History Characters / MCUAvengersInitiative

[[redirect:Characters/MCUAvengersAndAllies]]

[[center: [- [[Characters/MarvelCinematicUniverse Main Character Index]] > Heroic Organizations > Avengers & Their Allies > '''Avengers Initiative''' ([[Characters/MCUCaptainAmerica Captain America]] | [[Characters/MCUIronMan Iron Man]] | [[Characters/MCUThor Thor]] | [[Characters/MCUBlackWidow Black Widow]] | [[Characters/MCUTheHulk The Hulk]] | [[Characters/MCUHawkeye Hawkeye]]) | [[Characters/MCUNewAvengers New Avengers]] | [[Characters/MCUAvengersAllies Allies]] -]]]

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!!''ComicBook/TheAvengers''
[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_avengers.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' | ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' | ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' | ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' | ''[[Film/Avengers4 Untitled Avengers Sequel]]''

->''"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type thing. ''[...]'' Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."''
-->-- '''Tony Stark''' to '''Loki''', ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''

A team of powerful superheroes assembled with the purpose to protect the world from inner or extra terrestrial threats. They were first assembled by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D., when Loki invaded Earth with his Chitauri army to conquer the planet. Following the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Tony Stark worked to fill the void left by the organization's collapse and support the Avengers through Stark Industries.

