Spoilers for all works set prior to the end of Avengers: Endgame are unmarked.
The Avengers
Appearances: Captain America: The First Avengernote | The Avengers | Avengers: Age of Ultron | Captain America: Civil War | Avengers: Infinity War | Captain Marvel note | Avengers: Endgame | Loki note | What If...? | Avengers The Kang Dynasty | Avengers Secret Wars
"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sorta like a team. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" type thing... Let's do a head count. Your brother—the demi-god. A super soldier—a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breath-taking anger management issues. A couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them... Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."
— Tony Stark to Loki, The Avengers
A team of powerful superheroes assembled with the purpose to protect the world from inner or extraterrestrial 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. New members joined the team in Age of Ultron, Infinity War and Endgame.
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In General
- Action Dad: Clint, Scott, Steve, Tony and Bruce all have children, many of whom inherited their abilities whether they be superpowers or just incredible skills, though Steve only decided to become a father after retiring. In addition, Wanda becomes an Action Mom from WandaVision onwards, while Thor becomes a Parental Substitute for Gorr's daughter Love in the end of Thor: Love and Thunder.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye are founding members of the Avengers instead of joining them later.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: Ant-Man and the Wasp are founding members of the Avengers in the comics. In the MCU, they made their on-screen movie after the second Avengers-movie and only joined the team in Avengers: Endgame.
- Adaptation Origin Connection: 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 Ultimate Marvel version of the team, The Ultimates.
- The Alliance: They become this for the end fight in Endgame, joining up what remains of the original roster and its expansion with The Remnant of Asgard, the military of Wakanda, the Ravagers, Doctor Strange’s sorcerous allies, and The Guardians Of The Galaxy, all united by one purpose: kickin’ the ass of Thanos and his armies
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Happens to all their three bases:
- In The Avengers, where the team originates as a S.H.I.E.L.D. subsidiary and as such claims the Helicarrier as their base, it gets infiltrated by Loki as a Trojan prisoner, and then a possessed Barton who infiltrates, destroys and damages the Helicarrier, killing many agents including Coulson in the ensuing attack.
- In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Avengers operate out of Stark Tower which comes to be called Avengers Tower in the middle of New York City. Ultron, Tony, and Bruce's AI "suit of armor" goes rogue and attacks the team, escaping, significantly damaging their base, and sending them on the run. In the end, the Avengers move to a new factory-like compound outside the city, still in New York State, with their experiences with Ultron and later Sokovia making them aware of the risk of having a military target in the middle of a populated area.
- In Avengers: Endgame, an alternate version of Thanos from another timeline returns to the 2023 present of the Avengers with his full force. His attack and the subsequent battle thoroughly destroy the Avengers compound, leaving nothing but a blasted heath and a smoky crater.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: Black Widow and Spider-Man are named after arachnids, Hawkeye and Falcon are named after birds, White Wolf is clearly named after wolves, and Ant-Man is obviously named after ants.
- Badass Biker: Steve, Natasha, and Bucky are frequently shown riding motorcycles.
- Badass Crew: A team of the greatest heroes on the planet. The Avengers have managed to stop a full-scale alien invasion of Earth, defeated a HYDRA stronghold (which is stated to not be their first), and prevented the crazed robot Ultron from destroying all life on Earth despite Ultron's robot army.
- Badass Normal: Clint, Natasha, and Sam have no powers but they more than hold their own in combat. Tony, Rhodey, and Scott are also this without their suits.
- Bash Siblings:
- 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 at 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 Odd Friendship.
- In Civil War, Steve teams up with Bucky, repeating their fighting dynamic from the first movie. 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 Thor: Ragnarok is Thor developing into this with the Hulk.
- Breaking the Fellowship: By the end of Age of Ultron, over half the founders have either left the planet (Hulk, Thor), or retired (Iron Man, Hawkeye), 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, 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. Endgame takes this even further. By the end, all of the original members except Hulk and Thor are either dead or retired.
