While heroes like Iron Man and Captain Marvel continue to be the champions that define Marvel Comics, the company has done an excellent job of introducing young new heroes who are set to make an impact on the world. Heroes who learn the struggles of being a hero like the veterans of the Avengers learned themselves, giving readers new characters to identify with as they grow.
One group of young heroes who experienced this firsthand were the heroes in training for Avengers Academy. A group of kids who were manipulated by Norman Osborn during Dark Reign, the heroes created the school to help teach them about their powers. Here are the ten strongest students at Avengers Academy.
10 Juston Seyfert
The first member of the student body worth noting is Juston Seyfert, a human kid who stumbled upon the microprocessor of a damaged Sentinel, the mutant-hunting machines that have often battled the X-Men. Juston worked to reprogram the robot and after a series of events, decided to use it not for himself but to save lives.
Seyfert was seen after the events of Fear Itself as a member of the Avengers Academy. He constantly worked to get the robot to ignore it’s prime directive of ending mutant lives, until Emma Frost (possessed by Phoenix Force in Avengers vs X-Men), destroyed the robot in battle, unaware that Quicksilver saved it’s microprocessor.
9 Lightspeed
One unique member of Avengers Academy was a member of the original Power Pack, Julie Power. One of four members of the family-driven team, Julie has the power to fly at fast speeds, leaving a tri-colored band of light in her wake, even going so far as to possibly break the sound barrier at one point.
Codename Lightspeed, Julie was 19 when she joined Avengers Academy, working as a student and teacher's aid to Quicksilver. She revealed to fellow student Striker that she was bisexual after Striker confides that he is gay, establishing a much more personal story element for the Power Pack alumnus.
8 Reptil
This next hero brings a bit of the Jurassic side of the Marvel Universe to the Avengers AcademyReptil, aka Humberto Lopez, was signed up during the Fifty-State Initiative and was led into battle by Tigra against the forces of Stegron. Humberto gained his powers from an amulet discovered by his parents on a dig, and he was able to call upon the powers of various dinosaurs at will.
After being tortured by Norman Osborn, Humberto later escaped and joined the Avengers Academy. He went gone on to discover he can transform completely into dinosaurs but is unable to control himself in these forms.
7 Finesse
One of the more mysterious students at the school is Finesse, aka Jeanne Foucault. The hero willingly submitted herself to testing by Norman Osborn, learning more about her powers while giving him what he wanted. She is a polymath, able to absorb large amounts of information at will, but stunting her emotional and social skills.
After being initiated into the school, she blackmailed Quicksilver into teaching her the way Magneto taught him and discovered Taskmaster may, in fact, be her father. Jeanne was one of X-23’s best friends until she let her enemy Jeremy Briggs bleed out, and X-23 ended their friendship.
6 Thunderstrike
The Avengers Academy definitely needed some Asgardian blood on the team, and newcomer Kevin Masterson was invited to join the school under the codename Thunderstrike. Different from his MC2 counterpart, the 616 Thunderstrike is a young teen with anger issues.
The hero was given his father’s hammer with its own power set by Captain America, but both discovered he didn’t get his power from the artifact. Later, however, he did turn into a hero saving his mother from a rampaging Rhino and later helped Thor defeat Magog in New York City before moving to the West Coast Avengers HQ to join the Avengers Academy.
5 White Tiger
The next student at the academy is White Tiger, aka Ava Ayala. The fifth hero to wear the White Tiger amulet that gives them their power, she inherited the responsibility and legacy from her brother, after he and their family were taken out by Gideon Mace. She is a proud Hispanic woman and hero within her community.
Not only has she worked with the Avengers Academy to learn more about her power, but worked with the Heroes for Hire and Mighty Avengers as well during events like Infinity and Inhumanity, joining her power to Power Man's to create a White Tiger Chi.
4 Spider-Girl
Unlike predecessors like Spider-Man, Anya Corazon became Spider-Girl not due to a radioactive spider or genetics, but a mystical ritual to save her life. The young woman was saved by a member of the Spider-Society after she was caught in the middle of a battle between them and the Sisterhood of the Wasp.
Gaining spider-like power thanks to a magical tattoo on her chest, she became a hunter for the group and honed her skills as a warrior, becoming Spider-Girl much later after events like Civil War. She worked with the Avengers Academy after Arcade captured several of them in a plot to force them to battle one another.
3 Power Man (Victor Alvarez)
The next hero on this list is truly unique in Marvel history. Victor Alvarez, aka Power Man, is the latest hero to use this name. He is the son of Reina Alvarez and the villain Shades, a longtime foe of the original Power Man, Luke Cage. Victor gains the ability to harness his body's chi to gain strength and fortitude, much like Iron Fist.
Victor joined the new class of heroes at Avengers Academy when the school moves to the West Coast Avengers former headquarters, and later vowed to start his own Avengers-style group after the Superior Spider-Man referred to him and the Heroes for Hire as mercenaries during Infinity.
2 She-Hulk (Lyra)
The second most powerful member of the Avengers Academy student body is the antihero She-Hulk, otherwise known as Lyra. A member of the Femizons from an alternate reality future timeline, she was sent to the Dark Reign era of Marvel Comics to prevent her disastrous future timeline by being with Norman Osborn, but the memory of his evil prevents her from going through with it.
She is the daughter of her reality’s Thundra and Hulk, and is forced to adjust to her new life on Earth-616 after being hunted by Norman Osborn relentlessly. She later joins the Avengers Academy on the West coast after Fear Itself’s storyline.
1 X-23
The most powerful student at Avengers Academy is longtime hero X-23, aka Laura Kinney. A genetic experiment born through cloning technology and Wolverine’s DNA combined with the lead scientist (and her mother) Dr. Sarah Kinney's, Laura was born to be an assassin. She was tortured and conditioned to go into a bloodlust rage when exposed to a certain scent, a process that eventually led to her inadvertently taking her mother’s life.
In the years to come, she was trained and learned to be a hero by several heroic tutors, including her “sort of” father Wolverine, Captain America, Charles Xavier, and the teachers at Avengers Academy, later becoming the new Wolverine.