Spoilers for all works set prior to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are unmarked.
The Howling Commandos
107th Regiment / The Howling Commandos
Appearances: Captain America: The First Avenger | Captain America: The Winter Soldier note | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Agent Carter | What If...?
Steve Rogers' hand-picked strike force. Despite the prejudices of the 40s, each was chosen based on their fighting ability, not their race. Together the Commandos brought down the Red Skull's bases, impeding his efforts for his annihilation of the world.
- Badass Crew: They kick much ass together. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier the Smithsonian exhibit states that Bucky was the only soldier they ever lost in the entire war.
- Badass in Distress: All of them are former Prisoners of War held in a HYDRA camp. After Steve frees them, they proceed to kick HYDRA butt.
- Badass Normal: With the exception of Steve himself, none of them are supersoldiers, and yet they all keep up with Steve.
- Black Vikings: Justified. All of them are excellent soldiers, and Cap (never one to pick rules over the right thing) needs the best, not what his era would consider the most appropriate. The U.S. wouldn't start experimenting with integrated units until 1944, but Cap almost definitely would've had enough clout to force that schedule ahead a few years.
- Blood Knight: They all happily accept Rogers' offer to re-enter the field of battle. Dugan in particular qualifies.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames:
- The name "Howling Commandos" was used in the script of Captain America: The First Avenger, but never stated in the film. One screenwriter noted, "They are commandos, and at one point they do howl. They're called the Howling Commandos in the script, but no one says that out loud". However, in post-First Avenger appearances and mentions, they are referred to as the Howling Commandos regularly.
- The official film soundtrack has a track called "Invaders Montage" during the On Patrol Montage showcasing the team routing HYDRA forces. Again, they aren't called this name in the film, either.
- Composite Character: The team as a whole is based on the original comics incarnation and The Invaders. They have the name and membership from the former while sharing specific members from the latter.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Zig-zagged. The Howling Commandos are a team of seven men capable of laying waste to battalions of enemy forces and destroying a string of fortified HYDRA installations, but we aren't informed of what units the Howlers came from, though Bucky is said to belong to a standard infantry regiment (and a deleted scene shows both Dugan and Jones to come from the same unit), with the only exception of Falsworth, a British paratrooper in the appropriate uniform, though he is neither shown to be more badass than the others nor is his elite cred mentioned.
- The Enemy Weapons Are Better: Some of them use HYDRA weapons when they can. Others, like Cap or Bucky, prefer bullets.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The fact that most of them were locked in the same cage no doubt contributed to them forging a strong bond that transcends racial, national, and class differences.
- I Owe You My Life: Downplayed. Steve rescues them from being worked to death in a prison camp, and they eagerly agree to join his team.
- Jumped at the Call: All are pretty enthusiastic to follow Steve into battle.
- Legendary in the Sequel: In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the entire team is revealed to be immortalized in the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian. Over at Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., having a Howling Commando as a grandfather is an extremely big deal for a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. In Agent Carter, set just one year after TFA, Peggy's S.S.R. coworkers are awestruck by her camaraderie with the Commandos.
- Multinational Team: In the forties, no less! Dernier is French, Falsworth is British, and the rest are American, though they include Jones, an African-American, and Morita who is Nisei, alongside the Caucasian Steve, Bucky, and Dugan.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Half the team, that is 3.5 of them, are named James. The 0.5 is Jacques, which is the French form of James. Also played straight, as there is in fact only one Steve.
- Team Member in the Adaptation: In the comics, Cap and Bucky were frequent partners of the Howling Commandos, and alongside Falsworth were members of the Invaders, a separate costumed heroes team, while Morita and Dernier were occasional allies. Only Jones and Dugan were members of the squad in the comics.
- Token Super: Steve is the only superhuman member of the team.
- True Companions: Off the job, they're perfectly happy to hang out at the local bar together.
- You All Meet in a Cell: They all meet in a HYDRA cell.
Original Recruits
- See the Captain America page
- See the Bucky Barnes page
Corporal Tim "Dum Dum" Dugan
Birth Name: Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader Dugan
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Neal McDonough
Voiced By: Gerardo Reyero (Latin-American Spanish dub), Bruno Dubernat (European French dub), Antoine Durand (Canadian French dub)
Appearances: Captain America: The First Avenger | The Avengers note | Marvel One-Shots: Agent Carter | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Agent Carter
A prisoner Rogers rescued from a HYDRA factory, and a hand-picked member of his commandos.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the comics, he and Nick Fury are very close companions. In the MCU, the two of them never together on-screen, leaving it ambigious if they ever met.
- Battle Cry: "Wahoo!". Lampshaded in Agent CarterPeggy Carter: Stop wahooing and HELP!
- The Big Guy: Does most of the fighting for the commandos.
- Blood Knight: Loves fighting, just look at his quote above.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Loves fighting and drinking.