- The Cape: World-renowned heroes with bright color schemes and public personas that save people and stop cataclysmic villains. Their reputations took a big hit after Age of Ultron and Civil War, but they are still idolized by most people. After Endgame, it's safe to say they are now recognized throughout the known universe as the pinnacle of heroism and self-sacrifice.
- Celebrity Superhero: The Avengers are pretty much treated as celebrities in-universe, with Captain America even having collectable cards before joining the team. Their popularity seemingly even skyrockets after Endgame as seen in Ms Marvel, where Kamala is a big fan of the team and visits the ''AvengersCon, an event modelled after real-life comic cons involving merchandise and cosplay.
- Chromatic Arrangement: In the merch. The Phase I heroes are Iron Man (red), Captain America (blue), Hulk (green), and Thor (yellow). If the rest need Color-Coded Characters, Black Widow is black, and Hawkeye is purple.
- Combination Attack: Ever since their first movie together, the Avengers have occasionally combined their respective techniques to perform powerful attacks. Notable examples include:
- Iron Man fires a beam at Captain America's shield, reflecting the beam into a couple of Mooks approaching from behind Iron Man.
- Thor hammers Cap's shield to create a powerful shockwave. While the first time was accidental, further uses have shown the two becoming proficient enough to direct said shockwave in a particular direction.
- Thor flinging Mjölnir at Cap's shield midflight in order to make it into a devastating rebounding projectile.
- Thor, Iron Man, and Vision combine their lightning and energy beam at the same point in order to melt Ultron's Vibranium body.
- Iron Man and War Machine flying in unison to deliver a synchronized uppercut to Ant-Man.
- Iron Man absorbs lightning from Thor to overcharge his armor then fires a concentrated repulsor beam at Thanos.
- Hulk has combined with other Avengers in more unconventional ways, his sheer physical strength allowing him to tear through enemy armor while other Avengers like Iron Man and Thor can now deal a finishing blow.
- As two humans trained in close-quarters combat, Captain America and Black Widow have become particularly proficient in fighting in combination to overwhelm foes that would best them individually, sometimes even giving each other the shield or other weapons mid-fight to throw off their opponent.
- Ant-Man riding on one of Hawkeye's arrows for him to reach a distance as well as for a sneak attack.
- Composite Character: Composite Team in the case of the Avengers. Much like the classic 616 version, the founding lineup of the Avengers is comprised of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk but their costumes and the fact that they are a strike team founded by S.H.I.E.L.D. is taken directly from The Ultimates of Earth-1610.
- Deadpan Snarker: Every member of the team can be sarcastic.
- Dented Iron: This is becoming a theme in later installments, with the series trying to acknowledge the ramifications of superheroing. With Hawkeye, all of the original six Avengers are this, with Tony Stark dead, Steve Rogers re-aged, Thor emotionally spent, Bruce Banner's arm is disabled, Natasha is dead, and Clint Barton going deaf. Even with the second wave of Avengers, only Sam is still at the top of his game.
- Destructive Saviour: The team is accused of causing too much collateral damage during their missions by the international community during Civil War.
- The Dreaded:
- 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.
- In Black Widow, Yelena tells Natasha that being an Avenger is why Dreykov didn't seek revenge on her. He was afraid that the rest of the team would retaliate.
- On a smaller scale, the Avengers' willingness to bust arms dealers and take down other international terrorists is enough to make even some of the most seasoned heads of criminal organizations blink at the implications of their presence. In particular, Adrian Toomes criticizes one of his partners for attracting so much attention to his gang in Spider-Man: Homecoming out of fear of the Avengers shutting him down, and Wilson Fisk is nervous enough to hire a Black Widow assassin to eliminate Clint Barton once he starts getting involved with foiling his criminal activities in Hawkeye.
- Dream Team: The earliest candidates S.H.I.E.L.D. considered were a genius engineer in Powered Armor, 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.
- The Fellowship Has Ended: By the end of the Infinity Saga, the Avengers as an organization are no more. With Iron Man and Black Widow dead, Captain America and Hawkeye retired, and the rest of the active heroes associated with the Avengers have gone their separate ways, their presence as Earth's Mightiest Heroes has come to an end.
