Since their first appearance in 1963, the Marvel Universe has revolved around the Avengers – the planet’s premier protectors, known as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. However, while many superhumans have served on the team, only a few changed it forever.

Here are the top 10 Avengers who changed the team forever, adding essential elements to their lore, changing the franchise’s scope, or creating some of the team’s most iconic offshoots and enemies.

10

Bruce Banner’s Incredible Hulk Gathered Them

In Avengers #1, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Stan Goldberg and Sam Rosen

The Avengers’ first ever mission brought together a group of solo heroes to stop a rampage by the Incredible Hulk. While the scheme was Loki’s (who blocked the Fantastic Four finding out about the Hulk’s whereabouts so as to draw in his brother Thor), Hulk’s role in bringing the team together has passed into Avengers lore, appearing in pretty much every adaptation of the team’s founding.

Thankfully, the Avengers quickly realized that they were being manipulated, resulting in them welcoming Hulk into their ranks as a founding member (though he quickly left the team in the conclusion of Avengers #2.) Of course, he’s returned to the fold multiple times since, always willing to help when the team he helped create need ‘the Strongest One There Is.’ Without Hulk, the Avengers as fans know them would never have come together.

9

Janet Van Dyne’s Wasp Named Them

In Avengers #1, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Stan Goldberg and Sam Rosen

Another founding member, Wasp has also found herself funding the team, designing their costumes and acting as leader at different times in Avengers history. However, the biggest way she changed the franchise forever was by suggesting their name – inspired by her own recent adventures taking vengeance on the alien villain who killed her father.

It was also Wasp and Ant-Man’s idea to keep the Avengers going after their first mission, realizing that together, the five founders could achieve even more than working alone. Wasp was also integral to the creation of Avengers member Jocasta, with her brainwaves being used to create the android hero.

8

Tony Stark’s Iron Man Gave Them a Home

In Avengers #2, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Paul Reinman, Stan Goldberg and Artie Simek

Initially pretending that Iron Man was his mysterious bodyguard, Tony Stark had his own relationship with the team as their financial backer. While pretending to ‘lend’ his bodyguard to the team’s roster, Tony also gave them his family mansion to use as their base and founded the Maria Stark foundation to fund their operations and handle disaster relief linked to their missions.

Avengers Mansion remains the spiritual home of the team, giving them a meeting place and base to operate out of across the many eras of the franchise. The Mansion has come to represent the validity of the Avengers’ legacy, with Marvel often using the base to prove that spin-off teams like the New Avengers, Uncanny Avengers and Avengers Emergency Response Squad are ‘real’ Avengers.

7

Steve Rogers’ Captain America Forged Them into a Team

In Avengers #4, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, George Roussos, Stan Goldberg and Artie Simek

Captain America wasn’t around when the team got started, but the Avengers arguably weren’t a real ‘team’ until he arrived. In various comics – including Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers Assemble: An Oral History of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – Iron Man has stated that Steve Rogers forged the Avengers into a team rather than a collection of distrustful individuals. Stark says:

The discovery of Captain America, to me, was the climax of the story of the birth of the Avengers. I felt that we were a team but there was that little something, that ingredient, missing in the Avengers. But once Captain America was resurrected and agreed to join us, I immediately felt that all of the pieces were in place. That the structure of the Avengers was complete.

For this reason, Steve is the only hero who’s been retroactively awarded founding status. Tony also notes that in forming the Avengers and writing the charter that established their legitimacy with the American government and United Nations, he was following the blueprint set by Cap’s WWII Invaders team, showing Steve Rogers has been part of the DNA of the Avengers since even before they discovered him.

Captain America has been at the heart of the Avengers ever since, leading them into battle in their greatest stories and recruiting unexpected heroes to join their ranks.

6

Thor Odinson Gave Them Their Battlecry

In Avengers #10, by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Stan Goldberg and Sam Rosen

The phrase “Avengers Assemble!” has become an iconic part of the franchise, but it was first spoken by Thor. Thor bellowed the call to arms when the Avengers faced the Masters of Evil, cementing the idea that the team were more powerful together than they could ever be apart.

Thor has also used Asgard’s storehouses to fund the team, and has been present for many of their most iconic battles, from Operation Galactic Storm to The Kang Dynasty and Avengers vs X-Men.

5

Clint Barton’s Hawkeye Began Their Obsession with Redemption

In Avengers #16, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Carl Hubbell and Stan Goldberg

One of the defining aspects of the Avengers franchise is the team’s obsession with recruiting and redeeming former villains, and it all started with Clint Barton. Hawkeye first appeared as a villain in Tales of Suspense #57, attacking Iron Man on the orders of the Black Widow, aka Madame Natasha.

