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The Friend Nobody Likes / Marvel Universe

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Marvel Universe

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     Comic Books 

Comic Books

Several characters from Marvel Comics are eligible for this on both sides.
  • The Avengers: During the five minutes he was with the team, nobody got on with the Hulk. Thor was itching to start a fight with him (and Hulk was itching to start one right back), Iron Man thought it had been a mistake allowing Hulk on the team at all (techincally, they didn't. Hulk was the first to suggest joining together in the first place.) And Wasp was just flat-out terrified of him. The only one who was willing to give Hulk a chance was Giant-Man. Hulk didn't make it easy by just generally being a jerkass to everyone, and then turning on them in a paranoid rage.
  • For the heroes: Namor the Sub-Mariner, The Punisher, Deadpool, and Sunfire. Namor for being a considerable Jerkass and Anti-Hero at best, the Punisher for being a murderer who doesn't arrest criminals (and he also makes it clear to almost any hero he encounters that he regards them as dangerously naive), Deadpool for being a psychopath and annoying, and Sunfire for being a self-righteous, obnoxiously patriotic asshole with a xenophobic streak. Of them, only Deadpool and Sunfire have gained any true acceptance from the other heroes; the former because of his Character Development and tendency to help others, the latter because of his skill in battle and courage.
    • After Namor attacked Wakanda in Avengers vs. X-Men, his reputation among the hero community is now even worse. When Namor is kidnapped by the Kree in All-New Invaders, Captain America bluntly states that most people would likely say "Good riddance" upon hearing the news. Cap himself is usually one of the few people who can stand him (Namor being one of the few World War II allies of Cap who's survived into the modern era), and even that was lost after The Illuminati mindwiped him.
  • For the villains, nobody really likes Boomerang. Even with the usual pack of no-hopers who make up the lower echelons of Marvel's Rogues Gallery, Boomerang goes further than most by being a selfish, cowardly, backstabbing asshole with an ego visible from space but basically nothing in the way of achievements to back that up. It's so bad that he's forced to buddy up with Life Model Decoys of his old Sinister Syndicate buddies because they tossed him out and later (unknowingly) starts living with Spider-Man!
  • Guardians of the Galaxy: Much of the time, no-one on the team can stand Starhawk, thanks to his enigmatic and aloof behavior, and general tendency to never explain himself ever beyond saying he is "the one who knows". His sister Aleta has more reason than most of them to outright hate him, what with the whole "being used as a glorified power-source and hardly ever let out for a thousand years" thing, and when they're finally separated in the 90s series, she takes the opportunity to vent a thousand years of pent-up anger at him.
  • Killraven: Hawk, on account of his perpetual moodiness and bad-temper, which is not what you really want in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. After he dies Old Skull, usually the nicest of the Freemen, admits that while he is sad Hawk's dead, he's not as upset that it's Hawk that's dead.
  • The Red Skull is without question THE biggest example in the Marvel Universe. He's a literal Nazi that was not only the right-hand man of Hitler himself, but he maintains a fanatical belief in Nazism in the present, much to the disgust of the other villains. Very few, if any villains genuinely admire or even like him. (Crossbones, a neo-Nazi, is one of those exceptions.) Even the Joker turned on him in a crossover when he realized that the swastika on his uniform wasn't a stylistic choice and was in fact a dead-serious representation of the Nazi ideology. The Skull is particularly despised by Magneto (a Jewish mutant whose backstory heavily features time in a concentration camp) and Doctor Doom (a man of Roma descent who takes nearly everything very personally), and because Magneto is particularly influential among villainous mutants and Doom is... well, Doom, this tends to drag his reputation down among everyone else. Not even the Kingpin wants to do anything with him (American capitalism clashes with Nazism as both would tell you). He's rarely ever involved in villain team-ups because the partnerships almost always conclude with his newfound allies trying to kill him. One of the few times he did join a Legion of Doom, in one of Loki's all too common off days, the day wasn't even over before Magneto buried him alive.
  • Original Sin retcons that Bucky Barnes was this to most of his friends, with a LMD of Nick Fury claiming, "I never liked you, you son of a bitch", and Wolverine saying the same. This fact isn't much referenced if at all outside of Original Sin however.
  • In Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), Chase is obviously this to Gert despite saving her. Then in Issue 6, even the narrator calls him the lamest Runaway (they keep him because he has a car).
  • Triathlon/3D-Man didn’t start out as this, but after his (semi-accidental) killing of Crusader during Secret Invasion, his reputation in the hero community plummeted at astronomical speeds, to the point that he left the Avengers Initiative because he could sense that many of the other Avengers wanted him dead.
  • Spider-Man gets this treatment from time to time. X-23 makes sure he's aware of it. In the original run, i.e., The Amazing Spider-Man, this was because he was a Hot-Blooded Heroic Wannabe with Testosterone Poisoning, prone to harassing the Fantastic Four and fighting them so that he can audition to join them. After he mellows out and loses the major chip on his shoulder, other heroes still dislike him because of his constant joking and battle banter, with some of his comments being poignant examples of Digging Yourself Deeper that make other supers less than happy to team up with him. Other superheroes also find his mask and his fixation on having a private life (i.e., maintaining a Secret Identity, which many Marvel heroes don't) selfish and a sign of his lack of commitment.
    • For that matter, most Spider-Heroes tend to be this on some level, sometimes even to other Spiders. For example, after the events of Spider-Verse, everyone came to see Silk as an annoying, childish screw-up for a good while. The only one of the Spiders that escapes this status is Jessica Drew, who (among other things) is the only one who doesn't have a secret identity.
  • Most Marvel heroes don't like or trust the Thunderbolts, which is understandable given they're mostly made up of villains claiming to reform. That's not even getting into the fact that the first Thunderbolts team was actually the Masters of Evil trying to trick everybody as part of their latest scheme. It doesn't help that even those whose attempts to reform were genuine often get stuck in the Heel–Face Revolving Door. The sole exception to this is Mach V, who's been reformed so long and is such a Nice Guy that he's more or less proven himself.
  • Ultimate FF: Reed Richards, on account of the whole "becoming a crazed supervillain, murdering his family, trying to murder his friends, and actually wiping out an entire civilization" thing. None of the rest of the FF can stand him.
  • X-Men: Wolverine was this on the X-Men, early in his career. Basically, he was a huge Jerkass who argued with everyone except Jean Grey, and even with her made it very clear he'd like nothing better than to get Cyclops out of the way. His popularity, Character Development, taking a paternal role with Kitty Pryde and Jubilee, and mellowing of his personality due to self-discipline have made him the person everyone wants on their team, because he gets things done and always has your back. (The version of Wolverine in the Ultimate Marvel universe was even less popular, because the Ultimate universe's Darker and Edgier approach meant that Ultimate Wolvie was even more of an asshole.)

