Characters / MCU: Other Superheroes

Main Character Index > Heroic Individuals and Organizations > Other Superheroes (Jane Foster | Robbie Reyes | Xu Shang-Chi | Kate Bishop | Moon Knight)

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Other Superheroes

Humans

Xu Shang-Chi

See his own page.

Kate Bishop / Hawkeye II

See her own page

Riri Williams / Ironheart

Riri Williams / Ironheart

"To be young, gifted, and black though, right?"

^{Click here to see Riri in the Ironheart suit.} 
"LET'S GO!!"

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): MIT

Portrayed By: Dominique Thorne

Voiced By: Saori Hayami (Japanese dub)

Appearances: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | Ironheart

"My stepfather was an auto mechanic. He wanted to build airplanes. He'd give me these tools and let me, just, work it out."

A Child Prodigy who created her own homemade Iron Man armor. She caught the attention of Talokan after the US government stole her design for a device that could detect Vibranium, and the Wakandans stepped in to protect her life.

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• Age Lift: Like Kate Bishop, Riri is only in high school when she created her first armor in the comics. In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she is first introduced at the age of 19. Though she does mention that she's been working on her proto-Ironheart armor for years, so the first part at least might still be true.
• Ascended Extra: Riri debuts as a supporting character in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever before starring as the primary protagonist of her own series.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: She manages to find a spy drone and shoot it down in such a way it'll crash and take out a police blockade in Okoye and Shuri's path before it's even been set up.
• Beta Outfit: Her first armor is built in a simple workshop, using simple parts she scavenged. Both Okoye and Shuri are skeptical of it but the suit functions well and allows Riri to escape from the feds. The original suit ends up getting totaled in the chase, and Riri builds a much more advanced version in Wakanda, though she's forced to leave it in Shuri's lab at the end of the film.
• Black and Nerdy: Riri is African-American and a genius inventor studying at MIT.
• Child Prodigy: At the age of 19, she becomes the first person since Tony to create a functioning Iron Man armor, using what few parts she can find, something the US military and other organizations have been failing to do for 20 years. She also reveals that she created an airplane when she was just 3 years old.
• Deadpan Snarker: When Shuri tells her that Wakanda currently has no Black Panther for the first time in their history, Riri snidely remarks on the timing of this when she's taken captive.
• Elite School Means Elite Brain: Of course, the Child Prodigy would be found attending MIT. Though it's indicated that her brain may actually be too elite even for MIT.
• Establishing Character Moment: Her introduction is her hassling a fellow college student for not having paid her yet for the paper he hired her to write for him and received high marks for, establishing that she's a strong-willed genius, but also has a disregard for the rules and a bit of a blind spot to the possible consequence of her actions.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: She initially has a nerdgasm when she meets Shuri, geeking out over her and gleefully answering her questions about the Vibranium detector she constructed...and then realizes why Wakanda might not have taken the nicest interest in her for it. Then she subsequently learns that it's not just Wakanda that's unhappy with her.
• For Science!: Tony built his armor first to escape captivity, then to make amends for his arms-dealing, and then for superheroing. The various knock-offs over the years were built to serve as weapons. Meanwhile, Riri seems to have built her armor just because she could.
• Heads-Up Display: The advanced suit she builds in Wakanda uses a heads-up not dissimilar to the one used in the Iron Man, War Machine, and Rescue suits, including the famous "close-up on the actor's face from inside the suit" shot.
• Mirror Character: To N’Jadaka/Erik Stevens. Both are working-class, African-American scientific geniuses educated at the MIT. Unlike N’Jadaka, Riri was protected by the leaders of Wakanda, with her skills praised and nurtured. N’Jadaka’s spirit bitterly points out that before him, Wakanda would never have protected someone like her.
• Misblamed: Talokan wants her dead for building a machine that can detect Vibranium. It turns out she had built it as a school project, and didn't even know that the government had appropriated her design and were using it to mine Vibranium from the ocean floor.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Had she run for her life as ordered, she quite possibly wouldn't have gotten caught up in Namor's water bomb and needed to be saved by Ramonda at the cost of her life.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When Ramonda asks her to run with Namor about to attack again, Riri initially complies before stopping and refusing to leave without the Queen. This causes both of them to get caught in Namor's flood and indirectly results in Ramonda having to sacrifice her life to save the girl.
• Powered Armor: Her Ironheart armor is similar to Tony's, except hers doesn't require an Arc Reactor to function. Her homebuilt suit is quite advanced for being made of scrap parts, and the Wakandan version is reminiscent of Tony's pre-nanotech suits.
• Primary-Color Champion: Her armor is primarily red with blue and gold accents.
• Red Is Heroic: Her armor's primarily colored red.
• Replacement Flat Character: To Shuri. Riri embodies a lot of what Shuri was like in the first Black Panther film, being expressive and willing to voice her opinion, while Shuri is put through a Trauma Conga Line that leaves her much more reserved and melancholic in comparison.
• Sassy Black Woman: She has her moments like this, especially when she's frustrated. Most poignantly, when Okoye reveals her spear and cuts the speaker Riri threw at her in half, she still has the guts to snark at Okoye's makeup.
• A Taste of Power: After her first scrap-metal suit is ruined, she builds a new, extremely advanced Ironheart armor with Wakandan technology. Riri's forced to leave it behind in Wakanda though and start over again, since Shuri doesn't want a civilian running around with Vibranium tech.
• Tragic Keepsake: Her 1972 Plymouth Hemi Barracuda belonged to her late father.
• Undying Loyalty: It starts with I Owe You My Life, but leads to this. Queen Ramonda essentially sacrifices her life to protect Riri and save her from Namor. Riri does not forget it. Her first words when going into battle against Namor's troops say it all.
  "For the Queen."
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She invented a machine that could detect Vibranium as a simple school project. This winds up kicking off an international crisis as the United States decides to use it to find Vibranium in the ocean, which provokes Talokan into deciding to declare war on the surface world, starting with Wakanda if they do not agree to have her killed.

Elsa Bloodstone

Elsa Bloodstone

Species: Human

Citizenship: Unknown

Portrayed By: Laura Donnelly

Appearances: Werewolf By Night

"I came to get the stone 'cause I want to be rid of my dad, my stepmother, all of this for good."

The estranged daughter of famous monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone, and an acclaimed monster hunter in her own right.

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• Action Girl: She is a female monster hunter. She manages to fight off one of her opposing hunters by cutting off his arm with an axe before impaling him with a crossbow bolt, and later on she duels another hunter to the death.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: Elsa’s hair colour has changed several times in the comics, but these days is famously depicted as a Fiery Redhead. However, she has brunette hair here. The full-color version of the special reveals she has a few red streaks in her hair.
• Adaptational Modesty: Elsa in the comics has an outfit that showed off her generous cleavage. Here, she dresses conservatively.
• Age Lift: In the comics, her age is never definitively stated, but she's likely around her mid-twenties. Here, she's apparently in her early forties, as her stepmother mentions that she's been gone for several decades, and Laura Donnelly herself is in her early forties.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Has brown hair in this setting and she has a rather flippant attitude.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Elsa only has a slice cut on her forehead by the end of ‘’Werewolf by Night’’, despite at one point having her face smashed into stone three times, among other things she goes through.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's known to snark often, particularly around Jack.
• Deuteragonist: She's the secondary protagonist in Werewolf by Night.
• Establishing Character Moment: Two:
  • She shows up to her father's funeral/competition announcement late, and loudly drags a chair in the middle of Verusa talking so she can sit in the center of the room. This sets up her blasé attitude towards her father and monster hunting in general, as well as her hatred for her stepmother.
  • During her battle with one of the hunters, she slices off his hand that is trapped between the doors, straddles him and starts punching him in the face before trying to choke him out, and immediately goes to retrive his wrist-mounted crossbow off the severed hand when she sees a good opportunity, kills him with it, and isn't bothered in the slightest as he chokes on his own blood. This establishes her casual brutality and pragmatic ruthlessness in combat, as well as her utter lack of compunctions with taking lives.
• Good Is Not Nice: She's A Lighter Shade of Black compared to her family and the other monster hunters, but that doesn't make her a caring person. She still has a flippant attitude towards human life, especially when the first thing she does after claiming the Bloodstone for herself is to order the family butler to clean up all the dead bodies in the room while she lounges there. She's also extremely violent and brutal in combat situations and won't even think twice about trying to kill her opponents as quickly as possible.
• The Grappler: Her fighting style makes heavy use of fluid submission holds and joint locks, and she's not above repeatedly punching a pinned opponent in the face.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: She steals a grappling claw from her aunt's tomb, which she uses to pull the Bloodstone off of Ted's back and later to save Jack from Verussa.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: She wears a red leather jacket.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Due to not wanting to follow in his footsteps of being a monster hunter, Ulysses Bloodstone had disinherited Elsa from getting the actual Bloodstone that they share their family name with. Her objective during Werewolf By Night is to get it back regardless.
• Irony: Elsa is considered unworthy of the Bloodstone due to distancing herself from her father. By the end of the special she ends up becoming the inheritor after everyone else has died and by showing compassion to both Jack and Man-Thing as opposed to killing them on sight.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's cold, aloof, openly disrespectful to people she doesn't like, and ruthless in combat, but she does help Jack get Ted to safety and genuinely seems to like and care about Jack in general.
• Karmic Jackpot: By helping Ted escape per Jack's request, Man-Thing pays her back in kind by immolating Verusa and then leaving her to go seek out Jack (who was forced to transform into his werewolf form due to the Bloodstone). This enables her to claim not only the Bloodstone, which she was after, but the entire family estate.
• Knight in Sour Armor: She's hostile, abrasive, irreverent, and is openly rude and disrespectful towards people and institutions she has a problem with, but she is also a genuinely compassionate person and will go out of her way to help and protect people and beings she has taken a liking to.
• Last of Their Kind: With her father already dead and her step-mother disposed of by Man-Thing, she's the last remaining member of the Bloodstone bloodline.
• Made of Iron: Has her head violently and repeatedly slammed into a wall at one point, but she easily shrugs it off like nothing. She also has her Achilles tendon sliced in battle with a hunter, but only momentarily winces and doesn't seem to suffer any lasting effects (granted, her boots were thick and likely armored enough to keep it from penetrating too deep).
• Not So Stoic: Despite her rather unflappable demeanor around Jack and the other monster hunters, Elsa is nothing short of completely terrified when Jack is forced to transform into a werewolf right in front of her.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: She's known to be calm, albeit somewhat aloof, throughout the special. Even seeing Man-Thing use his acid on a hunter doesn't make her freak out. When she starts crying out in fear and is terrified for her life when Jack is forced to turn into his werewolf form, it's a sign that things are going straight to Hell.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: She openly cringes when Verussa describes Ulysses as "a lover without equal".
• Red Is Heroic: Her coat is red once the color returns to the film.
• Tears of Fear: As Verussa begins forcing Jack Russel to transform into a werewolf against his will, Elsa starts shedding tears out of sheer terror as he groans and screams.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: She kills Liorn with his own crossbow gauntlet.

Cassie Lang

Cassandra "Cassie" Lang

"It's never too late to stop being a dick."

^{Click here to see her as a child} 
"I wish I could fight bad guys, like you."

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Abby Ryder Fortson (Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp), Emma Fuhrmann (Avengers: Endgame), Kathryn Newton (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania)

Voiced By: Frida Camila Castro (Latin-American Spanish); Isa Cavalcante (kid), Sicilia Vidal (teen) (Brazilian Portuguese), Rikako Ohta (Japanese, 1-Endgane), Rie Takahashi (Japanese, Quantumania)

Appearances: Ant-Man | Ant-Man and the Wasp | Avengers: Endgame | Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

"We need to look out for the little guy. My dad taught me that."

Scott Lang's daughter.

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• Abled in the Adaptation: In her childhood, which was pivotal to Scott becoming the second Ant-Man, Cassie suffered from a congenital heart defect. Thus, Scott was motivated to steal the Ant-Man suit so he could rescue the one woman who could save her. Here, she is just fine, and Scott becoming Ant-Man has nothing to do with her being ill.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: In three, later four cases.
  • Cassie is perfectly healthy here, and thus any trauma she could've had from being nearly terminally ill is completely avoided.
  • Her relationship with both her mother and her step-father is much better than in the comics, which helps that the two aren't nearly as mean as the source. In the comics, she ran away from them after Scott's death to be a superhero, which was fueled by the high tensions that were between them.
  • For five years, Scott was listed as being a victim of the Snap. He wasn't, and Cassie got to welcome him back in open arms. In the comics, Scott did die in the opening of the Avengers Disassembled event, and remained dead for eight real-world years, during which Cassie became Stature as a Spin-Offspring with her father dead and her mother is not on speaking terms. When he came back, Cassie soon died, but was eventually brought back. Here, all of this is avoided.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Downplayed. Cassie in the comics was never ugly by any stretch, and in fact, is quite cute, but is rather small in her normal state, being 5'4" by default. Here, she grows up into Emma Fuhrmann, who's 5'9", making her a Statuesque Stunner, something that takes Scott by surprise who notes how much bigger she's gotten. Taken further in Quantumania, where she's played by Kathryn Newton.
• Adaptational Intelligence: While Cassie isn't dumb in the comics, she surely doesn't have a genius-level intellect. During the five years after Thanos' Snap, Cassie manages to learn quantum physics all by herself and is further tutored by Hope and Hank after they Blipped back. By the time of Quantumania, not only has she invented a satellite to the Quantum Realm, she also can reopen a portal to there in the final act, something that took the Pyms decades to succeed.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: She's blonde in the comics. Here, she's a brunette. That said, it does match her father going from being a redhead to also having dark hair in this adaptation.
• Adapted Out: In the comics, Cassie took part in the Civil War as Stature. In the MCU version of the event, she doesn't, as she's not yet a superhero by that point.
• Affectionate Nickname: Scott calls her "Peanut".
• Age Lift: In the comics, she became Stature at the age of 14 (though Artistic Age made it hard to tell). In the MCU, she's 16 and hasn't yet become Stature by the time of Endgame. At 18, she officially takes on the role (though not yet the name) in Quantumania.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Like her dad, Cassie is capable of becoming a giant, with the same side effects.
• Brutal Honesty: She's incredibly blunt, in a way that might even be taken as sarcasm if she wasn't evidently being totally honest.
• Cast from Calories: Like her father, her first attempt at becoming big tires her after a while and she requests some lime. Subverted as she manages to get back on her feet shortly and becomes big once more time to fight Kang, likely running on adrenaline.
• Cheerful Child: A very bright and lively little girl.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Kevin Feige stated that Cassie was put in the Ant-Man movies to plant seeds for the future like they always do. Though he didn't go into further detail, many have long held the belief that Cassie will either become the hero Stature or Stinger.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: In Quantumania, she doesn't go by "Stature" or "Stinger" though promotional material refers to her as the former.
• Composite Character: Promotional material of Quantumania refers Cassie as Stature though her suit resembles to that of Stinger, her later identity (although said suit doesn't have wings). In terms of her powers, Stature was initially the result of Cassie being exposed to Pym Particles but as Stinger, the powers come from the suit.
• Cop Hater: In the first two movies, Cassie is openly resentful of her stepfather (at first) and Jimmy Woo due to them being law enforcement officers who are restricting and antagonizing her dad all the time. By the time of Quantumania, it's gotten to the point where she's gotten arrested by the police at least twice due to her rebellious nature. The fact that she's apparently been shrinking cop cars doesn't help.
• Daddy's Girl: If there's one person Scott can always count on to be rooting for him, it's Cassie. She thinks her dad is a hero before he becomes Ant-Man. She was also ecstatic to see him at her birthday party and sad to see him leave. This continues in Ant-Man and the Wasp, as Cassie is the only one who consistently roots for her father the whole way through. In Endgame, she welcomes Scott with open arms after he went missing for five years, when it was believed he was Decimated by Thanos.
• Deuteragonist: Arguably steals the role from Hope in Quantumania, as she is learning to use her suit, and find her footing in the Super-Heroics alongside her father and his girlfriend. Likewise she is the one that gives the rally cry to the Quantum Realm to rise up against Kang.
• Family Theme Naming: With her mother Maggie. They also have same letters before their similar ones.
• Fan of Underdog: Always roots for and believes in her father, even when he appears to be in the wrong. Scott's main motivation for being a better person is so that he can be worthy of her admiration.
• First Father Wins: Downplayed. Cassie still very much loves Paxton and supports his relationship with her mom. However, she nonetheless clearly prefers Scott and roots for him against Paxton in the first movie, and is a Shipper on Deck for him and Hope.
• Genius Bruiser: In Quantumania, she is shown to have a natural aptitude for quantum physics, being able to build a device that can send signals to the Quantum Realm under Hank's supervision. As a superhero, she's Unskilled, but Strong, being able to pick up on fighting with her Stinger suit pretty quickly.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: In Ant-Man, she wears a sparkly purple dress and tiara for her birthday party and has pink pajamas and a pink-themed bedroom, but is also a Nightmare Fetishist for creepy toys and bugs. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, she plays soccer and often wears camo-styled clothes while still sporting pink accessories; at one point, she pairs camo leggings with a frilly pink tutu and flowery headband, while aspiring to fight bad guys like her dad when she's older.
• Instant Expert: Quantumania is Cassie's first superhero outing and other than failing to punch someone properly (which she eventually rectifies), she is able to use the suit's shrinking function well such as sliding into vents and setting up ambushes, something that took her father several days of training. She also manages to turn gigantic on her first try while her father "nearly tore himself in half" on his first attempt. It's downplayed as Hank and Hope have been helping her, and the tech has improved a lot since Scott first turned gigantic.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Between the events of Endgame and Quantumania, she's developed a bond with Hank Pym, learning how to build quantum-tech under his tutelage and affectionately calls him "grandpa".
• Like Parent, Like Child: Much to Scott's chagrin, by the time of Quantumania Cassie has become just like him in that she's vigilant about helping others in need, even if it means breaking the law and getting arrested to do so.
• Mythology Gag: She wears purple clothes in her first appearances in Ant-Man and Endgame, a reference to the color of her Stinger suit in the comics.
• Nice Girl: Like Parent, Like Child. Cassie is a very sweet girl, and after five years where her father was presumed dead, this hasn't changed.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Adores things that are creepy or otherwise considered ugly, like the hideous rabbit doll Scott gifted her. At the end of the first Ant-Man movie, she adopts a giant ant.
• Parent-Child Team: Cassie wishes she was Ant-Man's partner, so she can help people. When she talks about her father needing a partner, she is visibly disappointed that he thinks of Hope instead of herself, but she accepts Hope as Scott's partner.
• Rebellious Spirit: After hitting her teen years, Cassie begins participating in protests in San Francisco, which culminates her getting arrested at least twice. When down in the Quantum Realm, Cassie immediately sympathizes with the freedom fighters who are combating Kang, and insists to Scott that they need to help them, even when they don't know how to get home themselves.
• Secret-Keeper: She's the only person not involved with the Pym laboratory heist in Ant-Man and the Wasp who knows that her father has returned to being Ant-Man and helps him to keep it a secret from Paxton, her mother and the FBI.
• She's All Grown Up: It's quite a contrast to see Cassie as a teenager, but she is still as a big of a charm as ever.
• Shipper on Deck: Cassie supports the relationships her parents have with Paxton and Hope, respectively.
• Sizeshifter: Like her father and Hope, Cassie has her own suit that allows her to change size.
• Statuesque Stunner: Cassie is 5'9" as of 2023, making her nearly as tall as her dad. Scott makes the rather accurate observation that she indeed got bigger.
• Sticky Fingers: Played for laughs in the beginning of Quantumania, where she apparently has been stealing things from the cops who have jailed her while she was at a protest (by shrinking them).
• Teen Genius: At the age of sixteen, she is already an expert in Quantum Physics and knows as much (if not more) than Hank Pym about the Quantum Realm. Among her achievements include building a subatomic satellite to study the Quantum Realm (with Hank's help) and opening a portal to there, something that took the Pyms decades to succeed.
• Time-Shifted Actor: Abby Ryder-Fortson plays her as a kid, while Emma Fuhrmann and Kathryn Newton play her as a teen. Justified due to the five-year Time Skip between Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Endgame
• Took a Level in Badass: In the first two movies, Cassie is just a young girl who loves her dad, but isn't able to do much other than cheer him on. By the time of Quantumania, not only is she much older, but is just as skilled and determined a hero as her father is.
• Turn the Other Cheek: Surprisingly has this for Darren Cross, the man who tried to kill her as a child and attempts to do so again in Quantumania. After managing to incapacitate him, Cassie tells Darren that he doesn't have to be a dick anymore, which ultimately culminates in him making a Heel–Face Turn.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Cassie building a Quantum device that sends a signal down to the Quantum Realm allows for M.O.D.O.K to pick it up, allowing him to pull the Langs and Pym-Van Dynes into the Quantum Realm, kicking off the plot of the third movie.
• Younger Than They Look: 16 years old after the Time Skip, but could pose as a young adult.

