Marvel movie heroes boast an impressive repertoire of powers, but some of the most powerful decide to maintain focus on a street-level playing field.

Despite their limited resources, street-level Marvel heroes from the MCU and beyond can often be as powerful as their globetrotting and multiverse-hopping counterparts. Street-level heroes typically embody the classic crime-fighting image of a masked vigilante, focusing on crime limited to their respective locales. While this doesn’t preclude many street-level heroes from casting a wider net and jetting off around the world or into space, their specialty is dealing with the villains who make living in places like Marvel’s New York City an ill-advised choice for Regular Joes.

For the most part, street-level heroes are the ones that exude the most charm due to their more rough-and-ready approach to heroism. Street-level Marvel heroes are often fan favorites for this reason, despite their powers not matching up to the likes of Captain Marvel or Scarlet Witch. With that being said, most of these street-level heroes have proven themselves capable of extraordinarily otherworldly feats, but their focus belongs to their borough regardless; unlike, for instance, Doctor Strange, whose extradimensional focus often distracts him from the petty crime of Bleecker Street and beyond.

10. Punisher’s Extreme Methods Are A Nightmare For Street-Level Villains

Operates Mainly In New York City

Frank Castle’s lack of superpowers is his biggest appeal as he demonstrates what a regular human can do when pushed to his extremes. Frank Castle’s motivations are among the most relatable of Marvel’s heroes, foregoing the saintly aversion to killing the world’s most deplorable characters displayed by more virtuous heroes like Spider-Man. Given that his vengeful path began with the death of his family, it is hard not to empathize with his lethal means.

Frank Castle’s entire M.O. is to doggedly pursue and eliminate the street-level villains of Marvel’s universe. In 2004’s ThePunisher, Frank goes up against mafia boss Howard Saint, who is an original character created for the movie. Generally, however, he is known for being one of the Kingpin’s many, many adversaries. With the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again promising to introduce Castle to the MCU, he could soon appear on the silver screen once more to help improve on his first three outings in 1989, 2004, and 2008.

9. Ms. Marvel Is Still Closely Tied To Her Family

Operates Mainly In Jersey City

Despite her foray across the universe in The Marvels, Kamala Khan’s roots as the foremost hero of Jersey City – and her fangirling over Captain Marvel – are integral to her identity. Being one of Marvel’s youngest heroes, Kamala is still tied closely to her family, who have starred alongside her in every MCU appearance thus far. With that in mind, it is easy to see Kamala prioritizing their safety and the safety of her local peers until the Young Avengers no doubt take her gallivanting into space once more.

8. Clint Barton Made An Obsession Of Wiping Out Criminals

Operates Mainly In New York City

Hawkeye’s tenure as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and as an original Avenger has taken him to several exotic locations, but his time as the vengeful Ronin saw him rid myriad city streets of crime syndicates with extreme prejudice. This came as a result of the Snap that saw his entire family dusted, turning him into a lethal powerhouse under the moniker Ronin in Avengers: Endgame. His bloodthirsty stint under this guise put him in the sights of the world’s most vengeful characters, including Echo, leaving him to deal with the repercussions in his NYC-based series, Hawkeye.

7. Shang-Chi Is Originally A Street-Level Protector

Operates Mainly In San Francisco

Shang-Chi may have ended his solo movie by defeating a not-so-mythical dragon beast, but his origins are tied to the streets of San Francisco. One of his earliest – and best – scenes is the excellently choreographed tussle with Razorfist on a moving bus. While Shang-Chi is already rubbing shoulders (albeit via hologram) with the Avengers, his next solo outing may well take him back to city-level crime as he deals with the repercussions of his sister, Xu Xialing, assuming the role of leader of the Ten Rings.

6. Morbius Became The Unlikely Hero Of NYC

Operates Mainly In New York City

Morbius’ much maligned solo outing in Sony’s Morbius is not the worst movie in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe anymore, but the absence of his rival, Spider-Man, is conspicuous nonetheless. In his absence, Morbius was left as a New York vigilante by the time his movie came to a close before being approached by the MCU’s Vulture to “do some good.” This is no doubt a facetious proposition, but his antihero days in Marvel Comics have seen Morbius go toe-to-toe with street-level villains like Lizard.

