"When the Mandarin seemingly killed Iron Man and took the President hostage, the Avengers didn't assemble. When Malekith almost destroyed the universe, the Avengers didn't assemble. And when a terrorist organization infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and came just seconds away from killing millions, the Avengers still didn't assemble. But when a remote HYDRA base might be hiding something, every single Avenger is assembling all up in this business!"
The Marvel Cinematic Universe built its fortune upon the ideas of an interconnected world of superheroes, with its tagline at one point being "It's all connected". Today, being a juggernaut of a franchise consisting of dozens of films and TV series across multiple networks and platforms, the common question "Why doesn't [insert protagonist] get help from the other Avengers?" has become more prominent than ever, both by some of the characters themselves, and by many fans as well.
open/close all folders
General
There are some general "catch-all" justifications for the absence of the Avengers in other movies or series:
- The Avengers as a whole don't concern themselves with non-global issues and lesser-scale crime. Because of this, the Vulture's crew managed to run a profitable arms-dealing operation in New York, the Avengers' backyard, for years - although they were very careful not to draw attention to themselves. When Spider-Man stumbles onto them, Iron Man's response is to inform the FBI.
- Time: If the film or series happened during a short period of time and does not have a lasting impact, they won't be mentioned.
- Priority: because of resource restraints, both the Avengers and The Defenders tend to focus on cases involving obvious, verified threats - often having something to do with one of their own.
- Social Circles: A decent justification on why the Defenders and Avengers don't really interact. All of the Defenders (except for Danny Rand, and even he really isn't interested in the business stuff that would most likely bring him into contact with say Tony Stark) operate in totally different niches than the Avengers. Matt Murdock is a lawyer who interacts with mainly the downtrodden and ignored citizens; Jessica is a private investigator whose cases more often than not involve infidelity and getting dirt up on people; and Luke Cage, despite being the closest thing to a heroic celebrity on the Netflix side, prefers to stay helping out the citizens of Harlem and has no real interest in what goes on outside his neighborhood. Compared to the Avengers who deal with the government and U.N. on a consistent basis, it's really unlikely their paths would cross.
- Reasons given for specific heroes:
- After Captain America: The Winter Soldier, S.H.I.E.L.D. simply does not have the resources or access it once enjoyed to investigate all incidents. Similarly, after Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers are similarly crippled throughout Phase Three; and most of the films during that time that feature Avengers and their allies are either fugitives or sympathetic to those who are, limiting whom they can contact and how easily.
- Outer-space heroes like the Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel weren't involved with Earth affairs during the Infinity Saga, and only got in touch with the Avengers because of the universe-shaking events of Avengers: Infinity War. It remains to be seen if they'll be more involved going forward, but they generally seem to be assumed that they won't be around to assist in Earth matters.
- Paying close attention to Thor will confirm that he's in this group as well. He helps out in The Avengers because the threat is his brother Loki and he helps out in Avengers: Age of Ultron to keep Tesseract-based weapons out of HYDRA's hands (and implies he may not be around as often when that goal is finished), but beyond that he spends most of his other appearances on other planets. In Civil War, not only is he busy with Asgardian matters (as detailed in Thor: Ragnarok), but the conflict over the Sokovia Accords is not his fight to begin with.
- The Masters of the Mystic Arts and the Eternals have been around for millennia, but didn't involve themselves in any of the major conflicts before their debut movies. Both introductions explain that the groups had their own matters to deal with and aren't supposed to get involved in fights outside their mission statements.
- Generally speaking, War Machine is an active member of the US military, and presumably can't go gallivanting off at the drop of a shield. There may even be special Rules of Engagement restricting when Rhodey can use his armor on non-military missions.
The Infinity Saga
- The instance of this trope with the direst ramifications is: did Odin (or any of the Allfathers) and the Ancient One (or any of the Sorcerers Supreme) just not coordinate at all about the management of two of the six Infinity Stones being on Earth? This is one instance where super-beings really should have coordinated. In Doctor Strange, the Time Stone is implied to have been on Earth the longest, under the protection of the Sorcerer Supreme. The highest-ranking Sorcerers (or, at least Wong) also know of the importance of the other Stones. However, Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor show that Odin brought his War of the Nine Realms to Earth, and as a result of that, left the Space Stone on Earth as well... all without consulting the local Sorcerers, despite knowing they exist (and even marrying a witch). The Space Stone/Tesseract then spends about 70 years in-canon with constant use on Earth (and its use in near-Earth space, by aliens, as of Captain Marvel). All this without Odin or Heimdall (who can both observe pretty much anything) or Earth-based sorcerers doing anything about it. It's not until Loki tries to use it in The Avengers that Odin decides to do anything about it, and he doesn't even go himself but sends Thor. We find out in the post-credits scene of Thor: The Dark World that it's dangerous to keep two Infinity Stones in the same place for too long, but because of this trope, two of them were both on Earth for decades.