The Red Daggers

In General

Red Daggers

Appearances: Ms. Marvel

A secret society tasked with protecting the people of Pakistan from supernatural threats.

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• Adaptational Backstory Change: In the comics, there's just one Red Dagger, a street level vigilante who mainly deals with crime and social problems that affect everyday life in Karachi. Here, it's an entire secret society dedicated to battling magical enemies. In this way, they draw on another Ms. Marvel ally, Fadi Fadlalah/Amulet, who does not appear in the series.
• Benevolent Conspiracy: They are based in Pakistan, but track magical troubles across the globe. They also, evidently, have some presence on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States as they are able to put an extraction team together for Kamran within a matter of hours.
• Good Is Not Nice: The Red Daggers protect Pakistan from supernatural threats. But if Kareem is any indication, they also have several outstanding warrants.
• Hero of Another Story: According to Kamran. They hunted the Clan Destine for decades.
• Oddly Small Organization: Despite being a secret society that has existed for decades, and have enough resources to have a relatively impressive Elaborate Underground Base, the only daggers we ever see are Waleed and Kareem. Not even a single red-dagger-shirt is in sight, background or otherwise.
• The Order: They are a team of warriors devoted to protect Pakistani society.

Waleed

Waleed

"Our function is simple. To protect our people from threats of the unseen."

Species: Human

Citizenship: Pakistani

Affiliation(s): Red Daggers

Portrayed By: Farhan Akhtar

Appearances: Ms. Marvel

"Though we may not have fancy armor, you should know, there is history in every thread of this fabric, so you always remember where you came from. You're not alone."

The leader of the Red Daggers.

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• Badass Normal: Waleed has no superpowers, but is an extraordinarily skilled fighter and has deep knowledge of the extra-dimensional.
• In the Back: Is killed by Najma from a knife to the back.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: He gets killed in the latter half of "Seeing Red".
• Mr. Exposition: What his role essentially amounts to. He explains to Kamala the purpose of the Red Dagger mantle and goes into more detail about the Noor dimension being her main source of power, among other things.
• Nice Guy: A very friendly and patient man. Unlike the Clandestine, his affability is completely genuine.
• Papa Wolf: He is incredibly protective of both Kareem and Kamala, to the point that he gives his life for them.

Kareem / Red Dagger

Kareem / Red Dagger

"Welcome to the Red Daggers."

Species: Human

Citizenship: Pakistani

Affiliation(s): Red Daggers

Portrayed By: Aramis Knight

Appearances: Ms. Marvel

"Sometimes you have to look beyond what's right in front of you."

A member of a secret Pakistani society who befriends Kamala Khan.

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• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Strictly speaking, comic book Kareem has never come out and told Kamala that he is the Red Dagger, though it is implied she has figured it out. Here the secret identity is never an issue, and he meets her before she even officially takes on the Ms. Marvel mantle.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: He first appeared in the comics in Ms. Marvel volume 4 issue 12, which is Kamala's 31st solo issue and more than two years after her debut. Here, he debuts before Kamala even has her proper costume.
• Adaptational Job Change: Red Dagger is no longer Kareem's personal vigilante persona to dole out justice in Karachi, but a centuries-old secret society concerned with paranormal threats.
• Badass Biker: He is able to get Kamala away from the Clandestines with a dismembered auto rickshaw, which means he makes his escape on one wheel. With a passenger.
• Badass Driver: He drives an auto rickshaw with Kamala and Waleed in the back during the Karachi road chase scene in "Seeing Red".
• Badass Normal: He has no powers but what he does have are spectacular fighting skills and acrobatics. He's able to fight an admittedly inexperienced Kamala to a standstill and contend with and even kill one of the Clandestines.
• Bash Siblings: He becomes one with Kamala as they fight the Clandestines in the streets of Karachi together.
• Call on Me: Kareem offers this to Kamala before leaving in "Time and Again", though he notes that he has several warrants out for his arrest.
• Color Character: The Red Dagger.
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: Kareem says this to a confused Kamala so that their battle will not draw too much attention. And then he giddly tells her that he always wanted to say that line.
• Deadpan Snarker: Kareem immediately has a Snark-to-Snark Combat with Kamala during their first encounter in "Seeing Red".
• Dual Wielding: He's sometimes shown wielding a dagger in each hand.
• Hero of Another Story: Heavily implied with him already having arrest warrants in the US.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Kareem wears a red scarf over the lower half of his face and has a Red Dagger emblem on his left arm.
• I Always Wanted to Say That: Kareem convinces Kamala to come with him by saying "Come with me if you want to live", and then sheepishly admits he just always wanted to say that.
• In the Back: Kareem kills Aadam by stabbing him in the back.
• Legacy Character: Kareem is the most recent individual to take up the Red Dagger mantle.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Usually ties it up in a knot or bun. But outside his Red dagger work. He keeps it down and ain't a bad looking guy.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: He claims to have found Kamala because he "sensed the Noor". What he meams and how he does this is not clear and never explained either.
• McNinja: He's Pakistani who fights with Japanese weapons and techniques.
• Nice Guy: Kareem's a rather friendly and sociable guy once you get to know him.
• Noodle Incident: The United States government may or may not have an arrest warrant on him. He never clarifies on what he did to piss them off.
• Red Is Heroic: He is a warrior of The Order who wears a red scarf and wields daggers with red handles, and his name is Red Dagger.

Enhanced humans

Jane Foster / Mighty Thor

See her own page.

Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk

Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk

"I just want to be a normal, anonymous lawyer."

^{Click here to see Jennifer as She-Hulk.} 
"That's what Hulks do. We smash things. Bruce smashes buildings. I smash fourth walls and bad endings. And sometimes Matt Murdock."

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): UCLA (formerly); Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg and Holliway

Portrayed By: Tatiana Maslany

Voiced By: Marina Inoue (Japanese), Patt Souza (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

"Oh, I'm not a superhero. That is for billionaires and narcissists. And adult orphans for some reason."

After being critically injured at the same time as her cousin Bruce Banner / The Hulk in a dangerous car accident, Jennifer Walters, an attorney involved in the budding field of superhuman law, is infected by his blood spill, which saves her life... by granting her with her own version of Bruce's abilities, transforming her into She-Hulk.

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• Action Girl: She's a Hulk after all, able to shake cliffs with a punch. In her first fight against Titania she outclasses her superhumanly-strong opponent without much effort.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: In the comics, Jennifer acquires her She-Hulk powers via blood transfusion with her cousin Bruce in a hospital after being shot by an underling of a crime boss. However, the first episode shows that both Jennifer and Bruce get wounded in a car accident, with Jennifer being inadvertently exposed to Bruce's radioactive blood in the process. That said, her original backstory is referenced as a Mythology Gag when a reporter asks Jen if she got shot by a mob boss when going in to meet with Emil Blonsky.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In the comics, Jennifer absolutely loved being She-Hulk, and would avoid spending time in human form due to finding her regular life rather underwhelming overall. Here, Jen is rather upset that her life gets upended by transforming into a Hulk, and she gets very frustrated with the fact that people prefer She-Hulk over her regular form. We do, however, see Jennifer gain more confidence in appearing as She-Hulk throughout the series.
• Adaptational Modesty: Nowhere near as much of a Shameless Fanservice Girl than the original, and maintains her whole suit when she transforms instead of destroying all her clothes like the comics.
• Adrenaline Makeover: Jennifer starts out as a normal lawyer before she gains superpowers as She-Hulk.
• Affectionate Nickname: Her cousin Bruce calls her "Fuzzball", even having her listed under that name on his phone.
• The Alcoholic: Jennifer enjoys drinking quite a bit of hard liquor while not on the job.
• Always Someone Better:
  • In power control. Jennifer masters her Hulk powers a lot faster than Bruce does and seemingly doesn't have to deal with a Split Personality.
  • Subverted in strength. Although she initially appears to be slightly superior to Bruce at throwing boulders, when Bruce decides to stop holding back he ends up throwing a boulder over the horizon.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: She has the same vibrant gamma-green skin as her cousin when she's transformed.
• Amazonian Beauty: Jennifer's towering and muscular She-Hulk form is more than enough to attract men.
• Appropriated Appellation: She didn't quite like being called "She-Hulk", but the name stuck so she doesn't care anymore. But then Episode 4 ends with Titania slapping a lawsuit on her on the grounds that she had the name trademarked, which she ends up having to resolve.
• Atrocious Alias: Jennifer really does not like the name She-Hulk, finding it uninspired and tacky to the regular Hulk's name. She only adopts it out of convenience since the public more-or-less gave her that name.
• Big Sister Instinct: Inverted and with her cousin Bruce. After getting in the car crash, her first reaction is to make sure Bruce is okay and help him get out of the vehicle.
• Blessed with Suck: Being a Hulk with no rage-monster alter-ego sounds nice on paper, but for Jen, being an enhanced individual living out in the open makes her a walking magnet for all sorts of trouble. When she "comes out" and saves a jury, it gets her case thrown out, her fired from her job and makes her unhirable due to the potential risks of having her around, meaning the only job she can get is being a lawyer for Fantastic Legal Weirdness, attracting even more trouble. Being She-Hulk, she at best is treated like a living prop by entitled chauvinists, at worst is targeted with by a invoked Hatedom of Straw Misogynists who sees her as some sort of violation by virtue of being a woman with powers, with unseen forces using them for their own nefarious ends.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Jennifer speaks directly to the audience throughout the show, harkening back to the early days of the character. In "Whose Show Is This?" she breaks through the Disney+ interface to get to the show's writers and demand a better climax to the episode.
• Bridal Carry: Inverted since Jennifer is the one who carries her date as She-Hulk in episode 4.
• Buffy Speak: Jennifer pulls one in episode 4 when she tells Wong that she is a lawyer who do things by the book of "American laws" after she informs him they cannot simply slap Donny Blaze with a cease and desist because his oath to use magic was verbal only.
• Casting Gag: This is not the first time Tatiana Maslany plays a character with different identities.
• Clashing Cousins: Downplayed in her relationship with Bruce. They get into a fight when she gets fed up with his attempts to coach her on how to manage being a Hulk. Specifically because she wants to avoid the fact that she is one at all now that she can control her transformation, and he insists that she can't ignore it either way while also pushing her to be a superhero. Otherwise, good friends.
• Clothing Damage: Hulking Out is guaranteed to rip any clothing she wears and destroy whatever footwear she has on because of the massive increase in size, so she takes off her shoes before she transforms. Bruce, who's no stranger to this, suggests that she starts wearing spandex. Jen also starts wearing formal clothes that are more fit for her She-Hulk form, since she goes into work as such, and Luke Jacobson eventually designs her a wardrobe made of stretchable fabric that fits either form.
• Cute Monster Girl: Despite being tall and strong, Jennifer is slimmer and much less muscular than Bruce.
• Deadpan Snarker: Jennifer shares her cousin Bruce's dry sense of humor. Eclipses him even.
• Effortless Amazonian Lift: Jennifer performs this as She-Hulk with her date in episode 4.
• Emerald Power: Like her cousin Bruce, her skin, eyes, and hair turns green when she transforms and becomes a powerful Lightning Bruiser in the process.
• Even the Girls Want Her: In the episode "Just Jen", the rest of Lulu's bridesmaids fawn over Jen's She-Hulk form, saying that she has an amazing body, and an even better ass.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Jennifer's hair is normally a frizzy cut down to about her chin. When she hulks out, It's down below her shoulders, smooth and full bodied.
• Eye Color Change: Like her cousin Bruce, her hazel eyes become green when Hulking Out.
• Flipping the Bird: Jennifer gives Bruce the finger as she's falling off the cliff he pushed her down.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Becoming She-Hulk also apparently made Jen aware of the fourth wall, which she casually talks directly to the audience through. The first time she does it chronologically, she looks back at the camera confused at what just happened while Bruce glances back at her equally confused.
• Genius Bruiser: Jennifer retains all her intelligence and skill as a lawyer as She-Hulk, and becomes an Amazonian Beauty capable of tossing boulders around.
• Green and Mean: Subverted. Jennifer is more confident as She-Hulk but not as aggressive as her cousin Bruce when he Hulks out (though Jennifer does take it very badly when Bruce triggers her transformations by threatening her with buzzsaws and waking her up with an airhorn). She explains it is because she already has to keep her emotions constantly in check for professional reasons (see Workplace-Acquired Abilities below).
• Ground Punch: She-Hulk's superhuman strength allows her to create a small earthquake with a single punch to the ground.
• Healing Factor: Jen's unique genetic makeup grants her incredible healing properties that the Hulk lacks. A sample of her blood is able to cure Bruce's arm in just a few hours, which still had heavy burns from the Infinity Gauntlet for months previously.
• Hello, Attorney!: She's a lawyer who is very attractive as both Jen (despite what some of her dates seem to think) and She-Hulk.
• Hulking Out: Bruce points out that Jennifer will transform into She-Hulk if she is angered or becomes afraid, unlike Bruce who can only Hulk out when he's angry.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Jennifer admits to her friend that she wants to be an average, "off-the-radar" attorney, and makes it clear to Bruce that she has no interest in superheroing or delving into her being a Hulk.
• In a Single Bound: She-Hulk can match the Hulk's impressive jumping distance. After Bruce pushes her off a cliff, she casually jumps right back up to him.
• Legacy Character: Jennifer is bestowed the name "She-Hulk" by the media and the public (presumably to distinguish her from Bruce) in the aftermath of her courtroom incident. It went viral fast enough that people are beginning to use it when she visits her usual bar—to her embarrassment.
• Lightning Bruiser: Despite not being at the same level as her cousin, Jennifer is someone very strong, durable and fast.
• Magic Pants: Lampshaded in the first episode of her series with Bruce coaching Jennifer on how spandex is now her best friend. Downplayed elsewhere, as some of her outfits rip when she transforms, but nowhere near to the degree they should based on how much mass she gains, and since she joins GLK&H in episode 2, her suit stays intact when she Hulks out, since they're sized to fit her larger form.
• Meta Guy: Like in the comics, Jen is prone to turning to the audience and directly talking to them, often acknowledging that she is in a show and the kind of tropes and cliches she has to put up with.
• Most Common Superpower: Downplayed. Jen gets noticeably, but not excessively, more curvaceous as She-Hulk than she is as Jennifer Walters.
• Motor Mouth: Jen can talk extremely fast, shown in episode two where she rattles off all her problems to Bruce, and Bruce barely has time to answer.
• Ms. Fanservice: The trailer shows Jennifer wearing some alluring clothing as She-Hulk. At work, though, she still wears the same drab-looking grey suits, much to Nikki's chagrin (because of Jennifer's figure, in more ways than one).
• Never Gets Drunk: Played with. She-Hulk never gets drunk due to her fast metabolism, but Jennifer will suffer the ill-effects if she transforms back before her body has had time to process the alcohol, such as getting hangovers the next day or immediately becoming drunk if she shifts in the middle of a night of drinking. Conversely, if she becomes She-Hulk while drunk, she immediately becomes sober again.
• No-Sell: One of Leap-Frog's henchgoons tries to hit her on the head with a baseball bat, which is about as effective as if he hit a brick wall. She just turns around to look at him.
  She-Hulk: It's sad you thought that would work.
• One-Man Army: Being a gamma mutate like her cousin, Jen is naturally this. She mows through a team of Disney security guards like it's nothing.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Her hair becomes dark green when transforming into She-Hulk.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Transforming into She-Hulk makes her hair longer, straighter, and more voluminous. Discussed when someone suggests Jennifer ought to change her hairstyle so she's more recognizable when untransformed.
• Practically Different Generations: Jennifer was born in either the 1980s or 1990s, while her cousin was born in 1969. Tatiana Maslany was born in 1985 which makes her eighteen years younger than Mark Ruffalo, so if Jennifer has the same age as her actress (she does confirm she's in her thirties in episode 4) that makes about sixteen years younger than her cousin.
• Prefers Going Barefoot: Harkening back to her comic roots, and the footsteps of her cousin, Jen definitely shows a preference for being barefoot once she Hulks-out. While it's initially for practical reasons so as not to damage her expensive business shoes, even after she gains a pair of stretchy sneakers as part of her superhero ensemble, she still visibly prefers to keep things simple from time to time. Jury's out on whether this had any influence on Matt Murdock's walk of shame/stride of pride following their boink.
• Really Gets Around: Downplayed considerably, especially in comparison to her comic counterpart, but once she gains new confidence and embraces her She-Hulk persona, she becomes much more open with her sexuality. While she only sleeps with three men including Daredevil (and pretty much all of it off-screen), she's still one of the more overtly sexually active characters in the MCU.
• Remember the New Guy?: Bruce having a cousin was never mentioned in any MCU projects before the She-Hulk series.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: The show likes to emphasize how gorgeous Jen, as She-Hulk, looks when she dresses formally.
• Shockwave Clap: The first episode reveals that Jennifer can use this to knock Bruce several feet away; she has to do it several times for it to be effective, however, and her claps aren't as strong as Bruce's due to Bruce having bigger hands. She later uses it to disorient Daredevil, which is extremely effective against his Super-Senses.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: All three of the men she dates in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law appear to be kind and sensitive types when she meets them, and the one she is still dating at the end also happens to be a superhero.
• Split Personality: Averted. Unlike Bruce, Jennifer doesn't have to deal with any other personalities trying to fight for control in her head, allowing her to master her She-Hulk form much quicker and easier.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's several feet taller when she is She-Hulk. In Episode 6, she gets compliments from her friends over how fantastic she looks.
• Suddenly Sober: As Episode 6 of her show demonstrates, Jennifer transforming into She-Hulk makes all the alcohol in her system disappear, allowing her to become sober almost instantly. The downside is that the inverse of this is also true.
• Super-Strength: Naturally, she gains incredible strength when transformed into She-Hulk. Jennifer is strong enough to crush a metal wall covered in buzzsaws then bust through a reinforced door, casually throw boulders and punch cliffs apart during her Training Montage.
• Super-Toughness: As She-Hulk, her durability is completely superhuman. Normal needles can't puncture her skin, a baseball bat or even Asgardian weapons do nothing to her, and blows from Titania, who has Super-Strength herself, are nothing but mild inconveniences to her.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Jennifer towers over her dates as She-Hulk, best shown when she picks one of them up and takes him to bed (literally) in episode 4.
• Took a Level in Badass: The trailer shows that Jennifer is slowly overcoming her everyday struggles, as well as gaining more confidence and courage after becoming She-Hulk.
• Training from Hell: While trying to work out what triggers her transformations, Bruce puts her in a chamber with an Advancing Wall of Doom covered in buzzsaws. Jen duly transforms, smashes the wall and rips the door off the chamber to get out and confront him.
• Unstoppable Rage: When Jennifer is angry as She-Hulk, she can efficiently push a metal wall of buzzsaws and break a reinforced door with her bare hands.
• Unusual Euphemism: Episode 4 has Jennifer and her date deciding to "split fries to go", and in their next scene, they're at her house.
• Weirdness Magnet: Being an enhanced makes you a walking, talking beacon for trouble, something that Bruce tries warning her about. The fact that the only job she can get is being a lawyer for a firm specializing in Fantastic Legal Weirdness just compounds the issue further.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Jennifer freaks out at Bruce locking her in a chamber with a closing wall of buzzsaws to trigger her transformation, before breaking out from the containment unit to ask what's wrong with him. She also calls Bruce out for triggering her She-Hulk transformation by waking her up abruptly with an airhorn and flipping the bird after he pushed her off a cliff. She also calls superheroes in general "narcissists", implying she has this view towards all heroes.
• With Great Power Comes Great Hotness: Not that Jennifer was unattractive before getting a gamma blood transfusion, but after said transfusion, she became an Amazonian Beauty and a Statuesque Stunner. This does unfortunately have the downside of attracting men that are only interested in She-Hulk and don't want her while she's in Jen form.
• Workplace-Acquired Abilities: Jen already possesses near total control over her abilities because, in her words, she's had to control her anger her entire life, on account of being surrounded by guys who either cat-call her or explain her job to her and not having the luxury to lash out because the Double Standard would cause her to be either written off as "difficult" or put into a potentially life-threatening situation.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: She wants the show to be a "lawyer show" where her status as a Hulk is incidental. Doesn't work out.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: She is a Hulk, after all. When she flips out at the Gala, her anger is terrifying, resulting in a snarling beast woman, not unlike her cousin.

