Marvel Universe/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The Marvel Universe is one of the Big Two of comics, along with The DCU. As such, it's the birthplace of many of the more famous comic-book related tropes, as well as the source material for various comic-book movies.

See also the X-Men characters page.

8-Ball

Originally an engineer specializing in propulsion systems, Jeff Hagrees turned to pool as a means of relieving the stress of his job. Unfortunately, he began gambling on pool games too, which cost him a lot of money. His employers suspected he was selling company secrets to pay his gambling debts, and fired him even without any proof. Turning to supervillainy, he combined his engineering talents with his love of pool as a basis for his criminal motif, and went on to face Sleepwalker.

  • Affably Evil: 8-Ball's actually a pretty nice guy...when he's not trying to crush people under bank vaults or strap them to giant exploding pool balls, anyway.
  • Bad Guys Play Pool: Not only is he an expert player, he also based his whole criminal motif on the game.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Subverted. He started out as a legitimate engineer, before being fired for being accused of selling company secrets. Chances are he was blacklisted for this, and couldn't find a job afterwards.
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: After getting called out on his bragging by the Hobgoblin, 8-Ball accepts a $100,000 bet to see who can kill Sleepwalker first.
  • Improbable Weapon User: 8-Ball's main weapon is a jet-propelled cue stick that can propel anything it hits with devastating force. He also uses exploding pool balls as weapons, floating cameras in the shape of billiard balls, and giant hovercrafts shaped like pool racks as transportation.
  • Nice Helmet: That giant 8-Ball helmet actually looks pretty spiffy when combined with the rest of his costume.

Absorbing Man

Empowered by the evil trickster god Loki, convicted felon Carl "Crusher" Creel was given the ability to absorb the physical properties of anything he made physical contact with. Using his new powers to return to his life of crime, Creel would go on to become battle The Mighty Thor (which was what Loki had in mind when he gave Creel his powers) but also numerous other heroes. Although he continues to be a charter member of Thor's Rogues Gallery, he's also tangled with everyone from Daredevil to Spider-Man to the Incredible Hulk.

  • A Wizard Did It: The Absorbing Man's ball and chain has been destroyed on several occasions, and yet somehow it's always good as new the next time the Absorbing Man appears. Is this ever explained in the comics?
  • Epic Flail: Creel's ball and chain has the same absorbing properties he does. It can even absorb the properties of Thor's mystic uru hammer, which is never a pleasant experience for Thor.
  • Future Badass: While plenty powerful as he is, in one Alternate Universe story Creel realizes he has the ability to also absorb knowledge. After absorbing the intellect and processing power of Ultron he is able to recall everything he ever absorbed and became able to display their properties at will and effectively became the most dangerous superhuman on the planet.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Creel's greatest strength is also his greatest vulnerability. Not only does he absorb the strengths of whatever he touches, he also absorbs its weaknesses. Clever heroes can use this trait to beat him:
    • In one of his first appearances, Thor tricked him into absorbing the properties of helium, which caused him to literally float away into the upper atmosphere.
    • When he absorbed the strength and power of the Gray Hulk, he also absorbed the weakness to sunlight that the Hulk was suffering from. The Hulk was mostly protected from the sun by the three-piece suit he was wearing...but the Absorbing Man wasn't so lucky.
    • Later in that same fight, the Hulk used Deadly Dodging to get the Absorbing Man to short himself out after he became electrified and accidentally struck the river they were fighting near.
    • When the Absorbing Man turned himself into diamond, Daredevil used his radar sense to find and chip away at the flaws that developed in Creel's body. This continued until the Absorbing Man literally fell to pieces.
    • Another fight with Thor led the Absorbing Man to try and absorb the dimensional portal Thor was opening to escape. This resulted in him getting sucked into a barren, lifeless dimension...at least before he absorbed another portal and made his way back to Earth.
    • In one story where Creel fought Deadpool, he attempted to absorb the properties of a nearby piece of steel only for Deadpool to toss a roll of toilet paper into his hands as he looked the other way. The results were what you might expect.
  • Power Copying: The Absorbing Man can mimic the physical properties of anything he or his ball and chain touches. If he touches concrete, he gains the strength and durability of concrete. He touches electricity, he becomes electrical. He touches titanium, he becomes as strong and durable as titanium. He can also duplicate the strength and durability of anyone he touches, such as the Incredible Hulk or The Incredible Hercules.
  • Staying Alive: The Absorbing Man has literally been smashed to pieces, but he's always been able to pull himself back together.
  • Tricking the Shapeshifter: Related to Hoist by His Own Petard, many heroes have overcome the Absorbing Man by getting him to absorb something that gives him a fatal weakness they can exploit.

Amadeus Cho

A teenage super genius and tenth smartest man on the planet, Amadeus was a long time fan and supporter of the Hulk, until he met The Incredible Hercules. Swiftly becoming good friends with the Greek God, Cho was on the fast track to becoming a hero in his own right, with the Lion of Olympus serving as both friend and mentor.

Ares

Greek God of Mindless War and Slaughter. A frequent enemy of Hercules and whichever team Hercules is on. In recent years he has benefited from a great deal of Character Development, going from Villain to Villain Protagonist to Anti-Hero and back again. A member of Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers. Killed by The Sentry during Siege, but he'll probably be back.

Batroc ze Lee-pair!

A French thief/mercenary, Batroc iz ze Master of Savate, ze French form of kick boxing. He iz a regular foe of Capitaine America. Despite his ridiculous costume and outrageous aczent, he iz one of the most deadly non-super powered fighters in the Marvel Universe.

Beta Ray Bill

A cyborg created on the planet Korbinite for the purpose of defending its people. He later came to blows with Thor and proved worthy of lifting Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. He eventually befriended Thor and became his oath-brother, and was given Stormbreaker, a hammer equal in power to Mjolnir, by Odin.

  • Badass -- Was powerful enough to have fought Thor, the God of Thunder, twice (and technically won both times!) and this was before he got his hands on Mjolnir/Stormbreaker.
  • Drop the Hammer -- Stormbreaker
  • The Grotesque -- The process that turned him into a cyborg made him rather monstrous, having a head that was akin to a horse's skull and dramatically different from others of his own race. Despite this, Bill is one of the few beings in existence who is noble enough to wield Mjolnir.
  • Horse-headed Alien Robot with Viking Helmet
  • Kick the Dog -- In Godhunter, he poisons a whole planet while possessing the cure, in the hopes of forcing the planet's population to evacuate and thereby prevent Galactus from eating the planet. As a result he was deemed unworthy of wielding Stormbreaker, but he got better afterward.
  • Last of His Kind -- His story arc in the Godhunter, in which his planet got consumed by Galactus. Later subverted when Galactus, impressed at his Heroic Sacrifice for him, resurrects a Korbinite female with whom he can reproduce and recreate his race.
  • Not Blood Siblings -- He's Thor's oath brother
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy

Black Bolt

Blackagar Boltagon is the King of The Inhumans and was a member of the Illuminati. He possesses a mega powerful voice that could level buildings if he whispers, or destroys a world if he shouts on the top of his lungs. He initiated the War of Kings

Black Cat

Felicia Hardy, a sometimes super-powered cat burglar and one-time love interest of Spider-Man's. Was a member of Heroes for Hire for a short time.

Black Panther

Ruler of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, T'Challa is a genius on level with the likes of Reed Richards and Hank Pym. He is the latest in a long line of supernatural protectors, avatars of the African panther god Bast.

  • Animal Motifs
  • The Chessmaster -- His genius is poured into his politics more then it is into science.
  • King Incognito -- For a time he traveled the world under an assumed identity.
  • Legacy Character -- T'Challa is merely the latest in a long line of warrior-kings to claim the mantle of the Panther.
  • Manipulative Bastard -- His greatest strength is also one of his greatest flaws.
  • Retcon -- Wakanda went from a nation that had been built up into a technological wonderland by T'Challa almost single handedly, into a country that had always been far in advance of the rest of the world and a utopia to boot.

Black Widow

Natasha Romanov

A soviet KGB agent and graduate of the infamous Red Room, Natasha Romanov was sent to the US to deal with Iron Man and The Avengers, but soon pulled a Heel Face Turn. Having taken the Russian equivalent of the Super Soldier Serum, she has had an extended life span, being a child during World War II and working as a spy all through the Cold War.

Yelena Belova

The second Black Widow, a post-soviet spy trained by the GRU, Yelena Belova toes the line between hero and villain, occasionally serving in either function depending on the whims of the writer.

Boomerang

Fred Meyers was a baseball pitcher banned from the game for accepting bribes. Criminal types took note of his throwing skills and less than honest nature and set him up with weapons and equipment to become killer-for-hire Boomerang.

Bullseye

Daredevil's archfoe, a psychotic hitman who never misses -- and can kill with anything from a gun to a toothpick.


Captain America (comics)

Steve Rogers

Rejected by the army during World War II but still intent on serving his country, Steve Rogers volunteered for a Super Soldier project that would give him increased physical capabilities greater than those of all but the mightiest human athletes. It worked, and once given a uniform and shield, he became a patriotic symbol in his fight against the Axis powers before disappearing mysteriously. Flash forward many decades, and a new generation of superheroes found him frozen in suspended animation. Once thawed he became a member, and later leader, of the Avengers.

