Background

Edwin Jarvis worked as the butler for Howard and Maria Stark and continued to watch over the mansion after their deaths. While working as their butler Jarvis watched as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, grew into the man he is today and after his parents' death, Jarvis stayed on as the servant for Tony.

When Tony became Iron Man and joined the Avengers Jarvis was there and had become accustomed to being around super-heroes. That ease was thrown into question numerous times, one of which when he was severely beaten by the Masters of Evil. This wasn't enough to completely turn Jarvis away and he has stayed a permanent fixture of the Avengers for their entire run.

At one point one of the Avengers main enemies, Ultron, hypnotized Jarvis into helping him and the rest of the Masters of Evil bring down the Avengers, which they accomplished. Racked with guilt over what he had done Jarvis told the Black Knight what had happened and it was the Black Knight that eventually rescued the imprisoned Avengers. Realizing that Jarvis was hypnotized and not acting on his own accord, the Avengers welcomed Jarvis back with open arms.

Currently Jarvis is serving as the Butler for the New Avengers where one of the most recent additions to the Avengers headquarters is Spider-Man and Spider-Man elderly Aunt May. In recent issues Jarvis and May Parker have started to become romantically involved. He helped pay for May's medical bills after she was shot by a sniper hired by the Kingpin.

Its hard to say exactly when, but at some point, the real Edwin Jarvis was replaced by a shape shifting Skrull. This alien impostor posed as Jarvis and stabbed the Avengers in the back during the Secret Invasion.

Thanks To:

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.

Some of the above information is extracted from the various versions of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe and the more recent Marvel Encyclopaedias.