Ted Sallis / Man-Thing

Dr. Theodore Sallis / Man-Thing

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: American, Sakaaran

Portrayed By: Carey Jones

Voiced By: Jeffery Ford

Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ^note Mentioned only | Thor: Ragnarok ^note Sculpture | Werewolf By Night

A scientist who became a Swamp Monster. He became friends with Jack Russell at some point, and the two often save each other.

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• Acid Attack: He secretes an extremely strong acid that violently reacts with organic tissue and can reduce a human to a charred skeleton in seconds if he touches them.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In the comics, Man-Thing is essentially a clever animal, with no trace of Ted Sallis' personality left. Here, not only does he respond to "Ted" and is capable of conversation of a sort, he's seen playing Solitaire at the end.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In the comics, Man-Thing is only an ally of Werewolf by Night because the latter doesn't show any fear towards him, and he's not really capable of considering anyone a friend. Here, he is intelligent enough to be a mutual friend of Jack's, to the point where Jack considers Ted family and he returns the feeling.
• Badass in Distress: According to Jack, Ted needs to be rescued fairly often. However, he effortlessly immolates the one hunter who does stumble across him almost perfunctorily.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Ted is a perfectly nice chap, for being a 9-foot tall plant monster...as long as he sees you as a friend.
• Big Damn Heroes: He saves Elsa from her step-mother armed with a shotgun.
• The Cameo: Was mentioned by Maria Hill in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and a sculpture of his head also appears decorating the façade of the Grandmaster's palace.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Exclusively referred to as "Ted" in Werewolf By Night, though Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did refer to him as Man-Thing. Played With in regards to the usual reason this trope is employed however, since calling the lumbering swamp monster Ted is a lot sillier than saying Man-Thing.
• Creepy Good: A Swamp Monster that looks similar to Cthulhu, but he's a real good person as he saves Elsa from her stepmother.
• Cthulhumanoid: The tentacle-like roots hanging from his face and lack of a nose or mouth give him a Cthulhu-esque appearance.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He's a 9-foot tall swamp creature with an acid attack...and he's also sweet and endearingly first introduced by giving Jack a hug!
• Establishing Character Moment: He wraps his arms around Jack and is greeted with a sigh of relief, showing that he's a gentle giant of a swamp monster. He then showcases his acid powers when one of the hunters approaches him, showcasing that he's not one to trifle with if you manage to piss him off.
• Facepalm Of Doom: Kills a hunter in seconds by wrapping his huge hand around the man's head and burning it with acid.
• Fluffy the Terrible: He's a giant swamp creature made of plants who likes to be called... Ted.
• Gentle Giant: He's a sweetheart when unprovoked. When provoked, it's not a pretty sight.
• Hero of Another Story: His cameos in previous MCU media show that he lived a pretty interesting life prior to his debut in Werewolf By Night, from being imprisoned by S.H.I.E.L.D. until he was freed by John Garrett to somehow ending up a gladiator on Sakaar before returning to Earth where he's been captured numerous times and Jack has had to rescue him.
• Hollywood Acid: Largely subverted, surprisingly - it's way stronger than any naturally occurring substance and can reduce a body to a charred skeleton in seconds, but it violently reacts with organic tissue and gives off a great deal of heat (and even appears to briefly light victims on fire), rather than melting it.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: The contest to obtain the bloodstone is to have the monster hunters slay "a monster unlike any you have ever faced", which turns out to be Ted.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: He only speaks in grunts and growls, but Jack is still able to understand him and translate for the audience. The closest we get to understanding him is when he utters a distorted "thank you" to Elsa when she points him in the direction of where Jack went.
• Noodle Incident:
  • How did he end up on Sakaar and become one of the Grandmaster's favorite gladiators (shown by his likeness being carved into his palace), and then escape? Who knows?
  • How did he and Jack meet up? Not only that, but Jack hints that Man-Thing has often been in danger before which has forced Jack to save his life in the past.
  • In general, how Ted Sallis ended up transforming into the Swamp Monster that he is now is a complete mystery.
• Odd Friendship: The only similarity he has with Jack Russel is that they are both monsters that are hunted. Jack however is a werewolf who has methods to control his condition while Ted is a swamp monster who has to hide from the rest of the world.
• Pet the Dog: Despite having ran away from the scene early on, Ted comes back to rescue Elsa from her stepmother when she's at her mercy. Of course, the fact that Verussa was responsible for capturing him and setting the hunters to kill him in the first place, he probably didn't need much encouragement to dissolve her into nothingness.
• Plant Person: He's a mobile bundle of plants in a vaguely-humanoid shape.
• Psychoactive Powers: Inverted; his powers rely on the fear of his targets. As the phrase goes, "Whosoever knows fear, burns at the touch of the Man-Thing."
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Ted does have red eyes and , while Ted is not really evil per se, his Touch of Death makes him still dangerous enough as a warning not anger him.
• Super-Strength: He effortlessly lifts Verussa Bloodstone while burning her to death and tosses her corpse across the room into Ulysses' casket hard enough to break it.
• Touch of Death: Let him grab you when he's pissed off, and you will be reduced to a smoking skeleton in seconds.
• Unseen No More: Man-Thing was mentioned for the first time in Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2014, but he doesn't make an actual appearance on-screen until the 2022 film Werewolf by Night.
• Was Once a Man: He used to be a human scientist before being trapped in his current form.

Super Soldiers

Isaiah Bradley

Isaiah Bradley / Subject #02656

"You know what they did to me for being a hero? They put my ass in jail for 30 years!"

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): US Army (formerly)

Portrayed By: Carl Lumbly

Appearances: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier | Captain America Brave New World

"They will never let a black man be Captain America. And even if they did, no self-respecting black man would ever wanna be."

An African-American super-soldier created during the Korean War whose existence is covered up by his own country's government.

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• Abled in the Adaptation: The serum in the comics deteriorated Isaiah's mind into a childlike state and left him unable to speak. Here, his mental faculties are intact, but he's also bitterly aware of how the government abandoned him.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the comics, Bradley was imprisoned for 17 years and was formally pardoned by the President, allowing him to live in peace with his wife and children and gain the respect of the black community. This version of Bradley lost his wife during his 30-year imprisonment and was only released due to being declared legally dead, which forced him to live in obscurity with his only grandson. Mentally speaking in the comics, he's blissfully unaware of his trauma and happy while in the show, his experience has left him a bitter shell of a man.
• Age Lift: In the comics, he fought in WWII. In the show, he was an operative during the Korean War.
• "Angry Black Man" Stereotype: He's left embittered by his mistreatment for his race and then demanded Sam and Bucky to Get Out! after they pressed on the subject. Then after Sam visits him again, Isaiah starts insulting Steve and tells Sam that "no self-respecting black man" would ever want to be Captain America along with assuming that Sam believes that Isaiah deserved to be jailed because he's carrying a "white man's shield". This is what causes Sam to decide that it wouldn't be right to stop fighting for what's right because of one man's experiences and convinces him to train with the shield and embrace it (along with the mantle of Captain America) instead of being unsure of it.
• Big Good: He's the closest The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has to one on a personal level for Sam in relation to its themes in regards to race. Not only do Bucky and Sam initially go to him for help with their mission until his vehement refusal in the second episode, the fifth episode definitely established him to be this for the latter which motivated Sam to accept being Steve's successor after a heart-to-heart mentor-to-protege-like conversation.
• Casting Gag: This is not the first time Carl Lumbly plays a character with superpowers who feels temporarily ostracized in the world he lives in.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: In spite of being given the super-serum and virtually filling the role, he's not referred to as a previous Captain America. This is justified because there is no mention of Isaiah ever getting the title, and he himself notes that the world still isn't ready for a black Captain America when talking with Sam.
• Cool Old Guy: Not only a Korean War veteran super soldier and a caring grandfather towards Eli, but he later became a Mentor in Sour Armor of sorts for Sam after mellowing out.
• Deadpan Snarker: Isaiah is more than capable of throwing a few shades at Sam and Bucky.
• Defrosting Ice King: In Episode 6, he loses a lot of his bitterness after Sam successfully takes up the Captain America mantle and takes Isaiah to the Smithsonian where he shows him a new exhibit dedicated entirely to his story.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: A victim of this. Whereas the white Steve Rogers got hailed as America's greatest war hero during World War II, the other, black Super Soldier, Isaiah Bradley, was Unpersoned and used as a Guinea Pig after The Korean War.
• Disobeyed Orders, Not Punished: Averted, as one of several African-American Super Soldiers deployed to Korea, he snuck out of his base to rescue two of his men whose prison camp was to be bombed to hide the evidence of more Super Soldiers. Soon after arriving back to base, the other men died from complications from the Super Serum, and for his actions, Bradley was court-martialed for insubordination and disobeying direct orders, and was locked up and experimented for thirty years, until a sympathetic nurse helped him fake his death and escape.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a new exhibit at the Smithsonian's Captain America wing is opened, honoring Isaiah's military service and the unjust hardships the government forced him and his unit to endure. For the first time in decades, the old man is genuinely happy and hugs Sam with Tears of Joy flowing down his cheeks.
• Faking the Dead: Isaiah Bradley is officially dead and he now lives a quiet anonymous life in Baltimore. His death was faked for him by a nurse who took pity on him, and he wishes to remain anonymous because he expects that the government will eliminate him if Sam reveals what has happened to him.
• A Father to His Men: Isaiah was the leader of the unit of black soldiers chosen as guinea pigs for testing on a super serum. When several of his men were captured and he heard the brass talking about destroying the POW camp to get rid of his men before the serum in their veins could be extracted, Isaiah disobeyed a direct order to stand by and went to free his soldiers. Unfortunately, it didn't make much of a difference because they died anyway and he was imprisoned for it.
• Good Is Not Nice: At first when he makes his debut and when Bucky and Sam first go to visit him for his help, only to be vehemently refused, but not without good personal reason.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: At the start of The Winter Soldier's career, when he was just starting to make his legendary reputation and at his physical prime as the "fist of HYDRA", a lone American operative was sent to deal with him in the Korean War… and walked away after tearing his cybernetic arm off. But because he was black, the world never heard the legend of Isaiah Bradley, who was imprisoned and experimented on afterward. Sam, understandably, is pissed.
  • The actual event that got him sent to jail is even nobler: He broke out of the facility that was housing him and the other experiment super soldiers to save those who had become POWs. He got to become a guinea pig for his trouble, since he was the only one whose serum didn't kill him.
  • In the closing moments of the finale, Sam sees to it that this gets subverted, by having Isaiah's story and a statue of him memorialized in the Smithsonian alongside Steve's exploits as Captain America, ensuring that his life of pain and suffering won't be forgotten or covered up any longer.
• Grumpy Old Man: Left an embittered shell of his younger idealistic and patriotic self by the time of the show.
• Hero of Another Story: Unlike Cap, his story was erased by the US government. Bucky knows it only because he fought Isaiah during his time as the Winter Soldier.
• Human Resources: During his imprisonment, he was forcibly used by the CIA — as well as HYDRA infiltrators — as a blood donor in order to obtain samples of the super-soldier serum.
• Irrational Hatred: During his second conversation with Sam, with his judgment clouded by his bitterness, he insults Steve even though the man had nothing to do with what happened to him and would have been appalled by Isaiah's treatment had he known about it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being reduced to an angry black man who was initially inhospitable and non-cooperative towards Bucky and Sam when they visited him in his debut and later cursing out Steve Rogers and Sam when the latter visited him again, he's still a loving family man who deeply loved his late wife and grandson Eli, cared for his late brothers-in-arms whom he served with and later became more open and confiding towards Sam when revealing more of his backstory the next time he visits him. After Sam established an exhibit dedicated to him at the Smithsonian, he becomes absolutely grateful with Tears of Joy towards Sam, hugging him as a thank you for vindicating his actions for everyone to know.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He is a Korean War Hero who ended up embittered by his mistreatment at the hands of the American government he served.
• Mentor in Sour Armor: Despite his bitterness stemming from his painful past and initially non-cooperative in his debut, he eventually acts as this for Sam in regards to if an African-American can take on the Captain America mantle in the fifth episode.
• Military Superhero: Isaiah is a super-soldier who fought in the Korean War, but his existence is kept a secret until Sam Wilson steps into the picture.
• Old Soldier: He still retains his super-strength, even at his advanced age.
• Older Than They Look: He was a soldier around the time of the Korean War which would put him at about 90 but he looks at least 20 years younger. No doubt side-effects of the serum.
• Oppressed Minority Veteran: During the Korean War, two of his men were captured, and when he heard that the POW camp, where they were held, would be firebombed to "erase the evidence," he snuck out of his base and rescued them. It was All for Nothing as the men died from complications from the Super Serum, and for insubordination, he was sent to prison. Since he was the only subject that didn't die, he was experimented on for thirty years, and to make sure no one asked questions, his wife was told he died in prison. When a sympathetic nurse helped fake his death, he went into hiding, believing that the government would try to recapture him if they found out he was still alive.
• Parental Substitute: Despite parenting his grandson Eli, he gradually becomes this to Sam especially starting from their second meeting, acting like the crusty father Sam never had and developing a father-son-like relationship between themselves.
• Restored My Faith in Humanity: When we first meet Isaiah, he is a broken man who responds to Sam and Bucky's presence with fury, and when Sam offers to tell his story, Isaiah refuses on the grounds that it will only end badly. When Sam takes up the Captain America mantle in spite of Isaiah's advice, there is a glint of pride in his eye, and when he finds out that Sam had an entire exhibit dedicated to him, Isaiah cries Tears of Joy and hugs him.
• Retired Badass: Isaiah managed to defeat the Winter Soldier during the Korean War, and now lives in seclusion under the care of his grandson, Eli.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only had three minutes of screen time in his debut, but he manages to make a deep impact on the narrative and a rift between Bucky and Sam.
• Sole Survivor: Like in the original comic, he wasn't the only black man who got the serum. What he was, on the other hand, was the only one whose specific formula didn't end up killing him.
• Stealth Mentor: While his assertions out of his bitterness towards Sam that no self-respecting black man should helm the mantle of Captain America nor the country would accept such a hero can come across as discouraging Sam from taking up the mantle, it instead does the opposite effect and encourages Sam to embrace taking up Steve's mantle.
• Super-Soldier: The second American super-soldier created (or third American by birth if you count the Winter Soldier, but then his allegiance wasn't to the US). And the first African-American one.
• Super-Strength: Despite being in his 90s, Isaiah can still throw a tobacco tin hard enough to embed it in a wall... with one hand.
• Tested on Humans: Instead of being celebrated as a hero, Isaiah was imprisoned and used as a test subject by the government, including S.H.I.E.L.D.'s HYDRA infiltrators.
  • His initial dose of the serum wasn't even revealed to him to be a serum; he was told it was a tetanus shot.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In Episode 5, aside from insulting Steve's memory and accusing Sam of thinking about how he deserved to be jailed because he's carrying a "white man's shield", he's more open and cordial in the fifth episode than when he was first introduced. Then in Episode 6, his faith in the country he served is completely restored and he loses his bitterness once Sam ensures Isaiah's military service gets honored through an exhibit dedicated to him that brings a genuine smile to his face complete with Tears of Joy and giving Sam a hug as a thank you.
• Tragic Hero: A Korean War hero who was instead jailed for thirty years and experimented on by the government and HYDRA in return for his service.
• Two First Names: "Isaiah" and "Bradley" can both be used as given names.
• Unperson: Once his time as a soldier was over, his existence was essentially wiped clean: name, residence, professional status, not a single hint of his existence remained. This is averted when the Smithsonian sets up an exhibit to honor his heroic deeds.
• Walking Spoiler: Both out- and in-universe, due to being kept in secret for decades and still being unknown by the public. Falcon is shocked to learn of him and that even Cap was unaware of his existence.
• When He Smiles: It's an emotional and earnest one upon seeing a museum exhibit dedicated to him to honor his sacrifices and giving him complete public recognition.
• Worthy Opponent: A former and tragic example with The Winter Soldier. Isaiah and Bucky clearly have respect for each other's capabilities because they faced off when Isaiah was a young super-soldier. Unlike some examples, the fact they were enemies is emphasized here, as Isaiah isn't friendly towards Bucky at all, merely respectful and curious... until a nerve is struck.
• You Are Number 6: He was denominated "Subject 02656" when he became a guinea pig.

Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian

Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian

"All business, huh? Little Natasha, all indoctrinated into the Western agenda."

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: Russian

Affiliation(s): Soviet Armed Forces (formerly)

Portrayed By: David Harbour

Voiced By: Ricardo Tejedo (Latin American Spanish dub), Akio Ōtsuka (Japanese dub), César Marchetti (Brazilian Portuguese dub)

Appearances: Black Widow | Thunderbolts

"You both have killed so many people. Your ledgers must be dripping, just gushing red! I couldn't be more proud of you."

A Russian intelligence agent and a former superhero with a shared past with Natasha Romanoff.

---

• Accent Slip-Up: While undercover in Ohio in the mid-'90s, Alexei speaks with a distinct midwest American accent (the same one New York native Harbour uses for Stranger Things). Once they touch down in Cuba, however, he starts slipping back into his natural Russian accent while begging to get back into action as the Red Guardian, before quickly switching back to his American voice to comfort Natasha and Yelena before they're taken to the Red Room.
• Acrofatic: Alexei is surprisingly fast and agile despite the weight he gained over the years.
• Action Dad: Not only is he a superhero created by the Soviet Union, but he is also the adoptive father of Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: He's a redhead in the comics, but has his actor's brown hair in the MCU.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: He was Natasha's husband in the comics, his presumed death making her a literal widow. This aspect is transferred to Melina in the movie, and he's more of a father figure to Natasha.
• Adaptational Badass: Alexei Shostakov has no powers in the comics, while he's a Super-Soldier in the MCU.
• Adaptational Curves: Inverted. In the comics, Alexei has a traditional Heroic Build, while in the MCU he is severely overweight.
• Age Lift: Fought in WWII in the comics as a pilot. In the film, his age is very unclear but he was probably born in the '50s at the earliest.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if his stories about a rivalry with Captain America have any basis in truth, given the incompatible timelines for such a thing to happen. (Alexei tells a story about one conflict between them in the mid-'80s when Steve didn't get out of the ice until 2011) The U.S. government was still working on Super Soldier projects for decades after World War II (as seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) so it's not impossible he may have encountered someone taking the Captain America mantle at the time, especially given this would have been during the Cold War. And of course, Avengers: Endgame ended with Steve going back in time. Word of God has it that Alexei genuinely believes that he had a rivalry with Cap but it's not clear if that's a case of buying into his own stories or if he actually did meet Captain America in some form.
• Animal Motif: Pigs, more specifically boars. He's big, jovial, perverted, he smells, and he's smart where it counts. His beard looks like the scruff around a pig's mouth, and even the way he laughs sounds a lot like oinking and huffing. Melina names a pig after him and even he can't argue the comparison.
• Battle Couple: He and Melina Vostokoff genuinely care for one another, even during the most precarious times.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Although his supposed fight against Captain America seems like an obvious lie to impress the other prisoners when he meets Natasha, he genuinely asks if Captain America has talked about him, so he actually seems to believe that he fought against the real Captain America.
• Berserk Button: While arm-wrestling other prisoners, Alexei boasts about his past accomplishments as Red Guardian, including fighting Captain America. When one opponent at the table expresses doubt, knowing Captain America was still frozen while Red Guardian was active, Alexei is so pissed off that he breaks his opponent's wrist.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Alexei may appear as a comical oaf at times, but he is still a super-soldier who can give his enemies a painful bruising.
• Bewildering Punishment: He speculates that he was thrown in prison because Dreykov didn't like a comment Alexei made about his appearance, but he clearly doesn't know if that's true or not.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Alexei tells Natasha and Yelena that they'll be fine in the Black Widow program because they're tough and they'll take care of each other.
  • Downplayed when Alexei is introduced telling his fellow inmates in prison a story where he fought and defeated Captain America. However, his time as the Red Guardian would have had to have been before 1991 (the year the Soviet Union collapsed), long after Rogers went into the ice, and long before he was unearthed in the 2010s. When one of the inmates points this out, Alexei breaks his wrist. On the other hand, there are numerous ways this claim could turn out to actually be true: Alexei never specified what Captain America he was talking about, and it is possible that he fought a Captain America that wasn't Steve Rogers; it's also possible he fought the real Steve Rogers after all, whom we know to have access to Time Travel.
• Blood Knight: He enjoys fighting quite a lot. When he accompanies Melina during the infiltration of the Red Room Academy, he even complains that there is no one for him to fight, and is quite happy when Taskmaster comes to confront him.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's a proud and loud fighter, who also doesn't care if his behavior is very unpleasant to others.
• The Brute: Pretty much his role under General Dreykov and Melina Vostokoff. Though reasonably savvy in his prime he still admits to being reliant on others for the planning, and in the present day, he's painfully naive and frequently blinded by ego.
• Butt-Monkey: In Black Widow, he gets his ass-handed to him and made fun of more than any other character.
• Captain Geographic: His suit and superhero name all evoke Mother Russia.
• Captain Patriotic: He was the U.S.S.R.'s answer to Captain America. These days, however, he's largely been forgotten by the same state that made him a superhero.
• Casting Gag:
  • This is not the first time David Harbour plays a loving adoptive father who has a certain experience with people from Russia.
  • In the Japanese dub, Akio Ōtsuka previously voiced some super soldiers: Solid Snake, his father Big Boss when he was young, and Solidus Snake.
• Chummy Commies: He's a Big Fun Boisterous Bruiser who also genuinely believes in the communist ideals of the Soviet Union. At the same time, he also embodies the "bottoms-up" criticism many people living in such communist societies may carry (i.e. government officials being either humorless or hypocritical), which adds a bit of tragic edge to the fact that his ideological loyalty was rewarded by decades of prison time.
• Color Character: The Red Guardian.
• Composite Character: With Ivan Petrovich who was Natasha's mentor and father figure in the comics.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: Alexei is this to his American Super-Soldier counterparts thus seen in the MCU so far, especially with how the context of Soviet Russia treats and disposes of its personnel in about the same level of callousness the Americans do.
  • Like Isaiah Bradley, Alexi was given the super-soldier serum at one point during his military career before being unjustly imprisoned later on where he grew resentful and disillusioned with the very government he once valiantly fought for. The difference is that Isaiah got the shorter end of the stick due to having been incarcerated for three decades, during which he was experimented on like a lab rat by both the U.S. government and HYDRA until being freed by a sympathetic nurse, and was never given any recognition for his duty due to the government's fear of public backlash over a black man taking up the Captain America mantle until Sam had the Smithsonian acknowledge Isaiah's service, and generally looks back upon his days in the army with bitterness and resentment. Alexei, on the other hand, was genuinely regarded as a hero to the people of the Soviet Union, enough that his most loyal fans still send him mail during his imprisonment, until he was thrown into a Russian gulag with him having no idea what he did to deserve it and looks fondly back on his "glory days", as well as being all too happy to get back into action once his surrogate daughters free him.
  • Like John Walker, Alexei seems to have enjoyed the high profile of being the Red Guardian, with the action figure of him suggesting he was given the same level of endorsement and public reception John did at the start of his tenure as a state-sponsored Captain America. They share an obsession with the reverence their respective mantles supposedly entitle them to and appear to perform well at their jobs (be it the public side or the black-ops side of it), but while John is all grim-and-business about it off-camera (thinking of his tour in Afghanistan as "the worst day of his life"), Alexei shows relish both in the glamour of being a state mascot and being involved in the morally-shady dealings of Dreykov and the Red Room. That said, whereas Walker took matters into his own hands when he was disavowed by his government, Alexei seems to have taken his imprisonment lying down until Natasha and Yelena broke him out.
  • And, of course, to Steve Rogers himself. Whereas Alexei will always make the time to hype himself up as the Red Guardian to anyone he meets (despite his Glory Days being behind him, and he comes off more as a Miles Gloriosus than anything), Steve obviously never demanded such a thing from anyone he meets, always maintains his being a Humble Hero (even trying to keep children who recognize him silent about it), and lets his actions and moral authority convince people to either stand up with him or follow him. The fact that Natasha grew up with Alexei as the closest thing she has to a father figure and then having spent a bulk of her time as an Avenger with Steve probably also contributed to the closeness of their relationship — with Steve probably reminding Natasha of Alexei's best traits, as well as demonstrating what he could have been if he had indeed been a better person. On a more cosmetic note, whereas Steve was also disavowed by his government and grew a beard during that period, he never let go of his physique (apparently still doing Avengers-level work before finding asylum in Wakanda and being confronted by the threat of Thanos), whereas Alexei definitely let himself go inside prison (with the facilities of the gulag he's in looking in pretty decrepit shape, it made sense).
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Taskmaster absolutely stomps him, though it is likely that he knew he'd get destroyed since he just missed fighting strong opponents, and he also knew that his main goal was to stall for time while the other three did their thing.
• Deadpan Snarker: Alexei can be full of dry humor during certain conversations. Natasha and Yelena must have taken their levels of snark after him.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: As a Soviet relic who spent decades in prison, Alexei carries a lot of the attitudes you would expect someone like him from that era to carry, with his lavishing praise on Natasha and Yelena for their careers and particularly for their kill counts, then being unable to understand why they aren't proud of it and are clearly uncomfortable discussing the subject being a perfect example.
• The Ditz: He's not the world's brightest superhero (though he has sufficient Hidden Depths to maintain a cover in the US for three years), which he's entirely aware of, stating that he was always just the muscle — Melina was the brains. He's also got the tact of a baseball bat to the skull. However, for all his oafish behavior, he's friendly and affectionate.
• Dumb Muscle: He has Super-Strength, but intelligence isn't exactly his strong point. He even admits to himself that he's just "the muscle" compared to Melina.
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: The two guards in the mail room in the Russian prison mockingly eat a cake one of Alexei's fans had sent him when Alexei comes to collect his mail. They even tell him to tell his fans to use more butter next time. They soon regret this.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: Alexei keeps trying — and failing — to give dramatic heart-to-heart speeches. He succeeds, once, when he stops trying to act dramatic and just acts normal by sharing a song with Yelena. He eventually gives up, presumably because he realizes it's not his name on the posters.
• Fauxreigner: Alexei and Melina both put on American accents during their time undercover in Ohio.
• Feel No Pain: His reintroduction in the prison sees him holding a long conversation and beating several other men in a row in arm-wrestling, all while an elaborate tattoo is being inked onto his back.
• Formerly Fit: His statement that his costume still fits as well as Melina's comment about him putting on weight implies he used to be in much better shape.
• Glory Days: Alexei clearly misses the days when he was looked up to with the same kind of reverence as Steve. He still has his fans both in and out of jail, who still send him fan mail, baked goods (that the guards steal), and other memorabilia, but the look on his face as he holds a Red Guardian doll emphasizes his bitterness of seeing that the hero of the people has been reduced to a prisoner in an overcrowded gulag.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Averted. While he barely wears his helmet, Alexei doesn't leave it behind at any point.
• Hidden Depths: Dumb as a box of rocks, as tactful as said rocks, and successfully maintained a flawless cover as an American family man in Ohio for three years.
• Husky Russkie: Stout Strength and wearing Soviet Red in case he couldn't be a crystal clear example.
• In a Single Bound: Much like every other Super-Soldier, he can jump and leap much higher than a normal human.
• Innocently Insensitive: He expresses pride over how his girls have grown into Black Widows, completely unaware of all the pain and misery that training in the Red Room entailed. He's also very vocal about how much he hated his undercover job in America, which causes Natasha and Yelena to think that he never cared about them when in truth he did.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Alexei is very arrogant about his time as Red Guardian, frequently mentioning how much he hated being assigned the role of "American family man", he does genuinely care for the girls that he and Melina raised, and is ultimately willing to take on his former superiors to protect them.
• Just Toying with Them: Alexei is seen arm-wrestling a string of opponents in prison, easily beating them aside from one he teasingly pretends might be a match for him. Then his last opponent makes the mistake of irritating Alexei, who shows how much he's holding back by effortlessly breaking the con's wrist.
• Knuckle Tattoos: Has "KARL" on his right hand and "MARX" on his left hand.
• Large Ham: Alexei does not hold back his glee when he gets into the action, and the fact that he is played by David Harbour is a bonus.
• Lightning Bruiser: There's no denying his superhuman strength as he knocks down a steel door that still has chunks of concrete fixed to it. And despite having a sizable gut, he's almost as fast as he is strong as he rapidly climbs walls and leaps onto ladders back in jail.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Like Steve Rogers, Alexei used to have a shield of his own during his Glory Days as the Red Guardian. When he and Melina are fleeing from the crumbling Red Room, Alexei picks up Taskmaster's shield and throws it at one of Dreykov's henchmen who attempts to stop them from escaping via helicopter.
• Military Superhero: Red Guardian was the pride of the Soviet Armed Forces and the Soviet Union as a whole, but his fame has withered into almost nothing during the modern era.
• Mirror Character: He is the Russian equivalent of Steve Rogers/Captain America. While Steve is humble and retains recognition to the present day, Alexei is more arrogant and only has a handful of people who still admire him.
• Mysterious Past: Unlike the others of his "family", Alexei seems not to be a product of the Red Room. How did he come to serve the Soviet Union? How did he acquire super-soldier-like qualities? For how long was he Red Guardian, and what did he do in that function? We can only speculate. We don't even know why exactly Dreykov threw him in jail, as Alexei himself claims not to know.
• Mythology Gag: At one point Yelena sarcastically calls him the Crimson Dynamo. In the comics, Crimson Dynamo is a Russian Iron Man villain who created his own suit of Powered Armor (not unlike Ivan Vanko).
• Nice Guy: He seems to be a relaxed, jovial kind of guy, especially for someone who's spent time in a Russian prison; while he initially treated his family cover as a chore and went along with sending his adopted daughters to be trained in the Red Room, the distinction is that he loved his family (he just found the work boring), and genuinely thought that sending them to the Red Room was what was best for them.
• No Social Skills: Between being a Cold War relic with a lot of the attitudes that you would expect someone from that era to have and languishing for decades in a Russian prison, he is often unthinkingly insensitive, tactless, rude, and inappropriate.
• Nostalgia Filter: For the U.S.S.R..
  Alexei: I just wanted the communist party to go back to being a party.
• The One Guy: He's the only guy to be part of Natasha's "family".
• One-Sided Arm-Wrestling: In the present day, Alexei is reintroduced while arm-wrestling other prisoners, who get in line to challenge him. Since he's a Super-Soldier, he beats them easily.
• "Open!" Says Me: He kicks down the steel door of the Seventh Circle Prison during his escape.
• Outside Ride: During the opening scene of Black Widow, he spends a lot of time hanging on the wing of a plane taking off.
• Papa Wolf: Though Natasha and Yelena are not his biological daughters, he considers them his and is ultimately revealed to be fiercely protective of them. Among his many prison tattoos, he has both of their names written in Cyrillic on his right arm.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Somewhat, asking a resentful and irritated Yelena if she's on her period. She and Natasha proceed to go into detail about why this isn't possible because of their hysterectomies (in a way that Crosses the Line Twice), which leaves him both Squicked and more than a little horrified.
• Pop the Tires: During the opening scene, he manages to shoot the tire of a S.H.I.E.L.D. car, causing it to crash into another car.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Alexei's enthusiasm and clumsiness make him the main source of levity in an otherwise dark film.
• Primary-Color Champion: Alexei's costume is red and white.
• Red Is Heroic: He is the first superhero of the Soviet Union, his costume is red and white, and his name is Red Guardian.
• Reimagining the Artifact: The comic book character was created at the height of the Cold War as a foil to Captain America, and usually served a villainous role. Since Black Widow is set long after that conflict ended (which Captain America was frozen for the whole time), Alexei Shostakov is instead reimagined as a former Soviet hero who lost his job once the USSR collapsed, and he subsequently lost part of his Heroic Build, and he also remains a heroic character.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: In the comics, Alexei Shostakov was Natasha's ex-husband. Here, he's her sort-of adoptive father.
• Resentful Guardian: Zigzagged. He's very loud about how much he hated being undercover for the three years he was in America but it's less that he hated what the role needed of him and more that he preferred being on the front lines fighting. He also cares for Natasha and Yelena deeply, even in the present day, so his griping is meant to be more that he's grumbling about a bad time at work than anything else. The girls however do treat his complaints as though he regarded them as burdens, which Alexei is remorseful about when Yelena calls him out on it. This is also noted in a subtle detail: despite all of his talk, a sufficiently sharp-eyed viewer can notice he has the name of his daughters tattooed on his shoulder.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Alexei frequently boasts of his various accomplishments as the Red Guardian, even claiming to his fellow inmates that he once defeated Captain America (he actually retired from being Red Guardian long before Cap resurfaced). While Red Guardian was seemingly popular in Russia at the time, enough to get his own action figure, he's casually dismissed by most people he interacts with now, and it's indicated that no one outside of Russia has even heard of him.
• So Long, Suckers!: After Natasha and Yelena helped Alexei in escaping prison, he yells a variation of this in Russian at the guards and the inmates who are buried in the avalanche that Yelena inadvertently triggered with her bazooka.
  Alexei: Прощайте, мудаки!^English Farewell, douchebags!
• So Proud of You: When he sees his two "daughters" Natasha and Yelena again, he tells them that he is very proud of them for being assassins who killed a lot of people. Neither is impressed.
• Soft Glass: He gets tossed through a glass wall during his fight against Taskmaster, and survives without any serious injury. Granted, the fact that he is a Super-Soldier may have something to do with it.
• Stout Strength: He's put on noticeable weight since his prime but he's still quite muscular and very strong, able to fight Taskmaster (almost) evenly. He's husky even in the opening sequence, so either he was always that way, or he'd gone soft in his three years out of action. He's still strong enough to flip a heavy trailer out of the way with little effort even then.
• Super Prototype: As Black Widow goes on, it becomes clear Steve Rogers was this compared to Alexei. Whatever the process was that gave Alexei his strength and durability, it did not come with the massive boost in agility and speed that Erskine's process also provided to Steve.
• Super-Reflexes: Thanks to his augmented physical abilities, Alexei is able to rapidly react to his opponents' movements, such as when he successfully knocks away Taskmaster's shield mid-air.
• Super-Soldier: He calls himself the Soviet Union's only super soldier and he has the superhuman strength to back up his claim.
• Super-Strength: He possesses superhuman strength that allows him to break a person's arm effortlessly and push away vehicles that are several times his weight.
• Talk to the Fist: Alexei's last arm-wrestling opponent smugly points out that his tales of fighting Captain America don't really make sense. Rather than argue the point, Alexei breaks the man's wrist.
• Tattooed Crook: Alexei has several accurate prison tattoos indicating what he'd been incarcerated for during the time between being an icon for the Soviet Union and falling out of favor with the new regime. The meaning of most of them can be found here.
• Tempting Fate: Alexei, taking a tranquilizer dart in the chest, pulls it out and contemptuously scoffs, "They think that..." He is immediately hit with a dozen more.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: Alexei throws Taskmaster's shield at a henchman of Dreykov who tries to stop him and Melina from escaping the exploding Red Room via helicopter.
• Time-Passage Beard: He was clean shaven in the prologue of Black Widow, but in the present-day he has a shaggy beard and longer hair.
• Transatlantic Equivalent: In-universe, he's a Captain Ersatz of Captain America, but he was specifically created to serve as a superhero for the Soviet Union. The mask of his suit, shown in the film's poster, is quite similar to that of Cap, except that it's red instead of blue. Interestingly enough, while the Soviet Union wanted their own version of Steve Rogers, Alexei ended up having much more in common with America's less celebrated super-soldiers.
  • Like John Walker, Alexei seems to have enjoyed the high profile of being the Red Guardian, with the action figure of him suggesting he was given the same level of endorsement and public reception Walker did at the start of his tenure as a state-sponsored Captain America. They share an obsession with the reverence their respective mantles supposedly entitle them to and appear to perform well enough on their jobs (be it the public side or the black-ops side of it). Unlike Walker, Alexei relishes both the glamour of being a state mascot and being involved in the morally-shady dealings of Dreykov and the Red Room.
  • Like Isaiah Bradley, Alexei's country "thanked" him for his service by throwing him in prison for decades for no reason. However, Isaiah eventually manages to get the recognition he deserves.
• Token Super: Being a Super-Soldier, he's the only member of Natasha's "family" who has superpowers.
• Undercover as Lovers: He and Melina pretended to be a married couple during their mission in Ohio, passing off Natasha and Yelena as their daughters. They're still quite flirtatious with each other in the present, though the film doesn't explicitly clarify whether or not they've ever actually been romantically involved, he does have a tattoo of her face above the word "love" in Cyrillic.
• Unknown Rival: Regards Captain America as his sworn rival, despite the fact that Steve has not only never met him, but probably never knew he even existed.
• Vague Age: He talks about the Soviet Union and its party politics as if he lived through it and was already an established super-soldier in the '80s. David Harbour was born in 1975, so this would make Red Guardian significantly older by at least a few decades, if not more. Then there's his friendship with Dreykov, who is visibly much older (though that could be an Intergenerational Friendship). Adding to the uncertainty of it is that he has a version of the super-soldier serum in his veins, which may have altered his age.
• The Worf Effect: Taskmaster absolutely demolishes him with ease during their fight. If it weren't for Melina's intervention, he would have been killed.

