The Weirdest Team Lineups In Marvel History

While it's always fun to watch Marvel's greatest heroes save the day on their own, it's never as memorable as seeing them come together with other heroes to create powerful new groups. Who could ever forget the first time they saw the Avengers assemble or when the Guardians of the Galaxy first formed? It's always a treat to see a group of heroes forge new teams and it's even more wild to see villains do the same thing. However, even though there are plenty of teams that feature easy-to-love rosters, there are others that are just plain strange. And no, that's not necessarily referring to Doctor Strange.

Rather, there are rosters that made readers and viewers just scratch their heads in confusion and disbelief as to how they could be formed. Sometimes they feature matchups that simply don't seem like they would go together, or characters so obscure that you wonder why anyone would bother including them in the first place. Weird team lineups aren't just exclusive to the comics either, as Marvel movies have seen plenty of odd rosters come together on the big screen. So let's celebrate some of Marvel's strange decisions, and look at the weirdest team lineups in Marvel history.

While the X-Force is generally seen as a pivotal group known for protecting mutantkind in every way possible and at any cost, they were a total joke in "Deadpool 2." As Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) hatches a plan to try and save Russell (Julian Dennison) from Cable (Josh Brolin) during a prison convoy, he realizes that he can't do it on his own. So he holds tryouts for his new team, which he dubs X-Force, but he doesn't get anyone to show up who's as reputable or capable as himself. Sure, he gets Domino (Zazie Beetz), whose luck often spells doom for those in her way, but the rest of the crew is totally random. 

The X-Force in "Deadpool 2" is full of total C-listers, including Bedlam (Terry Crews), who has the ability to manipulate power grids, Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard), who spits dangerous acid, Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), who is an alien warrior, and Vanisher (Brad Pitt), who is invisible. There's also Peter (Rob Delaney), who is just a normal human Deadpool only hires to frustrate Dopinder (Karan Soni), which is incredibly hilarious. For the X-Force's first time on the big screen, Deadpool really doesn't pull together a noteworthy group, instead just banding together a bunch of strange mutants (and one human). But maybe that's the point, since most of the team hilariously dies shortly after they jump out of the helicopter together. 

The MCU is set to debut its newest team, the Thunderbolts, in Phase 5, and the roster has definitely caught the attention of fans because of how odd it is. Generally, the Thunderbolts are an anti-hero team of mostly villains, led by General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, who go on missions and get things done in a less than heroic way. Ross, who will now be played by Harrison Ford, is set to appear in the film, but the team is currently being formed by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). This isn't too surprising since she's been all over the MCU lately, nabbing people for her "special team," but what is strange is who she's recruiting.

It's not shocking to see someone like U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) on her list, but the rest feel out of place. It's pretty bizarre to see supposedly reformed villains like Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) end up on this roster. Characters from "Black Widow" totally overload this team, which is weird because Natasha's family came off more heroic in that film. The most unexpected member is definitely Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), although it's hard to believe that he'll be the team's de facto leader, since he's severely distanced himself from his villainous past. The Thunderbolts have always acted in a similar vein to DC's Suicide Squad, but this roster has people questioning what the MCU's brain trust is thinking before the movie even hits theaters.

The Sinister Six are an iconic part of Spider-Man's lore, as it involves some of his greatest foes joining together to take him down. The roster has featured memorable villains like Doctor Octopus, Electro, Sandman, and many more, while there have been some great storylines where Spider-Man tangles with the Six. The Sinister Six have such a vaunted place in Spider-Man's history that Sony has been trying to get a film focused on them going since Andrew Garfield played Spider-Man in the mid-2010s. Yet during the run of the "Superior Spider-Man" comic book, also in the mid-2010s, there was a Sinister Six team filled with mostly nobodies and a couple of minor somebodies.

In "The Superior Foes of Spider-Man," the newly formed Sinister Six is led by Boomering and consists of villains like Shocker, Beetle, Speed Demon, and Overdrive. The series finds the Six recently defeated and having lost their sixth member (Living Brain), with Boomerang now sitting in jail trying to hatch a new plan of escape and reform the team. It's already weird enough to have a Sinister Six team with only five members, but to have it be filled with mostly no-names from Spidey's rogues gallery definitely makes them feel less threatening. Plus, with all the nonsense and backstabbing this team goes through in the story, they arguably do more damage to themselves than Spider-Man would even need to do to stop them.

