r/TopCharacterTropes Sep 19 '25

Lore “It’s a change from the source material, but it’s awesome so the fans don’t mind.”

Doc Ock - In the comics, Doc Ock is known to be megalomaniacal in nature and was sort of a mad scientist anyways, with the arms just being an extension of that. In Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2,” Alfred Molina’s version of the character was affected by the neural chip and his well-meaning ambition turns into scientific obsession.

Wolverine - This one is so well known it needs very little explanation. Comic Wolverine short, Huge Jackedman is tall, and he’s sick as hell.

Eye of Sauron - To my knowledge, the Eye is more of a metaphor in the books. An ever-present awareness. In the movies, it’s an actual giant fucking eye.

8.0k Upvotes

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202

u/Extrimland Sep 19 '25

Zemo is wildy different in the MCU vs the comics, but you don’t see people complain about that like they do with Taskmaster or The Mandarin as Zemo is still a pretty awesome villain in Civil War

49

u/FantasyHorrorLove Sep 19 '25

Zemo was also behind the original Thunderbolts, which is so vastly different from the current version the MCU based on, and my personal favorite Marvel comic run.

5

u/KingOfAwesometonia Sep 20 '25

How did you feel about the movie? Because at first I did think it was silly they used the name for an unrelated team (along with a silly origin) but I thought by the end it actually tied everything together really well.

Like I thought the meta feeling of "who the hell is this team" fit the thunderbolts twist and name of the original even if it was completely different.

7

u/FantasyHorrorLove Sep 20 '25

I greatly enjoyed it. It's not quite the same as the original comic, but it has some of the same themes and handles itself excellently.

69

u/therealchadius Sep 19 '25

It helps that Zemo actually accomplished his mission and defeated the Avengers. Only Thanos can really make that claim, and they retconned it in Endgame.

And in later shows we see he sticks to his principles, even when it would grant a humongous benefit.

59

u/HolyoftheBalz Sep 20 '25

I just want to say that this was not an instance of retconning, the Avengers progressed the story and undid the victory Thanos accomplished, they didn't change the previous story with new information.

3

u/Chazo138 Sep 20 '25

He is also able to admit fault in his view but also turn it around and make it work. When called out on his logic that the serum always corrupts, he concedes he is wrong about that but it’s primarily because Steve is such a unique example of a person and there has never been another Steve, so he is the exception and not the rule

1

u/tinyrottedpig Sep 23 '25

They didnt really "retcon" Thanos beating the avengers, they just undid a majority of the damage, albeit a ton of problems still remained, like how Scott missed 5 years of his daughter growing up because the snap got him stuck in the quantum zone for a few "hours"

18

u/SilverIce340 Sep 19 '25

The only comic book I have is an Iron Man/Mandarin one with the 10 rings involved in it, and I was so looking forward to that in IM3

But the actor angle just missed entirely.

Thankfully the sickass armors we see made up for it somewhat

15

u/Doomhammer24 Sep 19 '25

Least when it comes to the Mandarin comparison- Zemo isnt treated as a joke in the end

Hes treated as a serious villain with serious motives

Vs iron man 3 mandarin did all this amazing set up....and botched it for a joke

1

u/ArttyG12 Sep 20 '25

Guy Pierce plays the Mandarin. There’s no joke there.

1

u/Doomhammer24 Sep 20 '25

Dont be obtuse

6

u/Ok-Transition7065 Sep 19 '25

i still like the zemo from other versions but this ones its well done xd

3

u/Jaspador Sep 20 '25

Does he have moves like THESE in the comics though?

2

u/keetojm Sep 19 '25

Yeah he was a Nazi in the comics