8 Great Comic Book Characters Who Were Completely Wasted In Fox's Marvel Movies

When it comes to adapting Marvel properties, Fox has a well deserved bad reputation, and looking at the Fantastic Four and X-Men franchises, these characters really suffered at the studio's hands.

By JoshWilding - Oct 07, 2016 08:10 AM EST

Filed Under: X-Men

The first two X-Men movies were excellent, and while the likes of The Wolverine, Deadpool, and X-Men: Days of Future Past have also impressed, an even longer list of terrible Marvel Comics adaptations mean that many fans still have no faith in 20th Century Fox. While the movies themselves being terrible has played a big role in that, an even greater issue is just how many great characters they've f***ked up. In all honestly, it wouldn't be hard to make one of these lists for each of their franchises!

However, rather than making you relive that many horrible memories, we've rounded up the eight heroes and villains who suffered most at the hands of Fox in the Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Wolverine, and X-Men franchises. You may think you know who will be listed here, but there are some unexpected faces here who we'll hopefully make you realise were squandered every bit as much as the likes of the Man Without Fear and Ben Grimm. As a result, expect this list to make you hate Fox all over again...

8. Cyclops

It's a tough time to be a Cyclops fan. Right now, Death of X is telling the story of his downfall in the Marvel Universe, but even that pales in comparison to how poorly the movie version has been handled over the years. Bryan Singer took a character who was a fearless leader and turned him into a jealous love rival with a personality so boring that it at times was hard not to root for Wolverine to get the girl.

When James Marsden made the decision to follow Singer to Superman Returns, Brett Ratner took this already botched version of Scott Summers and made things even worse in what has to be one of the all-time worst death scenes in a comic book movie. Having him basically go nuts and get killed offscreen was an insult, but he was such a non-entity in these movies that he wasn't even really missed from The Last Stand's final act.

In fairness to Marsden, he did the best he could and was a solid enough choice to play the character. However, this Cyclops just didn't work, and that hurt those original X-Men movies no matter how many other good points they may have had. Tye Sheridan fared better in X-Men: Apocalypse, but there's still a lot of work to be done here.

In the comic books, Typhoid Mary is a wonderfully complex Daredevil villain who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Her three personalities are all vastly different, though her fighting abilities and low level psychic powers have made her a formidable threat over the years (she even served as The Kingpin's assassin for a time). Unfortunately, the

movie decided to throw pretty much all of that out of the window. Taking the name a little too literally, the makers of that critically panned spinoff turned Mary into just another ninja with the ability to emit poisonous gas from her body. All of a sudden, this interesting comic book character was transformed into a generic villain who I'm willing to bet that you had a) forgotten before reading this, and b) totally didn't realise she was supposed to be the same Typhoid Mary from the comics.

Just like the many unnecessary cameos in the X-Men movies featuring multiple versions of beloved characters in name alone - you could make this entire list about that lot - Typhoid Mary is a perfect example of Fox just plucking a character from the comics and forcing them into a role they have no place being in. Thankfully, the right to her are now back at Marvel Studios, so hopefully Daredevil's TV show can set things right with her somwhere down the line.

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6. Mystique

Jennifer Lawrence's well-deserved popularity may have turned Mystique into the new face of the X-Men franchise, but there's something very wrong with that. After an interesting new take on her origin story in X-Men: First Class, that movie ended with her joining up with Magneto's Brotherhood, a decision which felt like the perfect way of placing the character on the path to becoming a villain. Sadly, things went downhill from there.

By the time Days of Future Past rolled around, Lawrence had clearly become too popular for Fox to portray her as a baddie, and while Mystique was conflicted at times, she was clearly entering hero territory. Now, with the shapeshifting mutant leading a squad of X-Men at the conclusion of Apocalypse, her transformation into a full on superhero has been completed, and that's the worst possible way to handle this character.

The original X-Men trilogy didn't do the best of jobs with Mystique, but at least she was a villain in those. Ignoring her duplicitous and manipulative nature is a wasted opportunity, as is glossing over her ties to characters like Rogue and Nightcrawler. As a result, it feels like this Mystique only exists for a certain demographic, and many great storytelling possibilities have been completely squandered as a result.

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5. The Invisible Woman

Jessica Alba was horribly miscast as Sue Storm in the original Fantastic Four movie, but so too was everyone else (well, Chris Evans as The Human Torch was pretty spot on to be fair). Far more problematic is how the character was portrayed in last year's reboot by the usually excellent Kate Mara. It really says a lot that the most memorable part of this latest take on The Invisible Woman was that horrendous wig from the reshoots! While portraying Sue as being every bit as intelligent as Reed was a step forward, the movie ended up taking ten back by leaving her behind when the boys took a drunken trip to the Negative Zone.

