10 Scene-Stealing Supporting Characters In Superhero Movies

It's sometimes said that a good villain steals the show away from the hero. Well, sometimes a supporting character is good enough to steal the spotlight away from both the hero and the villain. In superhero movies, this is an even bigger feat for a side character to achieve, as the heroes and villains are generally more eye-catching and scene-stealing than those in a usual film - what with their crazy dress senses and superpowers. Yet somehow, with just a fraction of the screen time that the main players have, certain side characters have managed to capture our attention, nay, our hearts more than even the leads. Whether it's due to the writing, the directing or the performance, without these supporting characters, their respective movies wouldn't be half as good. For example, can you imagine Captain America: Civil War without the winning turn from Tom Holland as Spider-Man? From Disney's The Incredibles to The Dark Knight trilogy, here are 10 of our favorite superhero movie supporting characters who managed to steal the show right out from underneath the main heroes and villains. 10) Edna Mode - The Incredibles How do superheroes always come up with such awesome costumes for themselves? That's the question that's given an answer in Disney/Pixar's brilliant riff on superheroes, The Incredibles. It turns out they have a fashion designer who makes the threads for them. And that designer is the abrasive and diminutive Edna Mode. Like many of the characters on this list, Edna only appears for a few brief scenes and really is little more than a plot device. Yet, she also nabs some of the movie's most memorable lines ("No capes!"), something exacerbated by her weird shrill European voice. Fun fact: Director Brad Bird never intended to provide the voice for Edna. He was actually coaching original choice Lily Tomlin on how he thought the character should sound when she advised him to play the role himself. 9) Nightcrawler - X2: X-Men United Even thirteen years on and X2 stills sports the best opening of any X-Men movie to date, as Nightcrawler storms the White House and almost murders the President. It's an awesome showcase of his 'bamfing' abilities (teleportation) and the reveal of his striking demonic appearance is well done. Of course, this display of badassery isn't the real Nightcrawler, who was under the thrall of General Stryker at the time, and in the rest of the movie we get to know the kind, religious mutant, in one of the best examples of the franchise's core message of 'don't judge a book by its cover.' It's a great shame that Alan Cumming didn't get to return to the role (the make-up process was too complicated to bring him back for X-Men: The Last Stand). However, at least we have Kodi Smit-McPhee playing a younger version Kurt Wagner from X-Men: Apocalypse onwards. 8) Gary Oldman - The Dark Knight Trilogy On paper, Jim Gordon could be a pretty uninteresting role - he's Batman's stalwart defender on the police force, yeah, but he's not the hero of the piece (apart from Gotham, at least). That's probably why Pat Hingle's version of the character was such a minor part of the Burton/Schumacher movies. In The Dark Knight trilogy, however, Gordon is a major driver of the action and something of a secondary protagonist. Sure, his role was increased by screenwriter David S Goyer, but it's Gary Oldman's brilliantly understated performance that makes him such a compelling character. Oldman is usually known for playing more ostentatious characters, but he brings a terrific quiet warmth and energy to the whiskered detective. Oldman's Gordon is in some ways more of a hero than Batman. Even though he doesn't have gadgets and the years of training behind him, this everyman is still brave enough to stand up and do the right thing, even at the cost of his own life (as very nearly happens). 7) Wonder Woman - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice We've written before about how awesome Wonder Woman's big introduction in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was. In the first proper DC crossover movies, the best fist-pumping moment has to be the point when Diana Prince jumps into save Batman from certain death at the hands of Doomsday. As well as being a brilliantly feminist moment, it's also instantly iconic. It's the very first time Wonder Woman is shown in costume in all of cinematic history and composers Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL gift the occasion with one of the best pieces of superhero music in recent years. Though we've heard conflicting reports about the quality of this year's solo outing for the hero, we're hopeful that Gal Gadot will carry the movie with the same mix of grit and grace that she demonstrated in her minor role in BvS. 6) Quicksilver - X-Men: Days Of Future Past X-Men: Days of Future Past was a landmark movie for Fox's X-Men franchise as it united both sides of the cinematic universe together; the old guys from the original trilogy and the young ones introduced in X-Men: First Class. Despite all the old favourites running around, though, the character everyone was left talking about was Evan Peters' turn as Quicksilver. As well as a charismatic performance from Peters, the character won fans over with the terrific 'Time in a Bottle' scene where he single-handedly rescues Charles, Logan and Eric from being gunned down in the Pentagon - all while listening to tunes on his headphones. So awesome was the scene and the character's inherent charm that the film sort of shot itself in the foot by not including Quicksilver in a bigger role: why the hell wouldn't Charles and Logan bring Peter with them to Paris? Their troubles would have been sorted a whole lot quicker, right? Thankfully, Quicksilver's screen time was upped in the sequel X-Men: Apocalypse, where he's eventually indoctrinated into the X-Men team properly. 