Marvel Origin Stories We Want To See Onscreen

Thanks to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we've seen a lot of new superhero and supervillain origin stories unfold in the last dozen years or so. Since Iron Man's first showed up way back in 2008, we've watched Steve Rogers become Captain America, seen the formation of the Guardians of the Galaxy, witnessed Scott Lang take up the mantle of Ant-Man, and witnessed T'Challa's explosive transformation into Black Panther. 

Even with all of that and more in mind, there are countless Marvel Comics characters whose origins still haven't been translated to the screen. And that leaves plenty of room for Marvel Studios to tell new stories in the years to come. But what superheroes and supervillains truly deserve to have their early days explained for audiences? Well, from the mystical guardian of Britain to one of the world's smartest people, here are the Marvel origin stories we'd love to see onscreen.

Sometimes the best way to lay out a superhero origin story is to keep as much mystery as possible alive, and that's been the case with Squirrel Girl, the beloved heroine whose name gives you a very good idea of her power set.

Doreen Green was born with a prehensile tail that looks a whole lot like a squirrel's tail, and as she grew up, she discovered she had various other rodent-like abilities, including the power to understand and speak to squirrels themselves. It's an amusing group of skills, but what makes Squirrel Girl's origin particularly interesting is that Marvel has never fully pinned down exactly where her powers came from. Though her genetic makeup is altered from that of a normal human, she isn't technically a mutant in the same way that members of the X-Men are. She's just ... different, and she's chosen to use those differences for good. The result is one of the most fun superheroes in the Marvel universe, and one whose slightly ambiguous origin story deserves to be told.

She-Hulk is about to get her own series on Disney+, so there's a good chance we'll see some version of her origin soon. That said, we still want to take a moment to talk about why her superhero foundation is so great, and how it ties into the existing MCU already.

Jennifer Walters was a meek but very intelligent lawyer with close ties to her cousin, Bruce Banner, thanks to their childhood friendship. When a crime boss' thugs tried to gun her down while she was protecting a witness, Bruce struggled to save his cousin's life and realized there was nothing he could do in the moment but give her a transfusion of his own blood. Bruce's gamma-radiated blood, coupled with the emotional distress of the danger she was in, transformed Jennifer into She-Hulk. Over the next few decades, She-Hulk became a standout character in her own right while also remaining a key part of the overall Hulk legacy, and the balance of those two aspects of her character has a lot of potential on the big and small screens.

A lot of X-Men origin stories are simple. They're just "they were born with abilities and then Professor Xavier found them," or some version of that. Then there are the mutants who led rich, exciting lives well before joining the X-Men, like Wolverine and Gambit. A Gambit movie was in the works for years before Disney's purchase of Fox seemed to kill it, and that's a shame, because his incredible origin story definitely deserves some screen time.

Remy LeBeau was abandoned as a baby because part of his mutation, his glowing red eyes, was already visible at birth. He was then adopted as a kind of prophesied savior by the New Orleans Thieves Guild and was raised to be a master thief. Then, an arranged marriage within the guilds led to a duel, the murder of a member of the Assassins Guild, and an excommunication from the Thieves Guild, which ultimately brought Remy to the X-Men. It's complex, it's dramatic, and it's got lots of opportunities for John Wick-style action set in the heart of New Orleans. Even if you're sick of origin story movies, this one might win you over.

Part of Monica Rambeau's origin story has already been told in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because she appeared as a young girl in Captain Marvel. Nicknamed "Lt. Trouble" by Carol Danvers, Monica was the daughter of Carol's best friend, Maria, so she's a kind of niece to the superheroine. We know that Rambeau is showing up in the Disney+ series WandaVision, but if she doesn't get her superhero start there, then there's always a possibility this child of the '90s could come into her own in a Captain Marvel sequel. Either way, her comic book origin is pretty awesome.

In Marvel Comics, Monica Rambeau was bombarded with extradimensional energy from a weapon created by a rogue scientist. As a result, she's able to transform herself into a being of pure energy across the electromagnetic spectrum. This power has granted her a phenomenal level of strength, even when compared to other superheroes, and she's wielded it well. Monica has led the Avengers at certain points in her comics career, and she's seen many different aliases, including Captain Marvel and her current moniker, Spectrum. Seeing her fight side-by-side with Carol would be a wonderful development. We just need the origin story.

