Avengers

"Earth's Mightiest Heroes"

## History

### **1963: Formation**

The Conception for the Avengers came from Nick Fury and "The Avengers Initiative". However one incident prior to this is known to have occurred. The Asgardian Loki was lost in space after a battle with Thor. He formed an alliance with the Mad Titan Thanos to obtain the Infinity Stones on Earth. Loki was not on Earth himself but he mentally drove the Hulk into attacking a train. The Hulk's ally, Rick Jones sent out a distress signal intended for the Fantastic Four. Loki redirected the signal elsewhere to bring out Thor on Earth but other heroes including Iron Man, Ant-Man (Hank Pym) and the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), also confronted the Hulk until Thor arrived and revealed the deception to them. While the Avengers could have been formed there and then, it was not meant to be. As the Hulk realized the team feared him and he left, being deceived into forming an alliance with Namor. The Newly formed Avengers fought the Deadly duo and forced them to retreat separately. In the aftermath, Captain America's frozen body was discovered by SHIELD after it was uncovered from an iceberg shattered in the battle. The Avengers went their separate ways for one year. Captain America was awoken in 1964. The Avengers for the time settled in the Stark created Avengers Mansion while the Billionaire was building his own Stark Tower.

### **1964: The Avengers**

Following Loki's arrival on Earth, and theft of the Tesseract, the Avengers were reassembled, with Bruce Banner acting as a scientific consult rather than as the Hulk. Things did not initially start off well as Thor attempted to claim Loki, resulting in a fight between Thor, Cap, and Iron Man in which Loki's escape was prevented by the other Avengers. This time the group was joined by two SHIELD agents, Clint Barton AKA "Hawkeye" and Natasha Romanoff "Black Widow", who Iron Man had fought against while she was a soviet agent. Ant-Man had also rechristened himself as Giant Man. Together this team defeated an invasion by the Chitauri led by Loki, who was captured and sent back to Asgard. The Avengers sank into a reactionary state, waiting to save the world again when needed. Stark chose to turn Stark Tower into Avengers Tower to act as a secondary base.

The return of Captain America, also led one of his foes, Baron Zemo, to assemble his own team known as the Masters of Evil to attack the Avengers. This group consisted of Zemo, the Black Knight, Melter, Radioactive Man, Enchantress, Executioner and Wonder Man. The member Wonder Man was forced to serve Zemo and sacrificed his life to save the Avengers. The Avengers also battled Kang the Conqueror. Kang appeared and claimed the Captain America would be responsible for Earth becoming involved in the Kree-Skrull War which triggered events that led to the end of Humanity. When the Avengers fought Kang off he reappeared to invade the entire Earth with an Army from his Time before the Avengers boarded his ship, and forced him to retreat back to his native time, where he soon lost further power after his armies were vanquished by the Legion of Superheroes. The group also battled Count Nefaria, an aspiring Doctor Doom like Villain.

### **1965: The Order Changes**

The next milestone came when every member but Captain America resigned; they were replaced by three former villains: Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver. This was a massive public event as no Superhero team had so radically changed their roster prior to this extent.

### **1968: Age of Ultron**

In the Eastern European country of Sokovia, the Avengers— Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff raided a Hydra facility commanded by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, who had been experimenting on humans using the scepter previously wielded by Loki. The Avengers apprehended Strucker, while Stark retrieved Loki's scepter.

In order to ensure world safety, the minds of Hank Pym, Tony Stark, Reed Richards and Bruce Banner came together to create an intelligent AI. Stark confessed that such complex an AI required the mapping of a human brain with Stark and Pym being used as the example despite SHIELD having several candidates in mind as Tony Stark was an alcoholic and Pym had one count of Domestic Violence and the two had gone along with the process anyway. The AI "Ultron" controlled several Satellites around the Earth and was activated. It was built in the event of another invasion.

Ultron, perhaps due to the integration of the Mind Stone within Loki's sceptre, began to go rogue, attacking the members of the Avengers past and present through the recruitment of a new Masters of Evil, which he directed under the identity of the Crimson Cowl.

Ultron's main targets appeared to be his creators Tony Stark, Hank Pym and Bruce Banner. Banner became the Hulk, with Stark engaging him in the Hulkbuster armor. Ultron interrupted the fight and used his abilities to open a wormhole and send the hulk into space. Ultron then attempted to create beings like himself such as Jocasta(modeled on the Brainwaves of the Wasp and Virginia Potts) and Vision(modeled on the Brainwaves of the deceased Wonder Man. The Avengers learned his true intent was to fulfill his purpose of saving humanity in a twisted way, transferring the minds of every human on Earth to robotic bodies using the Satellites. The Avengers recovered the newly created Vision, who first fought them until switching sides and helping the Avengers thwart Ultron's destruction of Sokovia as part of his plan to destroy Humanity while preserving their minds. The Avengers defeated Ultron with Vision joining the team. Black Panther also soon after Joined the Team.

