Comic books are ripe with impressive ideas, and in just a matter of moments, one of Marvel’s greatest crossover events is going to be in theaters all over the world. Infinity War, based of the iconic Infinity Gauntlet comic, is set to change the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the threat of Thanos and whatever carnage he brings to planet Earth. It’s anybody’s guess how our heroes are going to win or who will survive the bombastic affair, but one thing is sure, Infinity War is going to knock everyone’s socks off!
When the movie ends, the question on everybody’s lips will be “what’s next?” Can anything follow a storyline that took a decade to tell? The short answer is yes. Worry not, boys and girls, because the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not going anywhere. In fact, once Infinity War ends, it’ll be time for Marvel’s Phase Four to begin. Nobody knows what heroes and villains are going to be involved, but considering Marvel’s rich history, it’s conceivable the film studio could keep telling stories until the end of time! Today at CBR we’re looking at ten storylines we’d like to see after Infinity War, and six that should be left to the page.
16 WANT: SECRET INVASION
There’ve been whispers of the Skrulls appearing in the MCU, especially in the upcoming Captain Marvel movie. If that’s true, then "Secret Invasion" could take little to no set-up. "Secret Invasion" works because it’s a story of “who do you trust?”. For a time, everything seemed to be going wrong in the Marvel Universe. Nick Fury was missing, S.H.I.E.L.D was acting weirdly, and there was a general sense that something was off. That something was the Skrulls.
The shapeshifting aliens had infiltrated nearly every branch of superhero team and government. Heroes quickly realized anyone could be a Skrull. Amidst the finale, the Skrulls fight all the Avengers, X-Men, and even supervillains, as they too try and defend the planet. It’s a story with a massive payoff, including Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin) winning the day and being appointed the head of world security, ushering in "Dark Reign".
15 DON'T WANT: CIVIL WAR II
Captain America: Civil War, based on the comic Civil War, was a resounding success. Thanks to the movie, Black Panther was introduced and the MCU changed forever. Going to the same well again, i.e. Civil War II, would not only be lazy, but considering how poorly it was received, but probably end up a flop.
Written ten years after Civil War, 2016 brought us Civil War II. This time, it was Iron Man vs. Captain Marvel as they argued about what to do with a precognitive Inhuman. Their differing opinions split the heroic community down the middle and eventually it came down to who can punch the hardest. Over the course of the series, fan-favorite Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, became uncharacteristically hostile and totalitarian; fans hated what was done to her personality. Civil War II felt nonspecific and uninteresting; that’s not the sort of story the MCU needs.
14 WANT: HOUSE OF M
Scarlet Witch needs her moment in the MCU. "House of M" could be that moment. Following "Avengers Disassembled", "House of M" featured Wanda Maximoff struggling to control her powers, her brother Quicksilver encouraging her to rewrite reality to give herself a happy life.
She does. The result was a universe-wide rewriting of history and only Wolverine and the child Layla Miller remembered the world as it was. In this new reality, Mutants are the ruling class, but there are rebels who fight the status quo. However, Wanda’s mind is fractured and she cannot maintain control indefinitely. The heroes eventually rediscover themselves and team-up to put the world back to the way it was. Despite their victory, Wanda unleashes her infamous “No More Mutants” spell that robs 90% of the world’s mutants of their powers. With just a bit of rewriting, House of M could be the MCU’s magnum opus.
13 DON'T WANT: AXIS
The Avengers/X-Men "AXIS" crossover began with an intriguing premise as it set to turn the Marvel Universe on its head. The plot revolved around the Red Skull using his Onslaught powers to “invert” heroes and villains. Their personalities are reversed, meaning that heroes became bad, villains became good and you get the idea.
Despite each character being fundamentally different from each other, they were reduced to acting like generic jerks. We’ve all either read or seen plenty of stories involving mirror versions or evil versions of our heroes. These days, the trope isn’t overly original and shows a lack of creativity and imagination. There has to be something more to the story than “good guys get turned evil”, otherwise, AXIS has no business appearing on screen.
12 WANT: SECRET WARS
What’s better than superheroes punching each other? It’s superheroes teaming up against seemingly unbeatable odds! There’s no better story for that than the original Secret Wars. In the ‘80s, Marvel was almost bankrupt. They decided to create a toyline and they built a comic around it called Secret Wars -- no one could have anticipated its lasting impact.
The story featured Marvel’s most popular heroes and villains brought to an alien world to do battle, courtesy of the enigmatic Beyonder. It’s a story with epic moments, including Spider-Man donning his black costume for the first time (that later becomes Venom), the Hulk lifting a mountain, etc. If Marvel doesn’t want the 1984 Secret Wars, they can go with the cosmic odyssey Secret Wars from 2015, wherein Marvel’s multiverse is featured. You need a way to bring in the Fantastic Four and X-Men? This could be the way to do it.
