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The Avengers movie just came out and shattered box-office records. The Avengers in the movie has the line-up of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Nick Fury. In the comics, Marvel’s Avengers have had many different members coming and going over the years, not all of them have been winners.
Spider-Man has the proportionate strength of a spider, which compared to most of us, is pretty damn strong. Ant-Man on the other hand, has the strength of an ant. Not the proportionate strength, but the literal strength of an ant, which is pretty much nothing to worry about.. except maybe if you’re another ant. His power is to shrink to ant-size and to communicate with ants. He’d probably be your hero at a picnic except for the fact that he considers these ants his friends and probably crawl over all your picnic snacks with them.
Hercules‘ an Olympian God, with superhuman strength, durability, speed, heightened reflexes and immortal. He’s on the same level as Thor in terms of his strength. The problem is, that he’s also constantly drunk and a man-whore. He makes a bull in a china shop look dainty.
Starfox is a member of the Eternals, a genetic offshoot of humanity that left for the stars and settled on Titan, a moon of Saturn. Like most Eternals, he’s stronger and tougher than a normal human and flies, but he has a special power all his own, he’s “persuasive”. Persuasive how, you might ask. Persuasive in that with the power of his mind he can stimulate the pleasure centers in another person’s brain and leave them “open to suggestion”, causing the person to become infatuated with someone else, an object… or even himself. He’s essentially spanish fly as a superhero. Yeah, that doesn’t sound creepy (or highly illegal in a “date rape” kind of way).
Imagine someone as powerful as Superman, but completely schizophrenic. That’s right, all powerful but completely out of his mind,.. and with poor judgement as a bonus. Add to this, that his “other” personality manifests itself as his mortal enemy The Void, and you have someone that sounds like they should be locked up “just in case” instead of being put on the front-line with the rest of the Avengers. Did we mention that he ended up killing another Avenger before they “took him out”.
Started off as a character in Daredevil’s book and spun-off into the Avenger’s book. Like any other woman that appears in a Daredevil comic, she “dated” him for a while (but then again, who hasn’t). Her power: photographic reflexes. What that means, is that she has the ability to perfectly copy the moves of any other person she sees. If she sees a Karate master, she picks up his moves just from watching him. If she sees a pianist, she ends up playing the piano like a virtuoso. Pretty cool power right? The problem, if she’s not surrounded by anyone with any skills (or she can’t see because it’s dark) she’s completely useless. Plus, she’s completely deaf and can only read lips, which is an even bigger drawback when you’re fighting alongside guys that wear masks that cover their mouths.
He’s a bit like Doctor Strange, but not as powerful.. or as cool. He was actually selected as a possible “back-up” for Doctor Strange in case he didn’t work out, he’s still waiting for his chance to this day. He’s a psychiatrist, explorer, minor telepath and magician – essentially a poor man’s Doctor Strange without the grace and charm. Do we have to be mean and mention that he looks like a guy that we wouldn’t leave alone with children?
Mantis is a over-the-top martial artist! She can kick ass with the best of them! Her day job – barmaid and Vietnamese prostitute. Better hope she hasn’t booked any appointments next time Dr. Doom tries to take over the world.
