Avengers Resemble

Scott Hardie | October 1, 2025
Regarding this month's theme in Celebrity Goo Game:

Look, I know I do a lot of "relatives of actors who were all in a project together" themes. In fact, I already did one with Marvel's Defenders!

But I keep coming back to the idea because it's a solid basis for a theme: It tends to inspire goos from many different fields (albeit a few more in showbiz), it consistently yields good ideas for celebrities who had not been goos before, it gives players an additional angle for trying to solve a goo if they get stumped by the normal means, and each theme is just plain fun for me and (I hope) for the players if it's a popular brand.

So, I'mma keep doing them.

Scott Hardie | October 21, 2025
Someone (who can speak up to identify themselves if they wish) asked me some clarifying questions about this month's "Avengers Resemble" theme. I thought I'd answer publicly in order to share the knowledge around. Paraphrasing their questions:

Are the actor-relatives all found in Avengers movies? Or can they be actor-relatives who appeared in other MCU titles without appearing in an Avengers movie specifically?

Well, the relatives are all actors whose MCU characters have been official members of the MCU Avengers at some point, and I can't recall any Avenger who did not appear in at least one of the four (so far) movies with Avengers in the title. So, it's yes to your first question; the actor-relatives are all found in Avengers movies. None appeared exclusively in other, non-Avengers MCU titles...

...But that said, anyone familiar with the movie series probably noticed an exception: Edward Norton only played Hulk once, before Mark Ruffalo took over the role starting in the first Avengers movie. Thus, Norton never appeared in an Avengers movie, but since his character did later join the team on screen, I extended the theme to include him. I gotta keep you players on your toes somehow. :-)

I'm not counting the New Avengers, the Young Avengers, or various other Avengers in the multiverse as MCU Avengers for the purposes of this scheme, since those are other distinct teams to me. But that doesn't mean that there's not some other chicanery afoot...

Are you counting potential future Avengers who were part of the team in the comics but haven't yet joined in the MCU?

Nope, only characters who were already portrayed on screen as members, said in dialogue to be members, or met explicitly-stated criteria to be members. I don't know how much "officially joined the team" really matters when members of the team go around unilaterally declaring that anyone they want is now an Avenger (Tony Stark to Peter Parker, Clint Barton to Wanda Maximoff, etc), but really, who cares? The distinction is clear enough, I think.

Besides, in the comics, nearly every Marvel superhero has been an Avenger at some point. It's a team with a ridiculously long roster of once-members. I'm not prepared to wade into waters that deep and nerdy at this time. :-)

Matthew Preston | October 21, 2025
Thank you for clarifying! I am identifying myself.