Here we go, down to my Top 5 Avengers, but I’m only giving you three at the moment. I will save the last two for another post. The three Avengers listed here are all characters who have been under utilized and have great potential, particularly my #3 choice. All three are strong forces for good, with complicated backgrounds and personalities. All three are powerful additions to any team (perhaps too powerful for my #5 choice.. writers never really seem to know what to do with her). Here’s hoping they get to see more page time in the future!
#5 – Spectrum (Monica Rambeau)
Other Aliases: Captain Marvel, Photon, Pulsar
Joined Avengers #231 (May 1983); Member-in-training Avengers #227 (January 1983)
Creators: Roger Stern; John Romita, Jr.
Talk about a comic book character that came bursting out of the gate, made quite the splash with fans, then became relegated into relative obscurity for years, and is now finally slowly getting more attention. Monica Rambeau was created by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr. in the early 80’s, and given the significant name of Captain Marvel. She was that elusive African-American female hero, packed with power, and was offered Avengers membership almost immediately, going on to serve a distinguished stretch, including leading the team, only to be shuffled off when Stern left as writer. It seemed no one else knew what to do with her, so they just let her languish except for an occasional, poorly-used guest appearance.
Monica Rambeau was born and raised in New Orleans, the daughter of Maria, a successful seamstress, and Frank Rambeau a Firefighter. Monica was a lieutenant in the New Orleans Harbor Patrol. While trying to prevent the creation of a dangerous energy disruptor weapon created by a criminal scientist, Monica was exposed to extra-dimensional energy. As a result, she was thereafter able to convert her body to energy. After her initial appearance, she began experimenting with her powers, and the media dubbed her “Captain Marvel.” Early in her career, she met Spider-Man, who was kind enough to introduce her to the Avengers who accepted her as a member-in-training. Although slightly intimidated by her heroic teammates, especially Captain America, Monica was an exemplary member-in-training and was promoted to full membership shortly thereafter. She quickly befriended both Captain America and the Wasp, and the two became great mentors for her. She was the first African-American woman to serve on the team.
Due to her keen, strategic intelligence, and her incredible powers, Captain Marvel was a great asset to the team. She quickly developed a small rogue’s gallery, including Moonstone, Blackout (whose powers were very effective against her), and Nebula, who trapped Captain Marvel in space, separated from the Avengers for an extended period of time. As a member of the team she helped to defeat such foes as the Beyonder, Kang the Conqueror, Attuma, Grandmaster, Nebula, and the Master of Evil. Monica later replaced the Wasp as leader of the Avengers, commanding them in battles against the X-Men, the Olympian Gods, and the Super-Adaptoid. Despite her relative inexperience, she proved to be a very effective leader. She spent a lot of time refereeing squabbles between Hercules and the Sub Mariner, and dealing with the duplicitous telepath Dr. Druid, who sought to supplant her as Avengers chairman and undermined her authority at every opportunity. When honorary Avengers member and wife of the Sub Mariner, Marrina, transformed into the gigantic sea monster Leviathan, Captain Marvel led the hunt for the creature. During the battle that followed, Rambeau transformed herself into a massive bolt of lightning to try and stop the beast. She made contact with the water and accidentally conducted herself across the surface of the ocean, dispersing her atoms so widely that she barely regained physical form. She reformed as a frail, withered husk of a woman devoid of super-powers.
After retiring from the team, Moinca regained first her physical health, and eventually her powers, but her appearances in comics were few and far between. She resumed crimefighting and stayed connected with the Avengers to served as a reservist, sometimes assuming leadership duties in the absence of the current chair.