- The Fettered: A rare case of both this and The Unfettered. The Avengers are willing to pay any price to undo Thanos's victory...except trade lives or commit immoral deeds. Even after their refusal to do so contributed to Thanos wiping out half the universe, they still refuse to sacrifice their friends to undo his victory.Captain America: We don't trade lives.
- Foil: The team as a whole is this to their galactic counterparts, the 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 (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 Destructive Saviors, 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 their original purposes and the circumstance intended for them.
- Four-Philosophy Ensemble:
- 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 The Cape 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 Mind Raped 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 11th-Hour Ranger thanks to being brainwashed for much of the movie.
- Godzilla Threshold: 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.
- Hero of Another Story: When they're not a team, they are all The Hero of their own missions, and main characters of their own solo movies (with the exception of Hawkeye, who got a TV series instead).
- Hero with Bad Publicity: 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 Super Registration Act that makes up the plot of said movie. By the end of the film, their reputations have been effectively destroyed, with most of their members now wanted by the law.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Downplayed. See True Companions below.
- Leitmotif: The Avengers Theme
, the latter half of which is the more famous victory fanfare for the group. - Let's You and Him Fight:
- In The Avengers, the first time Thor meets the other Avengers he gets into a bit of a tussle with Iron Man and Captain America over custody of Loki.
- In the same film, Banner has been repressing Hulk for a bit too long, and when Hulk gets released, he absolutely wrecks the Helicarrier. Thor is the only one who can match him in strength.
- Shortly after, a Brainwashed and Crazy Hawkeye is confronted by Black Widow, who manages to bring him back to his senses by hitting him really hard on the head.
- In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Hulk gets out of control again and starts to rampage through the city of Johannesburg, forcing Iron Man to put on the special anti-Hulk armor he had prepared and beat him into submission.
- Later, a scuffle breaks out when Steve Rogers and the Maximoff twins object to Tony Stark and Bruce Banner making a new A.I. peacekeeper after the last one went rogue, with Iron Man fighting Capain America, Bruce Banner (not the Hulk) fighting Wanda Maximoff, and Hawkeye fighting Pietro Maximoff.
- In a deleted scene that was supposed to take place right afterwards, Vision gets into a brawl with Thor shortly after coming to life, with Captain American and Iron Man getting involved as well. The fight ends when Vision is blasted away by Tony and sees his reflection in a window, which makes him calm down. In the final version, he simply lunges at Thor and is thrown to the window right away.
- In Captain America: Civil War amps this up to Good Versus Good, with the Iron Man's pre-reg heroes going up against Cap's anti-reg heroes. Later it boils down to just Cap and Bucky vs Iron Man.
- In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor ends up on Sakaar and is forced to take part in the Grandmaster's gladiator tournament. His opponent turns out to be Hulk, allowing the two of them to have a rematch.
- Meaningful Name:
- The original team finally came together out of a shared sense of loss at Agent Coulson's death, with everyone promising to avenge his death, and anyone else killed during Loki's invasion of Earth.
- Post-Snap, the team's name is deconstructed by Tony who in a fit of despair points out that they're little more than a glorified clean-up crew rather than a preventative measure as he'd envisioned.
- It becomes even more meaningful when the Snap is reversed, as the Avengers and The Alliance that forms at the end are driven to resurrect and avenge the 50% of all living things that Thanos killed.
- Captain Marvel (2019) shows that the Avengers Initiative was named after Carol Danvers, whose callsign was "Avenger" during her tenure in the Air Force. Nick Fury picked the name in order to pay tribute to his close friend and inspiration to create the Initiative in the first place.
- Military Superhero: Steve and Bucky served in the U.S. Army back in World War II, and Sam and Rhodey are from the U.S. Air Force.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Nick Fury didn't just randomly pick the Avenger name. "Avenger" was Carol Danvers' call sign while she was in the Air Force. Meeting her was also what inspired him to seek out special individuals who could defend the Earth from Superhuman threats.
- One-Man Army: 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 flamethrowers. Later, he flies out to the same group and dispatches a couple of 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 of squads of Hammer Drones like they're made of plastic.