  • All-American Face -- Hell yes!
  • Badass Abnormal: The Super Soldier serum enhances Cap's physical abilities to the greatest possible for an ordinary human, but it doesn't actually elevate him to superhuman levels. It's more his keen tactical mind, combined with his amazing fighting skills, that accounts for his ability to repeatedly take on super-powered foes and come out on top.
  • Beware the Nice Ones -- Cap is one of the friendliest, most easygoing guys you'll ever meet. Granted, once you piss him off...
  • The Cape (trope)
  • Crazy Prepared: Captain America has spent a lot of time analyzing the data files the Avengers have compiled on all the major supervillains. No matter who he faces, chances are Cap already has a good idea of their strengths and weaknesses.
  • Dating Catwoman -- Diamondback, who reformed in part because of his influence.
  • Eagle Land -- Type 1
  • Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke - In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, most of the superpeople in that universe are the result of people trying to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum that made Cap.
  • Human Popsicle
  • Improbable Aiming Skills -- Cap can pretty much do anything with his shield besides make it stand up and bark.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me -- Cap's shield is pretty much unbreakable and invincible. It also serves for both offense and defense, since Cap can throw it to attack his enemies from long range or beat them with it in close combat. Its unique alloy even makes it able to damage enemies that might otherwise be immune to physical harm-the iron in it is harmful to demons, the vibranium causes pain to energy-based creatures, etc.
  • The Messiah
  • No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup -- Abraham Erskine, the scientist who enhanced him, was killed by a Nazi spy just as he completed the process. The secret of creating super-soldiers died with him.
  • Precision Guided Shield -- Needs no explanation.
  • Super Soldier
  • Throwing Your Shield Always Works -- And how!!
  • Weapon of Choice -- His "mighty shield"

James Buchanan Barnes

Formerly Steve Rogers' Kid Sidekick during World War II, when he was known as 'Bucky'. He was apparently killed shortly before Steve was frozen in suspended animation, but was recently revealed to have been captured, near death, by the Soviets. Equipped with a cybernetic arm and Brainwashed into becoming the assassin known as the Winter Soldier, he played the role of a villain until Steve brought him back to his senses and had him reform. With the apparent death of Steve, Bucky took the mantle of Captain America with the blessing of Tony Stark.

Captain Mar-Vell

A kree soldier sent to Earth to investigate humanities space flight capabilities, Captain Mar-Vell through a strange turn of fate, went on to become the super hero Captain Marvel, eventually abandoning his mission and adopting Earth as his new home world. He famously died of cancer in one of the earliest published graphic novels, the land mark Death Of Captain Marvel, which has stuck ever since.

Carnage

Unrepentant serial killer Cletus Kasady ended up in a prison cell with Eddie Brock, aka Venom. When Brock's symbiotic "other" tracked him down and broke him out of prison, the symbiote left a small part of itself behind which bonded to Kasady, turning him into the psychotic super powered killer Carnage. Strong, fast, and able to shape his symbiote into various shapes and weapons, Kasady is a force to be reckoned with. Or he was, until Sentry apparently killed him.

Cobweb

A demon from the Mindscape, Sleepwalker's home dimension, that imprisoned Sleepwalker in Rick Sheridan's mind. This proved to be part of a larger Evil Plan to invade the Earth and frame Sleepwalker for it.

  • Arch Enemy: To Sleepwalker.
  • Evil Plan: The overarching plot in the Sleepwalker comics is Cobweb's planned conquest of Earth.
  • Manipulative Bastard: According to Sleepwalker, Cobweb often twists his victims' perceptions of reality until they can no longer tell truth from lies. He more than lives up to his reputation.
  • Master of Illusion: He puts Rick Sheridan through a Nightmare Fuel experience in the Mindscape that's meant to sow doubt in Rick's mind about Sleepwalker's true nature.
  • Mind Rape: To Rick Sheridan. Then there's all the minds his mindspawn destroy.
  • Mooks: Cobweb is served by a small army of "mindspawn", lesser demons of the Mindscape, which he empowers.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Cobweb's body is made up of an infinite number of strands, which he can reshape and manipulate at will.

The Constrictor

SHIELD agent Frank Payne was assigned to become an undercover costumed supervillain to infiltrate the Corporation, a national crime syndicate organized like a legitimate business. Given a pair of electrically charged whips and the codename of the Constrictor, Payne infiltrated the group only to suffer a nervous breakdown and become a costumed assassin for real. Serving under the Corporation and fighting the Incredible Hulk, the Constrictor would later become an independent costumed mercenary, fighting a wide variety of heroes in the process.

  • Becoming the Mask: He started out as a spy for SHIELD who took on a supervillain identity as his cover. Then he became a supervillain for real.
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: First he was a SHIELD agent, then a mercenary, then a trainer for the Initiative, and now he's back to being a mercenary.
  • Legion of Doom: Subverted when he was invited to join the Serpent Society, a collection of snake-themed supervillains, and refused. He would later be attacked by the organization for ratting them out to Captain America (comics).
  • Rogues Gallery Transplant: Started out fighting the Hulk, then moved to become one of Captain America's long-running dance partners. He's also tangled with Iron Fist, Iron Man, Hercules, the Thing, and Spider-Man.
  • Shock and Awe: His vibranium coils are electrically charged, which makes them extremely dangerous in combat.
  • Whip It Good: His primary weapons are his electrically charged vibranium whips, which he uses to lash and entangle his enemies. They're also electrically charged for an additional bit of pain.

Crossbones

Brock Rumlow was a petty thug and hit man, the lowest trash imaginable. Then he was recruited by the Red Skull, and became even worse. A frequent enemy of Captain America (comics), he was the man that shot Steve Rogers at the end of Civil War. A frequent underling of the Red Skull, Crossbones is just as sick and twisted as his master.

  • Ascended Fanboy: A particularly ghoulish version of this trope, Crossbones was in fact a huge fan of the Red Skull before his idol offered him a job.
  • Ax Crazy
  • Badass Normal: A good enough fighter to keep up with Captain America.
  • The Dragon: To the Red Skull.
  • Evil Counterpart: Thematically, one could argue that Crossbones is similar to Bucky or Nomad in that they're both devoted sidekicks to the Skull and Captain America, respectively.
  • Patrick Stewart Speech: Horrifically inverted when the Red Skull is feeling depressed and Crossbones tries to cheer him up by reminding him of all his evil accomplishments.
  • Post-Rape Taunt: Poor Diamondback.
  • Skeletons in the Coat Closet

Daredevil

Matt Murdock, blind lawyer and disability superpower poster child. Both his blindness and his powers stem from contact with a radioactive substance when young. Protects Hell's Kitchen from organized crime and some fairly messed-up super villains, even by Marvel standards, while also secretly using his super-sensory powers in his secret identity to aid his courtroom battles.

  • Badass Abnormal -- Daredevil doesn't have the most impressive powerset in the Marvel Universe, but his ability to creatively use his powers is what allows him to come out on top against guys who've tangled with the likes of Thor and the Avengers.
  • Cartwright Curse -- Matt Murdock has a lot of girlfriends. Only two who did not end up dead, insane, or a dead drug-addicted porn star (and it's early days for Dakota North...).
  • Dating Catwoman -- With Elektra.
  • Disability Superpower -- When he lost his sight, he gained super-enhanced other senses and radar powers.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners -- With Foggy Nelson.
  • Identity Impersonator -- Done at his request, by Iron Fist. Done in spite of his wishes in a very early arc by Foggy.
  • McNinja -- Irish-American.

Doctor Doom

Often cited as the biggest bad of all the big bads, Victor Von Doom is President for Life of Latveria, one of the greatest scientific minds of the planet, and the sworn mortal enemy of Reed Richards and, by extension, the Fantastic Four. Doom's hobbies include talking in the third person, battling the devil for his mother's soul, attempting to gain ultimate power, and blaming that accursed Richards for his failures and defeats.

  • Big Bad -- Principally to the Fantastic Four, but could be argued for the entire MU
  • Big Damn Villains -- Being a pragmatist, Doom has done this when he deems it in his interest. When Shadowcat was badly injured during a fight with the Marauders and she was about to dissolve into nothingness, the X-Men asked Reed Richards for help. When Richards tried and failed to heal Kitty, Doctor Doom then offered to do it and actually succeeded. Not that Doom actually cared about Shadowcat's fate; he just relished one-upping Richards.
  • The Chessmaster
  • Emperor Scientist
  • Evil Overlord -- Strangely, not that evil to his own people.
  • Large Ham
  • Minor Injury Overreaction -- Depending on the Writer, at least as far as the severity of his facial scars goes. Permanently in full effect, as far as his slighting by the accursed Richards goes.
  • Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate -- Well, except for the part where he doesn't actually have a doctorate. But then, other evil dictators like to give themselves titles, why shouldn't he? Justified Trope when you realize he probably already knows more about any given scientific field than most actual PhDs...
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist -- To rival that of his archenemy, that accursed Richards, dabbling in everything from Time Travel to Black Magic (if you would consider sorcery a form of science anyway).
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You -- He takes grave exception to anyone else trying to destroy the Four, and views it as his exclusive right. In an alternate universe where Spider-Man, the Hulk, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider became the new Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom even rescued them when they were about to be killed, stating that no one else may destroy the Fantastic Four-any Fantastic Four.
  • Pet the Dog -- The Doctor sometimes does this with his citizens in Latveria.
  • Powered Armor -- Rumoured to have inspired Darth Vader's look.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero -- His real name is Victor Von Doom. One wonders why he didn't choose a career as a humanitarian aid worker or civil rights lawyer.
  • Third Person Person

Doctor Octopus

One of Spider-Man's most dreaded and deadly enemies, a freak lab accident turned Otto Octavius from a brilliant physicist with slightly unusual taste in labwear to an evil criminal mastermind and mass murderer. He's also the leader of most incarnations of the Sinister Six, a team of supervillains dedicated to, in order of importance, A) Killing Spider-Man and B) Getting rich.

Doctor Strange

Stephen Strange was a surgeon whose career was ended with a car accident. Desperate to regain full use of his hands, he sought out the Ancient One, setting off a chain of events that would lead him to becoming Earth's Sorcerer Supreme. A frequent ally to many of the Marvel Universe's main heroes and founding member of the Defenders.

Dreadknight

Bram Velsing was a Latverian engineer who dreamed of usurping power from Doctor Doom. Unfortunately, Doctor Doom being, well, Doctor Doom, he caught on to Velsing's treacherous ambitions and punished him by grafting a hideous skull mask to his face before banishing him from the country. Found and treated by Victoria Frankenstein, the Dreadknight repaid her kindness by trying to loot her home and use its resources to attack Latveria. Defeated by Iron Man, the Dreadknight continued to seek revenge against Doom, conquer Latveria, and get revenge on Iron Man.