It's never a surprise to see Spider-Man as part of some big hero team and it's not shocking to see his villains come together to form a new Sinister Six. But what if Spider-Man led a new hero team of his own, made up of his former villains? That's what happened when The Outlaws were formed. The Outlaws were part of a story in which Spider-Man was framed as a criminal by The Daily Bugle and his former foes became his allies to help him solve this mystery. The team was made up of characters like Silver Sable, Sandman, Prowler, Will O' the Wisp, Puma, Paladin, and Rocket Racer.

Outside of notable villains like Silver Sable, Sandman, and Prowler, the latter of whom Spider-Man has worked with from time to time, this is definitely a weird list of villains for Spidey to fight alongside. It's tough to imagine this group working smoothly or wanting to help Spider-Man after he's thrown them in jail so many times. But Spider-Man working with villains is probably where the chaotic fun of the Outlaws comes from, and it's also pretty wild that Chameleon of all villains is the main culprit, since he's posing as J. Jonah Jameson. While the Outlaws didn't last for long, it was still a unique moment when Spider-Man was so down on his luck that he turned to the bad guys for help.

While there is a West Coast team known as the Champions of Los Angeles in Marvel's history that featured Ghost Rider working with Iceman, the squad established in 2016 basically acts as a mini-Avengers. The team, led by Kamala Kahn's Ms. Marvel, is formed after younger Avengers become frustrated with the older members due to the conflict of the second Civil War. Ms. Marvel and company recruit more teenage heroes to carve their own path and redefine what it means to be a hero. Basically a rebranded Young Avengers, this group of teenage heroes is a little odd, especially when looking at this roster.

Aside from Ms. Marvel, the original Champions team is made up of Miles Morales' Spider-Man, Sam Alexander's Nova, Amadeus Cho's Brawn, Vision's daughter Viv, and a version of Scott Summer's Cyclops who travels back in time to be a part of the team. The team also sees other young heroes like Joaquin Torres' Falcon, Riri Williams' Ironheart, Nadia van Dyne's Wasp, and many more join their ranks. To be honest, the idea of this team existing is pretty cool considering the notable roster it has, but there is just something weird about seeing them deal with high school issues as well as their heroics. 

There are so many heroes now that one team of Avengers isn't enough. There are divisions on each coast of the US and even a smaller squad made up of Marvel's youngest characters. But most Marvel fans might forget that there's an Avengers team situated up north as well. The Great Lakes Avengers form when Mr. Immortal first discovers his powers and decides that being a hero won't be fun alone. So he puts out an ad in the local paper and soon gets an eclectic and bizarre group of heroes to work with. Aside from Mr. Immortal, The Great Lakes Avengers have a main roster of Doorman, Big Bertha, and Flatman (who looks like a 2D version of Mr. Fantastic). Other heroes like Leather Boy and Dinah Soar have also been known to work on the team, but even without them, this is a very unusual cast. 

The Great Lakes Avengers are often treated like a joke by the rest of the Marvel Universe and for good reason: their powers and antics are very goofy. Doorman's power is literally in his name as he just allows people to walk through him and teleport to other places, while Mr. Immortal is such a nobody that he literally had to resort to an ad in the paper to find other misfits. There's a certain charm to The Great Lakes Avengers, but they're still a strange bunch. 

What happens when the villain Chronok travels back in time with his destructive army to use his knowledge of Marvel's greatest heroes to destroy them? Well, it's up to some of Marvel's most obscure heroes to band together to form the League of Losers. When the thing that ties a group of heroes together is how unknown they are, you know it's got to have a really weird roster. The League of Losers are literally saved from Chronok's initial wrath because they haven't done anything remarkable enough to be on his radar and, ironically, they're led by the king of obscure Marvel heroes, Darkhawk.

Along with Darkhawk, the team features low-level heroes like X-23, Speedball, Gravity, Dagger, Terror, and Sleepwalker. The variety of powers featured on this team range from sheer physical brutality to more mind-bending horrors, which makes them quite a diverse team. However, there's no doubt that the League of Losers is a true hodgepodge of Marvel's lesser known characters. Perhaps if Darkhawk ever comes into the MCU, we'll see the League of Losers come to life, but until that happens, they'll just remain a strange part of Marvel's comic history. 

When Norman Osborn is given the power to essentially create his own Avengers team, he pretty much goes all-out in bringing together a band of imposters. Osborn's creation, the Dark Avengers, sees a mix of villains pose as Avengers in disguise to trick the public and let them do nefarious deeds undetected. The team is made up of Osborn (posing as Iron Patriot), Bullseye (posing as Hawkeye), Noh-Varr (as the new Captain Marvel), Moonstone (posing as Ms. Marvel), Mac Gargan's Venom (posing as Spider-Man), and Daken (posing as his father Wolverine). Former Thunderbolt members Sentry and Ares are brought on as well to add some muscle to the team. 

