Marvel Comics has become the purveyor of superhero comics in the minds of most casual fans. The company started telling superhero stories in the Golden Age, but other than Captain America, didn’t really light the world on fire. They got out of the superhero business until DC’s Silver Age superhero success couldn’t be ignored. Since then, they’ve made some of the most beloved superheroes and supervillains of all time. Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and many more have become household names, and the House of Ideas has put out thousands of comics over the decades, giving readers some amazing characters.
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We all know the big name Marvel characters, but they aren’t the only ones out there. Over the decades, many lesser characters have all gotten books or appeared in team comics, building up fandoms, and then disappearing. These ten Marvel characters are awesome, but they’ve appeared so rarely that many fans have never read their books.
10) Kaga
Warren Ellis’s run on Astonishing X-Men is underrated and it introduced readers to one of the most unique villains in the team’s history. Kaga is a Japanese mutant, but with a catch. See, his mother survived Hiroshima and he was born with terrible deformities. When other mutants started to pop up, he was incensed that they were beautiful, with useful mutations, so he decided to destroy them all, working for years to create powerful technology, like his “bio-Sentinels” made from dead mutants and Brood. He was an interesting threat, unlike any other X-villains, and deserves a come back.
9) Stingray
The Avengers are Marvel’s greatest team. It’s been home to heroes on all levels of popularity, but not every member of the team has been able to catch on. Stingray is one of these. Walter Newell is an oceanographer who created a special suit that would allow him to explore the darkest depths of the ocean. He became a superhero, working with numerous members of the Avengers, but it’s been ages since he’s had any kind of spotlight. He shows up in the background at times, and hasn’t had a speaking role in ages.
8) Threnody
Threnody is one of many mutants created in the ’90s. She can control necroplasmic energy, using the energy of death to fuel plasma blasts, immortality, and necromancy. She worked with Mister Sinister, and escaped his service when Nate Grey came from the Age of Apocalypse Earth. She was a part of the best era of X-Man, and would later hang around with Deadpool for a while before disappearing. So many ’90s mutants are forgotten, and she deserves better.
7) The Vison I
Most people don’t know that the Vision is actually a legacy hero, even if the two aren’t actually related in anything but name and similar designs. The original Golden Age Vision was an alien named Aarkus, a “Keeper of Law” from the planet Smokeworld. He came to Earth when he was looking for a place to banish his people’s first murderer and decided to stay on the planet to protect it. He can control smoke, gas, and vapor, can teleport anywhere he wants, can touch gases like they are solids, and has superhuman physical abilities. He’s showed up in the numerous Invaders reboots that Marvel trots out every couple of years, and he’s one of the best parts of that classic team.
6) Songbird
Songbird was once the villain Screaming Mimi, her powers allowing her to manifest and manipulate sonic energy. She joined the Masters of Evil, and would later return to the team when Zemo wanted them to masquerade as the Thunderbolts. She was one of the coolest members of the group, her powers making her visually interesting, and being a hero allowed her to develop into a better character. For a while, it was assumed that she would join the Avengers but Thunderbolts started to flag in popularity, and she faded away as well. She deserves so much better than that, and still has loads of potential.
5) Jolt
Thunderbolts was an awesome book and one of the best Marvel ongoings on the ’90s. Seeing the Masters of Evil deal with suddenly being superheroes was a lot of fun, but then a new wrinkle got added: Jolt. She was kidnapped by Arnim Zola, given electrical powers, and saved by the Thunderbolts. She ended up joining the team for PR purposes, forcing them to hide their identities, making the series ever better. She was a great young hero, and could have been a star if Marvel actually used her. She doesn’t get many appearances anymore, but she’s always been awesome.
4) Shard
The ’90s were a fruitful decade for Marvel, especially the mutant corner of things. They were the most popular characters, and we got numerous new mutants over the decade. Shard is the younger sister of Bishop, hailing from his same future. She was killed at some point and became a being of photonic energy, coming back to the present to help fight for mutants. She was a pretty simple character, but she was way cooler than she had any right to be.
3) Post
Post is a villain with loads of potential, but he’s been left in the ’90s. The super strong mutant was recruited by Onslaught, given techno-organic platelets that he could shape into anything. He attacked the X-Men, joined the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and fought Gambit, but was killed and never came back. He was made to seem like a big deal when he first appeared, but instead of using him in interesting ways, Marvel just made him into a lackey. He starred in some excellent stories, and it’s a shame he never got more attention.
2) Zoe Culloden
Zoe Culloden started appearing in Wolverine (Vol. 2) after he lost his adamantium. She was an expediter for Landau, Luckman, and Lake, an interdimensional law firm that Wolverine had worked with in the past. She would show up, help Logan, and then vanish, and was trying to keep him from going feral for unknown reasons. It seemed like she and the firm were being built up into something special, but she just kind of vanished as the ’90s ended. She was a cool, mysterious character armed with all kinds of amazing technology and seemed to have an interesting past. There was so much that could be done with her, and yet nothing happened.
1) Cardiac
Cardiac first appeared in the early ’90s, a doctor whose brother died because of the greed of the medical industry. He replaced his heart with a beta energy reactor, giving himself superpowers, and set out to take revenge on the corporations that cause so much death because of profit margins. Of course, his violent methods put him at odds with Spider-Man and they fought numerous times. He’s the perfect character for 2026, a man driven to rage by the economic circumstances of the world. It’s about time that Marvel dusted him off and had him pull a Luigi.
What are your favorite vanished Marvel characters? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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