7. The Swordsman

People mock Hawkeye for being a terrible Avenger. You will notice that he is not, nor will he be, on this list. His mentor, however, definitely will be. Jacques Duquesne (whose name I had to check three times to make sure I was spelling it correctly) was a circus performer and carnival attraction. And WOW is that the most “1960s Marvel” sentence of all time. The economy of New York in the Marvel Universe used to be, like, thirty percent circus-based.

As a circus performer, he was an expert swordsman (duh) who took in a young Clint Barton and trained him to use the bow and arrow. This raises the question “if you know how to use a bow and arrow, why are you still trying to fight superheroes with a flipping sword?” A question which, to my knowledge, was never answered. Swordsman wasn’t just a world-class jerkface, he was also a supervillain. Like, “worked with the Red Skull” levels of supervillain.

But after getting onto the Avengers as a traitor and failing even to accomplish that goal, Swordsman fled back to supervillainy. Swordsman eventually turned to the side of good and joined the team for real, before a laser blast traveled up his sword and killed him. That might be the dumbest death on this list. And trust me, it has some stiff competition.