The Avengers Roster: H
By Sean McQuaid

Complete descriptions of each individual's affiliation with the Avengers are detailed below.

Hammond, James (Human Torch):
Former member of the Avengers (thirty-sixth recruit, retired); former founding member of the Invaders and the All-Winners Squad; former partner to Toro and Sun Girl. A legendary 1940s android crimefighter, the flame-wielding Torch disappeared after apparently burning out in the 1950s. He survived, albeit in a state of suspended animation, and was eventually revived by the Mad Thinker as a weapon against the Fantastic Four (whose members included the modern-day Human Torch, Johnny Storm). The original Torch resisted the Thinker's control, seemingly at the cost of his own life.
     Much later, a "synthezoid" called the Vision joined the Avengers and was said by Immortus to be the reconstructed and reprogrammed Human Torch. This was accepted as truth for years -- until a detailed deconstruction and reassembly of the Vision seemingly proved that Vision was not the Torch. The Avengers then sought out and revived the original Torch, accpeting him into their ranks as well. More recently, during the time-spanning conflict known as The Destiny War, the Avengers learned that Vision was indeed a reconstructed original Human Torch, and that Immortus had hoaxed the Avengers into believing otherwise as part of a plot against the Scarlet Witch (she was married to Vision, and calling Vision's origins into question was one part of a long-term plan on Immortus's part to drive the Witch insane). In preparing for this plot, Immortus had located the original Human Torch shortly after his deactivation by the Mad Thinker and split the Torch into two exact temporal duplicates, one of which was rebuilt into Vision and one of which was later found and revived by the Avengers, continuing to exist as an independent being today.
     The Human Torch was an active member of the Avengers' western roster until he was demoted to reserve status in absentia during a membership reshuffling under the team's new UN charter. Soon afterward, the Torch lost his superhuman powers after saving Jacqueline "Spitfire" Crichton with a massive blood transfusion. Allowing the general public to believe him dead following that incident, the Torch resumed his old civilian alias of James Hammond and found work as a security chief for Oracle, Inc. He retained his Avengers reserve status despite the loss of his superhuman powers, though he eventually resigned it after opting to fully retire from superheroics.
     Later, Hammond began dabbling in superheroics anew as manager of Oracle's own corporate-sponsored super-team, Heroes for Hire. Though he preferred to perform strictly managerial duties, he occasionally assisted in the team's missions, thanks in part to the fact that his flame powers had partially regenerated (though using his flame to its former full extent threatens to fatally strain his android physiology). When Oracle was bought out by the unscrupulous Stark-Fujikawa corporation and began meddling in the Heroes For Hire program, Hammond and the rest of the Heroes For Hire staff and operatives resigned in protest.

Harkness, Agatha:
Longtime ally of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four; former mentor to the Scarlet Witch. The elderly witch known as Agatha Harkness is a powerful and learned sorceress who has been allied with both the Fantastic Four and the Avengers over the years. Her connection with the Avengers lies primarily in her having mentored Avengers veteran Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, in the arts of magic; however, she has been involved in a variety of Avengers cases over the years, and was responsible for restoring Tigra to her humanoid state after Tigra had assumed a more animalistic form. Harkness has resided briefly at both Avengers Mansion and Avengers Compound in the past--her stay at the Mansion coincided with her initial tutoring of Wanda, and her stay at the Compound came during a period when she was helping Wanda recover from her manipulation by Magneto and Immortus, during which Wanda had suffered a mental breakdown. Once Wanda had fully recovered, Harkness left the Avengers again, but she recently helped the Scarlet Witch to finally fully comprehend the true nature of her powers, a mutant ability to channel mystical energy.

