3 Forgotten Marvel Teams That Could Give the MCU Something Completely Different and Worth Watching

There’s a funny thing about being a Marvel fan for a long time. You start looking past the standard MCU and want to see more comic characters come to life. The Avengers have been around the block. The Fantastic Four have been reimagined, so to speak. The X-Men are about to be the new kids on the block. But then you open up some older back issues and if you can appreciate the classic comics, you start wondering what these books would be like on-screen.

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Marvel has hundreds of characters and dozens of teams that could take the MCU in a completely different direction. Not everyone needs to save the multiverse. Some just need a great hook, a little personality, and enough comic-book adaptation to make fans sit up in their seats. And there are three teams in particular that could do exactly that. One could open the door to Marvel’s strangest fantasy adventure yet. Another could bring retro street-level grit back. And the last one could give new meaning to the idea of underage superheroes.

3) Excalibur is Fun Marvel Adventure Waiting to Happen

Remember when Marvel movies were allowed to have fun? That’s the first thing that comes to mind with Excalibur. The team brought together some familiar faces, including Captain Britain, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Rachel Summers, Meggan, and Lockheed. But this wasn’t simply the X-Men with a different logo. Not even close. Excalibur went wandering into Otherworld, alternate realities, strange magic, monsters, and all sorts of gloriously bonkers Marvel mythology. It was superhero comics with one foot in fantasy and the other somewhere in another dimension.

The great thing about Excalibur was that Marvel didn’t really want it to be another X-Men book. That was the whole point. Chris Claremont and Alan Davis took characters audiences already knew and dropped them into something much more playful, fantastical, and, yes, occasionally absurd. This was the late ’80s, when superhero comics were increasingly discovering how far they could go with darker, more serious stories. Excalibur went the other way. Captain Britain and the crew could still face serious danger, but they could also get caught up in bizarre adventures, alternate worlds, and British mythology. Many of their situations simply wouldn’t fit the tone of the main X-Men books, and that’s why pretty much all of these heroes have never appeared in the MCU. It was Marvel giving these characters permission to have fun.

2) Wolfpack Could Give the MCU a Retro Team

If the MCU wants to surprise people, it could do something very simple. Go back to the streets of the ’80s. Wolfpack debuted in Marvel’s 1987 graphic novel, written by Larry Hama and drawn by Ron Wilson. The premise sounds almost like someone dared Marvel to combine a street gang, a secret martial-arts school, and an ancient legend. Five teenagers from the South Bronx are brought together by the mysterious Mr. Mack, who has secretly trained them in combat, stealth, strategy, speed, and endurance. Then he tells them their territory is the Bronx. And their mission is protecting it. Suddenly, you’re not dealing with another billionaire in armor or a powerful alien from another planet. You’re dealing with kids who actually know the streets they’re fighting for.

The characters are what make Wolfpack worth digging up. Malcolm Brown, Rafael Vega, Sharon, Slag, and Slippery Sam each bring their own personalities and skills to the group. Rafael eventually finds himself tangled up with the mysterious organization known as the Nine. Then things get dark. Really dark. This wasn’t a cute superhero team. The book dealt with ‘80s-era gangs, crime, betrayal, family, and the brutal realities of the neighborhood these characters called home. And that could make Wolfpack surprisingly useful to the MCU. Imagine a retro series that stays true to the comics and the era it’s from—in the same vein as Stranger Things.

1) Power PackCould Bring an MCU Show For All Ages

Louise Simonson and June Brigman introduced Power Pack in 1984, and Marvel immediately had something it didn’t really have anywhere else: four kids with superpowers who still had to deal with being kids. Alex, Julie, Jack, and Katie Power weren’t Avengers-in-training. They were siblings. Their father, Dr. James Power, gets caught up in a dangerous experiment involving the alien Kymellian Aelfyre Whitemane, or Whitey, and before long, his children inherit Whitey’s powers. Just like that, the Power family has a much bigger problem than finishing their homework. They have to save the world.

And the powers make the whole thing even better. Alex becomes Zero-G and can control gravity. Julie becomes Lightspeed, flying through the air with a rainbow trail behind her. Jack can change his density as Mass Master, while Katie, the youngest, becomes Energizer, absorbing and blasting energy. They can even swap powers, which makes the team surprisingly versatile. Over 62 issues, Power Pack went from alien adventures to encounters with the X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Morlocks. It had that perfect old-school Marvel mix of family comedy, superhero action, and cosmic craziness. Honestly, you can almost hear the Saturday morning theme song already. And that might be exactly why Marvel Studios should be paying attention.

Maybe that’s the real magic of digging through Marvel’s back issues. It’s the same with the MCU’s top 3 forgotten X-Men villainswaiting in the wings. The next great MCU idea might not be hiding in some cosmic future—it might already be sitting in a long box, waiting for somebody to remember why it was so much fun in the first place. If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and read these original titles to get a better understanding of what classic Marvel comics were like. What do you think about seeing a live-action version of these forgotten Marvel teams?

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