With Marvel Comics dominating movie theaters world wide whenever they release a movie, fans of the movie are starting to take a closer look at characters. People are starting to want to learn more about the heroes and villains that they just watched. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough time in a movie to cover everything in an arc or to get every character. Even if it was possible, it doesn't mean the movie will be any better because it stayed closer to the original story. That said, this writer decided to break down a few things you may or may not have known about certain characters, their origins, or even just little things that were left out to save time or add more to the story.
Original Avengers:
One thing that the Avengers movie got perfect was that it was Loki's shenanigans and hatred for his brother Thor that brought the Avengers together. Although it wasn't the Chitauri used to combat the Avengers. Loki used an illusion to make the Hulk destroy a train track. A distress call was sent out to the Fantastic Four but was intercepted by Loki and sent to Thor. Loki hoped that Thor would answer this call and rush in a fight with the Hulk. More than likely hoping that the Hulk would defeat Thor and leave him dead or embarrassed. Unfortunately for Loki, Iron Man, Wasp, and Antman also intercepted that call. Thor eventually realized that it was an illusion and the five of them (Iron Man, Thor, Wasp, Antman, and the Hulk) defeated Loki. Antman suggested they stay together and the Wasp dubbed them "The Avengers". Captain America became an Avengers a couple of issues later and while he wasn't one of the original members who fought Loki, he was given the status of an original member.
While that was the first origin, there is an alternate reality (the Ultimate Universe) where movie's lineup and origin more similar to. In that reality the Avengers are called the Ultimates. Also, their first big mission was against the Chitauri who weren't actually Loki or Thanos' lackey, but intelligent aliens who conquered every planet in their path. In the Ultimates' comic, the Chitauri would consume a person's body and assume their identity. They were Captain America's threat in World War two and actually the one's behind the Nazi's in World War 2. The other big similarity was that unlike the regular Marvel Universe, the Ultimates were under the jurisdiction of S.H.I.E.LD.
Original X-Men:
Back in 2000, the X-Men movie came out and took the baton that Blade started in 1998. Then in 2011 the Original X-Men of the movie series (X-Men First Class) was revealed to be Charles Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, Beast, Havoc, Banshee, and Angel (Not Warren Worthington). In this movie, the X-Men's first mission was to stop Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost, and Azazel from starting World War Three. In the comic, The original X-Men Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman (who was originally Snowman before he learned to make himself colder), Beast, and Angel (Warren Worthington the Third). Their first mission was against the first incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants who were made up of Magneto, Toad, Mastermind, and Magneto's children Quicksilver and The Scarlett Witch.
The X-Men movies are probably the franchise the strayed away furthest from the comic books, but it's mostly due to the complexity of the X-Men's story. With teams like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four (Which will be the next movie discussed), there isn't much drama or adversity outside of the fighting amongst each other and their villains. With the X-Men, there is always the hatred against mutants that come from more forms than just the government. There is the Church of Humanity who use more extreme methods like going so far as to slaughter and crucify some of the students on the front lawn of their school. And if religious zealots and the government wasn't enough, there is always the intergalactic beings that hate all mutants (and especially the X-Men) and their own kind that hate the X-Men because they are looked at as sellouts because they strive to looked as equals and not superiors. With so many things going on it's not surprising that Fox would stray so far away from the source material. One thing that will never be forgiven by anybody is "Deadpool" in "Wolverine Origins". If you haven't seen it, count yourself lucky.
The Fantastic Four:
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The Fantastic Four (F4) are known as Marvel's first family because they were literally Marvel's first super hero family. In the Fox movie Reed Richards and Ben Grimm were looking for funding to conduct experiments on the cosmic rays in space. Reed's journey lead him and Ben to their old classmate Victor von Doom, who had Reed's ex-girlfriend Susan Storm under his employ (They were possibly dating. That was never cleared up) which made the arrogant Victor von Doom more than happy. Not only did Reed have to all but beg for his help, funding, and the use of his space station, but he also had his girl. Von Doom along with the soon to be F4 journeyed into space where they were all hit with the cosmic rays that eventually gave them their powers.
There are a lot of things that differed from the comic book origin and the comic book origin. The biggest thing is that Victor von Doom wasn't on the ship that gave the F4 their powers. It was just the four and a space ship. Also, Doom doesn't have "powers". All of Doom's power came from learning the mystic arts and machines and tech of his own design. Doom's hatred for Richards was due to Reed telling him that his calculations were wrong and when his experiment failed, he blamed Reed. Now, just like the Avengers, there is the Ultimate Universe's origin that all of the F4 and Doom were working on a teleportation machine and they all received their powers when the experiment failed because Doom actually changed the numbers and caused the experiment to fail. The Fantastic Four don't really have a classic story arc, just classic villains. So this pretty much left it open for the writers of the movie to come up with the story.
In the newest incarnation that's coming out in 2015, the new group of writers are shaking things up by making Johnny Storm and his father Dr. Franklin Storm black and keep Susan Storm white. For what reason? Who knows? More than likely it's just to get a diverse crowd (Which if so, is pretty silly). It remains to be seen what else will be changed, but there is more than likely more changes to be made.
Wolverine:
The Wolverine movies were full of inaccuracies (Besides the travesty that was Barakapool). First and foremost, Sabretooth and Wolverine are not brothers. For years it was rumored that they were, but years before the movie came out, that rumor was debunked. It wasn't too far off considering their powers and the way his brother was drawn. The biggest thing that the movies didn't have time to really get into was Wolverine's time in Japan where he learned how to fight. Logan spent years learning how to do more than just swing his claws and be a berserker. Chief among those teachers was a man named Ogun who played a giant part in Logan's training. Even sending him to another trainer to hone his skills. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough time in a movie to get into all of his training. The only thing that is unfortunate is that because he never received this training in the movies he doesn't have the stealth and slicker moves that he does in the comics. Leaving him to look like less of a fighter than he really is.