- Iron Man 3 had to address this, since the film takes place after The Avengers, and Shane Black acknowledged in interviews that they'd have to explain why Tony couldn't just call his fellow superheroes or S.H.I.E.L.D. for help. Iron Man 3's justification for their absence is, to quote Rhodey, "It's an American problem," and America wants to show it doesn't need S.H.I.E.L.D.; later on, Tony is stranded in Tennessee for much of the film, with his remaining suit offline and lacking money, his cellphone, or wireless internet to contact anybody. Once Tony manages to reach his friends again, he's short on time and would be wasting it waiting for the Avengers to arrive. The ending of The Avengers also has the heroes go their separate ways, suggesting that (with the exception of Bruce) Tony may not know where any of them are, especially since half of the team (Clint, Steve, and Natasha) are classified S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Thor has returned to Asgard.
- The comic book Iron Man 3 Prelude was published to explain why War Machine was not present during the events of The Avengers, which is a common fan question. The book reveals that he was fighting the Ten Rings organization in Hong Kong during the Chitauri invasion of New York, and was only able to return to America once it was already over.
- Thor: The Dark World avoids this by setting the large bulk of the story in other realms besides Midgard and the Earth scenes in London. This second part involves a lot of teleporting that even a hypersonic Mjölnir has trouble keeping up with.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier justifies the absence of other Avengers when Captain America could use their help. The Captain and Black Widow are branded fugitives and being hunted down by S.H.I.E.L.D., who is keeping tabs on all communication channels. They only have a few hours/days to stop the villains' Evil Plan after learning the extent of it.
- Sam Wilson is set up to be the only one they could go to for help that Steve could trust. He has both proven to be a good and trustworthy person, and is not on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar. Even then, they didn't expect his battle assistance, just his safe haven to regroup and plan. Sam just happened to be skilled enough as The Falcon that Natasha had already heard of his work without knowing it was him.
- This film, and deleted scenes from The Avengers, makes it a point of explaining that Cap has acquaintances and colleagues, but few/no real friends, and even the supposedly trustworthy people can't be trusted. At the start, Steve couldn't even trust Natasha fully, and their growing understanding is a part of the story.
- If they tried to contact Tony or Bruce, they would've alerted S.H.I.E.L.D. to where they're contacting from, and they'd be caught before help could arrive. Even going to see them in person couldn't work. If Tony and Bruce live in Avengers Tower, they're in the most populated city in the country, and HYDRA would spot them easily, especially since Zola's algorithm is already watching them. If Tony's still in Southern California, he's too far away to help. In Captain America: Civil War, Tony also mentions he had destroyed all his suits at the end of Iron Man 3 and had yet to build a new one at the time of Winter Soldier, explaining why he couldn't just fly in even though the final confrontation in Washington D.C. was being broadcast on national TV and may have lasted long enough for him to show up.
- One scene that only made it as far as the writing table before being cut explains that Hawkeye would've been in the film, and would've had to prove he was trustworthy before making Cap take him out of commission. Without this scene, it's possible he's either on assignment elsewhere, or with his family.
- Thor wouldn't be expected to be on Earth or have a reason to be involved in an Earth conflict where he can't be certain of one party's guilt.
- Of course, there's little to explain why Rhodey didn't get involved. Unlike Tony, his Iron Patriot / War Machine suit was just fine, and being US military upper brass, he's likely to live around Washington DC. It's possible neither Steve nor Natasha knew him well or knew he could be trusted. Or HYDRA may have been blocking him from being involved.
- It's subverted in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where Rhodey / War Machine briefly appears at Tony's party, only to disappear from the film after one fight scene to let the regular Avengers handle things. Then, with little set-up, he suits up and joins in on the fight against Ultron in Sokovia for the film's third act.
- In Ant-Man, after being debriefed on the magnitude of Darren Cross' plan, Scott Lang hangs a lampshade on the trope by wondering aloud why they don't just call in the Avengers. Hank Pym justifies why they don't call in the Avengers and resolve the plot, namely that he absolutely doesn't want Tony Stark to gain a hold of his Pym Particle due to bad blood he and Howard Stark had back in the day, as the Starks/S.H.I.E.L.D. have a bad habit of using other scientists' work for personal profit. Hank also sarcastically mentions the Avengers were too busy dropping down cities for them to help; between this line and only one Avenger being present at their armory, it's implied they actually are quite busy with Ultron-related cleanup (as seen in a newspaper at one point). Meanwhile, The Falcon does show up and Ant-Man actually tries to get him to cooperate with him, but since Ant-Man broke in, Falcon has to try to arrest him. Scott punching Sam first (even with an apology) made getting any assistance from the Avengers a lot less likely.
