Sidekicks are a huge part of comic book lore. Almost every superhero ever created has their one: Batman has Robin, Superman has Jimmy Olsen, the Green Hornet has Kato. However, not a lot of comic book movies have translated those sidekicks to the screen because they can come off as cheesy or distract from the main hero.
Ever since Chris O’Donnell played the Boy Wonder, studios have been reluctant to bring superhero sidekicks to the big screen. Still, across the decades-long history of comic book movies, there have been some lovable sidekicks who are definitely worth celebrating.
The Falcon (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
In Captain America’s second MCU solo outing, Steve Rogers is struggling to adjust to modern times. He doesn’t recognize the world anymore and everyone he ever knew is dead or super old.
He finds a kindred spirit in Sam Wilson, a fellow veteran who is similarly struggling to reintegrate into society. Throughout the movie, Sam takes up a pair of robotic wings developed for paratroopers and becomes the Falcon.
Etta Candy (Wonder Woman)
When Diana Prince arrives in London with Steve Trevor, Steve’s secretary, Etta Candy, s them and quickly becomes good friends with Diana. She helps her get some clothes so she can blend in with wartime society, and they connect on being unabashedly themselves.
Lucy Davis, best known as Dawn from the original version of The Office, brought a real lovability to the character. With any luck, Etta will somehow reappear alongside Steve in future installments.
Ned Leeds (Spider-Man: Homecoming)
Spider-Man has always been a lone wolf. He’s been Spider-Man: Homecoming, that changed, as his best friend, Ned Leeds, became his “guy in the chair.”
Peter initially protests Ned’s proposal, claiming he doesn’t need a sidekick, but in the final battle, he finds himself in need of remote eyes and ears and Ned is more than willing to step in.
Wong (Doctor Strange)
Wong didn’t have a lot of respect for Stephen Strange when he first arrived at the Sanctum Sanctorum for training, but that’s mainly because Strange himself didn’t have a lot of respect for the art of sorcery.
Over the course of the movie, these two grew to be close friends. As the Ancient One was killed and Kaecilius threatened to release Dormammu on Earth, Strange and Wong were forced to work together and became strong allies.
Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Deadpool)
Although Deadpool refuses to the X-Men, he has teamed up with a couple of mutants. In his first solo movie, he was ed by Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Colossus. The former was more of a sidekick, as the latter took on the role of mentor.
In both Deadpool movies, Wade Wilson has a great repartee with Negasonic. Neither of them pulls any punches, each giving as good as they get, and when push comes to shove, they’re a powerful crime-fighting duo.
Kato (The Green Hornet)
There’s a long-running joke in Green Hornet lore that Britt Reid isn’t the real hero, but rather that title belongs to his chauffeur and sidekick, Kato. Reid is the rich guy who funds their crime-fighting exploits, but martial arts master Kato is the one who really kicks butt.
Although Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet movie received negative reviews, it did nail this dynamic. Rogen hilariously leaned into Reid’s relative ineptness, while his co-star, Jay Chou, really shined as his badass sidekick.
X-23 (Logan)
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine got the perfect swan song in James Mangold’s Logan, a neo-western masterpiece that touches on universal themes and brings a beloved yet bitter superhero to the end of his road in an ultimately hopeful way. The end of every superhero’s journey involves ing on the torch to their successor.
In Logan, Wolverine es the mantle onto his cloned daughter, X-23, also known as Laura. Dafne Keen played the character’s aggression spectacularly, and also brought a real vulnerability and a greater willingness than her father to do the right thing. Fingers crossed for that spin-off fans were promised!
Miles Morales (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse)
It feels strange to refer to Miles Morales as a sidekick in it’s really his movie, but when his universe’s Peter Parker dies while accidentally ripping open the multiverse, Miles finds himself hopelessly unprepared to deal with the ensuing threat.
The Peter from another universe is sucked into Miles' and takes him under his wing, teaching him how to be Spider-Man on the job. The clash between the ambitious but unskilled Miles and the skilled but unmotivated Peter made for some great character development.
Judge Anderson (Dredd)
In the vein of The Enforcer, arguably the best of the Dirty Harry sequels, Dredd revolves around Judge Dredd as a grizzled veteran of Mega-City One’s judge-jury-and-executioner law enforcement system. Dredd takes a naive female rookie, Judge Anderson, out for her first rodeo.
As Dredd and Anderson move through a high-rise controlled by a drug baron, the latter comes to understand the flaws and shortcomings of the system. Olivia Thirlby gives a fantastic performance in the role. It’s a shame there was never a sequel.
Hit-Girl (Kick-Ass)
It’s not often that a movie features Kick-Ass. The only thing more badass than an action hero shooting their way through a hallway full of mafia goons is when that action hero is just a kid.
Hit-Girl is a sidekick to two different heroes in the movie. At the beginning, she’s being mentored by her Batman-like father, Big Daddy, played hysterically by Nicolas Cage, but after he’s killed, she teams up with Kick-Ass to exact revenge on the crime family responsible.
