There are many iconic Avengers in Marvel‘s massive history, but there are just as many underrated members of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes who don’t deserve to be so overlooked. Any character is someone’s favorite character, but many of these Avengers have yet to be picked up by creators who are eager to properly showcase what they have to offer.
This list below notes a few of such heroes, spanning across all different eras and iterations of the Avengers. With any luck, each of them is just on the verge of their next great story.
10 Stingray
Starting off this list is the tech-armored oceanographer Dr. Walter Newell, the superhero known as Stingray. To call Stingray an aquatic Iron Man would not be too off base. Despite having a long history both as an Avenger and as a covert operative for Steve Rogers, Stingray struggles to remain relevant. A primary reason for this is that his suit is ultimately meant for undersea adventures, meaning he likely has to compete with Namor to be featured in ocean-centric storylines. In fact, this animosity between the two became textual in Stingray’s most recent appearance in 2019’s Avengers #10. Intent on forming a militant undersea super-faction known as the Defenders of the Deep, Namor attempted to recruit Dr. Newell. Stingray refused, for which Namor nearly killed him. Though Walter survived, he hasn’t been seen since.
9 Synapse
The Inhumanity storyline from 2013 saw Marvel Comics’ attempt to bring the Inhumans franchise to a level of profitability on par with the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four. The main thrust of this initiative saw a massive introduction of newly empowered Inhumans emerging all over the world. The most successful of the new heroes launched from Inhumanity was Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, who would go on to join the primary “All-New, All-Different” Avengers squad for a time. Synapse, also known as Emily Guerrero, is one of Kamala’s fellow Nuhumans who was introduced as part of the second incarnation of the Avengers Unity Squad. Emily played a crucial role on the team as an Inhuman representative, since this version of the Uncanny Avengers aimed to show solidarity between Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the Inhumans, and the X-Men. Her tenure with the Avengers also led to a romance with fellow teammate Quicksilver, but their relationship status has been ill-defined for some time now.
As her heroic moniker suggests, Synapse’s power set pertains to the mind, but she does stand out from a run-of-the-mill telepath. While many of Marvel’s psionic-powered heroes primarily engage with the mind through thought, Emily has the ability to affect the neurobiology of organic life forms. This means that her powers allow Synapse to naturally manipulate bodily functions by altering brainwaves. This results in induced vertigo, immune system boosts, and even a collapse of motor function. After training alongside Cable, Synapse was also able to add more traditional telepathic abilities to her wheelhouse such as telepathic communication and mental possession. Synapse is a fresh character with a fun design and a unique approach to psychic abilities, but this Uncanny Avenger has not seen the spotlight since Marvel cleaned house of most of its Inhuman characters.
8 Lightning
Formerly known as the hero Living Lightning, Miguel Santos changed his codename after frequently being confused with Marvel villain the Living Laser. Although Miguel has always been a bit of an obscure pull among his fellow Avengers, Lightning briefly returned to the forefront of Avengers storytelling for the 2018 Avengers: No Surrender storyline. Miguel is a powerful electrokinetic with a living energy form that boosts his durability and enables him to traverse space safely. However, it wasn’t his superpowers, but his wits that made Lightning a focus character in No Surrender, and his actions that ultimately saved the Earth from the Grandmaster’s machinations. Avengers: No Surrender was Miguel’s most recent appearance, but it proved that this relatively unknown gay Latino hero could helm an adventure for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
7 Madame Web
Julia Carpenter was neither the first Spider-Woman nor the first Madame Web, but this often-overlooked icon may be on the precipice of a resurgence. As far as lasting impact on her fellow Marvel heroes, Julia’s Spider-Woman outfit served as the creative inspiration for Spider-Man’s black suit, meaning that without her there would be no Venom or any of his fellow symbiotes. Julia Carpenter also paved the way for a defining part of the primary Spider-Woman’s life, namely being both a mother and a superhero. But with a movie on the horizon, Madame Web is just waiting to move to Marvel’s forefront. Combining a typical spider-hero power set with psionic webbing, Julia was already a formidable hero and former Avenger when Cassandra Webb passed the role of Madame Web onto her. This transition occurred at the end of Cassandra’s life, and though the process cost Julia her eyesight, she was able to inherit Cassandra’s precognitive and telepathic powers. On top of that, she has a striking monochromatic scarlet outfit as the new Madame Web.
6 Darkhawk
Another overlooked armored Avenger is Darkhawk. But where Dr. Newell designed the Stingray suit on his own, the original Darkhawk Christopher Powell received his suit when he accidentally discovered an amulet that connected him with the android battle suit. While Darkhawk’s armor could put Iron Man to shame, Chris never actually dons the suit. Instead, his biological form swaps places with the Darkhawk’s while Chris’ mind pilots the robotic Talon armor. The blend of magic and advanced Shi’ar technology that makes up the Darkhawk armor grants Chris flight, strength, speed, heightened sense, self-repairing protocols, and the ability to manifest numerous weapons and force fields when he mentally possesses the android body. Chris entered the Avengers’ world by joining the West Coast Avengers shortly before the team dissolved, but it still counts! Though Chris has not led his own series in a while, it seems Marvel is interested in keeping the heroic legacy of Darkhawk alive, as a newcomer Connor Young took on the mantle almost two years ago.
