Is Captain America the Avenger With The Best Supporting Cast?

[PCN24454]

Thor's supporting cast and world is better than any Avenger (core or otherwise). There is no discussion here. Close the thread.

Yeah, no. They honestly aren’t that interesting.

[Snoop Dogg]

steve has d-man
pack it up

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Most of Cap's supporting cast involves SHIELD, or supers, or sidekicks. So I don't think that qualifies as a supporting cast.

With Thor, the same -- especially now that Jane Foster has taken off. Everyone is a Mythical figure, or a Mjolnir-wielder. And you know with Thor since he has this actual mythology as a basis, you can always tap into that to expand the world by taking a 101 level Norse Myth course online.

Iron Man...'nuff said. His supporting cast is lame.

In general, Marvel rarely does the civilian supporting cast as well as DC does. The exceptions are Spider-Man and Daredevil, neither of whom, imo are Avengers except for special occassions.

[Cruelrain]

Thor and then Steve

[babyblob]

Most of Cap's supporting cast involves SHIELD, or supers, or sidekicks. So I don't think that qualifies as a supporting cast.

With Thor, the same -- especially now that Jane Foster has taken off. Everyone is a Mythical figure, or a Mjolnir-wielder. And you know with Thor since he has this actual mythology as a basis, you can always tap into that to expand the world by taking a 101 level Norse Myth course online.

Iron Man...'nuff said. His supporting cast is lame.

In general, Marvel rarely does the civilian supporting cast as well as DC does. The exceptions are Spider-Man and Daredevil, neither of whom, imo are Avengers except for special occassions.

I would say Spiderman does count as An Avenger. He was an Avenger When Doc Ock took over his body. He was even put on probation. While most of his appearances with The Avengers were just team ups and guest spots he is listed as An official member. So why not as active of an Avenger as others he is still an Avenger.

[Jabare]

Spider-Man's been an Avengers for 14 years and got initiated in the MCU

Hard to go against Spider-Man

[Frontier]

Most of Cap's supporting cast involves SHIELD, or supers, or sidekicks. So I don't think that qualifies as a supporting cast.

With Thor, the same -- especially now that Jane Foster has taken off. Everyone is a Mythical figure, or a Mjolnir-wielder. And you know with Thor since he has this actual mythology as a basis, you can always tap into that to expand the world by taking a 101 level Norse Myth course online.

Iron Man...'nuff said. His supporting cast is lame.

In general, Marvel rarely does the civilian supporting cast as well as DC does. The exceptions are Spider-Man and Daredevil, neither of whom, imo are Avengers except for special occassions.

I mean, Thor has the Warriors Three, Sif, Balder, Beta Ray Bill, Odin, etc.

As far as supporting casts go, I think that's pretty solid.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

If we count Spider-Man, then he has the best supporting cast, but it's still hard to think of Spider-Man as an Avenger (partly because it's debatable if he even belongs there, and partly because Avenger Spider-Man has always been poorly written).

Therefore I gotta go with Cap. Cap also gets away the most with using other Avengers as supporting characters just because the Avengers are kinda his natural home in the modern world. The Avengers are to him what the Planet Express crew is to Phillip J. Fry.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

If we count Spider-Man, then he has the best supporting cast, but it's still hard to think of Spider-Man as an Avenger (partly because it's debatable if he even belongs there, and partly because Avenger Spider-Man has always been poorly written).

Therefore I gotta go with Cap. Cap also gets away the most with using other Avengers as supporting characters just because the Avengers are kinda his natural home in the modern world. The Avengers are to him what the Planet Express crew is to Phillip J. Fry.

Avengers fans need to learn that you can't have Spider-Man when you want the sunshine, and leave him out when it's raining.

LOL about the Cap/Fry comparison. Great one.

In terms of supporting characters...Jarvis is a curiosity. He originated as a Tony supporting character and yet all his big stories are with the Avengers, and the best issue centered on a Non-Avenger in an Avengers title (Roger Stern's "The Faithful Servant" aka the pre-2000s history of the Avengers) happens when Jarvis was serving the Avengers at a time that Tony wasn't in the team.

Jarvis was a big part of UNDER SIEGE, the emotional center in that story, and yet Iron Man wasn't around in that story.

[Agent Z]

Avengers fans need to learn that you can't have Spider-Man when you want the sunshine, and leave him out when it's raining.