[[folder:Members:]]
[[index]]
* [[Characters/MCUIronMan Iron Man]]
* [[Characters/MCUCaptainAmerica Captain America]]
* [[Characters/MCUThor Thor]]
* [[Characters/MCUBlackWidow Black Widow]]
* [[Characters/MCUTheHulk The Hulk]]
* [[Characters/MCUHawkeye Hawkeye]]
* [[Characters/MCUNewAvengers New Avengers]][[note]]James "Rhodey" Rhodes (War Machine), Sam Wilson (The Falcon), Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch), Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver), The Vision, Peter Parker (Spider-Man)[[/note]]
* [[Characters/MCUAvengersAllies Allies]][[note]]Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier), Scott Lang (Ant-Man II), Agent Sharon Carter (Agent 13), Dr. Erik Selvig, Dr. Helen Cho[[/note]]
[[/index]]
[[/folder]]
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* AdaptationOriginConnection: The Avengers in this universe are formed by S.H.I.E.L.D. instead of starting on their own like in the original comics. This itself is more in line with the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel version of the team, ComicBook/TheUltimates.
* AntiHeroTeam: Two secret agents, a former war profiteer, a former BloodKnight, and a man who turns into a nigh-unstoppable monster at will... all led by a ShellShockedVeteran who's still the least "anti" of them all.
* BadassCrew: A team of the greatest heroes on the planet.
* BashBrothers:
** Captain America, a man of nobility, kindness, and courage, is a human whom Thor has come to regard as an equal; most tellingly when he offers his hand to help him up during the Battle of Manhattan.
** Iron Man and Captain America, after earning each other's respect through fighting side by side. Steve represents the idealism and nobility that Tony has since lost, but deep down still respects and wishes to have again.
** In ''The Avengers'', Widow clearly has had this dynamic with Hawkeye for however long they've worked together, as shown in the movie's final battle and the footage from a previous mission.
** Captain America and Black Widow, as seen as the end of ''The Avengers'' and cemented through ''The Winter Soldier''; they work ''really well'' together against the bad guys.
** In the final act of ''Age of Ultron'', Thor becomes this with fellow Avenger Vision, partly thanks to the fact that the other hero is worthy to lift Mjölnir. Considering their personalities, it also qualifies as an OddFriendship.
** In ''Civil War'', Steve teams up with Bucky, repeating their fighting dynamic from the first movie. [[spoiler:As a team, they manage to just barely defeat Iron Man in a two-on-one battle, though it costs Bucky his metal arm and earns both men a decent beating before they finally stop him.]]
** A major element of ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' is Thor developing into this with the Hulk.
* BreakingTheFellowship: By the end of ''Age of Ultron'', over half the founders have either gone into hiding (Hulk), [[TenMinuteRetirement retired]] (Iron Man, Hawkeye), or have left to pursue more pressing matters elsewhere (Thor), with only Natasha and Steve staying to head up a new team. It actually gets worse at the end of ''Civil War'', as not only are Thor and Hulk still missing, [[spoiler:Clint, Steve and the majority of the New Avengers are now fugitives from the law, Natasha is on the run and has disappeared to parts unknown, and Rhodey has been left paralyzed and busy re-learning how to walk, leaving Tony and Vision as the only Avengers still standing. That's not even getting into how the events of Civil War have affected the personal relationships of the various members of both teams.]]
--> '''Thor''': I don’t hang with the Avengers anymore. It all got too corporate.
* ChromaticArrangement: In the merch. The Phase I heroes are Iron Man ([[RedOni red]]), Captain America ([[BlueOni blue]]), Hulk ([[EmeraldPower green]]), and Thor ([[HairOfGoldHeartOfGold yellow]]). If the rest need ColorCodedCharacters, Black Widow is [[DarkIsNotEvil black]], and Hawkeye is [[PurpleIsPowerful purple]].
* DeadpanSnarker: Every member of the team can be sarcastic.
* DestructiveSaviour: The team is accused of causing too much collateral damage during their missions by the international community in ''Civil War''.
* TheDreaded: A heroic example. By the end of the first movie, the Avengers have made a name for themselves as earth's mightiest heroes. As Fury puts it, the whole world knows it. ''Every world.''
-->'''The Other:''' Humans. [[DefiedTrope They are not]] [[PunyEarthlings the cowering wretches we were promised.]] [[HumansAreWarriors They stand. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled. To challenge them...]] [[WorthyOpponent is to court death.]]\\
'''Thanos:''' ''[[[ILikeThoseOdds smiles]]]''
* DreamTeam: The whole point of the Initiative. The earliest candidates SHIELD considered were a genius engineer in PoweredArmor, the world's greatest marksman and a super-spy. Then Captain America was found in the ice, they got the Hulk on board, and the ''Norse God of Thunder'' turned out to be real and willing to help.
* {{Foil}}:
** The team as a whole are this to their galactic counterparts, the [[Characters/MCUCosmicGuardiansOfTheGalaxy Guardians of the Galaxy]]. The Avengers are a respected group of well known people coming together to protect the Earth. The Guardians are a group of petty thieves and criminals who are forced into adventures much bigger than themselves and are antiheroes more than anything.
** The ironic aspect is that the Guardians are a far more cohesive group by comparison whereas the Avengers are highly conflicted, if not dysfunctional (splintering, breaking apart and cracking up after two major campaigns), even though they're actually a very tight-knit group of friends in their own right. The Guardians aren't plagued or bothered about being DestructiveSavior, and where the Avengers are accused of often creating their villains, the Guardians are often created by their villains, and tend to bond over how they choose to be heroes in spite of the purpose nature and circumstance intended for them.
* FiveManBand: For the bulk of ''The Avengers'' movie, there are only five Avengers because Hawkeye is brainwashed. They fit the archetype well until the final battle.
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble:
** Tony/Iron Man and Bruce/Hulk are both the Cynics, who are suspicious and distrustful of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the beginning. On Tony's end, his lone wolf personality and resistance to being part of a team make him difficult to work with, and for Bruce, he is very reluctant to participate in the fight for fear of hurting others, and is, by his own admission, "always angry".
** Steve/Captain America is the Optimist, being TheCape and the most heroic of the group. At one point, he actually questions whether his straightforward idealism still holds water in the present day, but Coulson reassures him that the world needs this idealism now more than ever.
** Natasha/Black Widow is the Realist, trying to get the team to work together, trying to redeem herself from her dark past, and willing to do what needs to be done to accomplish the team's goals.
** Thor is the Conflicted, who wants to save the Earth just as much as the other Avengers do, but also struggles with the fact that their enemy is his younger brother, whom he still loves despite Loki's crimes, and as a result holds back against him in their fights. Clint/Hawkeye is also an example for the earlier parts of the film, due to being MindRaped by Loki brainwashing him and forcing him to work against his friends, leaving him horrified and traumatized when he snaps out of it.
** Hawkeye is more like the Apathetic by the end of the film, being the Avenger who got the least screentime and focus overall due to being an EleventhHourRanger thanks to being brainwashed for much of the movie.
* GodzillaThreshold: Fury admits that while the Initiative was more idealistic than the "Phase Two" weapons, it was also even riskier, and existed specifically for situations no ordinary person could handle.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: When they're not a team, they are all TheHero of their own missions, and main characters of their own solo movies (with the exception of Black Widow and Hawkeye).
