10 Marvel Characters Most Likely To Die Before (Or During) Avengers: Infinity War

The people who run the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been known to dispense their fair share of characters as they move their way toward Avengers: Infinity War, the two-part climax of the first three phases of the fledgling MCU.

It’s almost a rite of passage to find someone biting the big one in each film, though most of the characters made it out of the recent Captain America: Civil War (which, given its scope and the characters involved, might as well have been called The Avengers 2.5) unscathed.

Here’s a list of the 10 Marvel Characters Most Likely To Die Before (Or During) Avengers: Infinity War.

10. CAPTAIN AMERICA

Captain America has been a prime candidate to bite the dust for years now. Since he’s been the team leader, many have predicted that his demise would lead to the breakup of the Avengers and would pave the way for Thanos to set his plans into high gear. Cap’s demise would definitely have traumatic repercussions for the rest of the MCU and could be an almost automatic turn toward dark times for planet Earth.

Whichever movie Captain America could meet his demise is anyone’s guess, but rest assured as the team leader of the Avengers and their moral compass, he will be the one with a bullseye on his back. That said, some audience members were surprised that he survived the recent Civil War, which didn’t follow the story of the comic it was based on. So perhaps he’ll make it through Infinity War intact.

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12 Things You Didn’t Know About Scarlet Witch

Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) is one of the most revered and feared super-beings on the planet. With her twin brother Quicksilver they share the rare honor of being able to  cross-over effortlessly from X-men to the Avengers. She has married the Vision, her father was once believed to be Magneto, she’s wiped out entire realities, and she’s been a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Her history is one of the most diverse in any publication DC or Marvel. Her list of powers is just as diverse. She will be taking center-stage in Captain America:Civil War.

This list will cover some things that the general public might not know about the mystical magestress. You might be a comic buff but don’t be surprised to find that there are some fun facts you wasn’t expecting to see! -- So, without further adieu here’s a list of 10 things you might not have known about Marvel’s favorite Sorceress- the Scarlet Witch!

12. Stan Lee’s Intentions Behind Her Creation

We’ll start off with something that is kind of obvious for most people who follow the comic books. But Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Both comic book legends have been responsible for the creation of much of the successful franchises in the history of comic books that have become blockbuster movies. Those characters are Thor, X-Men, Hulk, Iron-Man, and Fantastic-Four. The Scarlet Witch character is in select company.

“I remember that I liked (Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) very much and I thought it would be fun to have villains who aren’t really bad deep down,” Lee told Comics Creators On X-Men. “We already had a reluctant hero with Spider-Man so I thought it would be fun to create a pair of reluctant villains.”

“I had big plans for Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. I wanted them to eventually give up being villains and become heroes. That’s why I used them in Avengers after I left X-Men.”

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15 Best Encounters Between Spider-Man and The Avengers

Spiderman has had many team-ups with the Avengers in the past.

With Captain America: Civil War around the corner, there’s no better time than now to explore the magnanimous history between our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and members of the Mighty Avengers.

In the Marvel comic books, Spidey has historically been known to be a loner by trade. He’s never felt totally comfortable being on a team and typically preferred to work alone. That being said, he’s put those feelings aside more times than not and collaborated with many of Marvel’s canon of crime fighters. He’s even occasionally become a member of various teams, like The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, Secret Defenders and the Outlaws, despite his personal preferences.

Alternatively, throughout their illustrious comic book history, the Avengers have had more members come and go than one can count. Almost all of Marvel’s greatest heroes have either crossed paths with them or have joined their team. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Spider-Man has had his share of run-ins with members of Earth’s Mightiest.

This list covers some of those legendary encounters between our friendly wall-crawler and various members of The Avengers. This list focuses more on the one-on-one brushes the webhead has had with the team and its members rather than the larger Marvel crossover events (like Civil War).

So without further ado, here are the 15 Best Encounters Between Spider-Man and The Avengers.

