Endgame: Where the Hell Were These Characters When the Avengers Needed Them?

While the final battle in Avengers: Endgame utilized just about every superhero the MCU could muster, pitting them all against the dark forces of 2014 Thanos in an attempt to stop the Mad Titan from rebooting the entire universe, it didn't bring back everyone.

Yes, as wildly successful as the MCU is, over its decade of dominance at the multiplex, not every storyline has paid off. Some characters who were important early on returned to play very important roles in later films (General Ross, Happy Hogan, Frigga, etc.) but some have all-but vanished from the long-running saga completely (Sif, Emil Blonsky, Justin Hammer, and more).

The following list doesn't just spotlight the heroes who took a powder during humanity's last clash against Thanos, but also some of villains still lingering out there in the MCU who may have had a vested interest in saving the world they hoped to one day conquer and/or control. From SHIELD agents and shapeshifters to Asgardians and Abominations, here are some notable MCU players who didn't bother to portal in for the The Battle of Earth.

Sharon Carter

Last seen kissing Cap goodbye in Civil War, ex-SHIELD agent Sharon Carter, formerly Agent 13, was apparently one of the poor souls erased from existence after Thanos' snap. When Bruce Banner effectively reversed the snap in Endgame, however, Peggy Carter's niece was not among the army of heroes who appeared at the eleventh hour to back up Cap in his final stand against the Black Order.

Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne

Scott Lang, who was neatly tucked away in the Quantum Realm during the Snap, was a huge part of the Battle of Earth. Likewise, Hope van Dyne arrived in the nick of time too, as Wasp, to help defeat Thanos when she was brought back into reality. But Hank and Janet, original Ant-Man and Wasp, were left out of the mix despite having vanished with Hope at the exact same time and place. Maybe there just weren't enough suits to go around.

Nakia

Lupita Nyong'o's Nakia was one of the more noticeably absent faces from the final act of Endgame since other major Black Panther characters like King T'Challa, Shuri, Okoye, and M'Baku were all there in the end, helping rescue all of existence from the dire, dark fate being utterly erased.

Everett Ross

Civil War and Black Panther's CIA agent Everett Ross, despite having helped save Wakanda from being overthrown by Erik Killmonger, wasn't around for the final moments of Endgame to help save the universe from being overthrown by the vast void of nothingness.

Ava Starr/Ghost

When we last saw the swiftly deteriorating Ava Starr -- aka Ghost -- she had been momentarily healed by Janet van Dyne's quantum energy and was seemingly on the road to wellness. But Hank, Janet, and Hope were all erased in the Snap while in the midst of trying to harness more energy for Ava's treatment. So we don't know what Ghost's status is, necessarily. But her phasing ability would have come in super handy against the ravaging forces of Thanos' minions.

Bill Foster

A surrogate father to Ava, Hank's ex-partner, Bill Foster, would never leave her side, even in the most desperate of times. But having been the pioneer of growth technology, and the original Goliath, Bill would have made an awesome tag team partner for Scott as a fellow towering titan in the struggle to save all living things from being wiped out.

Lady Sif

In the movies, Jaimie Alexander's Sif went AWOL after Thor: The Dark World, but she has also appeared on two episodes of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, letting viewers know that Sif was capable of carrying on her own solo adventures. In fact, that's probably where she was during Thor: Ragnarok, when her entire homeward was obliterated. Just... somewhere else. So "off crusading, be back later" is probably also the explanation for her not helping out in Endgame.

Talos

Honestly, who's to say Talos wasn't a part of the big push at the close of Endgame? He can take anybody's form. He could have been there impersonating someone. Heck, he could have been Nick Fury at Tony's funeral since that's who we know he started morphing into after the Snap was reversed. So maybe we give Talos and the other Skrulls the benefit of the doubt.

Nick Fury and Maria Hill

Speaking of Skrulls assuming people's identities: Where were Nick and Maria? Do they only do funerals now? Or was that Talos and Soren as Fury and Hill, way in the back mourning Tony? Post-Endgame, we know Fury went into space and Maria apparently went off the grid, but that doesn't excuse them for missing out on the fun of whooping past-Thanos' giant purple butt.

Karl Mordo

Post-Doctor Strange, Mordo felt betrayed by the Ancient One and Strange and set off to rid the world of sorcerers who misused their magic. Still, you'd think the guy who helped Strange fend off Dormammu and the Dark Dimension would pick up a staff and help Wong and his sorcerers battle Thanos' avalanche of Outriders.

Emil Blonsky/The Abomination

The "Abomination formerly known as Emil Blonsky" hasn't been seen since The Incredible Hulk, but thanks to the Marvel One-Shot "The Consultant" (which takes place after Iron Man 2 and Thor) we know the World Security Council wanted to free him and say he was a hero who was defending himself against Hulk so that he could be a part of The Avengers. And then Marvel's Agents of SHIELD let us know Blonsky was being held in an Alaskan cry-cell called The Vault. Anyhow, he's still out there and could have been pretty useful in the giant war against the Dark Order.

Stakar Ogord's Team

The O.G. Ravager team -- consisting of Stakar Ogord, Aleta Ogord, Charlie-27, Mainframe, and Krugarr (and at one point, Yondu) -- was introduced to fans in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, basically revealing themselves to be an earlier version of the Guardians, resembling even the Guardians' mismatched family dynamic. They were M.I.A. from the fight against Thanos, however, possibly being too far away to reach Earth in time to join the fray.

Justin Hammer

As the quasi-hapless mastermind behind most of Tony Stark's troubles in Iron Man 2, tech-lord Justin Hammer has probably been sitting in prison since Ivan Vanko's assault on the Stark Expo. Regardless, Hammer and his Hammertech, as faulty as it could be, would have come in handy in the struggle to save the cosmos.

The Real Mandarin

Iron Man 3 revealed that A.I.M.'s Aldrich Killian had manufactured a fake terrorist called The Mandarin in order to cover up his explosive Extremis accidents. But then the Marvel One-Shot "All Hail the King" saw actor Trevor Slattery, who played Killian's Mandarin, being busted out of prison by the forces of the real Mandarin, a mythical crime lord. This shadowy figure, who will make an appearance for the first time in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is definitely out there. Yes, we understand why he'd usually want to remain in the background, as a hard-to-believe legend, but if there was ever a time to drop the curtain on your act, it's when Thanos was, once again, threatening to end everyone's existence.

Any Remaining Nova Corps Members

We were told, rather quickly, in Avengers: Infinity War, that Xandar had been completely destroyed during Thanos' push to get the Power Stone. We assume the Nova Empire was eviscerated along with its home planet, but that might not be the case. Maybe there are some straggling members of Nova Corps out there. And maybe it would have behooved them to get their butts to Earth so that they could help defeat the a-hole who nuked their world.

Anyone From Marvel TV

Obviously, this one's a long shot. When Marvel TV started up, the shows were directly connected to the MCU. Agents of SHIELD was drastically affected by the events of Captain America: Winter Soldier and the Marvel Netflix shows directly referenced the attack on New York from The Avengers. But as the years went on, it was clear this was a one-way street. Marvel movies never referenced the TV shows. And when the time came for Phil Coulson and his TV team to possibly enter the fight at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the movie just used Nick Fury and some random agents to fill the void. After a few years, there was barely a connection between the movies and the TV shows at all. So sorry, no Defenders defending the universe from cosmic creatures.

Who did we miss? What other no-shows were there in Endgame? Let's discuss in the comments!