- In The Avengers, he goes right through the Chitauri like a chainsaw through tapioca. 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 curb-stomping a HYDRA base (complete with machine-gun bunkers and light tanks) and hundreds of Ultron's Mecha-Mooks.
- In his third solo he takes out two gunships with an incomplete prototype suit that was not ready for battle, takes out two Extremis soldiers with some acrobatics, improvised weapons l, a flashbang, and a single shot repulsor, then again half a dozen mooks with some improvised weapons, then another half dozen with a single repulsor glove and machine guns, then becomes a literal army by summoning every one of his suits ever, each able to take out several Extremis soldiers.
- 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. And when stripped of his powers and turned into a human, he goes through half a dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents like wet paper before taking out a Giant Mook.
- In Age of Ultron he takes on more robots than all the others combined. Ultron has to deal with him personally.
- In Infinity War, he pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment and shows up 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 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 Abomination from The Incredible Hulk, 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.
- Her solo outing post-Civil War, as shown in Black Widow (2021) has her take on not only another One-Man Army in the form of Taskmaster but also engage with other Black Widows that were produced by the modern Red Room. It's heavily implied by the film that making a woman as such is the point of the Red Room—with all the Training from Hell and personal horrors that implies.
- 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 Robots.
- Cemented in Avengers: Endgame as he leads a one-man war against Earth's criminal underworld, including the Yakuza and Mexican drug cartels. What's more, he's winning.
- The Protagonist: Of the MCU, as the movies are about their adventures, but Iron Man and Captain America, along with the original 6, get special attention among the others.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: As aptly 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. - Reasonable Authority Figure: Both Captain America and Iron Man, who both hold the highest command in the Avengers and act as each a A Father to His Men towards the superheroes under their command. In Civil War, despite their differing opinions over the Accords, they show Both Sides Have a Point as while Stark is correct that a super-powered group should not go around unchecked otherwise it would result in Nice Job Breaking It, Hero 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. 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 Secretary Ross, so 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...
- Red Is Heroic: Many members of this heroic team have a form of a red motif in their physical appearances and their powers.
- Super Team: The first such instance in the MCU, led by Earth's first publicly-recognized "superhero".
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: 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 livelong day, Wanda and Pietro initially hate Tony for building the weapons that killed their parents, and 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 than fighting bad guys. Eventually their unstable dynamic leads to them splitting apart — but not before gaining each other's respect and becoming Fire-Forged Friends.
- The Team: They're The Team of the MCU.
- Team Member in the Adaptation:
- While he was a founding member in the adaptation, Hulk left the Avengers as early as the second issue in the comics. The MCU however cemented Hulk to be seen as a core member of the Avengers, a role he never had in the comics as he only rejoined the team after decades, after the first Avengers-movie came out.
- Hawkeye and Black Widow are founding members of the Avengers instead of joining them later, taking the places of Ant-Man and the Wasp.
- Inverted with Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne who are founding members of the Avengers in the comics but never joined the team in any capacity in the movies, not even during the big ensemble sequence in Endgame.
- True Companions: At the end, when all is said and done, they are this at their core. Even then, the original six Avengers stand out more than everyone else. Best shown in Avengers: Endgame.Tony Stark: Do we know if she had any family?
Steve Rogers: Yeah. Us. - The Unfettered: An rare, extremely selfless, noble, and heroic version of this trope occurs during Endgame, where, thanks to Thanos's own The Unfettered perspective letting him gain all the Stone and slaughter have the universe during Infinity War, the Avengers become willing to pay any price and risk the time stream for a chance to undo The Snap. Even Spider-Man gets in on it, activating Instant Kill during the final battle."Whatever it takes."
- This element of Endgame was planted by Dr. Strange's own willingness to do whatever was necessary, as he foresaw the only way to save the most lives was to allow Thanos to complete the Gauntlet and do The Snap, which triggered the events and character growth that lead to the forging of the second Gauntlet.
