With the MCU having now run for nearly two decades, tons of stories have been told, and some to great effect. Steve Rogers’ tragic arc as a man out of time; Tony Stark’s conflict over his fatally obsessive need to protect the Earth; Hulk’s struggle with identity… All are now iconic parts of Marvel cinematic lore. But it’s also fair to say that some others aren’t nearly as good as others. While fans fondly remember storylines like the quest to collect the Infinity Stones, the breakup of the Avengers, and Wanda and Vision’s relationship, some MCU subplots aren’t looked back on nearly as fondly.
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Throughout its run, the MCU has had to make a lot of pivots. As a result, some abandoned characters and storylines have severely hurt ongoing or established subplots, while other storylines were just bad from the beginning. While all of these stories had potential, these five completely fell on their face, and most Marvel fans wouldn’t feel bad about them being wiped out of memory completely
5) Baron Mordo’s Quest To Kill Sorcerers
Baron Mordo was one of the most interesting characters in the first Doctor Strange, with him going from a committed sorcerer to being completely disillusioned with magic. Due to Strange breaking the rules of time travel in order to defeat Dormammu, Mordo denounces his role as a sorcerer and dedicates himself to thinning out the number of sorcerers on Earth. The post-credits scene sees Mordo take the magic from a sorcerer, implying that a Doctor Strange sequel would see Strange deal with the fallout of Mordo’s villainous quest.
Unfortunately, this storyline was completely dropped. Due to the MCU shifting to focus on the Multiverse Saga, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had to tell a multiversal story, causing Mordo to fall to the wayside. Strange does meet a variant of Mordo while in the Illuminati’s universe, but this doesn’t continue the main Mordo’s storyline from the first film at all. A cut confrontation between Wanda and Mordo was supposed to wrap up this storyline, but even it wouldn’t have fleshed out the full potential of Mordo’s arc. This is one of the most disappointing arcs in MCU history, and Doctor Strange probably should have avoided it entirely.
4) Fat Thor
Avengers: Endgame is considered to be a really solid conclusion to the Infinity Saga, with it pulling off the seemingly impossible epic crossover event. Many of the storylines in the film are incredible, such as the journey through time, Iron Man’s return to Earth, and the fantastic final battle. Unfortunately, one of the original Avengers was subjected to the film’s worst storyline. After Infinity War moved away from Thor: Ragnarok by bringing Thor back to his more traditional, stoic self, fans were excited to see this version of Thor continue in Endgame. Unfortunately, Endgame saw Thor become goofier than ever, with his depression causing him to become an overweight, Fortnite-playing parody of Jeff Bridge’s The Dude.
Fat Thor is around for basically all of Endgame, with him not going back to his normal form until the critically panned Thor: Love and Thunder. Endgame‘s Fat Thor storyline is where public perception of Thor in the MCU began to fail, and Love and Thunder only made things worse. Due to this, many fans wish that Endgame had never gone this route, allowing Thor to stay closer to where he was in Infinity War. Luckily, Avengers: Doomsday seems to be making up for this, with the Thor Doomsday trailer showing a Thor that is more stoic than ever.
3) Hank Pym & His Army Of Futuristic Ants
The storyline of Kang the Conqueror was set to be one of the MCU’s most exciting. Jonathan Majors’ time-traveling villain was being built up as the next Thanos, with him set to appear in the next two Avengers movies. While the MCU pivoted away from Kang after Majors’ real-life legal issues came to light, things were already ruined by the MCU movie that introduced him: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The film made the odd choice to have Ant-Man be the first superhero that Kang faced off with, which is an odd choice considering the small-scale stories that the trilogy had become known for. The grandiose threat of Kang didn’t pair well with the comedic, off-the-walls Ant-Man schtick, and this is best exemplified by Hank’s futuristic ants.
When the main cast of Quantumania is sucked into the Quantum Realm, they are joined by some of Hank Pym’s everyday ants. Later in the film, it is revealed that they have hyperevolved while in the Quantum realm, gaining massive intelligence. These futuristic ants then rescue the main cast and assist in their quest to take down Kang. While this may fit in to a normal Ant-Man movie, when paired with Kang, it is just incredibly dumb. It is hard to build up Kang as an Avengers-level threat when he can’t defeat some ants, which is probably why the army (as well as the rest of the Quantumania cast) haven’t returned since.
2) Venom Is Transported To The MCU
Sony’s cinematic universe of Spider-Man villains is notorious, with films like Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter being panned across the board. These dollar bin Marvel movies were never part of the MCU, although they confusingly contained the Marvel branding. The lack of connections between the two movies is why the end of Venom: Let There Be Carnage was so monumental. At the end of the film, Eddie Brock and Venom are on a beach vacation. All of a sudden, they are transported into an alternate universe: the MCU. Venom recognizes Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, setting up Venom’s inclusion in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Unfortunately, this didn’t amount to anything. Venom appeared in a post-credits scene for No Way Home, with him sitting at a bar before being transported back to his home universe. A bit of symbiote goo is left behind, but this hasn’t affected the MCU in any way in the five years since the film’s release. The lack of importance Venom served makes the connection seem like nothing more than a scam, at the time making Let There Be Carnage seem like essential viewing, only for it to serve no purpose to the MCU.
1) Rhodey Is A Skrull
Secret Invasion may be the biggest misstep that the MCU has ever taken, with the boring, convuluted, and thematically messy, series being one of the worst Disney+ shows. While a Skrull Invasion of Earth should have changed the MCU forever, it has never been acknowledged since the show’s conclusion, implying that plans for the storyline’s future were abandoned after the show’s failure. There were a lot of awful choices made throughout Secret Invasion, but the worst choice the show made by far is when it was revealed that Rhodey is a Skrull.
Secret Invasion reveals that Rhodey was replaced by a Skrull impersonator shorlty after the events of Captain America: Civil War, meaning that from 2016 to 2023, MCU projects didn’t actually feature the real War Machine. Instead, the War Machine that is seen in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame is a Skrull, completely undercutting Rhodey’s emotional moments throughout the franchise. On top of everything else, this means that Tony Stark’s best friend didn’t actually see him die in Endgame. Instead, it was a Skrull. This has not been addressed in any other MCU project, and has done nothing for the MCU’s broader story. It seems like Rhodey was picked purely for shock value without considering the negative effects that the twist would have. So, while fans are hoping to forget about this storyline, it seems that the MCU already has.
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