Not every new character introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Avengers:Endgame has been well-received. Endgame marked the end of an era for the MCU as some of the franchise’s most notable heroes, including Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) were removed. These departures created voids in the MCU that Marvel scrambled to fill with many new characters, and while some new heroes and villains have become fast favorites among audiences, others haven’t been so great to watch.

Marvel has come under fire in the years since Avengers: Endgame for focusing too much on quantity over quality. While this is now reverting to normal and Marvel is regaining its stellar reputation, this drop in quality came with the debut of some disappointing, poorly written, underdeveloped, and unnecessary characters. This includes heroes, villains, and even god-like characters that had a huge amount of potential when joining the MCU, but were ultimately wasted and under-utilized. Hopefully, Marvel will still offer some of these characters redemption.

Marvel Television’s recent Ironheart series is considered one of the MCU’s strongest instalments in recent years, developing Riri Williams’ (Dominique Thorne) story after her 2022 debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Ironheart also introduced Riri’s late best friend, Natalie (Lyric Ross), who became an artificial intelligence after Riri scanned her own brainwaves. As an AI, NATALIE made Riri’s grounded story too light-hearted, and there was never a justification as to why she was at the heart of the series. NATALIE was fun, but this didn’t really fit the tone of Ironheart, so Marvel could have made a stronger choice.