What's better than a team of Earth's Mightiest superheroes that includes a man in an armored suit? A team of Earth's Mightiest superheroes with two men in armored suits. The Avengers focused on the core heroes from the Marvel Studios franchise who've each had the chance to star in their own films, adding a few secondaries in non-powered characters from the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization (Black Widow & Hawkeye).

With "Phase Two" of the Marvel cinematic universe officially beginning with Iron Man 3 - as outlined during the Marvel Studios Comic-Con 2012 panel along with announcements for the upcoming slate of film - there are going to be more characters available to fight the good fight come time for the next epic team-up in The Avengers 2.

Guardians of the Galaxy is set to pick up from the mid-credits button in The Avengers which introduced Thanos, and while Ant-Man doesn't have a date yet, it's live-action existence is now official (read our description of the Ant-Man footage). Both of these films will introduce new characters that will likely play a crucial role in The Avengers 2, but there are also additional characters in the next Iron Man, Thor and Captain America sequels.

War Machine wallpaper

War Machine was introduced in Iron Man 2 and returns in IM3 with a few changes and upgrades, as confirmed by actor Don Cheadle who plays James "Rhodey" Rhodes in a Comic-Con 2012 interview with G4. In that same interview he was asked about the potential of the character to show up in The Avengers since he wasn't given the call the first time around.

"Into The Avengers there's been some mention, potentially and into a spin-off or... Let's keep it going now. Let's start it now and then pump it up and keep it going, and get it moving all through Comic-Con."

The spin-off talk is just that, talk, and we heard the same about Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury previously. It's unlikely any of these characters will get their own full-length feature to headline with so many other characters vying for an introduction (see: Black Panther and Doctor Strange). What will happen - and what makes more sense for the studio - is more cross-pollination of characters in the films, since they do all share the same universe.

Iron Patriot in Iron Man 3

Clearly, Don Cheadle would love to play a bigger role in the franchise, and we at Screen Rant would love to see him show up - even if only for a brief time - in The Avengers 2. War Machine is one our top 15 characters we want in The Avengers 2 and with Tony Stark undergoing some drastic changes in Iron Man 3 (see the new Iron Man 3 armor here), there's more to differentiate him (and his armor) from War Machine.

Do you want more characters in The Avengers 2 or is the old adage of "less is more" a strategy the studio should employ?

Iron Man 3 is directed by Shane Black based off of his and Drew Pearce’s screenplay, and stars Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Jon Favreau, Rebecca Hall, Cobie Smulders, William Sadler, James Badge Dale and the voice of Paul Bettany.

Iron Man 3 releases May 3, 2013, Thor 2 on November 8, 2013, Captain America 2 on April 4, 2014 and Guardians of the Galaxy on August 1, 2014.

-

Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.