Marvel Comics has been going through some power scaling in the 21st century and it’s gotten to that level that is kind of annoying. The problems with power scaling are manifold, but the biggest is how they rob stories of stakes. Just look at the Hulk books lately; he’s an unstoppable force of the cosmos, powered by a being that represents entropy, and his last series had him facing eldritch Lovecraftian horrors that took him over. Scarlet Witch has more power than personality (but that’s not new). Jean is Phoenix and is being kept off Earth because she can solve all the team’s problems. Storm became Eternity and is doing ridiculous stuff in a book that makes no sense. Power scaling can make books boring and hopefully the House of Ideas will realize that. However, that doesn’t mean powerful characters are bad and Marvel has long had some of the best.
One of the interesting things about the Marvel Universe is that the powerful characters didn’t all used to be the big boys, girls, and thems. There are a legion of minor characters out there that have always been superlatively powerful and most have no idea how powerful they really are. They are the secret powerhouses of the Marvel Universe, and these five are some of the most powerful characters out there that no one expects.
Once upon a time, 11 year old David picked up Excalibur (Vol. 1) #42 and was amazed. Writer/artist Alan Davis, co-creator of the team, was back on the book (I didn’t know that at the time; it was one of my first comics) and it was wild. If you’ve read it, you’ll understand why young me loved it so much; it was unlike anything I had ever read back then. During this time, I fell in love with Captain Britain, a big powerful character who I knew nothing about named Brian Braddock, and then my young mind would be blown by the Captain Britain Corps. Captain Britain is a multiversal title, with a version from every universe – there’s even a Nazi one, all working with Roma. They are one of the most powerful forces in the multiverse, an army of super strong, invulnerable, flying wrecking balls who also have some cool magical powers and weapons. The current Captain Britain is Elizabeth Braddock, the former Psylocke, and the Corps has become multiversal versions of her, which is way more boring than what we used to have, but it’s still one of the most powerful forces in the Marvel Universe you’ve never heard of.
Immortal Hulk is a modern classic and it reintroduced readers to one of the most powerful monsters in the Marvel Universe, Xemnu the Living Hulk. Xemnu was a pre-Fantastic Four #1 monster, created when the House of Ideas was doing more monster comics. The alien titan came to enslave the Earth and beyond being one of the most physically formidable of the early Marvel monsters, he was also an extremely powerful telepath, able to rearrange the memories of humans. Even televisual broadcasts could carry his waves of power, allowing him to take control of the most people at any time. I remember seeing him in some Marvel 30th anniversary book (1991 was the 30th birthday of the Silver Age Marvel Universe’s start and they were definitely celebrating it) and it wouldn’t be until Immortal Hulk that I would actually learn he was something more than just a big strong monster. He was able to dogwalk the Hulk, both physically and mentally, which isn’t something that is easily done.
Speaking of characters I met while reading the Alan Davis run of Excalibur before I ever had a girlfriend, I present Roma. She’s a characters that has played an important role in the history of the X-Men. She first appeared back in 1976’s Captain Britain #1, helping Brian Braddock realize his power as the new Captain Britain, inducting him into the Corps that she was the leader of. Roma is the daughter of Merlin and was born with what are assumed to be supreme magic powers. If you get her old X-Men Series One trading card (the set drawn by Jim Lee, which I also had back then), it says that she has omnipotent power. She gave the X-Men the Siege Perilous after their battle with the Adversary, leading to the Outback Era, and the return of her father to Otherworld, the realm that she ruled along with her sister Opal Luna Saturnyne, was a major part of the Davis’s Excalibur run. Recent years have seen her play even less of a role in the Marvel Universe, but she is without a doubt one of the most powerful characters around.
I’m going to level with you here – I never expected this to become a list about Excalibur characters, but here we are. Omega-level mutants have become integral to the X-Men, powerful mutants that can shake the world with their amazing powers. They were always around in one form or another though (I remember when the powerful ones were called Alphas, because I’m old) and one of the most powerful was Monarch, Jamie Braddock. The oldest member of the Braddock family, he gained reality-altering powers which allowed him to pull on the strings of creation. He was driven mad by his powers and ended up battling his brother, sister, and Excalibur numerous times. He’s since become less insane and more quirky crazy and artists have forgotten that his powers manifested themselves as strings (seeing him birth the Peak in “X of Swords” was cool, but it could have been cooler if artist Pepe Larraz drew his powers the old way), but he’s still one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe.
Molecule Man was introduced as a Fantastic Four villain in issue #20 and became one of the most powerful and important characters in the Marvel Universe you’ve never heard of. Owen Reece was a lab tech for a nuclear power research company, overworked and underpaid, and he accidentally exposed himself to one of the experimental particle generators. Because this was Silver Age Marvel, he ended up getting superpowers instead of cancer and became Molecule Man, a godlike being who could control the very building blocks of the reality. He would get his biggest break in the Secret Wars/Secret Wars II, becoming an integral character that would be tied to the Beyonders, beings more powerful than gods. Their power created Reece and made him into a part of the mutliversal structure, splitting him into infinite versions of himself and seeding him across existence. He played a key role in the Jonathan Hickman run on Avengers (Vol. 5)/New Avengers (Vol. 3), helping Doom in his war against the Beyonders, helping the Latverian monarch steal their powers and save the multiverse from the Incursions. He’s one of the most powerful and important Marvel characters you’ve never heard of and I’m kind of hoping he debuts in the MCU without any build-up, just so people can mystified about why he is to potent.
What’s your favorite secretly powerful minor Marvel characters? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
