The MCU is based on some 70 years of Marvel comic book history. The characters and stories are so rich that the MCU doesn’t need to stay truly faithful to the stories that are the source materials. Marvel Studios takes concepts and twists them, making them more realistic, and making them fit better into the shared universe that they’ve created. Their formula has been successful at drawing on the ideas from the comics and adding their own spins, for both comic fans and the mainstream.

However, the MCU has also served as a great way for Marvel to find out what works for a large audience, allowing them to figure out what their target audience likes from the characters, and increasing the prominence of characters that have appeared on the screen. This has had many positive effects on Marvel’s comic books, but there are a few negatives that have happened along the last ten years of Marvel history. Here are 20 ways that the MCU has influenced the comic books on which the movies are based. Sometimes, it’s a case of art imitating art imitating art -- others are all about marketing and trying to leverage characters. What do you think is the most impactful?

20 WHIPLASH REINVENTED

When Whiplash was brought into the MCU in Iron Man 2, fans were given an odd amalgamation of the comic versions of Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo. With the name of Anton Venko and a set of arc-powered whips, the new character was the primary villain of the movie. He was hired by Justin Hammer to build drone soldiers for the military, and he succeeded at doing so. He was also able to upgrade his tech to include a full armored battle suit in addition to the whips. The argument could very easily be made that the character we saw in the movie was the Crimson Dynamo (especially considering that the character’s villain name is never dropped in the movie), but the trademark whips made the “Whiplash” name stick.

After Iron Man 2, Marvel incorporated this amalgamated character into the comic books. The new character was stated to be separate from the established Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo -- though he shared the same real name as Crimson Dynamo and the same villain name as Whiplash. This new character faced off against Iron Man in the series Iron Man vs. Whiplash. He’s had a few run-ins with various Marvel heroes, including Squirrel Girl, and has also joined the Masters of Evil.

19 STAR-LORD ENTIRELY REDESIGNED

When Chris Pratt was first on-screen in Guardians of the Galaxy and he states that his name is Star-Lord, the response he gets is, “Who?” That’s how many people felt watching the movie -- the character was not a particularly popular or relevant character in Marvel comics at the time. Furthermore, the character in the comics was vastly different from his MCU counterpart. The Star-Lord in the comics was more of a military police officer type, with a very militaristic style, who gathered the strongest warriors in the galaxy to prevent massive universal destruction. He was a grizzled war veteran, a strong leader, and worked on the side of the law with a costume that looked nothing like what was in the film.

None of that rings true to the character on the screen, however, who is a goofy space pirate in a red trench coat. He’s a charming but ineffective leader and all around jokester. It works great for the story being told, and the audience ate it up. The comics reflected this new roguish style not long after, changing the ages, back stories, and appearances of several members of the Guardians. You can’t blame them -- as we said before, the characters were pretty obscure before the release of the movie.

18 PEPPER GIVEN LESS (AND THEN MORE) TO DO

Pepper Potts is an interesting character in that she’s been around for decades. She’s had a romance with Happy Hogan, gotten married and divorced, has had her own superhero name (Hera), and was a pretty strong and independent character prior to the release of the Iron Man movie. The film saw her back in her roots as his personal secretary. Of course, for the sake of marketing to new readers brought in by the newly-launched MCU, the comic book version of her character was regressed back to the position of assistant to Tony Stark.

Of course, as the MCU has developed, her character has evolved, taking over Stark Industries in Iron Man 2, gaining superpowers in Iron Man 3, and sticking with Tony through both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War. Of course, her character in the comics was given a lot more to do to reflect similar developments. She’s had her own armor and name on several occasions, going by both “Rescue” and “Iron Woman” at times. This is one case where we got to witness a bit of a devolution of character and then a whole new evolution. In that way, you might say the comics rebooted Pepper Potts.

17 THE CREATION OF PHIL COULSON

He’s that agent that was always around, but which a casual watcher might not have noticed. Phil Coulson was the kind and soft-spoken agent who assisted Pepper in Iron Man, found Thor’s hammer at the end of Iron Man 2, and had his own awesome fight sequence in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer, the Marvel One-Shot short film. His on-screen charms made him an easy character to connect to, and he was one of the main things that kept the various movies in the MCU all connected early on. He was also apparently killed off in The Avengers, only to resurface on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as the leader of one of Nick Fury’s teams.