Hawkeye (Clinton Francis Barton):
Former member and past chairman of the Avengers (second recruit, resigned); former leader of the Thunderbolts; former member of the Defenders; former mentor to the Shadows; former partner to Black Widow [II], Mockingbird, Rover [II] and the Two-Gun Kid. A carnival archer turned costumed adventurer, Hawkeye was mistaken for a criminal by the police and became a fugitive from justice, a situation worsened by his subsequent romantic liaison with the Black Widow, who was then a communist spy. In an attempt to clear his name and revive his crimefighting career, Hawkeye successfully applied for Avengers membership and soon became one of the team's most invaluable members. The Avengers' second recruit (filling a vacancy in the ranks left by the departing founding members), Hawkeye went on to serve one of the longest uninterrupted membership stints in the group's history.
     At one point during this long membership stint, Hawkeye used Hank Pym's growth serum to become the new Goliath in an attempt to contribute more raw power to the team, but he soon realized that his archery abilities and fighting skills had been just as valuable to the group as any super-power, so he resumed his original Hawkeye identity. He revived his Goliath identity for several missions years later, but quickly returned to his Hawkeye guise. More recently, he lost his physical tolerance for size-changing in an encounter with the alien Kosmosians, so his alternate identity as Goliath seems permanently defunct.
     Hawkeye eventually took several leaves of absence of varying duration in an attempt to establish a reputation and means of support outside the Avengers, with varying degrees of success. During the first of those leaves of absence, he briefly served as an early core member of the Defenders; during the second, he partnered for a time with the legendary Two-Gun Kid. He always returned to the Avengers, though, and came to be regarded as one of the group's mainstays, arguably second only to his friend and mentor, Captain America. Hawkeye even established himself as one of the group's foremost leaders after he was promoted to the post of chairman of the Avengers' new west coast division, whose members included his new wife and partner, Mockingbird (whom he had met and married after they teamed up to defeat Crossfire). Hawkeye built the new team from the ground up and served capably as its leader for some time, but eventually resigned in anger after the U.S. government forced the team to induct the abrasive USAgent into their roster as their government supervisor.
     After briefly serving as mentor to the unofficial, midwestern would-be Avengers team known as the Great Lakes Avengers, Hawkeye soon returned to active duty with Avengers West and eventually resumed his post as chairman, though he resigned it after deciding that it conflicted with his marital responsibilities to Mockingbird. When Mockingbird was killed in action shortly thereafter, the heartbroken Hawkeye went on indefinite leave to mourn her death. He lived as a wilderness hermit, befriending the genetically mutated dog-man Rover, and making peace with USAgent. For a time, Hawkeye was duped into mentoring the unscrupulous revolutionaries known as The Shadows, but Hawkeye's friends War Machine (Jim Rhodes) and USAgent helped expose the Shadows as corrupt, convincing Hawkeye to abandon them.
     The Avengers West disbanded shortly after Hawkeye's departure and reorganized under Iron Man as an independent team called Force Works, but Hawkeye refused membership in this new group. He later rejoined the Avengers, but was soon among the many members of the team lost and presumed dead in their battle with Onslaught, prompting the group's disbanding. In actuality, Hawkeye and the other lost Avengers survived in an otherdimensional parallel world subconsciously created by the near-omnipotent mutant Franklin Richards, and eventually returned to their own Earth. Hawkeye participated in the subsequent reorganization of the Avengers, rejoining the active roster and recruiting two new members, Firestar and Justice; however, after serving for so long as leader of the team's western roster, Hawkeye began to feel constrained and unsatisfied in a non-leadership role.
     Opportunity knocked in the form of the Thunderbolts, a new super-team which had emerged in the absence of the Avengers after Onslaught. The Thunderbolts had more or less taken the Avengers' place as beloved celebrity adventurers and New York's foremost superheroic force for good, but they had a dark secret: they were actually Baron Helmut Zemo's Masters of Evil in disguise, posing as heroes to win public trust and accumulate resources in preparation for an attempted global conquest. Shortly after the Avengers returned, Zemo put his world domination plan into action using a mass mind control device known as the bio-modem, even mentally enslaving the Avengers (including Hawkeye) and the Fantastic Four; but most of the Thunderbolts had grown fond of their heroic roles and turned against Zemo, thwarting his nearly successful world conquest and rescuing the Avengers and the Fantastic Four in the process. The Thunderbolts then split with Zemo and began operating as a roving team of outlaw superheroes, trying to win back the respect of the public through heroic deeds while evading the legal authorities.
     Sympathetic because of his own outlaw past, and eager for new challenges, Hawkeye offered to serve as the Thunderbolts' new leader if they would continue fighting crime and remain reformed. The Thunderbolts accepted, partly because Hawkeye told them the CSA (Commission on Superhuman Activities) had endorsed his plan and offered to pardon the group if they performed acceptably; in actuality, the CSA had rejected Hawkeye's plan, and he defied them by contacting the Thunderbolts anyway. During his stint as their leader, he became a friend and mentor to the group, honing their skills and greatly enhancing their reputations. The Thunderbolts even became trusted allies of the Avengers, though Hawkeye formally resigned his membership in the latter group since he didn't want his technically criminal association with the Thunderbolts to negatively impact the Avengers.
     Things began to fall apart through the actions of Hawkeye's old nemesis, CSA agent and former Avengers government liaison Henry Peter Gyrich. Gyrich targeted the Thunderbolts for assassination as part of a larger scheme to eradicate superhumans, but Hawkeye and the Thunderbolts exposed and thwarted Gyrich's conspiracy, freeing Gyrich himself from the mind-controlling technology Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker had used to make Gyrich act out his anti-superhuman fantasies. Hawkeye agreed to keep the entire affair a secret in exchange for a full federal pardon for the other Thunderbolts, but a bitterly furious Gyrich refused to go along with concealing the incident unless Hawkeye went to prison for operating as an illegal vigilante with the Thunderbolts. Hawkeye agreed and has been in federal custody since that time.

