10 Times MCU Heroes Were Wrong

Heroes in the MCU do their best to do the right thing, but they aren’t always successful at it. Given the nature of their powers and the type of work Marvel’s protagonists do, even the tiniest mistakes can have major consequences – with the franchise providing a solid example of this via Wanda accidentally destroying part of a building and kick-starting the MCU’s version of Marvel’s Civil War. However, Wanda’s mistake was more in the heat of the moment, and not based on an actual bad idea. MCU heroes who make the biggest mistakes are the ones who have bad ideas and follow through on them.

In contrast to the more momentary lapses of judgments, the MCU timeline sees many Marvel heroes often stick by a bad idea far longer than they should. This will often be seen when they are going up against an MCU villain who has the right idea, but is still a villain due to their dangerous methods. Killmonger, for instance, was a villain, but also had some good points about Wakanda that eventually inspired T’Challa. In the end, these heroes typically make the right decisions, keeping them from becoming villains themselves.

10
King T’Chaka Was Wrong To Keep Wakanda Sealed Off From The World

King T’Chaka Is Played By John Kani In The MCU

King T’Chaka, like the kings before him, kept Wakanda sealed off from the outside world in fear of having to deal with potential invaders, hungry to get their hands on vibranium. Though this was a valid concern at one point in Wakanda’s history, it does seem a little less likely by the time King T’Chaka was in power. After all, Wakanda’s advanced technology would make them more than a match for most countries looking to invade – something showcased in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

T’Chaka’s – and later T’Challa’s – decision to keep Wakanda hidden was proven to be wrong. After they decided to reveal themselves to the world, Wakanda was not invaded. Yes, they did have more people attempting to steal their vibraniuam, but they were also able to go to the UN and hold the nations stealing from them accountable. The Dora Milaje proved more than capable of fending off invaders, especially with the help of Shuri’s inventions. While Wakanda staying hidden was necessary to a point, by the time T’Chaka was king, it likely would have been fine to reveal the nation.

9
Tony Stark Was Wrong To Create Ultron

Tony Stark Is Played By Robert Downey Jr. In The MCU

Tony Stark’s original plan when creating Ultron was to make a “suit of armor around the world.” As quickly became clear, Ultron had a very different idea of how to protect the world, essentially planning on wiping out all of humanity. Given Tony’s intellect – and his love of pop culture references – it seems somewhat ill-advised that he seemingly didn’t at least consider that the many movies like Terminator or War Games might have a point about the dangers of creating sentient AI.

In Tony’s defense, he had already created a functioning AI, J.A.R.V.I.S., who didn’t create any world-ending issues. That said, Tony also didn’t seem to give J.A.R.V.I.S. the same free rein that he did Ultron. Instead, J.A.R.V.I.S. always seemed to specifically serve Tony’s needs, not operate independently. If Tony already knew he should limit J.A.R.V.I.S.’s ability to operate autonomously, he should have done the same with Ultron.

8
Captain America Was Wrong To Work For SHIELD

Captain America Is Played By Chris Evans In The MCU

While it is still considered one of the best MCU films of all time, Captain America: The Winter Soldier does have one strange element to it that is often overlooked. In The Avengers, Steve Rogers learns that SHIELD wants to use the Tesseract to create HYDRA-style weapons. It’s clear that Captain America is strongly opposed to this plan, and even confronts Nick Fury about it. However, when The Winter Soldier comes along, Cap is suddenly working for SHIELD. Over the course of the movie, it becomes very clear that Rogers was initially right to have strong reservations about the organization.

While Captain America can be let off the hook for not knowing HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD, he didn’t need to know that to know SHIELD was bad news. The moment Nick Fury showed Steve the helicarriers and explained SHIELD’s plan to pre-emptively kill people they deemed threats, Steve arguably should have quit working for them. Regardless of which organization was in charge, it was clear this type of plan was a serious violation of privacy, and essentially convicted people to death before a crime was even committed, which seemingly goes against many of the hero’s basic values.

7
Falcon And The Winter Soldier Were Wrong To Trust Zemo

Sam Wilson And Bucky Barnes Are Played By Anthony Mackie And Sebastian Stan In The MCU

Baron Zemo proved in Captain America: Civil War that he could accomplish quite a lot on his own, even succeeding in splitting up the Avengers for a significant period of time. When Bucky and Sam freed Zemo to help them in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, they should have known they couldn’t trust him. Not only did they know what he was capable of, they also knew how much he hated super-soldiers. Freeing him and putting him in direct conflict with a group of super soldiers was a recipe for disaster.

Even if Sam and Bucky knew their plan was risky from the start, they still got a few clear signs that they should have put Zemo back in the Raft much earlier. Zemo killed the scientist who recreated the super soldier serum right in front of them, and later attempted to kill Karli Morgenthau. Yet Sam and Bucky kept allowing him to walk around free until he eventually got a chance to escape. Not thinking someone as resourceful as Zemo would find a way to escape was a big oversight.

6
Shuri Was Wrong To Seek Revenge

Shuri Is Played By Letitia Wright In The MCU

A major theme of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was the cyclical nature of violence and how revenge does nothing but perpetuate that cycle. This theme was especially applicable to Shuri’s arc throughout the film, as the main lesson Shuri needs to learn is to not seek out revenge. However, before Shuri finally comes around to trying to find a peaceful solution, she makes some pretty bad decisions while in the wrong headspace.

