10 Times Marvel Movies Made Powerful Characters Look Like Total Fools

5. Dr Erik Selvig Is Too - Thor: The Dark World

Ok, so he's not powerful in the traditional superhero sense of the word, but he's important enough to have been a narrative device in three separate films so far. And yet that didn't stop Selvig being reduced to a naked punchline for no apparent reason other than a cheap, disposable thrill.

Selvig's residual trauma from Loki's mind-control actually did make sense in the grand scheme of things - this is a major narrative arc defined by the cost of collateral damage after all - but to have it manifest that way was just disrespectful.

It all smacks of Ghostbusters II syndrome, where great minds who work heroic miracles in the original film are marginalised as lunatics for the sake of giving them some more narrative tension. Even though it makes no sense and ruins the characters.

So instead of being a world-renowned astro-physicist who basically saved the world despite incredible mental trauma, Selvig is now more memorable as a naked wild man on a throw-away news report.