The MCU has had a variety of hugely comedic moments in the decade and a half since its inception. However, of all the weapons used throughout the films thus far, hardly any of them are as ridiculous as the various tools which can be found throughout the history of Marvel Comics.
While the real-world viability of some well-known hero armaments is questionable, there are also outright insane ones that many MCU fans have probably never heard of, and never need to.
9 The Ant-Man Catapult
While Captain America: Civil War did bring comic fans the big-budget debut of Ant-Man riding a Hawkeye arrow, this is still yet to be seen on the big screen. At one point in the comics, Hank Pym developed a catapult that could launch him across great distances to arrive at crime scenes faster while miniaturized.
It was an unusual idea, and flying around on ants as a later addition definitely helped a lot and fit the brand of “Ant-Man” better. However, the sight of a tiny superhero rocketing through the sky must have been quite something.
8 Madcap’s Bubble Gun
There are a number of strange villains in the Marvel roster, but none more so than Madcap. Gaining the power of healing and the ability to drive anyone insane, he wreaked havoc on several heroes throughout his relatively short list of appearances in the comics.
However, he also used a bubble gun which doesn’t actually do anything. It is just a distraction weapon that blows bubbles that don’t even do any sort of damage to anybody they come into contact with. Madcap may have an interesting, if insane, premise as a villain, but the bubble gun is a completely useless addition to the comics done for reasons that can only be described as madcap.
7 Trapster’s Glue Gun
The Trapster, also known as Paste-Pot Pete, isn’t a particularly threatening villain that fans are likely to see anytime soon. While the powers of heroes he has fought against are significant, his worst enemy is simply bad luck. He has been foiled many times for ridiculous reasons; he’s the first super villain to be defeated by an empty building for instance.
However, it is also difficult to accept a super villain as a threat when his primary weapon is a glue gun. Real-life glue guns send out trickles of hot glue to stick things together. While Trapster’s is a little more advanced, it is still a ridiculous weapon that would never work in the real world and is highly impractical even in comic book terms.
6 Captain America’s Shield
It is easy to dismiss many of the more ludicrous fringe super-villain weapons on this list as silly or impractical. However, how often even in the MCU has Captain America’s shield seemed like a ridiculous choice of weapon? His skill and ability to throw it and have it return to him do help, but as a primary weapon against aliens and super villains, even against guns, it seems wildly impractical.
For one simple point, the size of the shield is relatively small. Steve Rogers may have hidden his body behind it well on occasion. However, there must have been many times that highly trained enemies, knowing who they were facing, would have just shot for the legs? His optimism in believing this will always work is unfailing, and somehow always correct.
5 The Retroactive Cannon
The TVA was recently introduced to the MCU through Loki, and they did indeed have ways to eliminate people, places, and things from the timeline in order to keep it “sacred.” However, the comic book retroactive cannon weapon made very little sense as it erases someone shot with it completely from the timeline.
Due to the butterfly effect and all the things that every person affects, it would be immensely difficult to erase anything from a timeline in this fashion without also changing many, many parts of the universe along with it. As many great Marvel lawyers could attest to, it's a difficult debate to make for the retroactive cannon to work at all.
4 Hawkeye’s Bow
Hawkeye is an important Avenger, a great character in his own right, and usually one of the most quippy people in all of Marvel Comics. However, there is no doubt that using a bow and arrows is a laughable superhero weapon under any circumstances.
Despite trick arrows, intense training and aim, and all sorts of work that he’s put in to make himself a viable hero with this weapon, it would be so much easier with a gun. Constantly running out of arrows doesn’t need to be a personality trait, but he turns it into one with his need to continue using this outdated weapon.
3 Frogjolnir
Once upon a time, there was a frog. A frog that was actually Thor, but he’d been turned into a frog. While he was a frog, he met Puddlegulp and his clan, and Puddlegulp managed to later gain the power of Thor for himself.
When Thor was turned back into himself, a sliver of his hammer Mjolnir that had fallen off was lifted by Puddlegulp and transformed into a new, frog-sized version of the hammer. He gained all the power of Thor and became known as Throg. This all really happened, and he actually appeared a surprising number of times since.
2 Godslayer
Gamora’s sword Godslayer has appeared plenty in the MCU, but the actual usability of such a collapsible weapon is very questionable. If anything, the wildly different comic book version of the sword is far worse, the build is completely ridiculous in terms of real-world application.
Being comic books and comic book movies, the design looking good is obviously much more important than the real-world usability, but it is important to note how completely off the balance would be on the comic book sword. The movie version would be better, but the collapsing style is still impossible to work well with a strong blade.
1 The Ultimate Nullifier
A weapon initially employed by The Fantastic Four in a last-ditch effort to stop Galactus from destroying the Earth. The Ultimate Nullifier is a simple device with a switch that has the capability to destroy anyone or anything the wielder wishes. However, if the wielder is not “powerful” enough then they will be destroyed themselves.
While the idea of this is interesting, it has rarely been used as it would only be needed against incredibly powerful entities who could hardly be destroyed except by beings as powerful and intelligent as them. A rather pointless doomsday button, the Ultimate Nullifier doesn’t come up often in Marvel Comics anymore. Still, it could appear in the MCU in the future, such as in Secret Invasion.