in and around the United States as well as fifth columnists, rather than in the overseas theaters of war. It also differed by consisting of mostly obscure Timely Comics superheroes, rather than stars Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, and the original Human Torch, and sidekicks. The Liberty Legion, indeed, included only two of even the company's secondary tier – the Whizzer and Miss America, who in late-1940s comics were members of Timely's first superteam, the All-Winners Squad. In the team's modern-day retcon origin, the Liberty Legion was assembled in 1942 by Captain America sidekick Bucky, the only Invaders member to escape a brainwashing trap by the Red Skull. To rescue his teammates, he gathered:

The Blue Diamond (introduced in Daring Mystery Comics #7, April 1941)
Jack Frost (U.S.A. Comics #1, Aug. 1941)
Miss America (Marvel Mystery Comics #49, Nov. 1943)
The Patriot (Human Torch Comics #3, Spring 1941)
Red Raven (Red Raven Comics #1, Aug. 1940)
The Thin Man (Mystic Comics #4, July 1940)
The Whizzer (USA Comics #1, Aug. 1941)
The Blue Diamond (a super-strong, superhumanly durable anthropologist), Jack Frost (the mythological spirit of winter), and the Thin Man (comics' first stretching hero, predating Plastic Man by just over a year) were here reintroduced into Marvel continuity, appearing for the first time since the Golden Age. Unofficial team leader the Patriot had appeared as a simulacrum projected from the mind of Rick Jones in The Avengers #97 (March 1972), but was otherwise reintroduced here. The winged Red Raven, who'd starred in the single issue of a namesake title in 1940, had re-entered the modern Marvel universe with The X-Men #44 (May 1968). The Whizzer had returned as an older character in Giant-Size Avengers #1 (Aug. 1974), relating how he and the since-deceased Miss America had married each other years before

2007: Inspired by the Liberty Legion, a second fictional team called the Liberteens was published in 2007 as part of the Avengers Initiative.
The Liberteens, whose name is a homophone of "libertine", is a young group of superhumans inspired by the Liberty Legion and formed as part of the Fifty State Initiative of government-sanctioned superhero teams. The group is first seen as the Pennsylvania-based Initiative team.







4) "All Winners Squad" (retconned usage of name "all winners squad" to go along with continuity of "Invaders" mentioned above; post-war stories that direct continuation of characters involved in the "Invaders" team):

1974: Giant Sized Avengers #1 (In FlashBack recounts end of "All Winner's Squad")
*Whizzer caught by Avengers breaking into Avenger's Mansion (trying to find a "Chrono module" containing a nuclear monster which is Whizzer's son) in story set in the present-day (1974 when published).

*In Flashback, he recounts the last adventures of the "All Winners Squad" (a post-war team) before marrying Miss America and both joining the CIA. Both are hit with radiation while trying to stop a nuclear disaster but uneffected due to being superpowered beings; Miss America though is pregnant and a silly story of their son being put in a chrono module (stassis) and stored away until the radiation would subside. Miss America goes on to have Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver before dying of childbirth.

1976: The Avengers Annual #6 Retconned Whizzer's Golden Age origin citing mongoose bloose infusion not the source of his powers but simply what triggered latent mutant ability perhaps in attempt to tie in why Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver further (this of course retconned later so not matter).

1977: What If #4 After Captain america and Bucky had apparent demise at end of WW2 (Avengers Vol.1#4), this "What-If" issue goes with notion second Bucky and Captain America (Fred Davis now Bucky and William Naslund, formerly the superhero Spirit of '76 as Captain America)—created a post-war team, the "All-Winners Squad" (this seems to differ somewhat from the "All Winner's Squad" referenced in Giant Sized Avengers 1 above).

Roster Included:
Miss America
Captain America (diff. persons as mentioned above)
The Human Torch
Namor, The Sub-Mariner
Whizzer
Toro
Bucky (diff. person as mentioned above)
*Blonde Phantom and Original Angel later added as well

Random Appearances: Even though derived from "What-If" comic, this retconned version of Golden Age "All-Winners Squad" made flashback appearance in The Sensational She-Hulk #22 (Dec. 1990), w/Blonde Phantom in "All Winners Comics 70th Anniversary Special" (2009) and "Captain America: Patriot" (2010).

The team's first modern appearance is in What If? #4 (Aug. 1977), an alternate universe umbrella series. A canonical portion of the story reveals that when Captain America/Steve Rogers and Bucky were presumed dead in 1945, U.S. President Truman asked William Naslund, the patriotically costumed Golden Age hero the Spirit of '76, to assume the Captain America role, with a young man named Fred Davis as Bucky. They continue to serve in the same roles after the war with the All-Winners Squad, until the android Adam II fatally injured Naslund in 1946.

