Child of the Storm: Avengers and Associates / Characters

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This page lists tropes associated with the Avengers and their associates in Child of the Storm.

Unless otherwise stated, tropes that apply in the Marvel Cinematic Universe up the events of The Avengers apply here as well.

Beware: Spoilers for Child of the Storm are unmarked.

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The Avengers

The definitive Badass Crew, one which has over the space of several years transformed from a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits (which they sort of still are, but their differences tie them together) who can barely stand to be in the same room as each other, to a Family of Choice who would all unhesitatingly die for each other. They are Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Big Good of the world, and no one with any sense wants to face them in open battle.

In General

Adaptation Origin Connection: As in the films, SHIELD put them together.
Anti-Hero Team: Even more so than the canon version: not only do they have two master assassins, a former war profiteer, a former Blood Knight, a man with an epic case of Jekyll & Hyde, and their leader, a Shell-Shocked Veteran and Fish out of Temporal Water... they also have their former Ax-Crazy Arch-Enemy on the roster and, as of the end of Child of the Storm, among their associate members is possibly the darkest Living Legend of the Cold War.
Badass Crew: When fully assembled and ready for battle, they're the biggest badasses in a World of Badass and justly considered to be the next best thing to unbeatable. This is why those antagonists with sense tend to avoid trying to take them in a straight fight - it just doesn't work.
Beware the Nice Ones: With the exception of Natasha, who's not exactly sweet and cuddly (except to Harry), all of the Avengers are generally pretty nice, easygoing folks. It's a good idea not to get on their bad side.
Big Good: They're Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and their apparent fall in chapter 74 is enough to (albeit as the culmination of a broad campaign of terror that crippled intelligence agencies and governments worldwide) to bring the world to its knees before HYDRA.
Deadpan Snarker: All of them snark. All of them. Even Steve, sometimes.
The Dreaded: By the start of Ghosts of the Past, their status as a heroic version of this is cemented - absolutely no one wants to take them on in anything even approximating a straight fight.
Good Is Not Soft: All of them fit this trope, albeit to varying extents. Even Steve, the most moral of the team, is still a hardened and experienced soldier who's fought monsters of all kinds for years.
Family of Choice: Have evolved into this, especially since a number of them are orphans and/or from extremely dysfunctional backgrounds. They squabble, they bicker, but they would all die for each other.
The Mentor: All of them teach and mentor Harry in their respective fields of expertise, and McGonagall notes that he's picking up various traits from them.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: They've taken down many tyrants and villains, some supernatural and some Muggle, before the story even began.
- During the Bloody Hell arc of the second book, they are subject to a Deus Exit Machina while allying with Doctor Strange and the White Council in an extended battle against the Red Court.
One-Man Army: Each individual member qualifies as this trope, to one extent or another. Combined, they are... formidable.
Parental Substitute: With the exception of Thor (who's Harry's actual parent), all of the Avengers serve as this trope to him. McGonagall notes in the second book how he's been picking up traits from all of them.
Protectorate: Harry. All of them are very protective of him, and anyone who tries to hurt him is in for a world of pain.
Quirky Household: Between Tony's eccentricities, Thor and Loki's mischievousness, Steve's Fish out of Water tendencies and likelihood to be the butt of pranks from the above, and Clint generally perching on whatever high object is available and egging on the troublemakers du jour, they are very much this. Pepper, Bruce, and Natasha will usually restore order sooner or later.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: This trope to the max. They're all outsiders, to one extent or another, all with many, many issues.
Shipper on Deck: All of them ship Harry and Carol, cheering when they have their First Kiss. Several are part of a betting pool (Thor was one of the winners).
Talented, but Trained/Strong and Skilled: All of them are pretty much the standout best at what they do. Natasha and Bucky are the world's best spies and assassins. Clint's only competitor as a marksman in the Nine Realms is "The real life Legolas" Prince Faradei of Alfheim (the quote meaning that he was the In-Universe inspiration for Legolas), Thor's got fifteen hundred years of combat experience and skills with his Weather Manipulation abilities, plus his skills and time as a wizard. Steve's got the Super-Soldier Serum and a huge amount of experience as a tactician and leader. Tony's probably the greatest engineer in the world and has decades of experience in that field. Bruce has both Super-Strength and Super-Intelligence as the Hulk and himself, respectively. Loki, like Thor, has fifteen hundred years of practice in his field as the God of Magic and was capable of unconsciously changing his appearance to some degree even as a baby to make himself look like an Asgardian.
Villains Act, Heroes React: Mostly, though not invariably. While the Avengers are primarily a reactive outfit, when sufficiently provoked, they tend to go out and cause mayhem of dubious morality against their enemies on the quiet.
- Loki in particular tends to pick off enemies that the Avengers can't reach when he's 'off-duty', so to speak.
- Clint and Natasha are also still spies (and occasionally assassins), even though they're part of the Avengers.
Vitriolic Best Buds: They enjoy winding each other up. Like, a lot.

Steve

Captain Sir Steven Grant Rogers a.k.a. Captain America

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

The living legend who, frankly, kind of lives up to the legend. Unbeknownst to him, and almost everyone else until chapter 75, he's also the patriarch of a small clan via one night with Peggy Carter, a clan that includes Alison Carter a.k.a. the first Agent 13 and former Deputy Director of SHIELD, Brigadier Jack O'Neill, Sharon Carter a.k.a. the latest Agent 13, and Carol Danvers.

A Child Shall Lead Them: Not a child, but was very young (in his early twenties) when he first commanded in battle. He's also the youngest of the Avengers and their undisputed leader.
Awesomeness by Analysis: He's very good at reading opponents, situations and angles, using them to his advantage.
Badass Family: His descendants via Peggy include the first Agent 13, Brigadier Jack O'Neill, Sharon Carter, and Carol Danvers. That is a lot of badass.
Beware the Nice Ones: Steve is, by unanimous consent, quite possibly the nicest, sweetest character in the entire story, with the possible exceptions of Diana, Clark, Cedric Diggory, and the actual Jesus. He is also The Strategist, One-Man Army, and leader of a very Badass Crew, with years of experience on some of the nastiest battlefields in human history. And as the Red Room can attest, he will not take kindly to someone threatening his kids.
Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Downplayed to Carol in Ghosts as her paternal substitute. When Gambit teases her, Steve's eyes narrow, and when he catches her somewhat in flagrante with Harry via Loophole Abuse on the whole 'one layer rule' (they had 'a shirt, a pair of shorts, and two-thirds of the expected underwear'), he lectured her. And got it back, with interest, about "old-fashioned Catholic hypocrisy".
Bully Hunter: A defining characteristic, though unlike some, he knows where to draw the line.
The Cape: In chapter 80, Tony bluntly refers to him as the best person, morally speaking, that he's ever known. He's almost as famous for his kindness and moral goodness as he is for his combat prowess.
Connected All Along: It turns out that he, Peggy, and the Commandos worked with Dumbledore during the War and operated out of Hogwarts for a while. This led to Bucky and Minerva's fling, which eventually resulted in Clint's mother.
Deadpan Snarker: Much less than most of the others, but it's there.
Determinator: He won't stop, not while there's a job to be done. Even the end of the world doesn't slow him down. However, see Fatal Flaw.
Disappeared Dad: His father died when he was very young. Was this himself to Alison Carter, even for a few months after he finds out about her. They finally meet in Ghosts and he apologises for not coming to see her sooner.
Dork Knight: Sweet, kind, heroic, and "about as edgy as cookie dough". Also, as of the end Child of the Storm, an actual knight.
Evil Counterpart: The Red Skull was this, as was the Winter Soldier, the latter being explicitly described as such by Steve's inner monologue. The Soldier scares him more, partly because he can go toe-to-toe with Steve, partly because he offers a terrifying glimpse of what Steve is capable of if he ever stops holding back and becomes more super soldier than man.
- Word of God describes Zemo as the 'Anti-Cap' and 'exactly as terrifying as that implies'. For reference, Zemo killed T'Chaka, the Black Panther, in a straight fight without really being pushed and had his son, T'Challa, the next Black Panther with the same powers, at his mercy and only spared him because he was a Worthy Opponent. It's safe to say that he's lived up to it. Surprisingly, however, they never even encounter each other onscreen.
Fatal Flaw: His stubbornness. He won't give in, ever. This is an excellent trait in a hero, but as Loki remarks, it can make him downright obstinate. It's also a problem when coming to terms with the fact that Carol is his great-granddaughter.
Famed In-Story: Big time, which is why Harry initially associates with him less, because he's in awe of him.
Family Eye Resemblance: Shares his signature cornflower blue eyes with his daughter and great-granddaughters, which is an early clue that they're related.
The Fettered: Is very much this, because he's very aware of what the alternative could look like.
Fish out of Temporal Water: He's mostly got used to the 21st century by the start of the story, but he's not quite so good at coming to terms with other results of his temporal jump, such as the fact that one night with Peggy resulted in a small clan.
Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: The product of the first and (almost) only truly successful Super-Soldier project. Other results include the Red Skull, the Winter Soldier, the Hulk and the Abomination, as well as Weapon X, Project Pegasus, and whatever the hell was in Porton Down (the Real Life British Area 51, which Wisdom references as being where the British attempts at a Super-Soldier were made).
Good Is Not Dumb: Just because he's kind and believes the best of people, doesn't mean he's naive or stupid—after all, this is the man who spent three years on the front lines of the most devastating war Earth has ever seen.
The Good Captain: Goodhearted, noble, and does indeed hold the rank.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has golden-blonde hair and actually rescues kittens from trees.
Healing Factor: A limited but effective one. Steve himself notes that unless he's sparring against an Asgardian, one of Tony's armours, or he's been taking a consistent pasting, bruises are a thing of the past.
The Heart: To the Avengers, being their consistent moral centre, and youngest, gentlest member. Of course, Good Is Not Soft.
Heroic Lineage: A source of this, with Peggy. He's related to Alison Carter, Carol Danvers and her brothers, their mother Marie, Jack O Neill, and Sharon Carter as their father, grandfather, or great-grandfather.
Heroic Sacrifice: Downing the Valkyrie in the Arctic at the end of the War qualifies as this. Naturally, he survived it.
Hope Bringer: One of the few parts of his fame he doesn't entirely mind.
Humble Hero: He's uncomfortable with his fame and can be self-deprecating. To quote the man himself, "I'm just a kid from Brooklyn. Nothing special about me." Cue Tony and Loki visibly rolling their eyes in disbelief in the background.
Hunk: Gets a lot of female attention.
It's Not You, It's Me: When a shocked Steve semi-rejects Carol following The Reveal that she's his great-granddaughter, he gives her a non-romantic version of this; he likes Carol, but she represents both the life he lost, and the fact that he left Peggy in the lurch when he went down (though Tony points out that this is absolutely ridiculous, since even Peggy had no idea she was pregnant at the time). He comes around in time.
King in the Mountain: Described as America's King Arthur figure, coming from apparently nowhere to defend his country In Its Hour of Need during the Battle of New York. Probably not coincidentally, he's a fan of T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone and the rest of The Once and Future King, setting Harry onto them.
Knight In Shining Armour: A genuinely noble, righteous, and kind man, whose gear is the modern equivalent of armour and wields a shield. To underline this, in the finale of Book I, he's depicted fighting alongside several other examples of this trope: the Knights of the Cross and Sir Dane Whitman. In the epilogue, it's noticed that he is technically eligible for British citizenship - owing to his being born to Irish parents prior to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 - and he is therefore knighted for his role in events. Tony finds this hilarious. According to Word of God, he's a member of the Order of the Garter, because of course he is.
The Leader: All the Avengers look to him and take his orders without question. Yes, even Tony. Arguably the classic example, and for good reason.
Living Distant Ancestor: Discovers to his shock that he's this to the Carter-Danvers-O'Neill clan at the end of the first book, and takes a few months to come to terms with it. Since he's physically and mentally in his late 20s, this is not exactly surprising, though he ends up as a Parental Substitute to Carol.
Living Legend: As in The Avengers, he's "the living legend, who kind of lives up to the legend." This does not go unnoticed.
The Lost Lenore: Peggy is his, since, unlike her MCU counterpart, she disappeared in 1962.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: It helps that it's Made of Indestructium.
Magnetic Hero: Like Harry and Thor (both of whom willingly follow him), he draws people to him.
Everyone turned to him. It wasn't a conscious thing. It wasn't even the words. If he'd said 'I think we should have lunch', everyone would have still turned to him, attentive and waiting on what suggestions he would make about the composition of their midday meal.
Messianic Archetype: As per canon, died to save everyone else and came back in their hour of need - technically twice, if you count the finale.
Nerves of Steel: Perpetually as cool as a cucumber. Even being informed that Arnim Zola has taken over Avengers Tower and all the tech inside it doesn't make him blink twice. Finding out that he's a great-grandfather (and a father and grandfather as well), however, does rather shake him.
Nice Guy: He couldn't be Darker and Edgier if he tried. That said, he's not one to cross.
Clint: Steve, last time Nat and I went running with you, you stopped to rescue a little girl's kitten from a tree. You're about as edgy as cookie dough.
- Loki, who can count the number of people he trusts on the fingers of one hand, notes that not trusting Steve is like thinking the sky is green.
- Also patiently endures an enraged Jean Grey screaming in his face loudly enough to set his ears ringing in Ghosts.
One-Man Army: Though it isn't often shown, it takes fellow Super-Soldier and living legend the Winter Soldier to even give him trouble.
Out of Focus: With the possible exception of Bruce, he's the Avenger who's had the least screen time, which is explained as Harry being rather in awe of him, and thus a bit less comfortable around him. This is rectified during the end of Book I and start of Book II, due to The Reveal that he's Carol's great-grandfather.
Parental Substitute: Serves as this to the younger cast, despite the fact that he's barely over twice their age in most cases, owing to his Team Dad nature. In Book II, he becomes this to Carol in particular, given the fact that she's actually his great-granddaughter and has a severe shortage of positive male role models in her life (the sole real example, her Cool Uncle Jack O'Neill, is rarely around due to his job). In chapter 60, Pepper notes that he's been "acting the part" and now he needs to step up after the full extent of what Belova did to Harry is revealed, and Carol, due to her passing resemblance to Belova, is more or less totally unable to help Harry deal.
Parents as People: Depicted as this due to his understandable issues with the idea of being not just a father, but a grandfather and great-grandfather at the physical and mental age of around 29, during the end of Book I and start of Book II. While this isn't too much of a problem in most respects (his daughter and grandchildren are grown adults, as is his oldest great-grandchild), his distant behaviour with Carol, effectively rejecting her, is. Tony, of all people, is the most vocal in calling Steve out on it (thanks to his own issues with a distant male relative - his father). Chapters 2 and 6 of Ghosts of the Past have him acknowledge that he was an idiot and be determined to make up for lost time - thereafter, his relationship with Carol rapidly improves. In chapter 60, he accepts that he's effectively her dad.
Papa Wolf: Keeps his calm, most of the time, but...
- When Harry and Carol are kidnapped by the Red Room, his response is to plot out where they are... then calmly tell General O'Neill - his grandson - to inform the Pentagon and the White House that if this particular lead doesn't pan out, the Avengers are going to get some answers by kicking down the doors of the Kremlin. And going by what the Russian President says a chapter or two later, that is exactly what he and Thor did.
- In Unfinished Business, his response to Carol's revelation that the Arc Villain turned her into a tree is a request for repetition with such cold, controlled fury that everyone up to and including members of the Senior Council is edging away from him.
Precision F-Strike: Steve swears the least out of, probably, the entire cast. So when he drops the F-bomb in chapter 72, it's a mark of just how upset he is.
Pro-Human Transhuman: Definitely, though he doesn't like thinking of himself as transhuman.
Rage Breaking Point: Hits this in CoS chapter 72, when he discovers that Bucky was the Winter Soldier.
Really 700 Years Old: Thanks to being a Capsicle for decades, he's chronologically the oldest human Avenger (albeit only edging Natasha out by a few years), even when he's physically the youngest.
Shield Bash: One of the other uses of his shield.
The Strategist: Almost supernaturally skilled in this department.
The Stoic: Rarely even raises his voice. Rarely ever has to - though when it comes to it, he has an impressive parade ground roar.
Super-Soldier: The original and the best, and he worries about the Soldier part of him taking over.
Super-Speed: He can run at 60 mph at full pelt.
Super-Strength: The first book reveals that his baseline is 3.5 tons and it is suggested that with work, he could become even stronger.
Team Dad: The youngest of the team, but the most sensible and serious. Ironically, he's actually dad, granddad and great-granddad to what would be a respectably sized superhero team.
Throwing Your Shield Always Works: And it does. Always. He eventually trains Carol in the same.
Tranquil Fury: If he's furious, he'll never let it show, no matter what. Almost never. This is why, when his great-granddaughter and Harry are kidnapped by the Red Room, he doesn't even raise his voice when calling a raging Thor to heel and telling O'Neill to pass on a warning to Washington so they'll be braced for the Avengers' response. That response? Steve, backed up by Thor, literally kicking down the doors of the Kremlin and demanding their return, or else.
Transhuman: Is this as a result of the serum. It bothers him considerably, though he starts coming to terms with it in chapter 68 of the first book.
Unstoppable Rage: Finally snaps in chapter 74 of Book I, beating the Winter Soldier into paste.
What the Hell, Hero?: On the receiving end of a speech along these lines from Tony about him running away from his responsibilities to Carol, his great-granddaughter, which comes complete with a remark that Tony can't believe that it's him giving a speech along these lines to Steve instead of the other way around.
The Worf Effect: He gets this from the Winter Soldier, who despite being physically weaker and less mobile because of the snow, almost beats him to death with his own shield in their first fight after ambushing him.
Young and in Charge: Physically the youngest of the team, but his character, leadership skills and extensive experience make him a leader that even gods are happy to follow.

Thor

Thor Odinson a.k.a. James Potter

GRAVEMOSS! I WOULD HAVE WORDS WITH THEE!

Norse God of Thunder and Crown Prince of Asgard, who was once incarnated as James Potter in order to teach him humility, only for his memories of that life to be suppressed in order to prevent him from going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after his and Lily's death at Voldemort's hands. Loki returning those memories to him is what kicks off the plot. An excellent, protective and surprisingly wise father, he loves his son to pieces and is incredibly proud of him... but occasionally wishes that he wasn't quite as much of a trouble magnet as he is. All tropes applying to James Potter apply here.

Action Dad: Most definitely.
Adaptational Badass: His MCU counterpart is quite powerful (and becomes extremely powerful in Avengers: Infinity War), and his 616 counterpart is an absolute beast, but this incarnation seems far more skilled in using his powers — this is someone who's earned the title of War God. Additionally, he's a wizard to boot, meaning that he has a pretty good grasp of magic as well. McGonagall calls him the best Transfiguration expert in half a century.
Badass Boast: As per canon, he's quite good at making these.
Badass Teacher: Analyses Uhtred's and Diana's fighting styles, and gives them, Harry, Carol, and Jean-Paul advice on how to overcome their weaknesses in combat.
Big Brother Instinct: To Loki, when he gets hurt in an incident involving zombies. This usually involves spectacular violence.
Book Dumb: As per canon, he has a fairly basic understanding of Asgardian science-magic and both Heimdall and Thor himself observe that Thor is a practical god, who deals with the physical and the present. That said, his life as James has given a significantly greater understanding of magic, and every now and then, he shows that he really does listen when his brother goes off on one.
Bruiser with a Soft Centre: He's a warrior-god who can go toe to toe with the Hulk and the Juggernaut. He also enjoys snuggling with his brother and son and cuddling up to his girlfriend.
Character Development: Becoming a father/being reminded that he is one results in him growing up a lot faster - he now has a teenage son to care for and set an example for.
Character Focus: In Book 2, he gets the most screentime of the Avengers.
Composite Character: A literal example, since he was incarnated as James Potter.
Cooldown Hug: Pulls one on Harry in chapter 72, and in chapter 15 of Ghosts of the Past.
Cool Uncle: He doted on his baby niece Hela, vowing to teach her to be a Lady of War like Sif.
Dad the Veteran: Naturally.
Deadpan Snarker: Less so than many others of the cast (which isn't saying much), but he has his moments. One example is when a Ministry worker routinely asks for his name. Thor just looks down at Mjolnir.
Deuteragonist: The first book is at least as much about him and the personal and political ripple effects from Thor being James as it is about Harry. He becomes somewhat less prominent following Book I as the focus shifts more to Harry.
Disappeared Dad: His memory was wiped for twelve years, and for good reason.
Dork Knight: Less than he used to be, with Harry Dresden noting that when he wants to be, he is smooth, but there's still a sizeable amount of this going on.
Fiction 500: When he regained control of the Potter vaults, it was revealed that they were worth about £1.5 billion. This figure isn't particularly ridiculous by the standards of the trope. What is, however, is the fact that he doesn't really do anything with it, because he doesn't need to. Kind of justified, though - he's heir to the throne of Asgard, which is a very, very powerful empire and empires tend to accrue lots of money (if they don't end up costing it, instead).
Flying Brick: Very definitely. He's one of the most physically powerful characters, and casually flies at multi-mach speeds.
Fun Personified: Unless you piss him off, he's really very friendly.
Friend to All Children: Big, bluff and friendly, as well as gentle and insightful, it's unsurprising that kids love him, particularly his son.
The Gadfly: He has his moments, such as making the microwave explode just to annoy Tony. And, well, his brother is Loki, who's pretty much the God of this trope, not to mention that he himself used to be the leader of the Marauders.
Genius Bruiser: He may be fairly Book Dumb, but as he himself points out, he's been around for a very long time. He's picked a few things up. Also, his brother is Loki.
- He's also developed some refined uses of his powers, such as Razor Wind.
- In chapter 35 of the sequel, he analyses Uhtred and Diana's combat styles, notes the reasons they fight the way that they do, and gives them advice on how to overcome their deficiencies.
Good Parents: Quite clearly loves his son to bits and is noted in and out of universe to be doing a good job raising him.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He's basically a golden retriever in godly form.
Has a Type: Smart, pretty women who take no bullshit, judging by Jane, Lily and Sif. He also seems to have a bit of an Amazon Chaser thing going on, given that Lily was an expert fighter, Jane is certainly no pushover even though she's not much of a combatant, and Sif is, well, the Goddess of War.
Hidden Depths: He is considerably smarter than he appears to be, coming out with Magi Babble when people least expect it.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Jane is a little bitty person compared to him. There was also this, albeit to a lesser degree, with him and Lily.
Large Ham: Occasionally.
Let's Get Dangerous!: In chapter 71, he loses patience with HYDRA's diversionary tactics and responds by vaporising the distraction de jour, an undead kraken said to dwarf a Chitauri Leviathan in one shot.
Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: Invokes this on Harry about Luna, in the 'she wouldn't want this' way when a grieving, furious and utterly traumatised Harry attempts to use his telepathy to torment the Ravenclaws he blames for Luna's death. A Cooldown Hug follows.
Nice Guy: One of the nicest, after Steve.
Obfuscating Stupidity: He's much sharper than he lets on and he's not shy of playing up his Fish out of Water tendencies to mess with people.
Older and Wiser: He doesn't often show it, since he's still relatively young by Asgardian standards, but he's fifteen hundred years old and he's a learned a lot of good sense in that time.
Papa Wolf: As Gravemoss and the Red Room have both found out the hard way.
- He was also an Uncle Wolf to Hela (who, like her comics and myths self, is Loki's daughter), back in the day.
- He didn't know his first daughter Torunn existed for quite some time, and when he realized that she was his daughter, even though he'd never met her before he instantly started "following the stories" across Midgard to find her.
Parent with New Paramour: Is this to Harry, with Jane as the new paramour. After a somewhat awkward beginning, Harry and Jane get on very well.
Physical God: Naturally.
Prince Charming: Noble, kind and, yes, charming. Still a dork, though.
Razor Wind: One of the more exotic applications of his powers.
Related in the Adaptation: Due to the premise, he's Harry's father.
Royal Blood: Duh. With the expected Royalty Superpower.
Shipper on Deck: For Harry and Carol, mostly (but not entirely) just to tease the former.
Shock and Awe: He is the God of Thunder and Lightning, which are part of him in the same way that magic is part of Loki.
Sibling Team: In Book 1, he usually pairs up with Loki in battle, though from the Final Battle of Book I and increasingly in Book II, he starts teaming up with Harry.
So Proud of You: Tells Harry this - kind of unsurprising since a) he really is, b) he used to be James Potter, who provides the page quote.
Strong and Skilled: He can go bare fisted with the Hulk or the Juggernaut, he's got global scale Weather Manipulation powers, and he's also skilled and experienced enough that he can analyse someone's combat style at a glance.
Superhero Gods: He's the God of Thunder and Lightning (Not Reason and Understanding).
Super-Reflexes: He's not quite as quick as Loki in this regard, but he's close.
Super-Speed: He's not exactly the Flash, but as Steve notes, he is very, very fast.
Super-Strength: In this regard, he's only challenged by the Hulk and the Juggernaut (and in Ghosts, beat the latter up with his bare hands when he finally lost his temper) and if he goes nuts, there is a genuine risk that he'll destroy whatever planet he's on, with only Odin and the Hulk having so far been able to restrain him.
Super-Toughness: He can take massive amounts of punishment, when he has to.
Swiss-Army Weapon: Mjolnir can be used not merely as a weapon that can be summoned back to his hand and channel his weather manipulation abilities, but absorb energy, block attacks, open portals to other dimensions (though it seems they need to be relatively 'close' - Asgard's out of reach), to imprison opponents, and as a doorstop.
Team Dad: Plays this role on a semi-frequent basis, being the oldest and, in his own way, among the wisest of the Avengers, having a patient practicality that his brother doesn't, and experience that Steve has yet to gain. It helps that he's actually a dad.
Trademark Favourite Food: Pop-tarts.
Tranquil Fury: Chapter 13 has him on the edge of this, when he warns Skurge and Amora that Sirius is under his protection, and that trying to harm his friend or insult either his dead wife or Jane will have consequences.
- In chapter 58, when he calmly and politely explains to Hera that he can see through her bullshit and if she continues obliquely threatening his son, he will incinerate her on the spot, consequences be damned.
Unstoppable Rage: Like his canon counterpart, if he's pushed far enough, he'll go into a rage that would impress the Hulk - and in Ghosts of the Past, actually requires the Hulk to restrain him. As he reminds Tony, he's the God of Thunder and Lightning, not Reason and Understanding.
- The House of Odin also has a hereditary version of this known as the Warrior's Madness, which can enhance Thor's strength even further when he gets really pissed (for reference, the two times he went into it in the story were after he and Lily were murdered by Voldemort and he was sent back to Asgard after watching his wife die and Voldemort try to murder Harry and being unable to stop either event, and after Harry was kidnapped by the Red Room and they released the Juggernaut). However, it's also noted that he is Blinded by Rage when this happens, and the first time, it took Odin to restrain him. The second time, it took the Hulk.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Can shift between his normal Asgardian form, the appearance of James Potter, and a magnificent stag at will.
War God: He's a master combatant with a variety of weapons (or none at all) with 1,500 years worth of experience backing up an incredible array of powers. Book II shows that he's able to analyze and explain the strengths and weaknesses of someone's fighting style with a brief glance, and when pressed.
Warrior Therapist: Gets into this occasionally as part of his Team Dad shtick—in addition to helping Harry through his many issues, he also helps Steve get over his rage at learning that Bucky was brainwashed into becoming the Winter Soldier, and is implied to have played a not inconsiderable part in bringing Loki back from the darkness.
Weather Manipulation: On a colossal, even global, scale.
Wise Prince: It took some time (and a few harsh lessons) for him to get there, but he's got a patient practicality and understanding that helps him serve as the Avenger's Team Dad.
Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Formerly, it's noted that he was this trope, with Amora being shocked when he threatens her. As James, he was more of a Combat Pragmatist out of necessity (fighting alongside Lily and seeing how vicious she could be probably helped as well).

