History IneffectualSympatheticVillain / TheAvengers

* Hawkeye once had an enemy (the term should be used loosely) named Oddball who could juggle. [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway He could juggle really well.]] (Sure, he juggles spheres that contained stuff like tear gas and liquid adhesive that he used like throwing weapons, but it was still pretty lame.) Exactly why this street performer decided to become a criminal was anyone's guess (although he did have a name that may have gotten him beaten up a lot when he was a kid, Elton Healey). To make this worse, he actually formed a team of other villains who used juggling as their MO (seriously, he did) called the Death Throws, each of which specialized in a different type of juggling: Tenpin (juggled clubs), Ringleader (juggled rings), Bombshell (also juggled spheres, but preferred ones that exploded), and Knickknack (who could juggle objects of dissimilar sizes and weights, a difficult trick if you're a performer, yes, but as a villain, still lame). Worst of all, Oddball was eventually killed taking part in the Bloodsport competition in Madripoor (which featured far more competent folks like ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, Mister X and the Taskmaster), in the first round and with a OneHitKill, no less, but another guy became the new Oddball. (And for some strange reason, he and the other Death Throws convinced [[ComicBook/GreenGoblin Norman Osborn]] to hire them during the ''Dark Reign'' storyline.)
* [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Marvel's]] Porcupine (real name: Alex Gentry) was a rare example of a HeelFaceTurn from this type, although it went wrong. The villain initially created his battlesuit to sell to the military, but for some reason, they weren't interested ([[RuleOfCool perhaps it was because it looked goofy]]). He became a particularly pathetic supervillain, to the point that when he tried to sell the battlesuit to other villains, they also turned him down. Captain America offered to buy Gentry's suit in exchange for helping him take down the Serpent Society, but Gentry was killed by his own damaged costume. Cap paid tribute to Gentry by having him buried in a grave reserved for Avengers who have fallen in battle, and displayed his battle suit in Avengers Mansion in an exhibit labeled "Battle Armor of the Porcupine – Honored Foe of the Avengers".

** While one of the most skilled fighters in the Marvel Universe, he almost always loses and never gets any respect. Thankfully, the good captain [[FriendlyEnemy actually seems to like him]].
** Taken to another level in an issue of Marvel Adventures Avengers, in which Captain America's old enemy tries to reform and ends up inadvertently roping the Avengers into a somewhat amoral scheme to promote an internet dating business.
** Batroc is [[ZigzaggedTrope an interesting case]], as he's only "ineffective" when he's fighting Steve one-on-one. When working for someone like Zemo, or fighting other heroes, he can be scarily effective. See his effortless beat down of the super-strong mercenary Paladin and his clashes with Bucky Barnes.
** In the above Marvel Adventures example the Avengers all attack Batroc at once and he effortlessly dodges all of their attacks. Captain America is the only one who is actually able to land any punches on him. It was also noted in a comic about one of Marvel's superprisons that since Batroc's abilities all come from a lifetime of training, people like him are the most dangerous in supervillain prisons, as most of the villains either have their powers sealed or their tech taken away. Another name dropped in that vein is the Kangaroo, of all people. It's actually shown in a one-shot that Batroc himself knows he's unlikely to ever defeat Cap one-on-one, but the challenge of it is too tough to resist. Even ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' himself commends Batroc on his speed and skills after defeating him (off-panel) in issue 4 of ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers''. His brief appearance in the opening of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' also had him hold his own against Steve and get away.
** Batroc also once got to star in a oneshot that explored his POV of this. Its made clear that he's not ineffective so much as OvershadowedByAwesome compared to Captain America (which in-fairness, who isn't?), and he's ''completely OK'' with this because he considers losing to him to be his ''job''. He's not paid to ''beat'' Captain America, he's paid to ''keep him busy'' so other villains can go about their work or lesser thieves can make off with the haul.
** One time the Taskmaster confronted two young women who claimed to be the daughters of Batroc the Leaper and the villain Tarantula, upon which he remarked that he found it astonishing that their fathers had ever managed to reproduce. The two were enraged and jumped at him intending to beat him down for his insult, and he simply dodged and they went over the side of the building they were on to fall to their presumable deaths. Being pathetic apparently runs in the family.
** The DependingOnTheWriter nature of this trope applying to Batroc was lampshaded and deconstructed by ComicBook/{{Gwenpool}}, for whom Batroc ended up being an odd mentor figure of sorts. Being a comic-book fangirl who was transported to the Marvel Universe, Gwen somewhat expected Batroc to fit this trope, but quickly realizes he's being written to be a competent BadassNormal. After bonding over the run, the finale has her tearfully say goodbye because, while she'll probably see him again, she realizes that he probably won't be written with the same respect and will likely be reduced back to this trope before long.