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Contains Spoilers for The Avengers #21!Iron Man has been on the Avengers a long, long time, and he’s just proven it by perfectly calling out one element that makes the comic team what it is and that the MCU never properly adapted. For what seems like an offhanded comment, it’s an observation that actually says a lot more about the franchise than Tony intends.
In The Avengers #21 by Jed MacKay, Valerio Schiti, Federico Blee, and Cory Petit, Tony Stark points out the secret ingredient that kept the team together: their butler, Edwin Jarvis.
As Tony says over a dinner with the X-Men, if Jarvis weren't there, the Avengers wouldn’t have survived. Part of this comment is just an acknowledgment that you need someone to keep the team alive when they’re too concerned with superhero drama to do normal things like make food, but Iron Man is right on a deeper level as well.
Iron Man Knows That the Avengers Aren't the Same Without Jarvis
The Classic Marvel Team Needs a Loyal Butler
Jarvis has been a consistent part of the Avengers since the 1960s. Originally the butler for Tony’s parents, Howard and Maria Stark, Jarvis then became a staple of the Avengers’ many incarnations, serving at most of their bases, from their classic mansion to Tony’s Avengers Towe to their current space base. Since the '60s, he’s been nearly killed, replaced by supervillains multiple times, and embroiled in a romance with Aunt May. But Jarvis still functionally remains the same character that he’s always been: a measure of consistency for a team that’s constantly changing their roster.
When Jarvis hasn’t been around, the Avengers have been all the worse for it.
Looking at the larger timeline of the Avengers, Tony’s offhand comment is surprisingly accurate. When Jarvis hasn’t been around, the Avengers have been all the worse for it. When Tony himself was at his lowest right before the major Secret Invasion event, Jarvis wasn’t there, replaced with a Skrull who was more than happy to passively serve while Tony tore himself apart with paranoia and distanced himself from everyone. Similarly, when the Avengers rebuilt themselves in Jonathan Hickman’s epic tenure, Jarvis was nowhere to be seen, and the team eventually fell to in-fighting even as the multiverse itself collapsed.
This Avengers Run Has Given Jarvis a Lot of Love
It's Only What He Deserves
This isn’t the first time that writer MacKay has spotlighted Jarvis. The Avengers #11, with artist Ivan Fiorelli, was focused entirely on Jarvis as the Avengers’ base, the sentient Impossible City, came under attack by the Mad Thinker. Not only did the issue show how meticulous Jarvis was in accommodating the Avengers’ lifestyles, but it also hilariously had him being one of the ones to defeat the Mad Thinker by hitting the villain in the head with a cricket bat. That issue was MacKay’s love letter to the character.
What Tony’s comment also illustrates is how important a grounded human presence is to the Avengers - and to so many superhero teams in general. The Avengers can save the universe a hundred times, but it would be hard to care if readers couldn't relate to them. Jarvis and other very human characters ground superhero stories. Without them, these stories can become abstracted, just multiversal fights and overcomplicated plots without a human core. The human presence doesn’t have to be Jarvis, but he’s a good choice for any Avengers book that’s finding it hard to make the events feel real.
Jarvis Is an Old-Fashioned Avengers Icon - And That's Great
Without Him, the Avengers Would Feel... Weird
Jarvis also serves the tone of the Avengers as a franchise more broadly. Jarvis has an inherently old-timey charm, and he really wouldn’t have been created in any era past the 1960s. By keeping him around, the franchise never strays too far from these trappings, which are signifiers of an earlier, appealingly old-fashioned, time. The franchise’s scope might grow and grow with every run, but Jarvis is a reminder of the past and keeps everything from getting lost in the superhero weeds. No matter how fantastical the adventure, Jarvis is back at base to keep things feeling as real as they ever have.
Looking for an alternate take on the Avengers? Check out The Ultimates #1 by Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri, available now from Marvel Comics.