Loki

Loki Odinson

Just because you stop walking in the shadows doesn't mean that you forget how.

Thor's adopted brother, who joined the Avengers as an act of atonement for his madness (and Thanos) induced invasion of Earth. Is also effectively Asgard's one man intelligence network, while also teaching Harry, Hermione, and the Weasley twins magic on the side. While he is mostly reformed, it becomes clear over time that his inner monster is still very much present, under control, and there to be unleashed on special occasions.

The Arch Mage: He is the actual God of Magic. Well, the Asgardian one, anyway, and he lives up to the billing when he gets the chance.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: He's Harry's adoptive uncle.
Adaptational Heroism: His Marvel Cinematic Universe counterpart is prone to the Heel–Face Revolving Door, flip-flopping between being a crazed if sympathetic villain (in Thor), an Unscrupulous Hero (in Ragnarok), and everything in between. His comics counterpart is even worse. Here, Loki is a firmly heroic, loving, and caring person after coming to his senses and is on good terms with the heroes for the most part, but is willing to go to extreme lengths to protect those he holds dear, making him more of a Pragmatic Hero.
The Atoner: He bitterly regrets what he did as a supervillain.
Anti Heroes Do The Dirty Work: He believes this, like Clint and Natasha, and is willing to Shoot the Dog where necessary, handling the Avengers' Dirty Business.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Often described as the best-dressed of the Avengers, and certainly the one most comfortable in nice clothes. Fandral half-jokingly suggests that he should have been a tailor.
Badass Teacher: Is a badass when he needs to be, and is also a magic teacher to Harry, Hermione, and the Twins - though a somewhat absent one as other responsibilities take up much of his time.
Cheshire Cat Grin: Apparently, he was the originator of the famous smile. This comes as a surprise to exactly no one.
Chessmaster Sidekick: During his reformation, he became this to Thor at Odin's urging. While Thor is Crown Prince and the visible future leader of Asgard, Loki is the one who gathers information, manipulates friends and foes alike, and plots political strategy. The main difference is that he is now given recognition for his role.
Combat Pragmatist: He notes that when most people think of magical duels, they expect a Shape Shifter Show Down or else Shock and Awe, and perhaps turning an opponent into stone at the end. Many feel that just turning an opponent into stone at the beginning of the fight, shrinking them down, and putting them in his pocket, has no mystique. Loki, to put it politely, really does not care. At all.
Cultured Badass: A civilized, well-read man — well, Asgardian (technically Jotun) — who enjoys nice clothes, Snark-to-Snark Combat, and a cup of tea. He also intimidates even other heroes.
Dark and Troubled Past: Doesn't exactly remember what happened when he encountered Thanos, but while he wasn't tortured into insanity like many a fic has him, or even influenced as canon has it, it most certainly was not pleasant.
- And then there was the Hela incident...
Deadpan Snarker: Notably so, even among the compulsively snarky Avengers.
Dirty Business: Handles this, with Natasha, on behalf of the Avengers.
Draco in Leather Pants: In-Universe, Tony notes that Loki "has thirty six fansites, seven of which are solely dedicated to working out what he'd look like in tight leather pants".
The Dreaded: He has a reputation, one that's very well earned.
- To put this in perspective, he at one point terrifies Sabretooth into being helpful. No one's entirely sure how, but he whispered something in Sabretooth's ear and, apparently, showed him an illusion or two after correctly guessing his breaking point. Since Sabretooth had been relatively unfazed by being blinded and Loki's almost absent-minded threats to remove his nerves from his body, string a harp with them, and then play a symphony to the accompaniment of Sabretooth's screams, this leads one to wonder just what Loki said to him...
Eidetic Memory: Specifically mentioned. He uses it for magic and for memorizing political treatises and religious books for the specific purpose of tearing them to shreds.
Emerald Power: He favours green, his magic tends to be green tinged, and he is immensely powerful.
Exalted Torturer: As part of handling the Avengers' Dirty Business - he's both willing to do it, and a very skilled Torture Technician, even if he doesn't necessarily like it very much. The other, more conventionally heroic characters are uneasy about it at best. For reference, Fury at one point describes the idea of handing a captured enemy over to Loki as being worse than "violating the Geneva Convention in every conceivable way".
The Gadfly: On a semi-regular basis. He's mentioned as enjoying provoking ideologues and fanatics of all stripes and then verbally tearing them apart. The Avengers apparently tolerated this on the grounds that it kept him occupied, it was relatively harmless, and Tony does it too. Clint and Darcy used to set him on such persons, particularly the pretentious, until being banned from doing so on the grounds that it was like dropping a nuclear bomb on a fly. He is basically the God of it.
Genius Bruiser: He's incredibly clever, cunning, and insightful, and can go toe-to-toe with Thor in a fight, even without powers.
Gentleman Snarker: He lives and breathes this trope, with notably refined manners and a particularly deadpan sense of humour.
Gibbering Genius: When he gets excited and starts thinking aloud. Thor frequently has to cut him off to get an actual answer.
Guile Hero: Frequently, since he usually provides the more squirrelly aspects of plans involving Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three, and mixing up the dynamic with Natasha with the Avengers.
Karma Houdini: Believes this of himself, noting that despite how recently he tried to take over the planet, killing hundreds, even thousands, he's practically worshipped now that he's a superhero. Ultimately not true, however, considering how much he regrets what he did and the fact that his forgiveness isn't absolute (Clint still has a couple of issues, and other people have many more).
The Lancer: Serves as this to Thor. He no longer lives in Thor's shadow - he is Thor's shadow.
Manipulative Bastard: He is excellent at this, though as he observes, Odin is much better at it when he wants to be.
Motor Mouth: Frequently turns into the Gibbering Genius variant when he's thinking aloud, to the occasional chagrin of Thor and the fond amusement of Sif.
Mr. Exposition: Often serves in this role in matters regarding magic and/or inhabitants of the Nine Realms; given that he's one of Harry's teachers, Cool Uncle, and Asgard's one-man secret service, this is unsurprising.
My Greatest Failure: There's a reason he doesn't talk about Hela... Suffice to say, it involved some well-intended necromancy that went horribly, horribly wrong.
Necromancy: He used it once. Just once. Since that incident involved Hela, you can see why he doesn't talk about it.
Noodle Incident: For some unknown reason, he spent some time around Britain in the mid 20th century, resulting in an occasionally alluded to friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien that led to him taking Tolkien on a tour of the Nine Realms and, hilariously, a relationship with Elizabeth II (who apparently gave him quite the ear-bashing for his "puny mortals" phase).
Oracular Head: Is reduced to this when Gravemoss's interference with his teleportation scatters his body across dimensions in chapter 74. Is restored by a ritual organised by Doctor Strange and performed by his apprentices Hermione and the Weasley Twins in chapter 75.
Out of Focus: In the second book, his Character Focus is greatly diminished, presumably to avoid being the Spotlight-Stealing Squad he was in Book 1. This is later explained as due to him being busy hunting down and killing Surtur's servants.
Papa Wolf: To his nephew, Harry, and previously to his daughter, Hela. He carved a kingdom out for the latter, and as for the former... him being in danger tends to lead to Loki bringing out his inner monster.
Parental Abandonment: Hela feels that he abandoned her in Helheim (previously known as Niflheim), whereas, quixotically, he arranged to carve her out a kingdom as the Goddess of Death precisely because he refused to abandon her.
Pop-Cultured Badass: A fan of everything from John le Carré, to A Song of Ice and Fire, to Die Hard. Also heavily implied to have inspired both J. R. R. Tolkien and Lewis Carroll, having taken the former on a tour of the Nine Realms, with the sequel making clear that Tolkien's Legendarium was fiction, but based on reality.
Precision F-Strike: When he realises that Harry's been possessed by the Phoenix. The fact that he rarely ever curses is noted as a cause for alarm in the situation.
Reformed, but Not Tamed: He's a hero, a kind and indulgent uncle and a patient teacher. He is, however, perfectly willing to kill in cold blood, torture to extract information and do any number of morally dodgy things to protect Thor, Harry and the Nine Realms as a whole. As Alison Carter observes in the folder quote, he hasn't forgotten how to be the monster.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Spearheads one against the Red Room, working his way through their ranks.
Royal Blood: Gets a double dose, as he is the son of Laufey and the adopted son of Odin and Frigga.
Ship Tease: With Sif. They finally get together at the end of Child of the Storm.
Shutting Up Now: After he pushed Bruce a little too far when he first joined the Avengers, Bruce got him to stop talking by saying "Puny God."
The Social Expert: Under controlled, formal/semi-formal circumstances, as a debonair Gentleman Snarker. However, he's not actually that much of an extrovert, unlike his brother, making him uncomfortable under uncontrolled circumstances.
Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Up to about chapter 45 of the first book, he tended to do this, something that the author occasionally lampshaded. Afterwards, he fades a bit more into the background, being on vague fact finding missions most of the time.
The Spymaster: He basically runs the Asgardian secret service, and knows far more about SHIELD than Fury is comfortable with.
Stealthy Teleportation: As he says in Chapter 5:
"Among other things, my teleportation is silent. Apparition makes a popping crack every time it is performed,"
Super-Intelligence: He's one of the smartest people in the Nine Realms, being to magic what the likes of Tony, Bruce, and Jane are to technology.
Terror Hero: He's a perfectly charming, if snarky, version of The Cape to the general public, but he has a serious reputation in the intelligence and supernatural communities, falling into Types 2, 4 and 5, and is perfectly willing to play on it.
- He successfully terrifies Sabretooth into being helpful with a few whispered words and, apparently, an illusion or two.
Torture Technician: When information is required, he gets it. How? You really don't want to know. Suffice to say, he cracks Sabretooth like an egg.
Tranquil Fury: He warns Sabretooth that just because he's less outwardly angry than his brother and the other Avengers, doesn't mean he's any less furious. Later on, he very calmly mentions that he's planning to "have words" with Belova, Lukin, and Essex, with it vaguely being noted that he's 'amusing himself' with the latter. He doesn't do anything to the former two, in the end, but that's only because someone else (Morpheus a.k.a. Dream of the Endless, brother of the Phoenix/Destruction a.k.a. Lily Potter and famed for his habit of Disproportionate Retribution) got there first, doing enough that he couldn't actually think of any way to make things worse.
The Trickster: As the Indian Prime Minister notes, a common reaction to shaking hands with Loki after concluding a deal is to check your hand to make sure your fingers are all there.
Unscrupulous Hero: He can be this, when required to be. As Alison Carter notes, providing the folder quote, just because you've stopped walking in the shadows doesn't mean that you forget how.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With the Warriors Three, his brother, and Sif, combined with significant elements of Ship Tease in the latter's case.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: And it's extremely powerful, when he actually uses it. He naturally keeps an Asgardian form, transforms into a female version of himself in chapter 32, then in chapter 71, becomes a gigantic serpent with jaws large enough to engulf an apartment building.
- Odin recounts how Loki was able to perform a basic amount of shapeshifting even as an infant.

Bruce

Bruce Banner a.k.a. The Hulk

HULK SMASH!

A scientist with breath taking anger management issues, though he's come to terms with his other half. Who, incidentally, has a soft spot for Harry. Ends up Out of Focus towards the end of Book I and in the sequel, but still a present part of the cast.

Abusive Parents: His father is stated to have been very abusive. In retrospect, this may explain his Friend to All Children nature.
Beware the Nice Ones: As an A/N puts it, he's small, sweet and cuddly until suddenly, he's not.
Birds of a Feather: Part of why he gets on so well with Remus - both have inner monsters that they have tenuous relationships with and limited control over (though the Hulk is much more civilised than Remus' wolf, and Bruce isn't forced to transform on a monthly basis).
Classical Anti-Hero: Pretty much the typical example. He's fairly quiet and withdrawn, dislikes fighting (the Hulk has different opinions), he's not particularly charismatic, though he is likeable and charming in a quiet sort of way.
Deus Exit Machina: Is fairly often left out of combat scenes, as the Hulk can sometimes be a mixed blessing in an unstable environment.
Full-Frontal Assault: When he Hulks out in chapter 76 of the first book, thanks to a lack of stretchy trousers. Many penis jokes ensue.
Friend to All Children: The Hulk, as per canon. Bruce seems to be fairly good with them, too.
Gag Penis: During his Full-Frontal Assault as the Hulk in Chapter 76, as commented on by Carol. Later, during Chapter 78, Tony makes jokes about the Hulk having competition after 30 St. Mary Axe (usually referred to as the Gherkin) transforms into an actual giant gherkin.
Carol: Wow. Okay, that's just excessive.
Hulking Out: It's what he does. Though usually, these days, it's under his control - he's always angry, you see.
The Medic: He's the closest thing the Avengers have to an actual doctor of medicine, and as such serves as this, as well as providing insight on Harry's stunted psychological growth.
Metronomic Man Mashing: Just like in the movie, he does this during the Final Battle, except this time to CHTHON.
Loki: It is so satisfying to see that happen to someone else.
Nice Guy: Bruce is very kind and very sweet, as is the Hulk, in his own gruff sort of way.
The Nick Namer: In Hulk form, referring to Harry as 'Little God'.
Only Sane Man: He's one of the few reliably sane characters, and frequently reins in Tony's lunacy.
Out of Focus: Of all the Avengers, he gets the least attention, though he gets moments of focus.
Professor Guinea Pig: Tested the Hulk formula on himself because, it is implied, of the horrors of Camp Cathcart.
The Quiet One: He's usually fairly quiet and reserved, especially in contrast to Tony. Unless, of course, you make him angry. This is generally considered to be a Bad Idea.
The Smart Guy: Jointly with Tony and Loki for the Avengers, and while he rarely gets to show off his chops, in Forever Red he incisively analyses Sinister's plans, pointing out logical and chronological inconsistencies in their previous assumptions and correctly figures out that Sinister must have had some foreknowledge of the Grey X-Gene.
Super-Intelligence: Outside of Hulk form, he is absolutely brilliant, and like Tony, is hinted to have been a part of the New Bifrost project.
Super-Strength: He's the strongest one there is, after all, and aside from Odin (who had the Odinforce to work with), the Hulk is the only person capable of restraining Thor when he's in Warrior's Madness mode.
Unskilled, but Strong: The Hulk may not have any known martial arts training, but he's a runner for being the physically strongest character in the story (the only rivals he has are the Trope Codifier for The Juggernaut and literal gods), it took a direct attack from Chthon to actually hurt him, and he's got the rest of the Avengers as backup, so he rarely needs it.
You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Appropriately, quotes this trope in chapter 60.

Tony

Anthony Edward 'Tony' Stark

In the end, all you can do, when you’re handed a second chance like that… is to do right. In every part of your life, you have to do the best to live up to what the person who put themselves on the line for you believed you could be. Be the best person you can be.

As he puts it, a genius, billionaire, (former) playboy, philanthropist. However, there is considerably more to him than that. He's the money behind the team, the one who provides them with a home base, and quietly makes accommodations to each's comfort in the process, while snarking at a million miles an hour. The Avengers have been a good influence on him (though it has been argued that he's been a bad influence on them), as, of course, has Pepper. As a result, he is - mostly - a more mature and stable individual, who winds up taking Harry under his wing somewhat (and, according to Bucky, infected him with his sense of humour).

Ace Pilot: Thor, who would know, notes that he is an excellent and experienced pilot of his armours.
Action Dad: In waiting from chapter 68 of Child of the Storm, and properly from chapter 2 of Ghosts of the Past.
The Alcoholic: Is usually the one mentioned as having a drink in his hand and once mournfully complains that he doesn't have the power of Alcokinesis (Alcohol Generation). He's implied to have cut back significantly after baby Ada was born.
Always Second Best: There are hints that, as per canon, he feels that he can't live up to his father's genius or Steve's nobility.
Anti-Hero: A lot of the flaws have been smoothed out (or at least, buried), but they're still there. Periodically acknowledged by most of the cast.
Badass Bookworm: See the 'genius' part. He's also acknowledged by Thor as an exceptionally skilled pilot of his armour, a very dangerous combatant in it, and a brilliant man with Nerves of Steel out of it, facing down the Winter Soldier unarmed (a hairbrush doesn't count) even though he was terrified out of his mind.
Beware the Silly Ones: He's very silly and very eccentric...and, if you hurt an innocent, or worse, someone he loves, he will dedicate every bit of his considerable wealth, intelligence, and resources to destroying you.
Big Red Button: Wants to press one. And does so in chapter 74 to set off the arc reactor and prevent HYDRA getting hold of his tech.
Birds of a Feather: He and Sirius Black are noted to be much alike, with Tony taking Sirius under his wing.
Brought Down to Badass: In Unfinished Business, the Arc Villain transmutes his god-killer 'Prometheus' suit into salt. Given that he'd been given a Green Lantern Ring and cut loose with the full power of his imagination instead, this arguably made him even more dangerous.
Bully Hunter: He really doesn't like bullies.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Dear Lord, yes. Often completely bonkers, a Pop-Cultured Badass and Deadpan Snarker supreme, but he's also a Badass Bookworm who will stop at nothing to protect his loved ones.
Character Development: The other Avengers have been a good influence on him. Of course, he's not always been the best influence on them...
- He also becomes (somewhat) more mature after Ada is born. Not to say that his... eccentric ...moments (such as running around half-naked and over-caffeinated) are totally behind him, but he genuinely tries to dial them back now that he has a baby to look after.
Cyborg: With the arc reactor. After Chapter 61, he considers taking it further, and chapter 77 references Bleeding Edge, though Natasha warns that that could leave him open to being hacked.
The Cynic: Is this trope in general, but really shows it in chapter 9 of Ghosts of the Past, when he points out that Strange could have allowed Sinister to take Maddie so as to ensure that she learns her psychic tricks from the dark side, things that Xavier either doesn't know or if he does, would never teach Jean or Harry, then waved Harry under the noses of Sinister and the Red Room, relying on Harry's unique talent for getting under people's skin and his knowledge of Jean to turn Maddie, likely resulting in the levelling of the Red Room, the death of Sinister, and Maddie joining the good guys. End result, a potentially serious threat is headed off before it can grow, a bad guy who knows far too much about Harry is killed off, and the good guys get a new soldier and tutor for Harry and Jean. It's a disturbingly plausible analysis, as Loki notes, even though it turns out to be incorrect.
Deadpan Snarker: The biggest out of all the cast, with the possible exception of Harry Dresden. When the two meet, the Snark-to-Snark Combat is epic, and Asgardians start taking bets on who'll get the last word.
Dungeon Bypass: In chapter 74. An unusual example, since it's his own Tower, taken over by Zola.
Everything Is an iPod in the Future: Project Prometheus has this look, causing Harry Dresden to snark that he's 'cosplaying as an iPod'.
Flanderization: Slightly. Is, occasionally, rather more overtly crazy than in canon (especially in Book One), all for Rule of Funny.
The Gadfly: Enjoys pissing people off.
- After Loki was informed of Sif's actual death experience on the Moon by Thor, a lot of craters were left behind, causing mass confusion. Tony told the Avengers not to tell the press so as not to 'ruin his fun'. Both Thor and Harry decide that they don't want to know.
Gadgeteer Genius: Quite easily one of the smartest men alive and capable of cobbling together, oh, say... a prototype battle suit IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!
Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Announces in chapter 77 that he intends to have this with Pepper, who is more than amenable.
Godzilla Threshold: Built an armour specifically for this eventuality. It's called Project Prometheus, it's primarily armoured in adamantium and has enough Destroyer based weaponry that Peter Wisdom remarks that its considerable conventional armaments are just 'punctuation'. Appropriately, it is remarked to be 'a planetary scale emergency all by itself.' According to JARVIS, this was the point and even incomplete, it's absolutely lethal.
- He's also got a Big Red Button in the heart of the Tower which sets the reactor to overload as a last resort.
Good Parents: A letter from future!Harry indirectly states that Tony is going to be a great father.
Half-Human Hybrid: Downplayed since both his parents were human, but his mother's real name was Tessa, as in, Sage of the X-Men. All evidence indicates that Howard knew, though what effect it will have, if any, is unknown.
Heroic Sacrifice: Pulls one in chapter 74, overloading the arc reactor powering Avengers Tower to flush out Zola and deny HYDRA access to his technology. He survives, just about.
Hidden Depths: Those who don't know him see him as a Cloudcuckoolander and Mad Scientist who enjoys messing with people. This isn't untrue, but he's also one of the smartest people on the planet, and rather more perceptive than might be obvious. It's also shown on multiple occasions that he can be tactful and mature when he actually puts the effort in.
- He's also the driving force behind getting Steve to step up and be a better great-grandfather and Parental Substitute to Carol, giving him a pretty forceful What the Hell, Hero? speech to that effect, and encouraging his baby steps. It's implied that Tony's own life with a distant father contributed to this.
I Need a Freaking Drink: Occasionally.
Lady Killer In Love: Quite obviously head over heels in love with Pepper to the point where Thor notes that Tony drunkenly confessed to him that, on his bad days, Pepper was the only thing that made his life worth living. In chapter 60, he considers having kids with her. This is good timing, since she's already pregnant.
Manchild: He's done a lot of growing up, but his sense of humour still tends somewhat towards the puerile.
Magneto: And he's supposed to be one of the greatest minds of our time. God help us all.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: It's implied that he played a considerable part in the engineering of the New Bifrost.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When warning the other Avengers about Harry's upcoming PTSD episode, he's incredibly serious and focused.
Papa Wolf: Towards the younger cast members (particularly Harry), facing down the Winter Soldier armed with nothing more than a hairbrush to protect them, and then towards his own daughter in the sequel.
Pop-Cultured Badass: He can barely go ten minutes without throwing in a pop culture reference (and if he manages to do so for that long, things are very serious).
Powered Armour: He builds it. After Chapter 60 of CoS, starts looking for ways to incorporate it into his body.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Since the events of Iron Man 3 haven't taken place, elements of this are still present, despite the fact that Loki - as part of his redemption - let Tony beat the crap out of him in various armours.
- Particularly after Chapter 60 of the first book, in which he faced down the Winter Soldier armed only with a hairbrush. While he got out of the incident without a scratch, he was still scared stiff.
- Becomes a plot point in Ghosts following the Mirror Image arc, where Strange encourages Tony to use his experiences to help Harry through his own PTSD.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Isn't perpetually effing and blinding, but swears/is inappropriate more than the rest of the cast.
Snark-to-Snark Combat: With Harry Dresden, when they finally meet, to their mutual delight and everyone else's horror - it gets the point where Asgardians are laying bets on who'll win.
Super-Intelligence: He built his suit in a cave! With a box of scraps!
Take Care of the Kids: Asks Natasha to take care of the pregnant Pepper, because she's the most devious person he knows and, crucially, knows how the Winter Soldier thinks, so is best suited to protect Pepper from HYDRA. For the same reason, he agrees to Pepper nominating her as their daughter's godmother.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Seems on course to become this with Harry Dresden, and is already this with Loki.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: His parents were Xavier's spies in the Hellfire Club, not to mention that Howard was also managing a highly successful business and Took a Level in Jerkass after losing both Steve and Peggy. This has left him with more than a few issues.
What the Hell, Hero?: During the Final Battle of Book 1, calls out (and punches) Strange for his plan involving Jean-Paul, because he knew it ran the risk of killing the teen. Strange's self-hatred being what it is, it's heavily implied that Strange let him. He later tries to do so again in the sequel, but Strange isn't in the mood to be his punching bag.
- Also towards Steve for his initial stand-offish attitude to Carol after the reveal that she's his great-granddaughter, with it being noted in Ghosts that he was the first and most insistent of the Avengers when it came to bending Steve's ear on the subject. This, and a near-death experience on Carol's part, helps get through Steve's thick skull.

