10 Avengers With Forgettable Origins

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At this point, the Avengers have invited most Marvel superheroes into their ranks. After all, the threats to Earth have only gotten larger over the decades. Yet not every character that joins the Avengers is as well-developed as characters like Captain America, Iron Man, or Thor. Even when they have cool powers and costumes, their origin might leave a lot to be desired by fans.

Characters with forgettable origins happen all the time. Sometimes their history is just too similar to several other heroes that came before them. Other times they weren’t intended to be major characters but grew more popular over time. Even a few well-known Avengers might have origins that only the most hardcore fan actually knows.

10

Hawkeye Saw Iron Man And Decided To Become A Hero

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense #57 By Stan Lee, Don Heck, Sam Rosen

Even the most famous Marvel heroes can’t all have a backstory as awesome as building a suit of armor in a cave. After training with a traveling circus for years, Clint became a peerless

archer. Yet after witnessing Iron Man, he decided he no longer wanted to be a carnival archer but put his skills to use as a superhero. Though his initial outing as a hero led to him being mistaken as a villain for a time, one day he just…applied to the Avengers, claiming he wanted to reform. Iron Man agreed to sponsor him, and suddenly he was on the straight and narrow again.

That’s such a paper-thin origin that each time writers have gone back to it, they’ve added to it. Marvel expanded his origin to add former Avengers and long-lost brothers, all to spice the character up. Still, there’s no way to really fix the idea that he was just bored as a sharpshooter working for a carnival, so he decided to get into the hero business.

9

Quasar Was Given Power Bands From SHIELD

First Appearance: Captain America Vol. 1 #217 By Roy Thomas, Don Glut, John Buscema, Pablo Marcos, Phil Rache

Eventually, Wendell Vaughn’s background became much more complex to match up with what fans know today. After all, it’s hard to forget someone known as the Protector of the Universe, and who’s been part of some of the best cosmic teams of all time. Yet when he first appeared, Wendell didn’t have nearly as complex or as interesting of a backstory.

No, Wendell was originally yet another of Marvel’s endless SHIELD agents. Though he graduated with top marks, they looked down on him for not having the “killer instinct” necessary to work in the field. Later, while working at a top-secret facility, Wendell donned the Quasar bands to protect everyone from an attack by AIM. It’s a fairly pedestrian origin, and the character was almost entirely forgettable until almost a decade after his introduction.

8

Hellcat Found An Old Costume

First Appearance: Millie the Model Comics #103 By Stan Lee

Thanks to recent comics and even the Jessica Jones Netflix series, Patsy Walker has gained a bit of a cult fanbase. That said, her origin is about as boring as it gets. Ultimately, it comes down to her just finding a costume.

Since her mother was a comic writer, Patsy grew up idolizing superheroes. She wanted to be a hero so much she even tried to blackmail Beast into helping her become one. Finally, after being freed from the clutches of the Brand Corporation, she took her chance when the Avengers discovered Tigra’s old Cat Suit. Hilariously, there’s nothing else to it–she donned the suit and started calling herself Hellcat. Honestly, she could’ve just made her own suit at home.

7

U.S. Agent Paid For His Powers

First Appearance: Captain America Vol. 1 #323 By Mark Gruenwald, Paul Neary, John Beatty, Ken Feduniewicz, Diana Albers

It seems fitting that a knock-off of Captain America would get a knock-off origin. After finishing his time in the army, John Walker and his friends signed up with the Power Broker to have his body augmented to superhuman levels. After that, John became a superhero to help pay off the costs of his augmentation, turning into the Super-Patriot.

Paying someone for superpowers is a new one, but it’s also kind of boring. Then, after gaining his powers, he and his friends just wasted time doing rallies and faking fights instead of operating as true heroes. It took John years to just stop trying to do his best Captain America impression, only to remind fans that the sequel is rarely ever as good as the original.

6

Rage Gained His Powers From Toxic Waste

First Appearance: Avengers Vol. 1 #326 By Larry Hama, Paul Ryan, Tom Palmer, Max Scheele, Bill Oakley

Most Avengers fans barely even remember Rage was ever part of the Avengers to begin with. He joined at the top of the ’90s when the Avengers were at an absolute nadir in terms of recognizable heroes. At only 13 years old, Elvin Haliday was splashed with radioactive waste while running from bullies.

