Marvel is sitting on a perfect street-level martial arts…
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Marvel is sitting on a perfect street-level martial arts saga with Mister Negative, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, and the Hand...
Something I’ve been thinking about lately is how much bigger and weirder the MCU’s street-level side could feel if Marvel actually leaned into the martial arts/crime/mystical side of the comics.
I like Kingpin. Vincent D’Onofrio is great and Fisk is easily one of the best villains Marvel has put on screen. But I don’t want the street-level MCU to keep circling back to him forever. The original Daredevil series, Hawkeye, Echo, Born Again, it always comes back to Fisk. It's gettin kind of annoying at this point. He’s great, but this corner of the MCU needs to evolve at some point.
I’d love to see Kingpin finally lose power or get killed off in a way that actually matters. Not just for shock value, but because it could create a real power vacuum in New York. Different gangs, factions, assassins, mystical groups, and street-level heroes all fighting over what he left behind would be way more interesting than “Kingpin is behind everything” again.
My pick for who should rise out of that chaos is Mister Negative. Martin Li is so underrated. He’s not just another mob boss. He has the public philanthropist side, the supernatural crime lord side, the Inner Demons, the Chinatown underworld angle, and the whole light/dark duality baked into him. He is meant to be the personification of yin and yang, and his corruption powerset is really interesting.
Aesthetically, he would go insanely hard in live action if Marvel actually committed to it. The inverted black-and-white look, the negative energy, the Inner Demons, the calm respectable public image hiding a supernatural gangster underneath. I would genuinely watch an entire series just about Martin Li’s backstory starting from China, how he built F.E.A.S.T., his ties to organized crime, and how his two sides coexist to create a zen-like balance. We literally have the perfect setup with Aunt May's death and the F.E.A.S.T. shelter being introduced in the MCU, so you could naturally weave Martin Li into Peter's world. And instead of giving him a cliche revenge motivation against Oscorp like the Insomniac games, they should dive deeper into his comic book backstory cause there's still so much to explore with Martin Li.
In the comics, stories like Shadowland, Gang War, and Devil’s Reign make New York feel packed with heroes, villains, factions, and overlapping histories. Daredevil, Spider-Man, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Moon Knight, Elektra, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Punisher, Bullseye, Mister Negative, Tombstone, the Hand, the Maggia, all of these characters can cross paths and it feels natural. The MCU version feels stripped down by comparison.
We’re apparently waiting until season 3 of Born Again to really get more Defenders energy, which is crazy to me. Even Bullseye, who is one of the best parts of Born Again, still doesn’t have his proper costume yet. It just feels way more pedestrian than it should.
Shang-Chi is another huge missed opportunity. We should have had a sequel by now. The first movie had some of the best fight choreography in the MCU, and then Marvel just let him sit there. I’ve been reading the 2020 Shang-Chi run, and that’s exactly the kind of scale I want: martial arts mythology, secret societies, family drama, mystical weapons, crime politics, and Shang-Chi actually crossing paths with the wider Marvel universe.
In Shadowland: Spider-Man, Spider-Man and Shang-Chi team up to stop Mister Negative while everyone else is dealing with Daredevil and the Hand. Mister Negative even corrupts Shang-Chi with his touch during the fight, and Spider-Man has to talk him back from the edge. That kind of interaction would be great in live action.
In Gang War, Shang-Chi is also involved because the Five Weapons Society runs Chinatown and Mister Negative’s territory borders his. That alone feels like a perfect setup for the MCU. You could have Chinatown, the Hand, the Inner Demons, the Five Weapons Society, and Kingpin’s collapsing empire all crashing into each other.
Iron Fist deserves another shot too. Give him a proper comic-accurate series with K’un-Lun, the Immortal Weapons, mystical tournaments, the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, all of that lore. I’d also love to see Lin Lie eventually. If the Hand is coming back, Elektra should obviously be involved too. Moon Knight could work as the brutal wildcard doing Midnight Mission stuff and investigating the supernatural side of the gang war.
That’s why Spider-Man: Brand New Day bringing in the Hand feels like such a big opening. If Marvel actually uses it to connect Spider-Man’s world with Daredevil, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Elektra, Moon Knight, and Mister Negative, you could build a whole street-level martial arts saga out of it.
You don’t need to directly adapt Shadowland or Gang War. Just take inspiration from them. Daredevil gets corrupted by the Hand. The street heroes fracture over what to do with him. Kingpin’s empire starts collapsing. Shang-Chi gets pulled in because of Chinatown and the Five Weapons Society. Iron Fist gets pulled in because of the Hand and mystical martial arts lore. Moon Knight investigates the supernatural rot underneath everything. And Mister Negative is quietly playing every faction against each other while they all tear themselves apart. Then, at the right moment, Martin Li steps out of the shadows, kills Kingpin, and takes everything. That one move would instantly tell the audience the old era is over.
I don’t hate Kingpin. He had a great run. But the MCU street-level side needs to get bigger, weirder, darker, and more connected. Marvel has all this insane martial arts and street-level lore just sitting there. Mister Negative, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, the Hand, Elektra, Moon Knight, the Inner Demons, the Five Weapons Society, the Immortal Weapons, all of it could make this corner of the MCU feel way more alive.
