10 possible new Avengers characters for Infinity War.

SPOILER WARNING: This blog assumes youve seen Captain America Civil War!

So in my last blog, when I was guessing who might make up the avengers at the start and end of infinity war, I think I made a mistake...I forgot this was an Avengers movie.

See the Avengers have a habit of introducing characters/team members in their movies. For example Avengers 1 had Maria Hill (who kinda is the manager of the team in avengers 2) and Hawkeye (at least excluding 5 seconds of screentime in thor). Avengers 2 brought us Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver (again excluding a small cameo in Cap 2) and Vision. Civil War itself (which was basically an avengers movie masquerading as a Captain America movie) gave us Black Panther and Spider Man.

So it seems highly likely Avengers 3 is going to give us a few new character.....but in my blog post of who might make up the team, I kinda completely ignored that idea.....except for Captain Marvel who I said I assumed would show up as a not yet powered Carol Danvers in the 3rd movie.

And I also forgot that in the MCU, events happen in real time.....as there were references in Civil War to the events of "Iron Man" and "Avengers"  being 8 and 4 years ago respectively (as they were being released in 2008, and 2012 compared to Civil War in 2016).

And Avengers Infinity War Part 1 is due out in 2018. Now it seems unlikely Tony Stark wouldnt attempt to rebuild his shattered team in that 2 year gap. In other words it seems highly likely Avengers 3 might open with a team of Avengers we've never seen before (except Vision and Iron Man).

So with that in mind, this is my list of new characters who might make up Iron Man's avengers at the start of Infinity War.

Now as I do expect Vision to either die or be turned against the avengers pretty early on, I assume most of these new avengers will also be destined to die either along side Vision or at his hand. So with that in mind, I picked these folks with a couple criteria in mind.

1) they ALL have to be disposable characters that will be killed off.....that is they likely have no real future in the MCU, and therefore are all likely "B-list" or lower in the comics. however still important enough to be recognized by fans.

2) Tony Stark would most likely try to replace the avengers with something as close to the former team as he could as a way of dealing with his guilt over ending the original team. So some of these avengers are picked because they are similar to the established former team members.

So with that in mind, here are the characters I believe might make up Tony's team (along side Vision and maybe Tony himself)

1) US agent

A single look at that picture should tell you EXACTLY why this guy has no real future in the MCU....hes a carbon copy Captain America. In fact in the comics, Agent WAS Cap at one point.....mostly when Cap became disillusioned with political bullshit getting in the way of being a hero and walked away from being Captain America to get away from it.

Kinda like he did at the end of Civil War. And hell last we saw Cap's shield it left with Tony. Whos to say Tony wouldnt want his own new captain america who agrees with his worldview on his team?

Its literally a match made in heaven as far as the circumstances needed for Agent to exist......and the MCU wont really lose anything with his death either, they already have 3 other comic book replacement caps around (Falcon, Winter Soldier and Hawkeye). Plus it builds up Tony's inability to come to grips with the outcome of civil war.

2) Swordsman

Hawkeye's mentor and trainer from the comic books, but stayed a villain for a while after Clint went straight. Swordsman is, as his name suggests, a guy whos really good with a sword. Now admittedly his sword has been all kinds of tricked out in the comics with beam and ray weapons and other stuff like that....made for him by the Mandarin. Though there's no particular reason Tony Stark couldnt have designed his sword for him if he makes his way to the MCU.

And considering the Avengers line up consisted of 2 people with no powers to speak of, one of whom appears to have been on the team cause she looked good in spandex (Widow) and one of whom was really good with an antiquated weapon, well there really isnt a reason Swordsman isnt at least as qualified for the team.

Plus in the comics, he's been dead from 1974....the first comic book avenger to fall in battle. By comic book standards that literally an eternity....so they clearly have no plans EVER for this guy in the comics....hes perfect cannon fodder for the MCU.

He'd also give the team a bit of an international flavor...as he's french.
3) Black Knight

His uncle was the villain, he inherited and tried to reform the name, and is himself an inventor so made his own gadget sword.  So he fits the same role as the swordsman and qualifies for the team for the same reason. Basically it would be an either/or with these guys, but one of them could get a spot.

Also possibly worth noting, these 2 and Hercules (who suffers from copyright issues, in that marvel cant copyright that name) are the members of the team from the 1960's NOT to be in the movies so far. Though as Swordsman is the only Stan Lee written member of the team not to be in the movies, he probably has the edge (no pun intended) over the knight.  

That said Kight was one of the central team members, and team leader during the 1990's so he has a much higher profile with the fans than Swordsmans. He's also very known in the british marvel comics, having been a mainstay in those for decades, so while his characters not international like Swordsman, he would help European sales a tad.

4) Tigra

Now I actually kinda hate to put Tigra on this list as shes one of my favorite characters, and also a mainstay of the West Coast Avengers and Avengers Academy, and is Hank Pyms current girlfriend. ....but the simple fact is shes at best a b-lister and will never really have a chance to play a major role in the MCU since shed likely been seen as nothing more than a sex symbol and/or Beast knock off by the non comic fans. 

Basically though, shes exactly what she appears to be.....a freaking werecat. Now in the comics she has a long drawn out complex semi-magical origin....but none of it needs to carry over into the MCU.

So the TV show Agents of Shield already introduced the idea of Inhumans, think basically mutants, except their DNA was tampered with by the Kree eons ago, instead of by evolution, and their powers remain inert until they are exposed to a chemical called terrigen...which happened to be released into the ocean and into the worlds fish supply so anyone whos eaten fish can potentially be an Inhuman and have their powers unlocked

This would be a perfect, non complicated origin for Tigra, and one that would play into both the agents of shield tv show, and the upcoming inhumans movie... and given that again, I expect her to die in the first act of the movie, she doesnt need much more than that.