In fact, she only really got her powers by fortuitously showing up in the right place at the right time, and she immediately felt less important to the overall story due to her origin story essentially singling Sue out as an afterthought. A crucial mistake made by both movies however is failing to show just how powerful The Invisible Woman is. She may not be made of rock or have the ability to throw balls of fire, but she's a force to be reckoned with; can you honesty remember a single scene which came close to depicting that in any of her previous big screen appearances? None of the Fantastic Four have been treated well, but Sue has had the worst of it!

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4. Apocalypse

I actually liked X-Men: Apocalypse, but yes, I'm well aware that I'm in the minority! I even thought that Oscar Isaac was pretty great as En Sabah Nur (despite being plastered in prosthetics), but at the end of the day, there's no denying that the character wasn't utilised to his full potential here. While he certainly served this particular story fairly well, this version of the iconic X-Men villain failed to live up to his comic book counterpart both in terms of his appearance - he really should have been a fully CGI creation - and the way his powers were portrayed.

Bryan Singer grounded him a little too much, and while he and writer Simon Kinberg did delve into his background to at least some extent, none of it was anywhere near as fantasical and big as it should have been. Ideally, this movie should have delivered an Age of Apocalypse type storyline, but thanks to the way he was dispatched with at the end of the movie, the chances of Apocalypse returning somewhere down the line now look to be somewhere between slim and none, and that's pretty unforgivable.

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3. Rogue

Bryan Singer apparently ordered the cast of X-Men not to read any comics before shooting, and his lack of interest in following the source material shows when it comes to Rogue. Her ability to borrow the powers of other mutants was barely touched on, while her super strength and flight were removed in preference of giving her abilities which ensured her story revolved around an inability to get a boyfriend and little else. The decision to pair her up with the equally uninteresting Iceman (another character sorely wasted in these movies) was a major blunder and meant that her far more interesting relationship with Gambit would never be touched on.

Rogue was so poorly handled that her being cut from X-Men: Days of Future Past was no bad thing, though it was obviously a shame to see that she's still dating Iceman in the newly created timeline. The biggest problem with Rogue is that while she certainly served a purpose in the X-Men movies, Anna Paquin's take on the fan-favourite character felt like a pale imitation of her comic book counterpart. She should have been one of the most powerful mutants in these movies, but being demoted to an annoying teenager better suited to a YA series means that she sticks out as one of the franchise's biggest missed opportunities.

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2. Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom is quite possibly the greatest Marvel villain of all-time, so the fact that Fox have royally f***ed him up on two (technically three if you could his back to back appearances in Tim Story's Fantastic Four movies) occasions now is heartbreaking. Perhaps the most shocking thing is that both franchise's made the same horrible mistake; for starters, that included him being transformed along with the heroic foursome.

There was absolutely no need to tie Doom's origin story into their own, and transforming him into some sort of electrically powered metal man completely missed the point of why he puts that mask on and goes after the Fantastic Four. Why couldn't Doom just be a Latverian dictator - with some history with Reed from their college days - who the team clashes with? While Julian McMahon was always a horrible casting choice for the role, the talented Toby Kebbell could have done great things with Doom given the chance.

Instead, he was a two dimensional villain who proved to be even more forgettable than the first try to bring this bad guy to the big screen. With the future of the Fantastic Four franchise now in doubt, it could be years until we get to see Doctor Doom finally done properly. Here's hoping Marvel Studios regain the rights, eh?

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1. Wolverine

For what it's worth, I actually love Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. However, "Hugh Jackman's Wolverine" sadly pales in comparison to the character's comic book counterpart, and no matter how enjoyable it may be seeing the Australian actor in these movies, his portrayal will never truly be a satisfying one. Among the two biggest fan complains are the fact he's never worn the costume and is actually far too tall to play the character. Those are both valid (the scene teasing the classic costume which was cut from The Wolverine is just cruel), but there are a plethora of other problems with Wolverine. For starters, he's kind of an a**hole.

His attempts to steal Jean Grey from Cyclops make Logan pretty unlikeable in places, though that's a minor frustration compared to how the movies have failed to delve into his enhanced senses and animalistic nature. We've never even seen a proper Beserker Rage! However, by far the biggest way in which Fox screwed up Wolverine is with his origin story. Everything from making Sabretooth his half-brother to why Logan decided to join up with Weapon X just felt wrong, while his memory being wiped out by what was essentially a magic bullet is unbelievably stupid. Yes, Jackman is great, but there's a huge amount of room for improvement.

Which of these characters do you think has been wasted in the worst way in Fox's Marvel movies? As always, be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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