Ultimately, Coulson was too important of a character to the MCU, and to fans, for them to not create a comic book version of the character. He appeared as one of the agents of the intelligence organization S.H.I.E.L.D. as the organization became more prominent in the comic books. Unfortunately, the character’s death in 2017 gives him a short time in the books -- only about five years. Of course, he returned from death in the MCU, so maybe it’s only a matter of time before we see his comic version return, as well.

16 FITZ-SIMMONS ADDED TO THE COMICS

Agents Fitz and Simmons, affectionately known as the duo, Fitz-Simmons, are agents on the TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and with brilliant scientific minds that work extremely well with each other, there is nothing that the two cannot solve when they combine their brainpower. They’ve been through thick and thin, saved each others’ lives, gone to other universes for each other, and have contributed countless new developments and solutions to the team throughout the course of the show. The characters eventually made the jump to the page, much like Phil Coulson. Their comic counterparts are similar to their on-screen versions, but of course, there are some deviations.

One major deviation is Jemma Simmons’ character -- in the comic books, she is infected with a cellular disease that is given off as a byproduct of a DNA bomb she is trying to defuse. She couldn’t find a cure for the disease, and so Deathlok made her into a Deathlok cyborg and her cellular disease was reversed, while gaining super strength, as well as the other abilities of a Deathlok, one assumes. Fitz also gets a chance to act a bit more independently, working as a triple agent at one point. In both cases, the comics have taken popular TV characters and made them unique in new and interesting ways.

15 HULK RETURNED TO THE AVENGERS

The Hulk is a comic book character whose allegiance isn’t easily won, especially in his early days, when the angry green giant was more instinctive and less sentient. Though he worked with the Avengers for a very short time, he ultimately left the team early on, before Captain America ever joined them. Thus, the team we got in The Avengers is a team that hadn’t really been seen in the Marvel comic books. The original Avengers team is comprised of Ant-Man, Wasp, Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America -- Hulk would appear in the comics every now and then, but he was an enemy as often as he was an ally.

In 2012, the Marvel NOW! comic line allowed for the MCU’s team to appear on the page together for the first time. Finally, the jade giant could fight alongside Thor, Cap, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, just as we’d all seen on-screen. Of course, the team would change its members from time to time, and Hulk would go on to do his own thing, even dying at a certain point. But for a time, we got to see a comic team that matched the team we had seen in the movie theater.

14 LOKI MADE INTO A YOUNG HERO

After The Avengers, Loki was arrested and he begins Thor: The Dark World imprisoned on Asgard, but Thor ends up needing his help to overcome Malekith and the Dark Elves. For the first time, we see Loki truly fighting alongside his brother, sharing a common goal -- to stop Malekith from destroying the Nine Realms. We got to see Loki in good humor, fighting for the forces of good instead of evil, and partnering up with Thor. We’d see this dynamic again in Thor: Ragnarok. Though Loki is always up to his own schemes, he’s no longer purely focused on destruction, and seems to have come to an understanding of his place within Asgard and the universe as a whole.

This attitude was reflected for a time in the comics, as well. After dying at the hands of The Void, Sentry’s evil side, Loki was reborn as a child, known as Kid Loki. Kid Loki, though still not particularly trusted, began to make amends by performing good deeds. He rewrites the history of the Serpent so that Thor could defeat him, performs missions for the All-Mother, and joins the Young Avengers for a time. Fans of the more benevolent Loki in the MCU had a comic counterpart they could turn to for more of the same.

13 NICK FURY JR ADDED TO EARTH-616

Nick Fury Jr is another interesting character for this list. With Pepper Potts, we had movies influencing characters to be reduced to their roots and rebuilt. With Nick Fury Jr, we have a character who is the result of a movie character who was inspired by a comic adaptation that was, itself, inspired by the actor who, it turns out, was eventually cast to play him. Hard to follow? Let’s start at the beginning.

When Marvel established the Ultimate universe, they created a whole new look for Nick Fury. The actor that they modeled this look after was none other than established actor, Samuel L. Jackson, known for tough-guy roles in movies like Shaft and Pulp Fiction. When it came time to adapt the character to the MCU, rather than go with the Nick Fury look of the traditional Earth-616 universe, they went with the Ultimate version, and ended up actually casting Samuel L. Jackson to play the character. After this, Nick Fury Jr. was introduced into the Earth-616 universe. Nick Fury Jr. looked like Samuel L. Jackson and was the son of Earth-616’s Nick Fury. It’s a case of movies influencing comics, which in turn influence movies, which then influence other comics. That Samuel L. Jackson happens to be the inspiration for all of it is just a really cool bit of icing on the cake.

