The ranks of the Avengers just keep growing, as the MCU brings more and more comic book favorites to the big screen.
The original team has already more than doubled, as dozens of fresh faces debut across fresh releases. In 2022 alone, the MCU introduced fans to more than a handful of new characters, and this trend is only set to continue in 2023 and beyond. As a number of youthful faces join the grizzled ranks of MCU veterans, new questions about the growing team are emerging. Spider-Man was once the only teen to appear in the vast majority of Marvel releases, but in recent years, he’s been joined by America Chavez, Kamala Khan, and Kate Bishop.
As the Avenger hopefuls continue to get younger and younger, fans are starting to wonder just how young they’ll get. For a long time, Spidey’s fresh-faced 15 was the benchmark for Marvel adolescence, but just how young is the youngest Avenger these days?
The youngest Avenger in the MCU
The ever-growing list of newcomers to the MCU is muddying the waters somewhat, as viewers try to track just how young the up and coming team is getting. Before we dive into the list of potentials, there’s an important clarification to be made. New additions like Kate Bishop and the Maximoff twins will soon become vital additions to Marvel’s lineup, but they are not Avengers. They might earn the lofty title some day, but for now they’re just youthful heroes.
With this in mind, our list is shortened significantly. At this stage in the MCU, many members of the original team have departed. Established characters like Sam Wilson — the new Captain America — are all but guaranteed to join the main team, but newer additions like Shang-Chi and She-Hulk are less certain. We can make some guesses as to who will be part of the new Avengers team, however, and determine an answer to our question in the process.
Before the events of Infinity War and Endgame, the answer to this question was clear. Due to his status as a synthezoid, Vision doesn’t need years to lend some serious wisdom to the team. At the time of his death in Infinity War, Vision was only four years old, which makes him the youngest Avenger by a long shot.
These days, things are far muddier. The Avengers technically broke up before the events of Infinity War and Endgame, but they came back together to fight Thanos. Many of the original team are no longer around, and there’s yet to be a post-Endgame Avengers flick to clarify who makes up the new team.
A few favorites are clear contenders for a spot on the squad. Characters like Bucky (Winter Soldier) and Sam (Captain America) seem like no brainers, despite Bucky’s tumultuous past, and characters like Ant-Man, She-Hulk, and Doctor Strange are all but guaranteed to join up soon. Bruce Banner (Hulk) and Thor are still around, and have yet to separate themselves from the group, and newcomers like Shang-Chi and the new Black Panther certainly deserve spots on the team.
Assuming all of the above characters are considered Avengers by the time the next group film comes along, fans already have a thrilling lineup to look forward to. Many of the younger characters introduced across MCU projects will likely remain separate from the main team, for the time being at least, so characters like Cassie Lang and Eli Bradley won’t be considered.
That leaves Bucky, Sam, Scott, Jen, Thor, Bruce, and Stephen. Bucky is technically in his early hundreds by the time he reappears in the MCU, and Thor is a well-established 1500 at a minimum, so they’re not even in the running. Bruce is also getting up there, and Stephen doesn’t look to be any version of a spring chicken, so we’re really comparing between some of the younger additions to the team. That really only leaves us to decide between the new Captain America and the Hulk’s quippy cousin.
Jen’s precise age in the MCU isn’t clearly outlined, but she does identify herself as a “millennial.” In order to classify as a millennial, you need to be born between 1981 and 1996, according to Pew Research, which means that Jen is — at most — 42 years old in 2023. And that’s if she was born at the very start of 1981.
Jen is described as a “single attorney in her 30s” in the series, so we can assume that she more comfortably falls into the middle area of millennial classification. With this in mind, she is easily the youngest of the new Avengers lineup, given Sam’s clearly established age in his mid-40s. Even if she was on the older end of millennial, Jen would still claim this prize.
There are a few other potential additions worth considering, including Spider-Man, who was technically an Avenger following the Infinity War arc. The events of No Way Home throw this idea into question, however, as it remains unclear if Spidey retains any attachments to the Avengers as a whole. If he does, however, he easily beats out Jen for the title of youngest Avenger.