- Villains Act, Heroes React:
- 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 pre-emptively always backfires. And, come Infinity War 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 proces]. In Endgame, Tony bitterly laments this:Tony Stark: Guess what, Cap? We lost...But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers? Not the Prevengers, right?
- Surprisingly inverted in Endgame where they perform the first move in building a time machine to gather the Infinity Stones from the past and undo the Decimation. Then, Thanos from 2014 learns about their time-heist and reacts to it by coming to 2023 to take the Gauntlet and kill everyone.
- 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 pre-emptively always backfires. And, come Infinity War 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 proces]. In Endgame, Tony bitterly laments this:
- Vitriolic Best Buds: 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. - The Worf Effect: They're subjected to this in three different universes in What If…? to show just how dangerous the main antagonists (Yellowjacket Hank Pym, Zombies, and Infinity Ultron) of those universes are.
Founding Members
New Avengers
In General
New Avengers
Appearances: Avengers: Age of Ultron | Captain America: Civil War | Avengers: Infinity War
Black Widow: How do we look?
Captain America: Well, we're not the '27 Yankees.
Black Widow: We've got some hitters.
Captain America: They're good, but they're not a team.
Black Widow: Let's beat them into shape.
Captain America: Well, we're not the '27 Yankees.
Black Widow: We've got some hitters.
Captain America: They're good, but they're not a team.
Black Widow: Let's beat them into shape.
A new superhero team assembled under the leadership of Captain America and Black Widow to replace the original Avengers.
- Avengers Assemble: A new group of superheroes with different backgrounds who have been brought together to protect the world. Captain America even says the iconic phrase when the team is assembled at the end of Age of Ultron, though the credits roll before we can hear him say the second word.
- Badass Crew: Of course. The new members are none other than Iron Man's best friend, who wears a similarly high-powered and well-armed suit of armor, Captain America's close friend, a former Air Force paratrooper with a literally winged harness, specializing in rescue missions, an artificial human created by Thor's lightning and one of Iron Man's AI programs, with an Infinity Stone embedded in his head, and a pair of twins, one of whom has a wide array of mental abilities such as mind control, telepathy, and telekinesis, and one with super-speed and reflexes (though sadly, the latter only gets to be part of the team for one battle before he dies).
- Changing of the Guard: By the end of Age of Ultron, several of the original Avengers lineups have retired, left to attend to other matters, or just plain disappeared, so a new team is assembled to take their place.
- Dwindling Party: Despite being called the "New Avengers", the group doesn't get to work together as a team for very long.
- While assembled in the denouement of Age of Ultron, we only really see Steve, Sam, Natasha, and Wanda working together for the Lagos Mission—the opening act of Civil War. The Avengers was subsequently rented into two factions for most of that film.
- In the first act of Infinity War, Steve, Sam, and Natasha operate as a 'secret team' in close coordination with King T'Challa of Wakanda (who provided sanctuary for Bucky), rescuing Wanda and Vision before reconciling with Rhodes and Banner. They then bring them to Wakanda to engage Thanos's army, which they lost (with only Steve, Bruce, Natasha, and Rhodey surviving the Snap).
- Post-Endgame and the conclusion of the Infinity Saga, the only active members of the team are Falcon and War Machine, as Pietro, Natasha, and Tony are dead. Thor joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. Shortly after, Vision is reborn with fragmentary memories and went off to parts unknown, while Wanda has gone into a Self-Imposed Exile after fully unlocking the potential of her magical powers by becoming the Scarlet Witch (and during that time she is corrupted by the Dark Magic of the Darkhold). Clint is making up for lost time with his family, as he's currently busy training Kate Bishop, and Steve (who has decided to return to live in his time) and Bruce have retired.
- Multinational Team: This new line-up has much more diversity than the previous one: Steve is Irish-American, James Rhodes and Sam Wilson are African-American, Natasha is Russian, Wanda and Pietro are Sokovians (fictional Eastern-European country), and The Vision is a British-accented android.
