Lots of people who love the Marvel Cinematic have never read any of the comic books that the characters are based on, and if you wanted to start now, it would be tough, as some of these characters have been around for the better part of a century. Of course, you can't tell stories for that long without some of those stories getting a little strange. Here are some of the wildest facts from the comics about your favorite Marvel characters.
Iron Man - His Armor Fell In Love With Him
Tony Stark is a technical genius, having designed his Iron Man armor himself. Stark also knows a thing or two about artificial intelligence, so the fact that he created a sentient Iron Man suit powered by AI isn't that surprising. However, things got slightly out of hand when the armor fell in love with Stark. It loved him so much that it ultimately sacrificed itself to save his life.
Captain America - Became A Werewolf
Captain America has been through a lot, not the least of which being frozen in ice for a few decades, but one of the strangest occurrences took place in the early 1990s when Cap was transformed into a werewolf. Steve Rogers was investigating apparent werewolf killings, because werewolves are a thing in the Marvel Universe, when he was attacked and captured. When he awoke, he discovered he'd been given a werewolf serum. His own super soldier serum kept him from succumbing to the worst of being a werewolf until he was transformed back later.
Black Widow - Cloned
Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow was killed off in the MCU, but if they want to bring her back, they can just do what they did in the comics. After Black Widow was killed in the comics by an evil Captain America (long story) Marvel brought her back by simply cloning her. Apparently, the Red Room where Natasha Romanoff was trained keeps clones around for just such an emergency.
Hawkeye - Originally A Villain
As one of the core members of the Avengers one may think Clint Barton has always been a... well, straight shooter, but Hawkeye started his career as a villain. As a young man, he met Black Widow when she was still living her life as a trained assassin and thief. He got caught up in a theft of Tony Stark's tech, leading him to become a wanted man.
The Incredible Hulk - Last Man on Earth
Turning into the Incredible Hulk has a lot of significant downsides for Bruce Banner, but if there is one (maybe) upside, it's that he doesn't have to worry about dying. In the Marvel Comic simply titled Hulk: The End it is supposed that Hulk is functionally immortal, and as such, even after the rest of the world has been destroyed by nuclear holocaust, Bruce Banner lives. In the end, even the Banner portion of Hulk passes away, but Hulk lives on, truly alone.
Thor - Turned Into A Frog
When you hang around with the God of Mischief, you have to expect some shenanigans, and Loki certainly delivered during a small Thor arc in the 1960s. Using some magic power he acquired Loki hit a human woman with a transmutation beam, and when that woman later kissed Thor, he went all Princess and the Frog and was transformed into a frog.
Nick Fury - Was An airshow performer
It's hard to imagine Nick Fury as anything other than the all-around badass that he is both in the comics and in the movies, but before any of that, Fury was an entertainer. Fury and a friend joined a traveling air show, where Nick performed a wing-walking act. It was while doing this that he met members of the British military, who recruited him, starting him on the path to being the secret agent we know.
Loki - Can't Swim
Loki is the God of Mischief and seems to be all-powerful. There's little that he can't do, transforming himself to look like anything or anyone he chooses, and yet he can't swim. In the early comics, it was revealed that Loki's powers do not work when he's submerged in water and that apparently means that he's so weak he can't actually swim.
Black Panther - Beat Up The Fantastic Four To Test Himself
It's not all that uncommon for Marvel heroes to fight each other. It happens for all sorts of reasons, but Black Panther's debut in Marvel Comics involves him tricking the Fantastic Four into coming to Wakanda so he can test himself against them. The test went well, he beat all four of them single-handedly.
Doctor Strange - Met Benjamin Franklin’s Ghost
When you're a Sorcerer Supreme it's perhaps not that unusual to meet famous people or their ghosts. Doctor Strange had a run-in with the ghost of Benjamin Franklin (alongside Deadpool). What makes this notable is that the two didn't get along because Strange had previously time-traveled, and met the living Franklin, who had put the moves on Strange's girlfriend Clea.