After Naslund's death, Jeff Mace, the Golden Age Patriot, took over as Captain America, with Davis continuing as Bucky; however, Davis was shot and injured in 1948 and forced to retire. Mace teamed with Betsy Ross, the superheroine Golden Girl, and sometime before 1953 gave up his Captain America identity to marry her. Mace developed cancer and died decades later

According to comicvine:

After World War II, The All-winners Squad decided to fight injustices in America rather than going against enemies involving foreign countries. The All-Winners battled Adam-2, an android who built an army of robots set out to destroy the world. Later on they faced a villain named Future Man, a time traveler from the year 1,000,000 who hoped to destroy all of humanity in order to replace humans with his race so they could inhabit the Earth. The Squad also ends up going against She-Hulk who traveled back in time to help some gangsters to acquire the atomic bomb.

5) V Battalion:
1942: Comedy Comics 9 saw debut of V Battalion

The group was originally a British agency formed in World War II to fight Nazis.[1] The lead agent of the organization was John Watkins. However, in his superhero alter-ego, Citizen V, he was strangled to death by Heinrich Zemo. In time Heinrich hunted down and murdered most if not all of the original organization. Citizen V's pregnant lover Paulette Brazee was kept in hiding to protect her and her unborn child. She would later give birth to a son named John (JJ) Watkins, Jr. and marry a soldier she met in Europe. In time both Paulette and JJ took up the mantle as Citizen V as well as JJ's son John Watkins III.

1999: Thunderbolts vol.1 27 (retconned version of golden age V-Battalion; post-war "All Winner's Squad" serves as inspiration for this version of V-Battallion)

Full team membership and additional info. found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-Battalion Brief synopsis is as follows:

With the original organization destroyed, a group of Golden Age heroes choose to reconstitute the group, including Roger Aubrey (the Destroyer), Betty Barstow (Silver Scorpion), and Helmut Grueler (Iron Cross). The organization operated out of the Symkaria and one of their primary missions was to hunt down Nazi war criminals.

The V Battalion remained a secret organization for many decades. When the Thunderbolts came onto the scene the V Battalion was interested in the fact that there was a new Citizen V claiming to be the previously unknown grandson of the original Citizen V

2001-2002: 2 limited series spun out of Thunderbolts series "Citizen V and the V-Battalion" and "Citizen V and the V-Battalion: The Everlasting"

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Out of all these the one that I want to see onscreen more than any other is Moon Knight!

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Hey everyone, let's discuss "classic" Marvel characters, which I'll define as "appearing no later than Star-Lord (1976)", who are legal to use but have yet to make a film appearance....

18. Madame Hydra/Viper. She kind of replaced Baron Strucker as leader of Hydra, then she left Hydra and changed her name? Captain America/SHIELD villainess, basically.

Didn't she appear in The Wolverine?

 

[Yowza]

I'd like to see a marvel multiverse at some point to perhaps do different takes on certain characters. A Timely/Atlas Comics world would be kind of interesting if done right at some point.

A film based on Earth X (or perhaps Marvels) would be interesting as well. I know that's not necessarily pre-1976 but has an interesting vibe/tone that I think a timely/atlas comics throwback movie could utilize.

Edit: On a random note: Reporter Phil Sheldon appears in Marvels, Kingdom Come, and Spider-Man:Blue; an unassuming character that's sort of extended beyond the 4th wall to become a multi-dimensional reporter one can imagine.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

A film based on Earth X (or perhaps Marvels) would be interesting as well.

I'd be up for a Marvels movie.

 

[halo10]

since Morbius is on it's way with its' own movie, i'll have to scratch this off. a few not really remaining but would be considerable ideal for series.


Elektra - i think she would make a great spinoff and story write but is she still very much in the daredevil series plots.

Kingpin - another that i think would be a great story write, and could lead to other spinoffs and origins.

Magneto - great story potential and write and opening for spinoffs and appearances,

black widow - so long as Avenger movies are going on and others have her rights.....

Hawkeye - is it too much in competition and sideshow with DC's Arrow ?

Ghost rider - still think GR and Hell Fire Club would be great story and ratings getter.

She hulk - if done right but would this put pressure to have Hulk appaerances.

Black cat - father thief story, crime fill street life.

Sons of the Tiger - i think this would be an excellent write, plot, character development and origins.

Namor the Submariner - think it would too expensive and how would they do the underwater world ?

Hell fire club- if netflix could only get the rights from FOX after they decided to bail....

Imperial Guard, alpha flight, Asgard and Brotherhood of Evil Mutants may be too budget expensive for their own series.

 

[Samuron]

There’s starfox but hed definitely wouldn’t work post #metoo.

Someone mentioned Shang chi, oh my gosh I’m dying to see him appear

I really wanted Starfox to be Starlord's dad.


And Shang Chi, absolutely, though honestly, that makes more sense as a series.