- One-Man Army: The New Avengers have nothing to envy their predecessors in this regard:
- Rhodey's superhero identity is not called War Machine for nothing. He repeatedly demonstrates that he's more than capable of single-handedly decimating large numbers of enemies, such as Hammer Drones, Ultron Sentries or Outriders. Even without his armor, he manages to take down several of Aldrich Killian's henchmen by himself.
- With his wingsuit and machine guns, Falcon is able to dispatch a decent number of HYDRA agents in The Winter Soldier. After upgrading his gear with drones and missiles in later movies, he becomes even more effective in dealing with Crossbones' henchmen and Thanos' forces.
- Scarlet Witch is probably the best example of the lot, as her powers allow her to wreak havoc against the Ultron Sentries and Thanos' forces. Okoye even comments that she should have joined the battle against the Outriders much sooner after seeing her in action.
- Even Quicksilver can be seen tearing apart plenty of Ultron Sentries by running through them during the final battle of Age of Ultron.
- While he doesn't get to participate in as many battles as the others, Vision is still shown destroying his fair share of Ultron Sentries at the end of Age of Ultron, to the point that War Machine feels left out.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Steve and Natasha agree that their new Avengers team is a mishmash of characters who need to learn how to work together. After all, it features an Army captain, two Air Force officers, an assassin, a witch, and a mysterious android.
- Sibling Team: Pietro and Wanda Maximoff are superpowered twins.
- Super Team: Like the first Avengers team, this one is entirely composed of bona fide superheroes.
- Two Girls to a Team: With Wanda Maximoff joining the team, Natasha is no longer the only female Avengers member.
Age of Ultron Recruits
The following heroes joined the New Avengers in Avengers: Age of Ultron:
Later Additions
Infinity War Recruits
The following heroes joined the Avengers in Avengers: Infinity War:
Endgame Recruits
The following heroes joined the Avengers in Avengers: Endgame:
Avengers 1988
In General
In 1988 of an Alternate Universe, Yondu Udonta delivered Peter Quill as promised instead of raising him to be a Ravager, with the celestial quickly using his son for his plan to make everything in the universe part of him. Six months later however Peter runs away back to Earth, and his show of power upon arrival frightens the world. S.H.I.E.L.D., led by Peggy Carter and Howard Stark, recruits extraordinary people from across a world to form a team to fight the threat posed by Ego.
- Adaptational Diversity: Compared to the Earth-199999 Avengers, which had one Russian woman and one Asgardian, this team is a bit more diverse by having two black men (one African-American and the other Wakandan) and a Kree woman, along with the Asgardian and one Caucasian American man.
- Five-Man Band: The 80's Avengers have this dynamic in spades; Hank Pym/Ant-Man, owing to his intelligence, training and years of experience as a superhero and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent giving him the abilities to command the team. King T'Chaka as the team's second foremost member, throwing himself into the danger at the first sign. Bill Foster, who has cracked the Pym Particles' ability to grow and become able to grow giant, providing the team muscle. Wendy Lawson/ Mar-Vell, who despite having superhuman abilities as a Kree, sticks to acting as team support and providing the team with vital info on Ego. The Winter Soldier, sent by his Soviet handlers to handle the threat with his unique abilities as an assassin and the first one to suggest simply murdering Peter as the solution. And Thor, who comes to save the team at New York after Peter proves too much for them to handle. Hank also pulls double duty as The Heart by being the first one to realize that Peter is just a grieving kid being manipulated and getting him to confront his father and prevent him from annihilating humanity.
Members
Captain Carter's Avengers
In General
On Earth-82111, the Avengers formed in the Battle of New York to fight Loki and his Chitauri army much like on Earth-199999.
- Adaptational Diversity: Compared to the Earth-199999 Avengers, which was a case of the Smurfette Principle, this version of the team is a Gender-Equal Ensemble.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Unlike in the films, this version of the Avengers has three men and three women.
- In Spite of a Nail: While there are some differences, this version of the Avengers is pretty much the same as the one on Earth-199999 and formed under the same circumstances.
Members
Avengers 1602
In General
- Canon Foreigner: The Avengers didn't exist in the original Marvel 1602 comics.
Members
"AVENGERS! ... assemble."