12 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY REVAMPED

We touched on this briefly before, but Star-Lord wasn’t the only part of the Guardians of the Galaxy to be altered in the comics. The team is constantly rotating, of course, but the original team was nothing like what we got in the movies. The original Guardians of the Galaxy team in the comics was made up of Starhawk, Martinex, Charlie-27, and Yondu. The book also took place during the 31^st century. The modern age version of the Guardians looked more similar to the movie’s line-up, featuring that militant Star-Lord, who gathered the strongest warriors to prevent atrocities instead of reacting to them. Those warriors included Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot, but they also had Quasar and Adam Warlock on their team, as well as help from Mantis and Cosmo the Spacedog.

The movies have given us most of those team members, but not all of them. In any case, when the movies were announced, a comic revival was announced, with the characters matching their movie counterparts more closely than their previous comic iterations. The Guardians have been relaunched several times throughout the decades, so this was in and of itself nothing surprising, but their continued presence and popularity in this day and age is surely due to the MCU.

11 FANTASTIC FOUR MORE OR LESS SHUT DOWN IN COMICS

Of course, not all of the impacts of the MCU have worked out for the better for comic book characters. Some, like the Fantastic Four, have found that their fortunes have turned out to be more negative than anything else. The Fantastic Four themselves have seen a decrease in focus from the comic book creative teams, and their title was even shut down for a time. All of this is because of ownership rights to the characters when it came to the movies. The Fantastic Four movie rights were owned by Fox for the longest time, so only Fox could make Fantastic Four movies. They made 3 (and a 4^thunreleased one back in the ‘90s), and all are looked back on poorly. The most recent, Fant4stic, was a bomb and critical failure, and fans of the Fantastic Four have since long been calling for Marvel to get the rights back to their own first family.

Marvel, unable to use the characters in their movies (and seeing a decrease in their popularity), decided to stop utilizing the characters in the comics. Why focus on building characters and risking great stories being taken and adapted for another company’s profit? The book was canceled following the failure of Fant4stic. However, a new volume has been announced recently. Interestingly enough, this announcement coincides with the news that Disney is (possibly) buying up a number of Fox’s movie rights -- including the Fantastic Four.

10 X-MEN HAVE A DECREASED FOCUS IN THE COMICS

That ownership of movie rights issue wasn’t limited to the Fantastic Four. While the MCU expanded and Marvel Studios began to purchase back the movie rights to their characters, they began to produce TV shows, including various Netflix specials. However, much like the Fantastic Four, Marvel was unable for a long time to regain the rights to the X-Men. Unfortunately, the X-Men have always been extremely popular in the comics, so Marvel couldn’t just stop producing their books as they had the Fantastic Four. Even more difficult, the X-Men movies have always been well received -- even the worst chapters, like Wolverine: Origins, were box office successes.

Still, the X-Men were given a decreased focus overall, some characters being killed off and others disappearing and losing their powers. Others spent more time with other teams, like the Inhumans, as their original teams disbanded. Others had their origin stories rewritten and retconned to better fit the newer move away from the X-Men. Marvel never ended the X-Men completely --  the characters are too well-loved for that, but the X-Men comics have certainly decreased in focus and popularity as the MCU has gone on. A team that used to be synonymous with Marvel now finds itself in the shadow of characters who used to be forgettable to comic readers.

9 LOKI RETURNED TO MALE FORM

Loki was the surprise fan favorite character from Thor, tantalizingly portrayed by Tom Hiddleston, who managed to take one of Marvel’s most vile villains and make him into one of the MCU’s best antiheroes. The character was the main antagonist pulling the strings behind the events of Thor, and was the main threat in the MCU’s first team-up adventure, The Avengers. The popularity of the character helped speed up the return of Loki in his normal form in the comics- up to that point, he had looked quite different.

After the events of Ragnarok, Loki was presumed dead, but, as with the other Asgardians, his soul had been transported into the body of another. Loki was in a female form for some time, and while his return to his male body was inevitable -- these are comics, after all -- the success of Loki in the films sped up the process, leading to the reveal that Loki was, in fact, possessing the body of Lady Sif. When Thor discovered this, he returned Sif’s soul to her body, expelling Loki, who emerged in his traditional male form, to once again wreak havoc in the Marvel Comics universe, exactly as fans of the MCU were used to.

