Black Widow: Every Change The MCU Made To Red Guardian

Marvel’s Black Widow recently introduced us to The Red Guardian. He’s Tough, He’s buff….eh “ish” and he sure does take a lot of guff but the Red Guardian we saw in the MCU has more than a few differences from his red finned comic book counterpart. The Comedic comrade we fell in love with in the film is a far cry from the cold commie in the comics so here’s what the MCU changed and what they managed to squeeze back into the suit thanks to actor David Harbour.

What the MCU got right are the legendary war hero elements of Alexei. Originally debuting in Avengers #43 Red Guardian is a renowned WWII era Soviet pilot. He was publicly known in his home country for his heroics which we also see in his Red Guardian action figures and Russian fan mail. The MCU obviously updates the timeline to align more with the Cold War than WW2 but kept the idea of a Russian mirror of Captain America intact. While the MCU version is dealing with his past much like Natasha Romanoff is, more on that in a minute, in the comics he was much more of a cold, unwavering and brutal soldier. This modernization of the character might be why it actually rang true in our real world Russia. Daily newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta wrote: “Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian, is a real Russian hero. He’s a simple-minded, good-natured father who grumbles that the country has been destroyed, who tells tall tales, jokes inappropriately and likes to drink but, if necessary, will punish his enemies on behalf of his family – even if they are not real. So there’s a lot to love about the Red Guardian but the biggest comic book change might be the fact that he was the most secret and super of super secret spies, that his own wife didn’t even know Alexei was the Red Guardian. Oh and that wife was Natasha Romanoff. So yeah daddy issues MCU strikes again. In the same way the Captain America mantle has been passed between different people so to is the case with the Red Guardian. To date there have been 7 of them with Alexei Shostakov being the 2nd and the most famous. Oh he also took on the mantle of Ronin, just like Hawkeye, oops but we’re out of time folks so we’ll have to save that for another time. The essence of the Russian rogue seems intact in the MCU so he’s gotta come back right? The fact that takes the Ronin mantle could possibly bring the rotund Russian back in the Hawkeye series and he also worked with Madame Hydra.

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:23 Red Guardian’s comic origins
1:55 Real Russians are into him
2:59 Married to Black Widow, instead of being her dad
4:34 Red Guardian’s power upgrade

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Written by: Kareem @SwellCameraGuy Hassanien
Narrated by: Kareem @SwellCameraGuy Hassanien
Edited by: Bjarke “Esh” Johansen

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