Avengers 2: Who Doesn't Belong on the Team?

While ComicBook.com's review of Marvel's The Avengers was a strong one, we weren't without criticism for the film, in part because the non-powered characters in the movie seemed to have little to do for most of the story. But indications are that both Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner will return to reprise their roles (as Black Widow and Hawkeye) in the currently-untitled sequel to the film, and that got us to thinking: While everyone is speculating who might show up in the next film (Namor? Captain Marvel? Slapstick?), we thought it might be a bit more fun to come up with a list of Marvel characters we don't need to see in Avengers 2.

Daredevil It looks as though Marvel will own the rights to Daredevil again long before the second Avengers film goes into principal photography, and while the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far has been really great to its heroes, I worry that may make it tempting for the filmmakers to shoehorn the horn-headed hero into the film, thinking that they can somehow make up for what happened when Fox had the property. He'd be just another guy with little-to-no powers, though, and a liability to a team that will be tackling a cosmic menace and possibly sharing screen time with the Guardians of the Galaxy. And besides the fact that it would be a disservice to The Avengers 2, it would also be a disservice to Daredevil, who history shows tends to work better when he's surrounded by other characters on a similar power scale (see: Marvel Knights). The worst-case scenario for Marvel would be to put Daredevil in a movie he doesn't belong in and once again damage his reputation with the moviegoing public. Sentry He's the other end of the spectrum--we don't need to see Sentry in a movie, unless it's a movie that's either about him or where he's a focus. The Avengers 2 will have too many characters and too much plot to accommodate a character like him. That is, of course, leaving aside the fact that the character is in himself pretty divisive, and a lto of the fan base would feel no real need to see him in a movie even if the situation were perfect. Deathcry This is one that, with the wrong mix of drugs in the writers' room, could totally happen. She's got an Avengers pedigree and a space-based backstory, and those are two things that could come in handy in an Avengers sequel that seems to see the team facing off against Thanos. She's also one of the most frustratingly awful characters ever to exist in the Marvel canon, and one whose dubious usefulness to The Avengers was overplayed over the course of what felt like a very long time. Loki With teases that Loki might be redeemed, at least somewhat, in Thor: The Dark World and his onetime boss taking on the team in the sequel, it might be tempting to incorporate Loki into the team. The problem? If Thanos thinks he's a god and he's squaring off against Thor and slapping him down, that's kinda cool. If it becomes "war of the gods," one begins to wonder what Captain America brings to the table. I love Tom Hiddleston's performance as the trickster god as much as the next guy, but there's no real reason to have him in the film, unless there's some compelling story Whedon and company have come up with. Wonder Man He might have a following among the Avengers faithful, but frankly it's just hard to imagine this frequent Avenger working on film. He's never had a great costume, or at least not one that would look great on film, and not even really one that would be easy to adapt without tearing it down and starting over. Meanwhile, his best stories have always tended to be one of two things: Either they play off his buddies, requiring additional characters to be introduced or incorporated with the character; or they're enormously complex and continuity-oriented. Also, there's the simple reality that you can't have someone called "Wonder Man." The Wonder Woman connection would baffle non-comics readers. He would have to eschew his name in favor of something else, or maybe go the Madrox route and just use his real name. In any case, if you have to make that many changes to a character (the name, the look, the best parts of his personality), it's probably safer not to try to adapt him, lest you do it wrong and draw the ire of the comics community.