The Divine Pairing

Tyrone Johnson / Cloak

Tyrone Johnson / Cloak

"One second I was in the city, the next I was here... in the middle of nowhere..."

Species: Enhanced human (Darkforce empowered)

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): St. Sebastian's Preparatory School (formerly)

Portrayed By: Aubrey Joseph

Appearances: Cloak & Dagger | Runaways

"Even if I do everything perfect they still could come after me. So why be perfect? Why not stand up for the world the way it should be?"

A young man with the ability to teleport and control fears.

---

• Adaptational Attractiveness: He doesn't have the Blank White Eyes his comic self has.
• Adaptational Mundanity: This version of Cloak is just an ordinary kid with powers he can (mostly) turn on and off. As such, he is more of an equal to Dagger. He is much more human than his classic comic book version, in which his body was permanently turned into a shadowy substance, and that suffered from an uncontrollable hunger for the "light" of human souls.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Mostly due to his transformation being less extreme (see above), he is a nice kid even when he becomes obsessed with avenging his dead brother. The comic book version of Cloak is a lifeforce vampire that urges Dagger to be a ruthless vigilante because that is the only life he can have. In this version, if anything, he is nicer than the more cynical, con artist Dagger.
• "Angry Black Man" Stereotype: Deconstructed severely. Part of the reason he's so traumatized by Billy's death and hell-bent on Revenge is that everyone around him is encouraging him to suppress what happened to him rather than fall into this trope, rather than helping him deal with it.
• Bad Powers, Good People: If you were to give boogeyman powers to a teenage pre-Serum Steve Rogers, you would end up with someone like Tyrone Johnson. Tyrone is kind-hearted and tries to see the good in others, but his connection to the Darkforce allows him to see the fear in others as well, a process that always leaves the subject disoriented, and even his very touch can prove deadly. Also, he can trap you in a fear dimension.
• Bash Siblings: When the two of them get into fights, Tandy's the one on offense while Tyrone mostly evades or redirects his opponents onto Tandy.
• Black Cloak: An integral part of the character design, hence the name "Cloak". This incarnation was started by Billy before he died.
• Born Unlucky: Aside from the obvious tragedy of losing a sibling in his childhood, Tyrone is often taking a beating from someone or getting the short end of the stick in a situation.
• Cannot Talk to Women: He's awkward around women and his conversation with Tandy heavily implies he's a virgin.
• Casting a Shadow: He can manipulate the Darkforce, mostly when his life is in danger and when wearing his late brother's cloak as a Magic Feather.
• Cowardly Lion: Not an entirely straight example. His fear mixed with anger is his early defining characteristic, angry and lashing out at the world for his brother, but also afraid to really fight to fix things like his parents. With Tandy backing him up, however, he gets the courage he needs to face the world and fight to save it.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Cloak may look intimidating, but he's still a superhero.
• Deadly Dodging: Since his powers aren't as offense-based as Tandy's, he mostly uses them to dodge or evade blows, usually setting himself up to redirect them into the nearest wall or Tandy's knives.
• Death Seeker: What Tandy accuses Tyrone of being deep down since she saw a lot of Suicide by Cop scenarios in his mind.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His anger and inability to give up on a lost cause. Even after he manages to catch Connors, he still feels empty and angry.
  • His feelings of having to live up to his brother's legacy, as well as society's and his parents' expectations of him. Tyrone always feels like he has to be "perfect". A part of his character development is accepting that he doesn't need to be.
• The Idealist: He's a firm believer in justice and tries to see the good in others.
• I Know What You Fear: He can sense people's fears or traumatic experiences when they're touching.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: He blames himself for Billy's death because he stole the radio so Billy wouldn't have to.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Tyrone is Tandy's. His presence in her life shows her how real people act, that the world isn't supposed to be abusive and that things can and should be better than they are.
  • In Season 2, when Andre puts Tandy in a Lotus-Eater Machine to make her feel despair, he shows her many potential scenarios where Tandy lives her life which always ends in disasters, but Tandy manages to get through because the one who gives her hope is Tyrone. When Andre makes her believe that he killed Tyrone, she breaks down and is left in despair, no longer being able to summon her daggers because she has no hope left in her.
• Living Shadow: His powers let him move through and control shadows.
• Nice Guy: In sharp contrast to Dagger's more anti-heroic tendencies.
• An Odd Place to Sleep: He sleeps in a bed but doesn't always wake up in one.
• Real Men Love Jesus: Tyone's both a choir boy and a superhero in the making. Subverted, however, since he later tells Delgado that he doesn't really believe in God.
• Revenge: More than anything else, he wants to kill the policeman who (accidentally) killed his brother, as he believes doing so will finally free his family from the trauma that's weighed on them for eight years.
• Stealthy Teleportation: Mostly played straight — his teleportation is silent and has no visual effect when he disappears, though his reappearance comes with black smoke. It makes him effective at getting around stealthily.
• Survivor's Guilt: He feels guilty for getting to live when Billy died. In Tandy's journey through his mind, she sees a young Tyrone practically drowning in checks but crying because he doesn't feel he deserves any of it, and she implies that every good thing that happens to him is tainted by the fact that Billy can't share in it.
• Teleport Cloak: Seems to be invoked, as every time he teleports he has to use something nearby as a cover to disappear into, sort of like Shadow Walker. His Black Cloak works like this, but he's also used nearby blankets, curtains, a small towel, and even a garbage bag.
• Terror Hero: Kind of inevitable with his fear and shadow powers. It's unintentional at first, but he learns to exploit it to his benefit.
  • Scary Black Man: Goes along with his powers, but is ultimately subverted. Tyrone is a rather shy, quiet boy, far more The Heart than The Big Guy.
• Tragic Keepsake: In this incarnation, the cloak originally belonged to his brother Billy.
• Trauma Button: Justifiably, he gets very nervous around cops.
• Weaponized Teleportation: One of Cloak's powers. Though primarily defensive in nature, Tyrone can use it for combat, usually by harrying his opponents or moving them into harm's way, usually in the path of one of Tandy's daggers.

Tandy Bowen / Dagger

Tandy Bowen / Dagger

"Judge less or leave poor."

Species: Enhanced human (Lightforce empowered)

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Olivia Holt

Appearances: Cloak & Dagger | Runaways

"The world has stolen from me my whole life. My dad, his name, our money. Maybe I have this thing so I can steal some of it back."

A young woman with the ability to call hopes and make daggers made of solid light.

---

• Abusive Parents: Her mother's a drug addict who steals her money and is at the very least emotionally abusive.
• Action Girl: Tandy proves herself to be a competent fighter with her powers.
• Adaptational Badass: In the comics, her daggers were only psychic and couldn't do actual damage to flesh, the worst being draining them of vitality. Here, they function like any other knife.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: She's usually depicted with blue eyes, but they're brown here.
• Adaptational Jerkass: She is much more cynical, abrasive, and world-weary than her comic book self that was The Ingenue. She still develops into a heroic character, though.
• Angelic Beauty: Her Dagger costume is white, the illumination that the daggers have and she's also very pretty, so she tends to give off this vibe. Lampshaded by Deschaine.
• Bash Siblings: When the two of them get into fights, Tandy's the one on offense while Tyrone mostly evades or redirects his opponents onto Tandy.
• Classy Cat-Burglar: Tandy uses her background in the upper class to blend in with rich people and take them for all they're worth.
• Con Artist: So much so and for so long that the idea of doing things honestly just never crosses her mind.
• Consummate Liar: One of her biggest strengths is her ability to weave a convincing lie, though "Funhouse Mirrors" shows that she's not as good at it as she thinks. That episode also deconstructs the trope by showing that she's been doing it so long that lying and conning is now her first instinct, even when she could more easily get what she wanted by just telling the truth.
• Cowardly Lion: While her first instinct is to run away, she can climb, run, balance, and fight when the chips are down.
• The Cynic: She starts out that way, but as the more time she spends with Tyrone and sees other people's hopes the more she finds in herself. Reverts back to this in season 2, when she sees how people treat other people and what they're doing to themselves.
• Daddy's Girl: Her father doted on her, which is why his death and her life subsequently took a dive, while her mother neglected Tandy, which weighed heavily on her. This is eventually subverted, as Tandy realizes that she willingly ignored the signs that her father abused her mother.
• Dance Battler: Tandy tends to use moves that are reminiscent of ballet when fighting. Considering she took ballet dance lessons as a child (and again at the start of Season 2), this is not too surprising.
• Deadpan Snarker: Tandy's wit is as sharp as her daggers, as seen by her quip to a forger that she's negotiating with for a fake ID:
  Tandy: If we fail, you still profit. Ain't that America?
• Death Seeker: But can never go through with it. And just when she actually does attempt suicide, her powers kicked in and saved herself.
• Drugs Are Bad: She snorts some kind of pills to numb the pain. In the penultimate episode of Season 1, she starts using her powers as a drug, sucking away people's hopes in a desperate attempt to feel better.
• Functional Addict: She's addicted to several prescription drugs, which she snorts, but so far the only dependency seems psychological and it hasn't yet taken a toll on her body or cognition.
• Emotion Eater: She learns she can not only see people's hopes but also steal them.
• Fatal Flaw: She runs away from her problems and can't face anything. Her journey is learning how to stop running.
• Good Powers, Bad People: She has the power to bring great hope and happiness to anyone she touches. Unfortunately, she sees herself as a "screwed-up bitch" and insists on acting accordingly to everyone around her, up to and including stealing their hopes to get high. Thankfully, she's better than she thinks she is.
• Good Wears White: She tends to wear white clothing.
• Hope Bringer: Tandy's light powers are derived from hope. She can also give others their hope back, which is a crucial ability against Andre Deschaine, who takes other people's hope away and causes them despair to relieve his pain.
• Hope Crusher: As Tandy can see other people's hopes, she can also take them away, giving her an emotional rush. She eventually stops doing it, realizing how wrong it is.
• Laser Blade: She eventually learns to expand her knives into daggers and then, into entire swords.
• Light 'em Up: Her powers manifest as white light daggers.
• Light Is Good: Tandy invokes this trope with her light-based powers and growing compassion.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Tandy is this for Tyrone, showing him that the "Perfect" society keeps pushing for only makes things worse and people worse. In short, she brings out the best in him.
• Loveable Rogue: Tandy's a cunning schemer and thief, but she's also incredibly charming.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The concept is played through her character arc with Tyrone. She does serve to bring Tyrone out of his brooding and sheltered existence, but she is far too much her own person with goals and hopes and Character Development. She's Tyrone's equal partner and best friend, not his lesser in any way and it's never suggested that she should be.
• Parental Issues: In Season 1, Tandy mostly has issues with her mother, who is an alcoholic and drug abuser, who also neglects her daughter and takes her daughter's money to get more drugs. Tandy eventually realizes that her father is a major reason why her mother became this way, as he emotionally and physically abused Melissa. A big part of Season 2 involves Tandy overcoming her pent-up frustration and fear toward her father.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: She can form knives made of light. Since she never runs out of "ammo", she can freely throw as many knives as she likes.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Season 1 is this for her with the penultimate moment coming in episode 10 with Tandy Taking A Level In Idealism and stating out loud that she wants to learn how to care.
• Your Heart's Desire: She can sense people's dreams and hopes.

Supernatural beings

Eric Brooks / Blade

Eric Brooks / Blade

Species: Dhampyr (human-vampire hybrid)

Citizenship: Unknown

Portrayed By: Mahershala Ali

Voiced By: Mario Filio (Latin American Spanish dub), Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese), Andrio Cândido (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: Eternals ^note In The Stinger, voice only | Blade

"Sure you're ready for that, Mr. Whitman?"

A vampire hunter who himself is half-human/half-vampire.

---

• All There in the Manual: His role in Eternals is an uncredited off-screen cameo, so unless you have a good ear for voices, the only way to know this character's identity is to find interviews that discuss the cameo appearance.
• Baritone of Strength: His Voice-Only Cameo in Eternals is delivered in Ali's trademark baritone, and shows him as a confident man familiar with the supernatural.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He is planned to be formally inducted into the MCU with his own movie in the near future.
• Half-Human Hybrid: He's part-human and part-vampire.
• The Unseen: The final scene of Eternals cuts to black before his identity is revealed.

Jack Russell / Werewolf by Night

Jack Russell / Werewolf by Night

"I would never hurt you or hurt any one of them. And any hunting that I do is done by a part of me that is not me."

Species: Werewolf

Citizenship: Unknown

Portrayed By: Gael García Bernal

Appearances: Werewolf By Night

"I can tell you my family was very different. But all families have something in common. They follow us, for good, for bad, they stay, like they become an atmosphere. And sometimes we think that by doing something very specific, we can change everything and not be like them."

A man cursed with lycanthropy who has an Odd Friendship with Ted Sallis.