Hawkeye [III] (Clint Barton):
Judgment League avengers member. An amalgam of Avengers member Hawkeye and DC Comics character Green Arrow, Hawkeye [III] was a member of the Judgment League Avengers (a combination of DC's Justice League and Marvel's Avengers) in the alternate universe of Amalgam Comics (a temporary merger of DC and Marvel Comics). Essentially, he was the same character as Marvel's Hawkeye, but with costuming influenced by DC's Green Arrow. The JLA Hawkeye should not be confused with the Squadron Supreme Hawkeye (the second known superhero by that alias), later known as the Black Archer, now deceased.

Hegyes, Mrs. (full name unrevealed):
Former cook, Avengers Compound. Hegyes served the western Avengers roster as their cook for some time, and came to appreciate USAgent's healthy appetite. Hegyes also appreciated Tigra's ability as a mouser, though she was distressed when USAgent informed her that Tigra did not ordinarily eat mice and should be stopped (this behaviour was one of the first hints of growing mental problems on Tigra's part). Hegyes was presumably laid off along with the rest of the Compound staff when the Avengers shut down their west coast operations.

Hellcat (Patricia "Patsy" Walker):
Inactive member of the Avengers (fourteenth recruit); active member of the Defenders. A bored, abused housewife and former child model whose mother used her as the basis for a popular series of teen comic books, Patsy Walker was a life-long admirer of super-heroes. After aiding the Beast on a case, she made him promise to help her become a super-hero. He agreed, thinking she would never hold him to it.
     Shortly after The Beast joined the Avengers, the newly divorced Patsy Walker appeared seeking a new and more exciting purpose in life, demanding that The Beast keep his promise of training her as a super-hero. To this end, Walker accompanied the Avengers on a mission, during which she discovered and adopted a surviving prototype of the costume once worn by the female crimefighter known as The Cat. The suit was designed to enhance the wearer's physical abilities (which it did, more by the power of suggestion than anything else), and the naturally athletic Walker used it to join the Avengers in action as the Hellcat. She accompanied them in an unofficial capacity for some time thereafter, and was soon invited to join the active roster. She would have accepted, but fellow probationary recruit Moondragon convinced Hellcat to undergo further training with her first, and the two departed from the group as reserve members.
     Hellcat soon completed her training but never did join the Avengers full time, though she has assisted the group on an irregular basis over the years. She has devoted most of her superheroic energies to the Defenders, an informal team of adventurers whom she befriended shortly after parting company with Moondragon. She remained a key member of that team for years until marrying fellow member Daimon Hellstrom (the half-demonic "Son of Satan"); the couple then retired from the group, working as demonologists and occult investigators. Patsy even wrote a successful volume of memoirs about her bizarre life experiences (The Hellcat Chronicles), only occasionally resuming her Hellcat guise.
     Eventually, Hellstrom's repressed demonic nature reasserted itself and drove Patsy mad, reducing her to an incoherent, near-vegetable state. Daimon kept her locked away in an upstairs room while he got on with his life, and he even began cheating on her. Eventually, he inherited his father's position as ruler of one of the universe's several hells (dimensions of spiritual torment), largely withdrawing from human contact. Patsy, meanwhile, had been slain by the mystical mercy-killing entity known as Deathurge, which sensed her pain and despair and acted on her desire for death by expelling her spirit from her body. Her soul was restless, though, and remained linked to the Earthly plane, contacting the world of the living through a radio and promising to return someday.
     Because of the manner of her death, and because of her connection to Daimon, Patsy's soul was captured by one of the rival demon lords, Mephisto, and imprisoned in his hellish realm. Once there, Patsy was forced to fight in Mephisto's Arena of Tainted Souls, where corrupted heroes and warriors are locked in eternal combat. While there, she fought alongside Mockingbird, another Avenger whose soul had been trapped by Mephisto. When Mockingbird and Hellcat were among the deceased Avengers temporarily resurrected by the Grim Reaper to battle the living Avengers, they and the other dead Avengers turned against the Reaper to save their living teammates, dying anew in the process--but before they faded away, Hellcat realized how much she missed living, and Mockingbird tried to send her husband Hawkeye a message about a way to rescue Patsy from Hell. The message was garbled, though, and Daimon Hellstrom used it to manipulate Hawkeye into thinking he was meant to rescue Mockingbird. Hawkeye and his Thunderbolts invaded Mephisto's hell to attempt this, but were surprised when they learned that the soul they had freed and resurrected was actually Hellcat, just as Daimon and Mockingbird had both intended. Despite Hellstrom's role in her resurrection, the newly alive and sane Patsy was disgusted by Daimon and promptly divorced him, resolving to start life anew yet again.
     As a means of coping with her recent experiences and generating a new source of income, Patsy wrote another autobiographical book, Gidget Goes to Hell. She also began to act as Hellcat again, discovering that her resurrection had given her supernatural powers, enhancing her natural senses and physical abilities and giving her heightened perceptions of and resistance to mystical energies. With her new powers, Patsy helped expose her ex-husband Daimon, the supposed son of Satan, as a demon of otherdimensional parentage--the son of Satannish and grandson of Dormammu, planted within Earth's supernatural population as a sleeper agent to help Dormammu conquer the Earthly realms, beginning with the underworld realms or hells. Thanks to Hellcat's intervention, Hellstrom's conspiracy to conquer the underworlds has been stalemated by Mephisto and the other surviving hell-lords, earning Patsy Mephisto's uncommon gratitude and freedom from further torment at his hands.
     Thrilled to be alive again, Patsy makes a living from her writing and the merchandising of her name and image while continuing to engage in superheroics as Hellcat. While she has renewed her association with the Avengers (who teamed with her to drive the Sons of the Serpent out of her hometown Centerville), Hellcat is primarily committed to the recently reorganized Defenders, and remains active with that group today.