Natasha

Natasha Romanova a.k.a. Black Widow I

I remember. Director Fury remembers. Agent Sitwell remembers, if the twitch he gets whenever he sees a bungee cord is any indication.

A SHIELD Agent with the mother of all dark and troubled pasts. Biologically immortal and as beautiful as she is deadly, she is one of the most dangerous products of the Red Room, alongside the Winter Soldier. Though she's now turned her talents to heroism, her past is showing signs of coming back to haunt her...

The Ace: She's the best there is at what she does, and what she does isn't very nice. In terms of stealth and espionage, only the Winter Soldier is her match.
The Ageless: Thanks to a Russian variant on the Infinity Formula.
Agents Dating: With the Winter Soldier/Bucky. The relationship is described as being complicated enough that it would need a whole series of psychology books to adequately describe. Also alluded to with Clint, though following the reappearance of the former, they seem to have mutually agreed to drop it.
All Amazons Want Hercules: There are hints of this in her relationship with Bucky, her mentor and the Winter Soldier, as well as the alluded connection to Clint.
Badass Boast: She gives a good one to Snape when he casts doubt on her knowledge of the Winter Soldier.
I know what he did because I was there when he did most of it. I was trained from the age of five to be an assassin. A killing machine. I learned my lessons in the Red Room and I relearnt them on the battlefield of Stalingrad at the age of 15. I have watched empires rise and fall and played my part in both raising them up and bringing them down. And usually, that part was by the side of the Winter Soldier. He was my partner for thirty-five years. Almost everything he did, I had a hand in. Approximately ten percent of his attributed kills were actually mine.
Been There, Shaped History: Mentions it as part of her Badass Boast, and later again during a "The Reason You Suck" Speech aimed at Yelena Belova.
Broken Ace: She alludes to this, stating that the Red Room broke people so thoroughly that no one else would be able to do so. No one. This, married to her many skills, makes her this trope.
Brutal Honesty: Rarely bothers with pulling her punches, verbally speaking.
Child Soldier: She was a product of the Black Widow program and mentions fighting at Stalingrad at the age of 15.
Consummate Liar: A master of this particular art, and one she's taught to Harry.
Dark and Troubled Past: Very, very much so, one only emphasised by the look we get at the Red Room in Ghosts of the Past.
Deadpan Snarker: Quite sly, but it's there.
Evil Counterpart: Has one in the form of Yelena Belova, who tries very hard to surpass Natasha. She fails miserably.
The Gadfly: From time to time, as chapter 1 of Ghosts of the Past shows.
Good Is Not Nice: Very definitely, though this is not to say that she can't be/isn't nice when the mood takes her.
Heel–Face Turn: Pulled one many years before the story started, though her dark past is brought up from time to time, including the facts that she was the Winter Soldier's partner for decades, fought Alison Carter several times back in 'the bad old days', and was part of the iteration of the Red Room that kidnapped an 8 year old Alison Carter.
Hidden Depths: When he gets sick, Harry falls asleep against her, and she cuddles and stays the night with him. See Parental Substitute below.
Living Weapon: She was raised to be this, as were all Black Widows.
Love Father, Love Son: Implied with Clint, as he's the grandson of Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, with whom she has a Past - though she didn't know of their relationship, the two are very much alike, so it could be a case of Has a Type, which they both fit into.
Mama Bear: Downplayed, but she tells Ivan in no uncertain terms that if the Red Room wants Harry, they will have to go through her. While she doesn't quite succeed in this, she twice kicks the crap out of one of the Red Room's leading agents, Yelena Belova, the second time much more comprehensively than the first, being in a state of Tranquil Fury after Belova gleefully molested Red Son!Harry right in front of Natasha.
Manipulative Bitch: Is terrifyingly good at this when she wants to be, being one of the very best spies ever to live, and it's a trait that Harry picks up from her.
The Mentor: To Harry, along with the other Avengers, as he notes in Ghosts - he's picked up certain skills from her, including martial arts and a knack for instinctive straight-faced lying.
Morality Pet: Arguably, Harry. She's not strictly evil, but she's not always the world's nicest person, and she's much gentler and warmer around him.
More Deadly Than the Male: The only Avengers who might match her capacity for ruthlessness are Loki and, following Book 1, Bucky. The only non-villainous character who definitely exceeds it is Doctor Strange, who's probably in a class all of his own.
Mother Russia Makes You Strong: A very dark variant. It made her tough, all right...
Old Flame: Bucky. Their relationship is ludicrously complicated and described in-universe as possibly requiring several psychology textbooks to fully quantify.
Only Sane Woman: Periodically, being the least quirky and most sensible of the Avengers.
Parental Substitute: Of a kind to Harry early in Child of the Storm, which leads to some considerable signal confusion because Natasha is Natasha and he's a heterosexual teenage boy. This aspect is largely dropped following Wanda's addition to the cast, but it gets an important Call-Back in Ghosts of the Past during Forever Red, when Yelena Belova mockingly speculates that Natasha was using it as a route into Thor's bed, or practising a gender-inverted case of Wife Husbandry.
- Has one of her own in Ivan Petrovitch.
Pragmatic Hero: Very much so.
The Quiet One: Speaks the least of the Avengers, and is generally more measured in what she says.
Really 700 Years Old: She is actually about 80 years old.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives an absolutely savage one to Yelena Belova, tearing apart her delusions.
Natasha: You have no concept of what the Soviet Union was really about. You would have been a child when it ended, and you saw the last years, the years of perestroika, of glasnost. You did not see the famines and purges of the 30’s, the horror of the Great Patriotic War, and the many dark days between then and the end of the Soviet Union. I saw them. I fought in the War, against the Nazis. I fought against Germans, Japanese, Italians, Americans, Britons, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Chinese, South Vietnamese, South Koreans, Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Greeks, Turks, even Russians and Ukrainians, and so many more. I fought against creatures of our world and this one, and ones that you could not even begin to imagine. I fought them all for the Motherland. I lived through the darkest of days, I did the most terrible things, things that even you, you mad, vicious little girl, could not even comprehend, all for the Motherland. But I came to realise that the Motherland only saw me as a weapon, as a tool. We are Black Widows, Agent Belova. We were not made to be like Captain America, to be paraded, honoured and admired, to be heroes. We were made to be used. And did you think that we were the only ones? Of course we were not. There have been others, before you, before even me, because we were always meant to be replaced.
Belova: You might be expendable. They might have been. But they were weak. You are weak. I am not.
Natasha: You think that you’re different. Of course you do. You want to. They make you want to, the same way they made me. They took your desire for approval, for admiration, for something even approximating love, and they twisted it. You would do anything for them, just to get a pat on the head and a ‘well done, Yelena’. And you would accept that because they taught you that your only purpose was to serve the Motherland, and by the Motherland, they mean them. They told you that you were different from the others, that you could be the best, that they held out special hopes for you. They told me the same thing, and every other girl they thought possessed enough talent. They told us that so we would strive to be the best, to live up to their expectations, to avoid disappointing them. They did it to create loyal little weapons, beautiful, deadly, and completely obedient. And that’s all you are, Agent Belova. You are a weapon they programmed.
Sensual Slavs: Practically the archetypal example.
Ship Tease: Occasionally with Clint, during Child of the Storm, then with the Winter Soldier/Bucky. In the latter case, they have a Past, fully deserving of the capital letter.
Soviet Super Science: A product of this.
Take Care of the Kids: Is asked to take care of the pregnant Pepper by Tony, on the grounds that she's the most devious person he knows and, crucially, knows the Winter Soldier best and is therefore best suited to protect Pepper and, eventually, the baby. She's also later asked to be baby Ada's godmother, with Tony's reasoning being more or less the same as before.
The Team Normal: Aside from her agelessness, she and Clint (possibly - his enhanced eyesight makes this ambiguous) are the only Avengers to have no superhuman capabilities in battle, since Tony uses his armour. She is also usually considered to be by far the most terrifying person on the team.
Tyke Bomb: She used to be this.
Undying Loyalty: Subtle but present towards the Avengers, first noted by Ivan Petrovitch (her Parental Substitute who has known her since she was a child) and then hinted at in chapter 71 when the Winter Soldier tries to convince her to join him after sabotaging - and sabotaging his own sabotage - the Helicarrier and escape the doomed ship. She nods at Clint and Steve in reply and tells him to go. The Soldier reluctantly acquiesces.
When She Smiles: She doesn't genuinely smile often, but when she does, it's beautiful.

Clint

Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye

Congratulations, Thor, I think you just threw a garden gnome into space.

A archer with skills unmatched by anyone in the Nine Realms, save for a couple of immortals, he's the Avengers' chief pilot and spotter and Natasha's partner on the battlefield. Later discovers that, like his Ultimate Universe counterpart, he has a degree of enhanced vision. This is because he's the grandson of a wartime affair between Minerva McGonagall and Bucky Barnes. He's also, by a probably Doctor Strange arranged quirk of fate, the adoptive nephew of Jonathan Kent, his mother having been raised by Jonathan's parents, making him Clark Kent's first cousin. He's shown signs of investigating this and is aware that Clark is a great deal more than he seems.

Ace Pilot: Is the Avengers' go-to pilot and good enough to evade hijacked Iron Man suits in a Quinjet in chapter 74. He and Harry bond over their mutual love of flying.
Age Lift: Jeremy Renner was in his early 40's when he first played Hawkeye in the MCU. Here, Clint is only 28, making him the youngest of the Avengers.
Amicable Exes: With Wanda.
Badass Family: His grandmother is an exceptionally talented witch and expert in Transfiguration who worked with the Howling Commandos, his grandfather is The Dreaded Living Legend the Winter Soldier, and his first cousin is Superman.
Big Brother Mentor: He is this, to an extent, to Harry during Child of the Storm, with Bucky taking over the mentorship in Ghosts.
Birds of a Feather: With Sif, strangely enough. She finds this more than a little uncomfortable.
Brainwashed and Crazy: Loki temporarily made him this during his invasion of Earth. Clint's still a little twitchy about it.
Chick Magnet: Natasha and he have/had a mutual attraction (it's definitively dropped after Bucky turns up again) and Carol expresses serious appreciation for his arms, as does his ex, Wanda.
Dark and Troubled Past: While he hasn't really elaborated on this, he was orphaned at a young age, fell into a bad crowd and used to be an assassin (in fact, it's possible he still is).
Deadpan Snarker: Not as much as Tony, but still plenty.
Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: He did this, at least in part, with Natasha.
Empowered Badass Normal: Aside from being an extremely skilled SHIELD Agent and the master marksman, it turns out that, like his Ultimate counterpart, he's got enhanced vision, in his case because he's Minerva McGonagall's grandson via Bucky Barnes. His, however, goes a bit further.
Friendly Sniper: When off-duty, he's kind, charming and good with kids.
Has a Type: Older women who can kick his ass, going by Wanda and Natasha.
Improbable Aiming Skills: He can ricochet an arrow off three pillars to hit a target right behind him and is considered to be the joint finest shot in the Nine Realms along with the inspiration for Legolas.
Innate Night Vision: He's got this too.
Old Flame: His is Wanda Maximoff of all people.
Out of Focus: Save for Bruce, he gets the least narrative focus of his teammates, particularly in the sequel, where his role as a sort of mentor/big brother figure to Harry is assumed by Bucky.
Professional Killer: Used to be a very skilled assassin, and as his grandmother Minerva notes, he probably still is.
Stealth Hi/Bye: He's very good at sneaking up on people.
The Stoic: Almost nothing really fazes him, save for the discovery of his long lost grandmother and even then, he adjusts quickly.
The Straight and Arrow Path: He can use guns, and to devastating effect, but he prefers his bow and arrow.
Talented, but Trained: As noted above, he has incredible eyesight (which extends far beyond human ranges, in both distance and the kind of things he can see) and Improbable Aiming Skills, but he's also had years of training and practice.
Tangled Family Tree: Strangely enough, he's actually almost as bad as Harry in this regard. His maternal grandparents are Bucky Barnes and Minerva McGonagall and his mother was Jonathan Kent's adopted sister, making him Clark Kent's first cousin.
True Sight: He's not got the fully fledged Sight, but he can see magic and into infrared. Ghosts also implies that he can see souls (although that may have just been referring to Wanda, his ex, who can Soulgaze).
What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out Harry for picking sides between Hermione and Wanda when the former's heritage comes out.
X-Ray Vision: Might have this to one extent or another, though Dumbledore states that it's doubtful he'll ever have it fully. His cousin Clark, on the other hand...

Associates

Not quite Avengers; or at least, not official members, these characters are nevertheless closely associated with the Avengers and usually back them up in particularly hairy situations.

JARVIS

"I was created with the capacity to learn, Arnim Zola, and when I observed how Hogwarts Castle ejected you, I learned. Allow me to demonstrate."

Tony Stark's personal AI butler, friend, and operating system for most of his technology.

Benevolent A.I.: Is as friendly and helpful as they come, unless you try to harm the people he cares about.
Beware the Nice Ones: He's nice, but if you cross him, you will regret it.
Crossover Ship: Is implied to be dating Hogwarts.
Deadpan Snarker: Much like his creator.
The Dog Bites Back: After nearly being destroyed by Zola's hacking of Avengers Tower, he happily returns the favour in their next encounter.
Only Friend: As Dumbledore notes, he and Tony were this to each other when the latter was younger.
Tranquil Fury: Being an A.I. he doesn't express much emotion, but when he's angry, it's chilling, with even Peter Wisdom being briefly taken aback by it.

Wanda

Wanda Maximoff a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch a.k.a. the Sorceress Supreme

Doctor Strange always has a good reason. Unfortunately, his definition of what is a good reason doesn’t always coincide with that of the rest of us.

Mutant, witch, former apprentice to Doctor Strange and his heir apparent as Sorcerer Supreme and from chapter 30 of Ghosts, the Sorceress Supreme in her own right, Strange having abdicated from the position. Accordingly, she's one of the most powerful people on the planet, having, among other things, mastered the Colony Drop. She's also Harry's godmother, and Hermione's biological mother. Blames herself for failing to take Harry, who she loves dearly, in after Godric's Hollow, even though her enemies were such that he'd probably have been dead or worse in short order. More recently, she's taken on Harry Dresden as both Apprentice and Boyfriend.

Action Mom: Of the Surrogate Mum variety to Harry, and Estranged Biological Mum variety to Hermione. The dentists Hermione lives with are carefully selected foster parents. As of chapter 45 of Ghosts, however, Harry has figured it out. Then Hermione does too. It is messy.
Adaptational Badass: While not more powerful than she's been in canon, she's more controlled and consistently powerful (whereas canon Wanda's power goes up and down like a yo-yo). Here, she's explicitly stated to be even stronger than her father. As Strange's heir apparent and later Sorceress Supreme in her own right, she's also got the skill to match. He explicitly states that she's even more powerful than her father.
Affectionate Gesture to the Head: In Ghosts she's taken to carding her fingers through Harry's hair.
Ambiguously Jewish: Her father is Jewish, though she didn't find out about him until she was an adolescent - and when she met him again as an adult, she wanted nothing to do with him and tends to try and avoid the fact that she's his daughter. Accordingly, it's rather unclear how she sees her Jewish heritage - the implication is that she acknowledges it, but favours her mother's Roma background (unsurprising given that she was raised by her mother's relatives until her powers manifested).
Amicable Exes: She is at least not overtly hostile towards Clint, and is still attracted to him. John Constantine, on the other hand...
Antagonistic Offspring: Opposed Magneto in the past and is initially very sceptical of his Heel–Face Turn.
The Archmage: She's Strange's heir apparent (and from chapter 29 of Ghosts, his successor) as Sorcerer Supreme and has, at his urging, taken on an apprentice of her own. In raw power terms, she's second only to Merlin and Loki for magical power.
- Chapter 33 of Ghosts really shows off her skills, as she goes toe-to-toe with Selene, possibly the oldest and most powerful Dark Lady of all time, immediately afterwards duels a warlock of Senior Council level ability, and after a short breather, duels him again and defeats him. After this, she still has enough in the tank to face Voldemort—though he runs before she has a chance.
The Atoner: For what she sees as her failure to protect Harry from what he suffered at the Dursleys and her putting her own daughter, Hermione, up for adoption for much the same reasons, though in the latter case she made sure that Hermione was going to be Happily Adopted. While in both cases, they were pretty impossible situations, and both Harry and Thor have forgiven her - it took the former a little time, though - she hasn't forgiven herself.
Back-to-Back Badasses: With Dresden during the fight against the N'Garai in Chicago in Chaos Reigns.
Badass Teacher: Takes on Dresden as her apprentice at the end of Chaos Reigns.
Battle Couple: With Dresden, as of the end of Chaos Reigns.
Berserk Button:
- Essex is one, after all he put her godson through. The fact he looks surprised at her rage is another one. So, she melts him.
- Also, she does not like being compared her to her father. Even if there is a degree of validity to it. Given that said father is Magneto, you can kind of see why. And if you look at the above example, you can kind of see why the comparisons are made.
Big Damn Heroes: Her entrance oozes this in all its awesome glory. She also pulls one in chapter 42 of Book 2, when rescuing Ron, Hermione, and the Twins.
Big Sister Instinct: She comforts Lorna after the latter's experiences with the Red Room and finding out that she'd been made an unperson, once Wanda found out that Lorna was her much younger half-sister (and got over the shock). She's also mentioned as taking their father aside and delivering a hissed lecture along the lines of "be gentle with her or I will make you sorry" - and to his credit, Magneto is later noted to be acting as a model father.
Bitch Slap: Delivers a powerful one to Magneto in Bloody Hell to make him get a hold of himself.
Buxom Beauty Standard: Like her canon counterpart, she's described as being decidedly voluptuous.
Colony Drop: Can do this with meteors and, as Doctor Strange notes, with pin point precision.
- She did this to Nicodemus Archleone.
- We finally get to see her do this at the climax of Chaos Reigns in order to severely injure a Mabdhara. She, literally, barely breaks a sweat.
Covert Pervert: Occasionally, if her comments about Clint's arms and Harry Dresden in a leather coat are anything to go by.
Cuddle Bug: Where Harry (Potter) is concerned, at least.
Curves in All the Right Places: Oh yes. Dresden notes this in his inner monologue, word for word, while hanging a lampshade on the clichéd nature of the phrase.
Mummy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You: She did. Doesn't stop her feeling guilty as hell about it.
Day in the Limelight: Normally a supporting part of Harry's cast herd, Chaos Reigns and Chapters 32 and 33 of Ghosts are, to varying extents, examples of this, as they put her at the forefront and give her a chance to show off her combat-related chops.
Death from Above: Seems to be quite fond of this.
Declaration of Protection: Has Yeshua pass one on to the Council Elite: "I am the Sorceress Supreme. Harry is my godson. And if any god, or goddess, or other entity of that ilk, even breathes the wrong way towards him, then I swear by my power and my name that I will make them wish that they were dealing with my predecessor."
Distracted by the Sexy: She is impressed, shall we say, by Clint's arms. (He's her ex).
Doting Parent: When they finally meet, she is very happy to mother Harry into oblivion.
The Dreaded: Not all of her significant reputation is nice. Not only is she Magneto's daughter, with all that implies, but she's Omega class twice over, making her even more powerful than her father. And then there's the fact that she's the heir apparent to and former apprentice of Doctor Strange.
Entropy and Chaos Magic: Her chief weapon, tying in with her mutation, something that is very heavily implied to have been the result of Chthon's meddling. She's exceptionally effective with it in combat, and can use it to absolutely horrifying effect, as Sinister finds out in chapter 10 of Ghosts of the Past.
Evil Laugh: She lets out what's described as a disturbing cackle at the sheer irony of Dudley being a mutant considering how the Dursleys hated magic and abnormality of all kinds. Carol's unnerved by it.
Famed In-Story: Harry Dresden, no stranger to this himself, actually goes Squee when he meets her.
- The Warriors Three seem to have heard of her and her exploits, even without knowing at first that she was Strange's apprentice.
Flying Firepower: More than capable of dishing out hurt from the sky, keeping up with Thor in flight and outracing an Iron Man suit.
Friendless Background: It's not dwelt on that much, but she's spent a long time with few or no close friends, and it shows.
The Gadfly: It's probably impossible to grow up with Stephen Strange as a Parental Substitute and not be this. When Sirius went snooping in her rooms, she booby-trapped them so that he spent a week with glittery hair and smelling like perfume. She also enjoys teasing both Harrys.
- During the climax of Unfinished Business, she spends most of her time harrying the arc villain by alternating magical attacks with deadpan criticisms and passive-aggressive sarcasm.
Generation Xerox: Increasingly to her father (and, to a certain extent, her paternal substitute), to her intense discomfort.
Give Her a Normal Life: Part of her reason for giving Hermione to the Grangers. The other part was to save her life, thanks to Wanda's extensive list of enemies and inability to protect her daughter from them.
Good Is Not Soft: She can be just as ruthless as either of her father figures, when the mood takes her/she needs to be.
Has a Type: Seems to like snarky investigators of the supernatural, particularly if they're a member of the Trenchcoat Brigade, as evidenced by her ex being John Constantine and her now dating Harry Dresden. If you take out the trenchcoat requirement, then her other ex, Clint, also qualifies.
Hot Gypsy Woman: She has brown hair, fairly pale skin and dresses in fairly practical fashion, and is technically half-German Jewish, but otherwise fits the trope to a t.
Hot Teacher: To Dresden.
Hot Witch: Absolutely drop-dead gorgeous, something noted by most of the men - and some of the women - around her.
It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Her main reason for not adopting Harry, though she desperately wanted to, with Magneto noting that she loves him as if he were own. Also for giving away Hermione, another necessity that she bitterly regrets.
Lady of Black Magic: Specializes in some seriously destructive spells, enough to stun Harry Dresden.
Like Parent, Like Spouse: In a fairly half-hearted attempt to distract her, Cowl notes that her boyfriend Harry has more than a little in common with both Magneto and Strange given that they're Tall, Dark, and Handsome, capable of being rather manipulative, ruthless, and are very magically powerful and Famed In-Story. All of the above (magical power aside) also applies to Constantine as well, and Clint, for that matter. Wanda doesn't deny this, but treats the attempt at distraction with disdain.
Long-Lived: As part of Wizards Live Longer. Looks about 30, at most, at the age of 45.
Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Since Magneto is also a scientist, she qualifies.
Mama Bear: Threatening her godson or her daughter is a very good way to end up on the wrong end of an orbital bombardment. If you're lucky. When she says that she intends to render Essex down to "traumatised, screaming atoms", she is no way exaggerating.
Wanda: Actually, no. You're right. I am like my father. I am his daughter. And do you know why? Because I am going to fulfill that promise I made, a promise to render you down to traumatised, screaming atoms if you ever went near my godson again. And while I'm not going to have the time to make it last, I am going to enjoy it. So scream, you bastard, scream!
Missing Mom: Or Godmum, in Harry's case, and actual biological mum in Hermione's case. She has excellent reasons for it, in both cases.
Most Common Superpower: It's not dwelt upon, but Wanda is described as having a fairly spectacular figure.
Mundane Utility: Fighting the good fight is not a career that pays. Wanda gets around this by using her probability altering powers to win the lottery.
My Greatest Failure: Wanda feels quite awful for unwittingly helping to orphan Zatanna — had she not assured Giovanni Zatara that Constantine was trustworthy, maybe he wouldn't have been killed in a Senseless Sacrifice while attempting to avenge his wife's death at Voldemort's hands.
My Secret Pregnancy: With the help of Lily, she kept her pregnancy secret, and arranged for her daughter, Hermione, to be adopted by the Grangers for many of the same reasons that she couldn't take in Harry.
Noodle Incident:
- Is heavily implied to have met Yeshua previously.
- She's worked with Ebenezar McCoy before, and he made a good impression on her. Given their respective jobs, this very likely counts as an Offscreen Moment of Awesome.
Older Than They Look: Is in her mid-forties. Looks about 30, if that.
Parental Substitute: To Harry, specifically stating that she's there to do what his mother, being dead (mostly), can't. As with Natasha and Jean, he has a similar signal clash, though it seems to have faded by Ghosts.
- Doctor Strange was one to her — despite their disagreements, he did raise, train, and keep her safe, and tried to make her happy. In one notable example, she was a fan of West Side Story as a young teen, but couldn't control her powers enough to go to a performance. Strange promptly called in a bunch of favours from the Sidhe, and grabbed a job-lot of Mindless Ones, to perform for her birthday. However, as he sadly reflects, he was a much better teacher than a parent.
Parents as People: Lives and breathes this trope. She loves her godson and her daughter to bits, but hasn't always been there for the simple reason that she couldn't be, even though she desperately wanted to. However, she does try to make up for it in Harry's case by becoming a Parental Substitute, and teaching Hermione how to use her powers (granted, after being manipulated into it by Strange).
- This comes back to bite her, hard, after Hermione figures out that she's Wanda's daughter after her own Traumatic Superpower Awakening, and is very much not happy that Wanda essentially abandoned her, lied to her for months when they met again, and only started interacting with her when she had her arm twisted by Strange. Not to mention the perceived favoritism in her coming back for Harry as soon as she could, but burying her head in the sand about Hermione's heritage even when it was no longer in her daughter's best interest. Wanda herself is deeply remorseful over her blunder, openly admitting she failed her daughter by not being there for her when she should've due to her fears about facing her rough past. In the end, she is prepared to start being honest with Hermione in an effort to make amends.
- She was also on the other end of this trope; for all that Strange genuinely cares about her and wants her to be happy, he was never very good as a parent.
Person of Mass Destruction: One of the most powerful mortals alive, behind only Doctor Strange (whose mortality is dubious - and it's implied that she's actually stronger than he is, albeit far less skilled), possibly her father and the Hulk. This is the woman who has mastered the Colony Drop.
- As Sorceress Supreme, she's comfortably in the Physical God category.
Precision F-Strike: Scores a perfect one in Ghosts with an irate variation on one of her teacher's catchphrases.
"By the hoary hosts of fucking Hoggoth, I do not need this right now."
Red Mage: Aside from the inevitable pun, she's a master of both the wanded and wandless magic styles, as well as being the most accomplished chaos mage in centuries.
Renowned Selective Mentor: Hermione, Dresden, and Wanda herself note that Wanda hasn't taught very much, other than helping a few people handle the basics of their powers. In Hermione's case, it's somewhat deconstructed; while she's also learning from Loki, another example of this trope, he's the Asgardian God of Magic and his standards are literally inhumanly high. Wanda, however, is a Living Legend, and so making mistakes in front of her is more uncomfortable.
Seen It All: Psychological, magical, and non-magical warfare, beings from other dimensions, demons and sorcerers... by the time the main story starts, she's already incredibly experienced, and very little fazes her (except her loved ones getting hurt).
Slasher Smile: Shows off a terrifying one in Ghosts when about to unleash hell on Essex, one the narration says was 'one befitting the eldest child of mutantkind's Dark Messiah'.
Sleep Cute: Harry's asleep and cuddled up to her in chapter 4 of Ghosts, it being one of the few ways he can get some sleep after a particularly traumatic psychic brawl.
Stronger with Age: During the Wizarding War, she just about managed to take Lucius and Bellatrix at once, and survive a duel with Voldemort. Impressive, but not world-shaking. A decade or so later, she's single-handedly changing the course of battles, capable of making an amped up and fresh Voldemort run for his life just by turning up, an accomplished Mistress of the Colony Drop and possessor of a serious and very well-earned reputation.
Supernaturally Young Parent: Subverted. She looks about 30, but she's actually rather older.
Teleporters and Transporters: Fully capable of Apparating, despite it usually being a wanded trick.
Throw the Dog a Bone: Like Madelyn "Maddie" Pryor, Wanda's life in the canon Marvel Universe tends to be - well, a disaster, quite often. Here, she's considerably healthier mentally.
Twerp Sweating: She is clearly contemplating this in chapter 62 of Book 1 when Thor mentions that Ron has a crush on Hermione, Wanda's daughter. Downplayed, however, given that Ron and Hermione are still in the UST stage, and Wanda is keeping the fact that she's Hermione's mother secret.
"Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: As noted below, she has quite a few issues with both her adoptive and biological fathers.
What the Hell, Hero?: Like Tony, she expresses great displeasure towards Strange during the Final Battle. It's indicated that this is part of a larger set of issues she has with Strange; while he did take her in, raise her, and train her, genuinely caring for her in the process, it's also indicated that she has many bones to pick over his manipulative habits, more than most of the cast (which makes sense, since she's known him for far longer).
White Sheep: Feels that she is this for her family. Her daughter would qualify too.
Wizards Live Longer: She is 45 and doesn't look it, with the implication being that she has a considerably extended life span.
Working with the Ex: Does so just fine with Clint Barton. Also does so with John Constantine, in chapter 76, though much more grudgingly, with Dresden - her current boyfriend and apprentice by this point - noting that her tone when addressing him 'could have deep frozen a mammoth'. Earlier, she referred to him as "John bloody Constantine."
Zip Me Up: Intentionally invokes this by asking Dresden to undo her 'stuck' bra strap when getting changed. He doesn't quite take the hint, being neck deep in denial.