- This trope has to be carefully danced around in Captain America: Civil War, the movie where the team splits in two and dukes it out:
- Thor and the Hulk are much stronger than the other Avengers, and would settle an intra-team conflict quickly. Fortunately, they were written out of the story in the prior film, with Thor off-world and Hulk unable to be found. Even then, their absence (which is explained in Thor: Ragnarok) plays a small part in the plot. Thaddeus Ross rightly chastises the Avengers for their failure to account for their two strongest members, arguing that it'd be like if he just lost a couple of nuclear weapons at his own job, and saying this is why the Avengers need accountability. Thor and Hulk are then turned against the pro-registration argument, as Tony and Natasha discuss their limited options for assistance in the oncoming fight. Natasha points out that it's highly unlikely either would be pro-registration, and it's probably better for them that they aren't around. (Thor wouldn't want to be another planet's attack dog, not to mention the Accords would effectively discriminate against every Asgardian, not just Thor, since they all would qualify as enhanced individuals, ensuring frosty diplomatic relations with Asgard; Banner wouldn't want to be a tool or weapon for the government at all, and certainly not for Ross).
- The film actually averts a common instance of this trope: when Falcon mentions that they could use Ant-Man's help right now, he actually goes out and picks him up (or rather, has Hawkeye and Wanda do it). Furthermore, the ending of the film makes this a Justified Trope for much of Phase 3. Long story short, the only superheroes left active are Iron Man, Spider-Man and (a rather depressed) Vision, while Wanda, Sam, Natasha and Steve are on the run. The end of Ant-Man makes it apparent that Sam is keeping tabs on Scott specifically, though he is made aware of Spider-Man as well, and thus has no reason to believe the Wasp or Hank Pym are active heroes. In retrieving Scott, the scenes suggest that Sam and Steve called Clint, who picked up Scott immediately after picking up Wanda (which was at night), and had to sneak the three of them from upstate New York to San Francisco and then back to Germany, overnight, and undetected. Even though Hawkeye goes out and picks up Ant-Man, Scott doesn't even think to bring Hope/The Wasp along. This is lampshaded in Ant-Man and the Waspnote where Scott explains to Hope that he didn't have enough time to ask her because they (presumably Hawkeye) just showed up on his front door and asked for his help right away.
- The film also plays it straight, though. When Tony goes searching for backup among New York's vigilantes, he decides to go to the young and extremely inexperienced Spider-Man and only Spider-Man, even though Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Danny Rand, and even Frank Castle are active.
- Neither Frank nor Matt are super-powered and Iron Man explicitly wanted a heavy-hitter (someone who as he notes in Civil War stopped a heavy car dead in tracks moving at 40 mph) against the likes of super-soldiers Captain America and Winter Soldier and Scarlet Witch. Likewise, Matt has no obvious superpowers and his profile would suggest he wouldn't be on Tony's side (Matt's lawyer/vigilante double life, and his firm's work bringing down Wilson Fisk, would tell Tony that Matt believes in the law, but also believes that the law can't exclusively be trusted). Jessica keeps a low profile on purpose and isolates herself, especially after everything that happened with Kilgrave. Luke is also keeping a low profile on account of being a fugitive from the law for breaking out of Seagate. Frank was believed dead at the time by everyone except Curtis Hoyle, given he'd faked his death on the Blacksmith's boat.
- On top of all that, Tony explicitly goes to Peter for the potential of his webbing, since he engages Team Cap with the express desire to capture rather than injure or kill. Matt's, Luke's, and Jessica's fighting styles are largely "punch your opponents until they're bloodied and unconscious", and going to the Punisher would have been counterintuitive seeing as he's a vigilante that only uses lethal force. On a character level, Tony would gravitate to a poor Science Hero over a lawyer with a social conscience, and would probably not even bother with the other two. Also, a poor teenage kid is easier to impress into service in a factional dispute than an experienced lawyer and zealous vigilante, and Iron Man is fighting an ideological fight against Cap.
- Spider-Man is also the only one of the known New York heroes who is an impressionable child, which Tony exploits twice. Tony basically lies about the motives behind the battle, given his guilty expression when Peter states his "Comes Great Responsibility" rationale, which is far more along the lines of Team Cap. Tony also manipulates Peter into not asking questions of Team Cap that might cause him to stray, just convincing him with the "Cap's wrong but thinks he's right" part. That might be less likely to work on any of the adult heroes, certainly not on Matt (who not only would be more of a Team Cap guy but could tell that Tony was lying).
- Doctor Strange reveals that there is a secret monastery in Asia where a powerful sorceress known as the Ancient One trains students in the mystic arts. The fact that the Ancient One and her followers never intervened during the events of any of the previous Marvel movies (even the big ones with global consequences like The Avengers and Age of Ultron) is Handwaved by Wong saying that they deal with mystical and existential threats, and leave the physical ones for people like the Avengers to deal with.
- As seen in Avengers: Endgame, the Ancient One was actually present during the Chitauri's invasion in 2012, protecting the New York Sanctum Sanctorum from the invaders down in Greenwich while the Avengers are fighting elsewhere in Midtown. It's also possible that other individual sorcerers in New York or Sokovia did get involved in the fighting, but kept a low profile and just weren't noticed by the main heroes. note
- While Ego's destructive expansion takes place on Earth (specifically Missouri) during the events of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the issue is quite swiftly solved by the Guardians in several minutes, and Earth's heroes barely have the time to react.