Hercules (a.k.a. Heracles, alias Harry Cleese):
Inactive member of the Avengers (sixth recruit); former founding member of the Champions; one-time member of the Defenders; former member of Heroes for Hire. Hercules is a super-powerful, half-human member of the immortal, otherdimensional race of Olympian superhumans once worshipped as gods by the ancient Greeks and Romans. A friend and ally of Avengers founder Thor, Hercules first encountered the Avengers themselves when the Enchantress used him against them as a mesmerized pawn. Hawkeye freed him and the Enchantress was routed, but Hercules was exiled from Olympus by his father, Zeus, as punishment for his unauthorized excursion to Earth.
     The Avengers housed Hercules as their guest for months thereafter, and he often assisted them in their missions. He was eventually made an official member of the team, but soon returned to Olympus to rescue the other Olympians from the vengeful Typhon. After successfully doing so with the Avengers' aid, Hercules elected to remain on Olympus with Zeus's blessing.
     Hercules continued to occasionally interact with Earth, though, as was the case with his brief membership in the super-team called the Champions. He also kept in touch with the Avengers, assisting them against menaces such as Korvac. Eventually, he rejoined the Avengers on a full-time basis and served until injuries suffered at the hands of Baron Helmut Zemo's Masters of Evil almost killed him. It took him months to recover, and when he finally did, he seemingly died in battle with the High Evolutionary. He survived and ultimately returned to Earth, rejoining the Avengers as an active reserve member during the UN reorganization of their membership.
     When Thor's disappearance opened a slot in the active roster, Hercules filled it and served another lengthy membership stint; late in this period, Hercules was stripped of his immortality and much of his godly power by Zeus, who exiled Hercules once more after they had a falling out over Hercules's apparent preference for the mortal world. The traumatized Hercules drew emotional support from the Avengers, especially Deathcry, whom he ultimately aided in returning to her alien Shi'ar homeworld. On returning to Earth, though, Hercules discovered to his horror that most of the Avengers were missing and presumed dead after their then-recent battle with Onslaught. A despairing Hercules succumbed to alcoholism and was no help in trying to hold together the group, which soon disbanded.
     Hercules began to wander in search of new adventures, serving briefly with the corporate super-team Heroes for Hire. When the supposedly dead Avengers returned from their Onslaught disappearance, Hercules joined many of the other Avengers in reorganizing the team, though he has opted to remain an inactive member rather than rejoining the active roster; however, he has proven ready and willing to assist the Avengers against menaces such as Morgan Le Fay, Whirlwind, the Exemplars and Attuma, and is always eager to share "the gift" of battle with a worthy opponent.