     Films 

Films

  • Deadpool 2: Wade Wilson lampshades that none of the big-name X-Men ever seem to be around. While the out of universe reason (which Wade points out) is that the studio didn't have the money, in-universe it seems they're all intentionally avoiding him for being an annoying, murderous Anti-Hero. The main cast can be briefly seen for a few seconds... and they quickly close the door before Wade notices them.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Tony Stark can be this guy to the other members of the eponymous The Avengers (2012). He's deemed selfish and arrogant by most of his peers (and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s dossier on him as well) and particularly Steve Rogers finds him to be abrasive and an un-heroic glory hound. However, he's a good member of the team and did ultimately come around and win the respect of his fellow members. Funnily enough, Tony's abrasive, casual attitude does get him the friendship of Bruce Banner, since Tony is the only person who treats him like a human being instead of a ticking time bomb. This comes back to help him at the end of the film, where Tony nearly dies falling to Earth and the Hulk, recognizing their friendship from his time as Bruce, saves his life.
      • It becomes especially pronounced in Avengers: Age of Ultron where Tony gets the lion's share of the blame for creating Ultron, despite the fact that Bruce had quite a bit to do with it too. Of course, this is mostly because Bruce admits he was in the wrong and apologizes (and was a lot more cautious about the whole thing to begin with) while Tony thinks he was still in the right and keeps trying to justify his actions.
    • Black Panther (2018): The Jabari are this in the beginning. When M'Baku and his fellow tribesmen first appear, nobody is happy to see them and Zuri treats him as an unwanted guest as the Jabari have been pariahs in Wakanda for over a thousand years, and the Jabari are also unfriendly towards the rest of Wakanda. Part of why M'Baku initially refuses initially to send his army to help T'Challa in his fight against Killmonger is that up until T'Challa accidentally came, no Wakandan king had been bothered enough to visit Jabari-land in centuries. In the end of the movie, attitudes appear to have changed as M'Baku and by extension, the Jabari, are given a seat on the Ruling Council.
    • Loki appears to have been this to his peers on Asgard. In Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three crack jokes at his expense and only seem to tolerate his presence because they're friends with his brother. In a memory seen in his spin-off series Sif once delivered a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech after Loki cut off her hair as a prank. Thor does care about Loki but also expresses irritation at his manipulative behaviour and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
    • Thor himself ironically becomes this in Thor: Love and Thunder. After joining the Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s made clear from the start that, at this point, he's overstayed his welcome. He has to be told to pull his weight to defend a planet in distress. Although he singlehandedly disposes of the invaders, he destroys the king's palace. It’s almost a relief to Star-Lord when Thor decides to leave to help Lady Sif. The Benatar takes off and flies through a jump point before Thor can even finish his farewell speech.

     Live-Action TV 

Live-Action TV

  • Deke Shaw becomes this in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. when he manages to come back from the Bad Future they met him in and joins them in the present day. None of them like or particularly trust him after he sold out Daisy to Kasius, and so their treatment of him ranges from indifference to outright dislike. They only really let him stick around because he basically can't survive in the present on his own and, while something of a sarcastic Jerkass, he's really not bad enough to be deserving of being booted out to fend for himself. Good thing, too, as it turns out that he's the grandson of Fitz and Simmons. This eventually comes to a head when he snaps and calls everyone out for how badly they treat him, as he straps on a piece of experimental tech to his back to save the day to prove himself once and for all. It doesn’t work as he didn’t think his actions through, and they have to save him.
    Deke: I built this company because no one liked me! I built it because I never belonged anywhere! Because the place that I'm from doesn't even exist anymore! And all of my friends are gone! And the woman that I gave lemons to thinks that I'm a loser, so I went out into the world to try and be what everybody wants me to be, and she still thinks that I'm nothing! And — and my best friend turned out to be a spy, and — and my girlfriend turned out to be a psychopath! And the family that I do have wants nothing to do with me! You try to be nice, but you didn't even want me to know that Fitz died! Even my own grandparents think I'm a joke. I survived an apocalyptic hellscape... so what do I have to do to get a little respect around here?

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