The fact that Shuri is in the wrong is most clearly illustrated by the fact that she sees Killmonger on the ancestral plane, instead of her mother or brother. This draws a comparison between her plan to attack Talokan and Killmonger’s plan to attack other nations from the first movie. Shuri’s revenge plan proves to be the wrong choice and gets a lot of people killed, which she realizes just before killing Namor to avenger her mother. Shuri learns her lesson, and manages to make a shaky peace with Talokan.

5
Moon Knight Was Wrong To Think He Could Deny Khonshu

Moon Knight Is Played By Oscar Isaac In The MCU

When Khonshu orders Marc Spector to kill Arthur Harrow, he refuses, and demands he and Steven Grant be let out of Khonshu’s service. While this in and of itself wasn’t a bad decision, Marc was wrong to think it was even an option that he had, and should have suspected something was up when the powerful god didn’t simply force him to go through with it. As it’s later revealed, Khonshu had his reasons for not fighting too hard to get Marc to continue serving him.

Khonshu eventually gets his wish of Arthur Harrow being killed, as the murder was carried out by Jake Lockley – a third identity that neither Marc nor Steven were aware existed. Though they can’t be blamed for not knowing, they should have been a little more suspicious that Khonshu would let them off the hook so easily. After all, Khonshu made it abundantly clear how far he would go to continue his quest for vengeance, so Marc and Steven should have suspected he had another plan in place.

4
Spider-Man Should Never Have Trusted Mysterio

Spider-Man Is Played By Tom Holland In The MCU

Peter Parker was in a pretty vulnerable place following Avengers: Endgame. It’s clear that he is really feeling the loss of Iron Man, and is a little overwhelmed by the responsibility he has now. This makes him the perfect target for Mysterio’s scam to get control of Tony Stark’s EDITH program. Because he is emotionally vulnerable, Peter can be given some grace for wanting someone to fill Iron Man’s shoes, but it’s clear that Peter takes his trust in Mysterio too far.

Even if Peter believed that Mysetrio was a real hero, he was still pretty reckless about giving control of EDITH to him. After all, Peter still has connections to other Avengers, and his aunt is even dating Happy Hogan. Even if Peter doesn’t think he deserves the responsibility of EDITH, there were clearly better people to hand it over to as opposed to someone he pretty much just met. This ends up backfiring on Peter pretty badly when Mysterio makes his heel turn, and even ends up causing the entire conflict in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

3
Wanda Maximoff Was Wrong To Use The Darkhold

Wanda Maximoff Is Played By Elizabeth Olsen In The MCU

Wanda learns about the Darkhold in WandaVision, and gets a firsthand look at how it corrupted Agatha Harkness. Though it makes sense that Wanda would eventually want to read the Darkhold to learn more about her powers, her choice of when to do so seems pretty bad. After all, Wanda had just been forced to say goodbye to Vision and their children. That wound was still pretty fresh when she went exploring the Darkhold, making her susceptible to its corruption.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness made it abundantly clear that Wanda wasn’t prepared to try dealing with the Darkhold, but she was so tempted by the chance of seeing her children again that the book was able to influence her. Had Wanda given herself more time to heal from the experience in Westview, she probably could have avoided going on a multiversal rampage, and eventually dying.

2
Nick Fury Should Have Tried Harder To Find The Skrulls A Home

Nick Fury Is Played By Samuel L. Jackson In The MCU

Following the events of Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers departs Earth to try and find a new home world for the Skrulls. In her absence, Nick Fury sets up SABER, an organization where he works side-by-side with Skrulls for various purposes. It was revealed in Secret Invasion that Fury spent a lot more time having Skrulls help him with his missions than he did trying to find them a new place to live, or meaningfully integrate into society on Earth.

Fury’s use of the Skrulls for self-serving purposes, instead of establishing them a home similar to New Asgard, eventually led to a rebellion by a section of Skrulls during Secret Invasion. These Skrulls were fed up waiting for Fury and Carol to help them, and decided they would take Earth as their new home by force. Had Fury been more proactive about helping Skrulls integrate on Earth, or negotiating a treaty with the Kree like he ends up doing, he could likely have helped the Skrulls much sooner. Instead, he was more interested in their utility.

1
Captain Marvel Was Wrong To Destroy The Supreme Intelligence

Captain Marvel Is Played By Brie Larson In The MCU

After being in conflict with the Kree, Captain Marvel decided the best thing to do would be to destroy the Supreme Intelligence, an AI that ran the Kree Empire. This proved to be a big mistake, as the Supreme Intelligence wasn’t the only issue with the Kree Empire. Following its destruction, a civil war erupted within the Empire, causing many deaths and devastating their home planet of Hala.

Aside from the terrible toll this took on the Kree, it also caused the Kree’s new leader, Dar-Benn, to try and get revenge on Carol. Due to her destruction of the Supreme Intelligence, Carol caused not only a huge number of deaths, but also created a new enemy for herself. Though Carol does eventually restart Hala’s sun, it’s already too late for the many Kree who lost their lives during the war. As arguably the MCU‘s most powerful hero, Carol needs to be extra careful about the decisions she makes.