Who has appeared in the most Marvel projects? It’s got to be one of the Avengers, right? Robert Downey Jr., perhaps, or maybe even the X-Men’s Hugh Jackman? How about the actor who’s turned up in the most DC movies and TV shows? The Arrowverse’s Stephen Amell or Grant Gustin? Close, but no cigar.
The star of the big and small screens who has appeared in the most Marvel or DC projects across the board is actually an actor who most casual fans of those franchises may not recognize. Not typically cast as the leading man, this individual instead steals every scene he’s in as a distinguished character actor, often cast in supporting roles or as villainous personalities. Sure enough, the actor in question is back at it again, thanks to his part in Max’s The Penguin. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the real king of Marvel and DC — Clancy Brown.
Sal Maroni in The Penguin is far from Clancy Brown’s only Marvel/DC role
Veteran and prolific performer Clancy Brown appears in The Penguin as a character rich in DC history — mob boss Salvatore “Sal” Maroni. In comic book lore, Maroni is most known as the man who disfigures Harvey Dent and precipitates his transformation into Two-Face. In The Dark Knight, this role was given to the Joker, but Maroni was still included in the movie, as played by Eric Roberts.
Brown is now taking over as Maroni for the acclaimed series, which allows him to tick yet another famous comic book role off his bucket list. Across live-action films and TV, animated films and TV, and video games, Brown has wracked up appearances in a whopping 35 Marvel and DC productions, according to his IMDb page.
His first venture into the superhero world came in 1996’s The Incredible Hulk cartoon in which he turned up as the villain Sasquatch. That same year, he hopped over to DC to play one of his most celebrated roles to this day — Lex Luthor, in the various TV shows that make up the DCAU. Thanks to his reprisal of the part in recent LEGO games, Brown is officially the longest-serving actor to play Luthor in history, becoming as synonymous with the character as Mark Hamill is with the Joker.
MCU fans, meanwhile, will recognize his gravelly tones coming out of the mouth of Surtur in Thor: Ragnarok, a role he reprised in What If…? In the flesh, he also played Major Schoonover, a corrupt U.S. military officer, in both Daredevil and The Punisher. Funnily enough, he portrayed a very similar character, General Wade Eiling, in The CW’s The Flash. He’s also in 2011’s Green Lantern as the voice of Parallax.
And let’s not forget his endless roles in various animated series, like Spectacular Spider-Man, The Batman, and Young Justice, in which he often played multiple characters in each show. Just a few other iconic allies and villains he’s voiced include Red Hulk, Mr. Freeze, Bane, Rhino, Odin, Captain George Stacy, the Watcher, and Taskmaster.
Of course, none of these are quite as legendary as his 25-year stint voicing Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants. See Clancy Brown, aka the one-man Avengers: Secret Wars, in The Penguin, airing new episodes on Sundays on Max from Sep. 29.