- Spider-Man: Homecoming:
- Happy Hogan is assigned as Peter Parker's liaison with the Avengers... only he ignores the teenager all the time. The only Avenger to show up is Happy's boss Tony Stark - who is too busy with all sorts of things (he has to use a remote-controlled suit to save Spidey from drowning given he was in India at the time), especially the moving of the Stark Tower assets to the new Avengers HQ upstate (as first presented in Age of Ultron), to deal with a small gang of arms dealers. He only directly helps Spider-Man when the latter is having trouble saving the barge where he fought the Vulture, and afterwards asks for Peter to stay out of trouble because he doesn't want the young man's death on his conscience.
- Also, The Defenders continue to be ignored - while Luke Cage is presumably still jailed in Georgia following his series, Jessica, Matt and Danny Rand live in Manhattan, across the river from Peter's Queens home, though this can be justified as Spider-Man not having the right connections or knowledge to get into contact with them, as well as the fact that The Defenders suggests Danny spent most of the time since Iron Fist Season 1 abroad with Colleen hunting down members of the Hand, while Matt had given up Daredeviling out of guilt over Elektra's death. However, the broader picture painted by the Netflix shows regarding what New York's underworld looked like at the time causes Peter's conflict about not being able to find any crimes more serious than bike thefts to make even less sense, since warring crime syndicates (Wilson Fisk, Cottonmouth, Diamondback, Mariah Dillard, the Hand, the Stylers, Yangshi-Gonshi, the Golden Tigers, etc.) and actual super-villains (Kilgrave, Alisa Jones) were turning Manhattan into a war zone (and continued to do so even after the Vulture crisis was over).
- In Thor: Ragnarok, Doctor Strange makes his presence known the instant Thor brings Loki to Earth, and helps them find Odin in exchange for Loki leaving ASAP. While Thor spends most of the movie stranded on Sakaar, he happens to run into the Hulk and one of the Valkyries, and manages to recruit both of them to fight Hela.Thor: I'm putting together a team, like the old days!
- The film also clarifies that both Thor and Hulk were indeed offworld during Civil War, as Thor was searching for clues regarding the Infinity Stones, while Hulk's Quinjet had shot off into space at the end of Age of Ultron, where it ended up falling into one of the random wormholes that brings all manner of space junk to Sakaar. As pointed out in his conversation with Strange, Thor doesn't have a phone or e-mail, and wouldn't really have been able to use them anyway while offworld.
- Since Black Panther takes place only a week after Civil War, it makes sense that Bucky is still recovering from his brainwashing and unable to help out during the events of the movie. However, Captain America was also shown taking refuge in Wakanda, and nobody really explains where he is during the movie. A tie-in comic reveals that he and Falcon left shortly after arriving to regroup with Black Widow (following the events of her solo movie) and Wanda so they could travel the world and take down criminals underground.
- Avengers: Infinity War includes the majority of the movie superheroes with the exception of Hawkeye and Ant-Man. There's a throwaway line that both heroes surrendered to the United Nations due to their participation in Civil War, and both Ant-Man and the Wasp (for Scott) and the first scene of Avengers: Endgame (for Clint) establish that they cut plea deals where they were released under house arrest so that they could be with their families, which also explains them not being able to aid the other superheroes when Thanos hits Earth.
- Ant-Man and the Wasp, which is set after Civil War, explains what Scott and Hope had been doing prior to Infinity War: Hope is focused in getting her mother, Janet van Dyne, out of the Quantum Realm with the help of her dad, Hank. However, several people are after them such as the FBI, black market weapons dealer Sonny Burch, and Ghost, who all want access to their tech for various reasons. The father and daughter enlist Scott's help despite being on house arrest because he's the only one who knows about the Pym Particles and he already had experienced getting out of the Quantum Realm before. In the end, Hank, Scott and Hope save Janet and make amends with the people who are after them, particularly Ghost who wants to use the tech to heal her body and stay alive. Then, there's the post-credit scene which is set near the end of Infinity War where the entire Pym family are snapped into dust by Thanos and Scott is trapped in the Quantum Realm with no one to help him out.
- Captain Marvel establishes that Carol Danvers, the most powerful hero in the MCU, able to single-handedly waste a fleet of Kree fighter ships in seconds and fly across cosmic distances at will, has been active since 1995 and Nick Fury has had the communicator she gave him ever since. It turns out that she's actually busy helping the Skrull refugees find a safe place away from the Kree Empire and look for other survivors (that, and the fact that Fury has been avoiding having to call her, treating her as the last resort). In The Stinger, Carol eventually returns to Earth after Fury sends her signal during the post-credits of Infinity War. But by the time she arrives, she meets the surviving Avengers and asks where Fury is, unaware that he is also one of the victims of Thanos' Snap.
