Summary
- Captain America struggles with inconsistent dialogue in The Avengers, lacking defiance seen in later films like Civil War.
- Spider-Man’s character suffers in Far From Home when he naively gives up powerful tech to a stranger.
- Doctor Strange’s humor in the MCU sometimes falls flat, like the awkward Beyoncé joke in his solo movie.
Even though the Avengers are the most important characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the series hasn’t always been great at keeping their personalities consistent. The best MCU movies know how to treat the series’ most iconic heroes, consistently characterizing them with fantastic dialogue that can be hilarious or heartfelt. But sometimes, the franchise struggles to maintain the tone of a certain character’s dialogue across multiple movies, particularly when it comes to the Avengers.
The MCU frequently sees a great many writers and directors tackle the task of characterizing a given hero, which sometimes results in inconsistencies in their dialogue and behavior. Just as the best quotes from each Avengers member can strengthen audience attachment to these beloved characters, so too can awkward lines that run against the grain of established personality traits and erode this good will. It’s clear that the MCU can’t always maintain a distinct character across multiple movies.
10 “We Have Orders, We Should Follow Them”
Captain America, The Avengers
Captain America is a character that is deceptively easy for writers to get wrong. Having a background as a soldier, it’s easy to mischaracterize him as a tool of the American government that obeys his orders unquestionably. This couldn’t be further from the truth, both in the comics and the MCU, as the films have frequently demonstrated the lengths Steve Rogers is willing to go to in open defiance of his superiors in order to do what he sees as right.
However, in The Avengers, writer Joss Whedon couldn’t seem to wrap his head around this, painting Captain America as a stern rule-follower who acts as S.H.I.E.L.D. leadership’s liason within the team. In the film, he essentially only says this line so that Iron Man can defy him, making Tony Stark seem cooler by extension. For the rest of his MCU appearances, Captain America has no issues with defying orders when he feels it’s necessary, especially in Captain America: Civil War.
9 “Maybe He Didn’t Trust Me To Have EDITH, He Just Trusted Me To Pick Who Should”
Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Far From Home
Peter Parker is an incredibly bright individual. Though he may be quite young still in the MCU, his technical genius and overall good decision-making started off very strong, reflecting the Spider-Man of the comic books. However, Spider-Man: Far From Home somewhat mischaracterized Peter as naive in the scene in which Mysterio tricks him into giving up control of E.D.I.T.H. E.D.I.T.H. is a powerful A.I. developed by Tony Stark, given to Peter postmortem to encourage him as Tony’s successor.
Despite knowing him for less than a week, Spider-Man is quick to give up E.D.I.T.H. to Quentin Beck’s Magneto with the above line. It makes sense for Spider-Man to have self-doubts, but Peter’s reasoning for giving up such a powerful responsibility to a complete stranger twists his characterization in service of the plot. This particular moment in Spider-Man’s MCU journey stands out as being nonsensical, incompatible with Peter’s typical ideology.
8 “Because…We…Didn’t Think Of It?”
Bruce Banner, Avengers: Infinity War
While he’s best known for being The Hulk, Bruce Banner is also in the running for the smartest person in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, his interactions with Shuri in Avengers: Infinity War paint him as leagues behind the prodigy inventor, dumbing Dr. Bruce Banner down to make Shuri look better. This happens when the two discuss how they could remove the Infinity Stone powering Vision from his head without killing them, engaging in some dizzying technobabble.
When Shuri asks why Dr. Banner and his colleagues didn’t simply “reprogram the synapses to work connectively”, he sheepishly admits that he didn’t think of it. For someone that’s supposed to be as smart as Dr. Bruce Banner, he seems easily outpaced by someone much younger, albeit with the benefit of Wakanda’s futuristic resources. This line is really only there to set Shuri up to talk down to Bruce Banner, proving how much smarter she is at the cost of Hulk’s character.
7 “Try Me, Beyoncé”
Doctor Strange, Doctor Strange
If there’s one character that the MCU still struggles to write consistently, it’s Doctor Stephen Strange. The premiere MCU magic-wielder sometimes flirts with being essentially an arcane version of Tony Stark, bearing a similarly over-inflated ego with quips to match. However, there’s a darker, more serious side to Doctor Strange not present in Iron Man that can often fall to the wayside when crafting his dialogue, which, at the worst of times, comes off as a pale imitation of Iron Man’s famous sense of humor.
The worst single example of these failed jokes is the running gag from the first Doctor Strange film in which Stephen Strange compares Wong to Beyoncé because they both use a mononym. It seems idiotic that Doctor Strange wouldn’t understand that such a secretive order of monks wouldn’t have heard of, or at least, be totally familiar with, an artist even as popular as Beyoncé. Even more cringe-worthy is the following scene depicting Wong listening to Beyoncé, implying that he was only made aware of her existence by this conversation.
6 “I Have A Bow And Arrow…None Of This Makes Sense”
Hawkeye, Avengers: Age of Ultron
Despite being the only original Avenger to never have at least one solo film, Hawkeye is surprisingly consistent with his characterizations across films. Coming off as something of a blue-collar worker of the Avengers, Clint Barton is an exasperated family man who frequently finds the Avengers’ battles incredulous. However, like most superheroes, Hawkeye has a certain level of ego that should be observed with his dialogue, something Joss Whedon missed out on in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Almost directly addressing the audience as an admission of the superhero franchise’s own silliness, Hawkeye confides to Scarlet Witch during his pep talk that he doesn’t understand why he’s using a bow and arrow. It’s not like someone else is forcing Hawkeye to use his signature weapon, making this small beat of an otherwise genuinely inspiring moment stick out as puzzling. There are actually good reasons why Hawkeye uses archery rather than firearms as a hero, but sacrificing that for the sake of a joke feels out-of-character.
