The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a lot more than one team. Heroes like Ms. Marvel and Daredevil take to the streets every night without backup to keep their homes safe. Even stronger characters like Shang-Chi and Doctor Strange have to face world-ending threats alone. But there’s no doubt that the MCU is at its best when the Avengers are running the show. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes face down alien invasions, killer robots, mad titans, and everything in between without a second thought. The only problem with the Avengers is that they never seem to be on the same page when it matters most.
All of the Avengers’ bickering leads to the team breaking up and new ones forming. Each version of the Avengers still has plenty going for it, though, because fighting injustice is all that matters at the end of the day. However, participation trophies are no fun, especially when talking about superhero media.
5) Avengers 2.0
The second version of the Avengers forms at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron. After Tony Stark, Thor, and Hawkeye turn in their ID badges, it’s up to Captain America and Black Widow to keep things going. They recruit War Machine, Falcon, Wanda Maximoff, and Vision and set up shop in the Avengers Compound.
Despite having plenty of heavy hitters, the Avengers 2.0 fail to make an impact in the MCU. They only stay together through the beginning of Captain America: Civil War, and their first on-screen mission ends in disaster when Crossbones blows himself up and kills several people, including King T’Chaka.
4) The Multiverse Avengers
What If…? allows Marvel Studios to explore scenarios it wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Some of the notable examples include T’Challa becoming Star-Lord and Killmonger rescuing Tony Stark in Afghanistan. However, What If…? also spends plenty of time putting together its own Avengers team.
A rogue version of Ultron threatens the multiverse in What If…?‘s Season 1 finale. To stop him, the Watcher brings together heroes from various realities, including Captain Carter, Gamora, Stephen Strange, and Killmonger. The Guardians of the Multiverse, who are basically all Avengers, get the job done, but only having a few appearances in an animated series hurts their stock.
3) The Secret Avengers
The Sokovia Accords tear apart what’s left of the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War. They can’t agree on the best course of action, and just when Tony starts to see the error of his ways, Helmut Zemo pulls the rug out by showing the video of the Winter Soldier killing Howard and Maria Stark. The bombshell is too much for Tony to deal with, so he sends Steve away as a fugitive.
While on the run from the government, Steve breaks out Sam Wilson and meets up with Natasha Romanoff. They keep fighting the good fight until Avengers: Infinity War, when it’s clear that the time for squabbling is over. While the Secret Avengers only have one fight scene in the MCU, beating a couple of members of Thanos’ Black Order is no small feat.
2) The New Avengers
At the start of Thunderbolts*, the titular team has nothing going for them. They barely escape Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and only continue on because they don’t want anything bad to happen to their best friend, Bob. However, Bob turns out to be a big problem when the Void makes an appearance.
The Thunderbolts help Bob work through his trauma, and once they’re done, they set their sights on Valentina. She seizes the opportunity and announces that her would-be killers are the New Avengers. They operate as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for a year before Sam Wilson makes a stink about it, proving that they actually might have what it takes to protect the world.
1) The Avengers
The team that Nick Fury assembles in The Avengers is the cream of the crop. Despite having vastly different backgrounds, the heroes find common ground just in time to stop Loki from taking over the world. They also stop Ultron in his tracks, thwarting his plan to kill all of humanity.
While the original Avengers couldn’t get out of their own way, it’s going to take a lot of work for the MCU to put a team together to surpass them. It’s possible that the first six members of the group will go down as the best to ever do it.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe projects are streaming on Disney+.
Do you agree with this ranking of all of the Avengers teams in MCU history? How would you change the list? Let us know in the comments below!
The post Every Avengers Team in the MCU’s History, Ranked appeared first on ComicBook.com.