Galactus, the famous "Devourer of Worlds" of Marvel Comics, has already appeared on the big screen once, but Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer used an incarnation that more closely resembled Ultimate Galactus — a massive cloud of energy rather than a humanoid being. As the Fantastic Four prepare to enter the MCU, it's time to give audiences the "real" Galactus on the big screen, all while explaining some of his epic cosmic background.

Galactus was born Galan of Taa, an explorer from an advanced planet that was one of the last remaining civilization in the universe at the time of the sixth incarnation of the Marvel multiverse. As his universe endured a kind of crunching effect to prepare for another Big Bang, Galan decided to pilot a ship straight into the heart of the "Cosmic Egg" that would give birth to the next universe. In short, he's the only survivor of the Big Bang that created the Marvel universe as it was first introduced in the 1960s. Passing through that chaotic event led to his rebirth as Galactus, a villain far scarier than Thanos, and we'd love to see a character that grand and paradigm-shifting in live-action.

When we think of Cyclops, we think of a relatively buttoned-down, strict superhero — a guy who's eager to follow orders and get the job done. And that's why it's so fun to look at Cyclops alongside his long-lost father, Corsair, who's a cool space pirate with an even cooler mustache.

Christopher Summers was flying with his wife and two sons in his plane when a scout ship from the Shi'ar Empire attacked the vessel. Scott and Alex Summers were sent out in a parachute and grew up to become Cyclops and Havok, while Christopher's wife was killed by the Shi'ar Emperor and Christopher himself was sentenced to hard labor. But the Summers patriarch didn't settle for that. He hatched an escape plan with some fellow prisoners, stole a ship, and formed the team of pirates known as the Starjammers, preying on Shi'ar ships as a form of revenge. After the triumph of Guardians of the Galaxy, it's easy to see how the Starjammers, and Corsair in particular, would fit right into the Marvel Cinematic Universe one day.

Some heroes are born, and others are made. The Weapon Plus program in Marvel Comics is responsible for creating some of the most astonishing heroes and villains in Marvel history, and they're the ones who took the already formidable Wolverine and gave him an adamantium skeleton. They also later gave us Fantomex, aka Weapon XIII.

Fantomex was born in "the World," an artificial environment designed to evolve mutant super soldiers. As the result of this rather unorthodox upbringing, he was granted various enhanced abilities in addition to his natural mutant biology, including a secondary nervous system named E.V.A. who could also function as his transportation when necessary. As a result, he's fast, he's strong, he regenerates, he's a great marksman, and he has a cool French accent which he later admits he just kind of picked up. Much like Wolverine's story, there's something really compelling about the artificial nature of Fantomex's creation, coupled with his own fun, witty persona. It would be great to see him finally come to the forefront in something like an X-Force film.

Ms. Marvel is set to find her way into live-action via a Disney+ series soon, and we can't wait to see how much of her superhero origin story transfers over onto the screen. But what is her backstory, you ask? Well, allow us to elaborate.

Kamala Khan is a Pakistani-American girl who grew up in New Jersey and developed various nerdy interests, including a love of various superheroes, particularly Carol Danvers, who in the comics was originally named Ms. Marvel. One night, Kamala was exposed to the Terrigen Mist that gives the Inhumans their powers, revealing the she herself had Inhuman blood and was capable of the process of Terrigenesis. When she emerged again, Kamala found that she suddenly had the ability to morph her body into any shape she could imagine, from stretching to enlarging to completely altering her appearance. With her newfound powers, she took up the moniker of Ms. Marvel and began to fight crime.

It's a great story, born out of superhero fandom, and it'll be great to see some version of it arrive on the screen someday soon.

Amadeus Cho was created to infuse the Marvel Universe with a new dose of youthful energy, in the vein of Spider-Man. And he's since gone on to become one of the most consistently entertaining young heroes on the roster.

The son of Korean immigrants, Amadeus displayed signs of a near-superhuman intellect from a very early age. When he was a teenager, he entered a quiz contest for young geniuses and easily won, but the contest was actually a trap for an evil mastermind named Pythagoras Dupree to uncover and then kill people who might prove smarter than him. Amadeus' family was killed in the resulting attempt on his life, and he ended up on the run. While trying to make his way in the world, he became friends first with the Hulk and then with Hercules, and he's since become much, much more than simply a super genius.

