The Avengers, in many ways, were Silver Age Marvel’s victory lap. The publisher brought together its most popular heroes, copying DC groups like the Justice Society and the Justice League, creating a team that would become the most popular superteam in pop culture in the 21st century. The team is known as “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” and that’s a great explanation for who they are. They’re the best of the best, and they’ve proved it many times over, helping to save humanity and the entire universe from the greatest threats ever. They are the biggest team in the Marvel Universe (even if their sales aren’t always great), and they’re one of the most important groups in the history of comics.
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The Avengers have starred in some amazing stories over the years, and those stories have molded and shaped the team in a variety of ways. They’ve passed many milestones on the road to superstardom, and some of these are more important than others. These ten Avengers milestones are the biggest in the team’s history, making them into the biggest team in superhero media (until the X-Men MCU movie comes out).
10) “Onslaught”
Not every milestone in a team’s history is positive, and “Onslaught” is one of those. The 1996 event saw the X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four, and other heroes of New York City battling against Onslaught, a powerful psionic parasite created when Xavier mindwiped Magneto in X-Men (Vol. 2) #25. This story led into Heroes Reborn, with Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld taking over the Avengers and the Fantastic Four for a year. This is one of the biggest mistakes in the history of Marvel and shows how the publisher has often made big missteps with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
9) Avengers vs. X-Men
Avengers vs. X-Men is a wrongfully maligned event. I get why a lot of people dislike it, but this book is just big dumb superhero fun. The 12-issue tale from Brian Micheal Bendis, Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron, John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel, and Adam Kubert was an example of Marvel doing their best to cash in on 2012’s The Avengers, and it also represents the end of Bendis’s Avengers run. It put a capstone on an entire era of the team and was the bridge to the Hickman run and the birth of Uncanny Avengers. It’s much more of a major event in the group’s history than people realize.
8) The Incursions
Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers run was flawless and it introduced a concept that would change the Marvel Universe for years — the Incursions. Started by the Beyonders as a part of a twisted experiment, this event saw alternate Earths colliding, destroying entire universes. It led to the Builders attacking the intergalactic powers of the Marvel Universe and the end of the old Marvel Multiverse, including the death of the original Ultimate Universe in Secret Wars. This story would end with Doom redeemed for a few years and the end of the Fantastic Four. The Incursions are honestly one of the last great milestones in Avengers’ history.
7) House of M
House of M, by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel, changed the direction of the entire Marvel Universe. It was a follow-up to “Avengers Disassembled: Chaos”, and picked up the story of Scarlet Witch while also giving readers the first crossover between the Astonishing X-Men and the New Avengers. Wanda’s creation of a world where Magneto ruled a planet where mutants were the dominant species ended with the depowering of the mutant race, Wanda going into hiding, and put the team on the road to Civil War. While this event seemingly had more impact on the X-Men, it’s still an important part of Avengers history.
6) “Under Siege”
Marvel had some great stories in the ’80s, and the Avengers benefited from the rise in quality of the decade. Roger Stern and John Buscema’s run on Avengers is full of great stories and the best of them, and a major milestone in the group’s history, is “Under Siege”. This story pit the Avengers against the largest, most powerful, and most well-prepared roster of the Masters of Evil. The team got trounced by the villains and it represented their most well-known defeat and best come from behind victory. It’s become legendary, showing both the weaknesses and strengths of the group.
5) Civil War
Civil War is extremely important to Marvel history, and had a huge impact on the Avengers. The ideological split between Captain America and Iron Man led to the team at each other’s throats and some of the coolest battles in Marvel history. Iron Man’s side won, he was made the Director of SHIELD, and the Avengers split into two teams, an underground team led by Luke Cage and an official Avengers team that worked with SHIELD. It also laid the groundwork for Norman Osborn taking over the Superhero Initiative and the birth of the Dark Avengers. It’s not a beloved event, but it’s definitely important.
4) Heroes Return
Heroes Reborn was a disaster. Marvel thought bringing in Jim Lee’s Wildstorm and Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios would breath new life into Avengers, Captain America, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man. However, it did the opposite; it chased away traditional fans and didn’t appeal to fans of Lee and Liefeld. After 13 issues, Marvel put the kibosh on the publishing initiative, leading to Heroes Reborn: The Return, which would bring the Avengers and Fantastic Four back from their Franklin Richards-created pocket universe. Avengers, Captain America, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man were relaunched (with The Mighty Thor returning a few months later) with the sobriquet Heroes Return. This led to a short mini renaissance of those book, with the centerpiece being Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s Avengers run. This was an exciting time for the team and helped make them popular again.
3) “Avengers Disassembled: Chaos”
“Avengers Disassembled: Chaos” changed the course of the Avengers for years to come. After Busiek left Avengers (Vol. 3), the book fizzled out and Marvel needed to make it popular again. The publisher tapped Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch to take over the team, leading to this story. It made Scarlet Witch into a villain (well, again), killed the Vision, Scott Lang, and Hawkeye, and laid the groundwork for the birth of New Avengers, a book which would make Earth’s Mightiest Heroes into the most popular team in comics during the ’00s and early ’10s. It’s one of the most important Avengers stories in the team’s history.
2) “The Kree-Skrull War”
“The Kree-Skrull War”, by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, John Buscema, and Sal Buscema, changed the Avengers forever. The Kree and Skrull decided to pull the Earth into their war, hoping they could learn to jumpstart their evolution from superpowered humanity and end their millennia long war. The Avengers jump into action, and are able to save the Earth from the two races’ depredations. What makes this story so important is that it changed the way the Avengers were perceived. They were no longer just Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but the mightiest heroes in the universe. They’d grow beyond what they were, leading to some amazing cosmic Avengers stories.
1) The Return of Captain America
Captain America is the most important Avengers who isn’t a founder of the team. He’s become the group’s greatest leader and has formed the moral center for them in their adventures. He was the ingredient that the first three issues of the book were missing, and Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Avengers (Vol. 1) #4 brought him back to the Marvel Universe. This issue isn’t just a huge part of Avengers’ history, but also a fantastic comic, with Kirby’s flawless art giving readers an awesome read (his fight seen with Cap using the confined spaces of a submarine to beat the team is one of the coolest action scenes in comics). This moment changed the Avengers and the Marvel Universe forever.
What’s your favorite Avengers milestone? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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