11 DON'T WANT: SECRET WARS II
The original Secret Wars was created purely to sell toys. Nobody expected its long-lasting impact; the comics set up the Marvel Universe in ways we’re still feeling today. Then Marvel tried it again the following year. All we’re saying is not everything needs a sequel, as Secret Wars II more than demonstrated. This time around, the Beyonder travelled to Earth and took a walkabout around the planet, occasionally running into various superheroes and villains.
The god-like Beyonder starts off like an innocent child, but learns more about how human life works. Beyonder eventually gets corrupted by some villains and decides to take over the planet. It sounds fascinating, but it wasn’t, and ends when the Molecule Man kills the Beyonder as a baby. It’s an odd fish-out-of-water tale that doesn’t work.
10 WANT: MAXIMUM CARNAGE
"Maximum Carnage" was dark, violent, and encapsulated everything awesome from the frowned-upon “extreme” era of comics in the early ‘90s. The story featured Cletus Cassidy aka Carnage assembling his deranged family made of villains like Shriek and the Spider-Doppelganger, and going on a rampage throughout New York City. Driven by chaos, Carnage has no master plan and no ambitions outside of raining bloodshed down on the population.
Finding himself horribly outmatched, Spider-Man is forced to ally with one of his greatest enemies: Venom. Yet they still can’t win have to unite with other heroes like Captain America, Iron Fist, and Deathlok. It’s a dark Spider-Man story, but the web-head deserves a cinematic event built around him. With a Venom movie coming out soon, surely Carnage can’t be too far behind. Make it happen, Marvel!
9 DON'T WANT: ULTIMATUM
You know one thing that depresses people? Watching all their favorite heroes die with no chance of coming back! That’s exactly what Ultimatum was to Marvel’s Ultimate Universe and why it should never be made in a movie! Ultimatum featured Magneto reversing Earths’ magnetic poles and throwing the planet into pandemonium; tidal waves hit New York, immediately killing heroes like Daredevil and multiple X-Men.
Those who criticize the series, point out the story was both overly simplistic and unnecessarily gruesome. Ultimatum came across as an effort to cram as much as possible into this last big Ultimate event. Also, nobody had asked for the level of gore seen in its pages. For example, you have the X-Men villain Blob eating the Wasp. In the next issue, Hank Pym grows to giant size and bites Blob’s head off. Sounds like fun for the whole family, huh? Things got worse from there.
8 WANT: ANNIHILATION
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is slowly embracing its cosmic side. Once Infinity War is over, the trend will continue. How do you follow Thanos? With something just as epic and expansive! Enter "Annihilation"! It’s a massive crossover event that’s been picking up interest in recent years. "Annihilation" reintroduced a bunch of major cosmic heroes and villains, as they were force to fight Annihulus. The ruler of the Negative Zone, he’d found his way into the universe and unleashed his dreaded Annihilation Wave. Planet after planet was destroyed in his wake; he appeared truly unbeatable.
Turned out, Annihilus had captured Galactus, and was using the Devourer’s energy to power his weapons. Although we’ve seen space battles in the MCU, and Thanos is going to cause a stir, we haven’t seen anything involving literally the entire universe. Such a movie could be bigger than anything Marvel’s attempted.
7 DON'T WANT: INFINITY CRUSADE
Jim Starlin’s "Infinity Gauntlet" transformed the Marvel Universe just as the movie that’s based off it will likely do to the MCU. That said, any and all pains should be taken to ensure that final instalment of Jim Starlin’s “Infinity” trilogy, stays far away from movie theaters. As a whole, "Infinity Crusade" is a massive let down that attempted to ride on the success of its predecessor of a story. "Infinity Gauntlet" delivered an amazing Marvel cosmic event and "Infinity War" was exceptionally entertaining too. "Infinity Crusade" failed to end the trilogy on a high note.
"Infinity Crusade" follows logically from "Infinity War", but things start going off the rails when the comic began fixating solely on Adam Warlock, rather than the Marvel universe as an entirety. Additionally, "Infinity Crusade" unapologetically tried to one-up "Infinity Gauntlet" by raising the stakes; the effort felt hollow.
6 WANT: AVENGERS VS. X-MEN
When/and if the X-Men join the MCU, fans are going to want to see the Avengers interact with the mutant superhero team. Of course they’ll probably fight first, and there’s no greater potential battle than having Hulk versus Wolverine. Though we’ve already had Civil War and that involved heroes punching each other, "AvX" is a more than a simple matter of fisticuffs; it’s a battle of differing ideologies.
