Avengers

"What have I to fear?" "The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" type thing."

- Loki and Tony Stark

The Avengers are a team of powerful super-heroes assembled by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. through the Avengers Initiative in which who can battle the battles they never could.

Starting the Initiative
The Avengers are the result of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury's Avengers Initiative. Nick Fury realized that a group of extraordinary individuals would be needed to the battle the growing forces that conventional military forces (and other superhero) would not be able to handle alone, much less defeat. The founding members are Captain America, the world's first "superhero", the invincible armored Iron Man, the Asgardian God of Thunder, Thor, the incredible Hulk, and two of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most skilled operatives, Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, and Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow.

Recruiting Tony Stark
After revealing to the world that he is Iron Man, Tony Stark return to find Fury just waiting on him. He wanted to talk to him about the Avengers Initiative, telling him that he's not the only superhero in the world. Stark declined but Fury still kept eyes on him in the meantime.

Excluding Tony Stark
"I told you I don't want to join your super-secret boy band."

- Tony Stark to Nick Fury

Six months after revealing to the world that he was Iron Man, he has helped stabilized peace between the East and the West. However, he came to find out the the very thing that is keeping him alive, the Palladium Arc Reactor, was slowly killing him. Starting to do questionable things such selling some of his things and giving Pepper Potts control of Stark Industries and after run-ins with Ivan Vanko and James Rhodes at his house on his birthday while in a drunken stupor, resulted in Fury intervening once again. First, before the run-ins with Vanko and Rhodes, he placed Romanoff in as Natalie Rushman to keep eyes on him. Secondly, he came to meet with to discuss his condition and help him put back on the path to save himself and back to work. After finding the new element and defeating Vanko, however, Romanoff wrote a report on Stark and stated while the armor would benefit the Avengers Initiative, Stark himself was deemed unsuitable and was given a position as consultant which he accepted on the condition that he and Rhodes was given medals personally by Sterns.

The Consultant
After the Battle of Harlem, Thaddeus Ross was in a bar, drinking his failure away when Stark appeared into the bar, reminding him why Project Rebirth was "put on ice." Ross reminded him what "nice suits" he wears. After that, Stark proposed that they are putting a "team" together.

Meeting Thor
After Thor was exiled to Earth and landed in New Mexico, he tried to recover Mjolnir after discovering it had made its way to Earth too. Phil Coulson made note of Thor's strength, albeit human, and his combat skills, making his men "some of the most highly trained professionals in the world look like minimum wage mall cops." Then when the Destroyer can to Earth to kill Thor and near-death, Thor regained his power and defeated the Destroyer. After that, Coulson approached him but Thor vowed he would be an ally to Earth if they return Jane's research which Coulson agreed. However, before Coulson had a chance to debrief him, Thor flew to the landing site to return back to Asgard to stop Loki.

Captain America's return
Steve Rogers woke up in an 1940's-style hospital to find something wrong. When he realized the game that was playing on the radio was a game he had already seen, he had escaped onto the streets of 2010s New York City. There, he met Nick Fury who told him the entire incident was to break the news to him slowly that he had been missing for 70 years. Later, in a gym, while Rogers was working out his frustration on a punching bag, Fury approached him with a mission to save the world once again.

Destruction of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.
"We're running the world's greatest covert security network and you're gonna leave the fate of human race to a handful of freaks." "I'm not leaving anything to anyone. We need a response team. These people may be isolated, unbalanced even, but I believe with the right push they can be exactly what we need."

- The World Security Council and Nick Fury

At first, when it looks to be no traction with it, the Avengers Initiative was shut down. Instead, focus was put on Phase 2, reverse-engineering alien technology to create weapons for defense of the planet and looking at the Tesseract as a source of that. However, upon Loki's arrival from parts unknown through the Tesseract and attacking several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and taking over Agent Barton and Erik Selvig with his staff and taking hold of the Tesseract. After this, Fury re-activates the Avengers Initiative. He has Coulson called for Romanoff for bringing in the others. He has her go to India to bring in Bruce Banner who can track the cube due to the fact that it is emitting low levels of gamma radiation and him being the expert. Meanwhile, Fury goes to Rogers himself to him his first orders since being awakening.

Recruiting Tony Stark again
Coulson goes to Stark Tower later that evening to bring files to Stark of his other potential teammates and Loki and the Tesseract which he looks at due to Pepper's influence and her friendship with Coulson.

Battle of New York
"I don't think you understand what you've started. Letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous." "They surely are. And the whole world knows it. Every world knows it."

- World Security Council and Nick Fury

The team initially have difficulty and refusal to obey each other; for example, Tony Stark is reluctant to working under the command of Captain America, Thor demands that Loki is his responsibility and the team is uncomfortable with the presence of Bruce Banner. When Loki kills Coulson, attempts to destroy the team and promote his godlike supremacy to Earth in a public way, the Avengers put their differences aside, learning to trust one another and depart from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s command and rally in defense of New York as it is invaded by the extraterrestrials known as the Chitauri. Captain America takes command of the team and they each work to suppress the invasion force. The Hulk beats Loki into submission and Iron Man sends a nuclear weapon fired by the World Security Council into the portal through which the aliens enter Earth and their fleet is destroyed, breaking the neural connection with their ground troops and instantly killing them. The team take Loki as their prisoner and Thor takes both Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard.

The Avengers then disbands and goes their separate ways but agrees to re-assemble once again when another global threat requires their combined efforts.

Notable Members

 * Captain America (leader)
 * Iron Man
 * Thor
 * Hulk
 * Black Widow
 * Hawkeye

Allies

 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Nick Fury
 * Phil Coulson
 * Maria Hill

Enemies

 * Loki
 * Chitauri
 * Ultron