The Chitauri

A mysterious race of cyborg aliens in the employment of Loki and Thanos. They invade Earth in The Avengers.

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• Alien Blood: It's purple.
• Always Chaotic Evil
• Another Dimension: Or at least a "new universe", if Erik Selvig's comment in The Avengers is anything to go by.
• Arm Cannon: The cannons that some of the Chitauri have (including the eponymous Item 47) seem to be fit around their arms to fire one-handed. They, however, do not seem to actually be the arm, since an arm falls out when Captain America chops it off of one of them.
• Awesome Personnel Carrier: Their main transport is the Leviathan, a gigantic flying serpent-like creature that carries hundreds of soldiers and can fly through skyscrapers. It takes huge amounts of explosive or electrical damage to put one down. Or one Hulk punch and a several Stark missiles.
• Bayonet Ya: Their infantry sport them on their rifles.
• Blood Knight: They grow restless when denied war, to the point where they'll attack each other. The tactical problems with this are summed up in a deleted scene:
  Loki: Your force lacks...finesse.
  Other: Our warriors are fearless! They welcome a glorious death.
  Loki: That may actually be the problem.
• Boom Stick: Their standard infantry blast lances seem to be staves with the ability to fire out blue blasts of energy.
• Canon Immigrant: While the Chitauri are (loosely) based on an alien race in the Ultimate Marvel universe, it's this version of them that's making the leap into the classic Marvel Universe.
• Cyborg: They clearly have both mechanical and organic parts, and shut down when their command ship is destroyed.
• Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion: A single nuclear warhead to their mothership halts the entire invasion.
• Frickin' Laser Beams: Two varieties. One is fired from a thin spear/rifle used by Chitauri foot soldiers. The other is a powerful Arm Cannon that's mounted on Chitauri commanders and units riding in hovercraft. Both fire blue colored beams.
• Humanoid Aliens: Barring the freaky double-thumbs and evil-looking skull-faces.
• Keystone Army: Taking out their command ship shuts them down.
• Martyrdom Culture: As pointed out by Loki, that's not exactly helpful for an army.
• Mooks: Not the worst ever, not the best ever. But certainly numerous.
• Nightmare Face
• Omnicidal Maniac: Everyone is fair game in their rampage across Manhattan.
• Unusual User Interface: Their flying craft are piloted by a soldier connected to some kind of metal harness.

The Other

A leader of the Chitauri and servant of Thanos. He acts as the liaison between his master and Loki.

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• Black Cloak
• Canon Foreigner: Created for The Avengers.
• Easily Conquered World: Believed Earth would be one of these, and that the entire Earth would surrender the minute the Chitauri landed.
• Humanoid Aliens: He has the same general shape as a human (and of course is played by a human actor), but the details are very different. For starters, he has two thumbs on each hand. It's not really clear if he's of the same race as the Chitauri.
• Malevolent Masked Man
• Mouth of Sauron: Serves as the mouthpiece for his master.
• Nightmare Face: Though we only see some of it.
• Omnicidal Maniac
• Smug Snake: He's certain that Earth will surrender the instant his Chitauri launch their assault (see his quote). He wisely becomes more cautious of the humans after the Avengers repel the invasion. This might qualify him as a subversion, as a key characteristic of a Smug Snake is an inability to learn from their mistakes, a weakness he clearly does not share.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: From the start, he shows annoyance over working with Loki. Though, it was ultimately Thanos to make that decision, and gave him both his army as well as the scepter.

Thanos

Portrayed By: Damion Poitier

Film Appearances: The Stinger for The Avengers / Guardians Of The Galaxy / The Avengers 2

Leader of the Chitauri who lent Loki his forces to attempt to conquer the Earth in exchange for the Tesseract.