The idea of a kid whose only crime is being really, really smart getting swept up in a world of superheroes and villains with such sudden ferocity is compelling in the same way that Spider-Man's story is. It also gives Marvel Studios an opportunity to give Bruce Banner a new person to play mentor to as the MCU continues to grow and expand. And we already know that he exists in the MCU, so we're hoping it's only a matter of time before Cho shows up.

If you're already familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and you hear the name "Captain Britain," you might be expecting something very similar to Captain America, like a World War II hero specifically crafted to be a symbolic champion for a country in crisis. Well, you'd be wrong. Captain Britain's story is actually a good deal weirder.

Brian Braddock, twin brother of Betsy Braddock (aka Psylocke) was a grad student studying physics who nearly died when the facility he was working in was attacked by a supervillain. As he bled to death, Merlin (yes, the Merlin) approached him and asked him if he would become Britain's champion, which would save his life. Braddock was given a choice between the Amulet of Right and the Sword of Might, and he chose the Amulet. As a result, he was transformed into Captain Britain, a superhero who guards his home nation and, by extension, the world with superhuman enhancements. The mystical nature of his origins, plus the fact that there's actually a whole corps of Captain Britain that protect the Marvel multiverse, would make for a strange and wonderful journey in live-action.

Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman, doesn't have the most complicated Marvel Comics origin story of all time, but it's also far from being the least complicated. The child of scientists, Jessica was raised at Mount Wundagore until the uranium surrounding her home began to poison her young body. To save her life, her father partnered with the man who would become the High Evolutionary and infused her blood with a serum that included various forms of spider DNA, then put her in stasis in a special chamber that was supposed to speed up her healing process. 

As a result, Jessica spent years isolated from the world, and she became an adult without ever really having a childhood. When she finally did make it out into the real world, she was recruited by Hydra, and she spent some time with the villainous organization before realizing she didn't really belong there. It's a long road to get from baby Jessica Drew to the superhero known as Spider-Woman, but with the right creative team, it could be a rewarding one on the big or small screen.

Ask any Thor fan which character they're still most eager to see onscreen, and Beta Ray Bill will almost always be at the top of the list. Created by writer and artist Walt Simonson in 1983, Bill first appeared as a new adversary for the god of thunder, but he quickly proved himself worthy of wielding Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.

As readers got to know him, Bill's tragic story became clear. He was a member of an alien race whose home was destroyed by Surtur. Bill was chosen as the great champion who would lead his people to a new home, and he was given cybernetic enhancements in a painful procedure that led to his ferocious appearance. Though Thor at first saw him as a threat (because Bill's sentient spaceship saw Thor as one), Bill quickly proved himself to be an honorable, well-intentioned warrior who was capable of fighting as one of Thor's allies. He proved to be such a good guy, in fact, that Odin even made him his own hammer, Stormbreaker. Bill's exploits made him a fan-favorite character, and it's definitely time for him to make the leap to live-action.

One of the benefits of Fox's X-Men franchise existing for nearly two decades is that there was plenty of time for a number of fan-favorite mutant characters to make supporting appearances across the various films. One of the problems of that approach, though, was that a great many of them were, for the sake of adaptation, reduced to only a small piece of their comic book presence. This was the case with Emma Frost, who put in an appearance as a supporting villain in X-Men: First Class and, despite showing off things like her diamond skin powers, didn't really get much to do before shuffling off and never appearing in the franchise again. 

Thanks to Disney's purchase of Fox and the impending migration of Marvel's mutants into the MCU, there's an opportunity to change that. Emma is one of the most fascinating antihero characters in the history of X-Men comics, perhaps second only to Magneto in terms of her ability to make both the villainous and the heroic convincing. Emma's complexity stems in no small part from her origin story, which involves an upper-class upbringing in New England, acts of rebellion against her family, and eventually a journey to the Hellfire Club and training her own rival team of young mutants. She does eventually join up with the X-Men, but the road to that point is long and full of intrigue, and it would be great to see it on the big or small screen eventually.