Both the Marvel comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe versions of the Avengers are the most well-known superhero team in the universe. Over the years, the Earth's mightiest heroes have had some pretty strange team members. Some have been villains before, turned good thanks to our heroes, some have even stayed villains while helping the team, but all in all the most common words you'd associate with an Avenger are noble, brave, and heroic among many others.
This, however, doesn't apply to all our heroes. Some are notoriously selfish and, even though they are part of a team, only act for themselves in most cases. Although many of these heroes were still worthy of being Avengers, for some they just had the wrong personality for the team.
10 The Punisher's Brutal Business Of Murdering Criminals Goes Too Far For The Avengers
From a family man and a US Marine to a crime-fighting vigilante who aimed to clean up his city of all crime by any means necessary, Frank Castle, aka Punisher, is most definitely not a typical hero, but fans can still sympathize with the character. After losing his family in a brutal shooting, Frank decided to take matters into his own hands and protect the people around him, so he had the right intentions, but his methods would go a bit too far.
He was filled with revenge and that meant his methods involved no forgiveness without punishment and led him to some brutal fights and punishments for anyone involved in crime. This, however, meant he wasn't the best at working with a team, let alone a team that tries not to kill unless they absolutely have to.
9 Hulk's Lack Of Awareness & His Uncontrollability Make Him Difficult To Work With
Bruce Banner may well be a brilliant scientist and an incredibly valuable member of The Avengers, but his alter ego The Hulk is the complete opposite. Hulk has turned on his team on various occasions, and rather than tactically try and defeat a villain, Hulk always does the same thing and just smashes his way out of any fight, which sometimes isn't the right way.
He's a monstrous brute who, as fans have seen in the comics and in movies like Avengers: Age Of Ultron, he loves to destroy public property at his leisure. So, despite all his useful traits, overall The Hulk just doesn't really work as part of a group.
8 Sometimes Namor Can Be Incredibly Selfish, Especially When It Comes To His Kingdom Atlantis
Just like The Punisher, but perhaps a little less brutal, Namor is also an anti-hero who sways between working with The Avengers or facing off against them. One perfect example is him taking his kingdom Atlantis one-on-one against Black Panther's Wakanda.
Another example, this time highlighting his selfishness, was him throwing a frozen Captain America, the one he fought beside during World War II, into the ocean after he didn't like people worshipping him. Selfish and arrogant is an understatement for the King Of Atlantis.
7 Doctor Strange Was Once An Arrogant Surgeon & Still Kind Of Is As The Sorcerer Supreme
As a well renowned and brilliant neurosurgeon, Stephen Strange was pretty egotistical and arrogant, to begin with. After his car accident, some would have thought that he would lose the arrogance and be a bit more appreciative of the people around him, and to a certain extent, it did. But, that didn't mean he was a completely changed person.
Still, despite the training from the Ancient One and him becoming the Sorcerer Supreme, Strange didn't lose all of his slightly condescending personality. Then again, his personality and drive helped make him the sorcerer he became.
6 Tony Stark Is Without A Doubt A Great Member Of The Avengers, But He Can Be A Tad Selfish
Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Tony Stark's quick-witted nature and constant sarcasm can come across as a little self-absorbed. He's not strictly selfish, as we saw in The Avengers and in Avengers: Endgame, Tony is willing to put his life on the line for the greater good and has proved that on multiple occasions.
But he does have a tendency to act on impulse, for example when he decided to sign the Sokovia Accords primarily due to the guilt he felt about the damage caused in Sokovia, another example is his quick decision to go gung-ho on the Winter Soldier after finding out he killed his parents in cold blood. So although he isn't the most selfish of The Avengers, he isn't the ideal teammate.
5 Captain Marvel's Solo Space Adventures Prove She Isn't The Best Team Player
Captain Marvel was first introduced in her very own movie back in 2019 as a former US Air Force pilot-turned-Starforce soldier after being exposed to the energy of the Tesseract. It proved to be a fitting way to introduce her as a solo Marvel hero, as even when the Earth's mightiest heroes were fighting for their lives to stop Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel was nowhere to be seen.
Again in Avengers: Endgame, Carol Danvers took off to space rather than helping with the rest of The Avengers. We all know that she probably does help out a lot around space and is a great superhero, but she obviously isn't the best working in a team and prefers flying solo.
4 Reed Richards Was Almost Perfect In The Movies, But He Wasn't Quite So In The Comics
In the original Fantastic Four movies, Reed Richards was a likable and brilliant scientist, so his addition to this might be a surprise, but for any comic book fan, Reed Richards wasn't as perfect. Richards repeatedly comes off as egocentric, self-obsessed, and always wants to be right in every situation.
Yes, he is a genius and probably smarter than almost everybody in the room, but other people can also have good ideas. We haven't even mentioned his sometimes quite disgusting behavior towards his family. He constantly talks down to Sue, tells her to leave, and even puts his child in a coma without consulting her.
3 Starfox Is One Of The Most Self-Obsessed Characters In The Entire Marvel Universe
It may come as a surprise to many fans, but Thanos' younger brother, Starfox, has been a member of The Avengers. He doesn't have the same appearance as Thanos, neither does he have similar attributes in terms of physicality, but he does have some extremely over-the-top powers.
Starfox has the weird, and incredibly creepy ability to make other people want to sleep with him. He abused his power and did a lot of terrible things that made him an awful member of The Avengers and an awful person.
2 U.S. Agent Was Just A Captain America Replica Who Only Wanted The Fame
If fans imagine combining Captain America with The Punisher, they would get a patriotic and psychotic anti-hero who wouldn't stop at anything to get his way, even if that meant using extreme violence. Over the years, he had taken on the mantle of Captain America from Steve Rogers, he's become his very own copycat version of the Captain, U.S. Agent.
He has helped The Avengers from time to time but has done some bad things too. He's spied on the West Coast Avengers and the Vision, which proves that he was mainly concerned about the fame and the title rather than actually helping the team.
1 Professor X's Mind Controlling Ability Made Him The Literal Definition Of Manipulative
Professor X has the extraordinary ability of reading and manipulating minds. In the movies, his powers are always used for the good of his school of mutants and for the human race, but in the comics, he has a habit of using his abilities to manipulate others for his own good.
He's faked his death, he recruited Wolverine to save himself and didn't care about what would happen to Logan, his contingency plan also involved killing all the mutants to save himself, not to mention that he killed his twin before birth because he sensed they were evil. Now that doesn't sound like a team player.