While recovering, his body shifted into that of an adult male, and he gained incredible strength and durability. Radioactive chemicals or waste being responsible for superpowers has always been popular, but this one feels particularly lazy. They tried to spice it up by saying it aged Rage’s body from that of a teenager to an adult, but that just makes the character more ridiculous. Once Captain America learned Rage’s real age, he kicked him off the team.

5

Mockingbird Took Years To Even Have An Origin

First Appearance: Astonishing Tales Vol. 1 #6 By Gerry Conway, Barry Smith, Bill Everett, Artie Simek

For such a cool character, Barbara Morse’s origins had to be revised multiple times to make them remotely interesting. She makes her first appearance in Astonishing Tales, where she’s trying to track down Ka-Zar. After multiple attempts to track him down, she eventually began working with him as a partner, with Astonishing Tales #13 revealing she was actually a member of SHIELD.

Looking back, her origin felt drummed up on the fly as a way to explain a random blonde following a major character around. Making her a member of SHIELD felt normal because there were SHIELD agents all over the place in early Marvel, from Nick Fury to Jasper Sitwell. She didn’t even get a proper name until nine years after her creation, spending a lot of her time working with Ka-Zar as “Agent 19”.

4

Triathlon Gained Powers From A Mystic Item

First Appearance: Avengers Vol. 3 #8 By Kurt Busiek, George Pérez, Al Vey, Tom Smith, Richard Starkings, Comicraft, Dave Lanphear

Triathlon comes from one of the greatest Avengers runs of all time but isn’t an exceptionally memorable character himself. The character was an Olympian-level track star who had everything taken from him when he tested positive for steroids. Attempting to get his life back on track, he found himself working with the religious movement, the Triune Understanding.

While working with them, Delroy was given the powers of the former superhero the 3-D Man thanks to a mysterious alien object. Later, it was revealed the object was one part of three which was meant to help shut down Kang the Conqueror. A cool little addition, but nothing to make Triathlon’s origins, or the character himself, any more memorable.

3

Stingray Built His Costume To Fight Namor

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish Vol. 1 #95 By Roy Thomas, Raymond Marais, Bill Everett, Vince Colletta, Art Simek

Walter Newell was originally just an oceanographer who was working on a special underwater city project to help the surface world. Yet when he was asked to capture Namor by the government, Walter developed a special suit that was designed to mimic the manta ray. Though Stingray is one of Marvel’s strongest armored heroes, he shouldn’t have been a match for Namor. Still, he managed to defeat a weakened Sub-Mariner to bring him in.

The fact that Newell was able to easily build a suit that could compete with Namor even while he was weakened is certainly impressive. However, it’s not particularly memorable. Any version of the character outside of the comics could completely ditch the origin he has a nothing of value would be lost.

2

Firebird Found A Meteorite In The Desert

First Appearance: Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #265 By Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema, Bob Sharen, Diana Albers, Jean Simek

Bonita Juarez is a great example of a character that’s much cooler than their origin suggests. She’s got a fantastic costume and powerset, and she’s an inspiration as one of Marvel’s first Latina superheroes. Everything about her is a hit…except her origin.

Bonita gained her powers while she was out walking in the desert and ran across a radioactive meteorite. It’s almost like they just wanted to skip to the part where she had powers already. Thinking she’d been blessed by God, she immediately took to using her powers to help people, even becoming part of one of the earliest West Coast Avengers rosters not long after.

1

Two-Gun Kid Trained Under A Gunman

First Appearance: Two-Gun Kid Vol. 1 #60 By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Stan Goldberg, Artie Simek

Two-Gun Kid’s adventures are far more exciting than his origin…or his abilities, honestly. He’s just a character with good aim thanks to training with a legendary marksman of his era, and not much else. He’s the epitome of a Golden Age character, where the only thing needed to stand out was a cool costume.

Matthew Hawk, the Two-Gun Kid started as a lawyer from Boston who traveled to Texas following the Civil War. Landing in the town of Tombstone, Matt was attacked by a gang and just barely survived. Fortunately, his desire to protect others earned him the right to train under the gunfighter Ben Dancer. That’s an origin that fits more in an old Western than it does in a superhero comic.

“}]] Not all Avengers get to have an origin that people know from memory, and fans have forgotten the start of a few members like Quasar and Mockingbird.  Read More