Together, the Dark Avengers go on missions that see them rescue other villains in peril and create their own world order that keeps them in power. The idea of villains literally posing as the heroes that usually stop them is pretty hilarious, and it's a big reason that the Dark Avengers lineup is fun to see in action. It's already weird any time villains try to work together, since they pretty much always end up falling to heroes at the end of the day (just like the Dark Avengers do). But by taking the Avengers name, the Dark Avengers are able to accomplish some really nasty stuff and Osborn is even able to create his own evil version of the X-Men, known as the Dark X-Men. 

If you're looking for one of Marvel's most obscure teams, with one of the weirdest cast of characters to date, then the Daydreamers should definitely intrigue you. After arriving at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Franklin Richards, the son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, meets up with two other mutant children, Artie Maddicks and Leech. Together, they aid an alien known as Tana Nile who crashed to Earth while getting the likes of Howard the Duck and Man-Thing to join their ranks and form a team called the Daydreamers. The group commonly goes on adventures throughout the Nexus of All Realities and ventures into the unknown. 

A team containing polar opposites like Howard the Duck and Man-Thing would be weird enough, but adding in an alien and three mutant children makes the Daydreamers the pinnacle of strange. Given their younger teammates and their mind-bending adventures between realities, the name Daydreamers is fitting. It wouldn't be too surprising to hear that their creation came from some Marvel writer's daydream, because of how random their roster really is. 

Many casual fans would be surprised to know that there's a pretty robust horror side to Marvel's lore that includes plenty of mystic magic wielders and brooding badasses. While most of them would probably rather work alone than with anyone else, Marvel's darkest and more horror-centric heroes did come together to form the Midnight Sons. The team would often gather to defeat supernatural threats and enemies. Through most of the Midnight Sons' incarnations, the team has usually featured Blade, some version of Ghost Rider, and Morbius, while characters like Doctor Strange, the Punisher, Moon Knight, and other entities in Marvel's horror space have also been known to join. 

With Blade best known for slaying vampires, it's a little puzzling to see him working alongside Morbius. Frankly, with this team being filled with a bunch of loners, it's surprising to see any of them working together at all. The Midnight Sons are a fan-favorite centerpiece of Marvel's horror-based heroes and were recently brought to life in the video game "Marvel's Midnight Suns." The MCU is also starting to pull together more of Marvel's horror heroes, like Blade and Moon Knight, so perhaps fans will get to see the Midnight Sons join forces on the big screen soon. 

What's more epic than seeing the Avengers save the day? How about their pets forming a team of their own and getting the job done? That's right, even the pets of Marvel's mightiest heroes created their own Avengers squad known simply as the Pet Avengers. After Lockjaw of the Inhumans hears that the Avengers are searching for the Infinity Gems, he recruits his own band of heroic pets to aid him in his search for the other missing Gems. The team generally consists of Lockjaw, Zabu, Throg, Niels, Lockheed, and Ms. Lion. 

Not much needs to be said to show that the Pet Avengers is a strange heroic bunch, but they can be an unexpected powerhouse. There are plenty of big physical threats like Zabu that can take down big enemies, while Throg, Lockheed, and Lockjaw have powers of their own that make the Pet Avengers far from a layup. The Pet Avengers are definitely one of Marvel's sillier teams, but they shouldn't be taken lightly. Also, they're just plain adorable. 

"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" delivered an animated Spider-Man multiverse story led by Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) that absolutely won the hearts of fans. "Into the Spider-Verse" also brought together a unique collection of alternate Spider-Man characters to work alongside Miles. Along with ordinary Spider-Man Peter B. Parker (voiced by Jake Johnson), the team consisted of Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), Peni Parker (Kimiko Green), and Spider-Ham (John Mulaney). It would honestly be tough to cast a goofier set of Spider-Man variations together, yet it worked out incredibly well. 

With each variation featuring its own art style and animation, each character was given their own visual personality that made them stand apart. Yet their differing personalities and energies make it tough to see them as a real team rather than Spider-Man duplicates randomly picked out of a hat. Regardless, with the upcoming sequel "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" hitting theaters in a few months, we're probably going to see Miles form a new team with a bigger batch of spider-heroes even wilder than the one he first started out with.