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Marvel’s heroes and villains are some of the most iconic of all time. Thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, more spotlight than ever is upon the publisher’s characters, and that’s both a good and bad thing. While it shines a light on many characters who are quite deserving of that spotlight, there are plenty of characters that Marvel and their parent company Disney would rather have never been created.
Many of them are villains that have been blacklisted for a long time, and others have aspects of their character that don’t jibe very well with their MCU versions. Some of them are from stories that no one wants to remember. All of these are reasons Marvel wants them gone from people’s memories.
10 Everything About Holocaust Is Problematic
Holocaust was introduced during The Age Of Apocalypse. The son of Apocalypse, he led mutant forces against humanity, slaughtering them because of their genetic inferiority to mutants. That right there is what makes the character so problematic. He’s a racist character named after a time in human history that’s still painful for the Jewish population.
He was rather popular in his day and brought over to the main Marvel Universe when AoA ended, but he has been gone for a long time. A version of him named Genocide has since appeared but was also quickly disposed of, likely for good.
9 Reverend Stryker Is Perfect For The Current X-Men Comics, But Marvel Doesn’t Want To Offend
Reverend Stryker debuted in X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills. A religious extremist, Stryker was a Christian who perverted his faith to justify his racism. He and his Purifiers have made sporadic appearances since, and he seems tailor-made for the current X-Men books. There’s only one reason he hasn’t appeared, and that’s because Marvel and their parent company Disney don’t want to offend Christians.
Disney especially is rather sensitive about this sort of thing, as the company doesn’t want to do anything that could result in a boycott of their products. For this reason, Stryker isn’t going to make an appearance anytime soon.
8 Umar And Dormmamu’s Relationship Is A Bit Creepy
Umar is the sister of Dormammu. She’s been a part of the Marvel Universe for a long time, but one of her last big appearances took their relationship in a rather creepy direction. Appearing in a Defenders miniseries by JLI alums writers J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen and artist Kevin Maguire, the two were portrayed in a rather incestuous relationship.
Dormammu has recently appeared in the MCU as an ultra-powerful cosmic being. Having his sister, who he had an unnatural love for, is not something that Marvel wants out there. So while Dormmamu will definitely show up again, Umar won’t be anytime soon.
7 Hate-Monger Is Literally Adolf Hitler
There are lots of Marvel villains that wouldn’t fly today, and Hate-Monger is near the top of that list. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character was a clone of Hitler in what are basically purple Klan robes. While the whole point of the character was to literally fight the embodiments of racism, society has gone through some changes since the Silver Age.
The problem with a character like Hate-Monger now is that there are some people out there who would actually idolize him. He hasn’t been seen in years, and Marvel has been trying to distance themselves from overt Nazis since the failure of Secret Empire.
6 Fu Manchu Is The Original Yellow Peril Villain
Shang-Chi has become a huge deal in the Marvel Universe again since his MCU debut. The movie rightfully changed the kung-fu superhero’s comic origin because it came from a very backwards place. In the comics, Shang-Chi’s father was Fu Manchu, a deeply racist villain that has been appearing in movies and literature for decades.
Fu Manchu is the original Yellow Peril villain. His negative portrayal of Asians was influenced by racist views and he spawned a legion of imitators. The character’s use in the Marvel Universe was terrible, and Marvel wants people to forget it ever happened.
5 The Serpent Is One Of Marvel’s Worst Event Villains
Marvel has been saturating the comic market with event books for a long time now, with very mixed results. One of the worst events of recent years was Fear Itself, a book that pitted the heroes of the Marvel Universe against the Norse God of Fear, the Serpent. This Thor-centric event featured the Serpent handing out hammers to heroes and villains alike and transforming them into the Worthy.
The whole event is pretty forgettable, and the Serpent is one of the worst event villains ever. He’s not memorable, and even fans who read the book barely remember or care about him. For this reason, Marvel likes to pretend he doesn’t exist.
4 Purple Man’s Past Treatment Of Jessica Jones Is Something Marvel Doesn’t Want To Remind Fans Of Anymore
There are many mind-controlling characters in comics, but few are as reprehensible as Purple Man. For years, he was just a run-of-the-mill mind-controlling spy but all of that changed in the pages of Alias. It was revealed that Purple Man had used his powers to sexually abuse Jessica Jones for months. While it was a plot point in Jessica Jones, it’s something Marvel would rather everyone forget.
Purple Man’s actions have made him into a character that fans don’t really want to read about anymore. The rare times he does appear, Marvel does their best to downplay his actions and not bring up what he did to Jessica Jones.
3 Crimson Dynamo Ages Iron Man Immensely
Marvel’s sliding time scale causes problems for a lot of characters and none so much as Iron Man. Iron Man was a two-fisted communist fighter, with many of his early villains being agents of the USSR. The Soviet equivalent of Iron Man was the Crimson Dynamo, and he battled the Armored Avenger for years. Much like Iron Man, his armor went through multiple permutations, with different people in it at different times.
The Cold War in the Marvel Universe was a long time ago, so the Crimson Dynamo is a villain Marvel tries to downplay. He ages Iron Man a lot and reminds readers of the unreality of Marvel’s time scale.
2 Baron Zemo’s Nazi Association Is Something Marvel Wants Fans To Forget
Baron Zemo is an iconic Marvel villain, and Daniel Bruhl’s portrayal of him in the MCU made him more popular than ever. Bruhl’s Zemo is a charming and sympathetic character, which is the opposite of Zemo from the comics. The most problematic part of the comic’s Zemo is the fact that his father was an actual Nazi.
Zemo was raised by a Nazi, which basically makes him one. So while Marvel doesn’t want people to entirely forget about Zemo, they try to downplay his Nazi association completely because it hurts the bankability of the character in the MCU.
1 Mandarin Has All But Disappeared
Mandarin was long Iron Man’s arch-enemy, his powerful alien rings giving him the power to stand up to Iron Man’s powerful technology. He also slots comfortably into the Yellow Peril role pioneered by Fu Manchu and was blacklisted from Marvel a long time ago. Mandarin isn’t as utterly racist as Fu Manchu, but he’s pretty close.
Marvel actually got rid of Mandarin entirely on their own. The character just doesn’t fit into modern pop culture in any way that isn’t deeply offensive. There’s a chance he may come back, but his portrayal will be quite different if he does.
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