12 Most Forgettable Superhero Movie Characters Of All Time

Plenty of movie superhero characters have been remembered for decades and will be remembered for decades to come. This includes Christopher Reeve’s Superman or Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. However, there are also plenty of superhero movie characters who are easy to forget, whether they’re from the MCU, DC, or beyond.

For every major Avenger in the MCU or new version of The Dark Knight, not every superhero movie character can make as big of an impression. This can be due to various factors, though usually it’s due to a superhero movie’s poor reception overall, or the character not being utilized enough to make a significant impact. To that end, here are 12 of the most forgettable superhero movie characters of all time.

12

Betty Ross

Bruce Banner’s First Love

Played by Liv Tyler, Betty Ross’ only MCU appearance was in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Despite being Bruce Banner’s original love interest, there was never any resolution to their relationship after Banner was recast from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo. Instead, 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron saw the beginnings of a romance between Banner and Black Widow, though that too was eventually ignored. However, Betty is rumored to appear in 2025’s Captain America: Brave New World in connection with her father, Thaddeus Ross, the MCU’s US President and The Red Hulk (played by Harrison Ford).

11

Samuel Sterns

The Leader Is Set To Return After 17 Years

Similarly, Samuel Sterns was a fellow scientist who’d been in contact with a fugitive Bruce Banner in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Played by Tim Blake Nelson, Sterns helped Banner develop a theoretical cure that could have gotten rid of the Hulk, which ultimately failed. However, Sterns was also responsible for bringing about Emil Blonsky’s final transformation into The Abomination, and Bruce’s gamma-irradiated blood falling into his head wound teased his own transformation into the classic Hulk villain known as The Leader.

While Sterns never made a second MCU appearance following the 2008 movie, audiences will soon be reminded of his existence in Brave New World. It’s expected that he’ll likely be responsible for Ross’ transformation into Red Hulk. However, many hope the movie will also reveal what The Leader’s been up to for the last 17 years.

10

Lady Sif

Frequent Appearances (But Not Much Depth)

Played by Jaimie Alexander, the Asgardian warrior Lady Sif debuted in 2011’s Thor. While she was briefly featured in Thor: The Dark World and had cameos in Agents of SHIELD, Alexander’s Sif was not featured in Thor: Ragnarok due to scheduling conflicts. However, Sif did appear in both Thor: Love and Thunder and Loki. However, quantity rarely equates to quality, and Sif’s appearances have always been too brief for her character to be meaningfully explored, nor has she been able to make a lasting impact on the Thor franchise (when she arguably could have). As such, she’s a pretty easy MCU character to forget.

9

Ava Starr/Ghost

Returning in Thunderbolts*

Currently, the MCU’s Ava Starr aka The Ghost has only a single appearance in Ant-Man & The Wasp. Despite being the main antagonist, Ghost and her impressive abilities felt fairly underutilized, especially seeing how Scott Lang and his allies’ attentions were very much split between fighting black market weapons dealers, evading the FBI, and attempting to rescue Hank Pym’s wife Janet from the Quantum Realm. As such, viewers shouldn’t be faulted for seeing Ghost and her new suit in the trailer for 2025’s Thunderbolts*, and perhaps not remembering that she’s been in the MCU since 2018.

8

Yon-Rogg

Captain Marvel’s Mentor

While 2019’s Captain Marvel is a dynamic origin story for Carol Danvers set in the 90s, Jude Law’s Kree Starforce warrior Yon-Rogg is easily one of the most forgettable MCU villains. Despite having manipulated Carol and her amnesia per the will of the Supreme Intelligence, there was nothing dynamic about Yon-Rogg nor his motivations, and the twist that he was the movie’s villain is incredibly obvious. Likewise, Jude Law recently said he wished his MCU character had been more developed.

7

Dar-Benn

A Former Kree Accuser

Unfortunately, The Marvels suffered the same fate as Captain Marvel with another Kree villain who was altogether unremarkable and easy to forget. A former accuser, Dar-Benn made it her mission to retrieve the Quantum Bands and restore the Kree homeworld after it was nearly decimated by Captain Marvel when she came to destroy the Supreme Intelligence. However, many felt that Marvel Studios didn’t go far enough with Dar-Benn’s motivations beyond a simple desire for revenge, lacking true dimension. Shown using a Cosmi-Rod, it’s also hard not to compare Dar-Benn and what little motivation she had as a rougher copy-and-paste of Ronan.