---

• Adaptational Nationality: In the comics, Jack Russell was the Romanian son of a Transylvanian baron, originally born as Jacob Russoff. In the MCU, he's played by the Mexican Gael García Bernal, with no indications that he's from Eastern Europe.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Begs Verussa to not use the Bloodstone to hasten his werewolf transformation.
  "Please don't do this..."
• Ambiguous Situation: Verussa claims that Jack has killed a hundred monsters, but this is presumably a cover story Jack made so he can sneak in and rescue Man-Thing. When confessing to Elsa, however, he does state that his m/o is to go near a target when a full moon is approaching and then letting his werewolf form do its thing, suggesting that at least some of those kills actually happened.
• The Berserker: In werewolf form, he's a flash of unthinking feral rage whose fighting style boils down to ripping everything he sees limb from limb.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Exaggerated to the extreme. Easily one of the kindest and sweetest characters in the MCU - if not the shining example - even when compared to the likes of Steve Rogers and Phil Coulson. ...For 29-and-a-half days per month. When the moon is full (or he's turned by a meddlesome thing like the Bloodstone), however, he's a nigh-unstoppable feral killing machine who will, at the least, rip everyone and everything in front of him to bloody pieces until all that's left barely resembles a human shape. He is literally the nicest, and most vicious, character in the franchise thus far all rolled into one.
• Calacas: Jack is wearing skeletal makeup as an homage to his ancestors and a throwback to his Mexican heritage.
• Composite Character: He uses the name of the original Werewolf by Night, but he's Mexican like Jake Gomez. His friendship with Man-Thing also gives him traits of Jennifer Kale.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Once he transforms, suffice to say, the hunters are all turned into a bloodtastic Mook Horror Show, with most of them reduced to just stains. Calling what the Werewolf does to them a Curb-Stomp Battle is an extremely generous way of putting it.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He turns into a werewolf, but Jack is a friendly guy who would risk his hide to save Man-Thing from trouble. Even when he does turn into a werewolf, he only fights and kills due to not being able to control his werewolf side, not out of acutal malice. His character quote encapsulates the trope perfectly.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: An unwilling one. He can't control his werewolf form and knows how powerful it is, and tries to warn Verussa against turning him just to get the kill.
  "Just kill me as I am. Otherwise there will be no mercy, I promise."
• Endearingly Dorky: Despite trying to maintain a cover with the rest of the hunters as being as ruthless as they come, the moment he's forced to interact with Elsa his cover completely falls apart. He's awkward, clumsy, uncoordinated, has no idea what he's doing, is an absolute sweetheart, and it's all to help out a friend. Even the incredibly cold and aloof Elsa starts to defrost a good bit hanging around him for only less than an hour.
• Establishing Character Moment: He awkwardly enters the funeral of Ulysses Bloodstone and acts in awe of what he sees, showing that he's completely out of place amongst the circle of monster hunters. Upon meeting the monster, he acts happy to see them because he's friends with them.
• Facial Markings: He has makeup around his eyes and decorating his face, which he says is to honour his ancestors.
• Forced Transformation: When exposed to the Bloodstone, he's forced to transform into his werewolf form even without the full moon (as he told Elsa that it was only five days away).
• A Friend in Need: He's participating in the hunt so he can save Man-Thing and he's always been there to rescue Ted from the numerous times he's been captured.
• Fur Against Fang: Alluded to, when he points to a mounted vampire head in the Bloodstone Manor and says that he's fought that one many times.
• Hero of Another Story: He's apparently fought a vampire — whose head is mounted in the Bloodstone Manor — a few times and he's also befriended Man-Thing (and had to pull him out of a lot of scrapes). Verussa also claims he's killed a hundred monsters.
• Killing in Self-Defense: In werewolf form, he only kills the monster hunters to defend himself.
• Lightning Bruiser: Extremely fast, strong, and tough in werewolf form, as he can rip metal bars apart, casually manhandle and maul average humans, and shrug off cattle prod shocks. He's at least on par with super soldiers and probably a good deal more powerful.
• Magic Pants: Most of his clothes rip off when he transforms into a werewolf, but his pants remain.
• My Instincts Are Showing: When he's stuck in the crypt with Elsa, he moves in a circle before sitting on the ground, like a canine does. He also scratches behind his ear when he confesses to Elsa in the cage that he's not completely human, shortly before dropping all pretense and madly sniffing her to try and remember her scent.
• Nice Guy: Jack's a generally friendly guy when he's not in his werewolf form, only going on this monster hunt so he can save Man-Thing.
• Nighttime Transformation: Well, he is a Werewolf by Night after all. In his case, he only transforms on a full moon normally — with him stating the next full moon was five days away — but he does change back in the daylight after the Bloodstone forced him to transform.
• Noodle Incident:
  • As he starts taking in the scent of Elsa's jacket, he notes that this helped him out...once.
  • Also how he knows Ted and what other situations he's needed to save him from.
• Odd Friendship: The only similarity he has with Ted Sallis is that they are both monsters that are hunted. Jack however is a werewolf who has methods to control his condition while Ted is a swamp monster who has to hide from the rest of the world.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Werewolf by Night has a classic Wolf Man design as a throwback to Universal monster movies as well as his early appearance in the comics, as opposed to having more pronounced canine features like most modern werewolves.
• Painful Transformation: His Bloodstone forced transformation into a werewolf is shown to be painful with bones cracking and his terrified screams.
• Race Lift: This version of Jack is strongly implied to be of Mexican descent. In addition to speaking with a pronounced accent and referring to the other hunters as "esbirros" (Spanish for "goons"), he claims that the skull-inspired makeup he wears to the event is meant to honor his ancestors, which indicates he's likely mestizo to some degree but otherwise largely of Spanish, Italian, and/or Lebanese-Mexican descent.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: A Jack Russell Terrier is a breed of dog. Fitting for a lycanthrope.
• True Companions: Despite the special's short runtime, it's established fairly quickly that Jack and Ted are near inseparable, and have been for a long time. The Bloodstone Hunt is merely the latest scrape Jack had to get the Man-Thing out of, and Ted claims to have saved Jack's ass a few times as well.
• Two First Names: Both "Jack" and "Russell" are applicable as first names.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He has no real sense of strategy or finesse in his werewolf form and his "tactics" are just pure predatory instinct, but he's so ridiculously fast, strong, and tough that it isn't an issue.

Ghost Riders

"Johnny Blaze" / Ghost Rider I

"Johnny Blaze" / Ghost Rider

Species: Human (Demon possessed)

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Tom McComas

Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"And you're right. There was someone there when I came to. But it wasn't a Good Samaritan. It was the Devil."

— Robbie Reyes

The "Devil" who made Robbie Reyes a Spirit of Vengeance in exchange for saving Robbie's younger brother from a burning car. He sports the appearance of the classic Johnny Blaze version of Ghost Rider.

---

• All There in the Manual: The "devil" is never named during the series, but actor Gabriel Luna said in an interview that this demon is in fact Johnny Blaze.
• Ambiguous Situation: While heavily implied to be Johnny Blaze, it's never actually explicitly confirmed that he is.
• Anti-Hero: Ghost Rider passed the Spirit of Vengeance onto Robbie, who calls him the Devil, but he did resurrect Robbie and pull Gabe from the wrecked car before making the deal.
• Badass Biker: This is another strong implication that he is truly Johnny Blaze — he rides an impressive Hydra-Glide Chopper.
• Bait-and-Switch: Robbie's insistence that the entity with whom he made a pact was the Devil himself initially leads one to believe that it had to do with Mephisto, who's usually treated in the Marvel Universe as the equivalent of the Devil, or some other entity. As it turns out, he caught a previous Ghost Rider on a good day (though a pact with him was still a part of the deal).
• Boring, but Practical: He managed to keep the Darkhold from S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, and a multitude of interested parties by keeping it buried in his house.
• The Cameo: He only appears in Robbie and Gabe's flashback of the night Robbie got his powers, but he makes quite an impression.
• Cool Bike: This GR comes with a chopper-style Hell Cycle, Johnny Blaze's favorite mode of transportation in the comics.
• Cursed with Awesome: What he did to Robbie, and what was also done to him. Coming back from the dead is nice and all, but having to constantly contend with the will of a vengeance demon? Not so much.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The character is a classic case of Bad Powers, Good People, dressed in black leather but being on the side of good. Coulson's testimony suggests that this assessment holds true.
• Dem Bones: He's got a skull for a head, and it's on fire.
• Deal with the Devil: He saved Robbie's life and gave him the power of the Ghost Rider in exchange for Robbie taking on the burden of exacting vengeance on wrongdoers as the new Ghost Rider.
• Escaped from Hell: Unsurprisingly, Ghost Rider went to Hell at one point and later escaped. Coulson apparently witnessed it.
• The Faceless: Although we do see his skull on fire as Ghost Rider, we don't get to see his actual human face.
• Flaming Skulls: Well, he is a Ghost Rider.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: He wears a leather jacket, not unlike the one Johnny Blaze would wear in the comics.
• Hero of Another Story: Coulson is revealed to be familiar with him — and explicitly played a role in the adventure where he managed to escape the underworld. Along with that, the basement in which the Darkhold is found is all but stated to be Johnny's.
• Mistaken Identity: Robbie is persuaded that he must be the Devil.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One of the hints that this is Johnny Blaze and not another iteration of the Ghost Rider character is the bullet dent in his skull. In the comics, Blaze was once briefly killed (again) after being shot in the head by a holy bullet that sent him along with his Spirit of Vengeance to Hell.
  • Additionally, his skull is cloaked in fire instead of being black and charred as if it's on fire, like the version portrayed by Nicolas Cage.
• No Name Given: While heavily implied to be Johnny Blaze, he hasn't explicitly been identified as such as far as "The Good Samaritan".
• Precursor Hero: He was the previous Ghost Rider who was serving justice before Robbie Reyes.
• Scars are Forever: He sports a very notable bullet indention in the upper left side of his skull.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Only has a passing cameo, but it's only because of him that Robbie Reyes became the Ghost Rider in the first place.
• Truer to the Text: While Robbie's design is accurate to his comic book counterpart — albeit substantially less metallic and more bone-shaped — it is still a departure from the original. Now we know why — it's because this Ghost Rider's appearance is more in line with the original Johnny Blaze.
• The Voiceless: He doesn't say a single word during his brief appearance, though Robbie apparently heard his voice in his head.
• Wham Shot: His burning skull entering the scene during Robbie's Origin Episode. Alternately, for more comic-familiar viewers, the Wham Shot is the presence of his Cool Bike pulling up, to begin with, as that's a tip-off to who the "Good Samaritan" really is.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unknown what happened to him after his deal with Robbie.

Robbie Reyes / Ghost Rider II

See his own page.

Avatars of the Ennead

Marc Spector / Steven Grant / Moon Knight / Mr. Knight

See their own page.

Layla El-Faouly / Scarlet Scarab

Layla Abdallah El-Faouly / Scarlet Scarab

"I don't need protection. What I need is honesty."

^{Click here to see her as the Scarlet Scarab} 
"All right, show me what you got."

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: Egyptian

Affiliation(s): Taweret

Portrayed By: May Calamawy

Appearances: Moon Knight

"I don't steal. They've already been stolen. That's what people forget. I take them off the black market and return them to their rightful owners. I might keep a few to pay the bills."

Marc Spector's estranged wife who ends up getting drawn back into his life when Steven finds Marc's old phone.

---

• Action Girl: She dispatches one of Arthur's cultists, and assists Steven/Mr. Knight in battling a monstrous jackal creature who is invisible to her. There is a good reason why Khonshu has his eyes on her as his next host...or not. However, she does get to show her superpowered stuff when she becomes Taweret's avatar.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Not for the character, who's still the daughter of an archaeologist murdered by one of Marc's colleagues, but for the Scarlet Scarab, who in the comics owed its powers to an artifact, the Ruby Scarab, but here is empowered by being an avatar of the goddess Taweret.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Layla is an archaeologist like her father, as well as being an Action Girl.
• Affectionate Nickname: Her father called her "little scarab."
• Alliterative Name: Her identity as Taweret's avatar is Scarlet Scarab.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: She, being the Egyptian wife of Moon Knight, who is an avatar of an Egyptian deity, as well as becoming an Avatar of an Egyptian Goddess herself, makes her the MCU equivalent to Adrianna Tomaz, wife of Black Adam and Avatar of Egyptian Goddess Isis. ^note  she was oringally planned to be the Avatar for Isis before changed to the Avatar of Tarawet
• Amazonian Beauty: She is pretty and her outfit as Tawaret’s Avatar reveals that her arms are very muscular, especially in comparison with most female heroes in the franchise.
• Animal Motif: Scarabs. Her father used to call her his little scarab, and she sewed scarabs on a scarf she gave him. Noticeably, when Taweret empowers her as her avatar, a crimson-colored scarab is in the middle of her chestplate.
• Arsenal Attire: When Layla and Marc visit Anton Mogart, she is seemingly unarmed, but wears a rather unusual necklace — which turns out to house twin blades that Layla wields to great effect once the situation goes downhill.
• Attack Reflector: The wings that come with her Scarlet Scarab costume allow her to redirect attacks back to their sender, which she does with Harrow's attack to send him flying.
• Battle Couple: She's implied to have been this in the past with her husband Marc. She is an excellent fighter, she references their "adventures", and she's seen him as Moon Knight in action before. "Gods and Monsters" has her, Marc, and Steven kick the asses of multiple cultists.
• Brainy Brunette: Layla has brown hair and is a talented archaeologist.
• Canon Character All Along: Played with. She's a combination of Marc's comic love interest/wife Marlene Alraune and a genderswapped version of Mehemet Faoul, the second Scarlet Scarab from the comics. Her father, Abdullah El-Faouly, is also a Composite Character between Peter Alraune, Marlene's archaeologist father, and Abdul Faoul, the Scarlet Scarab, who was an occasional ally of the Invaders.
• Color Animal Codename: Her codename Scarlet Scarab is this as scarlet is a shade of red while scarab is a type of beetle.
• Color Character: The Scarlet Scarab.
• Color Motif: Red. In particular, "The Tomb" associates her with flares that burn red. This is fitting, given she is the MCU's version of the Scarlet Scarab.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: After becoming Taweret's avatar, she never goes by the Scarlet Scarab alias. She just gets called "Egyptian superhero" by a little girl.
• Composite Character: Of Moon Knight's canon girlfriend/wife Marlene Alraune, and Mehemet Faoul, the second hero known as the Scarlet Scarab.
• Cultured Badass: Layla, in addition to being a certified Action Girl, is a skilled and accomplished archaeologist with a fondness for French poetry.
• Daddy's Girl: She was very close to her father Abdullah, he inspired her to become an archaeologist just like him and he referred to her as his "little scarab". His death left her devastated and she spends a bit of the series trying to uncover the events that led up to when he was killed, as she long suspected there was more to it than what she was told.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not as big as Marc and Steven, but she has some moments.
• Dressing as the Enemy: In "Gods and Monsters", Layla disguises herself as one of Arthur Harrow's followers to sneak into Giza.
• Dual Wielding: The necklace she wears in "The Friendly Type" hides twin blades. She wields two swords in each hand as the Scarlet Scarab in "Gods and Monsters".
• Empowered Badass Normal: Layla's a proper Action Girl in her own right, but this gets taken up a notch when she partners with Taweret and becomes the Scarlet Scarab.
• Foreshadowing: Layla was referred to by her father as his "little scarab". She becomes the MCU version of the Scarlet Scarab.
• Fake Mixed Race: Inverted. Layla is 100% Egyptian. May Calamawy is half Egyptian, half Palestinian.
• Fragile Speedster: As the Scarlet Scarab, Layla can fly at incredible speed, but she still has to protect her human body from gunfire, suggesting she doesn't share Moon Knight's ability to regenerate from harm.
• Gender Flip: She is essentially the comics Mehemet Faoul, but as a woman.
• Genius Bruiser: Aside from being an accomplished archaeologist, she is also a resilient Action Girl.
• Gold and White Are Divine: Taweret gives Layla an armor with gold and white coloration when the latter becomes the Scarlet Scarab.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: Her Scarlet Scarab armor has gold elements that possess offensive and defensive capabilities.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: As Mr. Knight is being thoroughly thrashed by a jackal, she sneaks up behind and throws a bottle into its face. Unfortunately, it doesn't accomplish much but let her See the Invisible for a few seconds.
• Improvised Weapon: She has used a glass bottle, shards of glass, flares, and the mask of a Heka priest as weapons throughout Moon Knight.
• Instant Expert: Layla is incredibly adept in utilizing her Scarlet Scarab armor and equipment despite having only been Taweret's avatar for a few minutes.
• Karmic Thief: She locates stolen artifacts that end up on the black market and steals them back — usually to return them to their rightful owners, but occasionally also to cover her own expenses.
• Leitmotif: She gets one after transforming into the Scarlet Scarab.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Marc kept Layla in the dark about being part of a DID system throughout their marriage, making it a big surprise for her when she finds her estranged husband living under a different name with a totally different accent and personality, and with no idea who she is. Also, while she's aware of Marc's powers as Moon Knight, she doesn't know that it comes from his service to Khonshu, something Marc is very keen to keep hidden, since Khonshu (supposedly) has his eyes on Layla to become his next avatar.
• Meaningful Name: Layla means "night" in Arabic. She married the avatar of an Egyptian moon god.
• My God, You Are Serious!: When Steven accidentally calls her on the phone, she doesn't believe that Steven is real and tells Marc to drop the fake accent and tell her where he's been before hanging up in frustration. Once they meet in person, Layla is still pissed at him for what she sees as him playing dumb, like him not knowing how to ride a motorcycle with her or reciting her favourite poem but claiming that it's actually his favourite, and she laughs at him and says she's not buying it. Once they're both in a life-or-death situation and Steven still doesn't break character or transform into Moon Knight, she realises that there really is something going on. After witnessing Steven mentally switch with Marc, she finally accepts that there really are two people in the same body.
• Noodle Incident: She has some history with Anton Mogart that isn't expanded on further then Bek mentioning some encounter in Madripoor that apparently didn't go in Anton's favour.
• Omniglot: Layla is fluent in Arabic, English, French, and Ancient Egyptian.
• People Puppets: She very briefly becomes one when Taweret speaks through her just before making Layla her avatar.
• Poor Communication Kills: She repeatedly tells Steven to "summon the suit". What she's trying to say is "turn into Moon Knight", but Steven hears it as "put on a nice dapper suit", which results in the creation of Mr. Knight. Downplayed, because Layla appears not to realize that Steven is a different person from Marc, and couldn't know Steven wouldn't know what she means.
• Primary-Color Champion: Layla's Scarlet Scarab armor is red and yellow/gold in color.
• Race Lift: The writer's room downright discarded keeping Marc Spector's wife as a Caucasian blonde for diversity's sake, hence Layla is Egyptian.
• Razor Wings: The suit Taweret makes for her includes metallic wings that she can use to fly or as weapons or shields. Curiously enough, these wings do not correspond to any of Taweret's motifs, having been traditionally associated with the goddess Hathor or Isis instead. However, when Layla and Taweret are talking after Layla agrees to become her avatar, Taweret does say she has "a fabulous costume" in mind, suggesting that Taweret is simply borrowing design elements she's fond of rather than going for a theme related to her specifically.
• Red Is Heroic: Her Scarlet Scarab armor has red coloration.
• Relative Button: She does not like it when someone tries to get under her skin by mentioning her father's death.
• Super-Reflexes: As the Scarlet Scarab, Layla can quickly anticipate the movements of her enemies.
• Super-Strength: She can stop a moving van from hitting a group of civilians as the Scarlet Scarab.
• Took a Level in Badass: Layla is already a badass in the beginning, and she becomes even more badass when she becomes Taweret's avatar.
• Two-Person Love Triangle: She appears to develop a variant of this with Marc and Steven (two bodies, three people) over the course of the series. When conversing with Marc, Layla is a cold and stoic Consummate Professional who openly remarks how she feels that she barely knows who her husband is anymore. While she initially has the same attitude towards Steven when she first meets him, due to believing that he's merely Marc getting deep into a new identity, she gradually softens up to him once she realizes he's an entirely separate person, and is much more open with him as they work together to stop Harrow.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Layla's status isn't mentioned after Harrow's defeat, and, while she originally insisted that her time as Taweret's Avatar would be temporary, it's not shown if she held to that decision.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She calls out Marc several times for constantly keeping her in the dark against her will and randomly dropping off the face of the Earth without a word of notice. She's also furious when he admits he only first met her and fell in love because he wanted to ease his conscience regarding her father's death.
• Wing Shield: Her wings are bulletproof, and she uses them to protect herself and other from gunfire.
• You Killed My Father: Averted, since Marc reveals to Layla that his partner Raoul Bushman was the one responsible for her father's death.

