The 7 Biggest Traitors in Avengers Comics, Ranked

The Avengers have a certain standard when it comes to their members. Being powerful helps, but it’s not the most important thing. Smarts are useful, but the team doesn’t need you if you’re only smart. Having a variety of skills is great, but it’s not enough on its own to be an Avenger. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are the best of the best and loyalty is important. Members of the team have to be able to trust each other, because they’re going into battle against the greatest threats ever; if you can’t trust the people next to you, then you’re all going to die.

That’s why traitors are a special problem for the group. Without trust, they would have died years ago. They have had to deal with their share of betrayals, though, with some of the greatest members in the team’s history betraying them. These are the seven biggest traitors in the Avengers comics, breaking their teammates’ trust… and sometimes their hearts.

7) Doctor Druid

Doctor Druid was the proto-Doctor Strange, first appearing in 1961 as Doctor Droom, coming back as Doctor Druid in 1976. Druid was a mid-level magic user and ended up joining the Avengers in the ’80s. He was just sort of there, but would get embroiled with Ravonna, Kang’s girlfriend, who was using him against the team. He was able to rise to the level of the group’s chairman before revealing that he had betrayed them and died in battle. He’d later return to life, but has never been invited back to the team.

6) Iron Man

Iron Man is a legend and was one of the most important founding Avengers, using his resources and fortune to bankroll the group. However, he’s also betrayed the team multiple times. The first was during the Armor Wars, where he went after anyone using his tech, including members of the Avengers. In “The Crossing” it was revealed that Kang had gone back in time and taken control of Tony Stark, using him against the team and forcing them to go further back in time and get teen Tony to beat him (it’s just as lame as it sounds). Finally, we have Civil War, where he ended up breaking the New Avengers, even talking Spider-Man into revealing his identity and then getting mad at him when he started to have doubts. Technically, the Illuminati is also a betrayal of his teammates, especially that time they mindwiped Captain America.

5) Henry Peter Gyrich

In the late ’70s, the government decided to saddle the Avengers with a liaison officer, sending them Henry Peter Gyrich. Gyrich ended up paring the team down to a “manageable” number and would do everything he could to make their lives harder. There are some who would question whether he should be considered a traitor, but he was supposedly there to make their lives easier with the government and instead seemingly went out of his way to make everything worse for the group.

4) Captain America

Captain America is Marvel’s greatest legend and is considered the Avengers’ most respected member. However, that doesn’t meant he’s never betrayed the team. Kobik, the sentient Cosmic Cube, made him young again but she was programmed by Red Skull to change his history, making him raised by Hydra. He was able to manipulate events and become the Director of SHIELD and talked the president into allowing the organization to create an energy shield to protect the planet. He turned on the shield, trapping Captain Marvel and Alpha Flight in space during a Chitauri invasion that he facilitated, and took over the United States. He broke the Avengers and created his own team, finally being defeated when the old Steve was brought back.

3) The Sentry

The Sentry is one of Marvel’s most overpowered characters and his very nature has made him one of the biggest traitors in Marvel history. See, Bob Reynolds was a man with a lot of mental problems, so him getting powers led to it breaking his brain. The Void is all of the darkest parts of Bob and it’s been known to break free, endangering the entire world. The Sentry has inadvertently betrayed the Avengers because of the Void several times, something that was exacerbated when Norman Osborn took over SHIELD and the Superhero Initiative. Osborn was able to bring the Void to the surface, allowing it to manipulate Bob’s actions, putting the world at risk so he could have the biggest attack dog. He can be the greatest friend the Avengers have, but can switch on the time and attack his friends.

2) The Hulk

Hulk is the strongest one there is and helped found the Avengers. However, after the Space Phantom pretended to be the Hulk, the team stopped trusting him and he ended up fighting them alongside Namor. This would be the first time he fought the group and it would be far from the last. The Jade Giant is a rage monster, so even when he’s on the team there’s always the chance he’s going to snap and attack them. However, his betrayals of the team may have more to them than just him getting angry; in numerous futures, he’s become a villain and helped destroy the group.

1) Scarlet Witch

Scarlet Witch is one of the most iconic Avengers, but she’s also the biggest betrayers in the team’s history. Wanda Maximoff has a lot in common with the Sentry; she’s a person with a lot of mental issues who has way too much power. Magic can be a dark and seductive thing and Wanda has fallen to its temptation many times. The loss of her children, created by her power, and the resulting mindwipe were ticking time bombs and when they went off, she killed Agatha Harkness, the Vision, Scott Lang, and Hawkeye. Later, she’d change the world completely, making mutants the bosses and then de-powered the majority of that race. Since then, she’s been on the straight and narrow but that doesn’t change her history of betraying Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Who do you think is the biggest betrayer in comic history? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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