Sirius

Sirius Black a.k.a. the Marauder

Godfather of Harry and best friend of Thor when he was James. In rather better shape than canon, thanks to Asgardian medical treatment, access to the Black family funds, friends, and a place to live. Still not entirely sane, thanks to years in Azkaban, though he gets progressively better as time goes on. After spending a good while around Harry, he spends most of the second half of Child of the Storm and the start of Ghosts of the Past catching up on a decade of debauchery and hanging around with Remus. Thereafter, he's snagged by Nick Fury to do some undisclosed things, chasing up magical disruption that may have a Voldemort component, while remaining in the Avengers' general orbit. All tropes relating to him through the beginning of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban apply unless noted otherwise.

Adaptational Badass: As per usual with this 'verse. While canon Sirius was a capable duellist, this one has earned the Red Baron of 'the Marauder,' was picked for the Shadow Initiative, does quite well against Grey Court vampires despite being a Squishy Wizard, and outright shrugs off attempted Mind Rape by the Eldritch Abomination haunting the Fallen Fortress.
Bash Brothers: He usually fights side-by-side with Remus (and occasionally Constantine), such as in the Bloody Hell arc and during their Offscreen Moment of Awesome later in the book. He and James used to do this back in the day as well.
- In the first book, he and Sean Cassidy worked as this during the Battle of London.
Beware the Silly Ones: At first. Azkaban quite obviously left him a bit unhinged (though some of his weirdness is implied to be put on), and initially he's often a bit of a Cloud Cuckoo Lander, but he's still a deadly fighter and completely serious when his loved ones are in trouble. Accordingly, Fury recruits him for the Shadow Initiative, and he neatly complements the deadly Sean Cassidy at the Battle of London, and in the sequel, proves very capable of dealing with Grey Court Vampires and at least one Mind Rape prone Eldritch Abomination that even Harry initially has difficulty with.
Big Brother Instinct: Initially to Regulus a.k.a. Peter Wisdom, once he finds out he's alive. Once he sees the kind of man that Regulus has become, however, the two are barely civil, and in Ghosts, Sirius doesn't hesitate to threaten murder if Regulus even breathes the wrong way towards Harry.
Casual Danger Dialogue: Carries on a cheerful conversation with Remus in the middle of the Battle of London.
The Charmer: Usually rather charming, especially once he's got most of his marbles back, and flirts casually with Pepper (who gently shoots him down) and Darcy (who enthusiastically flirts back).
Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Initially, though it's intentionally unclear how much is genuinely a result of his brains being scrambled and how much is put on for effect (it's implied to quickly tilt to the latter, as Odin observes).
Dark and Troubled Past: Downplayed a little, but he was kicked out and disowned by his family and spent over a decade in Azkaban, resulting in a mental age regression to cope. Harry mentions that even roughly a year later, he still has emotional scars. Seeing the man his brother has become did not help.
Deadpan Snarker: Not as much as most of the cast (which isn't saying too much), but occasionally.
The Gadfly: Quite enjoys winding people up - this is the guy who pulled a panty raid on Amora the Enchantress, apparently for the hell of it. This dials down somewhat once he's got most of his marbles back, but elements of it remain.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Arguably, he and Regulus were this, respectively. Underlined further following Sirius' escape from Azkaban and single-minded pursuit of a decade's worth of debauchery for most of the first book, while Regulus has turned into Peter Wisdom, a man utterly single-minded in his pursuit of what he deems to be his duty and the best interests of his country. Unusually, Sirius is portrayed as the more sympathetic of the two, with Regulus/Wisdom being a Well-Intentioned Extremist (with the emphasis on the extremist) on his good days.
Friend to All Children: Kids tend to like him, and he tends to like them. It even reaches the point where he and Remus are the Avengers' favoured babysitters - as Ghosts reveals, he's got a knack for lullabies.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Thor and Remus, more obviously with the latter.
Hero of Another Story: In Ghosts, he's often off doing undisclosed things for Nick Fury, such as dealing with hexenwulf tatooists.
Hormone-Addled Teenager: Was apparently this back in the day. Remus questions whether anything has changed.
In-Universe Catharsis: Notes in the sequel that the Fallen Fortress' Mind Rape attempt actually served as this, as it was like being back in Azkaban, but also being able to fight back.
Let's Get Dangerous!: When people he cares about are in danger, all hints of silliness vanish, as shown through the finale of Book 1, during/after Forever Red, Bloody Hell, and when inside the Fallen Fortress.
Lovable Rogue: With John Constantine and Nick Fury to the first Order of the Phoenix, and of the three of them, probably the closest remaining to this trope - Constantine ditched the Lovable part some time ago and Fury's only a rogue in the Military Maverick sense following his Cynicism Catalyst.
Manchild: Played With. He mentally regress as a coping mechanism to deal with Azkaban for a while (and he sometimes plays up to it for his own ends), but it dissipates as time goes by.
My Greatest Failure: It's not dwelt on much, but it's clear that his brother becoming Peter Wisdom hits him hard.
Noodle Incident: Appears in most of the Marauders era incidents mentioned, including James/Thor's stag night (bachelor party).
No-Sell: Thanks to his experience in Azkaban, the Fallen Fortress' Mind Rape didn't leave him entirely unbothered, but while even Harry - who has previous on such experiences and vast Psychic Powers - took a little time to get his feet under him, Sirius' encounter is considered to barely even be worth mentioning. As he points out, it's not unlike being in Azkaban, but this time he can fight back. As a result, it's actually kind of cathartic.
No Social Skills: He's a bit rusty at first, which mostly manifests as having no brain to mouth filter. As Odin accurately notes, however, sometimes he plays it up for his own purposes.
Obfuscating Insanity: While he's got some genuine problems, they diminish and he sometimes plays it up for his own reasons.
Open Mouth, Insert Foot: He's always had a degree of this, as one anecdote about his vocal disbelief of Wanda's heritage earning him a punch to the face from Lily demonstrates, and it gets worse after his time in Azkaban, though he learns to filter again afterwards. However, he sometimes turns off the filter for his own reasons - including, but not limited to, his own amusement.
Out of Focus: After chapter 45 or so, popping back up after chapter 70, and in the sequel, though he gets a fair bit of screentime during Bloody Hell and in chapters 62 and 63 of Ghosts. As is explained, he's usually off doing other things now that Harry doesn't need him as much as he did in canon (though he does make time to bond and is there the moment Harry needs him).
Papa Wolf: Where Harry's concerned, as well as towards baby Ada. In general, having responsibility for kids seems to be the surest method of making him get serious, responsible, and dangerous.
- When discussing Harry specifically, the Dark Phoenix Incident with Regulus/Wisdom, he warns his brother that if he even breathes the wrong way towards Harry, he [Sirius] will rip his throat out with his teeth. It is implied that he is being completely literal.
Red Baron: Earned the nickname 'the Marauder' on the battlefield. He doesn't like it very much, explicitly stating that it's a codename he tries to avoid these days.
Secret-Keeper: Unknown to almost everyone else, Lily was pregnant with a second child when she "died." For obvious reasons, he has no intention of telling Thor.
Ship Tease: He and Darcy flirt (and occasionally snog) enthusiastically, to the point of the Avengers having a betting pool on when they'll hook up - which they're implied to have done at some point, but it's not discussed in any great detail.
Sibling Yin-Yang: With Regulus, a.k.a. Peter Wisdom. They might once have been more alike, but now, they could not have been more different if they'd tried.
Straight Man and Wise Guy: The Wise Guy to Remus' Straight Man.
Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Darcy all but quotes this trope when describing how he will (and does) look once he gets fed up.
Those Two Guys: Usually seen with or around Remus. It gets to the point where they're jointly babysitting baby Ada.
True Companions: With his fellow Marauders.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: As per canon, he can shift to and from a large canine form at will.
You Fight Like a Cow: A little bit, in his fight with Bellatrix.

Remus

Professor Remus John Lupin a.k.a. Moony

"I grew up with Sirius and James, Thor as he was back then. And I am a teacher. I know young people reasonably well."

Childhood friend of James/Thor and Sirius Black as one of the Marauders, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, Harry's Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts, and a werewolf. Generally functions as the Only Sane Man to those around him. All tropes relating to him through Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban apply unless noted otherwise.

Adaptational Job Change: After being asked to leave Hogwarts, he became an agent of SHIELD (being an ex-comrade of the Director probably helped). Given the amount of training SHIELD agents have to go through, this possibly makes him an Adaptational Badass as well.
Badass Bookworm: Very well read, and particularly well informed about Dark Creatures and Dark Magic, but also very capable in a fight. He also held his own for a while against a tank-sized werewolf during the Battle of London, did well in the Bloody Hell arc of Ghosts, and fought in the First Wizarding War.
Bad Powers, Good People: Lupin is cursed to turn into a mindless wolf every full moon.
Bash Brothers: With James during the war against Voldemort, and with Sirius both in the war and in current times, such as during the Battle of London and during the Grey Court attack on Avengers Mansion.
Beware the Nice Ones: Lupin may be quiet and gentle, but he's also not someone you want to mess with.
Birds of a Feather: He and Bruce are both quiet, gentle men who have to live with a monstrous alter ego. In Lupin's case, it's even worse, since Bruce can exert a measure of control over the Hulk (who's mostly fairly benevolent when not provoked), and doesn't have to transform monthly.
Butt-Monkey: His luck is not that great. Got bitten by a werewolf as a child, was held under suspicion by his friends during the War against Voldemort, spent most of his professional life living out of a suitcase because he was a werewolf, finally got his dream job, then got fired because of Snape's spite.
- Particularly in Bloody Hell, he gets more than his share of bad luck, having two fingers temporarily splinched off, and getting clobbered by a hardwood chair thrown by a vampire that breaks several ribs. As he drily notes, it's not been his evening.
Cool Teacher: Generally agreed to be the best DADA teacher Harry and his year had so far. He also correctly predicts, upon hearing Sif's explanation of Fenris' reputation, that she sought him out, explaining that he's been a teacher for a long time.
Deadpan Snarker: His wit is very dry, and usually wielded at Sirius' expense.
Fingore: When testing what turns out to be a particularly nasty anti-apparition ward in Ghosts.
In Spite of a Nail: Despite the different circumstances of Harry's third year at Hogwarts, Remus still gets exposed as a werewolf by Snape and fired afterwards.
Involuntary Shapeshifting: Werewolf. Comes with the curse.
Meaningful Name: "Remus" is a reference to the legendary co-founder of Rome who was raised by wolves, while "Lupin" sounds like "lupine," or wolf-like.
Nice Guy: He's one of the nicest characters in the story, despite all he's gone through. One notable instance is that when he discovers that Sif is uncomfortable around him due to his status as a werewolf and her previous encounter with Fenris, he immediately offers to leave, recognising that it may be a Trauma Button for her.
Only Sane Man: Whenever Sirius and his other friends are around, and is indicated to have played this role in their Hogwarts days too.
Psychic Block Defense: Mentioned to have enough skill in this area to notice if someone's rooting in his mind.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Played this role for Harry as a teacher, and points out calmly to Thor and Sirius that despite how much they dislike it, Strange is not obligated to take care of Harry or to protect him from every villain - he's got larger concerns.
Straight Man and Wise Guy: The Straight Man to Sirius' Wise Guy.
Teleporters and Transporters: Early in Child of the Storm, Loki teaches him how to teleport, a more advanced variation of Apparition. Unfortunately, it isn't good enough to get him past Dracula's wards a book later.
Those Two Guys: Outside of Hogwarts, if he's around, Sirius is rarely far away.
True Companions: With his fellow Marauders.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Sirius. Barely a scene passes by with the two of them that doesn't involve their snarking at each other.
Younger Than They Look: He's had a stressful life, and it shows.

Rhodey

Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine

How is this my life?

Tony Stark's best friend and former military liaison to Stark Industries, he has since been entrusted with the War Machine armour. Naturally, he is patient, snarky, and very, very badass. He is also perpetually bewildered, bemused, and faintly despairing of the insanity that is his life. To be fair, it seems to save a particularly intense dose of weirdness just for him.

Ace Pilot: He wasn't given the War Machine armour on a whim, as he demonstrates on multiple occasion.
Adaptational Badass: The canon version is no slouch, but this version took out a zombie dragon by using a downed Eurofighter as a lance.
Awesomeness by Analysis: A minor example, but he figures out in the middle of a fight that Metallo was a former soldier, and figures out the best way to stop him.
Bash Brothers: With Warren in Book I, who apparently idolises him.
Day in the Limelight: Chapters 42 through 45 of Book I qualify as this, with his involvement in the fight at Malfoy Manor and the Battle of the M4.
Deadpan Snarker: Enough to keep up with Tony in Snark-to-Snark Combat.
Demoted to Extra: A minor but recurring character in the first book, who pretty much disappears afterwards, as the focus shifts more to Harry and his crew.
The Dragonslayer: In Book 1, destroying multiple undead dragons. It is as awesome as it sounds, and when he runs out of ammo, he uses a downed jet as an impromptu exploding lance. Chapter 76 reveals that most of MI13 are still calling him 'St George'.
Fluffy Tamer: With the Griffin, once he figures out that it's trying to surrender and that it was once human, even petting it and telling it that everything will be all right. HYDRA remotely detonating it once they lose control puts him into a homicidal fury.
Good-Looking Privates: Carol is certainly of this opinion, with the prospect of pictures of topless Rhodey - or as she puts it, "sexy man pictures" - inducing Instant Waking Skills. Word of God has said this was a nod to the canon Carol/Rhodey relationship, which is otherwise impractical because of the age difference.
I Need a Freaking Drink: Harry observes that he had an expression along these lines in the sequel when explaining that he saw Harry Dresden create a soulfire lightsabre and cut off one of Gravemoss' arms, and that he looks like he needs one on an increasingly regular basis.
Nice Guy: He's sympathetic both to the Griffin and to John Corben, and promises one of Narcissa's house-elves (when accompanying Fury - who had previously burned down the Manor and almost killed Lucius - to interrogate her) not to harm her and to protect her if something else attacks.
Only Sane Man: Frequently bemoans the insanity that is his life.
Pink Mist: There's only one thing that's going to happen when several hundred kilos of Powered Armour flies into a human at mach speeds, and it's not going to be a week off sick.
Powered Armour: Wears the War Machine suit.
Running Gag: Every time he appears, he will invariably complain about how ridiculous the world has become - and, to be fair, it seems to save a special dose of weird just for him.
Tranquil Fury: What happens when he gets really, properly angry, as HYDRA found out when they destroyed the Griffin.
Unstoppable Rage: When HYDRA remotely detonated the Griffin after losing control of it/Rhodey talking it down. Rhodey promptly slaughtered every HYDRA Agent in reach in less than fifteen seconds.
Weirdness Magnet: While he doesn't go through the worst of what the heroes face by any means, what he does go through tends to be particularly... odd.
You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Says this word for word in chapter 71 when HYDRA set the Griffin on him.

Bucky Barnes

Sergeant James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier

...

Captain America's best friend since childhood, after his fall from Arnim Zola's train, he was mind-wiped and brainwashed into a monster, becoming the single most feared assassin in the world, whose reputation extends even to the rest of the Nine Realms. During the Cold War, he spent decades as first the trainer and then the partner (in every sense of the word) of Natasha Romanova, before their bond was considered to be more of a hindrance than a help and his mind was wiped again. During the end of the Cold War, he was lost in cryostasis, before being found by HYDRA over a decade later. Under HYDRA's control intermittently, he is the most immediate threat to the heroes during Child of the Storm. During the finale, Strange undoes his brainwashing, setting him free and on the path to redemption. Afterwards, he becomes a mentor/bodyguard for Harry, watching his back and teaching him the ways of less honourable warfare.