Mutants

Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel

Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel

"There is no normal. There's just us and what we do with what we've been given."

Known Aliases: "Night Light", "Sloth Baby"

Species: Mutant-Clandestine hybrid

Citizenship: Pakistani, American

Affiliation(s): Coles Academic High School, Sloth Baby Productions, Red Daggers

Portrayed By: Iman Vellani

Appearances: Ms. Marvel | The Marvels

"Have you ever felt like you were up against the world? Like you wanted something so bad, and then it actually happened, but in reality, it's just not as great as you imagined it."

A teenage Muslim Pakistani-American superheroine from Jersey City. An avid fan of the Avengers, especially Captain Marvel, Kamala is granted powers of her own after wearing a mysterious bangle that belonged to her maternal great-grandmother.

---

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Kamala acquires the ability to embiggen in the climax of "No Normal". Downplayed as it's clearly greater control over her existing abilities.
• Accidental Athlete: Kamala does not do well in gym class, but even at the beginning of her superhero training she was showing her potential.
• Action Girl: Kamala starts to become this after she gains her powers and becomes the superhero Jersey City needs.
• Actor Allusion: During their fight at the train station, Kareem asks Kamala if every masked American has superpowers, to which she quips, "Well how do you know I'm not Canadian?" Iman Vellani is indeed Canadian in Real Life.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: Instead of being a latent Inhuman, Najma reveals in "Destined" that Kamala is a descendant of the Clandestines.
• Adaptation Species Change: In the comics, Kamala is an Inhuman. In the MCU, she is a Clandestine hybrid due to her maternal great-grandmother being a full Clandestine... though the final episode reveals she is possibly a mutant on top of that. Bruno implies her being a mutant is why she has powers, while her brother, mother, grandmother, and her other maternal relatives, who are also Clandestine descendants, don't.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: In the comics, Kamala gained her powers following her exposure to Terrigen Mists. "Generation Why" has her gain her powers after putting on a mysterious bangle sent to her by her grandmother. In "Crushed", Bruno runs tests and reveals that Kamala's powers are actually coming from within her and the bangle merely "tapped into the superhuman part of [Kamala]", implying It Runs in the Family. "Destined" reveals that it does run in the family, and that Kamala is part-Clandestine from her mother's side, and "No Normal" reveals that she also has a mutation.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: In the comics, Kamala's powers include elongation, size-shifting, and rarely-used Voluntary Shapeshifting. The series shows that her powers are more akin to creating crystalline energy constructs. That said, she is seen to somewhat replicate her stretching abilities from the comics by creating constructs that essentially achieve the same effect, like stretched-out limbs or being able to "embiggen" by creating a construct of an oversized fist.
• Affectionate Nickname: Nakia and Bruno call her KK. Likewise, Kamala calls Nakia Naks.
• Alliterative Name: Kamala Khan. Doubly alliterative: Her alias is Ms. Marvel.
• All-Loving Hero: She wants to save the world and everyone in it, even those who attack or bully her. She's also very aware of her heritage and is proud to be able to represent her community as a hero.
• Alternate Self: Kamala has one on Earth-89521.
• Apologetic Attacker: After Kamala uses her embiggened form to smash the vehicle carrying the sonic cannon, she makes a point of asking if the DODC agents in the vehicle are okay.
• Appearance Angst: Briefly displayed when Kamala models her cosplay in her room. Her mother had previously scoffed that Captain Marvel's Starforce uniform is too form-fitting for Kamala to even think of wearing and Kamala is clearly uncomfortable with the appearance of the tight leggings, grabbing a sash to wear around her waist before being interrupted by her parents. She eventually gets over this after viewing and accepting her true self in her official Ms. Marvel costume.
• Ascended Fangirl: Kamala is a huge fan of the Avengers, Carol Danvers in particular, before becoming a superhero herself.
• Asian and Nerdy: She's Pakistani-American and is a big fan of superheroes, with her idolizing Captain Marvel in particular.
• Aside Glance: Kamala does one after finding out the car she just hit belonged to her driving instructor.
• Attention Deficit... Oh, Shiny!: Kamala has the attention span of a ferret, and that's putting it mildly. She could literally be looking at someone, engaging in a conversation, and then just zone out on a flight of fancy on the spot, her head several kilometers up in the sky.
• Atrocious Alias: Kamala gets dubbed "Night Light" based on the glowing crest of her Captain Marvel cosplay outfit. This sets up a Brick Joke during the mosque rescue.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Kamala and her mother have a heart-to-heart in "Destined", and Muneeba opens up about the difficulties she's had in America and that having her family helped her overcome her hardships and Kamala hugs her.
• Badass Adorable: She is a cheerful, compassionate, and snarky teenage Avengers fangirl who can also use her hard light powers to give her enemies a massive beatdown.
• Badass Pacifist: During the climax of "No Normal", Kamala resolves the whole situation without harming anyone, not even the Damage Control agents who are actively hunting her and Kamran.
• Barrier Warrior: Kamala can use the energy constructs that she conjures as shields, platforms, slides, and ramps.
• Bash Siblings: She becomes one with Kareem as they fight the Clandestines in the streets of Karachi together.
• Been There, Shaped History: After being transported back into the era of the Partition in "Time and Again", Kamala learns that she was the one who created the trail of stars that guided her grandmother, Sana, back to her father, Hasan, after they got separated during the night when they took the train to leave India.
• Beta Outfit: Before Kamala dons her official comic-accurate Ms. Marvel costume in "No Normal", her first costume is just a Captain Marvel-themed jacket and helmet (basically her cosplay). Lampshaded by Bruno in one of the trailers when he remarks that the Captain Marvel cosplay is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
  Bruno: Are you sure that we can keep that on?
  Kamala: It's an homage.
  Bruno: That's a lawsuit.
  Kamala: Great! Then I'll meet Captain Marvel in court, and we'll be the first case in the American Judiciary to hug it out.
• Big Sister Instinct: After Kamala is sent back in time into the era of the Partition, she fulfills the wish of her dying great-grandmother Aisha by creating a trail of stars with her energy constructs to reunite her toddler grandmother Sana and her great-grandfather Hasan.
• Blatant Lies:
  • In "Generation Why", Muneeba interrupts Kamala testing out her Captain Marvel cosplay, causing her to grab a robe and claim to have been stretching. Muneeba does not buy it.
  • In "Crushed", Kamala and Kamran quickly spin a story about how they are cousins to avoid causing a scandal. Aamir is gullible enough to buy it but Tyesha gives Kamala a knowing grin before walking away.
  • In "Seeing Red", Kamala repeatedly insists that her winged sloth is "a napping pillow".
• Blue Is Heroic: Just like Carol Danvers, Kamala's Ms. Marvel costume, particularly her mask that is a gift for her from Bruno, has blue in its color scheme.
• Bollywood Nerd: Just like her comics counterpart, she is a Pakistani-American with nerdy interests in superheroes, Bollywood, and is not so good at athletics. Though she is nowhere near as smart or nerdy as her friend Bruno, and doesn't seem to specialize in science, maths, or computers as expected of such an archetype. Rather, she is much more artistic and creative, as seen with her sketches and videos.
• Boring, but Practical: To save everyone at Aamir's wedding when the Clandestines come to kill her, Kamala simply pulls the fire alarm, which turns out to be a very effective way to distract everyone and get them out of the building without anyone getting hurt.
• Car Fu: In "Seeing Red", Kamala drops one of the Clandestines with a truck.
• Catch and Return: When Kareem throws one of his daggers at Kamala, she manages to catch it and decides to throw it back at him. And it ends up falling to the floor.
• Chest Insignia: Of course, the lightning bolt symbol in her torso.
• Child of Two Worlds: One of Kamala's main struggles is finding a balance between embracing both her American lifestyle and her Pakistani heritage. This starts to become even more complicated upon discovering that her maternal great-grandmother is an exiled Clandestine from another dimension.
• Civvie Spandex: Kamala's first costume is a Captain Marvel helmet and jacket that she and Bruno worked on for her AvengerCon cosplay. Her official costume includes regular sneakers.
• Cloth Fu: She uses her scarf as a whip to fight off the Kree on Aladna to avoid using her powers and inadvertently swapping with Monica or Carol.
• Composite Character: Iman Vellani confirmed that Ms. Marvel's hard light powers in the MCU are inspired by that of Armor from the X-Men comics.
  • Her bangle, which empowers her and was passed down from her grandmother, sounds extremely similar to her comic book ally Lebanese-American Muslim Fadi Fadlallah, aka Amulet, who has a Nazar amulet that grants him magic forcefield powers and was also passed down to him from his grandmother.
  • The Marvels reveals that her bangle is one of the two Quantum Bands. Combined with her hard light powers, this makes her a Composite Character of Quasar as well.
• Crash-Into Hello: Kamala's first encounter with Kamran is colliding with him in the school hallway during the beginning of "Crushed". She instantly falls in love with him. The ending of the episode reveals that this might not have been coincidental, since Kamran's mother is coveting Kamala's bangle.
• Culture Clash: Kamala started her first whole day in Pakistan by getting herself and her cousins barred from entering a restaurant because she was wearing jeans.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Despite being outnumbered by the Clandestines five to one and still lacking proficiency with her powers, Kamala either blocks or dodges every attack that comes her way and even manages to bat aside her attackers by creating giant limb constructs to smack them. Her resistance buys enough time for Damage Control to arrive and apprehend them.
• Cute Bruiser: A bubbly young girl who has Hard Light powers.
• Deadpan Snarker: Kamala can make some snarky quips and comebacks while conversing with others, but then again she wouldn't be an MCU hero if she wasn't this.
• Didn't Think This Through: In "Generation Why", Kamala failed to see the flaws in her plan to sneak out for AvengerCon, such as not realizing how difficult it is to be at an exact place and a certain period of time or that her parents might come to her room to check her. It doesn't help that she's out two hours longer than intended.
• Disaster Dominoes: In "Generation Why", Kamala's energy blasts hit a statue of Ant-Man. The head goes rolling, knocking stuff over and causing a cable to unwind, which releases a Mjölnir decoration hanging from the ceiling. That hits Zoe, causing her to be flung into a wall, which Kamala barely saves her from by conjuring an arm to catch her.
• Domino Mask: Her Ms. Marvel costume includes a blue domino mask that is gifted to her by Bruno.
• Does Not Like Spam: She can't eat spicy foods. ...Which really sucks for her because damn near everything in Pakistan is spicy; street vendor food in Karachi is particularly infamous for this, even when compared to Hyderabad in India. She appears downright miserable while eating panipuri, and as a result becomes paranoid of any food being offered to her.
• Drives Like Crazy: Apart from reversing into her driving instructor's car in "Generation Why", the episode "Crushed" shows her driving in Kamran's car and swerving wildly across the road.
• Eating the Eye Candy: In "Crushed", Kamala and Nakia both eagerly stare at Kamran as he emerges from the pool.
• Elemental Baggage: The energy to form her constructs is generated internally, focused by her bangle like how Mjolnir does for Thor. Uncommonly for Hard Light, the fact that her constructs have mass is addressed, as Kamala has to factor in weight and balance when using her powers. When she makes a construct anchored to her body too big, it becomes too heavy for her to lift even if she can still make it move. Though she can make free-floating platforms, they act as if balanced on a single point and can be disrupted by their loads shifting.
• Epic Fail: Kamala has quite a few of them.
  • Kamala's driving test starts and ends with her accidentally driving in reverse instead of forward. Straight into the instructor's car.
  • Kamala's attempt to swing from a heavy branch outside her room brings the whole branch down on top of her instead.
  • Kamala's attempt to throw Kareem's dagger back at him ends up with her throwing it to the floor.
• Extremely Protective Child: Kamala is willing to do anything to keep her family out of harm's way.
• Fire Alarm Distraction: In "Destined", Kamala pulls the fire alarm to get everyone out of the building so that they won't be killed by the Clandestines. It works, but she's spotted by others present and her family learns she was responsible, leaving her in a tough position as she can't explain why she had to do it.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Monica Rambeau in The Marvels. Though they meet in very unusual and unideal circumstances, the two eventually hit it off pretty well due to their mutual close connection with Carol. When Monica ends up trapped in another dimension, Kamala is devastated to the point of tears, trying her hardest not to break down when debriefing the situation to Fury.
• Foil:
  • To Kamran. Both of them are Clandestine hybrids who eventually learn about the death of their respective maternal relatives. While Kamala does not dwell on negative emotions, Kamran lashes his anger and grief out, inadvertently and temporarily using his powers to endanger everyone around him.
  • The Marvels sets her up as one for Kate Bishop. Both of them are Ascended Fangirls of superheroes who were team players during the Infinity Saga, and are Plucky Girls who aspire to be good heroes like their idol. Kamala comes from a humble background in Jersey City, while Kate is a considerably wealthy girl from New York City. Kamala ended up creating her own alias that incorprates the "Marvel" alias to keep herself distinct from Captain Marvel, while Kate simply inherited the mantle of Hawkeye from Clint without any changes to the name.
• Foreign Queasine: Kamala has trouble eating authentically spicy Pakistani and Chinese food. She's surprised by how red the hot and sour soup is.
• Gamer Chick: She's apparently quite a bit better than her friends at Super Smash Bros..
• Generation Xerox: At least in terms of personality. Muneeba clearly has a strained relationship with her own mother, and Kamala indicates, after getting caught sneaking back into her room in "Generation Why", that Muneeba frequently lectures her about not being like her Nani.
• Girlish Pigtails: Throughout "Generation Why", she wears her hair in at least four different styles. However, for most of her character establishing scenes (her initial interactions with her family and friends, her Epic Fail of a driving test, her talk with the school counselor, her unwilling shopping trip with her mother, and her plea with her parents to go to AvengerCon), she wears girlish twin braids — probably to reinforce the idea of her as a young girl who despite lofty dreams is still unsure of herself and her place in the world.
• Grew a Spine: "Crushed" opens with Kamala going through her school routine with newfound confidence now that she has superpowers. She stops a kid from throwing a basketball at her, corrects the teacher that always calls her "Camelia", and pulls the two girls off her locker so she can finally get at her books.
• Grounded Forever: Kamala is grounded by her parents for ruining Aamir's wedding. Naturally, Kamala can't explain to them about being chased by the Clandestines. She is eventually free from being grounded after she reveals her secret to her family.
• Had the Silly Thing in Reverse: Kamala fails her driving test because, in her imagination-fueled enthusiasm, she forgets to check the gear selector and floors it in reverse, crashing into the instructor's car.
• Hair Flip: "Crushed" shows Kamala flipping her hair as she enters her school with newfound confidence. She later does it again several times when her infatuation for Kamran grows.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Kamala is part-human from her father's side and part-Clandestine from her mother's side. And then Bruno states that there is some kind of a mutation in her genes.
• Hallucinations: In "Crushed", Kamala begins occasionally hallucinating a woman appearing and reaching for her thanks to her new powers, which causes her to freak out each time it happens. The woman is revealed to be Najma, Kamran's mother.
• Hard Light: Kamala has the power to conjure up glowing constructs that behave like solid matter. She even refers to her constructs as "hard light". Uncommonly, it is a plot point that these constructs have mass because Kamala has to consider related problems like weight, balance, and anchoring when making them.
• Hero-Worshipper: She's a huge superhero nerd, with her all-time favorite being Captain Marvel. She runs a YouTube series discussing The Avengers and spends the opening of "Generation Why" gushing about Captain Marvel's role in the final battle of Endgame, and going through a trunk in the attic, she finds an old Captain America comic book she had drawn up as a kid. She's nothing short of ecstatic when she gets to meet Carol herself in The Marvels, and though she's a little shocked by Kamala at first, Carol eventually comes to like her as well.
• Heroic Build: Averted. Unlike many of the other superheroes in the MCU, Kamala is not an outrageously fit person who'd be making magazine covers anytime soon. She's certainly aware of this, and even spends part of her Training Montage trying to do some basic exercises and push-ups to make herself more buff.
• Hero's First Rescue: In "Generation Why", Kamala saves Zoe's life when she gets caught up in the Disaster Dominoes that Kamala accidentally set in motion. This comes straight from the comics, where Kamala saves Zoe after she drunkenly falls into the Hudson River. She gets a more traditional first rescue in "Crushed" when she saves a kid who falls out of a window, being the first time she Jumped at the Call rather than fixing something she caused.

