Top 10 MCU Tie-in Comics Moments

Top 10 MCU Tie-in Comics Moments

One of the great things about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that in addition to the main movie series, there are also multiple levels of additional stories to be explored in various media forms, including various TV platforms, the DVD One-Shots, and (to some extent) the video games. Perhaps one of the more neglected realms of the MCU however are the tie-in comic books, a guide for which can be found here.

Whilst some of the tie-ins are admittedly not great, often feeling slightly constrained by the requirement to tie-in to the main MCU continuity that they aren’t able to offer stories of any real substance or introduce any new elements of their own for fear of treading on the toes of future movies way down the line (the Guardians of the Galaxy tie-ins are particularly dull and inconsequential in that regard). Many of them however are actually surprisingly good, offering not only interesting stories in their own right, but also a multitude of interesting connections to the movies and fun easter-eggs to discover, for which I offer you ten of my personal favourite moments below:
 
10. The “Damage Control” Team Clean Up

There are several tie-ins which deal with the events of the first Iron Man movie. “I Am Iron Man” is essentially a re-telling of the movie with a few additional scenes showing what Fury, Sitwell and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. were up to at key moments of the film, whilst “Iron Man: Security Measures” takes this one step further by showing an entire narrative from the point of view of Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. during the events of Iron Man 1.

My personal favourite Iron Man 1 moment however comes in the buddy-drama “Iron Man: Fast Friends”, during which Stark and Rhodey are given a tour of a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base where they glimpse the work of the Damage Control team who are cleaning up the mess caused by the Iron Monger battle.



Note: A similar Damage Control Easter-Egg can also be seen in the news headlines of a TV screen during the movie itself.

 
9. The Death of Howard and Maria Stark

Whilst the tie-ins for Iron Man 1 are fairly basic expansions on the original story, the main tie-in for Iron Man 2 (titled “Public Identity”) is a slightly more expansive story, offering an original narrative which fits in between the two movies. The main plot revolves around Iron Man having to rescue a downed American pilot in The Congo, however the main appeal here lies in the flashbacks which explore the deteriorating relationship between Tony and his father. The most poignant sequence of this shows Howard Stark departing for the fateful car journey with his wife, whilst an indifferent Tony is left unware that this would be the last time he ever saw his father.



Note: This book also offers what was at the time our first look at the human Jarvis prior to his later appearance in the Agent Carter TV show.
 
 
8. Jane Foster gets sent to Norway.

Like many of the other Preludes, the Thor 2 Prelude takes place between the two respective movies, though compared to some of the others it doesn’t really offer much in the way of a compelling narrative in its own right beyond simply filling in a few gaps and joining up a few dots, such as Odin using the Dark Energy to send Thor to earth during The Avengers and Loki being banished to the dungeons in the aftermath of New York.

On the earth bound side of things, the book also shows what happens when Jane Foster gets sent to Tromso in Norway – a throwaway line in The Avengers movie to explain the character’s absence which is played out more substantially here. As with the rest of the book the scene in itself isn’t all that revelatory or significant, but like a deleted scene in the DVD extras it’s fun to see all the same.



Note: Though always an integral part of the mythology, the handful of references to “Ragnarok” during this book now perhaps take on additional significance given the premise for the third Thor movie.
 

7. The Zodiac Reappears

The Winter Soldier Prelude takes the form of a short story in which Captain America and Brock Rumlow are sent on a mission to take down a group of Terrorists who have stolen “The Zodiac” (a device last seen in the Agent Carter one-shot) which they are threatening to unleash on downtown Chicago.

Whilst the story itself is something of a routine affair, it does start to sow the seeds of Captain America’s distrust in S.H.I.E.L.D. (who had assured him that The Zodiac had long since been destroyed) and the link back to the Agent Carter One Shot with The Zodiac makes for a fun Easter Egg.



Note: Just as S.H.I.E.L.D. lied about the destruction of The Zodiac, the weapons disposal site in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. known as “The Slingshot” was also revealed to have been a sham.


6. The Red Skull’s Origin

Whilst the Winter Soldier Prelude is a fairly inconsequential side-story, the tie-in for the First Avenger (titled “First Vengeance”) is a much more substantial affair, intercutting between Captain America on a mission during 1944, with key scenes from the backstories of various characters.

The Red Skull backstory here is particularly great, showing his rise to power with the Nazi Party during the 1930s, his first meetings with Abraham Erskine and Arnim Zola, as well as his eventual transformation into the Red Skull.



Note: Steve Rogers is shown to have grown up in Daredevil’s eventual neighbourhood of Hell’s Kitchen during this tale, though the death of his mother here perhaps doesn’t now match up with the flashback scenes featured in Winter Soldier.
 