If I was in charge, I’d be building an entire street-level martial arts/crime saga around Mister Negative, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, and the Hand.
#video #movies
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Something I’ve been thinking about lately is how much bigger and weirder the MCU’s street-level side could feel if Marvel actually leaned into the martial arts/crime/mystical side of the comics.
I like Kingpin. Vincent D’Onofrio is great and Fisk is easily one of the best villains Marvel has put on screen. But I don’t want the street-level MCU to keep circling back to him forever. The original Daredevil series, Hawkeye, Echo, Born Again, it always comes back to Fisk. It's gettin kind of annoying at this point. He’s great, but this corner of the MCU needs to evolve at some point.
I’d love to see Kingpin finally lose power or get killed off in a way that actually matters. Not just for shock value, but because it could create a real power vacuum in New York. Different gangs, factions, assassins, mystical groups, and street-level heroes all fighting over what he left behind would be way more interesting than “Kingpin is behind everything” again.
My pick for who should rise out of that chaos is Mister Negative. Martin Li is so underrated. He’s not just another mob boss. He has the public philanthropist side, the supernatural crime lord side, the Inner Demons, the Chinatown underworld angle, and the whole light/dark duality baked into him. He is meant to be the personification of yin and yang, and his corruption powerset is really interesting.
Aesthetically, he would go insanely hard in live action if Marvel actually committed to it. The inverted black-and-white look, the negative energy, the Inner Demons, the calm respectable public image hiding a supernatural gangster underneath. I would genuinely watch an entire series just about Martin Li’s backstory starting from China, how he built F.E.A.S.T., his ties to organized crime, and how his two sides coexist to create a zen-like balance. We literally have the perfect setup with Aunt May's death and the F.E.A.S.T. shelter being introduced in the MCU, so you could naturally weave Martin Li into Peter's world. And instead of giving him a cliche revenge motivation against Oscorp like the Insomniac games, they should dive deeper into his comic book backstory cause there's still so much to explore with Martin Li.
In the comics, stories like Shadowland, Gang War, and Devil’s Reign make New York feel packed with heroes, villains, factions, and overlapping histories. Daredevil, Spider-Man, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Moon Knight, Elektra, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Punisher, Bullseye, Mister Negative, Tombstone, the Hand, the Maggia, all of these characters can cross paths and it feels natural. The MCU version feels stripped down by comparison.
We’re apparently waiting until season 3 of Born Again to really get more Defenders energy, which is crazy to me. Even Bullseye, who is one of the best parts of Born Again, still doesn’t have his proper costume yet. It just feels way more pedestrian than it should.
Shang-Chi is another huge missed opportunity. We should have had a sequel by now. The first movie had some of the best fight choreography in the MCU, and then Marvel just let him sit there. I’ve been reading the 2020 Shang-Chi run, and that’s exactly the kind of scale I want: martial arts mythology, secret societies, family drama, mystical weapons, crime politics, and Shang-Chi actually crossing paths with the wider Marvel universe.
In Shadowland: Spider-Man, Spider-Man and Shang-Chi team up to stop Mister Negative while everyone else is dealing with Daredevil and the Hand. Mister Negative even corrupts Shang-Chi with his touch during the fight, and Spider-Man has to talk him back from the edge. That kind of interaction would be great in live action.
In Gang War, Shang-Chi is also involved because the Five Weapons Society runs Chinatown and Mister Negative’s territory borders his. That alone feels like a perfect setup for the MCU. You could have Chinatown, the Hand, the Inner Demons, the Five Weapons Society, and Kingpin’s collapsing empire all crashing into each other.
Iron Fist deserves another shot too. Give him a proper comic-accurate series with K’un-Lun, the Immortal Weapons, mystical tournaments, the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, all of that lore. I’d also love to see Lin Lie eventually. If the Hand is coming back, Elektra should obviously be involved too. Moon Knight could work as the brutal wildcard doing Midnight Mission stuff and investigating the supernatural side of the gang war.
That’s why Spider-Man: Brand New Day bringing in the Hand feels like such a big opening. If Marvel actually uses it to connect Spider-Man’s world with Daredevil, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Elektra, Moon Knight, and Mister Negative, you could build a whole street-level martial arts saga out of it.
You don’t need to directly adapt Shadowland or Gang War. Just take inspiration from them. Daredevil gets corrupted by the Hand. The street heroes fracture over what to do with him. Kingpin’s empire starts collapsing. Shang-Chi gets pulled in because of Chinatown and the Five Weapons Society. Iron Fist gets pulled in because of the Hand and mystical martial arts lore. Moon Knight investigates the supernatural rot underneath everything. And Mister Negative is quietly playing every faction against each other while they all tear themselves apart. Then, at the right moment, Martin Li steps out of the shadows, kills Kingpin, and takes everything. That one move would instantly tell the audience the old era is over.
I don’t hate Kingpin. He had a great run. But the MCU street-level side needs to get bigger, weirder, darker, and more connected. Marvel has all this insane martial arts and street-level lore just sitting there. Mister Negative, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, the Hand, Elektra, Moon Knight, the Inner Demons, the Five Weapons Society, the Immortal Weapons, all of it could make this corner of the MCU feel way more alive.
If I was in charge, I’d be building an entire street-level martial arts/crime saga around Mister Negative, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, and the Hand.
#video #movies
source
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