Jarvis was the Stark family's trusted butler long before Tony Stark gave their mansion to the Avengers for use as a headquarters. 

     Initially unnerved by his bizarre new employers, Jarvis gradually became accustomed to the Avengers and even formed friendships with many of their members over the years, sometimes assisting the Avengers in their missions and often performing or supervising support operations well outside the realm of his butlering duties.

  
     Jarvis remains an invaluable aide to the Avengers today, and his service record has only three significant interruptions. The first came when Ultron-5 mesmerized Jarvis into betraying the secrets of Avengers Mansion to the Masters of Evil; the guilt-stricken Jarvis was relieved when the Avengers survived the Masters' attack (thanks in part to his courageous interference), and the heroes promptly welcomed the repentant Jarvis back into their service. His second and longer separation from the group came when a new incarnation of the Masters of Evil (led by Baron Helmut Zemo) captured Avengers Mansion and some of its occupants. Jarvis himself was sadistically tortured by Mister Hyde, rendered lame and blind in one eye, conditions that both proved temporary after extensive rehabilitative work. Undaunted by his experiences, Jarvis resumed his duties as soon as he was able to do so, rather than accepting a generous retirement package. Later, Jarvis was forced into retirement for a period of months when the Avengers disbanded in the wake of the Onslaught disaster, laying off him and the rest of the Avengers Crew (an expanded civilian support staff employed by the team for a time). When the Avengers began to regroup, Jarvis was promptly hired back and remains one of the team's staunchest allies.

     While many of the Avengers have been friendly with Jarvis over the years, he is most closely linked to one of the team's more recent recruits: Maria De Guadalupe Santiago (or "Lupe" for short), alias Silverclaw. This young adventurer, currently living in America as a college student, was sponsored by Jarvis as his long-distance foster child while she was growing up in her native Costa Verde. She and her "uncle" Jarvis corresponded for years before she came to America, and the two have become even closer friends since Lupe moved to New York to attend school. With her parents dead, Lupe regards Jarvis and the Avengers as her only real family, though she plans to return to Costa Verde someday and act as a protector of her people. In the meantime, she is Jarvis's closest friend among the past and present Avengers, though Jarvis also has an affectionate relationship with Tony Stark (Iron Man), whom he helped raise. Apart from the Avengers, Jarvis's closest friends have included his mother Mrs. Jarvis, his past girlfriend Glory Garsen, and Spider-Man's aunt May Parker.