The Avengers formed in 1963 when several powerful heroes answered the call to stop Loki, who was manipulating the Hulk. From the start, they were never on the same page, as their treatment of founding member Hulk pushed him away, and their arrogance made them seem above other heroes many times. Since that time, the U.S. government eventually took control of the team, and this caused even more problems when government lackeys like Henry Peter Gyrich forced the team to push out even loyal and trusted allies. However, it also opened the team up to betrayals from within, where several Avengers openly turned on their teammates in often deadly betrayals.
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Here are 10 Avengers members who betrayed their teammates, and how it affected Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
10) Wonder Man Created the Revengers
Wonder Man was a villain when he first appeared in Marvel Comics, but he never wanted to be one. He ended up betraying Baron Zemo from the start and died to save the Avengers. When he returned to life, Wonder Man had greater powers than anyone had ever imagined, but he still didn’t want to fight and became a pacifist. Things changed when he noticed how much damage the Avengers caused in their actions.
This is when Wonder Man decided to “stop” the Avengers from causing more damage to the world, and he formed the Revengers with other powerful heroes. However, when he realized his team caused as much damage as the Avengers, he backed down and realized the Avengers helped the world more than they hurt it.
9) Yellowjacket’s Nervous Breakdown
Hank Pym suffered one of the most tragic downfalls of any hero in Marvel Comics. One of Marvel’s first-ever superheroes, the brilliant scientist experienced mental health issues over time, and he changed hero identities more than once. After becoming the Yellow Jacket, Hank hid his identity from the team before finally coming around and telling them who he was.
However, his mental health continued to decline, and after a few too many mistakes, he wanted to redeem himself. He created a robot villain he could defeat, but when that went wrong, he lost it, slapped his wife, and ended up being court-martialed and eventually imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. It was one of the biggest downfalls in Marvel history.
8) Vision Tried To Conquer the Earth
Ultron created Vision as an android he hoped would help bring down the Avengers, but Vision betrayed his master and joined the team. It wasn’t long before Vision experienced human emotions, thanks to having Wonder Man’s brainwaves and emotions programmed into his AI. He fell in love with Scarlet Witch and became as much a hero as any human on the team. However, as a robot, he also thought analytically, and at one time, he believed the world ran better without government oversight.
Vision took over computers worldwide, attacked his Avengers teammates when they learned what he did, and forcibly tried to make the world a better place. The Avengers finally stopped him from dismantling the government, but it was almost too late. The U.S. government ended up capturing Vision and took him apart, stripping him of any humanity and ending his relationship with Scarlet Witch at the same time.
7) Spider-Woman Was a Skrull in Secret Invasion
Jessica Drew didn’t actually betray the Avengers, but Spider-Woman did. This was part of the giant Secret Invasion storyline, and Spider-Woman wasn’t the only Skrull disguised as a hero who betrayed Earth’s heroes. The Skrulls also replaced everyone from Black Bolt to Elektra, and this made it almost impossible for the Avengers to know who they could trust.
That said, Spider-Woman was the most important. This is because she was Queen Veranke, the leader of the Skrulls, starting the invasion. She was the one who led the attack on Earth, making Spider-Woman the catalyst of this entire war. When the war ended, the real Spider-Woman returned to Earth and remained part of the Avengers.
6) The Illuminati Betrayed Everyone (More Than Once)
The Illuminati remain one of the worst organizations on Earth, at least as far as their terrible actions and constant betrayals. This group was liable for the Secret Invasion because they took it upon themselves to go threaten the Skrulls on their homeworld, leading the Skrulls to capture and replace Black Bolt and start their invasion plans. They also betrayed their close friend, and sometime-Avengers member, Hulk, by asking him for help just so they could shoot him off the planet and strand him on Sakaar.
However, the worst moment came when they learned of the Incursions and kept it a secret, instead planning on committing wide-scaled genocide on other Earths to save their own planet. Instead of asking for help, Iron Man had Doctor Strange brainwash Captain America into forgetting the events, and then they couldn’t stop Earth’s destruction.
5) Captain America in Secret Empire
Much like the Spider-Woman Avengers betrayal, it wasn’t actually Captain America who betrayed the team here, technically. This wasn’t a Skrull, but it was a time-displaced Steve Rogers from another Earth who tired of the system and wanted change. The sentient Cosmic Cube Kobik caused this to happen, and the new Captain America not only betrayed the Avengers but the entire world and turned the United States into a fascist authoritarian dictatorship ruled by Hydra.
Cap even murdered friends and allies, and, unsurprisingly, had plenty of American followers who preferred dictatorship to actual freedom. In the end, the 616-Captain America fought his way back and defeated the alternate world version, but since regular society didn’t know what was going on, Cap lost the trust of many people, while others wished their country was still a fascist dictatorship. It changed Marvel for years.
4) Iron Man in The Crossing
Iron Man ended up a traitor in the Avengers storyline, The Crossing, one of the most controversial and polarizing in the comic book company’s history. This storyline reveals that Iron Man had been a double-agent for years, working for Kang the Conqueror from inside the Aveners to allow the time-traveling tyrant a chance to attack and overrun Earth-616.
This meant that Iron Man was always a villain pretending to be a hero, which erased so many important moments in Iron Man’s Avengers history. When he began killing people, including the time-displaced Yellowjacket and Luna’s nanny, he stepped over a line he could never return from. The Avengers used a teenage version of Iron Man to stop him. The Onslaught event rebooted everything, but Iron Man’s reputation ended up forever ruined.
3) Black Panther in Enemy of the State
One of the best Black Panther stories in history was “Enemy of the State,” released in 1998 by Christopher Priest. This story saw Black Panther learn that the United States planned a hostile takeover of Wakanda, and he set out to stop it. This saw Black Panther realizing he can’t trust anyone, from the Avengers to the United States government, and it pushed the country to a more isolationist position in the realm of world politics.
However, it also separated Black Panther from the Avengers when the team, and specifically Captain America, learned T’Challa didn’t join them to be a genuine member, but because he didn’t trust them and was only there to observe them and monitor what they were doing. This series showed betrayal by the U.S. against Wakanda and by Black Panther against the Avengers.
2) Scarlet Witch in Avengers Disassembled
Arguably, the biggest betrayal against the Avengers came thanks to trauma and mental illness. Wanda Maximoff, at one time, created her own children using her magic and raised them with her android husband, Vision. However, Mephisto took the children, and Agatha Harkness made Wanda forget. Thanks to Wasp accidentally triggering the memory, Wanda lost control.
She murdered Agatha Harkness and then set off a series of events that killed Jack of Hearts, Scott Lang, and Hawkeye. This was Avengers Disassembled, and by the time it ended, Wanda had destroyed the team. Wanda also caused House of M, but that was more Quicksilver’s fault when he learned the X-Men and Avengers planned to kill his sister.
1) Captain America & Iron Man Began a Civil War
Possibly, the biggest betrayal in the entire world of superheroes, including the Avengers, came during the Civil War event. This started with Iron Man believing the Superhero Registration Act was important after an event with the New Warriors caused the death of children. Captain America didn’t trust the government to have control of all the heroes and was against it.
This led to war, and it resulted in betrayals, deaths, and even a prison in the Negative Zone that housed superheroes who didn’t want to sign on. Iron Man did the worst things (the prison, creating a Thor clone that killed Bill Foster, causing Aunt May’s near-death), but Captain America kept escalating things. Both men share guilt in Marvel’s most shameful event.
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