* HeroWithBadPublicity: The Avengers have achieved this status as of the events of ''Civil War'' as the overwhelming amount of collateral damage from their various fights has caused the UN, and a significant amount of the public, to view them as little more than vigilantes, thus necessitating the SuperRegistrationAct that makes up the plot of said movie. [[spoiler:By the end of the film their reputations have been effectively destroyed with most of their members now wanted by the law.]]
* {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VGJGXMUhmc The Avengers theme]], the latter half of which is the more famous victory fanfare for the group.
* OneManArmy: The ''non''-superpowered members are still among the most dangerous people on the planet. Just six of them were able to hold off an entire alien invasion long enough for Natasha to shut down the portal, with only the Chitauri's sheer numbers posing a threat.
** In ''The First Avenger'', Col. Phillips doesn't believe one man can turn the tide of war. He is proven wrong. In ''The Winter Soldier'', after getting trapped in an elevator filled with HYDRA soldiers (one of whom later gives fellow soldier Sam a hard time), Steve defeats them all without too much difficulty.
** Iron Man shows this off once per movie:
*** In the first movie, he breaks out of a Ten Rings hideout and slaughters the garrison with his first suit by using [[KillItWithFire flamethrowers]]. Later, he flies out to the same group and dispatches a couple dozen terrorists, some missile artillery, and a SPAAG with a combination all by himself.
*** In the second movie, he and War Machine slice through a couple squads of Hammer Drones like they're made of plastic.
*** In ''The Avengers'', he goes right through the [[AlienInvasion Chitauri]] like a chainsaw through tapioca. [[http://www.allouttabubblegum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7908&start=3790&st=0&sk=t&sd=a He kills a total of 100 Chitauri troops]], blows up several of their speeder-chariot-things and even takes down a Leviathan with some mini-missiles.
*** In the second Avengers movie, he joins his teammates in [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomping]] a HYDRA base (complete with machine gun bunkers and light tanks) and hundreds of Ultron's MechaMooks.
*** In the third Avengers movie, he doesn't fight a large horde of enemies this time, but is one of the only two people in the entire movie who manages to make Thanos bleed, the other being Thor.
** Thor:
*** He slaughtered dozens of Frost Giants single-handedly and accused them of not trying hard enough.
*** In ''Age of Ultron'' he takes on more robots than all the others combined. [[BigBad Ultron]] has to deal with him personally.
*** In ''Infinity War'', he pulls a BigDamnHeroes moment and shows up [[spoiler:on the battlefield in Wakanda with his new weapon, Stormbreaker, and takes out the majority of the Outrider army in one attack, single-handedly turning the tide of the battle in favor of the Avengers. He later deals more damage to [[BigBad Thanos]] than everyone else combined, severely wounding him]].
** True to form, the only real challenges that the Hulk has had in terms of strength in the MCU as of ''Civil War'' have been [[EvilCounterpart Abomination]] from ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', Tony Stark's Hulkbuster armor (which Banner helped design), Thor as per their comic rivalry, and (especially) Thanos.
** Black Widow. Tons of guards blocking the way to Vanko? No problem. Tied to a chair, surrounded by mobsters. No problem. Extra-dimensional aliens invading New York? Slightly more tiring, but still no problem. Honestly, if it takes The Incredible Hulk to put you on the defensive you qualify as this, and her ability to escape from said beast with only a twisted ankle simply drives it home.
** It's shown in ''Age of Ultron'' that even when Hawkeye runs out of arrows, he's not afraid to toss the bow at an enemy and just use his bare hands to fight against ''an army of {{Killer Robot}}s''.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: As described in ''The Avengers'':
-->'''Loki:''' How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you? \\
'''Nick Fury:''' How desperate am I? You steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk of peace, and you kill 'cuz it's ''fun''. You have made me ''very'' desperate. You might not be glad that you did.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Both Captain America and Iron Man, who both hold the highest command in the Avengers and act as each a AFatherToHisMen towards the superheroes under their command. In ''Civil War'', despite their differing opinions over the Accords, they show BothSidesHaveAPoint as while Stark is correct that a super-powered group should not got around unchecked otherwise it would result in NiceJobBreakingItHero mistakes, while Rogers is correct it could be a violation of civil rights in general, but both men wish to resolve in a peaceful compromise and only engaged in the titular civil war when their hands are forced. [[spoiler:Near the climax, when Tony realizes Steve is telling the truth about Zemo pulling the strings, he tries to bail out the anti-Accords Avengers to help Steve and Bucky only to be refused by [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Secretary Ross]], so he he decides to head out to meet with them himself and propose a truce to stop Zemo. Unfortunately however, Zemo had one more card to play...]]
* SuperTeam: The first such instance in the MCU, led by Earth's first publicly-recognized "superhero".
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Put simply, some of them don't always get along.Tony and Steve have strong ideological differences, Hulk and Thor are the only people who can punch each other out all the live long day, Wanda initially hates Tony for building the weapons that killed her parents, the list goes on. ''The Avengers'', ''Age of Ultron'' and ''Civil War'' all have extended scenes of them fighting each other and they have spent more time doing that then fighting bad guys. Eventually [[RealityEnsues their unstable dynamic]] leads to them splitting apart--but not before gaining each other's respect and becoming FireForgedFriends.
* VillainsActHeroesReact: Barring very few moments, all the Avengers, are purely reactive heroes. And when they do try to act, things tend to go horribly wrong, like in ''Age of Ultron'' where Tony wants to create countermeasures for the Chitauri's return while Steve argues that trying to end wars [[PrecrimeArrest pre-emptively]] always backfires. And, come ''Infinity War'' [[spoiler:even though they prepare and react as best they could against the onslaught of Thanos, they still ultimately fail in preventing the assembly of the Infinity Gauntlet--losing about half their roster in the process]].
* VitriolicBestBuds: A team of heroes who'll always fight as one for their planet while nonchalantly mocking each other. As shown in ''Age of Ultron'':
-->'''Bruce:''' ''[after Hawkeye gets injured]'' How's he doing? \\
'''Tony:''' Well, unfortunately, he's still Barton. \\
'''Bruce:''' That's terrible.
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!!''ComicBook/TheAvengers Team''

