10 Terrible Avengers Everyone Wants To Forget

The Avengers are the Earth’s mightiest heroes and it’s a title they’ve earned for a good reason. Over the years, the team has brought together numerous powerful and impressive heroes who have stepped up to answer the call when Earth — and sometimes the universe — is in danger. The result is a deep, rich legacy of heroes saving the day, some of them becoming core members of the team while others have only brief tenures but still make an impact.

But of the many names on the Avengers roster, there are some who we wish we could forget were ever part of the team. Some of these Avengers were just poor fits for the team while others were major liabilities and, in at least one case, were really just too problematic for their tenure to be anything we really want to revisit. Sure, most of these heroes had good intentions, but that doesn’t always mean things work out.

10) Aikku Jokinen/Pod

This is one Avenger many probably have largely forgotten even though their addition to the ream’s ranks was relatively recent. Created by Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Caselli, Aikku Jokinen encountered the Pod System Armor when it crash landed near her home country of Sweden and ended up bonded with it. Initially battling the Avengers when the armor took over her mind and flew to Australia where the team was fighting other of Ex Nihilo’s creations, Pod ended up eventually becoming a member of the New Avengers. Last she was seen, she was operating with the second iteration of her suit, Pod-2. Arguably, there’s nothing really terribly wrong with Pod as a character concept but the character is just one of those that isn’t especially interesting, either and if you haven’t already forgotten about her, you probably wish you had.

9) Dennis Dunphy/D-Man

More of a classic character first appearing in the ‘80s, D-Man might be one of the worst avengers ever. He’s a wrestler who gained his strength and stamina from Power Broker and started out as a partner for Captain America, but while he does have an interesting story, it’s also kind of a mess. He’s homeless for a while, he’s addicted to the Power Broker’s drug and goes through withdrawal when he’s cut off. At one point he attacks Captain America while under the influence of a stimulant and is all around a liability. He’s also said to smell pretty badly and, later on, D-Man ends up mentally unstable and delusional. We wish we could forget D-Man as an Avenger, if for no other reason than his story is just so depressing.

8) Delroy Garrett/Triathlon

The heroes that make up the Avengers are, generally, extremely powerful with truly superhuman skills and abilities. It’s a team with actual gods counted in their membership, not to mention cosmic beings, and more. And then there’s Triathlon whose powers boil down to his natural physical abilities are tripled and, in his case as an ex-Olympian, that means the skills needed to be a successful triathlete are enhanced. That’s literally it. Triathlon also spent most of his tenure with the Avengers not exactly getting along with folks and while that eventually worked itself out, the hero left the team only to not really be thought of again.

7) Matt Hawk/Two-Gun Kid

Yes, the Avengers once counted a gun-toting cowboy as a member. And, yes, he was from a different time. A masked crime fighter from the 19th century American West, Two-Gun Kid ends up recruited by the heroes thanks to time travel shenanigans and fighting Kang the Conqueror. The Avengers bring him to the present and, well, a gun-wielding hero on a team of heroes turns out to be a little less helpful than one might imagine. Two-Gun Kid does get sent back to his own time, and we’d like to forget his stint in the present and on the Avengers simply never happened.

6) Sharra Neramani/Deathcry

Deathcry is a character that wasn’t really given a choice about being an Avenger. Shi’ar Empress Lilandra Neramani decreed that Deathcry would join the team and be their protector after the heroes defeated the Kree. She hid her true age from the team during much of her time with them but did form friendships with Vision and Hercules and eventually told the truth, revealing that she was pretty much a teenager. She would eventually go on to end up joining Peter Quill’s team to fight the Phalanx but gets in a fight with Captain Universe because she felt like he took her kills. She ends up dying in the confrontation and is then later resurrected (temporarily) with a group of Dead Avengers. She’s just a mess.

5) Vance Astrovik/Justice

Looking like some sort of weird discount version of Captain America meets Booster Gold, Vance Astrovik started out being known as Marvel Boy and was initially rejected for membership in the Avengers. He went on to help found the New Warriors, ended up changing his codename to Justice. He ended up becoming an Avenger after working with his girlfriend Firestar to help defeat Whirlwind but he dealt with a lot of feelings of insecurity and ultimately, his time as an Avenger was really nothing to write home about.

4) Jack Hart/Jack of Hearts

Jack Hart might want to be a hero, but his powers are more of a liability. After being doused in Zero Fluid, Jack gained superpowers that he couldn’t control, requiring him to have to wear a containment suit and even spend long hours each day in a containment room while he served with the Avengers just to keep him from self-destructing. Being that he’s seriously unstable, power-wise, he’s more of a liability to the team than a help, something that became very clear when he returned to Avengers Mansion and detonated, killing Ant-Man in the process.

3) Eros/Starfox

Thanos’ brother, Starfox is much different than the Mad Titan. He’s charismatic and has good intentions, but his powers create major issues of consent. Starfox has the power to psychically control the emotions of others and he kind of uses them to seduce his way through the cosmos. That’s right, he uses his powers on women and was even put on trial for sexual assault. He may help out the Avengers with big foes like Annihlus, but he’s super problematic and we’d like to just pretend he was never an Avenger.

2) Gilgamesh The Forgotten One

One of the Eternals, sure, Gilgamesh is a heavy hitter and when the Avengers needed him, he was there and brought his wisdom and strength, both earned over his very long life, to the team. But he’s not exactly noteworthy as an Avenger except for his genuinely bad costume. Gilgamesh literally looks like he’s wearing a cow on his head. When your costume is the only particularly notable thing about you as an Avenger is your outfit, maybe your time on the team is best forgotten.

1) Anthony Ludgate Druid/Doctor Druid

A master of the mystic arts, Doctor Druid was trained to be a backup for Doctor Strange, but that doesn’t mean he was actually helpful. As a mystic and a mentalist, despite his claims that he had great mental powers, he was totally manipulated by Terminatrix (appearing as Nebula) and used him to take over the Avengers and nearly destroyed the entire team in the process. It’s one thing to be susceptible to manipulation; it’s another to present yourself as being powerful when you’re actually a pretty mediocre disgrace whose ego outsizes your abilities.

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