Characters whose first appearance was in Marvel Animation before the MCU
Clarifications: X-Men 97' will not be counted because as such, it is a continuation of the 97' series, so it's its own thing.
"Nostalgic" versions, especially Deadpool & Wolverine and NWH, will not be counted.
I'm only considering characters who are confirmed or strongly rumored to appear in the future, or whose existence has been hinted at in past MCU projects.
Blade: Being the fist of Khonshu in this reality, the Mahershala Ali version of the vampire hunter first appeared in Marvel Zombies, announced around 2020.
Amadeus Cho: His mother was first seen in Age of Ultron (2014), however, it wasn't until Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man that we saw Amadeus in person. There were rumors that he would appear in Captain America: Brave New World, but that didn't happen.
The Hood: Due to delays, we first saw The Hood in What If...? Before IronHeart. Although used by Xia Ling, his abilities and the fact that the cowl had a "self-awareness," AKA: Mephisto, were already spoiled.
Tombstone: An important part of the plot in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, we won't see him in the live-action version until 2026 in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Norman Osborn: Despite Dafoe's version appearing in New World, Marvel Studios/Animation decided to introduce their own Norman Osborn in YFNSM, while rumors suggest the MCU's Norman Osborn is planned to appear in some future project.
Uncle Ben: Not once but twice, the first time in Peter's dialogue in What If...? and then we got to see his face in YFNSM. This once and for all settles the question of whether an Uncle Ben ever existed for Holland's Spider-Man.
"Nostalgic" versions, especially Deadpool & Wolverine and NWH, will not be counted.
I'm only considering characters who are confirmed or strongly rumored to appear in the future, or whose existence has been hinted at in past MCU projects.
Blade: Being the fist of Khonshu in this reality, the Mahershala Ali version of the vampire hunter first appeared in Marvel Zombies, announced around 2020.
Amadeus Cho: His mother was first seen in Age of Ultron (2014), however, it wasn't until Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man that we saw Amadeus in person. There were rumors that he would appear in Captain America: Brave New World, but that didn't happen.
The Hood: Due to delays, we first saw The Hood in What If...? Before IronHeart. Although used by Xia Ling, his abilities and the fact that the cowl had a "self-awareness," AKA: Mephisto, were already spoiled.
Tombstone: An important part of the plot in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, we won't see him in the live-action version until 2026 in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Norman Osborn: Despite Dafoe's version appearing in New World, Marvel Studios/Animation decided to introduce their own Norman Osborn in YFNSM, while rumors suggest the MCU's Norman Osborn is planned to appear in some future project.
Uncle Ben: Not once but twice, the first time in Peter's dialogue in What If...? and then we got to see his face in YFNSM. This once and for all settles the question of whether an Uncle Ben ever existed for Holland's Spider-Man.
Commentaires
We've already seen Chameleon in Far From Home working for SHIELD, only in his civilian guise. It would be like including Scorpion here just because we only saw Gargan in Homecoming.
And with Rhino, although there are rumors about his appearance, there's only one: a supposed prop with a rhino head. Unless more rumors surface in the future that explicitly include Rhino, I've decided to leave him out for now (as well as Tarantula).
Unlike Norman, who has already been rumored by several insiders.
Tarantula has only been mentioned as part of the list of villains we could see and that's it, nothing more... until today there hasn't even been a rumor about whether he'll have any importance in the film XD
Also, MCU Blade appeared at the end of Eternals as an off screen cameo voice.
psdt: It's true, I completely forgot about his cameo in Eternals XD
But hey, in my defense, it's a seconds-long dialogue
>Isn’t Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in a different timeline than the MCU? It seems weird to count him as appearing in animation first when we saw a version of him in the MCU already.
Yes. The show is sent in a completely different universe that is somewhat MCU adjacent. Everyone assumed that it was going to be a prequel to the Tom Holland movies. But it wasn't .
\- Civil War and the Sokovia Accords
\- The Chitauri invasion of New York
\- The destruction of Sokovia and the existence of Ultron
And in Norman's photos, you can even see King T'chaka looking similar to the actor in Civil War
Technically most MCU characters debuted in marvel animation before their live action appearances.
Iron Man had his own show, so did Hulk and Cap. The entire avengers had their own animation.
Better question is what MCU characters was live action first. (Cloak and Dagger, Coulson and most of the SHIELD team, etc)
X-Men 97 doesn't count because it's a revival of the 90s series, so it's something separate. Likewise, the cartoons you mention don't count either, because none of them were created by Marvel Studios.
Even more confusingly, it seems the 2008 Hulk has two novelizations.
How was this a question, we see a suitcase with Ben's name or initials on it in iirc either homecoming or civil war. Pretty sure there was other nods to him existing as well iirc.