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15. MARVEL TEAM-UP #106 (CAPTAIN AMERICA/SPIDER-MAN)

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This story has so much going for it. Not only is this one of the rare times that Spidey goes on a solo mission with Captain America, but they do so against the Scorpion, who is one of Spider-Man’s most powerful arch-enemies. We also get to see J. Jonah Jameson chew both of them out in his typical fashion while they’re posing as their alter egos, Steve Rogers and Peter Parker. At this time in the Marvel Universe, Steve Rogers is Captain America’s secret identity. Rogers is looking for employment as a freelance commercial artist for the Daily Bugle (If only JJJ knew he was chewing out the legend himself).

We find Scorpion at his most crazed and maniacal, breaking into the Daily Bugle and attempting to kidnap Jameson. Cap and Spidey show up to stop him. Scorpion actually defeats them simultaneously, leaving both unconscious. He kidnaps his least favorite person, J. Jonah Jameson, and heads uptown. Damaged and bruised, both heroes track Scorpion back to the South Bronx where they get into a brawl with Scorpion’s crew. Ultimately, they both knock out a game Scorpion and afterward, Cap suggests removing the gag from JJJ, but Spider-Man refuses.

As icing on the cake, this comic comes with cover art by the legendary Frank Miller.

14. MARVEL TEAM-UP #103 (ANT-MAN, SPIDER-MAN)

This happens to be a team-up between Scott Lang’s Ant-Man and Spidey, not Hank Pym. An old time friend of Scott Lang, Gus Sweezer pays a visit to recruit him for a top secret criminal operation. Lang declines the job, telling him he’s gone legit. Some time later his friend is run over by a mysterious sports car. Lang decides to find out who killed his friend and why.

Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson sends Peter on an assignment to find out why, despite the East coast experiencing all-time high crime rates, a particularly bad neighborhood on the lower east side of Manhattan hasn’t experienced so much as a jaywalker. Parker walks around the dark shady neighborhood when suddenly his spider-sense goes crazy. It’s a giant warehouse that gets his attention, and he heads inside to investigate. He finds himself center stage in a massive auditorium where thousands of villains are attending a training academy demo for criminals run by the Taskmaster. Taskmaster, utilizing all the skills he’s learned from Captain America, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Iron Fist, makes quick work of Spider-Man.

Lang infiltrates the warehouse as an ex-con and rescues a captive Spider-Man. This is the first time Spider-Man meets Scott Lang, and then they take on the Taskmaster together. It’s quite a good read.

13. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #123 (LUKE CAGE VS. SPIDER-MAN)

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Luke Cage made the list because he was a member of the Avengers for a short time, and even led them at one point. This issue directly follows a story that made comic book history, where two of Spider-Man’s most important supporting characters, his old girlfriend Gwen Stacy and the original Green Goblin, perish. Luke Cage taking on Spidey is part of the direct fallout from that very tale.

Norman Osborn’s dead body is found and the city is in shock. J. Jonah Jameson is distraught by the death of an old friend and fellow financier. He assumes (this time correctly) that Spider-Man had something to do with it. He enlists the aid of a unique character named Luke Cage who runs a Hero-For-Hire service out of a crumbled movie house in Times Square. He offers Cage five thousand dollars (which was worth a lot more at the time) to capture Spider-Man. Cage takes him up on the offer and what follows is a classic fist-a-cuffs between the two.

In a moment of comic relief during their battle, Cage references DC’s Batman by telling him “Some dudes have to do this number for a livin’- we ain’t all rich playboys like Bruce Wayne.” Spidey takes round 1, and in round 2 Spidey immobilizes Cage long enough to get him to change his mind about Jameson. John Romita Sr.’s artwork is in top form on this issue.

12. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #86 (BLACK WIDOW VS. SPIDER-MAN)

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Spidey and Black Widow have teamed up a number of times. This is the first appearance of Natasha Romanoff in her famous black costume. In this issue, Romanoff is trying to find a way to reinvent herself, and turn a new page in her troubled life. She seeks to reinvent herself and become a better version of the one that once worked alongside S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers.