6

Baron von Strucker

A Modern-Day Hydra Leader

Debuting in Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s post-credits, Baron von Strucker was a high-ranking leader of Hydra in the modern era when it was embedded within SHIELD. A major Captain America villain in the comics, Strucker could have been an ongoing threat in the MCU. However, Strucker was easily defeated by Steve Rogers in Age of Ultron’s opening scene and later killed off-screen by Ultron himself. While his son Werner would be featured in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, it’s unfortunate that the Baron’s time in the MCU ended so quickly when he could have been far more memorable.

5

Jonah Hex

Josh Brolin’s First Comicbook/Superhero Role

When it comes to the superhero genre, Josh Brolin is best known for his Marvel roles as Thanos and Cable. However, Brolin was first DC’s Jonah Hex in the 2010 movie of the same name. A bounty hunter operating back in the Old West with half his face disfigured, the critically panned movie diverted from the comics and gave Hex the power to resurrect and speak with the dead.

Despite featuring talent such as Megan Fox, John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender, Jeffery Dean Morgan, Michael Shannon, and Will Arnett, Jonah Hex was a major box office flop. Likewise, it only earned a measly 12% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a 20% audience score. As such, it’s easy to forget Brolin’s version of the character even exists in light of his more popular Marvel roles, as well as a new version of Hex having appeared in the CW’s more recent Arrowverse shows.

4

Steel

Played By Shaquille O’Neal (But No DC Connections)

Not unlike Brolin’s Jonah Hex, it’s easy to forget about Shaquille O’Neal’s John Henry Irons in 1997’s Steel when a much better version of DC Steel recently debuted in Superman and Lois, played by Wolé Parks, a key ally to Superman just as he is in the comics. Conversely, 1997’s Steel had no connections to the original DC source material, a major box office bomb that earned Shaq a Razzie nomination that year for Worst Actor. Performing even worse than 2010’s Jonah Hex, Steel has an 8% on Rotten Tomatoes.

3

The Rocketeer

A Solid Period Comic-Book Adaptation

While easy to forget, Disney’s The Rocketeer is a fun period superhero action drama adapting the comics created by Dave Stevens. Starring Billy Campbell as stunt pilot Cliff Secord, Secord becomes a hero fighting Nazi spies after discovering a rocket pack designed by Howard Hughes. The 1991 movie didn’t perform all that well at the box office, though it does have a modest cult following and serves as a big reason why director Joe Johnston was hired by Marvel Studios to direct Captain America: The First Avenger. While an animated Rocketeer series was made for Disney Junior in 2019 starring Cliff’s great-granddaughter, the show was canceled after a single season.

An Avengers-Style Crossover Of Literary Figures

Adapting the comics from Alan Moore, 2003’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was an Avengers-type movie before 2012’s Avengers. Bringing various literary figures together, the 2003 movie stars Sean Connery as big game hunter Alan Quartermain (one of his last acting roles). The roster also featured Captain Nemo, Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer, The Invisible Man, and even a Hulk-like Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. While exciting in theory, disagreements and behind-the-scenes tensions resulted in a badly executed film overall, leading to a poor performance at the box office (especially against other major summer blockbusters such as the first Pirates of the Caribbean).

1

Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD

Played by David Hasselhoff

Actor Samuel L. Jackson has made Marvel’s Nick Fury iconic with his portrayal in the MCU. However, one of the first live-action portrayals of Fury came courtesy of David Hasselhoff in the made-for-TV movie Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD. Coming out of retirement after killing Hydra’s Baron von Strucker (remember him?), the Nick Fury movie was meant to kickstart a television series that ultimately did not come to fruition.

Despite featuring notable Marvel characters such as Contessa Valentina de Allegro Fontaine, Alexander Pierce, and Dum Dum Dugan, the movie doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from other classic spy movies, and is full of classic clichés. While Hasselhoff’s Nick Fury is very easy to forget in light of Jackson’s in the MCU, it’s hard to deny that Hasselhoff was perfectly cast considering Fury’s original depiction in the comics, though Hasselhoff did end up in the MCU playing himself in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.