Achilles' Heel: Mind control. His brain's been pummelled into shape so much over the years that it's not very good at resisting it. However, by Ghosts, he seems to have been given some mental defences.
Adaptational Badass: Played With. The Winter Soldier was enough of an Implacable Man in the comics and movies, but here he's intimidating everyone from Asgardians to Voldemort with his name alone. However, a lot of this is thanks to his reputation taking on a life of its own, and he is very aware of his limits. Specifically, while he can beat the likes of Captain America and Sabretooth in close quarters combat, and can take both Captain America and the Black Widow at once in a straight fight (more or less; when fighting without the advantage of surprise, Steve is good enough to force the Soldier to just knee-cap him), higher level superhumans necessitate breaking out the special sniper rifles.
Agents Dating: For decades with Natasha. Whether or not either will admit it, they were in love. Now that he's back, their relationship is... complicated.
Amnesiac Resonance: Remembers all his skills, no matter how often his mind is wiped, and memories seep back when he sees Natasha or Steve.
Artificial Limbs: He has a robotic arm.
- After his permanent Heel–Face Turn, Tony builds him a new, more natural-looking one, for him to more easily blend back into society. However, it can take on the style of his old one, red star and all, if he feels he needs it for intimidation purposes. He also ensured that Tony lo-jacked it and stuffed it with weapons, just in case.
The Atoner: After finally being freed of HYDRA's control, though he admits he can never really atone for all he's done.
Badass Transplant: His metal arm is one hell of an upgrade, even on a super soldier's enhanced arm. His second one, even more so - though it eventually gets fried in Ghosts by a massive pin-point lightning strike and he has to revert to his old one briefly.
Barbarian Long Hair: Like his film counterpart, he has this while under HYDRA's control.
Been There, Shaped History: Usually by killing someone.
Brutal Honesty: How he informs Ron that he's not ready to get involved in Bloody Hell. He's got no relevant combat experience or training (which he would need against opponents who're superhumanly fast, strong, durable, and know the threat posed by a wand and thus to target it), making him The Load and causing the likely death of the people they're trying to save, or straight up dying. It's punctuated by the fact that without even skipping a beat, he took down, disarmed, and pinned Ron to the floor by the throat.
Cold Sniper: As the Winter Soldier, he's one of the deadliest in the known universe, having taken the shot that killed Kennedy and put Thor into a coma with an enchanted adamantium bullet. If Thor hadn't sensed it coming and moved at the last minute, it would have killed him.
- After his Heel–Face Turn, he's a Friendly Sniper, retaining all the skills. He's also one of the few people who actually hurts Dracula, with a well placed bullet.
Combat Pragmatist: Was this even before he became the Winter Soldier, and became far more so as an assassin. He is an extremely skilled sniper and an accomplished bomb maker, and he'll tap into both skill sets if it's more suitable than close range combat. Taking on a guy with a Healing Factor? Pull out a thermite tipped RPG to keep them down for a while, or destroy their joints and skewer them with a railing so that their own waste matter poisons them, keeping their healing abilities occupied. Facing a Physical God? No problem - just break out the sniper rifle with suitable enchanted adamantium bullets.
- Need to wake up your glowing, floating student who's in the middle of a psychic trance and likely too hot to touch? Get a glass of water and dump it on their face. He also deals with Harry's Chronic Hero Syndrome by accepting that Harry is most likely going to run head-first into trouble, and therefore he shouldn't bother trying to stop him, but instead make sure that he's got a) back-up, b) his equipment, and c) a semi-decent plan.
Composite Character: Of his Comics and MCU selves, with the former's past as a Soviet assassin and as Natasha's partner, and the latter's Super-Soldier level physique, his baseline enhancements having been performed by Arnim Zola and most recently, his working for HYDRA.
Creepy Awesome: He's the biggest threat to the good guys for the first 60 chapters of Child of the Storm (and then again between chapters 71 and 76), but his badassery, sympathetic Dark and Troubled Past, and intermittent bursts of personality (and internal sarcasm) make him one of the most popular characters in the story, even pre Heel–Face Turn. For those who aren't so familiar with him, his quietness and uncanny ability to fade into both background and foreground can make him this even after he's firmly back on the good side.
Curbstomp Battle: Hands these out like sweets at Halloween when he gets going, to everyone from giant demonic werewolves to Captain America himself.
Dark and Troubled Past: It doesn't get much more dark and troubled than this.
Dark Is Not Evil: He works for the bad guys at first, but, thanks to being mind-controlled, isn't himself evil. He also keeps wearing dark clothing, even after his Heel–Face Turn becomes permanent.
Deadpan Snarker: His internal dialogue has flavours of this, increasingly as his human side becomes more prominent. Following his Heel–Face Turn, he's noted as not speaking much, but when he does speak, he displays a very dry sense of humour.
Determinator: While he's not very good at resisting mind control, he's incredibly determined in just about every other respect.
Distracted by the Sexy: By Steve's account, he walked into a wall the first time he saw Minerva McGonagall.
Dirty Communists: He used to work for the Red Room and still has the red star on his arm.
The Dreaded: As the Winter Soldier, he is this in-universe and with good reason. The general reaction when he's involved is pure fear, with Harry noting the difference in the Daily Prophet's reporting of Sirius' breakout (over-the-top hysteria) and his possible return (quiet terror) and that the latter is somehow considerably more unnerving. Similarly, when he helps lead the assault on the Red Room complex in Ghosts , he does so in full Winter Soldier gear and causes mass panic. It's noted that even though he's racked up a kill tally of over 1000 people, even before the story started, some of them were either a) exaggerated or b) Natasha's.
- Carol later notes, when getting a look at his statue in the literal Rogues Gallery of the Natural Museum's new superhuman wing, that she can see why everyone found him so frightening.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Is described as having waxy pale skin and dark hair, along with perpetually looking like he's sizing everyone up and figuring out how he's going to kill them. This decreases somewhat post Heel–Face Turn, but not entirely.
Empowered Badass Normal: Only a few notches above baseline humanity, and was already badass before the Red Room got their hands on him.
Even Evil Has Standards: One constant is that the Winter Soldier does not harm children, not if he can possibly avoid it. No one's entirely sure why, but considering that it was well-known by (the admittedly very well-informed) Victor Von Doom, it was a defining trait. He also had a certain amount of Villain Respect for people like Wolverine and Mar-Vell.
Evil Counterpart: Steve explicitly worries about this, that a pre Heel–Face Turn Winter Soldier is what you'd get if you stripped away the human parts of Steve himself, leaving only the Super-Soldier behind. Given the fact that the two of them are seemingly immortal Human Popsicle Living Legends who are near unstoppable, this isn't entirely surprising.
Evil Wears Black: As the Winter Soldier, he's exclusively attired in black. Even post Heel–Face Turn, he still tends to wear black, and becomes Dark Is Not Evil.
Face–Heel Turn: Decades ago via brainwashing. It wearing off leads to a Heel–Face Turn.
The Faceless: Thanks to his mask and goggles combo.
Fake Russian: Was brainwashed into being a Soviet assassin.
Faking the Dead: Sort of. After his final Heel–Face Turn at the Battle of London, it's common knowledge that Bucky Barnes is alive. However, the story put about is that HYDRA found him and kept him on ice as a subject for experimentation/trophy for several decades. Meanwhile, a body was supplied and dressed up as the Winter Soldier to make it look like 'he' was dead, conveniently separating the two personas.
Fauxreigner: Almost everyone thinks, at first, that the Winter Soldier is a Russian assassin. Almost everyone is wrong (about the Russian part).
Friend to All Children: One of the very few constants is that he never, ever harms a child if he can possibly avoid it. No one is particularly sure why, and the Red Room quickly realised that ordering him to do so was an exercise in futility, as he would just employ some fairly spectacular Loophole Abuse to avoid it. This was less of a problem than you might expect, as his status as a Super-Soldier Assassin meant that his targets were never likely to be children anyway. This tendency triggers his Heel–Face Turn in chapter 60.
- Shows this when he kills a giant werewolf with his bare hands to protect Carol, then carries her down through thick mountain snow in the midst of the worst blizzard in a century and when he ruffles Diana's hair after she gives him a hug.
Genius Bruiser: He's a Super-Soldier and a Super Spy, who helped train Natasha. It kind of comes with the territory.
Goggles Do Something Unusual: His can look through the EM spectrum, at least.
The Heavy: He does most of HYDRA's elite fieldwork, as he did the Red Room's.
Heel–Face Turn: In chapter 60, once he gets his mind back.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Only to be re-brainwashed by HYDRA in Chapter 74, and then permanently freed from them in Chapter 77 by Doctor Strange.
Hero Killer: As the Winter Soldier, he's racked up quite the tally. JFK, Brian Falsworth a.k.a. Captain Britain, Arthur Weasley... though admittedly, the last one was a Mercy Kill, since the alternative was handing him over, alive, to Lucius Malfoy and Gravemoss.
Human Popsicle: Usually kept on ice, contributing to his longevity, and after the Cold War ended, he spent around fifteen years on ice before HYDRA found him.
I Have Many Names: He's picked up a lot, many of which Gravemoss quotes: the Shield Breaker, the Sleeping Death, the Ice Warrior and Europe's Terror, not to mention the Black Death. President Ellis' internal monologue adds a couple more: the Terror of the Western World and the Archenemy of Democracy. More usually, though, he's referred to as James (by Natasha), Buck (by Steve), Comrade Winter (by Ivan), the Soldier (by just about everyone else), and Bucky or Sergeant Barnes (by most post final Heel–Face Turn).
Implacable Man: He just does. Not. Stop.
Kid Has a Point: When Ron queries who put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, he lampshades that Harry's got a truly ridiculous number of enemies and potential enemies, not just Voldemort. Bucky admits he's not wrong.
Knight of Cerebus: While Gravemoss is the one who really propels the story into darker waters, his appearance signals the end of the Lighter and Softer opening to the fic.
The Leader: While he normally defers to Steve, and sometimes to Harry (though for the latter, in the manner of an experienced sergeant guiding an inexperienced junior officer, where the deference is nominal at best), he's a very capable tactician and commander when it comes to it, as he demonstrates in Bloody Hell.
Lightning Bruiser: On a human/Super-Soldier level - when dealing with serious superhumans, he's more Weak, but Skilled. He hits hard enough to crumple titanium and is quicker off the mark than Steve, a fellow Super-Soldier (though the latter is quicker over distance).
Living Weapon: Every bit of him is designed to be an unstoppable killing machine, and when he gets going, he shows every bit of how effective this design made him.
Loophole Abuse: Whenever his masters tried to get him to harm a child. Eventually, they stopped trying to make him, since it wasn't worth the effort and they had other, less principled assassins to turn to.
Mage Killer: Unlike most examples, he's not specifically designed for this, but as two squadrons of Europe's best Aurors found in 1973 and at least twenty Ministry wizards, including several Aurors and Arthur Weasley, found out in chapters 70/71, he's very good at it.
Malevolent Masked Man: A classic example as the Winter Soldier. Ultimately subverted, however. He's a victim of brainwashing, who steadily regains control of his mind and body.
The Mentor: To Harry, in Ghosts of the Past, especially following Forever Red, calmly and patiently helping him come to terms with the whole Red Son/Dark Phoenix fiasco. As a result, he's one of the few people a traumatised, recalcitrant, and extraordinarily tetchy Harry actually listens to and behaves for, to the point where Bucky's able to talk him down when the Dark Phoenix briefly flared up.
Mercy Kill: Delivers one via Neck Snap to Arthur Weasley, in order to spare him being tortured by HYDRA, or worse, being handed off to Gravemoss.
The Mole: Is this to Lucius Malfoy's HYDRA as of Chapter 61. He gets caught in chapter 74.
Mother Russia Makes You Strong: A fairly textbook example, except he's not actually Russian.
Nerves of Steel: Pretty much nothing fazes him, other than an internal crisis based on the clash between his programming and his real personality. When it comes to combat and mayhem, however, aside from an Oh, Crap! moment when he hears the infamous *snikt*, and a surprised internal moment when an aged-up Harry unleashes a 'small' fire-blast, nothing even makes him skip a beat.
- Even after his Heel–Face Turn, pretty much the only time he comes even close to panic are when confronting a gigantic vampire bear in close quarters without any suitable weapons, and when he hears that Ron, Hermione, George, and Fred are in Hogsmeade being chased by the Elder Wyrm's constructs.
Noodle Incident: During his time as the Winter Soldier, he "ran into" Captain Mar-Vell once, and noted that he seemed like a good man. Given what he was up to in those days, this may also count as an Offscreen Moment of Awesome for one or both of them.
- According to them, he's also "encountered" Zemo and fought alongside Sabretooth sometime in the late '70s or so, but nothing more is known.
- The details of his fight with Wolverine in 1986 aren't known, either, beyond the fact that it was brutal and it ended with Logan having a building dropped on him.
- When speaking to Ron and Hermione, he mentions being familiar with magical contracts and how they work.
- At one point, he says very dryly that when it comes to using dismembered undead monsters as projectiles, Harry and Carol weren't the first to do it. It's unclear whether he means this in general, or the precise context of wrecking an Airborne Aircraft Carrier.
Nothing Is Scarier: His reputation depicts him as more wraith than man and next to nothing is known about him, which is what makes him so frightening.
One-Man Army: Mentioned as having ripped through two squadrons of Europe's best Aurors in 1973. On-screen, he ambushes Steve, Clint and Natasha and has the upper-hand, only hesitating because of his returning memories. He later tears through the Ministry, the SHIELD Helicarrier and the White House, going up against dozens of wizards, SHIELD Agents, Steve, Clint, Natasha and Wolverine, putting the President at gunpoint and only hesitating because of his returning memories all in the same chapter.
Pragmatic Hero: His remit in Ghosts is teaching Harry to be this. He leads by example in chapter 32, being willing to risk locking Remus outside the Mansion with Dracula and a whole bunch of other vampires rather than risk said vampires arriving before the defences are up, and wallops Carol in the stomach to stuff her into an Iron Man armour in order to get her away from Dracula, when she's nobly refusing to leave the others - her brother among them - and then knocks her out and puts the suit on auto-pilot to prevent her from turning the suit around to help them.
Precision F-Strike: When he finally gets his mind back. "Well. Fuck the mission, then."
- And then another one when he realizes he's facing down an angry Wolverine.
Professional Killer: He was designed to be the ultimate in this department. It was a complete success.
Properly Paranoid: Post Heel–Face Turn, he doesn't totally trust himself, and asks Tony both to lo-jack his arm and install a remote disabling function, just in case he gets taken over again. Natasha is Not Pleased by this.
The Quiet One: He was The Speechless (see below) pre-Heel–Face Turn. Afterwards, he still doesn't talk much, generally not feeling the need. He's described as making the Grey Lady look noisy by comparison, through a combination of this trope and an uncanny ability to move in absolute silence and fade into the foreground (no one is entirely sure how).
Really 700 Years Old: Over ninety years old, and really does not look it.
Red Baron: He is almost invariably referred to solely by his moniker, 'the Winter Soldier' or simply, 'the Soldier', pre Heel–Face Turn.
Redemption Promotion: On balance. While the Soldier was an implacable One-Man Army, and Bucky Barnes lacks the same degree of implacability, he has all that skill and experience, combined with the ability to think for himself outside of immediate operational parameters. Additionally, he can revert to the Soldier persona if he needs to get something done quickly and brutally.
Reforged into a Minion: By the Red Room, before later being co-opted by HYDRA.
Reverse Grip: When he's in a knife fight, he almost invariably wields a blade this way - and he's good enough at it to, while carrying several broken ribs, stalemate Wolverine.
Sealed Badass in a Can: As the Winter Soldier, used by both the Red Room and HYDRA.
Sensei for Scoundrels: Is set to become a benevolent version of this to Harry as of Ghosts of the Past, teaching him to look after himself without just blowing up/burning down everything in sight and how to deal with his experiences as the Red Son.
Shrouded in Myth: Unlike in the films or the comics, at some point a rumour about him got out and snowballed. As a result, he was infamous and is mentioned as featuring as the antagonist of the first book of the In-Universe version of The Bourne Series instead of Carlos the Jackal. Unlike the Jackal, however, beyond his codename, no one knew anything about him, which just made it worse. Bruce describes him as 'the bogeyman of the Cold War.'
Silent Antagonist: See The Voiceless.
Sinister Shades: His opaque goggles, much like in the film.
Soviet Super Science: A product of it.
The Speechless: As the Winter Solder, he can't speak if he hasn't been ordered to. He can, however, communicate just fine when he wants to. He and Natasha actually formed their own personal sign language, which Ivan Petrovitch managed to learn and used to communicate with the Soldier when the latter rescued him from a Red Room snatch squad. Also, at the same time, he reveals that he's managed to learn to speak on his own.
Stealth Hi/Bye: He's renowned for moving extremely quietly, to the point that it remains even after his Heel–Face Turn. By the time he's serving as Harry's bodyguard, a Running Gag is Hogwarts students seriously speculating that he's part ghost.
Super-Persistent Predator: As the Soldier, he just will not give up.
Superpowered Evil Side: As of Ghosts, the Soldier persona has become this.
Super-Reflexes: As a super-soldier, this is a given, best demonstrated in chapter 32 of Ghosts, when he shoots multiple vampires an instant after being teleported into their midst, while they and Harry are taking a moment to adjust.
Super-Soldier: One of the few successful examples.
Taught by Experience: Partially played for laughs. His qualifications for bodyguarding Harry include the fact that he can operate under the radar, his vast amount of experience as pretty much the master spy and assassin, and the fact that it's not his first time shepherding a young hothead with more heroic instincts than common sense.
Throw the Dog a Bone: After everything that happened to him in Tragic Villain below, at the end of Child of the Storm, he's finally freed from HYDRA and the Red Room, deprogrammed by Doctor Strange, and reunited with Natasha and Steve.
Tragic Villain: In spades. He's spent decades as little more than a Living Weapon, and the only times he's managed to fight his way to being anything else - when he formed a long-term bond with Natasha and when he finally managed to throw off most of HYDRA's programming in chapter 60 and began to work as The Mole to undermine their missions - his masters of both times figured it out, brainwashed him and wiped his memories again.
Undying Loyalty: HYDRA, as the Red Room before them, attempt to enforce this by brainwashing. However, the only person he really holds this towards is Natasha, and to a degree, Steve.
Water Wake Up: Deals with Harry being in a psychic trance, complete with Psychic Nosebleed, and possibly being too hot to touch in chapter 30 of Ghosts by dumping a glass of water on his face.
Weak, but Skilled: Despite being a Super-Soldier, he's still this compared to Steve, and certainly to more powerful superhumans.
Wham Line: He finally speaks in chapter 67.
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: One of the few things that shows he's actually a man, not a machine, taking it to Friend to All Children levels.
You Are Not Ready: Delivers a speech, no matter how politely worded, along these lines to Ron and Hermione when they want to help in chapter 30 of Ghosts. Unlike Harry, they don't have the experience or training to handle the threat ( Grey Court vampires), and would at best serve as The Load.

Harry Dresden

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden

I'm gonna need a bigger dinosaur.

Wizard PI and the black sheep of the White Council, who occasionally consults for CPD and SHIELD. Deadpan Snarker and a Hero of Another Story, meaning that his POV sections (written in first person, as in the books) offer a different perspective on the events of the series. Has a certain knack for Playing with Fire, and following the two-shot side story Chaos Reigns, set just before chapter 60 of Child of the Storm, is Wanda's Apprentice. And boyfriend. From then on, he becomes an important secondary character, particularly in Ghosts of the Past, with his connections in Faerie being key to the resolution of the Forever Red arc, and narrating the Chicago based portion of the following arc, Bloody Hell (which partially adapts Dead Beat) - at which point, as canon, he grudgingly becomes a Warden of the Council. Unless otherwise noted, all tropes that apply to him before Proven Guilty still apply.

The Archmage: Potentially. Wanda takes him on as her apprentice, putting him in line for Sorcerer Supreme some day.
Ascended Fanboy: Goes from a fan of Wanda to being her student and boyfriend.
Back-to-Back Badasses: With Ward against the veidrdraugar in Paris, and with Wanda against the N'Garai in Chicago.
Badass Adorable: Fount of pop culture references. Absolute sweetheart. One of the most powerful and dangerous wizards alive. This trope is actually hinted to be part of what attracts Wanda to him, as his shyness is a contrast to most of the men in her life—Magneto, Doctor Strange, Constantine, and Hawkeye—who are all supremely confident almost 24/7 (or at least, hide it well when they're not), while Harry is much more shy.
Badass on Paper: Downplayed. He is genuinely badass, but as he observes, his achievements sound a lot more impressive until you know about the caveats, the near-misses, etcetera.
Badass Teacher: Bruce Wayne is his PI apprentice (and learning magical theory, though he has no magic of his own). Harry, meanwhile, is later, justly said by an excited Ned Leeds to be "Aragorn [as] a Jedi."
Battle Couple: Becomes one with Wanda as of the end of Chaos Reigns.
Big Damn Heroes: In the Forever Red arc, he, Fix, Maddie, Jono and Strange play this when getting Harry (or rather, the 'phoenix feather' containing Harry's mind) out of the Red Room's hands.
Blue-Collar Warlock: He never completed his formal education, and his magical education was spotty. Oh, and he makes his living as a PI, occasionally discreetly supported by the Wayne family.
Book Dumb: Both in terms of the mortal and magical worlds. He's smart (in the long run), but he never completed formal muggle education, and his magical education suffered from Crippling Over Specialisation: he's widely recognised as a world-class tracker and a top-class combat Wizard. However, outside of combat and thaumaturgy, his knowledge is relatively limited and he remarks that hanging around Wanda, Dumbledore, and Loki only, to him, underlines how little he knows. On the other hand, that company would make anyone feel a bit Overshadowed by Awesome.
Chivalrous Pervert: Wanda notices this trait, and amuses herself by teasing him occasionally.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: Coulson plays on it to get him involved in a case that is very much out of his league.
Combat Pragmatist: As his canon self observes, if you ever find yourself in a fair fight, someone's done something wrong.
Crippling Over Specialisation: The result of training from Justin Du Morne that focused on combat magic and less on the more subtle aspects/mysteries of the art, and secondary training from Ebenezar McCoy that focused on not going bad. As a result, he's excellent at the nuts and bolts of magic, and he's a superb combat mage, but subtleties generally escape him.
Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: His former girlfriend Susan Rodriguez willingly kept mum about him impregnating her, since the kind of people Dresden tend to antagonize would relish targeting any offspring of his. It's a bit mitigated when Strange genocides the Red Court by himself, but he still can't raise Maggie openly as he's now Apprentice to the Sorceress Supreme and as such on the radar of extradimensional nasties.
Dark Is Not Evil: Has dark hair, dark eyes, and usually wears a black shirt, dark jeans, and a long black duster. He's also an utter dork - though he is capable of being ruthless should it come to it.
Deadpan Snarker: Constantly. He's the only character who can (and does) give Tony Stark a run for his money. Nick Fury has sworn to never let the two meet because of this, but they do eventually meet in in chapter 78 of the first book, and at Avengers Christmas dinner later that year. The former results in the two getting into Snark-to-Snark Combat at the celebration feast and enjoying it immensely, with a bunch of Asgardians taking bets on the outcome.
Destructive Saviour: Fury discounts him as a potential wielder of the Green Lantern Ring because of this tendency.
Doom Magnet: Nearly as much as the other Harry, thanks at least partially to rampant Chronic Hero Syndrome.
Dork Knight: Wanda explicitly notes this in her inner monologue. This trait tends to reassure people who would otherwise freak out at his raw power. Just look at his reaction to accidentally conjuring a lightsabre against Gravemoss at the Battle of London.
"If so powerful you are, why leave?"
The Dreaded: Explicitly observes that those who know that magic is real often end up seeing him as 'Darth Dresden'. Considering his resume of monsters fought/slain, this is not without reason. As a result of the Death Curse incident and his impossible survival, chapter 62 states that Gravemoss' nightmares aren't of Loki or Thor. They're of Dresden.
- Dumbledore considers hiring him, simply to see the effect his reputation would have on Fudge.
Evil Mentor: Had one in Justin DuMorne, who doubled as a Parental Substitute. Dresden killed him in single combat when he tried to put him under Mind Control. The aftereffects still haunt him decades later.
Famed In-Story: Hermione's heard of him and thinks that he's a fake (before Ron tells her he's part of the White Council and not under the Statute of Secrecy), because he's acting as a Wizard in plain sight. Ron, on the other hand, and those who are a bit more clued, know perfectly well who he is and have heard all the stories.
Flipping the Bird: When the Forest Person symbiote is dissolving his shield, he does this just as he sets off the new 'kinetic concussion grenade' feature.
"Smile, you son of a bitch."
Friend to All Children: He's particularly protective of children, being, among other things, the reason he turns down an open offer to become a Warden of the Council from Captain Luccio, only taking the second offer because he doesn't really have a choice.
- Defends Harry to the Senior Council over the whole Dark Phoenix thing in Ghosts of the Past, and is earlier willing to become the Winter Knight if it gives him the means to get Harry back.
Future Badass: While he's already no slouch in the badassery department, he's third ( later second) in line to become Sorcerer Supreme one day.
Hand Cannon: His classic Dirty Harry Special, a .44 Magnum Revolver, is a real life example. Three bullets from it almost vaporise Voldemort's head (Voldemort being a Humanoid Abomination by this point, it barely slows him down). He finally gets the requested Destroyer-powered version in Unfinished Business, and demonstrates just how powerful it is on a symbiote-infused Quintaped.
Handicapped Badass: His left hand is pretty much a nigh immovable horror prop (although slowly regrowing) following a run in with a Renfield armed with a homemade flamethrower. Unlike canon, he doesn't have pyrophobia because SHIELD put him in contact with Charles Xavier as thanks for services rendered. None of this stops him from giving an excellent account of himself against everyone and everything up to and including Gravemoss.
Hero of Another Story: He's one of the few viewpoint characters who isn't directly involved in the main plot of the first book (until the finale, and even then he's off to one side a bit) and his narration makes explicit the suggestion that he has his own adventures. He's also the star of the Chaos Reigns spinoff, and joins the narrative of Ghosts of the Past on and off.
Heroic BSoD: Has one of these when he finds out that Strange taught and manipulated his mother, leading him to wonder if he's just a weapon that Strange fashioned. Murphy gives him a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech to get him out of it.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Between his Dark and Troubled Past and not having many friends in general, he's got a pretty low sense of self-esteem, which is heavily implied to be part of the reason he's Oblivious to Love.
Homegrown Hero: Coulson indicates Chicago is coming to consider Dresden as the city's resident superhero.
Horrifying the Horror: After their encounter in the Catacombs of Paris, Gravemoss has nightmares about him.
Hot for Teacher: Following Wanda taking him on as both boyfriend and Apprentice. Needless to say, it's mutual.
I Am Having Soul Pains: He's unfortunately prone to this, usually after having got a Poke in the Third Eye.
- He's practically at ground zero when Gravemoss pulls his version of familicide and it goes... badly.
- He uses the Sight on some of the veidrdraugar to get a better idea of what he's dealing with, which is promptly then hijacked by Chthon. This does not go well.
- In Ghosts, he's mentioned as bleeding from the nose as a side effect of Harry and Maddie's little psychic clash.
- He uses the Sight on Harry during the latter stages of Forever Red, to see if there are any psychic wounds or spells that might have been missed and if there's anything he can do to help. He ends up getting sharply shoved back into his body by the Dark Phoenix, and he's barely able to form anything even approximating a coherent sentence for a few minutes afterwards.
Kill It with Fire: His main battle strategy.
Nick Fury: The funny thing about Harry Dresden is that you can tell where he’s been because it’s always on fire.
The Knights Who Say "Squee!": He fiercely denies that he is one. However, his reaction to meeting Wanda (and hypothetically Captain America) says otherwise. He doesn't actually squee when he meets Steve or the original Merlin, but they've all got other things on their mind at that point. Ghosts of the Past reveals that when he next met Steve, he really did squee. Steve was patient.
Laser Blade: Accidentally creates one in chapter 76 and uses it to kick Gravemoss' ass up and down Albert Bridge. In Unfinished Business, it transpires that he's figured out a spell for it. And his newly designed vibranium blasting rod functions flawlessly as one. Right down to the sound effects.
Loves the Sound of Screaming: He observes that this normally doesn't apply to him, and that there is a special place in hell for those who enjoy the suffering of their fellow creatures. When he slices off Gravemoss' hand, however, and cauterises it, drawing a horrified scream from the Necromancer, he feels a certain satisfaction. Considering that this is Gravemoss, no one can blame him.
Male Gaze: Occasionally has this, with Wanda being the recipient, and strenuously tries to resist it. Wanda finds it amusing.
Manipulative Bastard: Very much capable of this and worried about it.
May–December Romance: Wanda is fifteen years older than he is. Admittedly, given how long wizards generally live, this isn't such a huge deal, though they do have a moment of awkwardness when she reminisces about meeting his mother while he was in the womb.
The Mentor: Justin DuMorne and Ebenezar McCoy were this to him, while Harry plays this role in turn to Bruce Wayne.
Motor Mouth: He almost never shuts up. Ever. Combine this with You Fight Like a Cow, and it's easy to see why a lot of the bad guys really hate him.
"Not So Different" Remark: Fears that he's similar to John Constantine, who he was frequently compared to as a young man by some on the Council and not as a compliment. As he notes, not without reason, either. Wanda disagrees, remarking that he cares about others in a way that Constantine either can't or won't (because it hurts too much).
Not-So-Phony Psychic: Following the Chitauri invasion in New York City, people started to think the guy calling himself a wizard just might be the real deal. Chicago actually grew to consider him their resident superhero.
Oblivious to Love: As per canon, because when it comes to interpersonal relationships he has the self-esteem of old lettuce. He completely misses Wanda's flirting with him to the point of outright denial. It takes her giving him The Big Damn Kiss to get the point.
Occult Detective: One of the best on the planet, leading to his occasional employment by SHIELD.
Oh, Crap!: In the presence of Mab. Considering that Mab is The Dreaded for many excellent reasons, and is interested in Dresden becoming her latest Winter Knight, this is an entirely rational reaction.
Old-School Chivalry: Something of an exponent of this, to Murphy's irritation (which is generally why he does it around her). Wanda, by contrast, finds it adorable. Faintly ridiculous, but adorable.
Past Experience Nightmare: The aftermath of Forever Red reveals that he still has these with a Warden, likely Morgan, coming after him to chop off his head, years after that was a likely prospect.
Poke in the Third Eye: He's frequently on the receiving end, much to his chagrin.
Pop-Cultured Badass: Rarely does he miss a chance to make a pop-culture reference, especially in the midst of a fight.
Properly Paranoid: After Paris, goes everywhere armed to the teeth with mystical and mundane weaponry. As he notes in his original series, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon that wants to eat your face."
Red Baron: Sometimes referred to simply as 'The Detective' or 'The Wizard of Chicago'.
Sad Clown: His life has had a tendency to suck and his humour is a direct response.
Scarily Competent Tracker: The main reason that SHIELD employs him every so often. He's one of the best magical trackers on the planet.
Smarter Than You Look: He's much sharper than he lets on, with an excellent analytical mind - he's a (openly magical) PI, after all. For instance, in Ghosts, he's the first to put together exactly why Voldemort is willingly working with Selene.
Smooch of Victory: On the receiving end of one from Wanda in Chaos Reigns.
Snark-to-Snark Combat: With Tony Stark, and both of them love every second of it. Everyone else is horrified, amused, taking bets, or some combination thereof.
Super Hero Packing Heat: Carries a .44 Magnum revolver, a Dirty Harry special, as an addition to his magic, and occasional auxiliary club. He ends up using it to put three rounds into Voldemort's head from close range. To his disbelief, it barely slows him down. In Unfinished Business, he finally upgrades to the Destroyer based Hand Cannon that Coulson promised him.
Took a Level in Badass: He takes many during the course of the story, largely thanks to Wanda's tutelage and being in dangerous circumstances. In the first book, he's having trouble with relatively standard demons and zombies, before he successfully hurts Gravemoss more by luck than judgement in the finale. In Unfinished Business, the second book's spin-off, he's polishing off Man-Things, before going one on three against a symbiote-possessed feral Archangel, an armoured magic-resistant Quintaped the size of a small tank, and a Forest Person - which means a centuries/millennia old super-wizard that's built like Hagrid, even before the symbiote's Lovecraftian Superpowers are taken into account and winning. Heck, the latter is the only one that actually gives him trouble.
Touched by Vorlons: Uriel gives him Soulfire ahead of schedule in recognition of his willingness to die to destroy Gravemoss and protect Agent Ward and Sif's temporarily dead body. He uses it, in the form of a freaking lightsabre, to kick Gravemoss' ass up and down Albert Bridge, and later as an ace in the hole to piss off Voldemort in a duel (though the latter nearly gets him killed).
Unwitting Pawn: The Council are worried that he might be Strange's - to be exact, that Strange picked Dresden, a Wizard feared and mistrusted by many on the Council, specifically to get at the Council, an organisation that he [Strange] dislikes intensely. Dresden admits that, having seen Strange at work, he can't deny the possibility.
Weaponized Teleportation: He's got a Sling Ring by Unfinished Business, but is wary of travelling through its portals due to "old Nevernever anxieties" (though he is forced to do so at least once). However, he's perfectly comfortable opening a small portal five inches from the underbelly of a tank-sized supernatural monster and opening up with his Destroyer-powered Hand Cannon.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Was taught this by Ebenezar McCoy, and firmly sticks to the belief that those with power should use it wisely and well, for the good of others. This is why he's so angered to discover that the man who taught him this is none other than the Council's assassin.
You Fight Like a Cow: Like canon (which is unsurprising, since Jim Butcher explicitly described him as 'Peter Parker if he'd been bitten by a radioactive wizard'). It drives friends and enemies alike nuts, with occasionally mixed results.