8 QUICKSILVER AND SCARLET WITCH NO LONGER MUTANTS

Two of the characters that have been associated with both the X-Men and the Avengers are Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Because of their affiliations with both teams, the argument could be made that both Marvel and Fox had rights to the characters. Fortunately, the two companies were able to see eye to eye, and Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver made their debut in the MCU in the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. They would continue on in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where Quicksilver would meet his end and Scarlet Witch has been in both Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. The caveat was that these characters couldn’t be referred to as mutants -- a term that apparently belongs to Fox.

Fox, on the other hand, has yet to use Scarlet Witch in a movie, but has used Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse. Over the course of the two movies, Quicksilver meets, assists, and fights his father, Magneto. However, due to the MCU being under Marvel’s direct control, the MCU’s films had a greater impact on the comic books. Wanda and Pietro’s backstory was tweaked, removing their connection to Magneto and making their powers the results of the High Evolutionary’s experiments, rather than the X-Gene.

7 TONY STARK’S PERSONALITY OVERHAUL

Few people would have ever described Tony Stark’s personality in the comics as anything other than smart. It was his role in the comics -- a brilliant genius who created new technology. He was responsible, he planned ahead, he was highly intelligent, and he was kind of boring. The character was as one-note as they come, keeping up the façade of being a capitalist entrepreneur while living a double life as Iron Man, something that was not public knowledge for decades. Enter Robert Downey Jr.

The actor breathed new life into the character of Tony Stark, taking an unpopular character and giving him a snarky, sarcastic sense of humor and almost immediately revealed his status as Iron Man to the public. Always ready with a clever quip, the MCU’s Tony Stark was an instant hit with fans, and so the hero has appeared in nine of the MCU’s films, helping unite the films in one cohesive universe. The popularity of the character on screen translated into a new interpretation of the character on the page. The sense of humor was added to the comic book version of the character, and his status as Iron Man was public knowledge. Fans of Robert Downey Jr. will find a much more familiar character nowadays than they would if they read classic Iron Man comics.

6 ATTEMPTS TO MARKET INHUMANS

The Inhumans are another team of heroes with mutated genetics. They’ve often been compared to the X-Men because of this, but they have also always been the more obscure team. With the exception of a few members, like Black Bolt and Medusa, the rest of the Inhumans are relatively unknown to the casual comic fan. However, with the issues of rights ownership with Fox when it came to the X-Men, Marvel decided to utilize the Inhumans as a replacement team. Originally, this plan included an Inhumans movie, to be released in 2019, but this plan was later changed. The Inhumans were introduced on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and were eventually given a TV show of their own. However, the show was very poorly received and was canceled after only one season.

The Inhumans saw an increased focus in the comics for a time, as well, as members of other teams, like the Fantastic Four, joined their ranks. With Marvel deciding not to market Fantastic Four and X-Men, the Inhumans enjoyed a bit more time in the spotlight than they were used to. However, given the failure of the TV show to attract much attention, and given the upcoming sale of Fox’s creative properties to Disney, it’s safe to assume that we’ll see the X-Men on the big screen in the MCU before we’ll see the Inhumans return in any form.

5 NEW DEFENDERS LINE-UP

Fans of the Defenders Marvel team are used to comic books featuring a team of overpowered heroes like Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, and the Hulk teaming up to face massive threats. However, Netflix decided to use the same team name when it came to their own eventual team-up series. Clearly, we weren’t going to see the same line-up we saw in the comics, though. Doctor Strange had already had an upcoming movie confirmed, and the Hulk was on the big screen, as well. Silver Surfer’s movie/TV rights belonged to Fox, so he wasn’t an option, either.

Netflix’s The Defenders line-up was made up of the headlining stars of their four series: Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist. This version of the team was a much more grounded and gritty team, with a greater focus on martial arts. Fighting the Hand, the series saw the culmination of several storylines from Daredevil and Iron Fist, in particular. The comics released a new Defenders comic reflecting this Netflix line-up, and the comic ended up being better received than the Netflix series by the same name. Now that Disney has announced their own upcoming streaming service, it’s anyone’s guess as to the future of the Netflix corner of the MCU, but no second season of The Defenders has been announced.