- Avengers: Endgame briefly has this trope in play, with Captain Marvel pointing out that in the five years post-snap she has to continue helping thousands of other planets who don't have their own superheroes, which is more than justified because the Guardians of the Galaxy are no more. And then the film throws the trope out the window when practically every single major heroic force appears in the final battle against Thanos once everyone dusted is restored, including almost every Avenger, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Asgardians, the Masters of the Mystic Arts, the Ravagers, and the Wakandans. The only heroes left out were the handful who have been Killed Off for Real and those from the television side of the MCU.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home: When Nick Fury and Maria Hill try to recruit Peter Parker for a mission, Peter is annoyed that his vacation was interrupted, and asks why they don't get Thor, Doctor Strange, or Captain Marvel to do it. They explain that they are all unavailable, specifically mentioning that Thor joined the Guardians of the Galaxy and Carol is on a deep space mission. No explanation for other available Avengers were provided, though press questions from journalists imply that the group hasn't been active since Endgame and people are wondering if they've flat-out disbanded. As it turns out, "Fury" and "Hill" are actually the Skrulls Talos and Soren, covering for Fury and Hill so they can work on a different project. They simply don't have the ability to contact anyone else. In fact, they were only able to call Peter because Fury asked them to deliver Tony's last gift to Peter, and Talos used the opportunity to recruit him for the current emergency.
The Multiverse Saga
- WandaVision: Wanda's creation of the Hex was such powerful magic that it caught the attention of Agatha Harkness, the FBI and S.W.O.R.D., but apparently not the attention of Doctor Strange, who monitors the world for magical threats and knew the instant Loki set foot on Earth. According to Feige and WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer, Doctor Strange was originally planned to appear
, and the fake commercials were actually Wanda's subconscious reaching out to Strange. Those plans were scrapped because they didn't want to take focus away from Wanda, especially when Wanda would be co-headlining Strange's next movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.- Multiverse of Madness did show that Strange was aware of what happened in Westview and also that Wanda specifically uses witchcraft, which is established as different from the type of magic that sorcerers use; Strange had to reach out to Wanda because he had no clue where to start when it came to witchcraft. This implies that the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj wouldn't have been able to help even if they had gotten involved in events.
- The finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier takes place in New York, yet Spider-Man is nowhere to be seen. As it turns out the show staff wanted to include him, but Kevin Feige vetoed that idea due to contractual issues with Sony.
- Loki introduces the Time Variance Authority, a seemingly omnipresent organization dedicated to ensuring the proper flow of time. When Loki brings up the fact that the TVA didn't stop the Avengers when they meddled with history by traveling back in time to steal the various Infinity Stones during Endgame, Ravonna justifies this by saying the Avengers were actually doing what was intended by the Time-Keepers in the first place.
- The TVA was also wholly absent during the various time-travel adventures Coulson's team had, as well as the Runaways (2017) finale. The same justification of their adventures being intended to happen is theoretically still viable, if a Voodoo Shark considering whole alternate histories and Bad Futures were created. When asked why Coulson's resurrection wasn't even mentioned when his death and Loki's tendency to turn people into better heroes (which is arguably true of both Coulson and Daredevil, who decided to become a vigilante after the New York Incident) was brought up, Shrug of God implied Agents was non-canon.
- This trope is heavily enforced in Black Widow, as it's set immediately after Civil War at a time when most of the other Avengers were either injured, jailed, or on the run due to the Sokovia Accords, and thus in no position to help Natasha. Lampshaded by Mason who inquires about Natasha's desire to work on her own after the Avengers "divorced" and by Yelena asking why she didn't ask one of them for help, naming Tony Stark. Natasha replied that they are no longer on speaking terms. However, there is an aversion as Natasha does plan to recruit outside help, after a fashion, by luring Secretary Ross and his forces to the Red Room and having them brought down on it; but the heroic Widows end up taking care of things first and Ross only arrives in time for cleanup.
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: The first half of the film involves relatively mundane organized crime, with the only thing that might get the attention of superheroes being a guy with a sword for a hand. By the time things escalate to a threat to the world, the action has shifted to an Alternate Dimension that the other heroes can't reach. But they do notice something going on, and they immediately investigate and track Shang-Chi down within days. It's too late for them to help, but they swap contact information for the future.
- In Eternals, the Eternals have not interfered in prior potentially world-ending events because Arishem ordered them to not interfere with human conflicts unless Deviants are involved. It's later revealed that the conflicts were necessary for Earth's population to develop to the point the Emergence could take place, so naturally, the Celestials would not want to impede any progress. In the climactic final confrontation, no Avengers show up, nor do any of the Eternals attempt to contact them for assistance, with the implication that there wasn't enough time to wait for anyone else to show up. By the end of the film, Thena, Druig, and Makkari have left Earth to find other Eternals, while Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo are abducted by Arishem for studying, meaning that until they all return, there's no way for them to assist any of the remaining heroes on Earth. The only remaining Eternal on Earth, Sprite, is de-powered and unable to do anything on her own.