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• Amazing Technicolor Population: Has purple skin.
• Bigger Bad: Of The Avengers.
• Creepy Blue Eyes
• Galactic Conqueror
• The Man Behind the Man: Masterminded the invasion of Earth along with Loki in The Avengers.
• Mythology Gag: In the comic books, Thanos is in love with the Personification of Death. His first onscreen appearance immediately plays off this.
  The Other: To challenge them... is to court death.
  Thanos: *Smiles*
• Omnicidal Maniac
• The Voiceless: He has no lines during his initial onscreen appearance.
• Slasher Smile: Upon hearing attacking Earth would be tantamount to a Suicide Mission, he grins.

Stan Lee

A pioneer of the comic industry, Stan the Man is the creator of many of Marvel's most famous heroes and makes a cameo appearance in all of Marvel's movies.

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• As Himself: Except perhaps in Iron Man 1 and 2, where he may or may not have been Hugh Hefner and Larry King. Definitely not himself in Captain America, since he would been about 60 years younger at that point in time.
• Badass Mustache
• Butt Monkey: Mistakes a Senator's aide for Captain America, Tony Stark can never get his name right, gets sick from a gamma radiation laced soft drink, has the back of his truck ripped off, and misses all of the Avengers' action in New York.
• The Cameo
  • Creator Cameo: With the exception of his appearance in Captain America. He did not create that character but was responsible for bringing him into the Silver Age, as well as creating Cap's now-iconic shield throwing.
• Cool Old Guy: But of course.
• Cool Shades
• The Ditz: In his appearances from Thor onward he's not very bright.
• Flat Earth Atheist: "Superheroes? In New York?"
• General Failure: "I thought he'd be taller."
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals
• The Pornomancer: When he appeared in Iron Man, where he was mistaken for Hugh Hefner.
• Shipper on Deck: In a deleted scene, after hearing Steve Roger's exchange with a waitress he tells him, "Ask for her number, you moron."
• Weirdness Magnet: If a superhero is in the area, so will he.
• Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: He's been everything from a trucker to a general to a rich socialite.
• You Look Familiar

Benjamin "Benny" Pollack

One half of the Outlaw Couple that formed following the Battle of New York. After getting pitched the crazy idea to rob banks with his girlfriend, he went along with it reluctantly, but deep down is grateful for the chance to finally live out their dreams.

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• Anti-Villain: Just an ordinary guy reluctantly robbing banks to fix his life's problems.
• Boxed Crook/Cut Lex Luthor a Check: At the end of Item 47, he's given a job at SHIELD in their Research and Development department's "Think Tank" due to his skill with Chitauri weaponry.
  • Heel Face Turn
• Gadgeteer Genius: Not to Tony Stark's caliber, most likely, but he still manages to make the Chitauri gun work, while SHIELD hasn't made any progress with it.
  • Informed Ability: We never see how he got it to work, though.
• Henpecked Husband: Pre-husband, as Claire is his girlfriend, but she still definitely shows she's the boss.
• Outlaw Couple: With Claire.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: He wears a black ski-mask, while Claire's is pink.
• Shout Out: His name is a Shout Out to Bonnie of Bonnie and Clyde.
• Super Weapon Average Joe
• Villain Protagonist

Claire Wise

Claire's had a hard life of bills, rejected dreams, and alien invasions. But when a Chitauri gun literally falls out of the sky as if as a present, she sees the chance to finally take matters into their own hands and gain the means to live like they want to.

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• Anti-Villain: Just an average woman with bills to pay who thinks she could solve her problems with bank robbing.
• Boxed Crook/Cut Lex Luthor a Check: At the end of Item 47, she's given a job at SHIELD as Agent Blake's new assistant.
  • Heel Face Turn
• Deus ex Machina: She thinks of the Chitauri gun as this. After all, it literally fell out of the sky.
• Outlaw Couple: With Benny. It's her idea.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: She wears a pink ski-mask, while Benny wears a black one.
• Shout Out: Her name is a Shout Out to Clyde of Bonnie and Clyde.
• Super Weapon Average Joe
• Villain Protagonist
• Women Are Wiser: Seems to think this of herself. In reality... probably not.