  • Biological Mashup: The Dreadknight uses the Hellhorse, a black stallion with large bat wings, as his main means of transportation.
  • Blade on a Stick: The Dreadknight's favorite weapon is his lance, which can shoot deadly energy bolts and electrical coils to ensnare his enemies.
  • Clingy Costume: To spite Velsing, who was very vain and proud of his good looks, Doom surgically attached a steel skull mask to his face. Attached with specially designed microcircuitry, the mask is impossible to remove.
  • Smug Snake: Anybody who thinks he can outsmart Doctor freaking Doom has got to qualify for this trope.
  • The Starscream: He intended to be this to Doctor Doom. It failed miserably.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: Victoria Frankenstein takes the Dreadknight in after Doom left him for dead, and how does he repay her? By trying to murder her and steal all her scientific resources, of course.

Electro

An electricity-powered villain named Maxwell Dillon, Electro frequently serves as a minion (and is often seen with the Sinister Six). He's potentially one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe, but he's too much of a loser to realise his full potential. Not to be confused with Elektra.

Elektra

Originally created as Daredevil's ex-girlfriend turned mob killer, Elektra Natchios is an anti-heroic semi-mystical ninja assassin who's managed a few mini-series of her own as well as a rather dire movie.

The Falcon

Sam Wilson was a social worker before he was a super hero. After witnessing unspeakable acts of gang violence, he took up the codename 'The Falcon' and fights to keep the streets safe.

Nick Fury

The Howling Commando. The SHIELD Ramrod. A 90-year-old soldier/CIA agent/spymaster/fugitive. Considered to be one of the good guys by pretty much every hero on the planet, partly because the idea of not being on his side is kind of terrifying.

Galactus

A humongous cosmic entity whose origin is tied to the Marvel Universe's "big bang." He feeds off the energy of planets to survive. The Silver Surfer (below) was given his powers to act as the first of many heralds to search for appropriate food. Though not truly good or evil, his tendencies have put him on a collision course with Earth's heroes many times.

Ghost Rider

Johnathon 'Johnny' Blaze was a motorcycle stunt performer who sold his soul to Mephisto to save his beloved. Mephisto being Mephisto, he pulled a double cross, but Johnny was saved by his girlfriend's Power of Love. His deal with Mephisto bound his soul to that of the vengeance demon Zarathos, enabling him to transform into the Ghost Rider, avenger of the innocent. Although Johnny Blaze with Zarathos is the original (and current) Ghost Rider, other versions of the Rider have also shown up; either as past versions or Daniel Ketch, Johnny's long lost brother.

  • Badass Biker
  • Badass Normal -- Once fought without his power as Ghost Rider and still remains formidable
  • Dark Is Not Evil -- He's using Hell's powers, for Pete's sake! But he is still one of the heroes, usually erring towards Anti-Hero
  • Deal with the Devil
  • Legacy Character: The Spirits of Vengeance have possessed many people over the centuries. Johnny Blaze and Dan Ketch are merely the latest in a very long line of human hosts for the Rider.
  • Mind Rape -- The Penance Stare, in a rare instance of the hero doing it.
  • Playing With Hellfire -- Main weapon of choice
  • Retcon -- The Spirit of Vengeance was changed from being a servant of Hell to actually being a servant of Heaven, Mephisto tricked him into thinking it was the reverse. When Johnny found out he'd been conned, he gave Mephisto a godly arse whooping.
  • Whip It Good -- His physical weapon of choice is his mystic chain, when he's not staring at people for their sins, or burning them away

Green Goblin

The archenemy of Spider-Man. Exposure to a strength enhancement formula gave Norman Osborn superhuman strength, enhanced intelligence, and an mild extreme case of homicidal insanity, all of which he used to become the Green Goblin. The Goblin was to prove Spider-Man's greatest enemy, perhaps most famous for killing off Peter Parker's then girlfriend Gwen Stacy.

Hobgoblin

Roderick Kingsley

When Corrupt Corporate Executive Roderick Kingsley was threatened by one of his enemies, he sought means of protecting himself. When a thug stumbled on one of the Green Goblin's hidden caches of equipment, he told Roderick. Roderick, in turn, promptly took the equipment and blew the thug up. Unlike the Green Goblin, the Hobgoblin was completely sane and was perfectly willing to quit while he's still ahead. Roderick retired the role but after killed his replacement years later and took up the mantle again. Was defeated and unmasked by Spider-Man and later retired again to the tropics after clashing with the Green Goblin once. He's also a major enemy of Spider-Girl in her series.

  • Arch Enemy - Replaced the Green Goblin as one for Spider-Man. He's now Spider-Girl's.
  • Badass Grandpa - In Spider-Girl.
  • Berserk Button - Do not question his sanity. At best, he'll give you a verbal scathing. At worst, he'll paint the walls with your innards.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy - He brainwashed Betty Brant's husband Ned Leeds into posing as the Hobgoblin while he retired. Unfortunately for Leeds, repeated brainwashing made him lose his sanity.
  • Canon Discontinuity - Ned Leeds was never the Hobgoblin.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome - No one knew who Roderick Kingsley was unless they closely followed the '80s Spider-Man. Fans named all kinds of possible suspects, even J. Jonah Jameson.
  • Continuity Snarl - His secret identity was originally going to be Roderick Kingsley. Then a different writer wanted it to be the Kingpin's son Richard. Unfortunately, different writers didn't know what to do with him, so they made Ned Leeds the Hobgoblin even though he was killed offscreen. It was only after the excellent Hobgoblin Lives did his story get straightened out, but Leeds' unmasking still leaves a bad taste in fan's mouths.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive - He was referred to as the "sneering lizard of the fashion world", and practiced industrial sabotage to undermine his competitors before buying them up cheap.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check - He realized this, so he retired and went back to being a businessman. He still was able to participate in the crime scene through a brainwashed stand-in.
  • Dirty Coward - Roderick's twin brother Daniel more than lived up to this trope. Roderick subverted it by using it to make people underestimate him. They never saw it coming when he finally crushed them.
  • Evil Twin - He is the evil twin.
  • Genre Savvy
  • Legacy Character - He is one but he also inspired his own set, including Demogoblin, and Cybergoblin. Jack-O-Lantern had a long stint as the Hobgoblin in the nineties before becoming Cybergoblin.
  • Mind Rape - Poor poor Betty...
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Well, more like Obfuscating Cowardice. Roderick only made himself look like a spineless weakling to disguise his true Magnificent Bastard nature.
  • Pick on Someone Your Own Size: The Marvel Comics 2 version of Roderick Kingsley really has it in for the teenage Spider-Girl, who's young enough to be his daughter.
  • Twin Switch: Roderick frequently used this trope with his brother Daniel to make people underestimate him.

Jason Phillip Macendale

Kicked out of the CIA for his violent and extreme methods, Jason Phillip Macendale eventually decided to use his skills as a terrorist and criminal for hire. Developing the identity of Jack O'Lantern for himself, Macendale eventually began working both with and against the Hobgoblin before he arranged the murder of Ned Leeds (who everyone thought was the Hobgoblin) and took the identity for himself. Along with working as a contract killer, Macendale tried all sorts of methods to increase his power, ranging from trying to obtain the Goblin formula to selling his soul to a demon to receiving cybernetic upgrades. Even with these upgrades, he generally got his ass kicked on multiple occasions, until Kingsley finally put him out of his misery when he returned to retake the Hobgoblin mantle for himself.

  • Darker and Edgier - Macendale was like this to the point of making a deal with a demon (ironic huh?) to gain power. He was possessed and after a physical separation, the Demogoblin was born.
  • Deal with the Devil - Horrifically subverted when Macendale tries to sell his soul to a demon in the traditional Faustian manner. The demon openly scoffs at Macendale's offer, pointing out that Macendale's soul is too filthy and disgusting to be worth having. However, the demon is nice enough to imbue Macendale with a demon's power anyway, just for making him laugh.
  • Dirty Coward: During his first fight with Spider-Man as Jack O'Lantern, Macendale suffered a minor Freak-Out and realized he had to escape. While working with Roderick Kingsley at a later point, Macendale refused to go after Spider-Man again.
  • Legacy Character: The second man to become the Hobgoblin, Macendale proved to be unworthy of Kingsley's mantle.
  • Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Barring a couple of lucky breaks against Spider-Man, the only people Macendale could ever beat were inexperienced teenagers. Whether it was Phil Urich as the Green Goblin, Rick Sheridan in Sleepwalker's body, or Chris Powell as Darkhawk, none of them had much combat skill when they went up against Macendale.
  • Rogues Gallery Transplant: He started out fighting the C-list hero Machine Man, before he switched over to taking on Spider-Man full time both as Jack O'Lantern and the Hobgoblin.
  • Smug Snake: The Jason Macendale Goblin. He liked to think he was a major villain, but in truth was just a sadistic, bullying thug who wound up working under real movers like the Kingpin, who at one point literally tossed him away like a piece of trash. Add that to the fact that despite all his various bids for power, he could never beat Spidey in an even fight, it's easy to see why Kingsley considered him an embarrassment.
  • Spanner in the Works: As Jack O'Lantern, Macendale noted that he wasn't getting any job offers, and decided to attract attention by breaking Flash Thompson (then framed by Kingsley as the Hobgoblin) out of prison. All he ended up doing was wrecking Kingsley's plans, much to the latter's frustration. Maybe there was a reason none of the New York crimelords wanted to hire him...
  • Inner Dialogue: After being fused to a demon, Macendale was eventually forced to fight against it for control of his body. It didn't do much for his sanity, as you might expect.

Phil Urich

Nephew to Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich, Phil was a teenage slacker who found one of Norman Osborn's hideouts and the Green Goblin equipment that it contained. After being doused with an altered version of the Goblin formula, Phil found he had developed superhuman strength and powers when he wore the Goblin equipment, and decided to try his hand at superheroing. His brief but promising career was cut short when his equipment was destroyed in a fight with a Sentinel, and Phil abandoned his identity. Several years later, Phil is still a low-rent loser when he finds another one of Osborn's lairs. In attempting to take some equipment to impress a girl at work who's a Goblin fan, Phil crosses paths with Roderick Kingsley and kills him with his lunatic laugh. Now taking the Hobgoblin identity for himself, Phil has become a full-fledged supervillain and the latest headache in Spider-Man's life.