5) Hit Girl - Kick-Ass Chloe Grace Moretz's Hit Girl steals the spotlight away from the titular Kick-Ass to such an extent that you can hardly call her a supporting character. Though Aaron Taylor-Johnson gives it his best shot to claim the film as geeky Dave Lizewski, he never stood a chance against Mindy McCready. For a film that offers such an anarchic, R-rated take on the superhero genre, it's naturally the 12-year-old girl who brutally mows down thugs while cursing like a sailor that owns the movie. Sadly, the charisma of the character was lessened when she returned in Kick-Ass 2, partly because Moretz was older but also because the film was vastly inferior. Having said that, we still would've been up for a solo spinoff movie, based off the Hit Girl comic series. Also, a shout-out is in order to Mindy's on-screen dad, Batman ripoff Big Daddy, played by an on-form Nicholas Cage who could have also made this list. 4) Alfred Pennyworth - The Dark Knight Trilogy Oldman's Commissioner Gordon was a great character, but there's only one number one supporting presence in a Batman movie and that's Mr. Alfred Pennyworth. We could have plumped for Michael Gough's endearing Alfred from the Burton/Schumacher movies instead here, as he manages to even escape Batman and Robin with his dignity intact, but only Michael Caine can be named the best Alfred of all-time. In Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, he fleshed out the character from Bruce's tight-lipped butler to become his surrogate father, a man who has his back in whatever he does but will also tell him when he thinks he's gone too far. Caine's greatest performance is probably his role in The Dark Knight Rises. Despite the movie being littered with the likes of Bane and Catwoman, Alfred still steals the film with his brief but heartbreaking scenes (for example, his "I won't bury you" speech). 3) Peggy Carter - Captain America: The First Avenger The love interest in a superhero movie is usually a thankless task for an actress. All they're usually required to do is to fall in love with the hero over a ridiculously brief period and then generally play the damsel in distress at the climax. Thankfully, that wasn't the story of tough-as-nails British secret agent Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger. With the perfectly cast Hayley Atwell in the role (who looks astoundingly like the leading ladies of the time period), Peggy gets to prove that she's every bit as brave and capable as Steve Rogers throughout the movie and remarkably, is never captured or kidnapped. Sure, she falls for the super-soldier, but it's more of a romance between equals than most - not to mention that it has a tremendously tragic ending. It's no surprise, then, that Peggy became the movie's breakout character. Not only did she spinoff into her own Agent Carter TV series, but she also popped up in the movies for cameos in the likes of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man. 2) Phil Coulson - Many MCU Movies When he was introduced in Iron Man, Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson was really just a cipher character used to represent S.H.I.E.L.D., the organization that would serve as a link between the different movies in the fledgling Marvel Cinematic Universe. Over his appearances across Phase One of the MCU, however - that's Iron Man 2, Thor and The Avengers - Coulson's loveable personality made him a fan-favourite. His best scene-stealing role in the movies came, of course, in The Avengers, where he was tragically killed by Thor's evil brother Loki. The entire formation of the Avengers hinges on this moment, as it's his death that spurs the team into joining together to avenge him. By now, however, you no doubt know that this was a bit of a canny bit of manipulation on Nick Fury's part, as Coulson was subsequently resurrected in time to helm his own TV show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He might not be in the films anymore but Coulson is still a big player in the MCU and remains a firm fan-favorite. 1) J. Jonah Jameson - Spider-Man Trilogy It's a tough one to call, but we're going to name J. Jonah Jameson as the greatest supporting character in a superhero movie, ever. Though the likes of Phil Coulson and Alfred frequently stole the show, no one else has managed to so consistently own the stage across several films like J.K. Simmons in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. He doesn't have a whole lot of screen time, but the Spider-Man-hating, cigar-chewing editor of the Daily Bugle never fails to entertain as he harangues Peter Parker or steals his stooges' ideas. Rarely has a character ever been so perfectly recreated from the comic book page on the screen. Simmons has cast such a massive shadow in the role that the Amazing Spider-Man franchise steered clear of Jameson completely. It'd been hoped that Simmons would reprise the role in the MCU, but seeing as he's playing Commissioner Gordon over in the DCEU instead, that doesn't look to be happening. Whoever does get the part, then, will have some mighty big shoes to fill.