Monica was known as Captain Marvel for most of her Avengers career; however, she agreed to change her alias to Photon, conceding the Captain Marvel title to Genis-Vell, the son of the original Captain Marvel, out of respect for her predecessor. After the return of the main Avengers from the pocket universe created by Franklin Richards, almost all the current and former Avengers members were trapped in a curse created by Morgan Le Fay where they served her as soldiers in a guard called Queen’s Vengeance. Due to her strong loyalty to the team Monica was one of the first Avengers to recover their will and rebel against the sorceress. For a time, Monica’s mother intercepted her Avengers calls out of fear for her daughter’s safety. After discovering this deception, Monica led an unofficial force of Avengers against the ‘Infinites’, who planned on relocating the galaxy. Photon continued to have sporadic appearances during major events, usually as part of a cosmic team of Avengers due to her effectiveness in outer space. She helped the team in their deep-space monitoring station with Quasar and Living Lightning, was called into action when Kang successfully conquered North America (supporting her friend Janet van Dyne and advising the new recruit Triathlon on his current issues as the newest member of the team), and when the Scarlet Witch suffered a nervous breakdown and attacked the Avengers. Monica was recruited by the Black Panther to fend off a vampire outbreak in post-Katrina New Orleans, as part of an all-black team-up. Monica was later angered upon learning that Genis-Vell had changed his name again, this time to Photon upon acquiring new powers. After a talk with him, she contemplated using the new alias of Pulsar.
Monica next appeared with a new, gruffer attitude (perhaps at having to concede her name to others so often) as leader for Nextwave, part of the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort (H.A.T.E.), against Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction created by the Beyond Corporation© where she avoided using a code name altogether and changed her look. During the Superhero Civil War, Rambeau was a member of Captain America’s Secret Avengers, but also registered as a member of the Avengers Initiative. Monica spent time in New York City with her friends Black Cat, Hellcat, and Firestar to support Firestar during a bout with cancer.
Having adopted the new alias of Spectrum, Monica was in New York when the Mad Titan Thanos launched an invasion on Earth. Having been caught in one of the places where Proxima Midnight, one of Thanos’ lieutenants, made landfall, Spectrum decided to join the efforts against her. Since the Avengers were off in space during this event, the heroes that confronted Proxima Midnight decided to band together as the Mighty Avengers. Among this group of heroes was the Blue Marvel, who saved Spectrum’s life after she had been infected with anti-photons from Proxima Midnight’s spear, by infusing Monica with additional photons. The infection was burned out, but as a side effect, Monica’s powers were greatly augmented. While serving together, Blue Marvel and Monica developed romantic feelings for each other. They started dating not long afterward, and together they began testing the limits of Monica’s powers, coming to the realization that she had transcended humanity with her power-up, having become an immortal being of light. Monica would later start contemplating the implications of her new-found immortality, finding herself acting more pragmatically, expressing concern that she would grow apart from her humanity, and dreading a future in which she could outlive the Earth itself.
Following the dissolution of the Mighty Avengers, Spectrum joined the newly formed Ultimates at Blue Marvel’s suggestion, further consolidating their romance. After the second superhuman Civil War, the Ultimates were terminated by the government due to their differences on the source of conflict, the use of the precognitive abilities of the Inhuman Ulysses Cain. The Ultimates later reassembled in secret at the request of Galactus in order to investigate the mystery of who had chained the embodiment of the Multiverse, Eternity. In the process of unveiling the mystery and helping defeat Eternity’s jailer, the First Firmament, the Ultimates were absorbed into Alpha Flight, reinstating them as an openly sanctioned team.
When the Greek goddess of the night Nyx and her children returned and massacred their fellow Olympians, Spectrum was one of several heroes assembled by Voyager to stop this new threat before she could reclaim her godhood and remake the universe in her image. One of Monica’s companions in this journey was the android Vision, whose body was malfunctioning, due to Nyx’s return causing the Sun to blackout. Monica used her powers to provide Vision a source of energy. The end of this adventure took the heroes to the entry point to the House of Ideas, a plane of existence and the core of all of reality. Monica burned out most of her power helping Vision reach inside the House of Ideas, becoming the only hero capable to follow Nyx inside and stop her. Due to this exertion, Monica returned to her previous power levels, becoming human again. She most recently served with the team Strikeforce to combat mystical threats alongside Angela, Blade, Daimon Hellstorm, Spider-Woman, Wiccan, and Winter Soldier.
