Arguably, the biggest challenge that Avengers: Doomsday presents for the Russo Brothers is finding screen time for the entire roster of Marvel Comics’ superheroes across both the MCU and the 20th Century Fox era. Of course, that pales in comparison to the headache that would have accompanied the inclusion of the 80,000+ characters that are peppered throughout the long history of Marvel’s comic books.
Not that anyone’s complaining: the lineup as it stands, a healthy cross-section of heroes both well-known and, at least at one point in time, obscure (we’re looking at you, Guardians of the Galaxy) is still enough to make us nerds of the world drool. Still, there are a number of Marvel heroes who are deserving of the big screen, and if not for the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars, then at least in Phase 7 of the MCU. Here are the ten that should be at the top of the list, in no particular order.
10
Howard the Duck
Wait, wasn’t there already a Howard the Duck movie? Why yes, yes there was. And it sucked. For that reason alone, the cynical, short-tempered anthropomorphic duck deserves another shot. Plus, his cameos in the Guardian of the Galaxy movies and Marvel’s What If…? series were well-received, teasing a potential future in the MCU that has yet to manifest. Just make it happen, Kevin Feige.
9
Alpha Flight
Everyone knows Wolverine as a member of the X-Men, but his roots lie north of Lake Ontario in the Great White North, Canada, and superhero team Alpha Flight. Overseen by the Canadian military and answering directly to the Canadian Prime Minister, Alpha Flight is, for all intents and purposes, the Canadian Avengers. Founded by scientist James Hudson (who, along with his wife Heather, found Wolverine in the wild after the Weapon X program and nursed him back to health), the team consisted of Wolverine; Hudson, whose exosuit gave him powers as Guardian; twin mutants Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, known respectively as Northstar and Aurora, with powers of super-speed and light generation; Walter Langkowski, aka the giant fur-covered Hulk-like beast Sasquatch; First Nations medicine man Michael Twoyoungmen, aka Shaman; and Snowbird, an Inuk demi-goddess.
Their ties to the very popular Wolverine are well-documented, and with the X-Men poised to center the MCU’s Phase 7, it certainly wouldn’t be difficult to bring in Alpha Flight. Like Captain Britain, it adds an international element, albeit much closer to home, that would be a welcome element. And they’d certainly be much more polite.
8
Squirrel Girl
Canadian Doreen Green learned that she could communicate with squirrels at the age of 10, along with other squirrel-like abilities and a prehensile tail, the result of an unknown modification in her genes (but not a mutant). In her first appearance in 1991, Doreen, now 14, finds Iron Man in a forest and works hard to convince him that she should be his sidekick. Her and her pet squirrel Monkey Joe, that is. Doreen makes a solid case for it by rescuing Iron Man from Doctor Doom (!) with the help of a horde of squirrels (which she would also use to take out Maelstrom later on). He still declines her request, but does offer to put in a good word for her to the Avengers when she’s older. Years later, now living in New York City, Squirrel Girl joins the Great Lakes Avengers, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Squirrel Girl is a fun, fun character and deceptively powerful in her own right (did we mention she took out Doctor Doom?), and she’s already been tossed around as a possible addition to the MCU, with Anna Kendrick attached to the role. And if the Great Lakes Avengers does become a thing as hoped, then BOOM. Done. But why should I convince you of Squirrel Girl’s awesomeness when Collider already has?
7
Captain Britain
Captain Britain was created as an exclusive British character to serve as the flagship title of Marvel UK, debuting in the pages of Captain Britain #1 in October 1976, and while three people have held the title, the name most commonly associated with the character is also the first: Brian Braddock. Hailing from the town of Maldon in Essex, Brian left his home after the loss of his parents (believed to be due to a lab accident before later revealed as murder) to study at the Thames University in London. He also spent downtime working at the Darkmoor Nuclear Research Facility, which unfortunately timed with it being attacked by the Reaver. Brian escaped and tried to get help, but the Reaver ran his motorcycle off the road and down a cliff.
Brian lay fatally wounded, but was woken by Merlyn, the magician, and his daughter, Roma. They offered him the chance to save his life by selecting either the Amulet of Right or the Sword of Might. Brian chose the amulet, transforming into Captain Britain and defeating the Reaver. From that point on, whenever needed, all Brian had to do was touch the amulet and become Captain Britain. The character has a strong connection with the X-Men, given his twin sister Betsy, who also held the mantle of Captain Britain, is on the team of mutants as Psylocke, so it would be an easy progression in Phase 7. It would also give the MCU an international element that is largely missing.
6
Nova
A film centered on Nova is reportedly already in the pipeline (and teased to a degree with the Nova Corps’ prominent role in Guardians of the Galaxy), as well it should be. As the story goes, the last surviving member of Xandar’s elite Nova Corps, Rhomann Dey, selects New York high school student Richard Rider to replace him. As a Nova Centurion, Rider has the uniform and powers that come with the role, derived from the Nova Force, giving him powers of flight, superhuman strength, speed, and the ability to redirect energy used against him as gravimetric pulses and beams. But without instructions, Rider has a steep learning curve ahead of him.
Nova has elements of Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, The Greatest American Hero and DC’s Green Lantern Corps all rolled into one, so it’s not all that surprising the character would be on the radar for his own feature. It’s probably more surprising that it hasn’t happened already.
5
Spider-Woman
Reportedly created to fast-track the copyright on the name “Spider-Woman,” the character, introduced in 1977, found success quickly. Her origin, retconned in 2006, saw Jessica Drew gain her powers in her infancy, the result of experiments performed on her by her father that added the genome of a spider to her own. It gave her great strength and agility, the power to generate venom blasts, wall-crawling and the ability to release disruptive pheromones, but also led to her being in a coma state for years. When she was revived, Hydra manipulated her into becoming an agent, but Jessica soon realized their criminal intent and turned to fighting crime as the vigilante Spider-Woman, and as a private investigator in her Jessica Drew persona.