As she’s traveling above the rooftops, she notices Spider-Man swinging by. It dawns on her to incorporate some of Spidey’s abilities into her own repertoire. She redesigned her costume to a sleek black and added some venom-sting bracelets. Unwilling to play second fiddle to anyone, though, she attacks the webhead to see how she fares against him. She gets him at a bad time, though, as he’s struggling with an illness. Despite being sick, he shows her enough of his spider-power, speed, and agility that she retreats. She comes to the realization that she can never train enough to match the spider-powers that he possesses, so she decides to hone and utilizes the skills that are uniquely hers alone.

11. MARVEL FANFARE #47 (SPIDER-MAN VS. HULK)

By Duran Rivera

The artwork in this storyline is unique and the final battle between Spider-Man and the Hulk is emotionally resonant. Mochael Golden perfectly captures the pain of the Hulk when he’s about to be caught.

S.H.I.E.L.D. takes on the Hulk in New York and Spider-Man gets caught in the crossfire. This isn’t the first time Spidey’s sympathies for the Hulk makes him conflicted on what side he should be on. In this issue, you also get to see Spider-Man looking more like a young kid than anything else. It’s one of those rare occasions especially since this comic book came out in ‘89 that you see Spider-Man more like a high schooler rather than the older college student he is in the ‘80s.

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12 Facts You May Not Know About George R. R. Martin

George R.R. Martin has become a household name ever since his best-selling books were adapted into HBO’s most popular television series of all time

Game of Thrones. It has been shown in over 170 countries and has been illegally downloaded more than any other program on Earth. It boasts one of the most diverse and obsessive fans, yet there are many who still don’t know much about the creator of their favorite show.

For this list, we’re looking at some fascinating fun facts about the beloved Novelist and Screenwriter George R. R. Martin. We’ll cover some of his passions, his place of origin, his lifelong convictions, and struggles that helped shape and mold him into one of the most acclaimed writers in modern literature.

Here are 12 Facts You Might Not Know About George R. R. Martin.

12.  He’s a Comic Book Fanatic

Unknown to many, George R.R. Martin is an avid comic book fan. He grew up with a particular fondness for Marvel stories such as the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. He currently has a large collection of comic books today and is a heavy reader to this day.

Speaking with John Hodgman on a public radio broadcast Bullseye, Martin describes his fascination with comic books and its influences on him as a young writer:

“The Marvel comics that I was writing letters to were really revolutionary for the time. Stan Lee was doing some amazing work...

…The Marvel characters were constantly changing. Important things were happening. The lineup of the Avengers was constantly changing. People would quit and they would have fights and all of that, as opposed to DC, where everybody got along and it was all very nice, and of course all the heroes liked each other. None of this was happening. So really, Stan Lee introduced the whole concept of characterization [chuckles] to comic books, and conflict, and maybe even a touch of gray in some of the characters. And boy, looking back at it now, I can see that it probably was a bigger influence on my own work than I would have dreamed.”

This Catholic Prep Schooler from Marist High wrote numerous impassioned letters to “Stan’s Soapbox” as many fans did at that time. He heartily shared his thoughts on his favorite and least characters and stories. Even as a high schooler, his eloquence with the written word is apparent.

One character and his initial arc stood out to him and that was Wonder-Man. It wasn’t the fact that the Wonder-Man character was from Paterson New Jersey, it was that Wonder-Man was the most tragic of super-heroes at the time. Wonder-Man’s first appearance happened to also be his last (at least until they revived him some time later). Martin says of Wonder-Man.

“I liked the character — it was a tragic, doomed character. I guess I’ve responded to tragic, doomed characters ever since I was a high-school kid.”

       

11. His Insular Life in Bayonne Fueled his Creativity

One would think that the author of one of the most richly dense and expansive worlds in modern literature had traveled the globe as a youth, but actually, he had a pretty modest upbringing in the projects of 35 East First Street in Bayonne, New Jersey. As the son of a longshoreman, Martin spent his youth watching big ships sail across the Brady’s Dock and Kill Van Kull waterway dreaming of far off worlds and of someday being an astronaut. He made the most of his time selling stories of his to other children in the neighborhood. That all was stopped by the parents of the children because they were having nightmares. He became an insatiable reader since his world consisted mainly of school and his home. He yearned to travel and reading helped his overactive imagination explore worlds far from his own.

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