Marvel

"As I try to avoid looking at his family, I learn that his name was Marvel. How did I never know that? I suppose that before the Games I didn't pay attention and afterwards I didn't want to know."

- Katniss Everdeen about Marvel

Marvel is a minor antagonist in The Hunger Games. He was the male tribute from District 1 in the 74th Hunger Games and a member of the Career pack.

Biography
Marvel was born into District 1, one of the wealthier districts of Panem, and trained most of his life for the Hunger Games, specializing in spears. During the 74th Hunger Games, he was a part of the Career pack along with his district partner, Glimmer. He was tied with Glimmer for weakest career. However, in the Games Marvel got away from the tracker jackers and Glimmer didn't, and his odds were the same as Clove's, making him the third-strongest of the Career pack, after Clove and Cato respectively.

74th Hunger Games
Marvel volunteered into the 74th Hunger Games. As a Career Tribute, Marvel was strong, ruthless, arrogant and very confident. It is also mentioned by Katniss that he might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed with his fists and brute force but is extremely deadly from a distance.

Parade
During the opening ceremonies, he and his district partner, Glimmer, were spray painted silver and were wearing tunics. In the movie, Glimmer and Marvel wore fuchsia outfits belted out in sequins and feathers, representing their District industry, luxury. Katniss points out that they both looked very luxurious. The pink outfits were quite stunning and Marvel and his partner Glimmer are seen dressed in bright pink outfits in the first chariot of the parade.

Training
He showed great skill at fighting and throwing spears which made him deadly at a distance. While the District 3 female was on the Gauntlets, she was tripped and he and the other Careers laughed. During training in the film, he saw Peeta's weakness and viewed him as a "meal" until Peeta's true strength was revealed, leaving him and the other Careers surprised. He received a good training score of 9 which made him the joint 3rd biggest threat in the games after Cato and Thresh. In the film, he was given the odds of 5-1, just like Clove. Marvel showed the same arrogance as many of his fellow careers, but lacked the ruthless discipline of Cato and Clove (probably because they were from District 2, which contributes heavily to the Capitol's military); however, unlike his fellow tribute Glimmer he was very well-trained in his weapon of choice which was a spear or throwing spears.

Interviews
During his interview with Caesar Flickerman, he wore a blue suit with matching blue trousers and was obviously trying to be funny and was very confident.

Bloodbath
He was risen to the pedestal next to Clove and Katniss. When the gong rang, he ran to the Cornucopia to battle for supplies like most of the other tributes, picking up a knife on the way there. He spotted the District 8 male, slashed his throat and repeatedly stabbed him to death with a kurki knife.He watches Glimmer kill the District 6 female. Marvel goes up to the District 10 male and battles with him. He interrupts a battle between the District 3 male and the District 7 female over backpack, by taking it away. The District 3 male grasps on his axe, but Marvel pushes his backpack into his face. He notices the District 7 female on the ground, so he chases her and strikes her in the heart with a spear, killing her.

Alliance
Marvel made an alliance with Glimmer, Cato, Clove, Peeta, the District 3 male, and the District 4 female (book), to form a typical career alliance which includes two non-Careers (Peeta and the District 3 male).

Marvel helped the Careers chase Katniss up a tree. It appears in the film he noticed her before any of his fellow careers do by yelling 'There she is!' Realizing that it will be difficult to attack her, he and the other Careers form a camp below her. While in her tree, Katniss sees Rue (the Careers had chased her up a tree also), the female tribute from District 11, in a nearby tree. Rue points out a tracker jacker nest hanging near her. Katniss takes the knife that Clove tried to kill her with at the Bloodbath (in the book it is mentioned that it is serrated near the handle, making it handy for sawing things) out of her backpack and cuts the branch that held the tracker jacker nest off. The nest hit the ground and burst open, and he, Cato and Clove were stung many times, forcing them (except Glimmer, and the District 4 female in the book, because she succumbed to the stings and died) to flee to the nearby lake.

After Marvel and the other Careers recovered from their tracker jacker stings, they began to hunt for more tributes. When Katniss and Rue formed their plan to destroy the supplies, Rue made a fire as a decoy. The Careers were then distracted by the fire and took off to kill the tribute who started it. Marvel and the others set out to find Rue, but after the supplies were destroyed by land mines set up from the District 3 boy, Marvel watched Cato snap the District 3 boy's neck. Marvel and Clove were able to calm Cato down and told him that the one who destroyed their supplies was probably killed as well in the explosion. They wait for night to see the faces of those who were killed and find that the tribute did not die. Marvel, Cato, and Clove then set out to hunt the other tributes.