5 Protector
An alien with a bad boy reputation, Noh-Varr aka the Protector once took down Thor and Captain Marvel at the same time. However, many readers don’t know of the Avenger known as the Protector since Noh-Varr has found much greater popularity among the Young Avengers as Marvel Boy. He’s a Kree super-soldier from Earth-200080 but has since come to claim the universe of Earth-616 as his own. His power set is a bit eclectic, and includes exploding fingernails, psychedelic saliva, wall-crawling, super senses, conscious control over his bodily functions, and many others. Noh-Varr is formidable in combat, which was no doubt appealing to his teammate turned lover, Hercules. Shedding his Avengers and the Protector moniker has truly led Noh-Varr to flourish as a Young Avenger, West Coast Avenger, and now he spends time as an interstellar diplomat and Guardian of the Galaxy.
4 Nightmask
Created to be a genetically perfected human and granted superpowers during the interstellar phenomena known as the White Event, Adam Blackveil entered the Marvel Universe under tumultuous circumstances. His genius-level intellect—despite being technically a newborn—led Adam to be a naturally curious and non-aggressive entity. As Nightmask, Adam is a techno-kinetic with teleportation and energy manipulation powers. Nightmask has served on both the Avengers and Sunspot’s Multiversal Avengers in the build-up to 2015’s Secret Wars. After the rebirth of reality, Adam began attending college alongside fellow hero Kevin Connor, the former Starbrand, with whom Nightmask shared a bond of kinship. The two even led their own ongoing series for a time, but Nightmask has not been seen since the events of Secret Empire. His absence is especially conspicuous since his close companion Kevin Connor died after being overwhelmed by the power of the Starbrand shortly after the pair’s final appearance together.
3 Manifold
Eden Fesi is a native Australian mutant, but his origins as a hero began in the Avengers corner of the Marvel Universe. Manifold was initially introduced as a teleporter and mystic mentee to the X-Men’s former teleporting ally, Gateway. However, as the young mutant made his way from the Secret Warriors to the Avengers and beyond, the understanding of his powers evolved. Described as someone who speaks to the universe—a “universal shaper” for short—who is able to communicate with the reality of Earth-616 and ask it for favors. Primarily this results in transportation, which is why he seems to merely be a teleporter to most. Following his time on the Avengers, Eden has played a love interest to Wakanda’s Princess Shuri before finding his place among his fellow mutants in the Krakoan era. Though uderappreciated as an Avenger, Manifold now plays a key role as part of Storm’s Brotherhood of Arakko in X-Men Red.
2 Quasar
Wendell Vaughn was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. before he became the hero known as Quasar. In a moment of happenstance and desperation, Wendell became the steward of the Quantum Bands, and the mysterious wristwear granted him cosmic powers. The suite of powers that Vaughn wields as Quasar includes super strength, speed, flight, teleportation, energy manipulation, and transforming into a being made of quantum energy. His trajectory as a hero has taken Wendell from S.H.I.E.L.D. super teams to the Avengers and beyond, and these days Quasar is most likely to be found as a supporting cast member in a Guardians of the Galaxy story. And yet, despite Quasar being on a godlike level of power and a dedication to protecting the universe, Quasar is hardly ever even name-checked by fellow superheroes.
1 Captain Universe
Due to the nature of the Enigma Force, multiple Avengers have actually been Captain Universe. However, Captain Universe was recruited to the team in the era leading up to the multiversal crisis of the most recent Secret Wars storyline. A sentient aspect of the universe and a heroic force for good, the Uni-power found its host in Tamara Devoux. This iteration of Captain Universe served on the Avengers for a time due to an urgent sense of wrongness in the structure of the universe. Though Tamara herself apparently has retired from the realm of superheroes, the Enigma Force remains an essential ally to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. In fact, Eddie Brock and Venom recently hosted the power in the climax of the King in Black event. There it was revealed that the Enigma Force is its own kind of symbiote and that its role as Captain Universe developed out of the universe’s need to counter Knull’s dark crusade.
The Avengers are on the verge of a relaunch, and two new teams are forming this summer already between the flagship team and the revived Unity Squad. While the casts of those books are largely set, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have a legacy of shaking up their rosters at the drop of a hat. So, who knows? Maybe Synapse wants her spot on the Unity Squad back, or Iron Man’s rough luck as of late may demand the presence of a different armored hero like Stingray or Darkhawk. Only time will tell, but hopefully, these underappreciated Avengers get their time to shine at Marvel soon enough.