5 “Got Any Other Bad Ideas?”
Iron Man, Iron Man 2
Iron Man has a solid claim as being the most consistently characterized hero in the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thanks to Robert Downey Jr.’s uncanny delivery, one would be hard-pressed to find a line that sticks out as wholly incongruous with Tony Stark’s established personality. However, if there’s one moment that can be pointed to as an example of such, it’s Stark’s brief aside to himself in Iron Man 2, often considered to be the weakest film in the Iron Man trilogy.
Behaving recklessly in the wake of his seemingly terminal poisoning thanks to the arc reactor, Iron Man leans into a mirror and stares down the barrel of the camera, asking himself if he has any other “bad ideas” before going out to compete as a surprise racer in the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix. It’s not that this kind of impulsivity makes no sense for Iron Man’s character, but talking to himself, especially directly into a mirror, doesn’t gel with what’s been established about Stark thus far. This odd, almost fourth-wall-breaking line should’ve been left on the cutting room floor.
4 “The Sun’s Getting Real Low…”
Black Widow, Avengers: Age of Ultron
It doesn’t come as a surprise that the infamous Avengers: Age of Ultron features more than one of the most out-of-character lines from the original Avengers squadron. Black Widow’s entire romance with Bruce Banner was a controversial subplot that seemed to come out of nowhere, with no real chemistry being established between the two prior. This love story resulted in several out-of-character moments for Black Widow, particularly the lullaby she sings to The Hulk.
It turns out that Black Widow developed a calming song that has a high chance of bringing the Hulk out of his rage-induced state and turning him back into Bruce Banner, despite the fact that Black Widow is far from a gentle babysitter. Black Widow’s singing is infamous for its nonsensical and awkward place in the MCU. Other films even go on to mock the concept, with Thor haphazardly attempting to calm Bruce down with the words over and over again in Thor: Ragnarok. As far as Natasha’s character is concerned, however, the lullaby made little sense.
3 “Noobmaster, Hey, It’s Thor Again, You Know, The God Of Thunder?”
Thor, Avengers: Endgame
No character in the MCU has suffered from extreme mischaracterization quite as painfully as Thor. Once a Shakespearean warrior with a grandiose and boisterous personality, Thor becomes a completely different character after Thor: Ragnarok, slowly becoming less serious and more comedic until he’s left as a parody of his former self. By the time of Avengers: Endgame, Thor is little more than a punchline, made even more pathetic by his evolution into “fat Thor” following the death of Thanos.
It’s hard to pick a single line that exemplifies just how bad the MCU’s comedy Thor problem has become, but Avengers: Endgame presents quite the contender. While wasting away with his new alien friends following the death of Thanos, the once noble Thor uses his commanding presence to terrify children on Fortnite, threatening Korg’s nemesis “Noobmaster69” with divine fury. It’s hard to beleive that Mjolnir found Thor worthy again after stooping to such lows, completely going against his former character.
2 “Are You That Guy? Are You? ‘Cause If You Are, Then You Can Solve The Riddle Of Your Heart”
Nick Fury, Iron Man 2
Nick Fury deserves more credit as a capable Avenger in his own right, the beating heart and soul of the team that brought the Earth’s mightiest heroes together in the first place. With years of experience in the intelligence business, Nick Fury is sometimes jaded, but ultimately a hopeful champion of the greater good in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, one particular line of dialogue given to him in Iron Man 2 stands out as being too cheesy to justify.
During a conversation with Iron Man regarding his failing heart, Nick Fury suddenly whips out a quote that feels more at place in a self-help book than in the script of an MCU movie, feeling like something the grounded Nick Fury would never say. Samuel L. Jackson’s delivery of the line is also stilted, clearly being an unnatural fit for the character he’s managed to develop even so early on in his MCU story. For as practical a man as Nick Fury is, this snippet of dialogue is a bit too poetical.
1 “Kang! You Gave Me Your Word! Our Word Is Our Bond! Without It, We Are Nothing!”
Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Unlike other certain Marvel heroes, Ant-Man was always a humorous character from the very beginning, with Paul Rudd’s comedy chops carrying a great variety of jokes across his MCU appearances. That being said, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania stretched the suspension of disbelief of his stupidity, making him seem too naive. The worst of this is in his confrontation with the film’s antagonist, in which he chides the multiversal supervillain Kang for not honoring his word.
Kang’s deception shouldn’t be a surprise to Scott Lang, who was once a career criminal himself. It shouldn’t be a shock that the same entity the entire quantum realm lives in fear of, who threatened Lang and his daughter to meet his own goals, isn’t the most trustworthy of individuals. Ant-Man has never before demonstrated this commitment to his word in his previous movie appearances either, making this line feel like one of the most out-of-character pieces of dialogue said by any Avenger.
Upcoming MCU Movies
- Captain America: Brave New World
Release Date February 14, 2025
- Thunderbolts*
Release Date May 2, 2025
- The Fantastic Four (2025)
Release Date July 25, 2025
- Blade (2025)
Release Date November 7, 2025
- Avengers: Doomsday
Release Date May 1, 2026
- Avengers: Secret Wars
Release Date May 7, 2027