7 Marvel Comics Moments Too Dark For The MCU

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a wealth of source material in its comics, but some storylines are simply too intense for the big screen. Making movies and shows for the MCU involves meeting Disney’s standards for family-friendly entertainment. While the MCU occasionally pushes limits – like with the Marvel Zombies series or the R-rated Deadpool films – these still avoid truly controversial or offensive content. Marvel Comics itself, however, hasn’t shied away from darker, more mature stories over the years.

As a huge Marvel fan, I’ve been thinking about some storylines that are way too intense for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are seven comic book moments, in particular, that I can’t see ever making it to the big screen or even onto Disney+. They’re just too dark and gritty for what Marvel does now!

7) The Mutant Massacre

Marvel comics are known for their intense and often grim stories, and many of those dark themes have appeared in the Marvel movies. We’ve seen significant character deaths, like Iron Man’s sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame. However, there’s one particular storyline featuring deaths that would likely need major changes to be shown in a film or on a streaming service.

The X-Men storyline “Mutant Massacre” depicts a horrific event where the Marauders, acting on orders from Mister Sinister, attacked a peaceful community of mutants living in underground tunnels. They brutally killed nearly everyone they found, making it one of the darkest moments in X-Men history. Adapting this story for the Marvel Cinematic Universe would likely require significant changes to the level of violence, even with an R-rating, due to the sheer number of deaths.

6) Wolverine: Red Right Hand

This Wolverine story has the potential to be a fantastic film, but it’s incredibly grim and disturbing – likely requiring a very mature rating to work. Since Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe generally avoids such dark content, it might not be a good fit. The story centers around the Red Right Hand, a criminal group created by people who have suffered because of Wolverine’s past deeds. Each member has either been directly harmed by Wolverine or lost someone they loved to his actions or those of the X-Men.

The villains’ scheme was straightforward: send Wolverine to Hell. To achieve this, they enlisted the help of Daken, Wolverine’s son, who tracked down all of Wolverine’s biological children. These children were trained and sent to attack Wolverine, resulting in a brutal battle where Wolverine tragically killed them all. Afterward, Wolverine discovered the Red Right Hand, who revealed the truth behind their actions. Devastated, the Red Right Hand members then committed suicide, choosing to join Wolverine’s children in Hell as a twisted form of triumph. This storyline is far too dark and disturbing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to ever adapt.

5) Iron Man Demon in a Bottle

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has shown it’s hesitant to explore truly dark stories, like the ‘Demon in a Bottle’ arc from the Iron Man comics. While Iron Man 2 touched on Tony Stark’s drinking, showing him intoxicated and struggling with his suit, and included a scene of him being sick on a plane in front of Pepper Potts, it didn’t fully address the serious issue of his alcoholism. The MCU ultimately shied away from the core themes of that storyline.

A Marvel comic book arc depicted Tony Stark struggling severely with alcoholism, leading to him losing control of his company and going into hiding amongst the poor. He couldn’t cope with sobriety and addressing his personal issues. Despite efforts by Captain America and James Rhodes to find him, he refused to get help. This storyline tackles a serious issue that the Marvel Cinematic Universe likely wouldn’t explore with the Iron Man character.

4) The Immortal Hulk

The story of The Immortal Hulk would be perfect for a horror TV series. Marvel has proven it can deliver scares with projects like Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Marvel Zombies, both in theaters and on streaming. While those projects featured zombies or supernatural themes, Doctor Strange did include some disturbing and graphic deaths.

However, The Immortal Hulk offers a unique take on existential horror. The entire series leaned heavily into frightening themes, even taking readers on a journey through a terrifying version of Hell called the Below-Place, where a mysterious ‘Green Door’ allows deceased, mutated beings to return. Beyond this hellish setting, the story also featured intense and graphic body horror. It’s unlikely the Marvel Cinematic Universe would ever explore such dark and violent territory.

3) Absolute Carnage

Absolute Carnage is a truly frightening storyline in the core Marvel Comics universe. Set within the worlds of Spider-Man and Venom, it features Carnage taking his violent tendencies to an extreme. Driven by the knowledge of a powerful being who created the symbiotes, Carnage attempts to summon this force to Earth, threatening widespread destruction.

Spider-Man films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe are generally lighthearted action adventures, and even the Venom movies from Sony haven’t been particularly grim. Even when facing villains like Carnage, the stories remained relatively standard superhero battles. However, the ‘Absolute Carnage’ storyline took Carnage to a much darker level, showcasing widespread death and ultimately contributing to the release of the powerful being known as Knull. While these events were adapted into the Venom films, the comic book series presented a far more intense and expansive version of the story.

2) Ruins

Earth-9591 is one of the most devastated realities in Marvel’s multiverse, featured in the grim comic series Ruins. Ruins was conceived as a dark counterpart to the hopeful series Marvels, which reimagined classic Marvel events through the eyes of ordinary people. Marvels, beautifully illustrated by Alex Ross, celebrated superheroes, while Ruins presented a terrifying world where they had failed.

Told through the eyes of ordinary people, Ruins offers a different take on Marvel history – one where the world has been devastated. Written by Warren Ellis, the story reimagines key events: the Fantastic Four never become heroes, the Avengers perish in a revolt, and Hulk and Spider-Man are simply mutated creatures. Professor X isn’t a mentor, but a captor of mutants. While it could potentially work as a What If…? episode, it would be significantly darker than anything seen in the MCU so far.

1) Ultimatum

The Marvel Cinematic Universe would never create a series as bleak and violent as Ultimatum, not even as part of the What If…? anthology. The story contains far too many disturbing events to be suitable for the MCU. It begins with a shocking act: Magneto instantly kills Professor X by breaking his neck. He then manipulates the Earth’s magnetic field, causing devastating floods and extreme weather that results in the deaths of countless innocent people.

It honestly just gets more disturbing as the story unfolds. There’s this truly awful moment where Blob eats the Wasp, and then, when Hank Pym finds out, he retaliates by grabbing Blob and… biting his head off. It’s shocking stuff, and completely explains why we’ll never see this storyline in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. It felt like Ultimatum existed purely to shock readers, and it’s still considered one of Marvel’s weakest event series, even though the story that came after it did help things improve a little bit.

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2025-10-29 22:13