- Hawkeye has the titular character and Kate Bishop battling the likes of the Tracksuit Mafia and Yelena Belova all without any help from the Avengers or other allies. But justified since they don't exactly need them — a street gang is hardly a threat to world security, and the show consistently portrays Clint as a highly-skilled agent who can easily handle them. The closest we get to another hero's assistance is Clint utilizing an arrow that's equipped with Hank Pym's enlarging technology. But that still leaves the question of why local New York heroes don't step in to stop crime on their turf, specifically Spider-Man (who No Way Home confirms to be active at about the same time that Hawkeye takes place); and even more so Daredevil, as Hawkeye's Big Bad is his archenemy the Kingpin and No Way Home confirms that Matt is around as well.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home has a case of bringing in outside help when Peter goes to Doctor Strange hoping for a magic fix of his problem. Which he screws up, bringing in villains from other universes. And then he decides to leave Doctor Strange stranded far away, without his teleportation ring, instead of letting him do his thing and send those villains back where they came from because that would mean sending them to their deaths. Peter's luck is that along with the villains, their Spider-Men also came along to help him when all the other heroes are absent. There is an odd zig-zag with Daredevil, as Matt Murdock shows up to help Peter legally but doesn't get involved fighting the supervillains. Of course, Peter doesn't know that Matt is a fellow superhero and so has no reason to ask for his help with that, but Matt doesn't step in on his own accord either. In fact, despite Peter making a very public challenge to lure the villains in, the only other hero to show up is a redeemed Dr. Octopus.
- Moon Knight: The Egyptian gods are very careful to stay off of humanity's radar, and Khonshu gets in trouble with them when he, in desperation, creates flashy supernatural events that the mortals notice. In addition, the bulk of the series appears to take place in a single night, so by the time the villains become an obvious threat to the general public, none of the other heroes have time to respond before Moon Knight and his allies put a stop to it.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Wanda asks Strange why he decided to ask for her help after the events of WandaVision made her a pariah instead of one of the other Avengers. Strange gives the very reasonable rationale that they're dealing with an unknown magical threat and he figures that Wanda would be more helpful than Hawkeye, Ant-Man, or Spider-Man. Unfortunately, it's quickly revealed that Wanda is the threat and she acts as the Big Bad during the remainder of the film. After that, Strange doesn't bother to call the other Avengers either likely for the same reason: none of them had experience dealing with magical stuff and, considering that Wanda would demolish both the Masters of the Mystic Arts and the Illuminati with barely any effort, they're not going to be very helpful either.
- Ms. Marvel: The Department of Damage Control is currently enforcing laws regarding enhanced individuals, so it's not really something that other heroes have to deal with. When they go over the line and become a threat themselves, their conflict with Ms. Marvel is resolved overnight so none of the active heroes have time to react. The series also introduces the Red Daggers as yet another hidden society dealing with the supernatural, though they're primarily portrayed as local to Pakistan, which would explain why none of the prior heroes have ever run into them before (and probably won't in the future). One of the Daggers even states that he has outstanding warrants in America, so it would probably be best not to tempt fate.
- Thor: Love and Thunder: Thor splits off from the Guardians of the Galaxy so they can go investigate multiple attacks of Gorr the God Butcher. Thor has also become The Friend Nobody Likes by that point, so they're unlikely to work with him again (in fact, splitting up was their idea, as a way to be rid of him). When Thor attempts to recruit the other gods to help him defeat Gorr, they refuse out of apathy towards others and cowardly fear of actually dying to Gorr, which leaves him to take on the God Butcher with only Jane, Valkyrie, and Korg. Zeus also mentions that the different pantheons have an informal agreement not to intervene with one another, explaining why they haven't gotten involved in Thor's fights and vice-versa (Thor only called on them this time since Gorr is a threat to all gods everywhere).
- She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: The lack of other heroes aiding She-Hulk is justified since she's a lawyer, not a superhero, and the problems she deals with are much more mundane. She'll defend herself if she needs to, but she's not going to volunteer for a battle, and the people she has had to fight are generally petty thugs that she can defeat on her own.
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever:
- Wakanda isn't on good terms with the West, so calling on help from a foreign (more than likely American) superhero is likely to spark an international incident. And that's before factoring in that Namor is blackmailing Wakanda into secrecy. On top of that, most of the heroes that T'Challa worked closely with in Civil War and Infinity War are now gone or otherwise unavailable, as is T'Challa himself, limiting the possible contact list.
- As for Namor and his undersea kingdom of Talokan, their lack of appearances in prior films is implicitly due to a policy of isolationism like Wakanda used to have, even during potential world-ending events (if they're even aware of them in the first place).
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: Due to a malfunctioning invention built by Cassie Lang, the titular heroes of this film and their close family end up getting sucked into the Quantum Realm in the early moments of the movie, leaving them unable to contact any other heroes for help for most of the film's runtime.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: At no point during the film do the titular Guardians contact anybody to help them out, despite them being in contact with the Avengers and other heroes at this point in their lives. In fairness, the only other characters who actively work in deep space are Captain Marvel, who generally doesn't like being contacted unless it's an emergency, and Thor, whom the Guardians likely aren't eager to work with again. Also in fairness, much of the film had the Guardians laboring under a ticking clock, meaning they didn't have time to wait for backup to arrive.