  • Ax Crazy: A few issues of The Loners depicted Phil as going crazy, attacking Turbo and Darkhawk and trying to steal the Hawk's power amulet.
  • Evil Counterpart: Phil has been played up somewhat as a darker Peter Parker, a loser who gets a tremendous amount of power, and tries to decide what to do with it. It's also hinted that he's pretty resentful over his sad-sack life, and is quite happy to use the Goblin powers to get ahead by any means necessary.
  • Face Heel Turn: At first Phil tried to fight crime as the Green Goblin. When that didn't work out, he went back to civilian life until he eventually turned to supervillain.
  • Flaming Sword: One of the new weapons Phil loots from Osborn's hideout is a big honking sword with a flaming blade.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Phil's descent into insanity and his Face Heel Turn actually make a lot more sense than you'd think when you consider that people who take the Goblin formula often suffer from mental instability. Roderick Kingsley modified the serum he took so it wouldn't drive him crazy...but Phil wasn't so lucky.
  • Heroic Bystander: One early issue of Spider-Girl had him use his lunatic laugh to free Peter Parker from the Venom symbiote long after he'd retired as a superhero.
  • Legacy Character: First as the Green Goblin, and now as the Hobgoblin.
  • Make Me Wanna Laugh: One unique power that Phil possesses is his "lunatic laugh", essentially a powerful sonic scream that manifests itself in laughter. It's proven highly effective against everyone from Spider-Man to Roderick Kingsley to Venom (in the Marvel Comics 2 Universe).
  • Sanity Slippage: There were signs of this in the original Green Goblin series, then Phil suffered a breakdown in The Loners, and now in Spider-Man he's pretty much lost it altogether.
  • The Slacker: This is what Phil is in his civilian life, a low-level gofer for his uncle and not much else.
  • Sociopathic Hero: During his Green Goblin series, Phil was sometimes depicted as being as loony as some of the other Goblins. He suffered nightmares where his predecessors taunted him, reminding him that death routinely came to those who assumed the Goblin mantle.

Dr Henry Pym

Alias, Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Yellowjacket, the Wasp, yadda yadda yadda. One of the original Avengers and current leader of the Mighty Avengers. He could be described as Marvel's answer to Aquaman, with all that entails.

The Incredible Hercules

Not a codename. Hercules is the real deal, a walking, talking, Greek demigod who loves a brawl as much as he loves a drink or a comely wench.

  • And I Must Scream: While helping the Avengers stop the High Evolutionary from forcibly evolving the human race, Hercules and the Evolutionary both got caught by one of the evolving decides and ended up evolving to a point beyond even godhood. Herc's new cosmic form ended up being fused with an alien part of space called the Black Galaxy, and he became trapped there. He got better thanks to the intervention of The Mighty Thor.
  • Berserk Button: He hates being called a human. Sleepwalker found this out the hard way.
  • Bi the Way -- Heavily implied. At his memorial service, several of his old girlfriends got together to talk about how much they had enjoyed his company. When they called for any other former lovers of Hercules to come forward, Northstar... made his excuses and left. Very fast. He also canonically turned down Alexander the Great (probably because he thought he wasn't that great).
  • Blood Brothers: He and Thor.
  • Boisterous Bruiser
  • Cain and Abel -- With his half-brother Ares.
  • Carry a Big Stick: The mythological Hercules carried a huge club made from a tree he ripped up by the roots. In modern times, Hercules carries a huge adamantine mace forged for him by Hephaestus.
  • Combat Pragmatist
  • Friendly Rivalry -- With Thor.
  • Idiot Hero
  • Lovable Sex Maniac
  • Physical God
  • Super Strength -- Some could say Herculean.


The Hulk

Robert Bruce Banner was apparently a mild mannered scientist, but beneath the surface was a torrent of emotions. One fateful day, though, a young man wandered onto the test site of a Gamma Bomb. Bruce got him off the site, only to be caught in the explosion himself. The gamma radiation turned him into a monstrous, super strong but childlike being called the Hulk.

  • Abusive Parents -- Bruce's father hates him. It's also his Berserk Button
  • Accidental Hero -- Even when he's not trying, the results of many of the Hulk's actions can be construed as heroic.
  • Alliterative Name -- Bruce Banner
  • Anti-Hero -- The Hulk doesn't consciously strive to protect innocent people, but he often unintentionally does a lot of good with his powers.
  • Badass Bookworm / Badass Normal -- You don't spend as many years as a hunted fugitive as Bruce Banner has without learning a thing or two about survival and self-defense.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk -- His fists are pretty much all the weapons he needs.
  • The Big Guy -- The Hulk fills this role whenever he joins a team, whether it's Apocalypse's Horsemen, the Defenders, or the Pantheon.
  • Book Dumb -- Most versions of the Hulk lack Banner's intelligence, but they can show tremendous cunning when they need to.
  • Cutting the Knot: While the Hulk can employ cunning tactics to win his fights, oftentimes he can overcome whatever he's fighting simply by punching it. Whether it's an Eldritch Abomination like the Galaxy Master or the Power Copying Absorbing Man, who is typically only defeated by Tricking the Shapeshifter, the Hulk's sheer rage and power allows him to destroy the most powerful foes with simple brute force.
  • Genius Bruiser -- Semi-subverted in that Banner is one of the smartest humans on the planet, but most versions of the Hulk lack his intelligence. The trope is played straight by personalities such as the Professor Hulk and Banner himself when he's the one in control of the Hulk's body. Another subversion comes when the different aspects of the Hulk borrow each others' skills. On at least one occasion, the Joe Fixit Hulk called on Banner's computer skills to help him figure out who had poisoned them.
  • Green Rocks -- Or rather, a frickin' great green bomb.
    • Genetic Engineering Is The New Nuke - How the Ultimate Marvel Hulk came to be.
  • Healing Factor -- His healing factor isn't as famous as Wolverine's, but it's just as effective.
  • Hulking Out and Involuntary Shapeshifting -- Poor Bruce Banner just can't control when he changes into the Hulk. Usually it's the stress; but sometimes it happens on a day/night basis.
  • Hulk Speak -- Hulk Trope Namer for Hulk Speak!
  • I Just Want to Be Normal -- Banner would like nothing more than to be rid of the Hulk. It's also inverted in that the Hulk would probably get rid of Banner if he could figure out how to do it.
  • Improbable Weapon User -- The big guy will use anything from construction girders to large trees to really big rocks as weapons, if he has to.
  • Interrupted Cooldown Hug -- Former Trope Namer and frequent victim
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold -- Whatever incarnation of the Hulk you're dealing with, he falls into this trope. The sole exceptions are the Devil Hulk and the Maestro.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side -- Much of the world, including Banner himself a lot of the time, views the Hulk as this. It's Subverted in the sense that the Hulk isn't really evil, and is more often provoked by someone dumb enough to be Bullying a Dragon.
  • Super Strength
  • Inner Dialogue -- Banner and the Hulk have conversed in their subconscious on multiple occasions.
  • Unstoppable Rage -- Comes in full throttle in World War Hulk. What a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting -- For a while, Banner himself was in full control of the Hulk's powers and could transform into the Hulk at will.

Human Torch

Johnny Storm loves fast cars, beautiful women, and being the center of attention. As the youngest member of the Fantastic Four, his fire-based powers match his hotheaded nature almost too well. Despite his desire for fame and adulation, he's still a stalwart member of the team.

Invisible Woman

Susan Storm is a member of the Fantastic Four, and wife of Reed Richards. Has two children (Franklin and Valeria). Considered the most powerful member of the team.

Iron Fist

An orphan raised in the mystic city of K'un-L'un and the heir to both his father's multi-million corporation and the title of Iron Fist, Daniel Rand spent years learning Kung Fu to avenge his father's death and killed a dragon in order to take it's chi and wield it in the form of a super strong, invulnerable punch. Iron Fist later teamed up with Power Man aka Luke Cage and formed the long running Heroes for Hire.

Iron Man

Billionaire weapons manufacturer Tony Stark is almost fatally wounded in a war zone and taken hostage by the enemy, who wants him to make weapons for them. Instead he makes a suit of armor that both powers his escape and helps keep him alive. As Iron Man, he fights corporate espionage in addition to the standard colorful supervillains. Was the subject of an exceptionally successful movie adaptation in 2008.

Klaw

Ulysses Klaw was a Belgian scientist who specialized in sound transmissions. Needing the rare metal vibranium for his experiments, he invaded the African country of Wakanda, the only place where vibranium existed in large amounts. Opposed by T'Chaka, the Wakandan king, Klaw brutally murdered him and was attacked by the young prince T'Challa, who blew Klaw's hand off. An infuriated Klaw returned ten years later to try and steal the vibranium once more, but he was again opposed by T'Challa, who had become the new Black Panther. Klaw eventually jumped into his own sound transformer and became a being of living sound, able to manipulate it for a variety of purposes. Although he continued to seek revenge on the Panther, Klaw also tried to use his powers for greater personal gain, clashing with a wide variety of heroes.

  • Arch Enemy: To the Black Panther.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Being split up and used as a host for the Beyonder didn't exactly do much for his sanity.
  • Make Me Wanna Shout: And freaking how. Not only can he fire deadly sonic vibrations, he can also create Green Lantern-like constructs of sound, ranging from jungle animals to freight trains.
  • Pick on Someone Your Own Size: The young T'Challa was just a kid when he blew Klaw's hand off, something Klaw never forgot or forgave. Having his plans ruined for a second time by the much younger Panther, which indirectly led to him becoming a being of living sound, only gave Klaw that much more reason to hate him.
  • Politically-Incorrect Villain: He's a latter-day colonialist and slaver who would have been good drinking buddies with Georges-Antoine Kurtz.
  • Staying Alive: Klaw's been repeatedly dissipated, mutilated, and cut to pieces. He always manages to pull himself together again.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: Klaw's father was allied with the Nazis in World War II, and Klaw inherited many of his attitudes.

