Hi there, nerd squad.
My name is Amanda McKnight and I'll be your host for this nerdy list.
You loved our part 1 so here is the part 2 for the top 10 Scary Avengers Origins stories.
Before we dive in, I want to ask you what do you find the most chilling and disturbing
in regards to origins stories?
What's worse?
A freak accident causing powers?
Having them triggered by a traumatic experience?
Turning superhero after suffering a great injustice?
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Alright friends, onwards.
10 Robbie Reyes, aka Ghost Rider
Making his first appearance in Marvel comics in 2014, Robbie Reyes was introduced to us
as the All-New Ghost Rider.
His origin story is different and possibly more terrifying than that of his predecessor,
Johnny Blaze but maybe not as scary as that of other fellow Ghost Rider, Alejandra Jones.
We are introduced to Robbie as he is struggling to improve his and his little brother, Gabe's
quality of life, working hard to get them out of the dangerous neighborhood of East
LA that they live in.
Robbie enters a street race in an attempt to win 50 grand and hopefully get move them
to a safer neighborhood for good.
Unfortunately the cops chase and corner Robbie when he accidentally turns down a dead end.
Unbeknownst to Robbie, the stolen car he entered the race with is filled with drugs, which
the cops are after.
The officer's gun him down and set the car and Robbie ablaze, leaving him to die.
Fortunately the car had a ghost and this ghost bonds with Robbie, saving him and transforming
him into, you guessed it, Ghost Rider.
We later find out that this ghost belongs to someone Robbie once knew, making the story
even more terrifying.
In the spirit of avoiding spoilers, I'd encourage you to read the All-New Ghost Rider series
to find out more.
Robbie Reyes joins is seen joining the Avengers in Avengers, volume 8.
9 Moondragon
Moondragon is the daughter of Drax the Destroyer, sort of...
I'm getting ahead of myself.
Cue origins story.
Heather Douglas as she was once known was the daughter of Arthur and Yvette Douglas.
Heather's dad was in a band and after a successful show in Las Vegas, the family was driving
home when suddenly Thanos decided to visit Earth.
Thanos observed the family but did not want any witnesses of his arrival, and so he killed
them all.
Fortunately or maybe not so fortunately, depending on how you view things, Mentor showed up.
He pitied the family and offered Arthur the opportunity of being resurrected.
Arthur accepted this offer based around his desire for vengeance.
And so he and Heather were resurrected with this purpose in mind.
Arthur became Drax and Heather became Moondragon.
Moondragon adopted her name after training with monks on Titan and defeating psychic
entity, the Dragon of the Moon.
Her power and quest for vengeance has caused her to do some pretty terrible things despite
also leading her to join the Avengers team for a time.
Even being offered full membership during the lengthy but original run of the series,
in volume 1, issue 151.
8 Beast
Having a similar origin story to that of Bruce Banner, Beast was originally a scientist and
gentle giant.
Beast was born a mutant but was one of the lucky few who went unnoticed.
Save for having a large stature, large hands and feet and a superior intellect, he appeared
normal.
His scary origin's story was a result of his own hubris.
While studying mutant genetics at the Brand Corporation, he became worried that an envious
colleague Dr Maddicks was attempting to steal his research and formula based around the
chemical cause of mutation.
Yup, Hank had it all.
Not only was he strong, smart and sitting on a scientific breakthrough but he had also
found love at Brand Corp, with Linda, his beautiful and brilliant lab assistant.
However in his pride, he attempted to protect his formula from being stolen by drinking
it, causing him to change for what he estimated would be an hour.
Unfortunately the drink caused a Jekyll & Hyde type horror story where Hank would forever
become both Jekyll and Hyde, struggling to hold onto his humanity.
As both on the outside, and occasionally on the inside, he was stuck looking like and
feeling like a Beast.
7 Sunspot
When Roberto Da Costa was fourteen, his superhero story began and his traumatic mutant transformation
took place.
During a school championship soccer match, Roberto was beaten on the field by members
of the opposing team because of the colour of his skin.
What stops this blatant racism and assault?
Surprisingly not a referee.
No, what stops the assault is Roberto's mutation.
He turns into a dark ball of energy.
Unaware of what is happening he calls to his friends and teammates but everyone is terrified
of Roberto and flees.
His girlfriend Julianna is one of the few who does not run away from him but instead
runs into his arms.
However even Julianna's love is not enough to save this horror story.
The two are kidnapped and put with other young mutants.
During an escape attempt a scuffle ensues which results in Roberto being shot at.
Julianna jumps in front of the bullets... er, lasers?
And dies, sacrificing her life for his.
Roberto adopts the mantle Sunspot and ends up joining the Avengers later on, even owning
AIM at one point.
6 Rogue
I figure most of know the tragic and what must have been for her, horrific, origins
story of this Avenger and famous X-Men, Rogue, but for those of us that don't, here we go.
Rogue was a teenage runaway who eventually found her first love with a boy named Cody
Robbins.
Cody was also her first kiss.
Which let's be honest, if we all remember our first kiss I'm sure it was awkward enough.
Though not nearly as awkward or traumatic as it was for Rogue, I'm sure.
Her first kiss was also when her mutant powers started to manifest themselves.
Rogue's powers involve her absorbing life energy through touch, in case you didn't know.
This meant that her first kiss and first victim, Cody, was left in a coma.