Sadly, the team would not last as Captain America was sent to Vietnam, where the War caused him to split allegiance, now being considered a Traitor to his country. Several Heroes including the Avengers Team he had lead joined him, starting a Superhero Civil War which only escalated, with Cap's team remaining fugitives, seeking refuge in Wakanda. The team would nonetheless occasionally come together to aid in defeating threats to the world.

### **1970s**

In 1971, the Avengers united to battle the Squadron Supreme from another Universe.

The Skrull and Kree war reached Earth. Captain America was revealed to have been replaced by a Skrull, while the true Captain America and other prisoners broke free, returning to Earth during the conflict. This allowed Captain America to be pardoned, with many believing he had been a Skrull when he defected(Which was untrue).In the Aftermath, a group called the Illuminati delivered the Skrulls an ultimatum if they ever attacked Earth again.

The Mad Titan Thanos seeked out the Infinity Stones and assembled them despite the Avengers attempting to stop him. He snapped his fingers and made half of all Universe disappear. The Vision was killed when the mind Stone was removed from him. Most of the original Avengers survived and remained active, tracking down Thanos, who was killed by Thor but not before destroying the Stones

Captain America notably brought down the Secret Empire in 1974. In 1975, the Avengers battled a being named Michael Korvac, who was embued with godlike power.

In 1977, a group travelled through time to undo the Snap, inadvertently bring Thanos from the past into the present. The Snap was undone and the past Thanos killed but Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff were died in self sacrifices. Cap also discovered that the Serum prevented him from aging, allowing him to remain in the past.

### **1980s**

New members during the 1980s included Tigra, She-Hulk, Monica Rambeau (then going by the name Captain Marvel), Starfox (the brother of Thanos); Hawkeye's wife, Mockingbird, and Namor.

In 1984, most of the Avengers roster at the time(Captain America, Monica Rambeau(Captain Marvel) Hawkeye, Iron Man(James Rhodes), She-Hulk, Thor, the Wasp), became involved in the Secret Wars. They were largely unaffected in the aftermath except for She Hulk briefly leaving the team to join the Fantastic Four. The next major event they were involved in would go differently.

In 1986, the Avengers fought in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, however, they would be forced to play defensive against an invasion of an army of Supervillains, who attacked New York and caused several breakouts at Supervillain prisons such as the Raft. Several Avengers past and present fought. Some were killed including Hank Pym, Hercules, and Black Panther.

Exposure to Several Launched nukes caused the Hulk to go insane and attack his own teammates, killing Tigra. She Hulk vanished after going to confront him. Hawkeye was blinded by a Nuclear blast.

The Avengers were out of commission for some time. To protect their children, a program Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark took the Avengers's Children to the Arctic Circle to rescue them from a vengeful Ultron. The children were James Rogers (son of Captain America and Sharon Carter), Henry Pym Jr. (son of Giant-Man and Wasp), Azari (son of Black Panther and Storm), and Torunn(daughter of the absent Thor and Sif). While not taken, Francis Barton,(son of Hawkeye and Mockingbird), survived on his own.

### **1992: Galactic Storm**

The Avengers reassembled briefly following a war between the Kree and the Shi'ar reaching Earth. Three teams were created. One remaining behind and the other two journeying to the planets involved.

The "Earth team" is led by the Wasp and included the Falcon, Gilgamesh, Mockingbird, Spider-Woman, and U.S. Agent. Quasar, Her and Carol Danvers also remained in the Solar System to guard the Stargates.

The "Shi'ar Team" was led by Captain Marvel(Monica Rambeau) and included the Living Lightning, the Scarlet Witch, Starfox, Thor, and Vision II,

Finally, the "Kree Team" was included the Black Knight, Crystal, Goliath, and Sersi.

The outcome of this event was the teams splitting apart with one group killing the Supreme Intelligence to prevent another Kree-Skrull War impacting Earth and the Universe.

### **1998-1999: A-Next**

A dying Rick Jones found himself facing off against Kang the Conqueror. He was able to gain time travel technology and summoend a team of Avengers from across time. The team consisted of a very disillusioned Captain America possessing super-strength, who was pulled from an adventure in which he discovers a high-ranking government official is the leader of the Secret Empire; Henry Pym, Hawkeye from just after the conclusion of the Kree–Skrull War, Giant-Man and the Wasp from the present. Songbird was taken from an unspecified time in the near future, and Captain Marvel was pulled from further into the future.

Ultron was made aware of the surviving Avengers children in 1998. The children fled to the older Hulk's location. The Hulk went on a rampage, destroying Ultron.