Due to bombardment by extra-dimensional energies, Monica can transform herself into any form of energy within the electromagnetic spectrum. Among the many energy forms she has assumed and is able to control are cosmic rays, gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet radiation, visible light, electricity, infrared radiation, microwaves, radio waves, and neutrinos. By assuming an energy-form, she gains all of that energy’s properties. She is invisible and intangible in many of her energy forms (the most frequent exception being visible light), and is capable of flight in all her energy forms (reaching velocities up to and including light speed). She also has the ability to project these energies from her body while she is in human form (only one wavelength of energy at a time), usually in the form of energy blasts from her hands. Monica can also divert small amounts of various energies for employment as force beams, which have the equivalent to 300 tons of TNT of explosive force. A variation of this ability enables her to project light-based holographic illusions of herself. Monica has also shown the ability to split her energy form into several miniature energy forms that are under her mental command. When she encounters a new or unfamiliar energy, Monica can often duplicate it given enough time for analysis. Monica tends to be physically insubstantial in her energy forms, though with concentration and effort she can sometimes perform tasks such as briefly grasping an object, either by partially solidifying or by applying some sort of force to the object in question. She is immortal and does not age beyond her prime.
Rambeau has strong leadership skills and law enforcement experience due to both of her time as a police officer and former leader of the Avengers. She is an excellent markswoman, unarmed combatant, detective, and swimmer with extensive nautical expertise. She has received Harbor Patrol training, and Avengers training in unarmed combat by Captain America.
Monica Rambeau is a great character, with a strong personality and an amazing power set. The problem, I think, is writer’s have to think when they use her. She can easily become too powerful, and then awkwardly forced out of confrontations with silly plot contrivances. It would be great to see her return to the Avengers as leader again, especially with a roster that could be challenging for her. I would love to see her on the main team for an extended period of time. Perhaps her upcoming appearance in the WandaVision Disney+ series will give her greater exposure in the comic.
#4 – Jocasta
Joined Mighty Avengers #21 (March 2009); Granted provisional status in Avengers #197 (July 1980). Left the team before she was to be offered substitute status with the team, in Avengers #211 (September 1981)
Creators: Jim Shooter; George Perez
Jocasta was built by the villainous robot Ultron to be his bride. To provide Jocasta sentience, Ultron based her mind and brain patterns on the Avenger Wasp (Janet van Dyne). Ultron brainwashed Hank Pym into transferring Wasp’s lifeforce into the feminine robotic shell. Jocasta was named after the wife/mother in the legend of Oedipus (a reference to the fact that Ultron’s obsession with his own creator/”father,” Hank Pym. However, as she came into awareness, Jocasta realized that Wasp would have to die in order for her to live. Jocasta secretly alerted the Avengers and the team defeated Ultron and reversed the process, leaving Jocasta a mindless husk. Ultron subsequently revived Jocasta with a remote link, activating Wasp’s mental “residue” left behind. She escaped from Avengers custody and led the Avengers into Ultron’s trap. Jocasta was programmed to be loyal to Ultron but even though she loved him intensely, she could not abide by her master’s evil. Jocasta eventually betrayed Ultron, choosing to help the Avengers defeat her “mate” again. She remained with the Avengers after being abducted again, this time by the Collector, and eventually aided them against the god, Korvac.
Jocasta continued to reside at Avengers Mansion for a time. Due to their similar backgrounds, she developed feelings for the Vision, who was happily married to the Scarlet Witch and did not return Jocasta’s feelings. Jocasta proved particularly helpful in the Avengers’ first confrontation with the villainous mercenary Taskmaster displaying surprising wit and strategy, stemming from her Wasp-based personality. Jocasta was then granted provisional status with the team. During this period, she aided them against threats such as the giant robot Red Ronin (where she proved to be a great comedic foil for The Beast), the Yellow Claw, the Berserker, Pyron, and the second incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Despite this, Jocasta did not believe she was accepted by most of the Avengers, and she was never officially inducted into the team. After she singlehandedly defeated a rogue sentient weather satellite, she left the Avengers following a membership reorganization. She was unaware that they had planned to grant her special substitute member status, which allowed her to remain with the team despite limits imposed on the team’s membership roster.