- Decomposite Character: The role as Nick Fury's loyal Number Two and high-ranking friend inside of SHIELD is given to Maria Hill in the MCU, who doesn't have a very close relationship with Fury in the comics. In the MCU there never was any on-screen meeting between Dugan and Fury.
- Drunken Master: Promise of fighting and more ale gets him on the Howling Commandos.
- Establishing Character Moment: What he says to a HYDRA guard.Dum Dum: You know, Fritz, one of these days I'm going to have a stick of my own.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: His first response when Steve invited him to join his team.
- Overly Long Name: "Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader" is probably why they call him "Dum Dum".
- Shotguns Are Just Better: He prefers them as a weapon even after they acquire HYDRA beam weapons.
- You Are in Command Now: After the war and Steve's freezing, he stays in the 107th and leads a new team of Howling Commandos.
James Montgomery Falsworth
Species: Human
Citizenship: British
Portrayed By: JJ Feild
Voiced By: José Luis Rivera (Latin-American Spanish dub), Daniel Picard (Canadian French dub)
Appearances: Captain America: The First Avenger
A Second Lieutenant in the British Paras and POW who joins Captain America's elite squad.
- Age Lift: Isn't old enough to have fought in WWI like his comic self did.
- Composite Character: Of Union Jack I/James Montgomery Falsworth (name), Union Jack II/Brian Falsworth (camaraderie with Captain America & Bucky), and Percival Pinkerton (physical appearance, camaraderie with the Howlers).
- Elites Are More Glamorous: He is a member of the British Paras, but this isn't mentioned.
- Expy: Like his comics counterpart, he bears more than a slight resemblance to the most famous British General of World War II, Bernard Law Montgomery, down to his characteristic beret and moustache and, of course, the name. This is ironic, since the real Montgomery was an Insufferable Genius who was infamous for not getting on with his American colleagues.
- Jumped at the Call: His response to going back to the death camp he just barely escaped? "Sounds rather... fun, actually".
- Killed Offscreen: In a deleted scene in The Avengers, his file has him listed as "Deceased". How and when this happened are unknown.
- Mythology Gag: In the comics, he's the British equivalent of Captain America named Union Jack. The film references this by having his uniform resemble the British flag◊. The Super Soldier video game goes as far as Zola planning on turning Falsworth into Union Jack, but brainwashed and secretly working for HYDRA, though the comics' moniker is never said.
- Officer and a Gentleman: Honorable British Lord and member of the army.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Not royal, but a member of the British aristocracy, though this isn't unusual - British officers were still drawn heavily from the aristocracy at the time and to some extent they still are.
- To Absent Friends:Falsworth: [leading a toast with the other Howling Commandos] To the Captain.
Jacques Dernier
Species: Human
Citizenship: French
Portrayed By: Bruno Ricci
Voiced By: Bruno Ricci (European French dub)
Appearances: Captain America: The First Avenger
A French resistance operative. He was rescued from HYDRA's prison camp by Steve, and joined his handpicked elite unit as the resident explosives expert.
- Bilingual Bonus: He only speaks in unsubtitled French. Gabe Jones typically acts as his translator.
- Blood Knight: He gets into his role. "I will fight until the last one of these bastards will be dead, in chains, or crying like a little baby!"
- Demolitions Expert: He's good at blowing up vehicles, often by sticking things underneath them.
- Gadgeteer Genius: When it comes to explosives he's your guy.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Almost disintegrated Morita by pointing a HYDRA gun in the wrong direction.
- La Résistance: Before joining Howling Commandos, he was a member of the Trope Namer itself.
- Old Soldier: Looks to be the oldest member of The Team.
Private Jim Morita
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Kenneth Choi
Voiced By: Ricardo Mendoza (Latin-American Spanish dub), Stéphane Miquel (European French dub), Pierre Auger (Canadian French dub)
Appearances: Captain America: The First Avenger | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
A Nisei (American-Born Japanese) soldier from Fresno, California rescued by Steve. Jim endured the predictable prejudice towards his people after Pearl Harbor in spite of his patriotism. However, he soon proved himself a fierce and loyal battle-brother serving as the Communications Officer of Captain America's Howling Commandos.
- Badass Bookworm: Communications officer and a commando to boot. Given his grandson is a high school principal indicates he may have inherited this smart side of Jim.
- Communications Officer: He handles the team's communiques, and also taps into the enemy's radios.
- Deadpan Snarker: The "Fresno" comment is dripping bitter sarcasm.
- Famous Ancestor: He's this to his grandson, the principal of Midtown School of Science and Technology in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
- Identical Grandson: His grandson, Principal Morita, looks exactly like him. Both are portrayed by the same actor.
- Killed Offscreen: In a deleted scene in The Avengers, his file has him listed as "Deceased". How and when this happened are unknown.