Death
Marvel traps Rue on her way to light the last fire she and Katniss planned to light. As Rue screams for help, Marvel throws a spear into her abdomen. Katniss witnesses this and shoots him through the neck. In the film, Katniss reaches Rue first and cuts the net. Marvel throws a spear and Katniss luckily dodges it, but it hits Rue in her abdomen. Katniss skewers him in the neck (in the heart in the film) with an arrow, causing him to die. He tried to remove the arrow by pulling it out, but since the arrow had punctured his heart it caused the blood flow and breathing to stop, resulting in his death.

Rue removed her spear but already lost a significant amount of blood. Overall, Marvel placed 8th out of 24, which was higher than his female counterpart, Glimmer who died by tracker jackers.

In the film, he is shot in the heart, in addition, his killing of Rue is almost accidental, as he throws the spear at Katniss, who sidesteps to grab her bow and arrows so she can shoot him, and the spear hits Rue instead. But both resulted in the deaths of Rue and himself.

Muttation
When the wolf muttations of the fallen tributes appeared chasing Cato, Marvel's was one of the pack, with brown fur and being particularly taller and skinnier than the other mutts. It is unknown if the muttation of Marvel survived the battle between the pack and Cato, Peeta, and Katniss.

Catching Fire
In Catching Fire, Katniss and Peeta go to District 1 on their Victory Tour. Katniss  feels uncomfortable, as she was responsible for the deaths of both Marvel and Glimmer, Marvel's district partner. She spots his family, and she tries to not look them in the eye. In the film, Katniss also has a brief hallucination to her killing Marvel as she is about to kill a turkey. Gale comforts her afterward but she keeps quiet about what she saw. President Snow visits her before the Victory tour to warn her about uprisings and threaten her to calm the districts.

Victims
In the book, his most notable victim was Rue. In the film, he kills Rue the same way in the book, but throws his spear into her abdomen after Katniss cuts Rue out of the net. He also seemed to have been aiming the spear at Katniss, until she dodged it and shot him in the heart. In the film, Marvel is shown to kill two tributes in the Bloodbath. After the District 8 male attempts to stab or punch Marvel, Marvel slashes his throat with his kukri knife, throws him onto the ground, and then uses the knife to stab him until he dies. He kills also the District 7 female by skewering her with his spear.

Possessions
During the Games, Marvel (being a Career tribute) had medicine, food, water, and other supplies from the Cornucopia. These supplies were blown up when Katniss destroyed the mines planted by the District 3 boy, and Marvel was left only with his spears and a backpack. The backpack held some knives, two extra spear heads, a flashlight, a small leather pouch, and a first-aid kit. However, it only included meager rations - a bottle of water and a pack of dried fruit - which Katniss saw as a sign of extreme arrogance because the Careers had such a bounty at camp.

Personality


Katniss thought Marvel as "arrogant" after finding a pack of dried fruit on him following Rue's death, due to the fact that he had bountiful resources with the career's supplies. Nevertheless, during the 74th Victory Tour, she felt guilty for not knowing his name during the games.

During his interviews, he seemed to be going for a comedic approach, most likely to appeal to more sponsors. However, at the start of the games he ruthlessly killed at least three or four tributes, and later Rue, a twelve year old girl.

In The Hunger Games: Tribute Guide, it is mentioned that Marvel is "not the sharpest tool in the shed with his fists or brute force but sharp with spears and was properly the best from long distance."

Physical description
Marvel is described rather more skinny and tall than muscular and fit, unlike the other Careers. In the movie, he has short light brown hair and green eyes. He is the second tallest tribute at 6'3 behind Thresh at 6'5.

Trivia

 * His odds of winning are 5-1, which is the same as Clove.
 * Out of all of the District 1 tributes in both Games, Marvel placed the highest in the Hunger Games, at 8th. Glimmer was 12th, Gloss was 11th, and Cashmere was 10th.
 * In the film, it is shown that he weighs 165 pounds and is 17 years old.
 * He, along with his district partner, Glimmer, was killed by Katniss.
 * He scored a 9 in training.
 * In the Tribute Guide, Marvel is described as "not being the sharpest tool in the shed".
 * Marvel is the first tribute Katniss directly killed, as she didn't purposely take Glimmer's life earlier in the Games.
 * Marvel, Thresh and Rue are the only named deceased tributes from The Hunger Games to appear in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
 * He appeared in Catching Fire (film), when Katniss shot a turkey and she had a hallucination that she shot Marvel.
 * Marvel scored the same training score as Thresh in the movie but in the book he scored lower than Thresh
 * Marvel survived for 9 days in the book and for 6 days in the film.

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