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire

Like Hank Pym above Luke Cage (born Carl Lucas) has used a secret identity in the past, Powerman, but is much better known by his civilian name. Born out of the Blaxploitation craze of the sixties and seventies, Luke Cage was one of the earliest African-American superheroes.

  • Angry Black Man - Originally, he's mellowed out over the years, although he can still be quite quick to anger, especially if you threaten his family.
  • Berserk Button: In his Hero For Hire days, he was pretty touchy about being referred to as a mercenary. He would often refuse jobs that his morals wouldn't allow him to perform, even to the point of refunding J. Jonah Jameson after the latter hired him to capture Spider-Man and then talked to Spidey directly.
  • Captain Ethnic - Notable at least for not having the word 'black' in his original codename.
  • Catchphrase - "Sweet Christmas!"
  • Civvie Spandex: Often fights crime in his normal street clothes.
  • Nigh Invulnerable: The same treatment that boosted his strength also made his skin extremely hard and resistant to damage.
  • Papa Wolf - Seriously, DON'T threaten or harm his infant daughter. The Green Goblin and the Purple Man found this out the hard way.
  • Super Strength
  • We Help the Helpless: As a Hero For Hire, Cage took missions for pay. He didn't appreciate being called a mercenary, though, and would either refuse clients or even refund them if he decided he didn't like the missions they wanted him for.
  • Where Da White Women At? - Married to the white Jessica Jones.

Loki

The evil step-brother of Thor and the Norse god of Evil (formerly Mischief), Loki's hatred of his brother runs so deep, he'll do anything to have power and control of Asgard.

MODOK

George Tarleton was originally a technician working for Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) before he was unwillingly shoved into the machine that transformed him into the Mental Organism Designed Only for Computing (M.O.D.O.C.). However, he used his new hyperintelligence and psychic abilities to take over the organization, becoming the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing (M.O.D.O.K.).

Mr Fantastic

Reed Richards is the leader of the Fantastic Four, with stretchy powers. One of the smartest men in the Marvel Universe.

Mr Hyde

Biochemist Calvin Zabo read The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and became fascinated with the character of Edward Hyde. Seeking to unleash the hidden savagery he believed lurked within himself, he proceeded to steal the chemicals he needed for his research. When he tried to get a job with Dr. Donald Blake, the mortal identity of The Mighty Thor, and was refused because of the reputation he'd gained for stealing from the places he'd worked, Zabo swore revenge on him. Zabo eventually perfected his serum and became a deformed but superstrong monster when he drank it. Now calling himself Mr Hyde, the man-monster sought to kill Dr. Blake and crossed paths with Thor. From there, Mr Hyde became a long-standing supervillain, clashing with such heroes as the Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Daredevil and Ghost Rider.

  • Evilutionary Biologist -- Calvin Zabo originally sought to unleash the savage and murderous side of humanity that he saw in Edward Hyde. He considers that over time humanity has become weakened when "defects" like kindness and compassion slipped through the evolutionary cracks.
  • Foe Yay: His obsession with the Cobra, his former partner in crime, verges on this.
  • Genius Bruiser -- Mr Hyde is a gifted biochemist. He's also an Ax Crazy psychopath.
  • Jekyll and Hyde -- Subverted in that the "Jekyll" side of him is a thieving, spiteful cuss who's really no better than his Super-Powered Evil Side.
  • Rogues Gallery Transplant -- From Thor to Daredevil to the Hulk, though the latter two more or less share him with each other and the Avengers as a whole. He's also tangled with Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Alpha Flight, and Iron Man.
  • Super Strength -- Enough to slug it out with the Hulk and survive.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side -- Again, subverted. Hyde is a cruel and sadistic bully, but Calvin Zabo is a mean-spirited Jerkass who's really only less evil than Hyde.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: When he was partnered with the Cobra, they routinely insulted and argued with each other.

Ms. Marvel

Carol Danvers is a NASA officer who were embroiled in the Kree Empire's plot, which changes her genetics into a Half Kree superhuman with the power to turn imagination to reality. She became Ms. Marvel and joined the Avengers temporarily before quitting... only to have her powers absorbed by Rogue. After several stints of going with different aliases like Binary and Warbird, Carol reassumed her original alias and became an A-List Superhero for hire, which led her to join the Pro-Registration side during the Civil War.

Mysterio

Also known as Quentin Beck, Mysterio was originally a Hollywood special effects artist who turned his skills of illusion and deception towards a life of crime. Mysterio spent most of his career battling Spider-Man, but occasionally crossed paths with other Marvel heroes. Beck seemingly killed himself after a failed attempt on Daredevil's sanity, but appears to be Back from the Dead.

  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Double Subversion, as he started out as a legitimate special effects artist. Eventually, he saw it as a dead-end job and decided to use his skills for crime instead. As a supervillain, he invented all sorts of new special effects and robotics devices that could probably have revolutionized the film industry, but he never tried to use them legitimately.
  • Driven to Suicide
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Beck developed cancer as a result of working with the chemicals he used in his illusions.
  • Large Ham: Part of the reason he became bored with his special effects work was because he wanted to be a mainstream actor but never got the chance. As a supervillain, he can indulge his flair for the dramatic.
  • Manipulative Bastard
  • Master of Illusion
  • Your Mind Makes It Real: Mysterio pulls this off from time to time. He once convinced Spidey he was drowning under gallons of illusionary water.

Nitro

Lowly electrical engineer Robert Hunter was embittered over his status in life, always seething with resentment towards his younger bosses. Recruited by the Kree's Lunatic Legion, Hunter eagerly volunteered to be genetically altered until he gained the ability to explode his body and reassemble his molecules at will. He was sent to obtain a chemical compound the Legion needed for their work, until he was thwarted by Captain Mar-Vell. Nitro, as Hunter took to calling himself, developed a murderous vendetta against Mar-Vell, eventually succeeding in killing the hero by giving him cancer. He continued to work as a professional assassin, clashing with heroes ranging from Wolverine to Iron Man to Daredevil, before he triggered the superhuman Civil War when killed more than 600 innocent people in Stamford, Connecticut.

  • Ascended Extra: For a guy who's never been more than a C-Lister, he's been involved in some pretty memorable storylines, such as The Death of Captain Marvel and the aforementioned Civil War.
  • Badass Grandpa: He was in his sixties before he got his powers.
  • Clingy Costume: The purple costume he wears is in fact part of his body, although he can wear normal clothes over it if he wants.
  • Depending on the Writer: Nitro's power level tends to fluctuate depending on who's writing him. Brian Bendis wrote him as not even able to kill Daredevil and needing several minutes to recharge between explosions, while under Mark Millar's pen he was able to destroy an entire suburban neighborhood. It was eventually Justified Trope when it was revealed that Nitro was hopped up on Mutant Growth Hormone in Stamford.
  • Earthshattering Kaboom: He can literally detonate himself to cause this trope.
  • Evil Old Folks: Needs no explanation.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Most heroes tend to beat Nitro by turning his own powers against him. Iron Man defeated him when he forced Nitro to constantly explode over and over until he was too exhausted to continue, Spider-Man tricked him into mixing tear gas with his molecules after he exploded, leaving him too sick to fight back when he reformed, and Omega the Unknown stuffed him down a long tube and blew him out into space.
  • Psycho for Hire: After taking out Captain Marvel, he became a hired hitman, accepting contracts to kill everyone from Tony Stark to Matt Murdock.


The One Above All

In a series with many cosmic beings, there has to be one who is supreme. And that being is The One Above All. Marvel's mightiest character is one who appears rather rarely, showing up in only 16 issues in total, and only for a few pages. A good deal of knowledge about him comes from what is told to us by characters. Shrouded in mystery, The One Above All watches all the events of the Marvel Multiverse unfold and occasionally interacts with heroes like the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.

  • The Ace: The most powerful character in the Marvel universe. The only cosmic being with absolute omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience. The supreme and highest being in the whole cosmic hierarchy and omniverse. Wiser and smarter than anyone. The one who knows no equal or superior. Should we continue?
  • All Powerful Bystander: THE all-powerful bystander. When he interacts with beings, it is usually to heal them (either physically or emotionally) or to assist heroes in ways only a extraordinarily powerful entity could if they need help.
  • Always Someone Better: Is this to the entire Marvel universe. The trope however don't and cannot apply with The One Above All, as they are supreme entity in the Marvel universe.
    • However, it should be noted that just as characters have been called omnipotent before, they were also considered invincible in their moment, but it was later proven they aren't totally invincible. This could mean that The One Above All could indeed be defeated or matched by another fully omnipotent being.
  • Angel Unaware: This seems to be a running gag with The One Above All. No one knows just who they are is until he makes it clear, even Beta Ray Bill. [dead link]
  • Badass: The Joker wishes he could do half the things with a pencil The One Above All can do, like alter reality and restore life as well being invincible and invulnerable.
  • Cosmic Entity: The mightiest, strongest and smartest out all of them (that says a lot). As the creator and supreme being of the marvel universe, The One Above All knows no rival or equal for their power and position in cosmic hierarchy.
  • Crisis of Faith: Spider-Man has one and demands that "God" answer his questions. The One Above All later converses with Peter and Peter's faith in all things (but especially humanity) is restored.
  • Dimension Lord: This is more directly the position of the Living Tribunal, but it applies to The One Above All since the Living Tribunal is their underling.
  • Do Not Confuse With: One Above All. That "The" is crucial. One Above All is a Celestial while The One Above All is the supreme being. Some make the supreme being have dashes between the words to further differentiate the two.
  • Don't Fear the Reaper: He tells Spider-Man to not fear death or mourn Aunt May should she pass.
  • Empathic Healer: He healed Beta Ray Bill of his injuries.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Marvel's prime example. Stronger than Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet (and the heart of universe) and the Living Tribunal. Also wiser than any Mortal, Immortal, Demon, Angel, Celestial, God, or Abstract.
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: They once took the form of a homeless man to speak with Spider-Man.
  • God Is Good: Between consoling Spider-Man and restoring his faith in humanity, bringing Thing back to life and giving Beta Ray Bill hope for him and his people, The One Above All is really benevolent entity.
  • Heaven: The One Above All has been seen residing in Heaven.
  • Hope Bringer: They fit this role, bringing hope for characters that have lost the hope in the hardest moments. Special mention goes for Spiderman and Beta Bill Ray

"All is not lost. Where there is life... there is hope."