Jarvis also connects to the larger legacy of serial superhero stories that feature manservants and butlers. The most obvious example is Batman and Alfred, and it’s easy to forget that Alfred was a classic genre character when he was created. Green Hornet’s Kato is his manservant, and there’s any number of other rich heroes with staff at their beck and call. Jarvis is a reminder that what readers might think of as "comics tropes" are often far older than mainstream superheroes, and that comics as a popular medium didn’t evolve in a vacuum.
The MCU Needs a Jarvis, Especially Alongside the Avengers
Or At Least Someone Like Him
Tony’s comment also illustrates how badly the MCU’s Avengers need someone like Jarvis. Sure, they had J.A.R.V.I.S., the AI system based on the dead Edwin Jarvis of their universe, but J.A.R.V.I.S. eventually became Vision, and even before that he never served the same purpose for the team as the comic-book version of Jarvis. Fans remember the superhero party from Avengers: Age of Ultron fondly, and this scene is the exact sort of mood that having Jarvis around facilitates. There has to be someone besides superheroes and robots around to keep things grounded, just like in the comics.
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Arguably, the MCU’s equivalent to Jarvis isn’t J.A.R.V.I.S., but Happy Hogan. Happy, played by Jon Favreau, fulfills the role of a regular human for Iron Man, and eventually Peter Parker, to bounce off. He’s goofier than Jarvis ever was, but he’s still a grounding force in a universe that sometimes gets lost in its own multiverse lore. He’s also got Jarvis parallels in that both characters have a flirtatious relationship with Aunt May, though Happy’s never goes beyond flirting. Many have commented that the MCU needs more "regular" humans, and even someone like Happy only goes so far in filling that role.
Does the MCU Even Have Room for Characters Like Jarvis?
What's the MCU Going to Look Like Going Forward?
At this stage in its lifecycle, the MCU’s identity is in a state of flux. After a number of (relative) critical flops, the macro series is trending towards nostalgia and self-referential stories, often through the lens of the multiverse, the perfect plot device to bring back old characters. Arguably, what the franchise needs is to scale back and become more grounded before it loses everyone. If it did scale back, then that would be the perfect time to introduce a Jarvis-esque character. Take it from Iron Man; he knows what the Avengers need.
The Avengers #21 is available now from Marvel Comics.
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Iron Man
Anthony "Tony" Edward Stark, AKA Iron Man, is a Marvel Comics superhero who has enjoyed several years of the spotlight and has become a mainstay in several Marvel media franchises. After suffering a critical injury, Tony creates a specialized armored suit powered by an arc reactor, which keeps him alive. Egotistical but good-hearted, Tony utilizes his super intellect and inventions to fight to protect humanity from various threats, eventually becoming a founding member of the Avengers. In 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was kicked off with the film Iron Man, which starred Robert Downey Jr. as the superhero.
Died 2023 (in the MCU)
Alias Iron Man
RELATIONSHIPS Jude (biological father), Amanda Armstrong (biological mother), Howard Stark (adoptive father), Maria Stark (adoptive mother), Arno Stark (brother)
POWERS Genius intellect, armor providing flight, hacking, superhuman strength, reflexes, and durability.
HISTORY Famous to the world as a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, Anthony "Tony" Stark has seen as many transformations, rebirths, and updates as his iconic suits of armor. The adopted son of industrialist (and weapons manufacturer) Howard Stark, Tony became the head of the empire with his parents' untimely death... leading to his capture by terrorists overseas.Creating a suit of powered armor to escape, Tony used his newfound tech to begin a career as Iron Man, devoting his life to dismantling the weapons and villainy he unknowingly spread around the globe. Whether as a hero, an Avenger, a member of the Illuminati, or the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Tony Stark has been at the heart of nearly every event to shape the Marvel Universe.
NAME Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark
Age 53 (In MCU)
FIRST APP "Tales of Suspense" #39 (1963)
Height 6'1"
English (US) ·