The Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought a lot of new fans into the Marvel Universe. Many of these fans had never read Marvel Comics before, so what they know about the heroes, they learned from the movies. Even fans who were casual readers might now have mistaken ideas of the origins and stories of some heroes thanks to the movies.
The reason for that is that the MCU did not take the stories directly from the classic Marvel Comics. Instead, the movies took a mishmash of the Marvel Universe, the Ultimate Marvel Comics heroes, and then added their own flavor for the big screen. As a result, the Marvel canon might be a difficult concept for some fans.
Captain America Wasn't The Founding Avenger
One thing that a lot of Marvel Comics fans get wrong is Captain America's place in the Avengers history. In the MCU, Nick Fury went to Iron Man first and then added two of his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, before asking Captain America to help lead the team when it first formed. In the comics, Cap is not a founding member of the Avengers.
Many comic book fans even mistakenly consider him a founding member. He is not. The original team consisted of Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp, and Hulk. It wasn't until issue #4 that Captain America was unthawed and invited to the team.
Tony Stark Created Ultron/Vision
One big change in Avengers: Age of Ultron saw Tony Stark and Bruce Banner responsible for creating Ultron. In the MCU, Stark had an AI that he called J.A.R.V.I.S. and he and Banner built a robot body that could serve to protect the United States, and the two combined as Ultron.
In the comics, that was not what happened. Jarvis wasn't an AI, but he was the Avengers butler. Furthermore, it was Hank Pym who created Ultron to defend the planet. In the MCU, Pym was already older and retired and didn't take on the same role in the movies. Tony Stark did a lot of bad things in the comics, but this was not one of them.
Hela Is Thor's Sister
Thor: Ragnarok changed a few things from the comics to make it more entertaining. One thing was taking the main idea from Planet Hulk and putting it in a Thor movie as a side story. It also changed everything about the Grandmaster. However, there is one big thing it changed that many have confused with Marvel canon.
The movie made Hela into Thor's sister. This is not an accurate depiction of her from the comics. Hela was a goddess from Hel, and she was in no way related to Thor or Odin. Thor also had a brother named Balder in the comics that never made it into an MCU movie.
Scarlet Witch Isn't Magneto's Daughter
While this was never implicated in an MCU movie, fans watching were always waiting to see it happen. Whenever something was hinted at, fans would wonder if Scarlet Witch would finally help lead the mutants into the MCU. The main argument was that Magneto was her father, and that made it the perfect opportunity.
However, this is a mistake that many Marvel movie fans - as well as comic book readers - still make. In Marvel canon, Scarlet Witch is not related to Magneto. For years, she thought he was her father, but when she cast a spell to kill all her relatives, he was unaffected and she soon learned the truth that she was never his daughter.
Hawkeye Was Always A Military Agent
Hawkeye was one character that the MCU pulled out of the Ultimates Universe. In the MCU, he is a soldier, and he has fought for the United States as part of S.H.I.E.L.D. for his entire history, as shown in the movies. He was there to pull Black Widow out of the Red Room and has always been a good soldier.
That is not Hawkeye from the Marvel canon, at least not in the mainstream universe. There, he was originally a circus performer who hooked up with the Masters of Evil. He eventually turned good, but spent most of his superhero career as a complete rebel to authority, the opposite of his MCU portrayal.
Yondu Was In Star-Lord's Timeline
When it comes to the Guardians of the Galaxy, the MCU made an interesting change that completely messed up the timeline from the comics. In the Marvel Comics canon, there was an original Guardians of the Galaxy team from many years ago and the team in the movies got together around in comics around the same time they did in the movies.
However, this meant some big changes for Star-Lord. In the MCU, Yondu abducted Peter Quill for his dad but kept him. Not only did the MCU change who Quill's dad was, but Yondu was a Guardians member from many years ago, and a long time before this version ever existed - not a member of the Ravagers.
Drax's Family's Death
In the MCU, Drax was on a rampage to find and kill Ronan the Acc for killing his family. While Ronan was working for Thanos, this was what fuelled Drax and it was something that MCU fans took as gospel. However, not only was this not canon in Marvel Comics, but Drax was a completely different character there.
In the Marvel Comics canon, Drax was actually a human who lived on Earth. It was Thanos who killed his family - or so Drax thought. He ended up with his essence sent into Drax's body while his daughter actually survived and was secretly raised on Titan by Thanos's father, where she eventually became Moondragon.
Hank Pym Chose Scott Lang To Be Ant-Man
Hank Pym in the MCU movies was an older man who at one time worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. with his wife Janet, also known as Wasp. Most fans who watched the movies know this is not the same Hank Pym as the one from the comics, and knows he was aged drastically in the movies.
However, one thing that the MCU confused for fans was Scott Lang from the comics. Pym didn't choose him in the comics as he did in the movies. Instead, Scott stole the suit to save his daughter's life and Pym let him keep it since he proved he could use it as a hero.
Thanos' Reason For The Snap
Thanos showed up in the MCU with one plan. He wanted to save the universe by destroying half of it. He went from planet to planet decimating half the population to ensure they had enough resources to survive. When he got the Infinity Gauntlet, he snapped out half of existence for his purpose.
In the Marvel canon, his goals were not so pure. Thanos didn't care about saving anyone or anything. He wanted to win the love of Lady Death and he thought if he slaughtered half the universe, she would love him back.
Sam Wilson Was A Military Man
In the MCU, Sam Wilson was an honorable soldier when he met Captain America and ed forces to become a member of the Avengers. He was also someone who led veteran groups helping those with PTSD and in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he was still working with the military.
However, in the comics, he had nothing to do with the military. It was the opposite, in fact. Sam lived in the inner city in NYC and wanted to be good, even though the life of crime was right in front of him. When he met Cap, he became a hero and ended up as a social justice reformer, choosing to defend people on the streets rather than to answer to any government official.