Spider-Woman should have her own film, and as of this writing, there are 2.4 billion plus reasons why. The phenomenal success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day has thrown the doors open for expanding on its success, and a Spider-Woman movie would definitely fit the bill. The private investigator angle, plus the variances in her comparable abilities, are also positives, setting her aside just enough so that a storyline doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, feel repetitive and less opportunistic.
4
Blue Marvel
Created by Kevin Grevioux and Mat Broome, Adam Brashear was a former fullback at Cornell before enrolling in the Marines to serve in the Korean War. Following the war, Brashear turned to science, and headed an initiative to harness anti-matter from the Negative Zone as a source of power. Only the reactor for the project became unstable, raining radiation on Brashear and turning him into a superpowered “antimatter reactor”: Blue Marvel. Super strength, stamina, speed, capable of manipulating energy, light, and anti-matter thanks to the accident, in addition to his hand-to-hand combat skills, Blue Marvel is powerful… and Black.
It’s the latter that makes Blue Marvel a strong candidate for a film. A Black superhero forced to retire in the 1960s after his secret identity is revealed, sparking outrage from the public that their hero wasn’t white, speaks to a racism that is as prevalent today as it ever was. And with news surrounding Michael B. Jordan‘s Black Superman project, Val Zod, scarce, having a movie about a Black man who is, for all intents and purposes, Superman-like, would certainly fill that void.
3
The Great Lakes Avengers
In the pages of West Coast Avengers #46 (July 1989), Craig Hollis is left for dead after being shot by thieves, only he doesn’t die. In fact, he can’t die: Craig Hollis learns the hard way that he’s immortal. So he decides to become Mr. Immortal, crime-fighter, only the art of simply not dying isn’t entirely feasible for working alone. To that end, he places an ad in a local Milwaukee newspaper, looking for others like himself. Answering the call are Dinah Soar, a humanoid pterosaur with flight and sonic scream abilities; Ashley Crawford, aka Big Bertha, who can alter size and mass; Flatman (Dr. Val Ventura), who is, well, flat; and DeMarr Davis, aka Doorman, who can teleport people and/or objects through solid matter by using his own body.
Together, they form the Great Lakes Avengers… no, the Lightning Rods. Nope. S.W.O.R.D. The Great Lakes X-Men? The Great Lakes Champions? No, it circled back to the Great Lakes Avengers. As you can gather, they’re more comedic in nature, satirical misfits in the vein of Mystery Men. Like that cult classic, there’s potential to have a lot of fun with the Great Lakes Avengers, and a film in the MCU that exists solely as a goofy comedy would bring something refreshing to the table.
2
Beta Ray Bill
What do you get when you cross Thor and Mr. Ed? Korbinite warrior Beta Ray Bill, a character created by Walt Simonson for The Mighty Thor #337 in 1983. He was the assigned protector of a ship filled with Korbinite refugees, left homeless after Surtur destroys their home planet, and when Thor approaches the ship, Beta Ray Bill assumes the worst, given his powers are similar to Surtur’s, and attacks. They fight, with Beta Ray Bill coming out on top and claiming Mjölnir for himself, the first time anyone outside Asgard was deemed worthy to do so. So worthy that Odin orders the dwarves of Svartalfheim to build a new hammer for Beta Ray Bill from the same metal as Mjölnir: Stormbreaker.
His unique equine look is purposeful, with Simonson saying, “I designed Bill deliberately as a monster, because I knew that people would look at it and go, ‘Oh my God, it’s this evil guy.’ I deliberately wrote them so you weren’t sure in the beginning if he was a good guy or a bad guy.” It worked fabulously, with Beta Ray Bill quickly becoming a fan favorite as a staunch, honorable ally of Thor’s over the years. He’s a character fans would love to see come alive on screen, and certainly in a bigger manner than the passing “cameo” he was given in Thor: Ragnarok. As his history would suggest, he’s certainly worthy.
1
Ka-Zar
The first Ka-Zar, David Rand, appeared in the pulp magazine Ka-Zar #1 in October 1936 from Manvis Publishing before moving over to Timely Comics, which would eventually become Marvel Comics, meaning Ka-Zar is, technically, Marvel’s first comic book hero. He was also more brazenly a Tarzan wannabe, whose last appearance was in Marvel Mystery Comics #27 in 1942. He would find new life in 1965, recreated by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for The X-Men #10 as Kevin Reginald, Lord Plunder, the son of an English nobleman. His father is the one who discovered the Savage Land, a region hidden in Antarctica populated by dinosaurs, and was killed soon after. Luckily, a saber-toothed cat named Zabu of near-human intelligence, found and raised him.
He would grow to become the unofficial protector of the Savage Land, which is where his encounters with the larger Marvel universe stem from. He’s fought alongside the X-Men, the Avengers, Daredevil and the Hulk against the likes of Terminus, Kraven the Hunter, and even Thanos, who he beat in hand-to-hand combat in 1998’s Ka-Zar #11. Oh, and he also happened to be a herald of Galactus between 2021 and 2023. Long story short, Ka-Zar has crossed paths with a lot of other heroes and villains, most of which are already in, or about to be, in the MCU, so there is a natural connection there, and seeing the Savage Land — and Shanna the She-Devil — on film would be pretty sweet. Besides, at 90-years-old and counting, Ka-Zar’s put in his time.