Wanda Maximoff - Imagined Her Children (Sort Of)
Few of the strangest things to happen to comic book characters have actually made their way into the Marvel movies or TV shows, but one element that did was the children of Wanda Maximoff and Vision, who, in both the movies and comics, don't actually exist in the strictest sense, as they were created magically by Wanda and once the magic stopped they went away. Except in the comics, they eventually come back.
Ant-Man - Court-Martialed For Unnecessary Violence, And Hit His Wife
The first Ant-Man, Hank Pym, may have technically been a superhero, but he wasn't a very nice guy. In a 1981 comic Pym is court-martialed for unnecessary violence, after he beat up a villain who had already been captured. Pym also planned to attack the Avengers with a robot that only he would be able to defeat. As part of that storyline, a frustrated Hank backhands Janet Van Dyne across the face. Michael Douglas plays him much nicer.
Wasp - Hooked Up With Magneto
In a case that feels like textbook Stockholm Syndrome, an issue of the Secret Wars comic sees Wasp, who had previously been a prisoner of Magneto, get it on with the supervillain. Apparently Magneto has really nice eyes. Who knew?
Vision - Built From The Original Human Torch
You might be familiar with the Human Torch who is a member of the Fantastic Four, but that character is actually the second to carry that name. The original Human Torch was a World War II contemporary of Captain America and wasn't actually human, he was an android. In fact, it was the body of the original Human Torch that was used when the android Vision was created decades later.
Winter Soldier - He Rescued Wolverine, Then Killed His Wife
The Winter Soldier spent decades being thawed out to perform various tasks before being put back on ice, as such he ends up playing a part in many key moments in Marvel Comics history. He was actually at the Weapon X facility and he aided Wolverine in escaping from it. Their next encounter would be more heartbreaking, as the Winter Soldier was responsible for the death of Wolverine's wife Itsu.
She-Hulk - Briefly Became The Iron Fist And Also Black Widow
Superhero team-ups are always a fun moment for fans, but while She-Hulk has had her share of chances to work alongside other heroes. She's also just... become them. In 2020 she picked up the Iron Fist ankh and briefly gained the powers of the Iron Fist. This was after the Infinity Wars comic event, in which She-Hulk was physically and mentally merged with Black Widow, giving her the powers of both.
Wolverine - Went Feral
Wolverine has always been a character capable of great violence, but in the 1990s Wolverine lost the adamantium in his skeleton, and it was discovered that the metal in his body actually held back part of his mutation. Without it, Logan eventually became little more than a slobbering beast.
Deadpool - Beat Up Zombie Abraham Lincoln
Deadpool is such a wild character that it's difficult to come up with any wild facts that actually seem that wild... for Deadpool, but he did once beat up a zombie of Abraham Lincoln, and no other Marvel hero can say that.
Falcon - Telepathically Linked To Birds
The Falcon of the MCU can fly but the Falcon of Marvel Comics is into birds in a big way. His sidekick Redwing is an actual falcon, and the two are closer than you might think, because the human Falcon has a telepathic link to his flying friend, and is able to forge similar psychic links with other birds.
Ms. Marvel - Fought A Villain From A Video Game
It's always satisfying when you beat a difficult boss in a video game, but Ms. Marvel likely felt even better when she defeated Doc.X. Originally created for MMORPG video game in the comics, Doc.X becomes a computer virus, and a sentient one. Able to take over nearly any electronic device, Doc.X was a significant foe for Ms. Marvel, but when it tried to leap out of the digital world Ms. Marvel took it down in a single punch.
Daredevil - Had To Retrieve His Father’s Body From Mole Man
Supervillains get up to some pretty shady stuff, but grave-robbing is pretty low, even for them. But in a series of Daredevil comics the Mole Man goes on a grave robbing spree, which draws in the Man Without Fear when the Mole Man steals the corpse of Matt Murdock's father. In a comic series that has no shortage of grim storylines, few have been grimmer.
Moon Knight - Might Just Be Insane
Moon Knight has a lot going on. He has the powers of an ancient Egyptian god, and he also suffers from multiple personality disorder. The sanity of the character has always been in question in the comics, but at various points, it's been suggested that maybe all of it is a delusion and Moon Knight has no superpowers, doesn't talk to gods, and is just completely insane.
