Quicksilver
It’s usually Fox’s job to mess up classic X-Men characters, but in the case of Quicksilver, Marvel gave them the day off. Due to Pietro Maximoff serving on both the X-Men and Avengers teams in the comics, the MCU was able to introduce Quicksilver and his sister Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
But while Wanda Maximoff made enough of an impression to become a franchise mainstay, Quicksilver was unceremoniously killed off at the end of his debut movie. It was a decent twist in the moment, but it has had the effect of reducing a long-running comics character to practically a red-shirt. Goodbye Quicksilver, we hardly knew you – or cared that much about you, to be honest.
To be fair to writer/director Joss Whedon and Marvel, Quicksilver’s death came out of necessity, as the studio didn’t want to compete with the X-Men franchise’s (frankly far superior) version of the character, first seen in the previous year’s Days of Future Past. Still, that doesn’t excuse the lacking presentation of ol’ Quickie in Age of Ultron itself.
Howling Commandos
The inclusion of the Howling Commandos in Captain America: The First Avenger was a clever reinterpretation of a classic comic book property – usually Nick Fury’s loyal troop in the source material, the MCU made them into Steve Rogers’ team of oddball soldiers. But, while their addition was a welcome one for fans, the Howling Commandos didn’t actually add a lot to the movie, if you think about it.
Here’s the clincher of our argument: how many of them can you actually remember? We bet you came up with Neal McDonough’s red-headed Dum Dum Dugan and then hit a blank, right? That’s because apart from him and Bucky, who joins the crew slightly later in the film, the rest of the group add literally nothing to the movie. Not even particularly memorable comic relief.
Sure, it’s been nice to see Dugan crossover to the TV world now and then in the likes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, but you probably didn’t notice that the rest of the group were recast in those appearances. That says it all, really.