Marvel is the undisputed superhero leader, both in comics and movies. The MCU has been putting out the biggest movies anyone has ever seen for a long time and while many of those movie fans want to pretend they're comic accurate, they're usually only so on a surface level. Marvel Studios has butchered a lot of great comics stories but that doesn't mean they can't improve on some stories that have divided fans for years.
There are a lot of comics out there that caused an uproar or are generally unloved but would actually make very good movies. Comics fans may not love them but movies fans might.
10 One More Day Could Finally Give MCU Fans What They Want, Mephisto
One More Day is infamous among Spider-Man fans. Fans hated that the story retconned Spider-Man's marriage but it's hard to deny that cool scenes in the comic, including Spider-Man just owning Iron Man. Great visuals are important to a movie and the film version wouldn't have the same stigma the comic did.
While it would take some setup, a One More Day movie has a lot going for it. On top of that, seeing as how MCU fans have been guessing that Mephisto is behind everything in Phase Four, giving them a story where Mephisto is behind everything is almost vindication.
9 The Clone Saga Could Make A Great Series Of Spider-Man Movies
The Clone Saga has its detractors and while they aren't always wrong, it does have a lot to love. The problem with the story is that it went on way too long and went in way too many strange directions. A more focused Clone Saga comic would have worked way better and that's why it's still a valid idea for a movie.
Two to three Clone Saga movies could do a great job of getting the story beats across that are important without going crazy with all of the superfluous stuff that made the comics so maligned and stretched things out for so long.
8 Civil War II Could Be Better Received As A Movie
Civil War II is widely considered one of the worst Marvel events. The book tried to recapture the fire of the original Civil War but failed, as it didn't have the build-up and fans could see it for the cynical cash grab it was. It also didn't help that it focused so much on an Inhuman, Ulysses, when Marvel was trying to push them in lieu of the X-Men.
A movie based on Civil War II could work better with the barest tweaking, perhaps even by putting Captain Marvel in the role that Iron Man played in the comic and use another character in the role she played. The story still has a bit of merit and MCU fans will accept just about anything from them.
7 Secret Empire Has The Skeleton Of A Good Story
Secret Empire gets a lot of hate and it's not all unwarranted. Captain America as a Hydra agent feels wrong to a lot of fans and the comic itself had a great build-up that was squandered by a bloated story that never really felt like it went anywhere interesting. For a movie, the premise is much better because it's unlike anything they've ever seen before.
Comic fans are used to stories like Secret Empire, where a hero is transformed into a villain by reality-altering shenanigans but casual movie fans aren't. This makes it a novelty, one that might work better for those fans.
6 The Introduction Of Kang Opens Things Up For Avengers: The Crossing
Kang's entrance into the MCU opens up a lot of stories and some are more infamous than others. One of those stories is Avengers: The Crossing, a story built around one of the most surprising Marvel retcons of all. In it, the Avengers learn that Iron Man had been a servant of Kang since almost the beginning of the team and brings his teenage self into the present to battle the evil Iron Man.
The story would need some tweaks to work but it's not a terrible idea; the biggest problem with the comic was execution. Setting up the story better, change things up a bit, perhaps have Kang replace the traitor Avenger with one from the Multiverse, and it would work much better as a movie.
5 Age Of Ultron Would Make A Better Movie Than The One That Stole Its Name
Age Of Ultron isn't great but it's better than it gets credit for. A dystopian future tale combined with a story about time travel gone wrong, it's a little all over the place but it actually works better as a story than it gets credit for. While it and the movie that stole its name have some things in common, as both are longer and more bloated than they should be, it would make for a better movie than a comic.
Seeing the Avengers try to survive in a world controlled by Ultron and their desperate plan to save the day is a great premise for a movie. Doing a sequel involving them trying to fix the new problem they caused by time-traveling would make it all the better, recapturing that Infinity War/Endgame energy and going massively epic.
4 Wolverine: Evolution's Premise Isn't Great But It Has Other Things Going For It
Wolverine: Evolution has a bad reputation when it comes to Wolverine stories. Introducing the concept of Homo Lupus to X-Men continuity, i.e. a bunch of mutants who evolved from canines instead of primates, the whole thing feels vaguely ridiculous and would be retconned away by a sequel several years later. The story has some cool moments and fights, which means it could actually work as a movie.
Wolverine: Evolution has some potential as a movie, as it introduced a new Wolverine villain and set the mutant hero on another quest to learn the truth. It has enough merits that movie audiences would enjoy it.
3 Identity Disc Is A Fun Supervillain Romp
Identity Disc is sort of infamous with Marvel fans. Many comic fans thought it was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek reaction to Identity Crisis, which would have made sense back in 2004, as Marvel's leadership was known for childish stunts. It saw a group of supervillains teaming up to steal a disc containing all of the superheroes' private information.
That's just a great premise when it comes right down to it and the story could work very well as a movie. MCU villains rarely get a chance to do anything as cool as this, so it would be a nice departure.
2 X-Men: The Twelve Can Be A Bit Convoluted But It's Still Fun
'90s X-Men stories can be pretty hard to read, as there is a lot of continuity to know. There are a lot of X-Men stories that have been forgotten from that time and some of them are pretty good. One of those good ones that a lot of fans aren't into is X-Men: The Twelve. Featuring the X-Men trying to keep Apocalypse from assembling the Twelve and becoming a god, it would make for a great movie.
Apocalypse hasn't exactly gotten a fair shake in the movies and X-Men: The Twelve could be the story that gave him a chance to shine. It's also just a good X-Men story that's a lot better than it gets credit for.
1 Original Sin Has A Lot Going For It
Original Sin never really a got a chance to shine. The comic saw the heroes investigating the murder of the Watcher and while it had a lot of great moments, the lack of actual impact from the vast majority of the story's events gave it a bad name. It's a better story than all of that, though, and could be a great movie.
With the introduction of the Watcher in What If..., the pieces are in place to make it a movie. It's not the typical MCU fare, being a sci-fi murder mystery, and would make for a great film.