*** In ''Infinity War'', he pulls a BigDamnHeroes moment and shows up [[spoiler:on the battlefield in Wakanda with his new weapon, Stormbreaker, and takes out the majority of the Outrider army in one attack, single-handedly turning the tide of the battle in favor of the Avengers]].

** True to form, the only real challenges that the Hulk has had in terms of strength in the MCU as of ''Civil War'' have been [[EvilCounterpart Abomination]] from ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', Tony Stark's Hulkbuster armor (which Banner helped design), and Thor as per their comic rivalry.

[[center: [- [[Characters/MarvelCinematicUniverse Main Character Index]] > Heroic Organizations > Avengers & Their Allies > '''Avengers Initiative''' > [[Characters/MCUCaptainAmerica Captain America]] | [[Characters/MCUIronMan Iron Man]] | [[Characters/MCUThor Thor]] | [[Characters/MCUBlackWidow Black Widow]] | [[Characters/MCUTheHulk The Hulk]] | [[Characters/MCUHawkeye Hawkeye]] | [[Characters/MCUNewAvengers New Avengers]] | [[Characters/MCUAvengersAllies Allies]] -]]]

* [[Characters/MCUNewAvengers New Avengers]][[note]]James "Rhodey" Rhodes (War Machine), Sam Wilson (The Falcon), Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch), Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver), The Vision[[/note]]
* [[Characters/MCUAvengersAllies Allies]][[note]]Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier), Scott Lang (Ant-Man II), Agent Sharon Carter (Agent 13), Dr. Erik Selvig, Dr. Helen Cho[[/note]]

'''The Members'''

!!''ComicBook/TheAvengers Team''
[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_avengers.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' | ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' | ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' | ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' | ''[[Film/Avengers4 Untitled Avengers Sequel]]''

->''"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type thing. ''[...]'' Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."''
-->-- '''Tony Stark''' to '''Loki''', ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''

A team of powerful superheroes assembled with the purpose to protect the world from inner or extra terrestrial threats. They were first assembled by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D., when Loki invaded Earth with his Chitauri army to conquer the planet. Following the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Tony Stark worked to fill the void left by the organization's collapse and support the Avengers through Stark Industries.

* Characters/MCUIronMan
* Characters/MCUCaptainAmerica
* Characters/MCUThor
* Characters/MCUBlackWidow
* Characters/MCUTheHulk
* Characters/MCUHawkeye
* Characters/MCUNewAvengers[[note]]James "Rhodey" Rhodes (War Machine), Sam Wilson (The Falcon), Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch), Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver), The Vision[[/note]]
* Characters/MCUAvengersAllies[[note]]Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier), Scott Lang (Ant-Man II), Agent Sharon Carter (Agent 13), Dr. Erik Selvig, Dr. Helen Cho[[/note]]

* VillainsActHeroesReact: Barring very few moments, all the Avengers, are purely reactive heroes. And when they do try to act, things tend to go horribly wrong, like in ''Age of Ultron'' where Tony wants to create countermeasures for the Chitauri's return while Steve argues that trying to end wars [[PrecrimeArrest pre-emptively]] always backfires. And, come ''[[Film/lInfinity War]]'', [[spoiler:even though they prepare and react as best they could against the onslaught of Thanos, they still ultimately fail in preventing the assembly of the Infinity Gauntlet--losing about half their roster in the process]].

* VillainsActHeroesReact: Barring very few moments, all the Avengers, are purely reactive heroes. And when they do try to act, things tend to go horribly wrong, like in ''Age of Ultron'' where Tony wants to create countermeasures for the Chitauri's return while Steve argues that trying to end wars [[PrecrimeArrest pre-emptively]] always backfires.