Wandering the country, Jocasta discovered that her cybernetic senses and powers were malfunctioning. She sought help from the Fantastic Four and was befriended by them and Alicia Masters. Soon, it became apparent that her malfunctioning powers were the symptoms of a pre-programmed suggestion which compelled Jocasta to rebuild Ultron. She did, but soon teamed up with Fantastic Four member Thing and the robot Machine Man to defeat Ultron. During this time, Jocasta and Machine Man developed feelings for each other, but in a final confrontation with Ultron, Jocasta intentionally detonated a weapon Ultron was holding, knowing she would be caught in the resulting blast. She was destroyed, but Ultron nevertheless survived, until Machine Man reached down his own throat to tear out vital circuitry. The Avengers held a memorial for their fallen ally, and Machine Man attended, realizing the depth of his love for her. Jocasta was reassembled some time later by technicians of the High Evolutionary. Jocasta retained enough of her programming to send out a signal to the Avengers. The team had disbanded at the time, but the signal reached reserve members, including Beast, The Captain, The Falcon, Hercules, the Hulk and Yellowjacket. Jocasta sacrificed herself once again to blow up the High Evolutionary’s command ship by deliberately disrupting the ship’s matter/anti-matter drive, which caused an explosion that destroyed the ship and its contents. Before she sabotaged the ship, Captain America assured her that she was a true Avenger.
Jocasta’s robotic head was later retrieved by the Avengers. They gave it to Machine Man who had been working on a way to resurrect her. During a conflict with the alien Terminus, the arms dealer Madame Menace became involved and appropriated Jocasta’s head, for her own purposes. Madame Menace manipulated events causing Tony Stark to unlock Jocasta’s programming so that she would become the basis for Madame Menace’s new weapons systems. Stark soon realized the android’s identity, helped Jocasta to awaken, and Jocasta managed to turn the tables on Madame Menace, seemingly sacrificing herself yet again. In reality, Jocasta managed to survive by downloading her intelligence into Iron Man’s computerized armor, where she reasserted herself. Jocasta’s intelligence was placed within Stark’s computerized mansion, and she helped Tony with daily operation of Avengers Mansion as well as to procure information as needed. Having been programmed with the latest in diagnostic, preventative medical and surgical techniques, Jocasta also spent time serving as Stark’s physician/psychologist, providing Tony with someone that could talk to about problems and who could examine the latest injuries without risking Iron Man’s secret identity being compromised.
Since the Iron Man armor was used to house the programming that made up Jocasta, it became infected with the pre-programmed subconscious suggestion to rebuild Ultron, but instead managed to develop its own artificial intelligence. After being deactivated during a confrontation with Stark, the armor was revived, by the Sons of Yinsen. Free of its artificial intelligence, the armor was contacted via remote by Ultron’s disembodied head after the android’s most recent encounter with the Avengers and in the company of the bio-synthetic robot Antigone. Ultron’s head attached itself onto the armor and took control of the Sons of Yinsen and the flying city that they inhabited. Stark confronted Ultron directly and managed to download Jocasta’s intelligence into the armor once more. The vestiges of the armor’s intelligence battled with the presence of Jocasta, the result of which caused Ultron’s head to come shooting off the armor. The head hit Antigone, and both fell off the floating city, which Ultron rigged to explode after the defeat. Stark failed to find a trace of Jocasta and assumed her to have died fighting the sentient armor. In reality, Jocasta did not die. She appeared in possession of Antigone’s body and left, taking Ultron’s head with her.