  • I Know Your True Name: This is how they got Spider-Man's attention when they first met.
  • Immortality: Type 1. Age is meaningless and no one can harm him.
  • Muscles Are Meaningless: Would you believe the man on the left [dead link], who is smaller and scrawnier than Spider-Man (on the right), is far stronger than guys like Hulk, Thanos or The Living Tribunal?
  • The Omnipotent: One of the very few fully omnipotent characters and also the strongest of all them. The One Above All can make absolutely everything they want and have no limits nor weaknesses in their power. Although more characters are regularly called omnipotent, very few (pre-retcon Beyonder, for example) come close to what being omnipotent truly is, The One Above All is the prime example of this.
  • The Omniscient: Various beings claim omniscience or are described as such. The One Above All is either the only true case of omniscience or the being who comes closest, and everything points towards the former.
  • Power Glows: If he wants it to. He appeared as a mortal man to Spider-Man and made Spidey believe he was some regular mortal, however even TOAA's robe was glowing when he appeared before Beta Ray Bill.
  • The Power of Love: When Susan Storm feared for her husband's possible death at the hands of the "all-powerful" Silver Surfer, Uatu the Watcher tells her that there is only one being who is truly "all-powerful", and that "His only weapon...is love!" Take a wild guess as to who he was talking about.
  • Primordial Chaos: The One Above All existed before the Living Tribunal, who has existed since the beginning of time.
  • Psychic Powers: Not a direct example but the below battle gives an idea of how powerful The One Above All is.
  • Seen It a Million Times: Peter remarks about the terrors of seeing a person dying. TOAA's expression radiates this trope. Being older than existence, The One Above All has presumably seen all the horrors humanity and life has to offer.
  • Shapeshifting: Just one of their countless abilities.
  • Top God: This should have been clear before reaching this trope. The One Above All however takes it to another level by being a representation of the many writers and artists of marvel comics. Most of the time, they resemblance Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
  • Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Getting tired of hearing fanboys debate over who is the strongest character in Marvel? Introduce them to The One Above All and problem fixed.

The Porcupine

Alexander Gentry was an engineer who designed weapons for the U.S. government. Inspired by the porcupine and the sharp quills it used as protection, Gentry designed a suit of battle armor covered in sharp quills, many of which housed different kinds of weapons. He considered giving the suit to the government, but then he thought that they would pay him next to nothing for it and decided to use it himself as a costumed supervillain. Calling himself the Porcupine, Gentry started out fighting Ant-Man and proceeded to get his ass kicked again and again and again and again and again and again by heroes ranging from Ant-Man to Iron Man to Captain America (comics). Reduced to a laughingstock in the supervillain community, Gentry tried to sell his battlesuit, but because of his bad reputation no one was interested. Captain America eventually offered to buy the suit if Gentry helped him with a sting operation to capture some members of the Serpent Society. Gentry reluctantly agreed, and was killed in the crossfire. Despite Cap's reassurances, Gentry died convinced that he was a loser, and Cap honored his memory by putting the Porcupine armor on display in the Avengers Mansion.

  • Antagonist in Mourning: Inverted. Captain America was torn up after Gentry was killed, and he honored his old foe's memory by displaying the Porcupine armor and labelling it as belonging to an Honored Foe of the Avengers.
  • Butt Monkey: Brutally lampshaded to the point that Gentry couldn't even sell his armor. The most anyone would offer him for it was a measly twenty dollars. Ouch.
  • Combo-Platter Powers: Besides being sharp on their own, many of the quills on the Porcupine armor housed a wide variety of weapons ranging from incendiary missiles to glue guns to lasers to hypnotic lights.
  • Irony: With the sheer number of weapons Gentry eventually managed to equip the Porcupine armor with, it could probably have been a formidable weapon if the right person was using it. Unfortunately, Gentry was not that person.
  • Powered Armor: This was what the Porcupine armor was.
  • Rogues Gallery Transplant: Started out fighting Hank Pym and the Wasp, moved on to fighting Iron Man, and finally joined Captain America (comics)'s list of regular dance partners.

Psyko

A nightmarish monstrosity created when serial killer Jeremy Roscoe became fused with a demon from the Mindscape. In addition to possessing all of Sleepwalker's warping powers, he has the additional ability to drive his victims mad just by looking at them. Oh, and he's batshit insane.

  • Ax Crazy: He was like this as plain old Jeremy Roscoe. It Got Worse from there.
  • Biological Mashup: He's a human fused with a Mindscape demon.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: This is what happened to his victims.
  • Evil Counterpart: Rick Sheridan is a good-natured Ordinary High School Student who became fused with a heroic alien warrior from the Mindscape. Jeremy Roscoe became fused with a demonic entity from the Mindscape and turned into a hideous freak with warping powers like Sleepwalker's.
  • Eye Beams: Not only can Psyko's eyebeams warp inanimate objects the way Sleepwalker's do, they can also induce madness in anyone they make contact with.
  • Mind Rape: Just about everyone he encounters, but Sleepwalker worst of all.
  • More Than Mind Control: He just about brainwashed Sleepwalker into murdering Spectra, something which would have permanently driven the alien hero insane.
  • Serial Killer: This is what Roscoe was before he turned into Psyko.

Phobos

Alexander Aaron is the half-human child of Ares, God of War, and the God of Fear. Growing up without the knowledge of his father's past, Alexander was abducted by the Spartans in an attempt to spur Ares into battle for Olympusd against the dark god, Mikaboshi. The plan backfired, the Spartans were attacked, and Alexander was taken into Mikaboshi's clutches. Trained by the Dark God in combat, the boy was brainwashed and sent against his father. Eventually Ares broke through Mikaboshi's spells, and reunited with his son, defeated the Dark God. Some time later Alexander was recruited by Nick Fury into his team, the Secret Warriors.

  • Alliterative Name
  • Bad Powers, Good People: Has the ability to induce terror in his enemies.
  • Creepy Child
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The God of Fear is none the less a good guy...or kid.
    • Though he did cause a panic when he broke into the White House during the Siege event at the end of Dark Reign. It turns out he just wanted to talk to the president about the cost of lives that putting Osborn in charge had caused (including the life of his father, Ares). Since the president was naturally evacuated, he left a note on the desk in the Oval Office...written in what looks like blue crayon.
      • And that was after seeing Ares ripped in half on national television. Some people would call that restraint, for a god.
  • I Am X, Son of Y: I am Alexander Aaron, Phobos, God of Fear, Son of War.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Bears the legendary sword, Grass-Cutter.
  • Oracular Urchin: He has a limited ability to see the future.
  • Retcon: Originally Alexander wasn't Phobos reincarnated, and Ares made a point of this in the miniseries Alex debuted in. Brian Bendis musn't have received the memo when he picked up Alex for the Secret Warriors.

Puma

A Native American man who became a business tycoon, Thomas Fireheart was also specially bred by his tribe to become the perfect warrior, destined to protect Earth from an impending disaster. Generations of selective breeding and magic have given Fireheart the power to become a human puma, with amazing speed and strength, combined with razor-sharp claws and fangs. Working as a hired killer, Puma accepted a contract to kill Spider-Man. Later a reluctant ally of Spider-Man, Puma would come to Spidey's aid because he felt he owed the wall-crawler a debt of honor.

  • Anti-Villain: While Puma is a hired killer, he's not exactly evil. His primary concerns are his own personal gain, his honor, and his people. As a result, he's been as much of a help as a hindrance to Spider-Man.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Subverted in the sense that Fireheart doesn't even need to use his talents at all, legally or otherwise, when he's already a multimillionaire.
  • Enemy Mine: He can be Spider-Man's ally just as often as his enemy.
  • Honest Corporate Executive: He may be a hired assassin, but his corporate dealings are all above board.
  • Honor Before Reason: His attempts to help Spidey and clear his debt of honor have proven to be somewhat frustrating for the web-head. Fireheart went to great lengths to repay the debt, going so far as to spend a large fortune purchasing the Daily Bugle and turning it into a pro-Spidey newspaper. Eventually, once he'd cleared his debt with Spider-Man, he sold the paper back to Jameson for a dollar.
  • Magical Native American: Well, who didn't see this coming?
  • Our Were-Pumas Are Different: Fireheart has full control over his transformation into his Puma form, and retains all his faculties when he transforms.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: He can shift between human and Puma form at will.

The Punisher

When Frank Castle's family was murdered by the mob, he used his military training to become a one-man war against organized crime. Lately has expanded his target list to include supervillains as well.

Red Skull

One of Captain America (comics)'s oldest villains. Right-hand man of Adolf Hitler in the Marvel Universe, and still trying to bring the Third Reich to global power (with himself as Fuhrer now).

  • Abusive Parents -- Let's just say Red Skull is not a good father. Just ask his daughter. His own father was far from being a saint as well.
  • Badass Normal: You pretty much need to be one of these if you want to be Captain America's Arch Enemy.
  • The Chessmaster
  • Color Character
  • Dirty Business: The Red Skull earned his spurs in the Nazi party by intimidating and terrorizing dissenters while Hitler remained the popular benevolent leader of Germany.
  • The Dragon: To Hitler, back in the day. Now has his own Dragon in the form of Crossbones.
  • Even Evil Has Standards -- Not for the Skull himself, but for the rest of the major villains of the Marvel Universe, most of whom are too disgusted by the Skull to willingly work with him.
  • Evil Counterpart: Captain America hails from the United States. The Red Skull hails from Nazi Germany. Do the math.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: The Skull started out as Johann Schmidt, a lower-class schlub working as a bellhop in Berlin. One day, he just happened to be coming into the room where Hitler was staying as Der Fuhrer was screaming at one of his underlings. On the spur of the moment, Hitler grabbed Schmidt and declared that the bellhop would make a better Nazi. Hitler instinctively noticed Schmidt's twisted nature, and It Got Worse from there.
  • Politically-Incorrect Villain -- Well he is a Nazi!
  • Those Wacky Nazis

Rhino

Russian expatriate Alexei Systevich was imbued with superhuman strength and a suit of thick battle armor shaped like a rhinoceros hide by either the Soviet government or the Russian mafia, depending on Comic Book Time. First hired to kidnap John Jameson for his military knowledge, the man who would be known as the Rhino proceeded to work as a hired mercenary, repeatedly tangling with Spider-Man as he did so. Constantly smashing into things head-first meant that he wasn't exactly in the same intellectual class as the likes of Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin or Mysterio, but he made up for it with stubborn tenacity. He far outclasses Spider-Man in strength and is all but invulnerable to the web-head's physical attacks, which means Spidey usually has to outsmart him. Fortunately, this isn't too hard.