4 MALEKITH MADE MORE IMPORTANT

Malekith is a villain from Thor’s lengthy history, but he’s a much more obscure villain than most of Thor’s adversaries, most of whom are Asgardians. As Thor faced bigger and bigger threats, like the Serpent and the destruction of Asgard, Malekith continued to fade into obscurity, forgotten by decades of crazy events. Thor: The Dark World came onto the big screen, and they pulled Malekith from Thor’s history, making the Dark Elf the main villain of the second film in Thor’s trilogy. Though the movie itself has gone down as one of the MCU’s worst, the villain was given new prominence in the comics as part of the marketing for the film.

In the comic books, he had never been a greater threat. His actions led to Thor losing his arm and his status as Thor -- the title and powers were passed onto Jane Foster for a time. He also started a war between the Nine Realms. He was essentially the main villain of the various Thor comics for a while. Unfortunately, the movie version of the character was forgettable, with no real motivation established. He’s been so unimportant in the long run, his name hasn’t so much as been mentioned since the end of Thor: The Dark World.

3 NEW REPULSOR TECH/ARC REACTOR TECH

Another change that the movies made the Iron Man was less character-focused and more technology-focused. In the Iron Man films, the arc reactor is the primary source of Iron Man’s power. It is a miniaturized, self-sustaining reactor, capable of generating massive amounts of power, which Tony uses to power the electromagnet that keeps shrapnel out of his heart. It also powers his Iron Man armors. However, beyond just providing power, the arc reactor powers the repulsors in the Iron Man’s hands and feet, which enable Tony to fly, and also give the suit some offensive arc blasts. Even though the reactor was eventually removed, it was a major part of the storylines in Iron Man and Iron Man 2.

However, the arc reactor was a piece of technology that had been invented for the sake of the film. In the comics, the armors were all powered in various ways, but not through a miniature nuclear reactor within Tony’s chest. In 2008, when the movie came out, a new Invincible Iron Man series was launched, and the reactor was added to Tony’s back story. The armors themselves were always impressive, but it was the arc reactor that powered the technology that was truly Tony’s technological masterpiece.

2 HAWKEYE COSTUME CHANGE

Hawkeye in the comic books is a character who has a complicated history. Originally, he was a villain, but eventually he fought the Black Widow and was later recruited into the Avengers. He was known for his trick arrows and could be easily identified by his purple and pink costume. The movies took a lot of liberty with Clint Barton’s history, making him an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and removing a lot of his trickier, more gimmicky arrows. As an agent, he also sported a sleeker style, wearing a leather vest and pants that matched Black Widow’s S.H.I.E.L.D. look. It was certainly more fitting for the somewhat more grounded version of the character that the MCU was going for, even if it was a major deviation from the source material. Still, it was a deviation people didn’t seem to mind -- the original costume was pretty out there.

After the movies introduced the character to a new audience, the character’s costume in the comics was redesigned to reflect the more simple style of the movies. Gone was the mask, the boots, the purple and pink colors, and instead, we had a black T-shirt with a logo and some sunglasses. It was a much cooler look than Hawkeye had ever had before, and it was clear that the MCU had once again influenced the direction of the comic books.

1 CHITAURI BROUGHT INTO EARTH-616

The Chitauri were originally an alien species in Marvel’s Ultimate universe. Because the Ultimate universe was different from the standard 616 universe, the Chitauri were an analog for the Skrulls -- both were a shape-shifting race that attempted to take over the world by infiltrating powerful organizations. However, when The Avengers was released, the film, based loosely on the Ultimate universe, the Chitauri were represented very differently, as grey-skinned reptilian aliens that all operated as part of a hive mind. They couldn’t shape shift, but had advanced biotechnology, including neural linking technology.

After the movie’s release, the MCU’s designs for the Chitauri were used when the race was introduced to the Earth-616 universe. These Chitauri were quite distinguishable from the Skrulls, as a distinct species all their own, rather than an analog for the Skrulls. Rather than carrying out their own secret invasion, as the Skrulls had, the Chitauri are a conquering race that is ruled by a Queen who directs the actions of the simple-minded warriors through a telepathic link. The Chitauri’s eggs have become an important artifact in the comics -- the Chitauri are drawn to the eggs, and several villains have attempted to attract the Chitauri’s attention for various purposes.