The beauty of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that oftentimes, current day Marvel fans are introduced to characters that older fans may know and newer fans may not know. For me, that was the case with Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and plenty of other newer additions to the MCU. And that was also the case with America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as well as the new Namor in the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
These two Mexican Marvel characters were ones that I did not know about for some time, but I’m super happy to see the inclusion and their additions to the MCU as a whole, which got us thinking – what other amazing Mexican and Mexican-American Marvel characters are there that would be great additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Here are six that we think would rock the big (or small) screen.
Arana/Spider-Girl II
There literally can’t be a Marvel universe article featuring new Marvel characters without mentioning at least one of the many Spider-Person variants that exist, and here, we take a look at Arana, otherwise known as another version of Spider-Girl. Her real name in the Marvel Comics is Anya Sofia Corazon (who’s last name just so happens to mean “heart” in English) and she’s Mexican on her mother’s side, and Puerto Rican on her father’s side. And yes, she has all the powers of Spider-Girl that you would imagine.
There have been many rumors of Miles Morales, a Puerto-Rican/Black variant of Spider-Man appearing in the MCU soon, especially with how popular he has become thanks to both Into the Spider-Verse and his appearance in the very popular video game, Marvel’s Spider-Man. Could you imagine there being a Miles Morales Spider-Man movie and having Anya as the Spider-Girl in there? It would literally break the internet and yes, I would be there on opening day.
Cheetah
No, I’m not talking about Cheetah from Wonder Woman. That’s an entirely different comic universe. Today I am going to talk about Esteban Carracus, a thief from Mexico City who was suddenly struck down by an energy beam thanks to a Kree robot that selected Carracus to give him superhuman powers. After this, it made him faster and stronger than any other human imaginable, which led Esteban to adopting the name, “Cheetah.”
While Cheetah isn’t a hero by any means, using his powers for bad instead of good as soon as he gets them, he would certainly be a fun addition to the MCU considering we haven’t had anyone that’s super fast since Quicksilver, and since I don’t know who is going to take on that role – whether that be Evan Peters again or someone new – it would be exciting to see another fast person beat up people in the MCU.
But what also makes him funny is that he’s not really a good villain, per se – which makes him even more fun to watch. The mistakes he makes are almost laughable.
Ghost Rider (Roberto “Robbie” Reyes)
I would love to see Robbie Reyes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, otherwise known as Ghost Rider, a hero that is given the power to literally manipulate souls as well as other superhuman abilities you would expect, like strength or agility.
There have been rumors on Ghost Rider appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point, with the arrival of heroes such as Blade, Moon Knight and more, opening the gates to a possible Midnight Sons movie.
Nicolas Cage, who played the character before, has been someone fans have thought could reprise the role. Keanu Reeves has been up for discussion as well amongst fans, as well as The Walking Dead star, Norman Reedus, but they would all portray the version of Ghost Rider known as Johnny Blaze. Today, we’re talking about Robbie Reyes, a Mexican American version of the superhero.
So technically, Reyes has appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but their placement in the MCU is really hazy and we don’t really know if it's canon or not. If so, I would love to see him fully appear in the MCU for real, him and his flaming motorcycle.
Hummingbird
Next up on the list, we have Hummingbird, otherwise known as Maria Aracely Josefina Penalba de las Heras, a young girl from Mexico. She is a part of the superhero team, New Warriors, and has several interesting powers such as telepathy, the ability to use psychic blasts, and she can fly. She can also create divine fire.
I sort of look at her as similar to the Scarlet Witch, but much less powerful since she’s so young, sort of like how Wanda was back in Avengers: Age of Ultron when she was still learning to use her powers in the MCU. We’ve been getting hints of younger superhero teams in the MCU with the idea of a Young Avengers forming, so I think it would be great to have New Warriors come in and make way for a powerful young hero like Hummingbird.
Reptil
Moving on, we now take a look at Reptil, otherwise known as Humberto “Berto” Lopez, a young boy from Mexico, who is literally able to transform himself into parts of dinosaurs. That’s right, you read that correctly – dinosaurs. And get this, over time, he is actually able to become a dinosaur.
What makes him even cooler is that at one point, he is able to make himself larger thanks to Pym Particles working on his powers and augmenting them. I know that in a world where we are given literal gods as superheroes, having someone who can transform into a dinosaur might not seem all too impressive but I genuinely love the heck out of him and think that he would be a fun addition to the MCU. I mean, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is coming out soon and Reptil has worked with Pym in the past so who knows?
Nova
Last but not least, we have to talk about Nova, otherwise known as Sam Alexander, who became Nova after his father, Jesse Alexander, went missing. Sam is Mexican and has some of the typical powers you would expect, such as advanced speed and strength, but he’s able to do all of this in space and more thanks to the powers of his helmet,
What makes him even cooler is that in the comics, he’s trained by Gamora and Rocket Raccoon, which is awesome in of itself. But the reason I bring this up is that Nova is actually already set for the MCU, and that a new Nova project is in the works, according to Deadline. Granted, the character they are covering in this project is going to be Richard Rider (another version of Nova), but that could pave the way for versions like Sam Alexander to appear as well.
There are so many options for Mexican and Mexican-American versions of Marvel superheroes to appear in the MCU and I for one can’t wait to see what happens in the future. This MCU is expanding quickly and I’m eager to see where it goes.