Add that to the fact that she ended up being basically raised, used and somewhat brainwashed
by Mystique and you've got one crazy origin story for our girl, Rogue.
Rogue joins the Avengers in the Uncanny Avengers series, issue 4.
5 Jessica Drew
I'm not sure how to describe Jessica Drew's origins story which has also changed over
there years, like most of our favourite Avengers and Marvel characters.
Is her story scary?
Yes.
But it is also a strange combination of weird and tragic.
Her original origins when she first appeared in the comics in 1977 was that she was actually
a spider who had turned human.
However the story of how she came to have her powers changed once Marvel realized that
idea might be too out there, even for their readers and even for the 70s.
Instead her story now follows that her dad who was a geneticist sort of accidentally
but also purposely poisoned his daughter with Uranium exposure.
Yeah, their home was on a giant Uranium deposit and he thought this was fine.
In order to save her but also as a weird experiment, he injected her with an arachnid serum created
based around his knowledge of the regenerative properties of spider blood.
This worked but due to the fact that it was a slow process, Jessica had to be kept in
stasis during the healing time.
By the time she was all better, she awoke from stasis as an adult woman.
Without really an experience in growing up.
Not only is that freaky enough but she also ends up discovering her new found powers when
she accidentally kills the first person she has a romance with.
Oh yeah, she also gets brainwashed by Hydra.
Poor, Jess.
4 Fantastic Four
All Four of the Fantastic Four have been joined the Avengers at one point or another.
Unsurprisingly, in my opinion, as the Fantastic Four seem to be the Marvel team to connect
almost all Marvel teams, having some kind of relationship with almost every Marvel character.
For their origins story we have to flip way back in comic book history to the early 60s.
A rocketship's test flight goes awry when Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and
Ben Grimm are exposed to cosmic rays as they break through the earth's atmosphere.
These cosmic rays transform them into the Fantastic Four.
When put that simply sounds fine and awesome.
But as many of the film adaptations and Ben Grimm's suicidal moods have demonstrated,
the Fantastic Four origins are definitely more horror story than Cinderella story.
3 Wolverine
Another gruesome one for the books.
Wolverine joined the Avengers team in the New Avengers series.
Another X-Men as well whose mutation was brought by a traumatic experience.
Maybe that's in part why Logan and Rogue have such an intense bond.
Logan was the illegitimate son of his Elizabeth Howlett who had an affair with his father,
Thomas Logan, the groundskeeper of his mother and her husband's huge estate.
Logan grew up being abused by grandfather and also traumatized by his half brother who
killed his puppy.
He discovered he was a mutant after watching his biological father murder his mother's
husband, who was like a father to him, in cold blood.
And of course Wolverine's abilities involve claws which tear through his skin so you can
imagine just how terrifying that must have been.
And that is just the beginning of his origins!
Let me tell you, it does not get much better from there.
Including but not limited to, Logan being raised by wolves only to have his wolf family
murdered by a polar bear.
2 Deadpool
Lovable, violent and tragic: probably the three words that describe this anti-hero and
that's right Avenger, the best.
Wade Wilson is known for being mentally ill and unstable which means that his back story
has always been somewhat unclear as it seems hard for him to remember it.
Ryan Reynold's first Deadpool film gave us a glimpse of his comicbook origins story and
while some details were left out, the film followed the same trajectory.
Namely that he broke up with his girlfriend, also Vanessa in the comics, due to his uncurable
cancer and that he agreed to be tested on by Weapon X.
As a result he was granted healing powers which eventually ended up leaving him scarred.
Oh and he also had a friend in the warehouse / hospital where they were kept.
And there was even an Ajax.
So not super far off.
But still equally scary and upsetting.
1 Punisher
Obviously I had to make Punisher my number one.
His origin's story to me is the most tragic and terrifying.
Why?
Because imagine if you were in Frank Castle's shoes.
The Punisher, aka Frank Castle served in the military and during one of his time's on leave,
ended up with his family in Central Park where they stumbled upon mob dealings they were
not meant to see.
Fearing witnesses, the mobsters murdered Frank Castle, his two children, and his wife.
Unfortunately Frank managed to survive and was left with the loss of his family and a
need for revenge that was denied him by the courts and police as they were being controlled
and corrupted by the very mafia that took out Frank's family.
Castle decided to take matters into his own hands and adopted the mantle the Punisher.
Swearing to get revenge for his family by any means necessary, making him a huge anti-hero,
similar to Deadpool but much more serious.
You can explore Castle's level of hurt and just how far Punisher is willing to go to
fight for revenge in Netflix's Daredevil series and their Punisher series.
He respectfully joins the Avengers ranks in the Savage Avengers series.
And that's all she wrote, folks.
I hope you enjoyed that list and again sorry for all the X-Men mentions, I got mutants
on the brain today apparently.
I also have to give an honourable mention as well to Wonder Man before I go who did
not make this list but who has a bizarre and freaky backstory and history with the Avengers.
If you want to hear more about Wonder Man or other scary Avengers origins stories, let
us know in the comments below.
Maybe we'll do a part three!
Who knows?
As always my fellow nerds, thank you for watching.
Remember to like, subscribe, share and comment.
I do try to read the comments and love hearing from you.
This is top 10 nerd and my name is Amanda McKnight, reminding you to stay nerdy, YouTube.