So yea, to sum up, shes got Black Panthers claws, and Widows/Cap's/Hawkeye/Falcons hand to hand fighting skills.

5) Firebird

Another avenger from the "hasnt been used in a serious manner in decades and destined to never make a splash" list, firebird could fit the need for Starks team to have some kind of energy using powerhouse akin to say Thor and Scarlet Witch. And again the "Inhuman origin" could work well for her too. 

Heck, the movie could even play up her comic book characters immortality....have her survive the initial lethal attacks by Thanos/Vision...only to have her soul stripped from her body by the Soul Stone (one of the 2 yet to be revealed infinity stones)...helping put the stones over as a legitimate theat's to even god's like Thor, or maybe a machine like the Vision.   She wouldnt be dead per say....just a souless comatose body...so close enough.

I'll be honest though, of all the characters on this list, she has BY FAR the lowest profile, given her major prominence consisted of a few appearances in West Coast Avengers back in the late 80's.

Shes mostly here because shes not white (despite what the picture I could find makes her look). So she allows Marvel a way to avoid taking fire for having another all white avengers team.

6) Crystal

So in theory, Crystal SHOULD be poised as one of the most important characters in the MCU.

Afterall in the comics, shes the wife of Ronan the Accuser (from Guardians of the Galaxy), the Ex-wife of Quicksilver (and therefore ex-sister in law of scarlet witch) and the Princess of the Inhuman royal family.

Problem is, in the MCU, they gave her princess backstory to Daisy Johnson (AKA Skye from agents of shield) and clearly have no intention of going through with either of her marriages as her grooms are both dead.

Which kind of leaves her with nothing to do. And honestly, she may be the highest profile character on this whole list all things considered given the sporadic importance shes been given in the 60 years since her creation in the comics, both as a member of the Fantastic Four, and as arguably one of the 3 central characters (with Black Knight) of almost 7 years of avengers comics.

So they might as well get something out of her in the MCU...even if it is just a death scene,

However, given that her power is controlling all elements, and she would have the kinda scarlet witch/thor role on the team, its probably an either/or with her and firebird too (as it was with Knight/Swordsman, though in this case assuming no copyright issue (she was created in the fantastic four comic, but so was Black Panther and he didnt have an issue) I'd have to give the edge to her.

7) Justice

I'll be honest, I'm including Justice on this list because he'd serve for a nice pair of "in jokes"

First in the comics his time displaced alternate self is actually the founder of the original Guardians of the Galaxy...so including him as an Avenger is a nice shout out to that team (even if they arnt being used in the movie franchise in favor of the second guardians team).

Secondly he's a telekinetic mutant (easily changed to an Inhuman for the movie) and can use that power to fly. Admittedly being telekinetic usually makes people think of Jean Grey from the X-men....but thats kinda the point.

See, Justice could be Jean....just like the girl with elemental powers (Crystal) could be Iceman, the creature looking one (Tigra) could be Beast, and the immoral flying one who shoots energy blasts (firebird or Vision) whos kinda a fusion between Cyclops and Angel.  Those 5 by the way are the original line up of the X-men.

To top things off, its likely the now wheelchair bound James Rhodes would be present during the battle...and I dont think I have to mention who his analog would be.

So yea, thats right, taking this team, Thanos's/Vision's first victory in the infinity war would be against the "alternate versions" of the X-men...could be a nice Easter egg

8) Ronin

Ronin isnt so much a superhero, as much as its an identity passed around when a superhero needs to hide their normal superhero identity. In the comics the person under the mask has been Blade, Red Guardian, Echo and Hawkeye at different times in the last decade

So basically you can literally slap this costume on ANYONE and put them in the movie.....perfect for when you need a disposable hero to run up the body count. 

9) The Human Torch

No, NOT Johnny Storm...the OTHER human torch, the original one from the 1940's.  The Android.

He was also an avenger....and was the vision's original body, before joining the team in his own right later, serving on the West Coast and Secret Avengers.

He's also got the advantage of actually existing already inside the MCU....the picture I used of him is from one of the MCU movies. specifically the first Cap movie. He was at the 1943 Stark expo.....it wouldnt be a huge stretch for Stark to still have him around somewhere.

Now admittedly for the movie they might have to alter his powers (maybe say to just shooting fire from his hands as opposed to making himself totally into fire) to avoid confusion with the better known Johnny Storm, but its clear marvel has the rights to this character so who knows.

10) Songbird

So in 1998 the series "Avengers forever" came out, featuring a team of time displaced avengers saving all of time itself. One of the teams future members was Songbird, then a villain on the Thunderbolts team and the love interest of Baron Zemo (aka the guy behind Civil War in the movie).

The T'bolts would be evenually be redeemed under the leadership of Hawkeye and later Luke Cage, and Songbird would stay one of the teams major members.

However shes gotten over so well with the fans in "Avengers Forever" that every time Marvel announced a change in the teams line up fans were hoping this would be the time she FINALLY got a spot on the team.

Well it took almost 18 years but she finally got her spot with the All New All Different Avengers at the end of 2015.

That said, that same slow climb to popularity might also mean shes never desinted for a major role on the big screen. So sending her out as fan service at the start of Avengers 3 might be the best she can hope for.

Now her powers, the ability to shape solid versions of anything she wants out of sound (including her own voice) seems to be another power easy enough to explain away by altering her origin from being the victim of experimentation (ALA the MCU version of Scarlet Witch) to just making her an Inhuman.

So its easy to put her in the film, shes popular with a subset of fans, and likely has no shot at a larger role....so she seems perfect for this job.