- Mistaken for Foreigner: Dum-Dum initially assumes Morita is a POW from the Japanese army. He pulls out his dogtags and drops the "Fresno" line to prove he's actually American.
- Token Enemy Minority: He's a Nisei, meaning he has Japanese descent, but is American-born. He had to point this out when Dum-Dum thought he was this trope.
- Yellow Peril: Averted and Defied; In his backstory he endured a lot of harassment for being Japanese after Pearl Harbor, but there's no mention of his race in the movie itself note , and he's just as loyal and dedicated to bringing down the Nazis / HYDRA as the other Commandos.
Gabriel "Gabe" Jones
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Derek Luke
Voiced By: Armando Coria (Latin-American Spanish dub), Jean-Baptiste Anoumon (European French dub), Widemir Normil (Canadian French dub)
Appearances: Captain America: The First Avenger
Prior to being rescued by Captain Rogers, Gabe was a linguistics major and graduate of Howard University who hoped to steal the hearts of European women with his winning smile, charming personality and fluency in multiple languages. Now his linguistic mastery has become an invaluable asset amongst the Howling Commandos.
- Badass Bookworm: Made doubly so by the difficulties and prejudice faced by African Americans when seeking education in the racist social-climate of 1940's America; and he was able to graduate in spite of said prejudices.
- BFG: Uses a huge two handed machine gun as his main weapon.
- Black and Nerdy: Averted; Jones is every inch as fierce a warrior as his fellow Howling Commandos. Being an academic doesn't make him weak.
- Black Vikings: Last-minute aversion. A cut scene shows him fighting in the trenches in Bucky and Dum Dum's unit before their capture, even though in reality, black soldiers were segregated from white at the time. However, the scene was cut, so the canon Jones may have previously fought in a segregated unit as was the norm.
- Cunning Linguist: Being able to read German tank-controls allowed Jones to help Dum-Dum turn the tide in the battle of the concentration camp. It's also shown he knows French, which allows him to interpret intercepted communications on Zola's train.
- Everything's Sexier in French: Including the ladies, according to him. That's why he learned the language. Although the girls in the German classes were apparently much cuter.
- Famous Ancestor: Strongly implied that he's the famous grandfather of Antoine Triplett in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
- Translator Buddy: To Jacques, who only knows French.
Later Recruits
Percival "Pinky" Pinkerton
Species: Human
Citizenship: British
Portrayed By: Richard Short
Voiced By: Geno Sánchez (Latin-American Spanish dub)
Appearances: Agent Carter
A Howling Commando who accompanies Peggy and her S.S.R. team on their mission to Russia.
- Alliterative Name: Percival "Pinky" Pinkerton.
- Remember the New Guy?: Apparently fought with the Howling Commandos during the war though he was never seen or mentioned onscreen.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He shares many traits with James Falsworth, a Commando from The First Avenger, in that they both are English, wear maroon berets, and have Received Pronunciation accents. It's a circular case, though, as the MCU Falsworth was a Composite Character of his 616-identity "Union Jack" and of Pinkerton.
"Happy" Sam Sawyer
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Leonard Roberts
Voiced By: David Martínez (Latin-American Spanish dub)
Appearances: Agent Carter
A Howling Commando who accompanies Peggy and her S.S.R. team on their mission to Russia.
- Alliterative Name: Sam Sawyer.
- Badass in Distress: After getting shot in the leg, he's held as a human shield by the scientist they're rescued, Nikolai, as he tries to surrender to Leviathan.
- Black Dude Dies First: Averted. He's not the first Commando to die, and the worst he gets is a bullet in the leg.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Views the "Howling Commandos" as this.
- Ironic Nickname: He isn't very happy.
- Perpetual Frowner: About the one thing he has in common with his comic book counterpart.
- Race Lift: The comics Sawyer was a white company commander. Here's he's a black Howling Commando.
- Remember the New Guy?: Apparently fought with the Howling Commandos during the war though he was never seen or mentioned onscreen.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Downplayed; while he replaces Gabe Jones as the Token Minority, he doesn't share many other traits with him.
Jonathan "Junior" Juniper
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: James Austin Kerr
Voiced By: Óscar López (Latin-American Spanish dub)
Appearances: Agent Carter
A Howling Commando who accompanies Peggy and her S.S.R. team on their mission to Russia.
- Alliterative Name: Jonathan Juniper. For Added Alliterative Appeal, his nickname is Junior.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Claims to have seen a yeti. According to him, the difference between it and the Abominable Snowman is one is real and the other isn't.
- Mauve Shirt: Gets a name, lines, and a basic personality and then is killed by one of the Black Widows.
- Mythology Gag: In the comics, he's best known for being the first Marvel hero to ever be Killed Off for Real. Sure enough, Junior's dead before the end of the episode.
- The Nicknamer: Came up with the name "Howling Commandos."