The battles fought between heroes like the Avengers and Defenders against the Masters of Evil and other galactic threats tend to be messy. Whether it’s a giant monster or villain rampaging through a city or an invasion nearly destroying the planet, the aftermath of these battles are often filled with demolished buildings and rubble everywhere.
This is where Marvel’s Damage Control comes in. The team of everyday heroes revolves around agents and employees who are responsible for organizing the cleanup of these battles, analyzing the cost for repairs and finding the parties responsible for paying for the cleanup. Here are the ten best Damage Control employees in Marvel Comics.
10 Speedball
The list of employees ranges from volunteers and interns to everyday workers and those in charge of the entire project. The first of these employees is a young hero who briefly interned for the company, Robbie Baldwin, aka the New Warriors hero Speedball. Born to a soap opera actress (a co-star of Mary Jane Watson), and a high profile district attorney, Robbie gained the ability to create a kinetic field of energy.
Robbie’s time with Damage Control was brief, but it was interesting to see he joined the team as he was one of the survivors of the explosion that destroyed Stamford, Connecticut, which led to the Civil War event.
9 Slaying Mantis
One interesting character to join Damage Control was Eric O’Grady, known to the team as Slaying Mantis and to the rest of the world as the third man to don the Ant-Man costume. Originally a low-level SHIELD agent who had low to nonexistent morals, he stole Hank Pym’s latest iteration of the Ant-Man costume.
Originally using it for his own schemes, he vowed to renounce his evil ways to become a bonafide hero. However, despite relapsing several times, he joined Damage Control in the Slaying Mantis disguise to join the Search and Rescue division, hiding his true identity from the team.
8 Lenny Ballinger
Often people forget that when heroes have to fight these larger than life battles, innocent people get caught in the crossfire. While heroes often work to save lives, collapsed buildings and attacks in the streets will leave people trapped or in need of help. That is why Damage Control created the Search and Rescue division of the team.
The leader of this division was Lenny Ballinger. A loyal and hardworking man, Lenny is known as a dedicated leader to the Search and Rescue division. Even when offered a lot of money to sabotage a strike against the company Carlton Co, Lenny refused.
7 Tom Foster
One character that took an interesting turn leading up to and after his tenure with Damage Control was Tom Foster. The nephew of Bill Foster, the hero known as Goliath who passed on during the Civil War storyline, Tom worked to replicate and study Pym Particles like his uncle before him, even assisted by Black Panther himself.
After the Hulk leads his forces back to Earth during World War Hulk, Tom finds himself assisting Damage Control after publicly supporting the Hulk’s actions, and ends up fighting Tony Stark after blaming him and Reed Richards for his uncle’s passing at the hands of Thor’s clone, which the two created.
6 Robin Chapel
One of the most hardworking and dedicated members of Damage Control is Robin Chapel, the trusted right-hand woman to Ms. Hoag. Initially the traffic manager of the company and Ms. Hoag’s most trusted and loyal employee, she briefly had a rivalry with fellow employee John Porter, but the two have put aside their differences and even found romance with one another.
While maintaining a business-like mindset and attitude at Damage Control, she is a kindhearted and friendly person who works towards her ambitions diligently. She was ousted for a while by Walter Declun, but was recently rehired and made CEO of Damage Control.
5 John Porter
The next employee of note is John Porter himself, the onetime rival of Robin Chapel. An account executive, John worked in superhero insurance for a time before being offered a job by Ms. Hoag to work at Damage Control. His short rivalry with Robin ended and lead to a long building romance between the two characters.
What separated John from others is his ability to broker peaceful and practical solutions to the most complex problems in the field. He is so well-liked and peaceful that he has even managed to have a bizarre yet peaceful friendship with the villain Thunderball of the Wrecking Crew.
4 Albert Cleary
One of the more respected members of the team by the superhero and villain communities has to be Albert Cleary, the team’s comptroller and a well known financial genius. Albert is the one who calculates the cost for repairs and the work Damage Control does in the aftermath of battles and disasters.
He is also the one more often than not giving out bills to the parties responsible for the damage, including the villain Doctor Doom. Despite refusing Doctor Doom’s offer of a job, Doom respected the man and let him go, leaving Albert unnerved but maintaining his professionalism at any cost.
3 Hercules
One of the most powerful members of Damage Control started out as a volunteer but became a full-time member well after. That employee is none other than longtime hero and Avenger himself, Hercules. The longtime hero found himself becoming a full-time member of the company after he incurred some serious financial troubles.
A lengthy and costly legal trial against the villain known as the Constrictor left Hercules with little to no money after the villain claimed Hercules used excessive force in their battle and sued the hero. Hercules went on to work as a construction and demolition expert for the company.
2 Annie Marie Hoag
Any company or team worth their salt is only as good as the founder of that very same team. In the case of Damage Control, that team leader is Anne Marie Hoag. Anne founded Damage Control by convincing her longtime friend Nick Fury the importance of such a company, and he used SHIELD funds to help start the company.
An elderly lady, Anne was the first director of Damage Control, overseeing its operations and assignments. This gave the world a much-needed assist in the face of so many superhero and supervillain fights that left cities and homes in tatters.
1 Trull the Unhuman
The most recognizable face of the infamous Damage Control has to be their current spokesperson, Trull the Unhuman. Trull was an alien who’s physical body perished in a crash on Earth, and who’s spirit or essence transported into a large construction crew steam shovel. He went on a rampage and was ultimately defeated by an elephant.
During the events of Civil War II, however, Trull returned to a new steam shovel body that was owned by Damage Control, attempting to destroy the company. However, Damage Control employee Monstro empathized with Trull, allowing Trull to give up his destructive goals and instead assist Damage Control becoming the animated spokesperson for the company.