Love for the Little Guy: Ranking The MCU’s Best Supporting Characters

by Josh Ramos · January 7, 2022

A universe revered for its larger-than-life heroes, we take time to celebrate the smaller roles and give some love for the little guy; we put together a ranking of the MCU’s best supporting characters.

From Spider-Man and Doctor Strange to Thor and the Incredible Hulk, the Marvel universe does not shy away from building its larger-than-life heroes to withstand some of the most dangerous threats conceivable.

Photo: Disney+

With 2021 giving us some of the best storytelling involving some phenomenal heroes, we wanted to celebrate the supporting roles that make these stories so much more endearing.

With that, this is our ranking of the MCU’s best-supporting characters:

Honorable Mention: Loki’s Variants

Get help! One of the best MCU jokes. Photo: Disney+

This was a difficult one; with the LARPers from Hawkeye, the people of Westview from WandaVision, and the Loki Variants trapped in the Void being our honorable mention for best supporting MCU characters.

From the hilarity of the variants turning on each other to the incredible importance they had to Loki’s eventual confrontation with He Who Remains, the variants were creative, funny, and gave the writing team a canvas to honor some of the source materials most interesting takes on the God of Mischief.

5) Jaques Duquesne

Photo: Disney+

The character who debuted in the Disney+ Hawkeye series, the inheritor of the Armand fortune quickly became everyone’s favorite character following the development in the season finale.

The swordsman proved to be as innocent as he seemed; with coming to light Kingpins using of the character to launder money, Duquesne proved to be a man in love, trying to connect with Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop, and ultimately helping her fend off the swarming Tracksuit Mafia in his very one heroic moment.

4) Red Guardian

Photo: Marvel

One of the funniest character appearances of 2021, Alexei Shostokav started off Marvel’s year with a character equipped with a super-soldier serum and a heart of gold.

Despite his very apparent shortcomings as a father, Red Guardians obsession with Captain America, and desire to be better, endeared him to many MCU fans, with many hoping the character will return again.

3) Jimmy Woo

Source: Marvel Studios

Who doesn’t love Jimmy Woo? A stand out from the Disney+ series WandaVision, Woo is an FBI agent- formerly of S.H.I.E.L.D- who seems dedicated to the cause, and provides some much needed comedic relief to what can be a very heavy series

The duo of Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis was such a vital part of the series, and his appearance in future MCU titles is something that many fans expect; which, considering his popularity, should be an easy decision for Marvel to make.

2) Ying Nan

Source: Marvel Studios

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was one of Marvel’s clear triumphs of the year, and with Simu Liu having perhaps the best debut of the year, we have to celebrate the tremendous Ying Nan as the figure that helped his character embrace his true strength.

For as incredible as Shang-Chi was during his debut film, it was the teaching and guidance of Ying Nan that made him a warrior formidable enough to conquer the Mandarin, with her appearance in future Shang-Chi films likely, due to her immense importance to the character, and his ancestors home.

1) Wong

Source: Marvel Studios

This should come as no surprise, as Wong has been embraced by the MCU’s Phase Four as the new Nick Fury, acting as the team builder, and working in the shadows to create a defense formidable for every galactic threat.

Wong is such an endearing character, whose strength and personality guided him to aid the Avengers in the battle against Thanos’ forces, and should help the character be vital in helping Doctor Strange restore the crippling multiverse in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.