The Children then chose to reform the Avengers as "A-Next". They were joined by both surviving older Heroes and New faces including Thunderstrike(Kevin Masterson, son of the original Thunderstrike, who was visiting the mansion at the time of the attack); Stinger (Scott Lang's daughter Cassie Lang, now an entomologist, who was testing Ant-Man's old uniform); Mainframe (an armored individual built by Tony Stark); J2 (Zane Yama, high school student and teenage son of the Juggernaut) and the adult Speedball, Jubilee and Jolt.

### **2005: Avengers Disassembled**

The end of A-Next came from an old member. In her old age, Wanda Maximoff began to lose control of her powers. The first instant was the appearance of the zombified deceased hero Union Jack at Avengers Mansion which exploded seemingly killing, Scott Lang, though Cassie Lang saved both their lives by shrinking to the molecular level. Next came a drunk Morgan Stark insulting the Latverian Ambassador, causing a scandal. This was followed by Vision II crashing a Quinjet at the Avengers and unleashing several Ultron Drones and Jennifer Walters losing control, hospitalizing the Wasp.

Many Heroes gathered at the Ruins of Avengers Mansion to discover the cause of so many incidents. Doctor Strange revealed his belief that Wanda was indirectly responsible and the Heroes confronted her. She was taken to an island by Magneto to receive medical attention in private. Wanda briefly altered reality to one in which Magneto had won but this was undone.

## **Members**

**Founding Members(1963):** Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man(Hank Pym), Wasp, Hulk

**Shield Incarnation(1964):** Iron Man, Thor, Giant Man(Hank Pym), Wasp, Hulk, Captain America(Steve Rogers), Black Widow, Hawkeye(Clint Barton).

**"Cap's Cooky Quartet(1965-1968):** Captain America(Steve Rogers), Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver.

**"Age of Ultron"(1968):**  Iron Man, Thor, Giant Man(Hank Pym), Wasp, Hulk, Captain America(Steve Rogers), Black Widow, Hawkeye(Clint Barton), Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Vision, Black Panther(T'Challa).

Deceased: Quicksilver.

**Cap's First Civil War Team(1968-1972):** Classified.

**Iron Man's First Civil War Team(1968-1972):** Classified

Deceased: Vision.

**Crosstime Avengers(1977):** Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America(Steve Rogers), Black Widow, Hawkeye, War Machine, Rocket, Nebula.

Deceased: Black Widow

**1980's Team(1977-1986):** Tigra, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel(Monica Rambeau), Starfox, Mockingbird, Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man(James Rhodes), She-Hulk, Thor, Wasp, Yellowjacket(Hank Pym)

Deceased: Tigra, Hank Pym, Black Panther.

**Galactic Storm Teams(1992):**

**Earth team:** Wasp, Falcon, Gilgamesh, Mockingbird, Spider-Woman, U.S. Agent. Quasar, Her, Carol Danvers.

**Shi'ar Team:** Captain Marvel(Monica Rambeau), Living Lightning, Scarlet Witch, Starfox, Thor, Vision II,

**Kree Team:** Black Knight, Crystal, Goliath, Sersi.

**A-Next(1998):** James Rogers (son of Captain America and Sharon Carter), Henry Pym Jr. (son of Giant-Man and Wasp), Azari (son of Black Panther and Storm), Torunn(daughter of the absent Thor and Sif). Francis Barton,(son of Hawkeye and Mockingbird).

**A-Next(1999):** Thunderstrike(Kevin Masterson, son of the original Thunderstrike); Stinger (Scott Lang's daughter Cassie Lang); Mainframe an armored individual built by Tony Stark);J2(Zane Yama, high school student and teenage son of the Juggernaut) Speedball, Jubilee and Jolt.

## **Legacies**

**Captain America:**

Captain Stephen Rogers(18th Century, American Revolution)

Stephen Rogers II (19th Century, Secesion War)

Steve Rogers(1941-1945)

Isiah Bradley(1943,"Unofficial")

William Naslund(1945-1949)

Jeffrey Mace(1949-1950s)

William Burnside(1950s)

Steve Rogers(1964-1974)

Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes(1974-1986)

John Walker(1987-1998, US Agent)

James Rogers(1998-)

**Hulk:**

Bruce Banner(1962-2016)

Jennifer Walters(1980-, As She-Hulk)

Amadeus Cho(2015-)

**Iron Man:**

Tony Stark(1962-1977)

James Rhodes(1977-1986)

Riri Williams(2016-, As IronHeart)

**Thor:**

Thor Odinson(1962-)

Eric Masterson(1988-, As "Thunderstrike")

Jane Foster(2014)

**Ant-Man:**

Hank Pym(1962-1986)

Scott Lang(1979-)

Eric O'Grady(2006-)