What does this even mean? It's not like Avengers fans control when Spider-Man is part of the roster. I get you don't like the team but seriously.

[babyblob]

Avengers fans need to learn that you can't have Spider-Man when you want the sunshine, and leave him out when it's raining.

LOL about the Cap/Fry comparison. Great one.

In terms of supporting characters...Jarvis is a curiosity. He originated as a Tony supporting character and yet all his big stories are with the Avengers, and the best issue centered on a Non-Avenger in an Avengers title (Roger Stern's "The Faithful Servant" aka the pre-2000s history of the Avengers) happens when Jarvis was serving the Avengers at a time that Tony wasn't in the team.

Jarvis was a big part of UNDER SIEGE, the emotional center in that story, and yet Iron Man wasn't around in that story.

I would debate Jarvis ever being a supporting character for Tony. It may have been reconned at some point that he was the Butler Tony who said he was his butler loaned to the Avengers. But Jarvis first appearance was in Tales of Suspense 59. He was serving coffee to Captain America in Avengers Mansion. So even in his first showing he was already established as an Avengers supporting character and not a Tony supporting character. In the early days of Jarvis he was always with the Avengers. He did not appear in Tales of Suspense as a support character for Tony at all. He may have later in Ironman's own series (I havnt gotten there yet. Just Started Ironman 1) So when counting Tony supporting cast I would in no way count Jarvis.

[BlueElf94]

Cap had a pretty decent civilian supporting cast around the DeMatteis and Gruenwald eras. Bernie Rosenthal, Arnie Roth, Josh Cooper, etc. I think the biggest problem is that there's a general lack of interest in depicting Steve's civilian life and has been for a while.

[babyblob]

Cap had a pretty decent civilian supporting cast around the DeMatteis and Gruenwald eras. Bernie Rosenthal, Arnie Roth, Josh Cooper, etc. I think the biggest problem is that there's a general lack of interest in depicting Steve's civilian life and has been for a while.

I agree. i think this is the main problem with Cap writers trying to develop a supporting cast who is not a superhero or Shield or a spy. No one really cares about Steve Rodgers the man. They care about Captain America.

Where as with Spiderman people care about what happens not just to Spiderman but to Peter as well.

With Cap its like. oh No Steve lost his job and place to live. No biggie he can just go chill at Avengers Mansion and do some side work for Shield. there was never any consequence for Captain America if Steve Rodgers life went to Hell.

[Huntsman Spider]

I agree. i think this is the main problem with Cap writers trying to develop a supporting cast who is not a superhero or Shield or a spy. No one really cares about Steve Rodgers the man. They care about Captain America.

Where as with Spiderman people care about what happens not just to Spiderman but to Peter as well.

With Cap its like. oh No Steve lost his job and place to live. No biggie he can just go chill at Avengers Mansion and do some side work for Shield. there was never any consequence for Captain America if Steve Rodgers life went to Hell.

That's pretty sad, actually. I recall something similar happening with Spider-Man in the mid-2000s during the JMS run when he'd just joined the New Avengers under Brian Bendis; one of his old classmates-turned-supervillain torched his place for revenge, so Peter, at Tony Stark's behest, moved into Stark/Avengers Tower with Mary Jane and Aunt May, and while it was fun to read from a "fish out of water" perspective, I don't think it would have worked out long-term for the reasons you mentioned. If Peter Parker's life goes to hell, it has to have meaningful impact on his ability to continue as Spider-Man, and him being able to fall back on the Avengers (or the Fantastic Four) for support takes away from that sense of impact or consequence. Of course, then Civil War happened, Peter's conscience couldn't abide some of the stuff Tony was asking him to do to prove he was down with the pro-registration cause, and that was the end of that safety net.

[PCN24454]

I agree. i think this is the main problem with Cap writers trying to develop a supporting cast who is not a superhero or Shield or a spy. No one really cares about Steve Rodgers the man. They care about Captain America.

Where as with Spiderman people care about what happens not just to Spiderman but to Peter as well.

With Cap its like. oh No Steve lost his job and place to live. No biggie he can just go chill at Avengers Mansion and do some side work for Shield. there was never any consequence for Captain America if Steve Rodgers life went to Hell.

What’s sad is that that seems to describe most of Marvel’s superheroes. That’s why they systematically got rid of most of the civilian identities.