- Secret Invasion: Discussed; both sides are aware of the possibility that the Avengers could reunite and take action. Gravik plans for just such an event by going "outside Gotham" and having superpowers studied so that he and other Skrulls could become super themselves. Meanwhile, Nick Fury gives several reasons for deciding against bringing Avengers in: for one, he fears that would make them active targets for the Skrulls to impersonate and cause even more political problems than they are already — fears borne out when the one person he does contact who happens to be super, Colonel Rhodes/War Machine, is revealed to be a Skrull imposter. He also doesn't want to have to go running for a hero to help him every time trouble shows up; he needs to be able to take care of things himself. And on top of everything else, It's Personal — it's Fury's fault that Gravik had the means and the motive to threaten the Earth, so Fury feels that it's his responsibility to clean up the mess.
- The Marvels: This movie actually plays with this trope a little bit.
- Carol's absence from most Earth matters was previously explained as her helping other civilizations in Endgame, but this movie further reveals that Carol accidentally nearly destroyed Hala and caused a massive civil war amongst the Kree when she destroyed the Supreme Intelligence. Her shame at having done this resulted in her remaining in space for decades, due to believing she can't return to Earth until she finishes the job.
- To get Emperor Dro'ge's Skrull colony to a safe place, Carol contacts none other than the King of Asgard herself Valkyrie. After a brief moment shared with Carol, Valkyrie jettisons herself out of the plot just as quickly as she came in.
- At the end of the movie, Kamala ends up breaking into Kate Bishop's apartment and lets her know of her idea to create a new superhero team with her. This ultimately doesn't go anywhere other than tease things for the future however, as the main threat of the movie has since been eliminated, meaning Kate doesn't get to assist with things in any way.
- Echo: Because much of the show takes place in rural Oklahoma where few superheroes are active, Maya Lopez ends up having to confront Kingpin all by herself for much of the show. While Maya did encounter other characters during the events of Hawkeye and fights Daredevil in a flashback here, they all previously saw her as an enemy due to her affiliation with the Tracksuit Mafia, leaving her with no allies to face Fisk with.
Live-Action TV (Marvel Television)
- Most characters from the movies were never going to appear in the various TV series due to budget reasons, and various rights disputes. As a result, while Marvel Television was still active, the Powers That Be wouldn't let TV characters cross over to the movies either, the sole exception being Edwin Jarvis in Avengers: Endgame, and that character had a mere cameo that did not really connect the plot of Endgame to the show the character was in. The shows themselves also rarely crossed over for a variety of storytelling, business, and practical reasons. The result is that each show largely exists in its own bubble. Despite Marvel's tagline that "It's all connected", anything more than a Red Skies Crossover is out of the question.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
- The show has a habit of coming up with huge stories that are not mentioned by the rest of the franchise, such as the Inhuman crisis in Season 3,note that never sees any of the movie superheroes take notice. However, even here there is justification. After the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier the titular organization is officially disbanded and moved to acting in the shadows while dealing with international pursuit by the United Nations so seeking out help isn't possible. The things also need more investigation and down-to-Earth stuff compared to the physical confrontation the Avengers are called in to solve. It's also shown in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War that the Avengers more or less took the place of S.H.I.E.L.D. so they are ironically too busy doing the job the former spy organization was originally charged with to help. Furthermore, the Sokovia Accords are said to cover Inhumans as well as Gifted supers like Captain America.
- While it is somewhat plausible Daredevil could have flown under the agents' radar due to the lack of obvious superpowers involved, Kilgrave from the first season of Jessica Jones is exactly the sort of threat S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to contain, and even manages to make the news a few times. But they don't go after him, although this is not without its reasons: Kilgrave's existence doesn't even qualify as rumor until Hope kills her parents, and even then it's clear that practically nobody takes her claims seriously. By the time enough concrete evidence exists in the system to indicate that Kilgrave might be real after all, things have come to a head and Jessica has already killed him.
- Another issue rises in Season 6, which is set during the five year Time Skip between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (proven by the fact that the finale of Season 5 acknowledged Thanos' attack on Wakanda); not only did nobody in Team Coulson get affected by the Snap, the show doesn't even acknowledge the snap happened or show the aftermath, even though it's a universal disaster of epic proportions. (Possibly justified by the reformed multiverse. The Season 5 premiere had Team Coulson sent to a Bad Future, which was obviously not the future of the Sacred Timeline. There's no way of knowing if the monolith sent them back to the Sacred Timeline, or an alternate timeline in which the Snap didn't happen.)
- Daredevil:
- Although Fisk's schemes would fall below the Avengers' radar of jurisdiction at first glance, according to Civil War, the heroes might actually have been able to guilt Tony Stark into taking over the rebuilding of Hell's Kitchen and investigating Fisk himself, although they couldn't possibly have known that.
