• Character Summary: Daisy Johnson, daughter of Calvin Zabo, the villain Mister Hyde; A pretty cool character with very little exposure in the grand scheme of things; Created by Brian Michael Bendis in the “Secret War” storyline; Daisy stands out in that she both a) actually gets respected by Nick Fury and b) is completely unafraid to tell other super people to shove it; Her stance on the other super folks around them is more of one of annoyance, she tends to act as if she just doesn’t have time for their super garbage; “‘Ooh, I’m Wolverine, I’ve got claws and blah blah’ Eff off, shorty” (Not a real quote but kind of her approach to super folk; Quake’s appearances are almost entirely ones of espionage and secrecy, never really appearing in the limelight of the Marvel world; Quake is in the perfect place to pop in and out of the Marvel Universe, as she has no public persona in the Marvel world; Her image remains secret, unlike bigger names, and that is exactly how Daisy likes it; My personal hope is that the inclusion and popularity of Quake in the TV show Agents of SHIELD will correlate to a rise in her appearances and importance in the comic universe.
• Common Themes: Super heroes are lame; Espionage; Control of powers; Control of emotions.
• Good For: People who like Agents of SHIELD; People fond of espionage stories
• Go To Series: S.H.I.E.L.D (vol 3); Secret Warriors; Secret Avengers (Vol 2)
• Stand Out Stories: Secret War; New Avengers (vol 1) #20

Ms Marvel

• Character Summary: Kamala Khan; Young girl turned stretchy, shape-shifty inhuman after being consumed by the Terrigen mists; Kamala is the embodiment of comic-nerd-turned-super; She is an Avengers fan girl, literally writing fan fiction when we first meet her; Kamala’s power is in her unflappable enthusiasm; As a fan, she sees the heroes as an ideal, and herself as someone who needs to earn her place among the ranks of her idols; She strives to succeed in meeting what she sees as the ideal of heroism, pure and simple; Her origin feels very parallel to Peter Parker’s in some ways, both being slightly off-beat teenagers with a sudden responsibility thrust upon them; However, Kamala differs in that both she and the audience believe this is where she always belonged.
• Common Themes: Optimism; Unstoppable drive; Family and earning respect; Community
• Good For: Younger audiences; People looking for more diverse heroes; Fans of AWESOME comics
• Go To Series: Ms. Marvel (vol. 3); Avengers (vol 6)
• Stand Out Stories: Still makin’ them!

Scarlet Witch

• Character Summary: Wanda Maximoff; Mutant with the ability to tap into and control Chaos Magic  Former “failed” experiment of the High Evolutionary thanks to some retconned bullshit THANKS A LOT MARVEL; Wanda has the ability to manipulate “chaos magic,” given her a wide range of abilities, from energy projection, forcefields, teleportation or even restructuring reality as a whole; Wanda is considered by many to be one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel universe, even considered to be equal in power to beings like Odin and the Phoenix; Wanda’s main weakness is instability, being subject to emotional breaks and panic attacks that, when mixed with her scope of power, causes cataclysmic complications; Think “Carrie” but instead of murdering John Tavolta and his friends, she creates a world where John Travoltas never existed; This tendency to slip has left Wanda nervous and reserved, being weary about both how she uses her powers and how close she gets to her teammates.
• Common Themes: Control; The gray area between right and wrong; Trust and faith; Family
• Good For: Fans of Magical characters; People who like darker/damaged heroes; People who can’t decide on X-men or Dr. Strange
• Go To Series: Uncanny Avengers (vol 1 and 2); Avengers (vol 3); Vision and Scarlet Witch
• Stand Out Stories: Avengers vs. X-Men; Avengers: Children’s Crusade; House of M (probably read Avengers: Disassembled first); Avengers (vol 1) #185-187

She Hulk

• Character Summary: Jennifer Walters; Talented Lawyer and Lean, Green Punching Machine; Jennifer started as a near mirror image of the other big green rage monster (the Hunk or Bulk or something to that nature) with outbursts of rage or passion causing her to change into a destructive beast; Let’s face it, Stan Lee’s last “creation” was just the outcome of a discussion from a Hulk production meeting where someone probably joked along the lines of “Man, Hulk rips all his shirts off. If only he was a dame!” and Stan promptly jumps up and goes “MY IDEA! I THOUGHT OF IT! NO ONE ELSE! MINE!”; As time went by, Jennifer developed more as a character and less as a “check it, her dress is ripped in provocative places” device; She began to be able to control her transformation, even eventually living as the green diva at all times; Jennifer has been an odd duck in the Marvel Universe, in that she keeps her day job as a lawyer while maintaining a super-hero persona simultaneously, similar to Daredevil, but without having the secret identity aspect, meaning she is KNOWN to be the She-Hulk and uses this aspect to become an advocate for people with powers; The legal aspect plays a major role in She Hulk stories, as well as topics ranging from sexuality to pornography to abuse to boring old copyright infringement; She Hulk is also another one of those characters that has been on just about every team at some point and has many friends/connections in the Marvel Universe
• Common Themes: Law and Order (dun dun); Balancing two lives; When logic and reason fail, punch the crap out of it
• Good For: People who like strong female characters (personality); People who like strong female characters (Biceps); People who like to see the legal side of Superhero antics
• Go To Series: She-Hulk (all volumes, but 3,1,2 in that order, in my opinion); Savage She-Hulk (vol 1); FF (vol 2)
• Stand Out Stories: She-Hulk (vol 1) #7-12; Fantastic Four (vol 1) #275; Avengers (vol 1) #221;

Rogue

• Character Summary: Anna Marie; One of the more popular and well-known mutants, Rogue is also one of the most complicated; Her powers are not as direct as other mutants, and require her to be in physical contact with her target in order to absorb their power and a bit of their consciousness; Extended exposure to her touch can be fatal, as seen by how she put her boyfriend/crush in a coma when her powers triggered; Rogue has seen many changes in powers over the years, once absorbing enough of Ms. Marvel’s (Danvers) abilities that she was able to retain the power of flight and super strength; Later her touch became instantly deadly before being corrected; as it is now, Rogue has absorbed the full powers and consciousness of Wonder Man, making her ultimately an immortal being of energy, which is a pretty good place to be; The complexity of Rogue goes beyond just her need to be selective in who she absorbs, but also in the fragments of psyche she absorbs with the abilities; This has led to Rogue feeling fairly unstable at points, with the voices of hundreds of heroes and villains ricocheting off the inside of her mind; In many ways, this is why her and Scarlet Witch work well as a pair; Both are careful about their closeness to teammates, both have a certain level of instability; Their pairing in the Uncanny Avengers series was definitely a good balance
• Common Themes: Control; Sacrifice; The cost of power
• Good For: X-Men fans in general; Fans of heroes who are a touch more selective and less blast happy
• Go To Series: Uncanny X-Men (vol 1); X-Men (vol 2); Uncanny Avengers (vol 1)
• Stand Out Stories: X-Men (vol 2) #188-193; Uncanny X-Men (vol 1) #269; Uncanny X-Men (vol 1) #182