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Captain America: Brave New World puts a spotlight on Marvel’s most prominent heroes and villains from the comics, but still cuts their best powers. The world of the Marvel Universe is large and expansive, sprouting limitless potential, whereas the runtime of the average MCU movie is around two hours. As a result, a movie can’t possibly adapt everything from the comics to perfect accuracy.
As a result, the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs to change certain story elements from the comic books that they adapt. Story arcs that span across months, even years, need to be cut down to a couple of hours’ worth of material. Key characters, scenes, story attributes, and even powers from the comics don’t have the time to be elaborated on in live action, and thus don’t make the final cut for time purposes. Captain America: Brave New World is no stranger to this fact, and certain characters and their list of powers suffer for it.
9
Joaquín Torres Has a Healing Factor in the Comics
He’s Powerless in the MCU
In the movies, Joaquin Torres has no powers to speak of. He’s just a well-trained Air Force lieutenant with tech on his side. For the role he serves in the MCU, this new version of Joaquin is still a good character on his own merits. It’s just a shame the MCU deprives him of his best superpower.
That superpower is an accelerated healing factor, one that proves to be stronger than most seen in the Marvel Universe. He’s seen to fully grow back his body parts after losing them in battle, including his head after it gets bitten off by Cottonmouth. With no powers to speak of, the MCU version won’t be so lucky to grow another one back. It’s a painful process for Joaquin, but one that has been seen to be fast and accelerated.
8
Sam Wilson Can Telepathically Communicate with Birds in the Comics
Captain America is Powerless in the MCU
Before Sam Wilson becomes Captain America, he was known as The Falcon. The moniker after making use of an EXO-7 Falcon wingsuit that was made for the National Guard, but stolen for him to use by Steve Rogers and Black Widow in the fight against HYDRA. The name derives much more meaning for Sam in the comics.
In the comics, Sam has an affinity for birds, particularly a pet falcon named Redwing he regularly communicates with. In fact, Sam has the power to summon and talk to birds. He was once thought to be a mutant for this gift, but that would be retconned. Instead, these powers manifest through The Red Skull’s tampering of the Cosmic Cube, attempting to manipulate Sam and his memories, but instead, gives him a telepathic connection to birds.
7
Joaquín Torres Has a Psychic Bond to Redwing in the Comics
Redwing is a Drone in the MCU
By contrast, Redwing is not the name of an actual bird, let alone a falcon, in the MCU. Instead, Redwing is a high-tech military drone that assists Sam Wilson. By now, in the MCU, Sam has assumed the mantle of Captain America, while the Falcon namesake has been given to Joaquin Torres.
Torres is a fairly new character in both the Marvel CInematic Universe and in Marvel Comics lore, as Marvel’s new Falcon debuted mere years ago. In the comics, Torres was a normal teenager who was abducted by Sons of the Serpent, who subjected him to twisted genetic experimentation, namely that which used Redwing’s genetic material. This turned Torres into a part-falcon, whilst giving him the same psychic link to Redwing that Sam has. He’s contributed his new ailment and abilities into being Sam’s new sidekick, but he has no affliction in the movies.
6
Sabra Has Super Strength in the Comics
Ruth Bat-Seraph Doesn’t Have Powers Onscreen
The Sabra character earned controversy in the build-up to Captain America: Brave New World, and it leaves some to wonder if the pushback was enough to force Ruth Bat-Seraph to take something of a backseat in more ways than one. She isn’t necessarily sidelined as much as she’s stripped of the most recognizable attributes featured in the comics.
Beyond not having a superhero costume for herself or a mutant heritage, Sabra is stripped of any and all powers she has in the comics, including super strength. Not only is Sabra completely powerless and human, but her origin story paints her to be a former Black Widow assassin. While it’s evident that she has skills on display, it pales in comparison to the powers and backstory she has in the comics.
5
Sabra Can Channel Life Energy to Heal in the Comics
She Has No Healing Factor in the MCU
In addition, Sabra is also missing her healing factor from the comics. While she can still die like anyone else, as she’s not totally invulnerable, she can make a speedy recovery from the most typical injuries. In addition, she has a healing factor that doesn’t just help herself, but can extend to others if she so chooses.
While Sabra does not have one of the strongest healing factors out there, it is undeniably one of the most unique.
She has the ability to share her life force with other people around her, giving her the capability of healing them for a limited amount of time. While Sabra does not have one of the strongest healing factors out there, it is undeniably one of the most unique. Sabra as she appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though, has not been seen to carry any semblance of a healing factor trait or other powers.
4
Red Hulk Can Explode with Heat When He Reaches His Full Rage
Red Hulk At His Angriest Remains Intact
The origin story alone for Red Hulk is vastly different from how he appears in Captain America: Brave New World, even if both iterations are Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. He becomes the Red Hulk following experiments from The Leader and M.O.D.O.K. in the comics, where as in the MCU, he takes Gamma-radiated meds to survive an ailment.
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The nature of the Red Hulk’s transformation turns him into an external heat source, one that gets hotter the angrier he gets. The Red Hulk has been known to become so angry that he outright explodes into a spontaneous combustion. While the MCU version does radiate thermal energy, it’s not to the extent that he radiates in the comics. The MCU Red Hulk is never even on the verge of explosive levels of anger.
3
Red Hulk Keeps His Intellect When Transforming in the Comics
Making Him Superstrong
The way that the Red Hulk appears in the MCU may lead some to assume that the character has always been a spitting image of the Incredible Hulk, except, of course, he’s red. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as there are some distinct differences between the green Hulk and Red Hulk. Most noticeably, in the comics, the Red Hulk maintains his intelligence and wit.
This allows the Red Hulk to act as more of a tactical combat specialist, being more likely to strategize in a battle than to charge through everything in sight. Additionally, he uses weaponry during his battles and takes advantage of his experience as an army general in the Red Hulk comics. He’s as smart as he is strong, if not smarter, while his movie counterpart is merely a big mad lug.
2
Red Hulk Can Absorb and Channel Exotic Energy in the Comics
Does No Such Thing in the Movies
The more that readers read the written material for the Red Hulk, the more it becomes shockingly apparent just how much the MCU nerfed his potential and abilities completely. Virtually everything that separates him from other Hulks has been removed from his live-action adaptation. Among the many powers he’s lost in being adapted is the power to absorb exotic energy.
Red Hulk is capable of draining other Hulks of their Gamma radiation, something he does to the original, Bruce Banner, in The Incredible Hulk #600. This isn’t exclusive to Gamma energy, as he can be seen absorbing Cosmic energy in an encounter with the Silver Surfer. This also proves useful when fighting off Uatu the Watcher, one of Marvel’s most powerful Cosmic characters. Absorbing energy of all kinds helps the Red Hulk become stronger, but too much can weaken him.
1
Redwing is an Unkillable Vampire Falcon in the Comics
MCU’s Redwing is Tech, Not an Animal Nor Vampire
Vampires have yet to make an appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the one downside to that is that it robs Marvel of featuring onscreen arguably their coolest vampire: a vampiric falcon named Redwing. Redwing has been a staple of Marvel since Sam’s debut, but only in the past couple of decades has vampirism been added to the bird’s lore.
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Brave New World Absolutely Destroys Joaquín Torres’ Falcon With 1 Lore Change
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A passing mention during Ed Brubaker’s mid-2000s Captain America run establishes Redwing having been bitten by a supernatural creature. That becomes important in the coming years, particularly when the experiments with Redwing’s DNA inflicted upon Joaquin plays a key part in transforming him into the next Falcon. Captain America: Brave New World depicting Redwing as a drone instead of a real bird prevents the MCU from touching on this further.
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