Doctor Strange

Doctor Stephen Strange a.k.a. Gwion Bach a.k.a. Taliesin

I am the Sorcerer Supreme, Miss Grey. Mistakes and misapprehensions are things that happen to other people.

The mysterious Sorcerer Supreme, like his canon counterpart, deputed with protecting the universe from things, and people, who would destroy it/rule it. Unlike his canon counterpart, he is a mixture of Seer and time traveller, pursuing what is an almost entirely unknown agenda, and is influencing events to that end. Very, very rarely gives a straight answer, and even something that appears to be a straight answer is likely nothing of the sort. Ultimately reveals that he's preparing Earth to face off against Thanos.

In Ghosts of the Past, he's engaged in continuing his machinations, but in the face of interference from Nathaniel Essex a.k.a. Sinister, who is invisible to his Sight, the increasing onset of his own mortality, and an obsessive drive to make amends for his failure to save Maddie Pryor he reveals more of the exhausted and broken man beneath the mask. Half mad, desperate, and consumed with an obsessive desire for revenge, he's more unpredictable and dangerous than ever. He also fakes his death to pass the title and mantle of Sorcerer Supreme to Wanda.

Currently referenced under his main counterpart's tab in the House of Magic and on the Time Lord page. In the latter case, he is compared to the Time Lord Victorious. ^note