The Punisher - Became A Black Man
A lot of ideas in comics that may have seemed like a good idea at the time don't age well. Such is the case with this Punisher story that sees Frank Castle escape from prison, but only after having his face scarred by Jigsaw. Frank goes to a shady surgeon to get plastic surgery so that nobody will recognize him, and, uh, it works, as he transforms the Punisher into a Black man. This was undone quickly.
Blade - Fought Dracula
Blade is a vampire hunter so maybe it shouldn't be that wild that he has, on more than one occasion, fought the vampire, in Dracula himself. Still, it's a bit wild to see Bram Stoker's creation from over 100 years ago fighting a guy who looks like Wesley Snipes.
Magneto - Ripped Out Wolverine’s Adamantium From His Bones
From the "why didn't you do that sooner department" we have Magneto, the mutant who has total control of metal, and has been fighting Wolverine for decades, but it wasn't until the '90s that he thought to just yank all the metal right off his bones. Thanks to Wolverine's healing factor, it doesn't kill him, though we do discover that Wolverine's claws are naturally occurring bone, and not complete adamantium, as had been previously believed.
Ghost Rider - Became The King Of The Underworld
Marvel's Ghost Rider contains the spirit of a trapped demon, so it's no surprise that Johnny Blaze, the main incarnation of the character, feels at home in the Underworld. Blaze was killed in a battle with Mephisto (Marvel's Satan) in a 2018 comic, which resulted in him going to the land of the dead. Since Mephisto was busy trying to take over the living world, Ghost Rider had little difficulty in becoming the new king.
Spider-Man - Killed MJ With Irradiated Semen
Spider-Man: Reign was a limited series comic that sees an alternate universe web-head, decades in the future, come out of retirement. A lot has happened to this Spidey in the last few decades, including the death of Mary Jane, which we eventually learn came about due to cancer she contracted by having sex with her husband. Apparently, Spider-Man's blood wasn't the only thing that was radioactive.
Professor X - Had His Brain Stolen By Red Skull
If you're going to steal somebody's brain, it makes sense to get one that belongs to somebody really smart. That's apparently the strategy of the clone of Red Skull who, in an attempt to gain mutant abilities, has his minions steal the corpse of the recently deceased Professor X so he can graft the dead man's mutant brain on his own body, thus gaining Xavier's mental powers.
Namor - Fought With Captain America In WWII
Namor is something of an anti-hero in Marvel Comics. He has little love for the surface world. But he has even less love for Nazis, as Namor has been an ally of Captain America since WWII, the two fought together in the superhero team called the Invaders before Captain America was frozen in ice.
Rogue - Stole Her Powers From Captain Marvel
The X-Men member Rogue can fly and has super strength in the comics, though she doesn't have those abilities in all adaptations. This is because Rogue used to be a villain and in a battle with Captain Marvel, used her absorbing power to gain Marvel's strength and flight. It put Carol Danvers in a coma, and while the power Rogue gains usually faded, these did not.
Captain Marvel - Gave Birth To The Man Who Sexually Assaulted Her
In an Avengers comic from 1964, Carol Danvers discovers she is pregnant, but has no idea how it happened. She gives birth, and the baby grows at an alarming rate. He eventually becomes a man, called Marcus. It's revealed that Marcus, trapped in Limbo, manipulated Carol and impregnated her with himself (comics are weird) in order to escape limbo, then wiped her memory of the whole affair. The even wilder thing is that, at the time, nobody seemed to have a problem with any of this, leading to a significant rift between Carol and the Avengers.
Venom - Joined The Guardians Of The Galaxy
The Guardians of the Galaxy were already a motley crew, but they were certainly more so when Venom became a member of the team. This was when Venom had bonded with Flash Thompson, not Eddie Brock, who is most associated with the character, but that only makes the situation weirder.
Marvel Comics is always coming up with new stories, so we can be sure that even wilder things will be happening to our favorite characters down the road.