The likelihood in Sony’s cinematic universe is that Morbius will tilt into villainy as part of the Sinister Six. As of now, however, he is responsible for keeping the streets of New York City safe from his vampiric frenemy, Milo. Given that Jared Leto’s Michael Morbius is shown to be good at heart, with a comic book precedent of him even teaming up with Spider-Man, it’s not hard to see him take a more heroic route. Whether he gets a cinematic sequel, however, is another question entirely.

5. Deadpool’s Street-Level Days Are Numbered

Operates Mainly In New York City

Deadpool may be about to abandon his street-level origins with a jaunt through the MCU’s multiverse, but his previous solo outings in Deadpool and Deadpool 2 saw him eviscerate street-level lackeys with extreme prejudice. Though Deadpool’s motivations are selfish on the surface, his status as one of Marvel’s most beloved antiheroes was exemplified by his protection of those less indestructible than him, like Rusty Collins. Following his most recent jaunt across timelines, Deadpool is looking more like he’ll leave these roots behind, however.

4. Blade Keeps The Streets Clear Of A Very Specific Kind Of Criminal

Operates Mainly In Los Angeles/New York City

As a vampire hunter who tussled with a god in his debut movie, Blade’s interactions with the supernatural mean his street-level credentials are somewhat tenuous. However, Blade’s focus on ridding the world of vampires means that he often trawls city streets in search of the clandestine bloodsuckers, a motivation that is encapsulated by the iconic nightclub scene in Blade. Given that Blade‘s MCU debut suggests that vampires have been present in the MCU for some time, this movie should no doubt clarify how Blade’s vampire-hunting has kept myriad city streets clear of their insidious influence.

3. Venom’s Cosmic Origins Turned To Street-Level Vigilantism

Operates Mainly In San Francisco

Though the comic book Venom started as a Spider-Man villain whose origins are tied to the cosmos, Venom’s foray into anti-hero territory was exemplified by Sony’s successful solo movies.Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage have seen Venom become the most heroic figure of his home city, San Francisco, which speaks to the lack of purely good superheroes in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. While Venom has so far gone up against fellow space-borne symbiotes in his movies, he otherwise fills his time ridding San Francisco streets of its criminals, and the criminals of their heads.

2. Daredevil Has A Two-Pronged Approach To Crime Fighting

Operates Mainly In Hell’s Kitchen (NYC)

Although Daredevil’s superior live-action outing was part of Marvel’s TV series, his cinematic debut with Ben Affleck in the titular role was the first that audiences had seen of the Man Without Fear on the big screen. Though poorly received at the time, the movie benefits from a veneer of nostalgia as Ben Affleck’s portrayal of the character – who deals with Kingpin, Elektra, and Bullseye in the movie – is a particular highlight. More recently, Matt Murdock has made a cameo appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Murdock’s tussle with the criminal underbelly of New York City is twofold. While he doles out extreme justice in costume as the masked vigilante Daredevil, his legal battles as Matt Murdock are just as synonymous with his character. Daredevil: Born Again will bring Murdock back to the Disney Plus within the MCU, but it remains to be seen if he’ll be joining the MCU’s heroes in a cinematic outing such as Spider-Man 4 in the future.

1. Spider-Man Is Marvel’s Street-Level Superstar

Operates Mainly In New York City

Spider-Man is the poster boy for street-level heroes. Despite venturing into outer space and across the world in the MCU, he is synonymous with New York City and a rogues gallery that is nearly as iconic as he is. Spider-Man’s approach to heroism is so beloved that it stands to reason that his adventures span several movies and iterations, all of which continue to check off the cinematic debuts of his street-level rivals.

Spider-Man may be the most beloved street-level hero, but he also has the power to back it up. The MCU’s Spider-Man’s dealings with the multiverse and saving the universe may be a far cry from his street-level origins as depicted in 2002’s Spider-Man, but they were a stark demonstration of what he is capable of as he was able to go toe-to-toe with Thanos. Despite the unfathomable power at his disposal, however, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man always returns to his street-level roots, which is precisely what makes him so remarkable.