 
 5. The Return of General Ross

2008’s The Incredible Hulk has always felt to me like the most disconnected of the Marvel movies (supposedly Edward Norton removed many of the film’s original S.H.I.E.L.D references during his extensive script re-writes) so it’s always nice when the tie-in comics find a way to bring characters from this movie back into the fold and help tie the movies together more strongly. For at least two of the tie-in comic books this means the return of General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross.



Note: I always thought it was a shame that they didn’t find a way to include General Ross in Thor, The Avengers or any other such movie that required a generic military figure-head, even if just for a brief cameo.

 
4. The Betrayal of Anton Vanko

I was slightly disappointed that Agent Carter didn’t make better use of its Anton Vanko cameo – given the Russian connection there was perhaps some scope for drawing a link between him and Leviathan, but hopefully that’s something they could explore in later seasons should they wish. As it is, the tie-in “Public Identity” remains our only insight into the history between Vanko and Stark Snr, with just the briefest of snapshots on the moment he was arrested:



Note: “Public Identity” also features a young Obadiah Stane, another character who would be cool to see in a later series of Marvel’s Agent Cater (depending on how fast they want to move the timeline forward on that show – perhaps a different decade for each season would be a fun way to mix things up?)

 
3. Rhodey turns up late for Shawarma

The “Iron Man 3 Prelude” takes place between the second and third Iron Man movies, during which Rhodey gets sent off to tackle the Ten Ring’s threat abroad whilst Tony oversees the final stages of construction on Stark Tower.

Whilst the story itself isn’t that great (predominantly featuring War Machine taking on a Ten Rings cell in Hong Kong who have acquired black-market weaponry from the now incarcerated Justin Hammer) it does end with an amusing moment in which Rhodey finally manages to make it back to New York City, just seconds late for the movie’s post-credits Shawarma scene.



Note: This book also reveals where Rhodey got the War Machine/Iron Patriot armour from, given that the original Mark II armour he stole in Iron Man 2 was seen fully restored in Tony Stark’s Hall of Armours during Iron Man 3.
 
 
2. The Ten Rings Threat

The Ten Rings provide the antagonists for a number of the tie-in comics. Not only does this allow the comic-books to show more of Iron Man’s day-to-day superhero activities compared to the movies, but it also emphasises the idea that taking down the Ten Rings is as much a personal vendetta for Tony as it is a civic duty, something I feel was sorely missing from Iron Man 3.

Surely after finally has tracking down The Mandarin, the apparent head of a Terrorist Organisation which had such an influential part in the creation of Tony Stark as Iron Man, only to find out the entire thing was seemingly a sham set up by Aldrich Killian, why does this not cause Tony Stark to question his entire identity and world view? Despite these gripes, it’s fun to see the threat of the Ten Rings build-up throughout the comic book tie-in series, even if I feel this build-up was slightly squandered by Iron Man 3.



Note: The “All Hail The King” one-shot does help to clarify the distinction between Aldrich Killian’s faux Ten Rings (of which Trevor Slattery was a member), and the “Real” Ten Rings (of which Raza from Iron Man 1 is identified as having belonged to) but surely Tony Stark would not have known this during his unmasking of the Mandarin?


1.The Fate of Samuel Sterns.

My final choice comes from my overall favourite book, the Avengers tie-in book “Fury’s Big Week”. The story weaves between key events from Iron Man 2, Thor and The Incredible Hulk over the course of a week, showing how Nick Fury and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team were dealing with the various unfolding situations – a fun insight which is particularly beneficial in the case of the largely “SHIELD-less” Incredible Hulk.

I could probably have chosen 10 moments alone from this book alone – the search for Steve Rogers in the arctic, Hawkeye stopping by the trashed Roxxon Gas Station (the one seen in the “…Thor’s Hammer” one-shot), Black Widow undercover at Culver University during the Army’s confrontation with the Hulk, or The Destroyer from Thor being loaded onto an aircraft at a Roswell airbase.
But by far the coolest geek-out moment for me in this book for me was showing what happened to Samuel Sterns (aka The Leader) at the end of The Incredible Hulk, a loose-end from the movie that was clearly left open for a potential sequel that never materialised, which is finally given it’s dues here.



Note: Agents of SHIELD revealed that Emil Blonsky (aka Abomination) was being held in a cyro-cell in Alaska during Phase 2 (one of the show’s better movie references), though sadly no reference was ever made to tie-in Samuel Sterns, though perhaps one for the future?

 
So there are my 10 picks! The “Age of Ultron Prelude” and “Ant-Man Prelude” haven’t yet been released in Collected Edition form, so aren’t feature in my countdown, but hopefully there will be many more fun moments to be had from these books in the future. If you have any thoughts or suggestions for your own favourite moments please share below!