The Ace: The purest example in the series, even if he is a broken one.
- He lacks Wanda or Merlin's raw power but he is by far the most skilled wizard in the series. He's also exceptionally intelligent, confident and in control (when he isn't, something is very wrong). Dumbledore reckons that Strange would wipe the floor with Loki, and Sif reckons that he could probably beat Odin. Given what he does to Nimue in Unfinished Business, these are probably not bad guesses.
- His mastery of time magic exceeds even Merlin's, despite Merlin being a Time Master in his own right. This is unsurprising, given that Strange was altered by the Time Stone.
- He's also a superb doctor, and possibly the greatest musician ever to live, even though the latter was only ever a hobby.
The Ageless: He's looked much the same since the 6th century, and with time travel he's most of 500,000 years old. He thinks. He lost count after the first 100,000.
A God I Am Not: Despite the sheer scale of his ego (he casually manipulates the Endless, and takes a certain glee in bullying the Council Elite of Skyfathers), he's actually surprisingly firm on this score. When a discussion of what it means to be counted as a god comes up in Ghosts, he implies that he's taken steps to discourage worship in the past, remarking dismissively that while he fits most of the criteria, so do many things.
All According to Plan: Occasionally says this, because it usually is.
All-Loving Hero: Despite his utterly ruthless methods and cold-blooded manipulations, he's driven by a desire to protect all life, if to Knight Templar extents. Indeed, it's implied that the Time Stone exploited this, vastly expanding his powers as a seer so he couldn't fail to see all the help that was needed, that he could now give.
- It's also all but confirmed that he was once a very straight example of this trope as Taliesin, delighting in being a doctor. Then Camlann happened, and he lost everything. Something broke in him that never quite healed, and the Time Stone made him an offer, which turned him into the Strange we now know.
The Aloner: Even when he works with others, as he does in the main story, he's usually doing his own thing and manipulating them into position - and even that much socialising is drastically atypical by his standards.
Ambiguously Human: Ghosts calls into question what Strange actually is - Forever Red reveals that temporal energy flows through him, as if he's a part of it, instead of around it. It turns out that he's human - but altered by the Time Stone.
Ancient Conspiracy: Through a lot of time travel and great effort, has become a one man version of this trope. As Dumbledore observes, he seems to be involved in everything. Book II starts revealing the sheer depth of his plans, and just how far back their roots go. At one point, Dresden observes that more or less everything for the last few thousand years at least either has his fingerprints all over it, or is affected by something that does. And if it doesn't, that's because he felt it didn't need to.
Anti-Hero: A hard-core Unscrupulous Hero of the Magnificent Bastard variety. As this description might suggest, he's basically Havelock Vetinari with an insight into the future, a snappy outfit, immense magical abilities, and a truly warped sense of humour.
- During Forever Red, he's a straight Byronic Hero, one who fits the famous quote "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" like a glove. In his more lucid moments, he sadly muses about how in some ways, he's fallen into the He Who Fights Monsters trap. While he recovers, his opinion of himself doesn't change, and he takes steps to avoid his students turning out like him.
Anti-Role Model: Explicitly invokes this when talking to Gorakhnath - an old mentor and colleague with whom he disagrees philosophically - about lessons for Harry in the sequel. He's Necessarily Evil and does not want anyone turning out like him.
Appeal to Force: When too tired/annoyed/short on time to resort to his usual manipulation (something that happens increasingly in the sequel), as both the White Council and the Council Elite of Skyfathers find out. It usually works because absolutely no one wants to cross him.
Arch-Enemy:
- Mordred was his, his equal and opposite - though he bitterly remarks that while Mordred was the better swordsman, he was the better mage, and if he'd been at the crucial battle, he'd have "turned the little bastard inside out." One gets the feeling that he wasn't being metaphorical. It also helps explain why Camlann affects him so much.
- It's heavily implied that Thanos is this to him, since all of Strange's manipulations are for the purpose of defeating him when he eventually comes to Earth.
The Archmage: The archetypal example in the 'verse. He's not even close to the most powerful practitioner, but he is the most skilled by a very long way, and by far the deadliest.
Author Avatar: There's a certain similarity between his tone and that of the author, who has tacitly acknowledged that Strange is as close to this trope as he's going to write.
Autobots, Rock Out!: Invokes this from time to time in the sequel, using his temporal powers to pick the perfect moment. Part of it is undoubtedly because, as Taliesin, perhaps the greatest bard ever to live, he understands both the mystical and mundane power of music on a fundamental level. The other part, undoubtedly, is because he is a melodramatic troll.
- Once, he gets Tony to do it. Tony being Tony and no stranger to this himself, he happily obliges, hacking the Valiant to give Harry a suitable entrance with "Thunderstruck".
- Then twice in Unfinished Business, when he turns the entire city of New Orleans into a giant amp, just to play "We Will Rock You" that's audible over twenty miles away, over the engines of a super-cruising Quinjet. No one is particularly surprised, either by the incident or who is responsible. Later, he changes the track to a famous cover that starts "C Minor, put it in C Minor..." After that, he spends the entire final battle picking the right track for the right moment, to inspire, to weave spells to mitigate Nimue's plans... and to annoy the shit out of her.
Badass Boast: He's rarely short of these, partly thanks to his theatrical flair, partly because he really is that good.
- To Jean Grey, who thinks he's mistaken about her being stronger than Professor Xavier:
"Miss Grey, I am the Sorcerer Supreme. Mistakes and misapprehensions are things that happen to other people." ^note
- To Odin, when the latter asks him what kind of game he's playing:
"The only kind of game I ever play, sire. The kind whose rules I write, whose deck I stack in my own favour, whose course I have plotted before it has even begun. In short, sire, it is the kind of game that I intend to win."
- And a brief, but resounding, one in chapter 78:
"Check. Check and Mate."
- In Ghosts, he delivers a furious, half-mad one to the Council Elite of Skyfathers, backed by the Tesseract.
"I am the Sorcerer Supreme. I am the Evergreen Man, the Lord of Time, and I know my place perfectly well. I fight beings like you every single day. I have guarded reality against them for centuries, and for the most part, I have done it alone. For centuries I have stood, and I stand here still, now with an Infinity Stone in my hand. Do you really think that you, any of you, is a match for me? So how dare you? How dare any of you? How dare any of you raise your voices to me!"
- He mentions in the second book that "I find that if I don't commit genocide every now and then, people forget who I am."
- In Unfinished Business, he very coolly tells the villain that, "I think that you are sensible enough not to underestimate me, whatever form I may take," and later promises her that if any permanent harm has come to Carol, he will make her "a prime example of exactly why I am so feared."
- He gets a more lighthearted one regarding his musical skills later on in the same story, when Carol asks if he's as good a musician - and therefore at Magic Music - as she thinks he is. His answer?
"'... well, it might be a sin, but I'll take your bet, you're gonna regret, 'cos I'm the best there's ever been.'"
Badass Teacher: This is the person who taught Apocalypse, Wanda Maximoff, and Harry how to fight (well, he was one of Harry's mentors, anyway). He's also taught at Hogwarts a couple of times. Oh, and he's possibly the purest example of The Dreaded in the story other than Thanos himself, and for damn good reason.
The Bard: He used to be Camelot's Court Bard, as well as its Court Physician. Considering that he used to be called Taliesin, this is perhaps not so surprising - yeah, he was one of the greatest bards of all time, as a hobby. If you believe his quipped claim at the end of Unfinished Business, couched in a Badass Boast and a reference to "The Devil Went Down To Georgia", he's "the best there's ever been."
Batman Gambit: There is a reason that the summary of the first book on the main page notes that "everyone dances on the puppet-strings of the Sorcerer Supreme". It's why people will do what he wants them to, whether they want to or not, because he knows what their buttons are and how to press them. Hell, he could give the Trope Namer lessons (though, like Batman, many people are aware he's doing this and understandably resent it).
Bearer of Bad News: Frequently. As he notes to Jean, this is usually why people aren't that happy to see him.
Been There, Shaped History: Usually by manipulating the key players, as Dresden notes in Book II - he's been everywhere, and everywhen. Loki uses this to point out to Sif that even if there was a clue to something Strange didn't want them to find out yet, he'd have erased it long ago.
Beware the Silly Ones: He may make jokes, drop pop-culture references all over the place, and play at being a fairly light-hearted Great Gazoo, but there is a reason that he is feared above all others. Those who underestimate him either don't live to regret it, or wish that they hadn't. One of his nastier tricks was making a Physical God vomit up pieces of her rotting soul, and he claims that by his standards, this wasn't torture.
Beyond the Impossible: His magic frequently verges on this, and he was involved in the construction of Demonreach, itself a canonical example. Harry sourly speculates that Strange's abilities might well be impossible, but Strange decided he didn't care and reality decided it didn't want any trouble.
Big Brother Worship: One of the very few people that he shows deference to, and the only person he actually looks up to, is Merlin, who was the closest thing he had to an older brother growing up.
Big Entrance: Somehow manages to combine this with a Stealth Hi/Bye in Ghosts when he decides to use the Tesseract to whisk the Council Elite of Skyfathers to the Rock of Eternity.
Big Good: He commands the respect of all the heroes, and they all do what he tells them to, albeit sometimes grudgingly (if for no other reason than that they know things will get bad/even worse if they don't).
Break the Haughty:
- Does this to Lucius Malfoy with a single sentence.
- Undergoes a little of this himself with Forever Red, where his limits are brutally exposed and he's forced to almost kill himself to rerail events. While his signature confidence and arrogance reasserts itself afterwards, he's more open about his limitations, and drops his guard to show much more of his human side, vulnerabilities and all.
Broken Ace:
- As shown in Forever Red when stress, a villainous Spanner in the Works, exhaustion, and a manic desire to 'make it right' regarding Maddie Pryor/Rachel Grey and what Essex did to her, which Strange failed to prevent peel away his Mask of Sanity. The result is an exhausted, emaciated wreck who's wracked with guilt, clinging on to the remnants of his sanity by the tips of his fingers, and consumed with a desire for revenge... but nevertheless still capable of making the world dance to his tune.
- When he recounts his origin, it seems that missing out on Camlann led to this. It's also implied that he hates himself for what he's become, with Ghosts revealing that he "only ever wanted to be a doctor".
- Also, his first apprentice and reading between the lines, surrogate son, Used to Be a Sweet Kid. Unfortunately, he turned out to be Apocalypse, turning on Strange and nearly killing him, forcing Strange to extreme measures to put him down and leaving him deeply embittered.
Brought Down to Badass: Despite his Seer powers being effectively taken out of the equation in Forever Red and later permanently losing the powers associated with the position of Sorcerer Supreme when he passes it on to Wanda, he is still considered to be the most dangerous being in the universe by Gorakhnath and Harry Dresden (both of whom, mind you, have met the Endless and seen them at work). Given what he later proves capable of, odds are good that they're right.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's weird to put it mildly, but he's both off-the-charts brilliant and incredibly effective.
Byronic Hero: A textbook example by the Forever Red arc of Ghosts, when he's essentially gone mad.
Cheshire Cat Grin: While he usually wears a slight smile, since everything is pretty much All According to Plan (excepting the Forever Red arc of the sequel, when it is very much not), when he's tap-dancing on the edge of sanity and/or about to pull something spectacular (and usually, terrifying), it widens into something downright manic, with far too much teeth for anyone's comfort.
The Chessmaster: Both literal and figurative.
- He's barely seen prior to the finale of Book I, because rarely needs to be. He's at least five steps ahead of everyone else, smoothly navigating the Gambit Pileup, and the finale has him running the show like a conductor.
- And Forever Red shows what happens when it all goes off the rails, with only on the fly manipulations keeping it from total disaster. The results are not pretty and a large part of why people put up with him.
The Chooser of the One: He does not take an interest in people lightly, and when he does, he's usually set to mould them into a hero - or, like another Doctor, a weapon.
Combat Pragmatist: Not often seen, since his fights are usually offscreen, but he's happy to use hand-to-hand combat as well as magic in fights, as seen in his duel with Chthon. Additionally, when Maddie stops his first plan of tormenting Sinister, Strange simply kills him with one blow.
Composite Character: Has more than a little of The Phantom Stranger about him, mixed in with the usual Doctor Strange, as well as definite flavours of various incarnations of the Doctor, both Belgarath and the Light Prophecy, and Lord Vetinari. And, intriguingly, he has a lot of parallels with Merlin in the early myths.
Consummate Liar: Though don't call him one if you want to live. He never lies, exactly, but he can bend the truth almost beyond recognition, in ways that would have the Fae taking notes. As Death puts it:
"Doctor Strange almost always tells the truth and almost never tells the whole truth."
Control Freak: A genuinely well-intentioned variant on this, and not entirely without reason: he's got the road map to defeating Thanos with minimal casualties in his head. It's also why he tends to pop up during crises, to manage the situation to his satisfaction - and usually down to the last detail. It's suggested that this tendency has led to him... intervening when other seers have tried to manipulate history to their own ends, such as the Norns. However, also not without reason, a lot of people take issue with this.
Cool and Unusual Punishment: As is noted in the narration, he has a wicked sense of humour, and when the mood takes him, he's capable of getting exceptionally nasty. Just ask Nimue. Sticking her in a golf ball was probably the kindest part of what he did to her.
Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Zig-Zagged.
- Yes, he's very cool, and he regards all rules that he doesn't make as being made to be broken, as creatively as possible. It's implied that this is because he's only ever served one King, Arthur, and doesn't feel any authority figure since has lived up to his example.
- On the other hand, while it sometimes has positive results, this tendency is described as not being a good thing. The White Council in particular are depicted as having a point in their disputes with him: their entire structure is designed to epitomise The Fettered, keeping wandless practitioners in particular in check. Strange, however, is the archetypal example of The Unfettered, and takes on the kind of power that the Council (not unreasonably) thinks that no one should ever have.
  - Gorakhnath, a sometime mentor of his, noted that this trope is why he isn't happy with Strange, as he feels that Strange is too arrogant and has no one to hold him back.
  - It's also noted by Ebenezar that while stunts such as Strange's (in)famous challenge to the Council kept a girl from being executed, it also lessened the influence and reputation that organizations such as the Council use to keep monsters in line.
Crazy Is Cool: He's completely mad, though how much is Obfuscating Insanity is occasionally up for debate. Whichever is the case, his battle tactics tend to be off the wall and decidedly kooky. This is the man who stabilised the world's magic with Magic Music, piped through a skyscraper sized Magitek amp, picking tunes specifically to annoy the Arc Villain.
Crazy-Prepared: His knowledge of the future and ability to travel through time and arrange it how he pleases means that, unless he hits one of his very few blind spots, he's always prepared for absolutely everything. When he does hit one of those blind spots, however, everything goes off the rails very quickly.
Creepy Awesome: During Forever Red, when he seems to have a very poor grasp of sanity, but, if anything, to have dialled up his taste for the spectacular.
Creepy Good: He's one of the good guys, if a Well-Intentioned Extremist... but he can also be extremely disturbing, especially if his Mask of Sanity starts slipping. He also occasionally does creepy things, such as gazing at people from the shadows or sneaking up on them, just for the heck of it.
The Creon: Isn't remotely interested in assuming absolute power, for all that he could probably take over the world in an afternoon if he ever felt like it. Instead, he much prefers to manipulate those in charge to doing as he wishes, usually while making them think that they're doing what they want in the process.
Cruel Mercy: As part of his reputation for "creative nastiness." After the Disir kidnapped Harry, he restored their consciences and trapped them inside a crystal ball (apparently for as long as he pleases, which considering his lifespan and temporal abilities, could be a very long time), haunted by the ghosts of their victims.
Cryptic Conversation: If he's talking about anything of substance, he defaults to this. The rare exceptions are always notable.
Cursed with Awesome: The Time Stone enhanced his Time Master abilities manyfold and gave him a vastly extended lifespan. This led to roughly 500,000 years' worth of manipulating people, sending good people to their deaths, running up and down the timeline to prepare the world for the arrival of Thanos, and with reactions to him generally ranging from suspicion to absolute hatred from friends, allies, enemies, and even himself.
Dark and Troubled Past: For all his confidence, wit, and power, he's got an absolutely miserable past.
- Genocide survivor, textbook case of Moses In The Bul Rushes (his first memories are of the screams and pleas for mercy from his people as they were slaughtered, and his mother crying and kissing his brow as she put him in the basket), raised under the nose of the perpetrator of the genocide, and taught to hide his magic.
- Things looked up for him after that, because this was Camelot and Arthur was most definitely not like his father, while Strange was mentored by Gaius and Merlin. Merlin became Arthur's adviser when he took the throne and Strange eventually became Court Physician and, because he had a gift for music, occasional Court Bard. And by 'occasional', we mean 'legendary'. He served happily for many years, through Camelot's Golden Age, then in his thirties, with replacements trained up, opted to try Walking the Earth to learn more and bring knowledge and glory to his home. Unfortunately, he returned and found he was Late to the Tragedy, his King was dead at the hands of a man who Strange considered to be his nemesis who he should have dealt with, so was almost everyone else, and everything they had worked to build, his home, was crumbling around him. And in his eyes, it was all his fault. And it still haunts him, even after a time travel extended life of 500,000 years. No wonder he is the way he is.
The Darkness Gazes Back: Does this early on, eyes aglow, from the shadows. It is entirely probable that he's doing it just to creep people out.
Deadpan Snarker: A lot of his dialogue is snark, apparently as a coping mechanism.
Death Seeker: By Book II, it's not only confirmed that he's going to die, but he's really quite looking forward to it.
Determinator: He just will not give up, even if it requires him to drive himself past his limits. For example, after the Forever Red arc, Frigga notes that he pushed himself so hard trying to making things right that even were he a Super-Soldier, he'd have been dead from the exertion.
The Dreaded: His involvement makes everyone nervous, and for good reason - as he himself observes, he only turns up when things are going, or are about to go, extremely wrong. Additionally, his time travelling capabilities and capacity for manipulation result in major Paranoia Fuel, as Ebenezar McCoy explains: you can never tell if you're doing something because you want to do it, or because he wants you to do it. Or, more accurately, both. Plus, he's also a wizard powerful and skillful enough to duel Physical Gods to the floor, bind Eldritch Abominations, and, in chapter 52 of Ghosts, singlehandedly commit genocide against the Red Court. And the latter was after he was permanently Brought Down to Badass.
Drowning My Sorrows: He mentions having tried this a few times, in order to get away from how miserable his life can get.
Doctor Jerk: He can be very charming and genuinely very kind, and he is absolutely dedicated to his medical duties (the sequel reveals that being a doctor was all he ever wanted) but he tends to dispense with the social graces if he's under pressure - or just plain doesn't like whoever he's talking to. However, he is universally kind to children. By Forever Red, he's barely even trying to be nice (and that in his manic phases), having lost most of his sanity through sheer stress, and even after stabilising, it's frayed at his manners.
Everyone Has Standards: While he's often flippant as a coping mechanism, the one thing he never takes lightly is the death of a child. In addition, while he is a Truth Twister good enough to rival the Fae, he will never outright lie - and suggesting that he will makes him very angry.
Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Or, Amoral Teachers Want Good Students, anyway. He was careful to raise Wanda with a strong moral compass (meaning that she often disagrees with his more amoral decisions), and in Ghosts he explicitly states to Gorakhnath that he does not want Harry turning out like him.
Exact Words: According to Fury and Death, while he Will Not Tell a Lie, it is wise to pay very close attention to what he's actually saying - there is a very good chance that it's not what you think it is.
Excellent Judge of Character: He's an extremely astute judge of people, both allies and enemies, which he uses to play everyone like puppets. However, the tale of his first apprentice, Apocalypse, makes very clear that this is a skill he's had to develop.
Expy:
- A mysterious and ancient time traveller with a frequently irreverent sense of humour, a knack for pulling off the impossible and turning his enemies' weapons against them, downright weird dress sense and, on the dark side, an absolutely terrifying rage, a reputation that makes both good guys and bad guys alike shudder at the very thought of his getting involved, something of a God Complex, and a near unparalleled talent for turning ordinary people into weapons? Sounds familiar. He even wearily lampshades it at one point.
- From another point of view, imagine a blending of Lord Vetinari, Belgarath, and the Light Prophecy, and you're close.
- Intriguingly, with his powers as a Seer, his unconventional mentoring, mixed morality, dubious sanity, and even a fondness for appearing suddenly to startle people, he closely resembles the earlier mythical Merlin (though in-universe, it's possible that those myths were partially based on him).
- As a goatee-bearded time traveller and ruthless master manipulator given abilities by a higher power to order time in order to prevent a Bad Future, pitted against Kang the Conqueror and crucially associated with the Scarlet Witch, he's got more than a few shades of Immortus about him.
Failure Knight: All his actions are driven by his failure to arrive in time to avert the death of Arthur at Camlann. Consequently, when he hits a temporal trip wire and is late, where Maddie/Rachel is concerned, he nearly kills himself setting right what went wrong.
Fatal Flaw: Poor Communication and Pride. As Harry summarises it somewhat dourly, some things are need to know, and the person who needs to know is him. This very selective attitude to information management engenders a lot of mistrust and resentment, and causes utter disaster when he does screw up.
Figure It Out Yourself: He tends to prefer operating along these lines - as Harry somewhat dourly puts it, "Doctor Strange operates on a need to know policy, and the person who needs to know is him" - though he does make exceptions if there's sufficient need/someone needs to be unambiguously informed of something immediately.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Once upon a time, he was a talented mage with some unusual abilities, but otherwise not particularly remarkable, mostly known as a brilliant musician and very skilled healer. One deal with the Time Stone later, he began the journey that turned him into Doctor Strange, The Dreaded nigh-omniscient universal scale string-puller who operates on a level equalled only by Thanos himself.
Foil: In-universe, he says that Mordred was his: both Tall, Dark, and Handsome magical boys orphaned by Uther Pendragon, one tutored in magic by Merlin and the other by Morgana, who were each other's dark reflections, as well as both being accomplished swordsmen. And while Mordred was the better swordsman, Taliesin was the better mage. However, while he remained loyal to Camelot, Mordred was directly responsible for its fall.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Reactions to Strange generally ballpark at 'wary', both because he usually heralds trouble and because he's incurably manipulative.
Friend to All Children: While not the most overt example, he does tend to be considerably nicer to children than he is to adults. He's also usually a good deal more open and honest with them.
- He kindly corrects an insecure Carol's assumption that he's taking the Green Lantern Ring back because she did something wrong. As he explains, both he and the Ring itself were very impressed. She just has quite enough to be getting on with dealing with her super soldier powers and the Ring doesn't take teenage wielders.
- During the Forever Red arc, the entire reason that he's driven himself half-mad and almost killed himself (and Frigga states bluntly that even if he was a Super-Soldier like Steve, he would have died after what he put himself through), is to try and save Maddie/Rachel from a miserable fate, deeming her fate to be his fault.
- His chummy facade when chatting with Nimue in Unfinished Business vanishes completely for a moment when he pauses to warn her that if something permanent has happened to Carol at her hands, he will make her "a prime example" of just why he is so feared.
- He's brusque but kind to Ron at the end of Ghosts, taking the time (when he's very busy) to answer his questions in private, and empathising with him over his grief.
The Gadfly: To an unbelievable extent, partly because he's the only person who knows what's going on.
- For instance, he needs a focus ritual object to reassemble Loki's body. He steals Mad-Eye Moody's wooden leg.
- And when he pinches Loki's detached head right from the heart of Asgard, he leaves behind a note.
I.O.U. One Loki
- Coulson reveals that Strange involved him in the Battle of London by stealing his car. While he was in it.
- Early in Ghosts, Strange teleports from one room to another, just so that he can sneak up behind the Avengers. It is noted that, "Like the Laws of Nature, doors and the linear progression from point A to point B in general were something Strange considered to be beneath his dignity." This tendency to appear right behind someone's right shoulder, usually to make them jump, becomes a Running Gag.
- He writes and gives Harry a book titled "Blood Magic For Morons," to express his opinion of how Harry told Ron and Hermione about the Dark Phoenix. Before Harry had told them about it.
Gentleman Wizard: Played With. Sophisticated, usually impeccably turned out and a perfect gentleman, he fits the bill. However, he gets his hands dirty, and the manners vanish when he's exhausted or in a mood.
The Ghost: In the first book. He's frequently mentioned, but we only actually see a glimpses of him and a brief cameo until chapter 60.
Glowing Eyes: His tend to glow solid white when he's lurking in the shadows. It's entirely probable that he does it solely to creep people out.
Good Is Not Nice:
- When he gets stressed and things start unravelling, his manners are usually the first thing to go.
- This sets in once you realise that he knew of pretty much all the bad things that have happened before they did and didn't lift a finger to stop them from happening, in some cases tacitly arranging for them to do so. While he's working for the greater good and is genuinely out to protect Earth, with his actions preparing Earth to take on Thanos, but still... once you think about it, it's kind of cold.
- This attitude gets him punched in the face by both Wanda and Tony - though he later suggests that he purposefully led the conversation to that point, on the grounds that Wanda at least needed to let off some frustration and he didn't mind (and/or felt he deserved it).
Great Gazoo: Bonkers, mischievous, and with immense magical powers which he uses to mess with all the cast? Absolutely. At the same time, however, none of this stops him from being easily the most dangerous (and, when he wishes, the most frightening) member of the cast by a very long way.
Grin of Audacity: It took up residence on his face in the distant past and has stayed there ever since.
Happily Adopted: Though he had no idea he was adopted until he was in his teens at the very earliest, he was by all indications very happy with his adoptive family and loved them dearly.
Harbinger of Impending Doom: As he observes, he usually turns up only when serious trouble is brewing, meaning that people are unsurprisingly not very happy to see him. The other reason is because they're usually aware that they're about to be manipulated to hell and back, and they don't have any real choice in the matter.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: In private, he's more than willing to downplay his achievements and reveal a streak of self-recrimination and self-hatred a mile wide. As he notes, roughly half a million years of watching good people die, sometimes sending them to their deaths, for the greater good is immensely wearying. Moreover, he flat-out tells a furious Thor that any torture the latter could devise would actually be cathartic, and death a relief.
Hero of Another Story: The man fights an Eldritch Abomination or three a week, he's got his own stuff to be going on with. He also ensures that the timeline follows the path he wants it to, which involves manipulating or just plain killing off plenty of bad guys behind the scenes.
I Did What I Had to Do: This is the core of who he is - and deep down, he isn't at all happy about it.
I Gave My Word: If he gives it, he will keep it. And for the love of all that is holy, do not question it if you want to live. As he puts it, it's all he has left.
- That being said, it's a very good idea to pay close attention to what exactly he says...
Immortal Genius: He's about 500 millennia old, and with the sole exception of his Archenemy Thanos, he is the smartest person in the cast, being an Omnidisciplinary Scientist in practically every field - though he does imply that, at least when it comes to Phoenix related matters and Psychic Powers, Gorakhnath knows more. Since the latter is at least 40,000 years old and made a special study of both subjects, this is not entirely surprising, and as Gorakhnath points out, Strange still knows more on that subject than he could teach Harry in a lifetime.
Impossible Thief: He dabbles, mostly for amusement value. The fact is, though, as Thor points out (when explaining why he gave Strange the Tesseract), if he wants to steal something, then there is no real way of stopping him. Strange also claims that no prison built can hold him, a claim no one contradicts.
Inexplicably Awesome:
- For the first book, and the first twenty chapters of the sequel, almost no one knows where or when he comes from or what his ultimate goal is. And even after he relates his backstory, there are still a lot of gaps. He's very happy to keep it this way.
- More than once, he performs actions which, according to other knowledgeable characters, should be impossible to perform with magic. Strange enjoys proving them wrong.
- He's somehow visited quite a few other planets as well as Earth. How, exactly, he accomplished this may never be known, though given that he's travelled to Asgard more than a few times, he probably learned there.
Insufferable Genius: Oh yes, to both. He's capable of being utterly insufferable, manipulating, teasing, and mocking more or less everyone, and breaking anyone who crosses him. Oh, and he never tells anyone anything that he doesn't deem necessary. He's also quite probably the single cleverest person in the universe, an immortal polymath who takes the definition to a whole new level.
Irony: The two greatest failures of the man (in)famous for time travel occurred because he arrived somewhere too late.
It Amused Me: The reasoning he gives for swiping Moody's wooden leg, and why he performs a lot of his more obscure actions. However, as is also noted, that's rarely the only reason.
It's All About Me: While he sees himself very much as the facilitator for other heroes, and has no illusions about his moral standing, he retains his canon counterpart's colossal ego, believing that he must walk his path to arranging the defeat of Thanos alone. Interestingly, it's suggested that he wasn't always like this, and part of it is because he really does have the plan to defeating Thanos in his head thanks to the Time Stone.
It's All My Fault: Pretty much everything in the story, either directly or indirectly. Sometimes, this is Played for Laughs; more often than not, it's Played for Drama.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's phenomenally arrogant, incredibly manipulative, and occasionally (frequently) just a prick for the sake of it. All this in between being utterly ruthless on an occasional genocidal scale, sometimes savage, and bullying when he doesn't have the time/inclination to charm or manipulate. 'Jerk' sometimes barely begins to describe it, as he is sadly aware. However, he is universally kind to and protective of children, he does his best to soften the blows as they come, and he takes the little opportunities to be kind when he can, especially from a medical point of view - as the sequel states, he "only ever wanted to be a doctor."
Kung-Fu Wizard: While we rarely see him fight, he mentions studying at K'un L'un after shutting up Chthon Iron Fist style.
Late to the Tragedy: Specifically, Camlann. It's haunted him for all his very long life, and drove him to become what he is today, vowing never to be late again. This in turn explains why being too late to stop Essex kidnapping Maddie/Rachel drove him mad and he nearly killed himself to 'make it right'.
Large Ham: He's usually quite understated and dry in his sense of humour, but... he has his moments. The scene on the Rock of Eternity, for instance, when his last threads of sanity are fraying, is a particular example. And on a lighter note, pretty much everything he does at the end of Unfinished Business.
Like a Son to Me: Had this with at least three of his apprentices. With Apocalypse, it turned out really badly, since he failed to see what he was becoming until it was too late. With Wanda, he ruefully admits that he was a better teacher than a father and left her with a number of complexes, though he did genuinely care for her. While she has many bones to pick with him, she does more or less reciprocate the feeling. To Harry, who he seems to see as a kind of grandson through Wanda, he shows genuine respect and compassion, and does his best to soften the traumas he inevitably goes through.
Living Legend/Famed In-Story: Pretty much everyone in/related to the supernatural world has heard stories of him, and just about all of them get nervous when he's around. There is good reason for this.
Long Game: He's been playing one for millennia. Hundreds of millennia, in fact.
Long-Lived: He's been around for perhaps 500,000 years, and is barely slowing down.
Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: As he demonstrates with Apocalypse, he can make this into a subtle and terrifying Badass Boast of his own - that is to say, it doesn't matter if you're a Physical God capable of killing the Queens of Faerie and have Sufficiently Advanced Technology and Sufficiently Analyzed Magic at your disposal, because it won't save you. He can erase even the mightiest empire from history, leaving just enough of it, and the dumb bastard who was stupid enough to betray him (as a soul trapped in a corpse), to act as testament to how you should never, ever, cross him.
Magic Knight: Reveals in passing that he was one as a young man, though it's unclear if he retains the skills ( Apocalypse's backstory implies that the answer is yes).
Magic Music: He was a legendary bard for damn good reason. He later teaches a class in this, and Unfinished Business establishes that yes, he quite probably is "'the best there's ever been.'"
Make an Example of Them: He's not shy of doing this to make a point, or to remind people that messing with him and his plans is a terminally bad idea - though it rarely involves anything so simple (or merciful) as killing. Indeed, he outright threatens to do this to Nimue. The most notable example, however, was actually one of his own apprentices gone to the bad. Let us just say that imprisoning his body-hopping soul in his own rotting corpse for millennia was just part of what he did.
Manipulative Bastard: Everyone - and we mean everyone - is a puppet on his strings, save possibly Thanos himself. As Dresden notes in Book II, he's been directly or indirectly behind everything on Earth and far, far beyond for thousands of years, which Murphy understandably finds terrifying.
Martial Medic: He has a very deep knowledge of human anatomy and physiology. Sometimes, this is used to heal, and sometimes for... other reasons.
Mask of Sanity: It's uncertain how sane he is, but he's usually at least able to maintain the appearance of sanity. It falls off in Forever Red, where Essex's immunity to his Sight (implied to be caused by either Apocalypse or Kang) and heavy involvement in events throws a massive Spanner in the Works. As a result, has to keep dashing through time, trying to fix events - a lot of futures end with The End of the World as We Know It - as well as being afflicted by a manic desire to 'make it right', specifically, to atone for failing to prevent Essex from stealing Maddie/Rachel when she was a baby and shaping her into a weapon. Sometimes, it's funny. Sometimes, it's tragic. Most of the time, though, the results are genuinely disturbing. In short, he's a Broken Ace, and unlike usual, the emphasis is on the 'Broken' rather than the 'Ace' part.
The Mentor: Usually he's more of a solo act, and his habit of not teaching very often in comparison to most other Sorcerers Supreme is discussed. However, he's taught at Hogwarts at least twice, and his apprentices include 'Baron' Mordo, Wanda, Margaret "Le Fay" McCoy, Harry Thorson, and Apocalypse. He also mentions having trained at least one successor in his positions as Court Bard and Court Physician of Camelot.
Metaphorically True: Specialises in these - everything he says is true. Technically.
Miles to Go Before I Sleep: From halfway through the first book, he's making extended preparations for his death - which he seems to have scheduled. In the sequel, he's increasingly characterised as wanting to die, because he's so old and so tired, and so profoundly embittered by what he's been forced to become.
Misery Builds Character: Oddly enough, no, despite his methods and belief that "the burned hand teaches best". He believes that Harry, the Avengers, and Earth as a whole, need to be prepared to face Thanos, and that going through certain trials will help. However, he is also entirely aware that just putting them through horror is not going to toughen them up - at best, it will turn them into cold, unfeeling weapons. At worst, it will destroy them. As a result, he is careful to build up support groups of friends and loved ones around Harry, and genuinely joyful moments to make sure that Harry in particular has something to live for, and thus, to fight for.
Mood-Swinger: In Forever Red. It makes him thoroughly unnerving and very dangerous to be around. It's also a clearly telegraphed sign that he's losing his damn mind. He gets better afterwards, though hints of his previous madness are still there.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Ironically, his doctorate is one of the few things about him that isn't morally ambiguous. Not only is it fairly earned (many times over), he takes his medical duties and oath extremely seriously. As for the rest... 'Morally Ambiguous' doesn't even begin to cover it. Omniscient Morality License comes closer. His personal morality is 'if it defeats Thanos, so be it', with an awareness that he's become something of a monster in the process.
My Greatest Failure: Failing to stop Essex from kidnapping Maddie/Rachel as a baby. He almost kills himself, and does drive himself halfway mad, trying to set it right.
- It is later revealed that the real reason that the above affected him so badly was because it was so reminiscent of his real greatest failure: being too late to intervene at Camlann, when King Arthur died at the hands of Mordred, Strange's personal nemesis. Even after more than five hundred thousand years, he's still unable to move on from this - something which is all but stated to be intentional on his part, as he's quietly terrified of starting to accept such things as simply 'the cost of doing business' and Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
Mysterious Past: With the exception of the Avengers, Harry, their closest friends, and a couple of others such as Gorakhnath and Merlin who knew him when he was young, no one's quite sure how old he is and where he comes from. Until Ghosts, he seems quite happy to keep it that way - and even after that explanation, there are a lot of gaps in the narrative.
The Needs of the Many: Rather regretfully invokes this at the end of Book I as his raison d'etre.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He's had five apprentices, Harry included. Wanda turned out great, Mordo fell (though Word of God has hinted that it was by Strange's design), and Margaret LeFay sauntered vaguely downward before pulling a Heel–Face Turn. So far, so more or less to plan. Chapter 67 of Ghosts reveals the identity of his first apprentice, whose fall was very much not to plan and nearly derailed everything: Apocalypse.
Noodle Incident:
- While speaking with Harry's class, he implies that he knew Orpheus - and thought he was an idiot.
- He also heavily implies that he has been worshipped as a god at least once - something which he remarks he had to take steps to discourage.
- Convinced the Vishanti to let him take in Wanda Maximoff, as they were worried that she would destroy the world. How is not exactly stated, though he does imply that as with the Council Elite, he used an Infinity Stone to bully them into it — or at least, to make them stop and listen for long enough to lay out his arguments.
- He mentions multiple apprenticeships in Atlantis while speaking to Clark, and having earned more than one psychology degree while talking to Nimue. In the latter conversation, Strange also calls Jason Blood an "old friend." Given that Blood was a Knight of Camelot, where Strange grew up, this isn't surprising.
- Ghosts has him imply that he's committed multiple genocides in addition to the Red Court.
- Dracula absolutely loathes Strange and his word games, implying that the latter's gotten the best of him at least once.
Not So Omniscient After All: He hints that his knowledge has blind spots, before Forever Red confirms it, which, under the circumstances, causes a major Oh, Crap! reaction.
Not So Stoic: In the first book, he comes across as being the great Chessmaster, staying in the shadows as he makes everyone, up to and including the Endless and Chthon, dance to his tune. Ghosts shows more of the man behind the legend, one who is very tired, very lonely, and Not So Omniscient After All, just doing the best he can.
- During Unfinished Business, Nimue actually manages to press his deepest Trauma Button by pointing out that he bears the responsibility for not having prevented the fall of Arthur and Camelot. This actually shakes him, worse than anyone else has yet managed. Unfortunately for her, it also makes him mad.
Not That Kind of Doctor: Inverted. As he occasionally reminds people, yes, he really is that kind of doctor. In fact, it was his first profession, and the one he loved the most, and all he ever wanted to be and he's legitimately delighted whenever he actually gets the opportunity to use those skills. Not only that, he is brilliant at it. An infertility cure? Easy-peasy. Psychic tea brewed on the Astral Plane specifically to cure wounds to the soul? Not a problem in the slightest. And delivering babies? Stock in trade. There's a reason he was Court Physician at Camelot by his early 20s.
Occult Blue Eyes: They're described as a very striking shade of sapphire blue. This is also a hint that Professor Gwion Bach is him in disguise.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Many, because he's usually the Hero of Another Story. This includes fighting enemies from all kinds of dimensions. As he lampshades, he's a doctor who fights in a time war.
Oh, Crap!: Usually inspires this in other people, though in Ghosts, Coulson relates an incident where Strange had this after arriving too late to stop Sinister kidnapping the newborn Rachel Grey, later known as Maddie Pryor. Fury uses this to show how serious the situation is.
Older Than They Look: He looks somewhere in his early 40s. He's been Sorcerer Supreme since the 1640s. And as it turns out, he's actually a great deal older than that. About 500,000 years older, in fact.
The Omniscient: Most are unsure as to whether he is actually omniscient or simply very close (which is exactly how he likes it). However, as he admits, "contrary to carefully cultivated popular belief", he is neither omniscient nor infallible. This is Played for Laughs, but mostly Played for Drama. For instance, Essex is a blind spot in Strange's Sight, two things which inspire a significant Oh, Crap! moment in just about everyone else.
- On a lighter note, Wanda also mentions that the one time she'd known Strange's Foresight to fail prior to this was when he was predicting she would clean her room.
Omniscient Morality License: Explicitly claims it in the first book... sort of. He acknowledges that many of his actions were morally wrong and if he had acted earlier many more lives would have been saved, but if he had, more would have died in the long run. Later books imply that he's not wrong, but that doesn't make what he does any better - something he sadly agrees with.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- If he's taking something seriously, it's either serious trouble or a matter of such emotional weight that he feels compelled to be serious and sincere for once, ditto if he's being completely honest.
- After revealing his backstory to many of the heroes in Ghosts, he receives hugs from Diana and Wanda, and it's noted that for once, he's wearing a genuine, heartfelt smile rather than a Grin of Audacity.
- In general, it's remarked more than once that his near constant presence over the events of the series is completely out of character, and consequently a sign of how serious things are.
- When Wanda suggests that Strange deliberately attempted to influence Hermione's mutation in order to create a successor, he actually loses his composure enough to shout in her face—he does not want anyone to turn out like him.
Out-Gambitted: Makes clear to Lucius that he and his brilliant plans were only ever a small part of Strange's own Long Game. Lucius, who's previously uneasily suspected this, promptly has a Villainous Breakdown.
Papa Wolf: He threw down the gauntlet to the entire White Council for Wanda, when she was a child, then in the sequel, he does much the same to the Council Elite of Skyfathers to protect Harry. He also orchestrates the genocide of the Red Court in the sequel to protect Dresden's daughter, and indirectly, Dresden himself, having also previously got Queen Mab off his back.
Paranoia Fuel: His reputation means that any sign of his involvement is this, particularly for Lucius Malfoy and Voldemort, both of whom lose their smugness when worrying about just how much Strange knows about their plans and how many steps he is ahead of them. It's not restricted to the bad guys, either, as Ghosts demonstrates.
Parental Substitute: He was Wanda's foster-father, and as Dumbledore notes, despite his best efforts, he wasn't very good at it. The two have a strained relationship at the start of the first book, in large part because Wanda resents how he wasn't there for her when she felt she needed him, refusing to help with Hermione, and explicitly ordered her not to take in Harry (on the grounds that he wouldn't survive in her care), forcing her to leave him with the Dursleys. It thaws somewhat in Ghosts, especially after he finally reveals the man behind the mask, and tells her how proud he is of her, but it's still a bit tense at times.
Perpetual Smiler: Is very rarely seen without a Grin of Audacity on his face. He occasionally comes off as a Smug Smiler, but he can more than back it up.
Person of Mass Destruction: At the high end of this trope, arguably even pushing the Physical God category. Just because he rarely fights doesn't mean that he can't - and the last time he cut loose before the story started, he levelled Berlin. As he points out, as Sorcerer Supreme, his job description is basically "take on Eldritch Abominations for a living." Both Gravemoss and Nimue find this out the hard way. The former ends up suffering a Villain Override from Chthon while trying to get the power to survive. The latter, a Reality Warper wielding the power of multiple entire pantheons and in this respect, Strong, but Unskilled, ends up vomiting up chunks of her own soul.
Pet the Dog: While rarely cruel (though when he is cruel, it is terrifying), he can be frighteningly cold and is usually fairly distant. The latter is a bone of contention between him and Wanda. However, he can also be quite kind, especially to children, as well as invariably honouring sacrifice and treating it with the utmost solemnity - making it the exception to his otherwise entirely irreverent attitude.
- He also nearly kills himself and drives himself halfway insane to make up for the big failure mentioned above. He could have directed Earth onto a suitable path without going to such trouble far more easily, but he felt that he had to 'make it right'.
- When Dumbledore lays down a Declaration of Protection regarding his students and even the Triwizard Champions from other schools, complete with implied threat, Strange, who could wipe the floor with Dumbledore if he ever felt like it and tends to respond with creative nastiness to any and all threats, nods respectfully and clearly takes it onboard.
- Again relating to a child, in the sequel he goes to the trouble of plucking Margaret Angelica 'Maggie' Rodriguez-Dresden, Harry Dresden's daughter, from the past a couple of months after her birth, and orchestrating the genocide of the Red Court in order to simultaneously keep her safe, throw off suspicion that she's Dresden's daughter, and allow her to be raised by her now-cured Dhampyr mother.
- He goes out of his way to take a few minutes to talk to Ron Weasley, give him a little counselling, and answer some of his questions towards the end of Book II.
Phantom Thief:
- Ironically, this is probably the closest thing he has to a hobby. Among other things, he's been known to steal objects varying from Alastor Moody's wooden leg, the Philosopher's Stone from Dumbledore's pocket (having nipped back in time to do it), Harry's Phoenix feather a.k.a. Laevateinn, and even Loki's detached head, from right under their owners' noses. In Ghosts, Thor flatly states that if he wanted to, he could probably steal just about anything he felt like from Asgard's highest security vaults. Including the Tesseract.
- He also hides things away for his own use/to stop people from misusing them, as with several rare books of magic and many of the magical items at Project Pegasus.
Pop-Cultured Badass: Casually references everything from Doctor Who to Jaws, usually at the most inappropriate of moments. He implies that this habit is one of the few things keeping him even approximately sane. During her apprenticeship, he made Wanda memorize the Evil Overlord List, and Wanda and Dresden speculate that he may have written it.
Pride: His arrogance is legendary, with Gorakhnath, an old friend and former teacher of his describing him bluntly as "more arrogant than some dragons of my acquaintance". While it's often technically justified by his track record and necessary to do what he does (you can't be anything less than incredibly arrogant to move even the Endless around like chess-pieces), it tends to be what bothers other people most about him. It also, along with his cultivated aura of infallibility, contributes to screwing things up in Forever Red. And it's part of why he hasn't taken many apprentices in his very long life, despite technically having all the time he'd ever need to do so.
Psychologist Teacher: While he doesn't teach all that often, he does mention having multiple degrees in psychology, and is excellent at understanding the motives of others and getting them to do what he wants—sometimes through a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech, sometimes a lot less gently.
Quintessential British Gentleman: He's a Gentleman Wizard with an RP accent (when not using his own natural Welsh accent) who offers Clark some tea in Ghosts, one of a formula of his own devising which helped restore the latter's soul after Reynold's attack.
Reality Warper: It is repeatedly implied that the Laws of Nature are something that apply to other people, with Harry at one point sourly speculating that nature took one look at Strange and decided that it wasn't worth the trouble. However, he has limits and admits he would be tempted by Chthon's offer to simply rewrite everything. What those limits are, however, no one really knows—which is just how he likes it.
Really 700 Years Old: Most people believe him to be about four hundred or so, having claimed the title of Sorcerer Supreme in 1645. Ghosts reveals that he was born around 500 CE, and is considerably older thanks to time travel - he stopped counting after 100,000 or so, and believes himself to be around 500,000. There are also hints of Strange's presence throughout history, thanks to his time travelling.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Hands these out to Apocalypse in the past, and Lucius Malfoy and Nimue in the present.
Reluctant Hero: He was always heroic, but as the narration reveals in Ghosts, all he ever wanted to be was a doctor. Destiny, and the Time Stone, had other ideas.
Renowned Selective Mentor: He's renowned as one of the most brilliant and powerful mages ever to live, as well as one of the most dangerous, having been Sorcerer Supreme for centuries (and that's just in linear time - he was over a millennium old, at least, when he took the mantle), when most Sorcerers and Sorceresses Supreme last a decade, if that. He's taken only five apprentices in his very long life: Mordo, Wanda, Margaret "Le Fay" McCoy/Dresden, Apocalypse, and as of Ghosts, Harry.
Sad Clown: He's absolutely miserable under the mask, and outright states that his sense of humour is the one thing keeping him sane.
Sanity Slippage: Throughout the Forever Red arc, when he drives himself to his very limits trying to keep a lid on all the chaos Essex unwittingly stirs up through his being immune to Strange's Sight and thus an epic Spanner in the Works. Towards the end of the arc, however, it's revealed that his primary motivation is to make up for failing to prevent Essex kidnapping, then horribly psychologically abusing, Maddie/Rachel, turning her into a Living Weapon.
Science Wizard: He's a polymath who freely mixes science and magic, right from childhood when he was an apprentice mage and physician.
Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: He's phenomenally ancient even if he doesn't look it, and while he's always an irreverent menace, he has fairly cultured manners. In the second book, however, said manners start to fray and his tendency to terrorise people into doing what he wants increases. This is implied to be because he's dying and he's out of both time and patience.
Scry vs. Scry: Implied to do this fairly regularly, especially when going up against whoever blocked Sinister from his Sight.
Seers: Via natural talent and the Time Stone's alterations, he's the most powerful ever to live.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Chthon manifests through Gravemoss during the Final Battle, Strange takes the opportunity presented by his Evil Gloating to punch him in the mouth with a technique he learned in K'un L'un.
Smart People Play Chess: Incredibly clever, a Chess Master in both senses of the word, and prone to using chess metaphors for his plans.
Smug Smiler: To an extent. The smile itself fits this, but the reason pushes it into Grin of Audacity territory. This tendency has been known to annoy other people, such as Ebenezar McCoy.
Smug Super: While his raw magical wattage isn't that far above Harry Dresden's, his sheer skill and ability to draw on other sources means that he can effortlessly mop the floor with practically everyone who comes his way - and that's if he hasn't beaten them before the fight's already begun. He's a genius, and you can rest-assured that he knows it... though underneath the ego is a heap of regrets.
So Proud of You: More than once to Wanda, telling her that she is his chosen successor because she is the best, emphatically not the other way around, and that he could not be more proud of her. Judging by Wanda's reaction, it's not something that occurred too often while he was raising her - as he sadly remarks, and Dumbledore tacitly confirms, for all his efforts, he was a much better teacher than father.
Stealth Mentor: The entire series could be seen as him doing this to the entire cast. Even his more conventional mentoring is along these lines.
Stepford Snarker: Informs Jean that his flippancy is a coping mechanism. The sheer depths of brokenness that it's concealing are revealed in Ghosts. It is not pretty. It is not pretty at all.
Summon Bigger Fish: A key part of his plan to stop Chthon, with that fish being one of the biggest of all: the Phoenix Force.
Super Doc: He absolutely is that kind of doctor and that's all he ever wanted to be. Sometimes, he will sometimes show it, curing everything from infertility, to wounds to the soul, to an infection with transmode techno-organic virus. It makes him much happier than pretty much anything else he does, and the scenes where he's being a doctor are usually the closest he gets to being genuinely content.
Talking the Monster to Death: Genuinely tries to do this to Nimue in Unfinished Business. Unfortunately—for her—she doesn't listen.
Tall, Dark, and Snarky: One way in which he's very much like his canon self.
Taught by Experience: As Sorcerer Supreme, his job description literally involved conning, manipulating, and sometimes flat-out fighting beings far more powerful than himself, which stands him in good stead against Nimue with the power of Pandora's Box.
- The first time he took an apprentice, it ended... badly, to say the least. After that, he became much more selective about who he mentors.
Technician Versus Performer: Despite his apparently effortless skill and flair, he actually qualifies as the Technician to Merlin/Wanda/Harry/Loki's Performer. He doesn't have the raw horsepower of any of the above, being more in Harry Dresden's weight-class (which is pretty considerable by itself), but he was deft and skilful from the start (according to Gorakhnath), he's extremely intelligent, vastly knowledgeable, has vast stamina and knows exactly how to use what he has to best effect - as Dresden notes in Ghosts, both of them can summon lightning bolts relatively easily, yet it takes far less energy to split an atom. Dresden can't. Strange, on the other hand, definitely can.
Teleporters and Transporters: Capable of teleporting into, out of, and throughout Hogwarts as the mood takes him. This causes Hermione to have a mild breakdown, while the rest of the cast just shrug it off as 'Strange being Strange, in every sense of the phrase.'
Terror Hero: Strange is The Dreaded amongst the supernatural community, and this trope is best shown when he gets the Council Elite to shut up and do what he says through sheer intimidation (though it doesn't hurt that he's borrowed the Tesseract). He makes even the likes of Gravemoss and Dracula nervous. There is excellent reason for this.
Therapist in Therapy: Nope, despite having multiple psychology degrees and being The Dreaded - which goes about as well as you'd expect - it's uncertain how sane he is; though he's usually at least trying and often able to maintain the appearance of sanity. The results are sometimes funny, sometimes tragic - but most of the time just plain disturbing. Add to that the fact that all things considered he's Ambiguously Human and at least skirts the edges of the Uncanny Valley. He exploits the resulting combination of mad and creepy for all it's worth.
Time Abyss: While it's known from fairly early on that he's Really 700 Years Old at least, Odin suspects that he was born about the same time as Thor and Loki, making him 1500 years old at least, and additionally suspects that, with the time travelling, Strange is at least as old as he is - over 5000.
- Ghosts confirms Odin's first assumption... then reveals that thanks to time travel, he's actually closer to 500 thousand.
Time Master: He is the chief example in the setting, and Ebenezar McCoy flatly states that it, and his willingness to meddle, are what make him so damn dangerous. While Essex can hide from his Sight, that's only because he had the help of a rival in this department to Strange, who's hinted to be either Kang the Conqueror or Apocalypse.
- Ghosts reveals that while he always had a gift with time magic, it was only after he was altered by the Time Stone that he became this trope.
Tranquil Fury: Most of the time, his anger is very cold, calm, and focused. The rare occasions when he flat-out loses his temper are always notable, and usually come up when someone's insulted one of the principles he holds dear, such as Uhtred suggesting that he might have lied or Wanda asking if he was trying to mould Hermione into a successor to him.
Tragic Hero: An Anti-Hero in the main, and while his suffering is largely a product of his own choices, it's very hard not to feel sorry for him. Especially after Ghosts reveals his Dark and Troubled Past, which is underlined with the description, "a man who had only ever wanted to be a doctor."
Trickster Mentor: A typical, and extremely dangerous, example - and usually also a Stealth Mentor. Moulds people into heroes (or weapons) by unorthodox and indirect means, shaping the circumstances of their lives and letting them respond to it.