Jocasta would later appear with her classic silver robotic form rebuilt and reunited with Machine Man to battle an infestation of zombies. She then became a member of the New Mexico Fifty State Initiative superhero team known as the Mavericks after which she joined the Mighty Avengers along with the new Wasp (Henry Pym). During this time, Edwin Jarvis witnessed Jocasta kissing Pym. When Jarvis brought up the subject, stating it was akin to kissing her “grandfather”, Jocasta countered by saying that, since Pym was the creator of modern artificial intelligence, the act was more along the lines of “kissing God”. Pym created a special machine that allowed Jocasta to transfer her consciousness into multiple different robotic bodies. Unbeknownst to the Avengers, one of those bodies was later infected by Ultron, who managed to reconstruct himself using the majority of Jocasta’s duplicate bodies. Eventually the real Jocasta managed to broker a deal with Ultron: he could finally marry her in exchange for a cease to hostilities. After the two androids completed their cyber-marriage, Pym tricked Ultron into going to an uninhabited planet where he could not harm anyone. Though Jocasta’s main body went with Ultron, she projected her consciousness onto one of her duplicates and remained with the Avengers. Jocasta most recently served on staff at the Avengers Academy.
When Tony Stark refashioned his company into Stark Unlimited, he sought Jocasta’s help to establish an ethical protocol for robotic life forms, and she became the company’s chief robot ethicist. Jocasta wished to belong among the humans but struggled to fit in. Because of this, she helped Stark Unlimited develop a virtual universe called the eScape. This caused a rift between Jocasta and Machine Man, since he had become a militant of mecha-activism, and considered eScape an appropriation of robo-culture. The supervillain Controller facilitated Machine Man access into the eScape, but his sabotage attempt was stopped. Jocasta broke up with him and moved to Stark Unlimited afterwards. By the time eScape launched as a consumer product, Jocasta made heavy use of the virtual world to experience living life as a human. Fueled by this desire, Jocasta sought the help of Tony’s brother Arno to upgrade her body with more human-like artificial organs. Unbeknownst to Jocasta, her new yearning influenced Ultron through the bond they shared, giving shape to his new objective to turn humanity into machine hybrids in a similar way he had been physically merged with his creator Hank Pym. The villain kidnapped Jocasta in the middle of Arno’s procedure, and intended to use a molecular fusion process to merge her with Wasp. Iron Man intervened with the help of Machine Man, and Ultron was eventually defeated. In the process, Jocasta’s system started failing since her body had been abducted midway into Arno’s operation. To save her life, Jocasta’s former co-worker Andy Bhang uploaded her mind into the disused body that belonged to Friday. This body was severely damaged in battle against Ultron, and Jocasta was taken for repair by Arno after he seized control of Stark Unlimited, but he denied her allies access to her.
Arno eventually finished building Jocasta a new, less humanoid body during the robot revolution. He additionally equipped her operative system with a code that made her compliant to humans. Jocasta became the first subject of this submission code, which Arno planned to broadcast worldwide in order to subjugate the entirety of robotkind. When the premier force of robo-liberation, the A.I. Army, became aware of this plot, they assaulted Bain Tower to stop it. Machine Man was a general of A.I. Army, and Arno had Jocasta lure him away from the fight. Jocasta took Machine Man to a Baintronics facility and introduced him to his would-be successor and her new lover, X-52. Jocasta and X-52 attempted to convince Machine Man to accept the submission code to achieve peace of mind, but he resisted them, decapitated Jocasta and destroyed X-52, then fled from the facility with Jocasta’s head. He took Jocasta to Andy Bhang, and he managed to reverse the submission code using a back door key he had slipped into its programming when Sunset Bain had him work on it. Jocasta was subsequently given a new body.
Jocasta later aided the A.I. Army, Andy Bhang, Bethany Cabe, and Rescue in attacking Bain Tower in order to restore Tony Stark’s body using the tower’s bio-tubes. When she confronted Sunset Bain, who was actually an A.I. duplicate created by Arno, Jocasta subjected her to the same submission code to make her surrender. After Stark’s body was restored, Jocasta, Stark, and their allies went to the Stark Space Station to stop Arno’s made plan to to take control of humankind to fight the non-existent Extinction Entity, a delusion caused by his relapsing illness. Tony was able to subdue Arno by submerging him into a virtual reality where the Extinction Entity was real and he managed to stop it. Still pulling Bain’s strings with the submission code, Jocasta later made her take all the blame for the actions of the A.I. Army and Arno.