In Avengers #16, the team made a drastic change to its roster, retiring every hero but Captain America. Steve Rogers was joined by three former villains – Hawkeye and former X-Men antagonists Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.

Since then, the Avengers have recruited scores of villains hoping to give them a second chance and turn them into a force for good, turning the belief in redemption into a major theme of the franchise. Villains offered a second chance by the Avengers include:

• Black Widow
• Wonder Man
• Moondragon
• Rogue
• Venom
• Red Hulk
• Ares
• Ant-Man (Eric O’Grady)
• Deadpool
• Nighthawk
• Ultron

4

Hank Pym’s Ant-Man Created Their Greatest Villain

In Avengers #58 by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, George Klein and Sam Rosen

Not every Avenger changed the team in a good way. While Hank Pym deserves credit for founding and leading multiple iterations of the team – even keeping the name alive when Civil War tore the hero community in two – he also earned condemnation by creating Ultron, one of the Avengers’ most personal and vicious enemies.

Based on Hank’s own brain patterns, Ultron quickly gained sentience, becoming a self-improving AI who has threatened the planet on countless occasions. Of course, Ultron also created Avengers members Vision, Jocasta and Victor Mancha, so Hank’s reckless experimentation wasn’t all bad… though it does currently have a body count in at least the millions, potentially billions, thanks to Ultron attacking various alien worlds.

3

Mar-Vell’s Captain Marvel Took Them Beyond Earth

In Avengers #89 by Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema, Sam Grainger and Sam Rosen

Captain Marvel changed the Avengers forever by recruiting them into the galaxy-spanning Kree-Skrull war in the epic saga of the same name. Up until this point, the Avengers were presented as Earth’s defenders. While they’d fought aliens before, it happened when an extraterrestial invader arrived on Earth, intent on conquest. In The Kree-Skrull War, the Avengers became heroes on a far grander scale.

With the Kree-Skrull War, the Avengers ventured out into the Marvel Universe beyond Earth, becoming a force who decided the fate of the cosmos, not just one world. Since then, the Avengers have ventured into alternate dimensions, divergent timelines and saved the multiverse itself, but that level of ambition began with Captain Marvel dragging them off Earth to take their place on the galactic stage.

2

The Vision Removed Their Limits

In Avengers #243 by Roger Stern, Al Milgrom, Joe Sinnott, Julianna Ferriter and John Morelli

The ‘son’ of Ultron, Vision is one of the most trusted members of the Avengers. In Avengers #243, the team learn about an incoming alien threat. Vision, temporarily acting as the team’s chairperson, suggests forming a splinter team on the West Coast. While Hawkeye would go on to the lead these West Coast Avengers (another reason he belongs on this list), the actual idea came from Vision.

Today, the idea of Avengers affiliate teams is taken as a given, and is a major part of the Avengers brand. However, it’s only thanks to the Vision’s precedent that today’s fans can enjoy the adventures of the New Avengers, Dark Avengers, Young Avengers, Savage Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, U.S.Avengers, Pet Avengers, Great Lakes Avengers, Secret Avengers, Occupy Avengers, Avengers A.I., Avengers World, Avengers Resistance, Avengers Academy, Avengers Emergency Response Squad, A-Force and more.

1

Wanda Maximoff’s Scarlet Witch Broke Them

In Avengers #500 by Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch, Danny Miki, Frank D’armata, Albert Deschesne and Richard Starkings

Scarlet Witch belongs on this list for a lot of reason, but even her biggest fans have to admit that destroying the team is among them. In 2004’s epic ‘Avengers Disassembled,’ Scarlet Witch’s breakdown led to the death of several major heroes and the official dissolution of the Avengers. It was a huge, dramatic story that ultimately marked the shift into modern Marvel comics.

‘Avengers Disassembled’ permanently changed the Avengers franchise, leaving scars on the mythos that will always exist. It shattered the concept of the main team having a monopoly on the Avengers name, and ended the era where the Avengers operated as part of the global status quo, working alongside the nations of the world as a formal organization. It’s no coincidence that since Scarlet Witch’s destruction of the team at Avengers Mansion, the main roster have never returned to their former home.

In many ways, Avengers lore can be split into the pre-Disassembled and post-Disassembled eras, with the Avengers going from a singular, chartered organization with a clear base and codes of conduct to a conceptual legacy given different meanings by each different team that embraces it.

Whether this is a good thing or not varies by the reader, but while the Avengers have physically recovered from Scarlet Witch’s attack and she’s been forgiven, the team were irrevocably changed by this historic storyline in ways that last to this day.

Those are the 10 Avengers who changed the team forever, and not all in a good way – let us know in the comments below which other heroes belong on this list.