Hogan, Happy (Harold "Happy" Hogan):
Longtime employee of Avengers financier Tony Stark (secretly Avengers founder Iron Man). Originally hired as Tony Stark's chauffeur after saving Stark's life, Hogan has gone on to serve with Stark's various business enterprises in a variety of capacities, and has occasionally encountered or assisted the Avengers while acting on Stark's behalf (most recently, for instance, representing the Maria Stark Foundation at a public relations event featuring the Avengers). He is one of the relatively few people Stark trusts with the knowledge of his dual identity as Iron Man, and has even acted as a substitute Iron Man in the past (albeit not with the Avengers). He has long been romantically linked to fellow longtime Stark employee Pepper Potts, but their romance has been on the rocks in recent times after the breakup of their marriage.

Hogarth, Jeryn:
One-time lawyer for the Avengers; former manager and legal counsel of Heroes for Hire. Long employed by corporate super-team Heroes for Hire, Hogarth was one of several lawyers retained by the Avengers to defend the team when government official Henry Peter Gyrich tried unsuccessfully to shut down their operations.

Hulk [II] (Robert Bruce Banner):
Founding member of the Avengers, resigned; active founding member of the Defenders; former leader of the Pantheon; former member of the Titans Three. The super-strong, emotionally unstable man-monster known as the Hulk was a founding member of the Avengers, but was then in the midst of a gradual, long-term mental breakdown that eventually resulted in a complete split personality. In his superhuman form as the Hulk, he developed a personality that was essentially benign, but quick-tempered and primitively child-like. This led the Hulk to resign in anger following the Avengers' second mission together, after the Space Phantom's impersonation of the Hulk in battle with the Avengers showed the Hulk how wary the other Avengers were of him.
     For years thereafter, the Hulk's temper combined with the public's distrust of him to produce an endless series of destructive rampages. The Hulk was a fugitive for years, but remained essentially benevolent at heart. He sometimes allied himself with the Avengers and other adventurers, and formed close friendships in the informal super-team called the Defenders, of which he was a founding member. In more recent years, the Hulk underwent a series of physical and psychological changes that resulted in his ability to retain full human intelligence while in superhuman form, though he usually manifests one of his now several split personalities when he is in Hulk form. He has continued to act as an adventurer (though still outside the law for the most part), and has even worked with the Avengers on occasion; however, the general public and the authorities both continue to fear and mistrust him for the most part, and he is still subject to periods of mindless, destructive rage that have helped keep him on the run. He has been on good terms with the Avengers of late, though, assisting them in a conflict with Diablo and agreeing to keep them informed of his own status in the future.

Human Robot:
Founding member of the 1950s incarnation of the Avengers, a group which existed only in an alternate timeline. A super-strong robot that went on a killing rampage when its controls were improperly set, the mechanism known as the Human Robot was deactivated when its rampage carried it into New York's harbour; however, in at least one alternate timeline, the Human Robot was salvaged by Namora and reactivated to serve as a founding member of a 1950s super-team known as the Avengers, a group the present-day Avengers once encountered via time travel. As a member of the 1950s Avengers, the Human Robot retained its violent tendencies but developed a more benign and reasonable personality through the influence of the mystical powers of its teammate, Venus. The 1950s Avengers group was retroactively rendered non-existent during the Destiny War when Immortus used the Forever Crystal to erase the various timelines in which their group had formed. As such, the Human Robot of the mainstream timeline is probably still rusting away in the waters off New York City.

Human Torch (alias James Hammond): See Hammond, James
Legendary android adventurer of the late 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s who was revived in recent years and became a member of the Avengers. After losing the full use of his superhuman powers, the Torch retired from full-time adventuring and resumed his old human alias as Jim Hammond, the name he continues to go by today.

Last updated by Sean McQuaid on October 13, 2001.

Avengers and all related characters copyright 2001 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All text in this document copyright Sean McQuaid, 2001.