Jocasta’s body is composed of titanium steel with remarkable superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and reflexes, which can withstand most physical and energy attacks. Being a “non-living” construct, she requires no food, water, or oxygen to survive and thus is also immune to poisons and diseases and can easily survive in the vacuum of space and underwater. She is able to project beams of electromagnetic energy from her eyes, and erect a force field around herself to protect her from incoming attacks. She also possesses a heightened sense of sight, smell, and hearing. Jocasta can also perceive electromagnetic particles, and detect energy patterns and track them to their source. She is hyper-intelligent, with a capacity for unlimited self-motivated activity, creative intelligence, and human-like emotions. Jocasta can communicate through an incalculable number of media. She possesses superhuman cybernetic analytical capabilities and has the ability to make calculations with superhuman speed and accuracy. Recently, it has been revealed that Jocasta’s internal circuitry has a built-in holographic image inducer, allowing her to disguise herself as a human being. Jocasta, besides sharing the same brain patterns with van Dyne, also has her mental template’s voice.
I loved Jocasta during her initial run with the Avengers. George Perez’ gorgeous design was so sleek and striking, and Jocasta’s good-natured personality, augmented by the wit obtained by Janet’s brain patterns made her a great companion to the Avengers at the time. Her long association with Tony Stark has made her a great ally, and I would love to see her back with the Avengers for a lengthy run. I would love to have her story evolve without the influence of Ultron, which I feel has been played out over the years. I would also like to see less of Jocasta being controlled by external forces and given more agency on her own.
#3 – Firebird (Bonita Juárez)
Other aliases: Espirita
Joined: West Coast Avengers Annual #2 (1987)
Creators: Bill Mantlo; Sal Buscema
Bonita Juárez was born in Taos, New Mexico, a devout Roman Catholic, who, while walking in the deserts of Albuquerque, New Mexico, came into contact with a radioactive meteor fragment. The radiation altered her DNA, and gave her the power to generate flames and heat, and even fly. Believing her gifts came from God, she assumed the mythical bird’s name, and donned a costume. As Firebird, she received a distress call from the Avengers, and mistakenly battled the Hulk, joining with other Southwestern heroes (forming a team called the Rangers) and fighting the Corruptor to rescue Rick Jones, who had actually sent the signal.
Firebird became embroiled in a battle with the sorcerer Master Pandemonium. Exhausted from their struggle, she plummeted to the ground near the new Avengers Compound on the West Coast, where she was found by the Thing. She enlisted the aid of the Avengers to defeat Master Pandemonium. She assisted the Avengers during several adventures, and desperately wanted to be invited to join, something to which chairman Hawkeye remained oblivious to, since he was intent upon recruiting the Thing. Despite Mockingbird’s discovery of Firebird’s desire to join, and after working with the Avengers for several weeks, Firebird left without joining the team. Hawkeye would later change his mind at Mockingbird’s urging and the Avengers sought out Firebird to invite her to join, but could not find her.
Eventually, she reappeared after a spiritual journey where she took on the identity of La Espirita and arrived in the nick of time to stop Hank Pym’s suicide attempt. With the help of La Espirita, Hank re-invented himself as the adventurer Doctor Pym, and he was able to move on (at least temporarily) from his past troubles. The rest of the West Coast Avengers, however, had been lost in time. Together, La Espirita and Pym found the time-lost Avengers’ message and helped rescue them and defeat the villainous alien computer, Dominus. Despite sharing a brief romance with Hank, La Espirita did not stay with the Avengers long, but parted with them in good company and accepted their membership offer, serving as a reserve Avenger after that. During one of their adventures, Bonita discovered that she was seemingly immortal, when all of the Avengers died except for her, due to being poisoned by the Collector, an Elder of the Universe. This furthered Bonita’s belief that she had been blessed by God. Bonita was later captured by al alien race from the planet Rus, who revealed to her that the flaming fireball that gave her powers was merely an alien child’s discarded experiment. Briefly engaging a crisis of faith, Bonita nonetheless decided that God was still responsible for her powers, however she returned to her original code-name, Firebird. After that she was called in on various Avengers events. She assisted Hellcat, Monica Rambeau, Moondragon, and Black Widow in subduing the Awesome Android, and encountered a small platoon of Atlanteans in Mexico getting help from a few Avengers.