• How Do I Shot Web?: Though Kamala figures out how to make constructs after some practice, she initially has some troubles getting them to "anchor" correctly. Her platforms tip as if balanced on a single point, and a giant hand construct pulls her down because it's too heavy for her to lift. This also makes her rescue in the climax more difficult than it needs to be because her platforms keep tipping unintentionally. This is on top of her visions manifesting randomly, causing the platform the boy is standing on in the climax to disappear because it breaks her concentration.
• Human Ladder: With her intended re-entry method destroyed in "Generation Why", Kamala has to climb on Bruno's shoulders to get back to her bedroom window. Though even with his help, she isn't able to pull herself onto the roof. Thankfully, her powers kick in and generate a Hard Light step to help her up.
• Idea Bulb: In "Generation Why", Kamala gets this when she realizes that she can use Bruno to sneak out of the house without her parents' knowledge.
• Ignored Epiphany: In "No Normal", Kamala brushes off Bruno saying there's a mutation in her DNA, dismissing it as "just another label."
• Imagine Spot: Kamala has some of these from time to time.
  • There is one where she is praised like an actual superhero in her Captain Marvel cosplay.
  • One where she is crowned the winner of the cosplay competition.
  • One where she is overjoyed after meeting her crush Kamran at Zoe's party, dancing around and air-singing to The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" when she gets home.
  • One where Kamran is biting a large rose in a "seductive" manner.
• Immigrant Parents: Her parents (and older brother) hailed from Karachi, Pakistan and moved to New Jersey in America before she was born.
• Immune to Bullets: Kamala is basically this in her "embiggened" form.
• Innocently Insensitive: Kamala can on occasion be unkind and hurtful towards people, but it's never out of malice. Usually, she's just too wrapped up in herself and her own problems to realize how she comes across, or she's simply not thinking before she speaks.
• Instant Web Hit: Kamala's first outing as a superhero has made her a viral internet sensation. Unfortunately, it also puts her on Damage Control's radar.
• Insult Backfire: Parental admonishment backfire.
  Muneeba: Do you want to be good, like we raised you to be? Or do you want to be this cosmic head in the clouds person?
  Kamala: (after Muneeba leaves and she looks at her glowing bracelet, smirking) ... Cosmic.
• It Runs in the Family: The reason why Kamala has superpowers is because her maternal great-grandmother is a Clandestine from the Noor Dimension, which makes Kamala a Clandestine hybrid. Although, she's only able to tap into those powers thanks to a mutation.
• Joisey: As Kamala says, she's a "brown girl from Jersey City." The region's significant South Asian and Muslim populations are shown through Kamala, her family, and friends, including a scene in "Crushed" praying among a large group.
• Jumped at the Call: As a Hero-Worshipper who writes non-stop fan fiction about the Avengers, with a focus on Captain Marvel, she's dying to become a superhero, and is delighted by her newfound powers.
• Just a Kid: When Kamala starts to have doubts about her powers and her status as a superhero, Najma comforts her by saying that she has inherited greatness despite most people simply seeing her as a kid playing dress-up. In "No Normal", the people of Jersey City rally together against Damage Control since while most of them are oblivious to Ms. Marvel's true identity, they know that she is still too young to be treated like a menace.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Kamala fights the Clandestines while putting on the dress she wears for Aamir's wedding.
• Kid Hero: Kamala is an Ordinary High-School Student in her mid-teens who eventually gains superpowers.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Kamala truly adores Carol Danvers. Even the thought of being taken to court by her for ripping off her costume doesn't deter her.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In "Generation Why", Kamala reminds her viewers that she uploads videos that she calls "episodes" to her channel every Wednesday. Every Disney+ MCU show starting from Loki, including Ms. Marvel, has episodes released on Wednesdays.
  • One of Kamala's witty remarks to Kareem in "Seeing Red" is to ask how he know[s] that she's not Canadian. Iman Vellani herself is Canadian. Hell, Kamala briefly glances at the camera as she says it!
• Legacy Character: Averted; since Carol Danvers is the first Captain Marvel in the MCU, Kamala's superhero name is merely inspired by hers instead of it being a hand-me-down alias. Kamala banters with Bruno about her paying homage to Carol Danvers by using her Captain Marvel cosplay as her first superhero suit, with Bruno retorting that it could result in a lawsuit. Kamala then snarkily responds that she will gladly meet Carol Danvers in court so that they will be the first case in the American Judiciary to hug it out.
• Le Parkour: She can use her hard light platforms to help her in performing acrobatic leaps, climbs, and swings.
• Light Is Good: Kamala's powers come with a bright purple glow, and she is using them to help other people.
• Lightning Bruiser: Kamala gets stronger, faster, and tougher when she uses her powers.
• Living Battery: As far as Bruno can tell, Kamala's powers are fueled by internal energy coming from her, not by the bangle she is wearing.
• Loony Fan:
  • Downplayed. While Kamala is by no means creepy or unpleasant, she does have a very big obsession with Carol Danvers, to the point of drawing fanart, writing fanfiction and cosplaying as Captain Marvel constantly throughout her solo series. Fittingly, when Carol accidentally ends up in her room, she's somewhat freaked out by all the fanart.
  • This even continues into The Marvels, where Kamala is constantly squeeing over being with her idol and asking lots of questions, all while Carol trying to assess the situation. After spending some time with her and calming down, Kamala lampshades and apologizes for her behavior, noting that she wasn't really treating Carol like a normal person at the time.
• Loved by All: Following her selfless actions against Damage Control as Ms. Marvel in "No Normal", Kamala starts to gain unanimous and raving approval from the citizens of Jersey City.
• Made of Iron: Kamala does not suffer any injury after falling out of the window of her house and having a tree branch fall onto her, and this is before she puts on the bangle that activates her powers. Perhaps being part-Clandestine gives her durability stronger than that of an average human.
• Magical Accessory: Kamala gains her powers when she puts on a mysterious bangle gifted to the family by her grandmother. It is eventually revealed that the bangle allows Kamala to harness the energy of the Noor Dimension due to her being part-Clandestine.
• Meaningful Name: As Yusuf explains in "No Normal", Kamala in Arabic means "Perfect" but in Urdu it's "Marvel".
• Mind Screw: When Kamala first dons the bangle in "Generation Why", she takes a brief trip to Another Dimension (apparently only in her mind, as neither Bruno nor anyone else notices) full of glowing purple light and lots and lots of dark figures with glowing eyes. It's not mentioned again and no explanation has been offered, fueling tons of fan speculation.
• Ms. Imagination: She has a tendency to lapse into elaborate fantasy sequences and, at least early on, occasionally has problems with focusing on the here and now because her mind wanders into another fantasy.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • As Bruno points out in "Generation Why", Kamala's grand, nay epic, plan to attend AvengerCon that she lays out in elaborate detail just amounts to sneaking out and taking the bus.
  • After meeting her new crush Kamran in "Crushed", Kamala returning home and getting a drink out of her fridge is a song-and-dance number complete with mood lighting.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Downplayed and justified. Unlike most heroes in the MCU, Kamala isn't exactly the most fit girl in the world, to the point where she is clearly straining to get into shape even with Bruno's help. That said, her powers basically ensure that she doesn't really need muscles to save the world.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In "Generation Why", Kamala is visibly distraught at herself after erupting at her parents for wanting to supervise her with matching costumes (of the Hulk, not Captain Marvel) at AvengerCon.
  Kamala: I think I made my dad cry.
• Nice Girl: Overall a caring, brave, family-oriented, forgiving, imaginative and sweet young woman.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Kamala may have saved everyone from the Clandestines, but due to everyone being unaware of them, she ends up being grounded for pulling the fire alarm and "ruining her brother's wedding". Subverted when she reveals her powers to her family.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently, Kamala once fell into the Hudson River, and she and Bruno now have a code, Black Sloth Down, to let each other know that it happened again. Bruno insists it happened twice before, but Kamala disagrees.
• Not Quite Flight: Kamala can create energy constructs as platforms that allow her to run across the sky. This shows up in "Generation Why" when she creates a platform to help boost her onto the roof to sneak back into her room.
• Oblivious to Love: Like in the comics, Kamala has no clue that Bruno is hard crushing on her.
• Off Bridge, onto Vehicle: In Kamala's imaginary ride out to AvengerCon, she and Bruno flip their bikes off a bridge on top of a passing bus.
• Oh, Crap!: Kamala's reaction when the bangle somehow sends her back in time to the Partition after it was struck by Najma.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Kamala is a simple high school student who lives in Jersey City, that is until she gains her powers.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: In "Generation Why", Kamala is briefly grossed out by her parents getting frisky when they think no one's watching. On the plus side, at least they won't be checking up on her. In "Crushed", Kamala and Aamir react with disgust when their parents talk about how they never would have gotten together without Bon Jovi's "Slippery When Wet".
  Yusuf: Aamir is out... Kamala's in her room... [growl]
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Kamala's visibly on the short side compared to other characters and she has superpowers that allow her to generate energy constructs.
• Platonic Declaration of Love: Kamala and Nakia share one after their little heart-to-heart in "Crushed".
• Platonic Life-Partners: She and Bruno have the kind of lifelong friendship where he is basically adopted by Kamala's family in regard to who gets invited to weddings, funerals, and family gatherings.
• Poster-Gallery Bedroom: Her room is filled with posters and art regarding her nerdy interests, especially Captain Marvel.
• Power Crutch: As far as Bruno can tell based on thermal imagery, Kamala's powers are fueled by internal energy that originates from within her body, not the bangle, which is acting as a focusing medium. The bangle allows Kamala to harness the energy of the Noor Dimension, the homeworld of her maternal Clandestine ancestors.
• Power Incontinence: Kamala understandably doesn't quite realize how to control powers she had no idea she'd gain upon putting on the bangle, leading to her shooting colorful but mostly harmless energy blasts above the crowd when she gets stage fright. Though Kamala mostly gets the hang of her powers through training, she's plagued by visions and has a problem with her nose and hand suddenly glowing during school. She eventually gains full control of her powers as her series progress.
• Primary-Color Champion: The color scheme of Kamala's official Ms. Marvel costume is colored red, blue, and yellow/gold, and it is undoubtedly influenced by her favorite superhero Carol Danvers.
• Pronouncing My Name for You:
  • "Generation Why" has Kamala explaining her name is pronounced "kuh-MAH-luh" rather than the more well-known "KAH-muh-luh".
  • In "Crushed", as a sign of her newfound confidence after gaining superpowers, when a teacher greets her as "Camelia", she politely answers, "I've been meaning to tell you for a few years, it's pronounced Kuh-MAH-luh." The teacher seems to take it in stride.
• Purple Is Powerful: The crystalline energy constructs that Kamala creates are primarily purple in color, and her eyes also glow purple when she uses her powers.
• Red Is Heroic: The color of Kamala's official Ms. Marvel costume is mainly red, with her signature red scarf as an addition. It is clear that she has taken heavy inspiration from Carol Danvers, her favorite superhero.
• Religious Bruiser: Downplayed, but she's a practicing Muslim and becomes a pretty good fighter by the time the series ends.
• Roof Hopping: In "No Normal", Kamala sprints down the street in mid-air by perfecting creating hard light platforms as she goes, occasionally jumping from roofs or street lights.
• Rubber Man: Kamala can use her powers to create energy constructs to make it look like she can elongate her limbs.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Her Ms. Marvel costume includes her signature red scarf that was given to her by Kareem. To battle the Kree, the Aladnans equip her with another red scarf that Prince Yan tells her is a weapon. She finds it makes an effective flail.
• Secret Identity: She's one of the few superheroes in the MCU to maintain one, with the only other heroes who do the same are Matt Murdock, Peter Parker, and Clint Barton (as Rōnin).
• Ship Tease: She gets a few moments with Bruno and a bit with Kareem, but her crush on Kamran takes the center stage.
• Sizeshifter: Kamala can use her powers to increase her body size. Specifically, embiggen.
• Star Power: The aesthetic variety. Kamala uses her energy constructs to create a trail of stars in order to reunite both her grandmother and her great-grandfather after they got separated.
• Stock Superhero Day Jobs: She's a high school student outside of being Ms. Marvel.
• Super-Strength: Played with. Her hard light constructs can lift and hold great weights. However, Kamala herself does not have super strength, which she discusses with Bruno when she tries to make a gigantic fist, only for it to be too heavy for her to hold up. She's later seen struggling to do pushups in a vain attempt to get stronger. She eventually masters her strength when she embiggens, giving her enough power to lift and wreck Damage Control vehicles.
• Tell Me About My Father: As the bangle was inherited from her grandmother, whom her own mother is cagey about, Kamala seeks out anyone willing to tell her its history in her family to figure out how and why it gave her powers. She eventually gains all the answers she needs after being temporarily sent back in time in "Time and Again".
• Three-Point Landing:
  • In "Generation Why", Kamala performs an impressive vault and superhero landing after jumping out of her bedroom window and swinging on a tree branch, but only in her Imagine Spot. When she attempts the move for real, it ends with the tree branch breaking and landing on her.
  • She eventually performs the pose successfully in "Crushed" when she jumps off of her hard light platform and onto the mosque roof while rescuing Hameed. Unfortunately, she's not quite finished with the rescue, and her showboating almost causes her to fail.

• Took a Level in Badass: After gaining her powers, Kamala gains significantly more confidence when she walks into school in "Crushed", compared to how she did in "Generation Why". She has also grown more assertive while battling her enemies as the series progress.
• The Unfavorite: Kamala sees herself as this. She has to help in preparing the wedding of her unemployed brother Aamir (also, he never got his driver's license), and she thinks if he wanted to go to AvengerCon, her parents would bend over backward for him. She's not entirely wrong, as they reject her request, but agree when Aamir goes to bat for her. Subverted when it is revealed that her parents have always loved her since the day she was born.
• Unreliable Narrator: Kamala's retelling of the Battle of Earth from Avengers: Endgame is completely biased in Captain Marvel's favor.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Kamala lacks formal combat training, but she is smart enough to use her powers with versatile creativity that allows her to augment her strength and durability.
• V-Sign: Kamala flashes two of these in "No Normal" after she used her embiggened form to save the onlookers from a flying Damage Control vehicle.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: In "Time and Again", Kamala spends about 4 minutes of runtime in the past - then gets returned to the same moment she left the present.
• You Are What You Hate: After an entire childhood of being scared by Djinn stories ("they are like ghost stories except they are so much worse since they are real!"), Kamala learns that her powers originate from the fact that she is the great-granddaughter of a Clandestine that inspired the Djinn myths. Subverted when Waleed reveals that the Clandestines do not resemble the Djinn of Islamic legends and religious texts.
• You Killed My Father: "Time and Again" has Kamala witnessing her great-grandmother Aisha being killed by Najma. Kamala then berates Najma for destroying Aisha's chance of living a happy life with her family. However, instead of desiring vengeance, Kamala decides to convince Najma to not repeat the same mistake with Kamran.

Aliens

Love

"Love" / Gorr's Daughter

"Got it. Protect the nice ones."

Species: Enhanced alien of unknown species

Citizenship: Unknown, possibly Asgardian

Affiliation(s): Asgard, Thor

Portrayed By: India Rose Hemsworth

Appearances: Thor: Love and Thunder

Gorr's deceased daughter, resurrected by Eternity as his dying wish.

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• Action Girl: She becomes Thor's sidekick and adoptive niece in their adventures.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Two of the characters she's adapted from are of a species who had Twi'lek-esque head protrusions and Voldemort-esque pale skin and noseless faces. Here, she looks like a human with some markings on her skin.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's clear that she's not quite a mortal girl after her resurrections but what she is exactly is anyone's guess. Is she merely empowered by Eternity? Is she Eternity's avatar (given her reflection) that allows the cosmic entity to interact with the world? Is she Gorr's daughter at all or some sort of Eldritch Abomination Eternity created to comfort the dying father? Korg's narration called her "born of Eternity" which doesn't clear up any confusion.
• Back from the Dead: She returns to life thanks to her father using his wish from Eternity.
• Bully Hunter: What Thor is teaching his adoptive niece to become; honoring his mother Frigga's teachings to be a generous and compassionate God who protects and shows kindness to the less fortunate, unlike his tyrant half-sister Hela, and the gods who failed Love's father.
• Came Back Strong: Being resurrected by Eternity seems to have brought her back more than mortal. She demonstrates Eye Beams and can keep up with Thor in battle.
• Canon Character All Along: Zigzagged; her reflection on the water's surface post-resurrection by Gorr suggests she's the MCU version of the Cosmic Entity "Singularity". Alternatively, she may be the MCU version of Mistress Love. As Mistress Love is also known by the alias/nickname "Love".
• Celestial Body: After being resurrected, her true form is a silhouette made of stars, like Eternity.
• Composite Character: As Gorr's child who dies and prompts him onto his deicidal crusade, she takes the role of Gorr's last living son, Agar. Being a female and the closest living thing to Gorr, she takes the place of Gorr's dead wife, Arra, who was never shown or mentioned in the movie. Her reflection, which looks like a feminine Eternity, alongside her cosmic powers, could make her the MCU's equivalent of Singularity, a sentient pocket-dimension creature.
• Character Title: She's Love, Thor is Thunder.
• Eye Beams: Her resurrection grants her these, and possibly other powers. Thor really doesn't like it when she literally glares through the cookery.
• Gender Flip: In the comics, Gorr had a son called Agar instead of a daughter.
• Generation Xerox: Much like her adoptive uncle Loki, Love is adopted (as a niece, in her case) by an Asgardian king after they defeated and made peace with their respective fathers.
• Little Miss Badass: Unleashes her Eye Beams while arguing with Thor about whether she can wear her slippers into battle, and then goes into that battle wielding Stormbreaker.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Her reflection in the water reveals that she looks like (or possibly is) Eternity.
• No Name Given: We are told that she is known to the wider galaxy as "Love" to Thor's "Thunder". Unless that actually is her name, then we never learn it.
• Purple Is Powerful: After being resurrected by Eternity, she gains the ability to shoot purple laser beams from her eyes. She also wears a purple jacket while fighting in the end of "Thor: Love and Thunder".
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Looks like a normal young human girl with the exception of the markings on her skin.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She's only present in the first and final few minutes of Thor: Love and Thunder, but her death is what sets Gorr on the path to becoming the God Butcher, and her resurrection signifies him giving up his crusade and dying at peace.
• Walking Spoiler: Her resurrection happens in the climax of Thor: Love and Thunder, and her subsequent characterization is discovered in the movie's epilogue, thus making it hard to talk about her without spoiling Gorr's death or Eternity's involvement.

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