When you think of the comic book superhero team the Avengers – especially now that they’ve hit the mainstream world in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – you tend to think of well-known characters like Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor.
Classically, of course, the Marvel team are comprised of characters of that stature, so it makes sense that those are the first names that spring to mind – but the team haven’t only been made up of such big names.
Hundreds of superheroes have been associated with the team over the years – and quite often they’re little-known characters that most people won’t even have heard of.
In this article, we’ll list who we believe are the least famous of all the characters to have ever been a member of the various Avengers teams over the years. Here are the ten least-known characters who’ve been Avengers…
Stingray
Stingray is the heroic alter-ego of Walter Newell – an oceanographer who was overseeing a project to build a domed city under the sea to harvest food for mankind.
He encountered Namor the Sub-Mariner whilst under the sea and was tasked with capturing him, having been led to believe the human-Atlantean hybrid hero was responsible for the disappearance of water from Earth’s oceans.
He built himself a power-suit to aid him with the capture, but soon realised Namor was innocent and sided with him. He went on to use his power-suit to become a hero in his own right and joined the Avengers teams known as the Secret Avengers and The Initiative, first becoming a part of the team in 1990’s Avengers #31. He has also been the caretaker of Avengers Island.
Stature
Stature AKA Cassandra Lang is a character you probably know but don’t even realise it – she’s the daughter of Scott Lang, the lead character played by Paul Rudd in the 2015 movie Ant-Man (she was played by child actress Abby Ryder Fortson).
In the comic books, Cassie grows up to become a hero in her own right – Stature. Having stolen Pym Particles from her father for years, she became aware that she had gained the abilities to grow and shrink – she’s grow when she was angry and shrink when she felt guilty.
She joined a number of Avengers teams, including The Initiative, Mighty Avengers and Young Avengers, having first officially gained membership to the team in 2009’s Mighty Avengers #22.
Manifold
Manifold is a mutant character whose real name is Eden Fesi. His mutant power is the ability to bend reality so that he can teleport both himself and others across large distances.
His first venture into being a superhero was when Nick Fury recruited him into the Secret Warriors – which is a pretty big honour in itself – but he would later go on to be a part of the most famous superhero team in comic books.
He was recruited into the main Avengers lineup in 2012’s Avengers vol. 5 #1 – and he was recruited by none other than both Captain America and Iron Man themselves. Manifold is Australian and the idea of his recruitment was to make the Avengers more global in scope.
Abyss
Abyss is the name of several Marvel characters, but only one of them has joined the Avengers – and that’s the female version of the character whose real name is indeed Abyss.
She’s an alien character who actually started as an enemy of the Avengers. Along with her brother Ex Nihilo, she came to Earth to evolve the planet at the expense of millions of lives, but was soon shown the error of her ways.
In 2013’s Avengers vol. 5 #17, Captain Universe ordered her to join the Avengers, having already told the aforementioned Manifold that the team needed to expand. She became a hero and her telepathic powers – which have proven to be powerful enough to manipulate the Hulk – are very useful to the team.
Ex Nihilo
Ex Nihilo – whose real name is simply Ex Nihilo – is the brother of the aforementioned Abyss, whose story is identical to hers.
As members of the group known as The Garden, they traveled from planet to planet terraforming them in their image – but, when they came to Earth, they faced unprecedented opposition from the Avengers. Like Abyss, Ex Nihilo was ultimately convinced by Captain Universe to join the team who initially went up against them.
Ex Nihilo possesses the power and technology to transform the environments of entire planets and create new species. He is also able to shoot out powerful energy blasts over a wide area. He joined the Avengers in 2013’s Avengers vol. 5 #17.
Nightmask
Nightmask is the superhero name of Adam Blackveil – an artificial human (of sorts) who was created by none other than the aforementioned Ex Nihilo. He was created as part Ex Nihilo’s attempts to create a new evolved human race, but he went on to help to protect the existing human race.
He was imbued with powers by a cosmic occurrence known as the the White Event. Those powers he gained included things like cosmic awareness, energy manipulation, teleportation, technopathy and flight (amongst others).
Having initially been an antagonist of the famous superhero team, he joined the main roster of the Avengers at the same time as his creator and his creator’s sister, Abyss – in 2013’s Avengers vol. 5 #17.
Kaluu
Kaluu is a little-known human magician (which is something of a surprise, when you consider that he’s been around since 1966) – a practitioner of black magic – whose real name is unknown. Such is the level of his power, he is considered to be a peer of Doctor Strange’s mentor the Ancient One – and he has sometimes been an ally of Strange himself.
His mastery over magic gives him a huge array of powers, including (but not limited to) astral projection, energy manipulation, dimensional travel, illusion casting, force field generation, flight and control of the weather.
He was very briefly a member of the Mighty Avengers – a team he joined in 2014’s Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #1.
Validator
Validator – whose real name is known only as Michaud (that’s her surname, her first name isn’t known) – was introduced as the leader of the Omega Flight team that was sent to investigate the Origin Bomb site in Regina, Canada.
Her entire team was killed there – apart from her, obviously – and it totally changed her. She went onto join Sunspot’s Avengers lineup with a very specific aim.
She joined with the aim of attempting to unite all the creations left by the Origin Bombs. She was recruited in 2015 in Avengers (vol. 5) #39. She’s probably the character on this list that the least is known about – the fact she can fly and fire energy blasts is about the extent of it – but we certainly hope to learn more about her in the future.
Pod
Pod is the superhero name of the character known as Aikku Jokinen. She’s a Norwegian character with Finnish parents and “Aikku” is a Finnish nickname, so her real name is actually unknown, but she’s very cool.
She gained her powers when she was bonded to a suit of armour when she found herself near the crash-landing site of a device created by the aforementioned Ex Nihilo.
Having initially turned into a cocoon, she emerged from said cocoon in her new form and defeated the Avengers – adapting to their attacks thanks to the armour she had bonded with. But she would later join the New Avengers thanks to Sunspot. She has also been a member of the Avengers Idea Mechanics team. She first became affiliated with the Avengers in Avengers (vol. 5) #39 in 2015.
Synapse
Synapse – real name Emily Guerrero – in a young Inhuman character who has various mental abilities, including telepathy and the ability to communicate with animals.
She’s a brand new Marvel character who only first appeared on panel in 2015 and she has only been in eleven issues, but she has already become a member of the Avengers team known as the Avengers Unity Division.
She was recruited in 2015’s Avengers #0 – and she was recruited by Captain America himself, who personally vouched for the fact that she would go on to become a useful member of the team.
Honourable mentions go out to the likes of Swordsman, Black Knight, Two-Gun Kid, Firebird, Demolition Man, Forgotten One, Rage, Crystal, Darkhawk, Justice, Firestar, Triathlon, Silverclaw and Echo.
What do you think? Are these the least known Avengers? Have you actually heard of any of these characters? Have your say below!