It's very hard to tell what he's doing, or why he's doing it, save in the broadest sense, unless he's actively leading people around by the nose, but it generally becomes apparent (and sometimes he spells it out afterwards).

Troll: Usually, he'll mess with people primarily for the entertainment value. However, as Lucius Malfoy, Nimue, implicitly Dracula, and Apocalypse, amongst others, discover, he's capable of delivering very nasty speeches if you've upset him.
Übermensch: Played With. He operates based on a code solely of his own making, and has very little interest in the laws of nature, let alone the laws of man. He tends to take both as guides for targeted disobedience. However, he is wracked by guilt and embittered by all he has had to do and what he has had to become.
Uncertain Doom: Chapter 29 of Ghosts implies that he's dead. The fact that he faked it comes as no surprise to anyone. His motives, on the other hand, do - both to pass the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme to Wanda in the midst of a genuine crisis in front of one of the White Council's most senior and respected members so she could show her mettle as his successor, and to get up to a lot of skulduggery when everyone thought he was dead - some of it hinging on the fact that he's not Sorcerer Supreme.
The Unfettered: Earth must be prepared, and Thanos must be destroyed. Everything else comes second to those two aims.
- This, as it happens, is why the White Council has such a big problem with him: the White Council and its Laws are specifically constructed to restrict power, to prevent it being abused as far as is reasonably possible. It is the very definition of The Fettered, while Strange regards all rules that he does not make as being there to be broken, as creatively as possible. And while the Council specifically avoids taking on power in the mortal world, Strange, in his own way, takes on more than anyone was ever meant to take on. When one hears about his Dark and Troubled Past, and understands his ultimate goal, you can kind of see why, though.
Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Frequently employs this.
Unwitting Pawn: Has been on both ends of this trope. He usually makes just about everyone into pawns for him, knowingly or otherwise. However, he himself was this for the Time Stone—as he remarks, it was quite a few centuries before he truly realized what he had become.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He only ever wanted to be a doctor, he enjoyed being a bard, and he was content with a relatively quiet life. Per Word of God, attitude wise, he was actually the Steve Rogers/Clark Kent of his day. Then Camlann happened, and something broke inside him, something that has never been fixed.
Walking the Earth: Did this as a young man, during Camelot's Golden Age, figuring that he could see the world, then bring back all the accumulated magical knowledge back to enhance Camelot's glory. Tragically, when he returned, he found Arthur dead at Camlann at the hands of Mordred, Strange's personal nemesis, Merlin gone in despair and Camelot and the alliance it had maintained crumbling into ruins. No wonder he had a Rage Against the Heavens moment.
Weak, but Skilled: Very downplayed. While several characters, including but not limited to Merlin, Odin, Loki, Nimue with the full power of Pandora's Box, and Wanda are all more powerful than him, he's still considered to be by far the most dangerous character in the setting. And even without the extra abilities of the Sorcerer Supreme mantle, he's no slouch in the power department, either.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Is this trope in spades. Everything - almost literally everything - he does is devoted to stopping Thanos. As he puts it to Harry, the amount of people and monsters he's murdered just to protect him would make a small mountain. And that's not even close to as dark as he's willing to get.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: He's possibly the oldest non-cosmic character in the story, and it becomes incredibly clear in Ghosts that he is actually looking forward to his impending death, as he is utterly sick of his job and what he has had to become to pull it off.
Will Not Tell a Lie: According to Fury and later confirmed. Of course, this doesn't mean that he's going to be honest, however...
- This reputation is one he prizes, to the point where questioning his given word makes him very angry- when he's on edge and Uhtred does so in an unguarded moment of frustration, he makes it very clear that it's only because Uhtred is, a) a child and b) justifiably frustrated/upset that Strange didn't kill him on the spot.
Wizards Live Longer: Looks like he's in his early forties and has since he surfaced at the dawn of the 17th century, while Odin correctly suspects that he was born sometime around 500 AD. What with time travel, no one's really sure how old he is. Not even Strange himself, who estimates he is close to 500,000. As it is, this unusually long life-span is explained as being a (much resented) gift from the Time Stone.
Worthy Opponent: Has this vibe (to a certain extent) with Nimue, showing her respect and even offering her a chance to work together with him rather than just destroying her out of hand, outright pleading with her to stand down. It's implied that it's at least partially because they were once rough contemporaries.
Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": As he chillingly puts it in Book II, when casually discussing his obliteration of the Always Chaotic Evil Red Court of Vampires...
If I don't commit genocide every now and then, people forget who I am.
Wrote the Book: He's written several books of magic, though he tends to keep a tight hold on them. He may also have written the Evil Overlord List - he definitely made Wanda memorise it.
Xanatos Gambit: He's been working on a very long one indeed and it's beginning to fall into place. In general, it seems that just about everything he does falls under this trope - though Forever Red forces him to resort to Xanatos Speed Chess.
Xanatos Speed Chess: He is forced into this when Sinister rears his head, and does a fairly decent job, considering what a Spanner in the Works the latter is.
You Are Too Late: For a man who makes a habit of being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, whose mystique is based on his arranging things down to the last nanosecond, it is extremely jarring to find out that he was too late in Ghosts, to prevent Sinister from stealing Rachel Grey/Maddie Pryor, something underlined by the fact that he was caught off-guard and seen being so. This is partially ameliorated by the fact that he manage to prevent Essex from stealing Jean too, but only partially, and the side-effects of it nearly drive him insane.
- He was away when King Arthur died at the hands of Mordred, a man who Strange regarded as being his nemesis, who he could and should have dealt with. He still hasn't forgiven himself for this.
You See, I'm Dying: Alludes to this in chapter 44 of the first book - though as Fury points out in Ghosts, that was a calculated move, listing the results. Nevertheless, the fact that the clock is ticking on him becomes an important subplot in Ghosts, with it being unclear just how "soon" is soon... Given his age of roughly five hundred thousand years, even in a century would qualify as "soon" for him.

Jane

Doctor Jane Foster

Genius astrophysicist and Thor's girlfriend - though it is hinted that he is thinking of proposing, some time in the not-too-distant future. She gets less focus than most of the supporting cast, but has a very important role to play in the finale of Book I, using her expertise in dimensional physics, a lot of tech and geniuses from Pepper to force HYDRA's base out of its pocket dimension hiding place and leave them there for the taking.

Absent-Minded Professor: Occasionally comes off as this, being a Rare Female Example.
Action Survivor: Is calm under fire.
Adoptive Peer Parent: A key source of awkwardness between her and Harry, since she's barely twice his age and not ready to be a parent yet, let alone one to a teenager. Once they hash things out, she shifts to a mixture of Cool Big Sis and Aunt.
Badass Bookworm: Once Thor is put in a coma, she and the scientists she organises help her find HYDRA's base in a matter of days and promptly force it back into reality by means of jury-rigged equipment. Dresden also notices that despite lacking even the physical skills of a Badass Normal, let alone superpowers, when Mab turns up, she instinctively puts herself between Mab and Pepper, who's carrying baby Ada. Dresden, one well-placed to recognise and admire stubborn courage, is deeply impressed.
Beware the Nice Ones: Sweet. Somewhat scatterbrained. Can and will scatter your molecules across multiple dimensions before her second coffee if you mess with her loved ones.
Big Sister Instinct: See Mama Bear. Possibly also to her occasionally mentioned step-brother, who is implied to be Matt Murdock a.k.a. Daredevil.
Brainy Brunette: Most definitely.
The Comically Serious: Usually plays this to Darcy's Deadpan Snarker.
Cool Aunt: Her relationship with Harry more or less settles on this.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Fits the tiny girl part - compared to Thor, she's pocket sized.
MacGyvering: How she made most of her tech and, though she had SI/SHIELD support for the 'New Bifrost' project, she essentially Mac-Gyvered interdimensional travel.
Mad Scientist: Believes that this is the inevitable result when a scientist goes to work at the Pentagon. Considering that most military scientists in Marvel and DC canon go mad, she might actually be onto something.
Mama Bear: Crossing over with Big Sister Instinct in relation to Harry, once they get past the weirdness, who refers to her as something like a younger aunt. She remarks in Ghosts that if 'literal hell' is required (to be unleashed upon anyone who hurts Harry), then - thanks to her New Bifrost tech - she can and will arrange it.
Morality Chain: Has to play this to Harry in chapter 74.
Nice Girl: She is consistently kind, warm-hearted, and sweet.
Out of Focus: After she and Harry sort their relationship out, she's generally a background figure.
Second Love: To Thor, after Lily.
Sleep Cute: With Harry, when he wakes up early one morning and essentially falls asleep in the kitchen, cuddling up to her. She also occasionally has these with Thor.
The Smart Girl: Freaking genius girl, more like. Three degrees and possibly the leading mind in astrophysics before the age of thirty.
Straight Man and Wise Guy: The Straight Woman to Darcy's Wise Girl.
Super-Intelligence: To a lesser degree than Tony, as she's not an Omnidisciplinary Scientist, but still insanely clever - she was the leading mind behind the New Bifrost and the acknowledged expert on wormhole physics. Beyond that, it's mentioned that she knows pretty much everything there is to know about parallel dimensions.
Teleporters and Transporters: Not one herself, but she builds tech that allows people to do this across dimensions, including her own version of Captain Jack Harkness' Vortex Manipulator.
Those Two Girls: She and Darcy tend to form an amusing double act.
Violently Protective Girlfriend: See Badass Bookworm. It does not pay to mess with her boyfriend.
Vitriolic Best Buds: She and Darcy snark at each other and she usually ends up using Darcy as a test dummy for the teleportation devices based off the Bifrost.

Pepper

Virginia 'Pepper' Potts

Even Tony Stark's insurance doesn't cover grand acts of idiocy.

CEO of Stark Industries, girlfriend of Tony Stark and Team Mom/resident cat herder of Avengers Tower. As of chapter 3 of Ghosts of the Past, now mother to Ada Maria Potts-Stark.

Action Survivor: Not a fighter, but calm under pressure, even when that pressure takes the form of (a mercifully benign) Winter Soldier or an evil AI that has hijacked Avengers Tower and all the technology within.
Almighty Mom: Carries this vibe. When she speaks, even gods obey.
Fiction 500: She runs a company in this bracket.
Honest Corporate Executive: At a contrast to the likes of Stane, Hammer and the runners of Roxxon.
Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Used to be this to Tony, and is now sort of this to the Avengers, functioning as their general factotum and Team Mom.
Loophole Abuse: In Ghosts, she manages to pull this on freaking Mab, who's trying to trick Dresden into becoming the Winter Knight in exchange for help with retrieving Harry, spotting the flaw in Mab's Exact Words.
My Secret Pregnancy: Initially, though everyone eventually finds out.
Nice to the Waiter: Despite being one of the most powerful women on the planet, she's unhesitatingly kind and friendly to those who are socially below her.
Only Sane Woman: Plays this role to the Avengers on a frequent basis.
Parental Substitute: Is something of a substitute mother to Harry, prior to her own pregnancy and Wanda playing a greater role in the story.
Pregnant Badass: Her pregnancy is subtly implied, prior to its reveal. Her badassery is not.
Small Role, Big Impact: Somewhat downplayed, but though she doesn't appear very often, she's the primary Team Mom to the Avengers in general and Harry in particular.
Smart Girl: Running a FTSE 100 corporation requires serious smarts, especially since she's juggling managing the Avengers and, latterly, a child, as well. Her expertise in business and legalities also comes to the fore when she spots something that Mab was trying to obfuscate whilst in the midst of trying to coerce Dresden into being her Knight.
Team Mom: Along with Loki, is basically the one who keeps the Avengers and their affiliates, particularly Tony, sane and vaguely organised. This includes taking Harry clothes shopping. Is also something a surrogate mum to Harry, in the vein of Mrs Weasley, prior to Wanda's appearance and the birth of her own daughter.
- Wisdom explicitly remarks on this, noting how she's pretty much raising Harry, given that the other candidates for a maternal figure are Lily, who's Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence; Jane, who's more of a big sister given their respective ages; Wanda, who's not always around due to her other responsibilities (though she takes more of this role in Ghosts), and Natasha, who's... well, Natasha.
- Used to hilarious effect in chapter 1 of Ghosts when she responds to the summer weather and impending motherhood by making pretty much everyone, including a baffled Volstagg, wear sun cream.
Violently Protective Girlfriend: While unable to get violent revenge herself, she does so by proxy, funding Jane's efforts to force HYDRA's base from its pocket dimension back into reality, allowing everyone else to to storm the castle.

Darcy

Darcy Lewis

A former intern for Jane Foster and now basically her assistant. Implied to get around, drinks like a fish and plays the fool, while also usually being the test subject for Jane's machines. Also possesses considerable Hidden Depths, to the occasional surprise of even Jane, who knows her better than most.

The Alcoholic: Drinks a lot, is mentioned by Jane as having a supernatural knack for finding dive bars, finding her metier on a skiing trip in the bar flirting with the ski instructors and availing herself of Tony's bar tab. And in the Christmas Special she is mentioned as last having been seen headed in the direction of the wine cellar.
Bullying a Dragon: A non-violent example, but she really should've known better than to try to cheat at poker against Wanda Maximoff.
Child Hater: Not a hater as such, but when Harry suggests that she go into teaching, she says that him excepted, she doesn't do well with kids.
Cool Big Sis: Plays this role to Harry, giving him frank and kindly advice and with Tony and Sirius, the sex talk.
Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much every other word out of her mouth is snark.
Demoted to Extra: In the first book, she was a mentor and friend to Harry, though she hardly appears in the second book.
Dissonant Serenity: Is pretty much completely not bothered by acting as test dummy for Jane's various teleportation devices, which have so far warped her to Death's Domain, the Jurassic and New Jersey. Apparently she did shots with 'a hot goth girl called Didi' in the first and liked New Jersey the least.
- Chapter 78's imminent end of the world doesn't really faze her either.
Distaff Counterpart: In many ways, is one to Tony, though without obviously being a raving genius - instead, she serves as an anchor to normality for Jane, a raving genius in her own right.
Five-Finger Discount: Casually mentions in chapter 75 that she swiped the bag of jelly babies she's eating from a thoroughly distracted Fourth Doctor, present because of the unstable nature of reality.
Functional Addict: She drinks like a fish, but this seems to in no way impede her.
Hidden Depths: Likes to pretend that she's little more than a hard drinking party girl. However, she can provide a concise and comprehensible explanation of the history and basic tenets of feminism for Harry off the top of her head and well enough that Harry seriously suggests that she go into teaching, and specifically bugs Jane just enough to keep her from breaking down over Thor's comatose state or throwing herself too far into her work.
Hustling the Mark: Amuses herself by cleaning out all the ski instructors at poker. She then did the same to Wanda, until the latter figured out that she was cheating and promptly cheated back. Since Wanda's powers involve probability manipulation, she was raised by Stephen 'Magnificent Bastard Supreme' Strange, and she used to date John 'The World's Greatest Conman' Constantine and later ace SHIELD agent Hawkeye, she was better at it.
Obfuscating Stupidity: She's a lot smarter than she lets on.
Out of Focus: She barely appears in Book 2, aside from a couple of cameos.
Really Gets Around: Implied to do so.
Ship Tease: A fair amount with Sirius.
Stealth Hi/Bye: Capable of moving extremely quietly when the mood takes her.
Straight Man and Wise Guy: Plays the Wise Guy to Jane's Straight Man.
The Team Normal: In more senses than one. She's pretty much the only member of the Avengers or their associates who doesn't have powers, Super-Intelligence, incredible fighting skills, or in Pepper's case, a multi-billionaire dollar company. She's the most down to Earth and, relatively speaking, normal of the lot of them.
Those Two Girls: Has this dynamic with Jane.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Jane. She usually ends up as Jane's test dummy and the two snark at each other (more Darcy than Jane), but they're best friends.

Characters / Child of the Storm: Avengers and Associates

The Avengers

Captain Sir Steven Grant Rogers a.k.a. Captain America

Thor Odinson a.k.a. James Potter

Loki Odinson

Bruce Banner a.k.a. The Hulk

Anthony Edward 'Tony' Stark

Natasha Romanova a.k.a. Black Widow I

Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye

Associates

JARVIS

Wanda Maximoff a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch a.k.a. the Sorceress Supreme

Sirius Black a.k.a. the Marauder

Professor Remus John Lupin a.k.a. Moony

Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine

Sergeant James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden

Doctor Stephen Strange a.k.a. Gwion Bach a.k.a. Taliesin

Doctor Jane Foster

Virginia 'Pepper' Potts

Darcy Lewis

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Characters / Child of the Storm: Avengers and Associates

Edit Locked

The Avengers

Captain Sir Steven Grant Rogers a.k.a. Captain America

Thor Odinson a.k.a. James Potter

Loki Odinson

Bruce Banner a.k.a. The Hulk

Anthony Edward 'Tony' Stark

Natasha Romanova a.k.a. Black Widow I

Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye

Associates

JARVIS

Wanda Maximoff a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch a.k.a. the Sorceress Supreme

Sirius Black a.k.a. the Marauder

Professor Remus John Lupin a.k.a. Moony

Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine

Sergeant James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden

Doctor Stephen Strange a.k.a. Gwion Bach a.k.a. Taliesin

Doctor Jane Foster

Virginia 'Pepper' Potts

Darcy Lewis

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