  • Affably Evil -- A mook so likable the Punisher let him go. Keep it straight: the Rhino isn't a killer, he's an enforcer. When an accidental death occurred during a robbery he took part in, he started sending his loot to the dead guy's widow.
  • Clingy Costume -- The Rhino's gotten several power upgrades over the years, some of which have given him new armored hides. Unfortunately, at least one set of Rhino armor became fused with his skin and couldn't be removed. The Rhino made several efforts to get it off, such as voluntarily turning himself in to the authorities in exchange for their help in getting the armor off or robbing banks to pay for the surgery, and he finally succeeded. See Ten-Minute Retirement.
  • Depending on the Writer -- Sometimes the Rhino is depicted as a drooling imbecile, at other times he's shown as having a certain amount of street-smarts and cunning. As the Rhino himself likes to say, he's not necessarily stupid, just simple.
  • Dumb Muscle -- He's got muscles of stone and a head to match. It works great when you need to smash through a concrete wall, less so when you're doing something like advanced calculus.
  • The Juggernaut -- He's not in the same league as the Trope Namer, but he's still pretty vicious when he gets moving. And brother, can this guy move.
  • Heel Face Turn -- Gave up being a super-villain during the Civil War. It seems to have stuck except not really.
  • Love Redeems -- Played with. After giving up supervillainy, his love for his wife Oksana is the main thing that keeps him from going back. And now she's dead, courtesy of the upstart new Rhino.
  • Nigh Invulnerable -- He's immensely resistant to injury, to the point where he's pretty much immune to any physical attacks Spidey can throw at him and can trade punches with the Hulk without being turned into street pizza.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent -- To the point you'd be hard pressed remembering he's Russian. This is mostly due to the fact that he was never really written with anything resembling particularly Russian overtones to begin with, until eventually the assumption became that he was a NY local under that suit. This has only recently been corrected, but the change hasn't been welcomed by everyone.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity -- There are times when the Rhino is depicted as not being as dumb as he looks, and can actually show a fair amount of cunning. It's just that the direct approach is usually more effective.
  • Rogues Gallery Transplant -- Along with being a charter member of Spider-Man's Rogues Gallery, he's also repeatedly tangled with the Hulk.
  • Soviet Russia, Ukraine, and So On -- First introduced during the Cold War, the Rhino was originally a Soviet agent who wanted to kidnap John Jameson for the Reds.
  • Ten-Minute Retirement -- When the Rhino finally got one particularly clingy set of armor removed, he used a lot of the money he'd made from his various illegal activities to move down to Mexico for some well-deserved R&R. Eventually, though, he got bored and went back to supervillainy in the employ of Justin Hammer, who made him a new and removable suit of armor. Go figure.

Sandman

Flint Marko, a common criminal suddenly turned into a shapeshifting mass of sand after being caught in a nuclear testing site at the wrong time. He can harden his body, shapeshift his hands into weapons, or sift through someone's attempts to punch him. He's been a member of the Sinister Six as well as the Fantastic Four's enemy group the Frightful Four, before reforming and becoming a reserve Avenger, only to be shoved back into villainy by Frightful Four leader the Wizard.

  • The Blob
  • Freak Lab Accident
  • Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke - Ultimate Sandman's origin.
  • Heel Face Turn -- And then back to heel again. He can't seem to settle down.
  • Kill It with Water -- Water makes his sandy body muddy and extremely difficult to control. It doesn't actually kill him, but it does make him a lot easier to take down.
  • Meaningful Name -- Flint Marko. Not his actual name, but his most well known alias after his code name.
  • Shapeshifter Weapon -- One of his favorite methods of attack is to reshape his body into various large axes, maces, hammers, and other dangerous implements.
  • Inner Dialogue: Recently, Sandman has developed the ability to split himself into multiple clones, all of whom have his abilities. Unfortunately, different aspects of his personality are spread out at the same time, so that some of them are more reasonable Pet the Dog types while others reflect the malevolent Kick the Dog side of his character.

She Hulk

Jennifer Walters was an ordinary woman trying to make her way in the world as a lawyer. Shy and retreating, she never stood out in the crowd until she was involved in an accident and received a blood transfusion. From her cousin, the one and only Bruce Banner. His gamma irradiated blood infected Jennifer, giving her powers comparable to the Hulk's and with her transformation a new, liberated personality. Unlike her cousin however, Jen can control her wilder side.


Shocker

Expert safecracker Herman Schultz sought an edge when it came to burglary, and used his mechanical gifts to devise a pair of gauntlets that generated powerful waves of concussive force, and a specially padded suit to protect him from the vibrations the gauntlets generated. Calling himself the Shocker, Schultz went from safecracking to supervillainy and ended up tangling with Spider-Man. Notable among the spider-villains as being more concerned with simply making a dishonest buck than actually getting revenge on Spider-Man. Unfortunately for him, he just tends to run into Spidey over and over again.

  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check -- Schultz probably could have been a legitimate engineer, but he went into supervillainy. Then again, he's hardly the only Marvel villain to go this route.
  • Make Me Wanna Shout -- His gauntlets actually vibrate the air to create powerful sonic vibrations, but they have a similar effect on anything they hit, whether it's a bank safe or Spider-Man.
  • Only in It For the Money -- At the end of the day, this is all the Shocker really wants. He wouldn't otherwise give a damn about Spider-Man if the webhead didn't keep interfering with his robberies.
  • Villainous Breakdown: The Shocker's eventual breakdown was more gradual and less dramatic than most examples of this trope, as he gradually lost his nerve and self-esteem.
  • Who's Laughing Now?: In the Deadly Foes of Spider-Man mini-series, the Shocker becomes fed up with the abuse and taunting he suffers in prison. When Spider-Man attempts to catch him, he brutally beats the wall-crawler in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that would have ended with the Shocker killing Spidey if not for the interference of a hired thug sent by the Kingpin.

Silver Surfer

Sleepwalker

A being from the Mindscape, an alien dimension that connects the minds of all living things, that became trapped in the mind of human college student Rick Sheridan and gained the ability to manifest in our world when Rick was asleep. Went from protecting the minds of sleeping humans from demons and nightmares to protecting their physical bodies and possessions from criminals and supervillains.

  • Alien Among Us: He's a tall, gangly humanoid with olive-green skin, dark red compound eyes, no hair whatsoever, and funky purple and blue clothing.
  • Aliens Speaking English: All the time he spent in Rick Sheridan's mind taught him how to speak human languages.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Humans generally tended to treat him like shit, despite all the effort he made to help them.
  • Dream Land: The Mindscape is one of these.
  • Eye Beams: Sleepwalker's warp vision can alter the shape and physical characteristics of anything he hits with them.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: He's actually had several chances to return home, but he's always had to forgo them for one reason or another.
  • Humans Through Alien Eyes: Sleepwalker finds humans to be often bizarre and contradictory creatures.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: Sleepy's gotten a little bitter over the reception he's gotten from humans for his bizarre appearance, despite his attempts to help them.
  • Made of Iron: While he's not invincible, Sleepwalker's alien body can withstand a lot more punishment than the average human.
  • The Unpronounceable: Sleepwalker's real name can't be pronounced by humans, so he just has them call him Sleepwalker.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Sort of-Sleepwalker can alter the shape of other things with his warp beams, although he can't alter his own physical appearance.

Solarr

A criminal smuggler whose van broke down in the desert, Silas King survived for three days in the murderous heat on minimal food and water until he returned to civilization. All that time soaking up the sun activated his latent mutant power, the ability to absorb solar energy and release it in deadly blasts of fire. Using his powers to become a supervillain, the man called Solarr went on to become a bank robber and assassin for hire.

  • Achilles' Heel: He's reliant on the sun to maintain his power. If you can find some way to cut him off from it, as Captain America did by covering him in all-weather housepaint, Solarr loses his mojo. He later tried to overcome this weakness with a device that allowed him to absorb and store solar energy for use at night, but it didn't work when Spider-Man smashed it.
  • For the Evulz: This is largely why he charbroiled all those innocent bystanders when he robbed the New York Stock Exchange.
  • Large Ham: Even by the standards of the early 1970s when he debuted.
  • Light Is Not Good: Has solar powers, but it's a bit of a stretch to call him a good guy on any definition of the word.
  • Playing with Fire: And he's not shy about using it.
  • Pyromaniac: Starting fires is fun, after all.
  • Rogues Gallery Transplant: Never really lasted long enough to become a permanent fixture in anyone's gallery, although he tangled with Captain America (comics), The Avengers, the Defenders, Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Alpha Flight one after another.

Spider-Man

Peter Parker is a student who got bitten by a radioactive spider and gains Super Strength and spider-attributes. After trying to pursue a life of fame and fortune, he is struck hard with the death of his beloved Uncle Ben and realizes that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility and began a life of crime-fighting, despite the bad press from Daily Bugle's J. Jonah Jameson.

Doctor Octopus: Don't you ever shut up?
Spider-Man: Sorry, no. My fans expect a certain amount of quippage in every battle.

Spider-Woman

Jessica Drew

Since she is a baby, she was injected with a serum that gives her spider-like power and put in a tube that will fasten her aging so her life will be saved. After accidentally killing her boyfriend with her power, she was accused by the locals of Wundagore as a witch and was taken by the HYDRA where she learns to harness her power, trained as a cold-blooded assassin codenamed Spider Woman. A chance encounter with Nick Fury made her realize the evils of HYDRA and causes her to defect, which starts her journey about coping with her power and what to do with it.