Captain America is determined to keep the world safe. Cyclops is folding under the pressure of keeping mutants safe and sees hope in acquiring the Phoenix Force; Cap sees it as a potentially world-destroying foe. Turns out they’re both right. The Phoenix causes plenty of destruction, but also brings mutants back to the world after finding Hope Summers, its true host. It’s a storyline that would work wonders and draw in a tremendous audience; Marvel’s two biggest superhero groups locked in battle.
5 DON'T WANT: THE CLONE SAGA
Universally hated among die-hard Spider-Man fans and comic readers alike, there’s only a few people who enjoy the infamous "Clone Saga". Debuting back in the ‘90s, the multi-year long story is generally considered the worst Spider-Man story ever written. The actual idea, that is, having various clones of Peter Parker running around while he tries to uncover whether he’s a clone, might have been interesting in theory but the execution made people abandon the ship that was Spider-Man.
While the storyline ran, fans didn’t know who the real Spider-Man was, but that wasn’t the only problem. New characters and story arcs kept getting introduced without rhyme or reason; even Marvel’s editorial department got lost in the labyrinth they’d built. The result was a chaotic mess that lasted a staggering three years. There likely isn’t any coherent way Marvel Studios could bring the "Clone Saga" to the big screen…at least we hope not.
4 WANT: ONSLAUGHT
If you thought Thanos was bad and that Infinity War is going to do a number on our heroes, than you aren’t ready for the "Onslaught Saga". After Xavier used his telepathic powers to shut down Magneto’s mind, part of the latter’s darker aspects merged with Xavier’s subconscious and grew into a separate persona known as Onslaught.
With nearly unrivaled power, Onslaught possessed the combined powers of Charles Xavier, Magneto, Nate Grey, and Franklin Richards, which meant he could perform ridiculous feats like manipulate reality and magnetic fields, but he also had telepathy, telekinesis, energy projection, and he could even increase his size. The Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and even Doctor Doom fought him. Though he was defeated, it was at the cost of practically ever none-mutant superhero sacrificing themselves. The Avengers and Fantastic Four were believed dead for a time but this paved the way for…
3 WANT: HEROES REBORN
How do you come back from an event where all of your big name superheroes died? That was the challenge that faced Marvel in the mid ’90s after Onslaught; so they went with "Heroes Reborn". The initiative included relaunching several flagship titles and the decision somewhat paid off. Fans bought the relaunches, but critics were…critical. Regardless, "Heroes Reborn" did what it set out to do: bringing back once dead heroes.
Thanks to Franklin Richards, it turns out Onslaught didn’t kill the superheroes, but the young mutant had put them in a pocket universe of his own making. On film, this is the sort of story that could reboot the MCU if need be. New incarnations of old characters that have died off could be brought back. They might look different, but just as with "Secret Wars" in 2015, you can explain it away as so-and-so being from another universe.
2 WANT: SECRET WAR
No, this has nothing to do with either the ‘80s or the 2015 "Secrets Wars". Rather than involving every superhero on the planet, Secret War wove a claustrophobic and intimate storyline featuring only a handful of important Marvel heroes. A black-ops story, the likes of which has rarely been done, Secret War had Nick Fury recruiting (and brainwashing) a group of superheroes in order to do what the U.S. government wouldn’t allow Fury to do but he felt needed doing anyway: eliminate Latveria’s government and Lucia von Bardas.
Unfortunately not everything goes according to plan, and later, once Bardas comes back seeking revenge, our heroes are left trying to put the pieces together to uncover what they did. We’ve seen the world of espionage mesh wonderfully in the MCU with Captain America: Winter Soldier, but bump that up a level and you’ve got a great story.
1 WANT: KRAVEN'S LAST HUNT
When it comes to storytelling, sometimes less is more. That's what he have here with the classic Spider-Man comic, Kraven’s Last Hunt. One of Marvel’s greatest Spider-Man stories, Last Hunt is tightly constructed and incredibly harrowing. The story revolved around Kraven the Hunter going crazy over his inability to defeat Spider-Man. His madness shocks Spidey, as Kraven takes him by surprise, knocks him out, and buries Spider-Man alive. Kraven then takes Spider-Man’s place to prove his superiority.
Spider-Man managed to break free, but the incident left him traumatized. Kraven, with nothing left to prove, takes his own life. It might not feel like a crossover event, but in 1988, it was a crossover between three Spider-Man titles. Kraven is a key Spider-Man villain who has yet to appear. If he does, then despite its darkness, there’s no better story to tell.