- By the time the Hand does attack, there wasn't much of an Avengers team around to help, their existence is neglected whenever a potential attack from a shadowy organization that may or may not have access to superbeings is discussed. The most logical response level-headed Matt could have given to Stick's ramblings of a coming war is, "Well that's what we have the Avengers for," but likewise, Stick could have pointed out that between the 70 year-old super-soldiers, and literal gods Matt is trying to emulate, his stories aren't all that far fetched.
- Enforced in Season 3. Matt is still recovering from injuries he sustained in Midland Circle at the end of The Defenders, and he is also pushing away anyone who could help him. As a result, when Fisk gets out of prison, Matt is on his own, while Karen and Foggy are also left to their own devices while they conduct their own investigations into Fisk's criminal activities. The other New York heroes not getting involved was also a creative choice by season 3 showrunner Erik Oleson."Then there's the kind of meta writerly reason why I didn't want to do that, and one of the basic rules of great drama writing is that your protagonist must be outgunned by the antagonist, or else there's no dramatic tension. If Matt can simply call Luke Cage and Jessica Jones and Danny Rand to come in and beat these other villains, your dramatic structure is lopsided. It becomes boring. It's like suddenly the heroes have all the power and the villain is outgunned, and that becomes a major impediment to telling a great story. So that's the other reason we did it, truthfully."
- When Daredevil does finally make a proper crossover appearance in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Jen humorously has no idea who he is and shrugs when he tells her his name. While almost certainly a joke about the character's lack of appearances in the past, if taken at face value, it would seem to imply that Daredevil isn't a widely known superhero outside of New York, unlike the various members of the Avengers, who are depicted as global celebrities. Although Titania does recognize him, so he is known, just not an A-lister.
- Jessica Jones:
- This trope is justified within the first season. In the last episode, Claire Temple asks if Jessica would like to ask for Matt's assistance in fighting Kilgrave and she declines due to not wanting to endanger any more lives (not that Matt would've had a problem, since when he was first introduced in the comics, Kilgrave was actually a Daredevil villain, before being retooled into his current version).
- In Season 2, Jessica begins looking into IGH, the mysterious organization responsible for the experiments on her that gave her her superpowers. While Matt not being involved is explained by him still being presumed dead at this point in time after the events of The Defenders, at no point does Jessica reach out to Luke or Danny to get their help. In their cases, it's implied through an early conversation Jessica has with Trish that she doesn't want to work with others in light of what happened to Matt. She also likely doesn't know how to contact Danny (despite the fact that Rand Enterprises is one of Jeri Hogarth's biggest clients). And despite the fact that Jessica reconciled with Luke in The Defenders, she may not have wanted to risk dragging him into yet another one of her personal messes so soon after the whole ordeal with Kilgrave.
- When Trish takes up vigilantism in Season 3, she is often referred to as the "masked vigilante" and "the woman in black" among other terms when she goes out in a black ninja costume and black mask, yet somehow, despite Jessica living in the same neighborhood as Matt, this doesn't get Trish on Matt's radar at any point. And when she was training to be a hero, while she was estranged from Jessica at the time, it never occurs to her to reach out to Matt, Luke, Danny, or even Spider-Man to learn how to fight or find crimes (she attends martial arts classes, but not at the Chikara Dojo) even though she's got no reason to believe they wouldn't help her or would contact Jessica.
- Luke Cage:
- Until the last moments of the first season, Luke consistently rejects the idea of having a lawyer in his corner, even though Claire knows "a good lawyer" he can talk to and Luke would certainly benefit from one given the legal issues he's facing. This "good lawyer" is implied to be Matt Murdock, but is revealed in The Defenders to instead be Foggy Nelson.
- This is notably averted in Season 2, as Danny allows Luke and Misty to use an under-construction Rand Enterprises building to shelter Mariah and Tilda from Bushmaster's gang, and later ventures up to Harlem for an episode to help Luke out in disrupting Bushmaster's operations.
- Iron Fist:
- In the first season, once Claire finds out that Danny and Colleen are up against the Hand, she doesn't bring up the fact that she knows another vigilante in New York City who's fought the Hand fairly recently. However, The Defenders justifies this by establishing that Matt had given up on being Daredevil out of guilt over Elektra's death, and was focused on doing pro bono work.
- This is notably averted in Season 2, where Misty Knight gets involved in the story after Danny accidentally injures an undercover cop while acting as a bodyguard during a sitdown between two Chinatown gangs.
- The Defenders, which unites Marvel's Netflix protagonists together, is this trope in general. Of course, the four heroes are reluctant to work with each other at first, especially Matt and Jessica, as Matt doesn't want to risk the fallout of going back up against the Hand and Jessica just really couldn't care less about some ancient conspiracy.
- This is enforced for the first season of The Punisher. Frank is laying low after escaping from prison and faking his death in Daredevil Season 2. As a result, the only allies he has are Curtis Hoyle (a former medic who now runs a support group for veterans) and David "Micro" Lieberman (an NSA analyst who had gone underground after faking his death at the hands of corrupt government agents out to silence him), along with some occasional help from Karen Page.