Julia Carpenter

Formerly a college student who was offered a chance to be a part of 'Athletic study', but was accidentally injected with a serum which contains spider venom, giving her similar powers to Spider-Man. She's given the name Spider-Woman and was quickly thrown into the Secret Wars. Later, she joins the West Coast Avengers, and when Jessica re-used the name Spider-Woman again, Julia changed her alias into 'Arachne', like she originally intended to call herself. Also has a daughter named Rachel.

Martha Franklin

A Fan Girl of Spidey. She enters a ceremony in place of her father, which gives her the power of psychic spider legs. She hid it well enough and during Spider-Man's short absence in crime fighting, she covers his place. She later defeats a Doctor Octopus-created Spider Woman (Charlotte Witter), with the help of Spider-Man and the previous Spider-Women and she eventually starts her career as a superhero, at first guided by Jessica Drew, and later finally strikes on her own.

Thing

  • Ambiguously Jewish -- Benjamin Jacob Grimm was probably the most prominent example in comics, until he was de-ambiguised a couple of years back. He was conceived as Jewish back in the 1960s, but then spent 40 years in the closet
  • Badass Normal -- Even when he loses his Thing powers and reverts to his human form, he still possesses his considerable fighting and piloting skills.
  • Book Dumb -- Is he a Nobel-level intellect like Reed? No. Is he extremely streetwise and cunning? You bet.
  • Blessed with Suck -- He's superhumanly strong and borderline indestructible. He's also hideously deformed and has really gigantic clumsy fingers.
  • The Big Guy.
  • Catch Phrase -- It's clobberin' time.
  • Four-Fingered Hands -- A side effect of his mutation.
  • Made of Iron -- Being transformed into a giant orange rock-skinned humanoid sucks for a lot of reasons, but when somebody like the Incredible Hulk punches you with a blow that would reduce any ordinary human to paste, sometimes it has its upside.
  • Nigh Invulnerability.
  • Personality Powers
  • Powered Armor -- On one occasion when Ben lost his Thing powers and became human again, he still wanted to help the rest of the team out. Reed made him a suit of battle armor that looks exactly like his Thing form, and gives him superhuman strength and durability on par with his Thing abilities.
  • True Companions -- Though not related through blood or marriage like the other three members of the Fantastic Four, he is nevertheless unquestionably a part of the family

Thor

The Marvel Universe's take on the Norse god of thunder, The Mighty Thor was created to be stronger than even the Hulk (although that has been going up and down throught the years, Depending on the Writer). He is a member of The Avengers and wields the hammer, Mjolnir.

  • Blood Brothers: This is the relationship Thor has with Hercules.
  • Blow You Away: Mjolnir can be used to summon and control powerful gusts of wind. One early Stan Lee story also had Thor cause these simply by blowing.
  • Cain and Abel - With his evil stepbrother, Loki.
  • Clark Kenting: In his mortal guises, Thor is still over seven feet tall with long blonde hair. It gets even worse when he grows a beard and maintains it in both divine and mortal form. Averted by Costume Copycat Eric Masterson, who grows a beard when he turns into Thor even though he's clean-shaven as a mortal.
  • Deus Exit Machina - Throughout the Civil War, thanks to Ragnarok.
  • Drop the Hammer
  • Friendly Rivalry - With Hercules.
  • Fusion Dance: When his mortal friend Eric Masterson was mortally wounded, Thor agreed to become fused with him so he could survive. Eric would later become a Legacy Character / Costume Copycat when he wielded Mjolnir after Thor had been banished from Earth.
  • Only the Worthy May Pass: Mjolnir can only be wielded by people who are worthy enough. Besides Thor, the few people who've proven capable of lifting Mjolnir are the likes of Superman, Eric Masterson, and Captain America (comics). That said, almost anyone can wield Mjolnir in a crisis, provided that they do so for unselfish reasons.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Thor can get pretty touchy about matters of personal honor, and doesn't take kindly to being insulted, particularly by mortals.
  • Purple Prose Especially in the olden days
    • I SAY THEE NAY!
  • Shock and Awe - Mjolnir gives him the power to control the weather and summon lightning bolts to attack his enemies.

The U Foes

Corporate executive Simon Utrecht wasn't satisfied with having immense wealth and influence. Desiring greater power and inspired by the accident that gave the Fantastic Four superhuman powers, Utrecht sponsored a space mission with the intent of being bombarded with cosmic rays similar to the Four and gaining powers of his own. The plan succeeded, with Utrecht and his crew gaining superhuman powers, but when Bruce Banner saw what they were doing, he aborted the launch and brought them back to Earth. Enraged at having their quest for power cut short, Utrecht and his crew attacked the Hulk with the superhuman abilities they'd gained. Banner defended himself by turning into the Hulk, but the battle was cut short when the U-Foes, as they called themselves, lost control of their powers. They seemed to have been killed by their own abilities, but eventually managed to restore themselves and would return to torment the Hulk time and again.

Simon Utrecht gained superhuman repelling powers as Vector, while pilot Mike Steele became the superstrong and metallic Ironclad. Crew member Jimmy Darnell became the radioactive X-Ray, while his sister Ann Darnell became Vapor, capable of turning herself into any form of chemical gas.

  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Utrecht was already a multimillionaire, captain of industry, and former political office-holder, but that just wasn't enough for him. He wanted real, physical powers.
  • Evil Counterpart: Bizarrely subverted. Although their powers and origins are similar in some ways to the Fantastic Four, they've never actually tangled with the Four. Instead, they're recurring foes of the Hulk and the Avengers.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The U-Foes succeeded in gaining their powers, but Banner's interrupting their trip meant they didn't get enough radiation to actually control their powers. This led to their first defeat without the Hulk even needing to do anything.
  • Mind Over Matter: Vector can emit powerful psychic waves that repel anything he directs his energies at. He can repel anything from physical matter to tracking signals to Doctor Strange's magic.
  • Nigh Invulnerable: This, along with Super Strength, is Ironclad's primary power. He's gone multiple rounds with the Hulk and lived to tell the tale.
  • Power Incontinence: Vapor nearly dissipated, Vector repelled himself off the planet, Ironclad sank to the Earth's core and X-Ray nearly overloaded when he absorbed too much radiation to control.
  • Pure Energy: X-Ray can control a wide variety of forms of radiation, and emit them in deadly blasts that can burn even the Hulk or The Mighty Thor.
  • Super Smoke: And a whole lot of other gases too. Vapor's powers allow her to transform herself into any kind of gas she desires. Mustard gas and carbon monoxide work great for choking even heroes like the Hulk.

Venom

Eddie Brock

A young man working on the Daily Bugle who fell from grace thanks to his own stupidity, which he blamed on Spider-Man. He then picked up the alien symbiote, which turned him into a nemesis of Spider-Man. Right now, he is free from the symbiote and is making amends as Anti-Venom.

MacDonald Gargan

Mac Gargan was a corrupt private eye hired by J Jonah Jameson to expose Spider-Man as the villain he really isn't. Technologically enhanced to become the supervillain known as the Scorpion, he became part of Spidey's Rogues Gallery until the Venom symbiote approached him, having been sold by Eddie Brock and abandoned its new owner. As the new Venom, he served for a time on the Thunderbolts before being recruited to Norman Osborne's Dark Avengers, posing as Spider-Man.

  • Ax Crazy -- The genetic treatment that turned Gargan into the Scorpion began to addle his mind, making him more vicious and sadistic where before he'd just been amoral.
  • Berserk Button -- After being transformed into the Scorpion, Gargan became obsessed with killing Jameson, who he blamed for his transformation into the Scorpion. His fixation is so bad that it's screwed up more than one good-paying mercenary job over the years.
    • He's so obsessed he even killed a hooker, ate part of her and then part her in Jolly J.J's bed. Also started a gang war that nearly ruined Osborn's plans to get back at J. Jonah. Jameson.
  • Clingy Costume: Subverted in that he only thought his costume wouldn't come off.
  • Cloudcuckoolander -- At one point, the Scorpion thought his costume wouldn't come off. Again, that mutagen he drank made him more than a little nutty.
  • Discard and Draw -- Meeting the symbiote meant he lost his Scorpion powers, but gained Venom's powers. And now that Dan Slott has taken over writing the spider-comics full time, it looks like he's going to go back to his original Scorpion identity.
  • Only in It For the Money -- He originally took the job from Jameson for money, and then agreed to become the Scorpion after Jolly Jonah paid him $10,000.

The Vulture

AKA Adrian Toomes, Vulture is one of Spider-Man's oldest foes-in more ways than one. Despite being in his twilight years, Vulture is still a dangerous and often underestimated threat.

  • Badass Grandpa
  • Evil Old Folks
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Toomes invented the flight pack that gives him his powers, along with several other inventions.
  • Liquid Assets: For a time, Vulture had a device that could drain vitality from others, deaging him in the process
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Vulture's crimes were originally revenge against Toomes' corrupt business partner, but later expanded into ventures unrelated to this. Later in his life, Toomes is diagnosed with cancer, and goes on another rampage, this time resolving to kill all his enemies before he himself dies.

The Wasp

Janet van Dyne is the wife to Hank Pym and was one of the founding Avengers alongside her soon-to-be husband, in fact she named them. She was initially a shallow, self-centered, flighty heiress and debutante, but like Sue Storm evolved into a useful member of the team.

  • Bunny Ears Lawyer -- A flighty fashionista who also happens to be a very competent superhero.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl -- Originally.
  • The Chick -- Upgraded from the ditz.
  • The Ditz -- Originally.
  • Dropped A Bridge On Her -- Unfortunately, she's yet another victim of Joe Quesada's hatred of wives. To wit: In the climax of the Secret Invasion, she's planted with a program that makes her a human bomb, and Thor has to kill her to end her misery. We'll see how long it lasts.
  • Faux Action Girl -- Amazingly subverted. Despite having all of the hallmarks of such a character from her earliest beginnings, even at the start of the Avengers way back when she was an indispensable and valuable member of the team, often winning the day.
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