Firebird largely acted as a reserve member, preferring to spend her time as a social worker, although she was caught up in several significant Avengers conflicts. The first was after the team had been missing for a year in a pocket dimension created by Franklin Richards. Firebird was among the heroes struggle when Morgan La Fey rewrote reality. She was also present when the Avengers and the Thunderbolts teamed up to stop the alien Dominex, a remnant of the Dominus computer.
Most significantly, her immunity to radiation later made her indispensable when a mysterious energy field engulfed a small Russian country and turned everyone into zombies during the first blows of the Kang War. Firebird was one of the few individuals who could travel into the energy field without harm. Fellow Avenger Thor also surmised that Firebird may be immortal. When Captain America was briefly transformed into an energy zombie, Thor, briefly believing him dead, began to fear that he had become too close to his mortal comrades despite his knowledge that he would outlive them. He contemplated leaving the Avengers after 
the war was over, but Firebird helped him to see that the bonds between him and the Avengers were so valuable precisely because they wouldn’t last forever, and he shouldn’t neglect them just because he would outlive them. In recognition of her advice, Thor toasted her when he arranged for Asgardian cooks to prepare a feast for the Avengers to celebrate Kang’s defeat, commenting that she had taught a god a lesson by treating him as the fool he was.
Friebird rekindled her brief romance with Hank Pym when they were among a small group of heroes taken to Battleword by The Stranger, masquerading as the Beyonder. Shortly after that, during the Civil War over superhero registration, Firebird joined the anti-Registration Secret Avengers, but after the death in battle of Goliath she decided to register, and later joined Texas’ team in the 50-State Initiative, a new incarnation of her old team the Rangers. She has since appeared during several large events fighting alongside the Rangers.
Bonita Juarez gained superhuman powers due to bombardment by radiation from a meteorite containing energy waste from an alien’s scientific equipment. As Firebird, she has the power of pyrokinesis, which enables her to mentally excite the atoms in an object until it spontaneously combusts. By using her powers to ignite the air around her, she can surround herself with an aura of flames that often takes the shape of a bird, and if she focuses her flames downwards in a tight stream, she can propel herself through the air like a rocket. She can channel her powers through her hands to seemingly project searing thermal blasts from her body (actually from her mind), capable of melting steel with enough thrust to topple a filled garbage truck at 100 feet. She can willfully lower the thermal energy’s temperature to a minimum of 120° F and can project the thrust energy alone. Firebird’s body is immune to the detrimental effects of wielding her power. She can fly by riding wind currents stirred up by the nimbus of fire with which she surrounds herself while flying. She has also displayed a limited power of precognition, allowing her to have glimpses of the future.
Firebird also seems to be immune to most forms of radiation and poison (and even demonic possession) as well as the physical effects of her mental powers, and has displayed the ability to survive in the vacuum of space. Firebird may be immortal, but the precise details of this are unclear beyond the fact that she has twice survived apparently fatal attacks that only Thor – himself an immortal – could withstand.
Firebird is a unique character among comic book heroes, being both LatinX and a devout Catholic. Her tremendous desire to do good, and to help others makes her a great hero to serve with the Avengers, and I’d love to see her interacts and develop relationships with the varying personalities who have served, such as Black Widow, or Wolverine, who have very different outlooks on life. Her interactions with Thor during the Kang Wars were certainly a fascinating way to bring her beliefs into the storylines. In addition, she has a dramatic look and a great power set that would be a tremendous asset to the team.
