Battle of New York

"And there's one other person you pissed off... his name was Phil."

- Iron Man

The Battle of New York was a major battle between the Avengers and Loki with his Chitauri army in Manhattan, New York City. It was, according to Loki's plan, the first battle in Loki's war to subjugate Earth, but the actions of the Avengers neutralized the threat of the Chitauri, before they could continue the invasion. The Avengers who had been gathered by S.H.I.E.L.D. were inspired to fight by Phil Coulson's apparent death. This battle ultimately served as the conclusion of the War for Earth.

Destruction of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.
Loki returned from a different dimension two days before the battle to take the Tesseract, with help from Thanos and The Other. He teleported to the Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. He took control of the minds of Clint Barton for his fighting skills and Erik Selvig for his knowledge of the Tesseract. Loki, Barton, and Selvig then escaped as the portal Loki used collapsed and destroyed the facility. Nick Fury tells the rest of the organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. that a war had just begun. He also thought that it was finally time to initiate the Avengers Initiative, a plan to recruit Earth's mightiest for a team called the Avengers. Fury goes to get Captain America; he sends Natasha Romanoff to get Bruce Banner, and Phil Coulson to get Tony Stark.

Capturing Loki
Later that day, Loki goes into a gallery to create a distraction and retrieve a scan of an eye for Barton, while Barton steals iridium to stabilize the Tesseract. S.H.I.E.L.D. sends in Steve Rogers to stop Loki, and when the civilians have cleared the area, send in Tony Stark in his Mark VI armor. Loki surrenders and lets them take him into custody. On the way back to the Helicarrier, Thor comes and takes Loki. Thor tells Loki that he traveled from Asgard to get him. While Thor is talking, Iron Man attacks Thor for taking Loki from them. Iron Man and Thor fight, but Captain America stops them. Thor becomes an ally and a member of the team.

Attack on the Helicarrier
The next day, the team gathers at the Helicarrier. As Tony Stark and Bruce Banner work on finding the Tesseract, Loki waits in his glass prison for the team to come into conflict, while Selvig finishes the portal machine using the Tesseract and the iridium, and starts setting it up on Stark Tower. Tony plants a device on the bridge to hack into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files. He tells Steve about his suspicions that they are being deceived, and Steve, now suspicious himself, investigates a storeroom. Romanoff goes to Loki's cell to interrogate him, finding out that Loki intends to create chaos on the ship by triggering Banner to become Hulk. As Steve, Bruce, and Tony all come to the conclusion that S.H.I.E.L.D. was using the Tesseract to create an arsenal, the team begins to argue in the lab. Barton and a group of enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D. attack the Helicarrier, destroying one of the rotor blades, and causing a now-transformed Banner to chase Romanoff. As Captain America and Iron Man try to fix the broken rotor blade, Thor saves Natasha from the angry Hulk. When Hulk is distracted by an attacking plane, he rips the F-35 Lightning II apart, letting the pilot barely survive. The plane explodes and Hulk falls away the Helicarrier. Iron Man and Captain America barely succeed at fixing the rotor blade. Thor goes to see if Loki is still in his custom made prison, but is tricked into the prison by Loki. Coulson came to save Thor with the gun made from the Destroyer's body. Loki tricks Coulson and stabbed him in the back. Natasha finds Barton, who she was good friends with before Loki controlled him. Natasha fights Barton and knocks him out, which put him out of Loki's control.

Loki releases the prison with Thor inside, sending Thor hurtling toward the ground hundreds of feet below. Thor barely makes it out of the prison before it shatters on sharp rocks, and Thor ends up in an empty field. Hulk lands in an abandoned warehouse. Dr. Banner wakes up in the warehouse, where only one worker was present. The worker gives Bruce some clothes and a motorcycle. Loki escapes while his allies fight the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

Phil dies trying to say that the team would never be able to unite without something to motivate them. Nick Fury takes this advice to heart, and manipulates Tony and Steve into working together. As Tony talks to Steve, he works out Loki's motivation to goad the Avengers into fighting him in New York in front of the world, so that Loki and his army can be seen defeating Earth's heroes. Barton regains consciousness and talks to Natasha about the possibility of going after Loki. Captain America comes in and tells them to suit up for the battle, and the four of them set a course for Manhattan.

Tony's Distraction
Iron Man arrives at Stark Tower where Loki is planning to open the portal to unleash his army of Chitauri. Stark fires his repulsor beams at the Tesseract, but it is protected by an impenetrable energy shield. With his armor damaged, Stark has his armor removed and stalls Loki to give J.A.R.V.I.S. enough time to prepare the Mark VII armor. While Stark threatens Loki, he puts on a set of bracelets. He tries to use his scepter to take control of Tony, but the Arc Reactor in Tony's chest stops the effect. Frustrated, Loki throws Tony out the window, but Tony's Mark VII armor deploys and forms on Stark via the bracelets just before he hits the ground. Flying back up, Stark blasts Loki in the name of Phil Coulson, but the Tesseract, in conjunction with the device Erik Selvig built, opens a portal to bring his army of Chitauri and Leviathans.

The Arrival of The Other Avengers
Stark flies toward the invading Chitauri and opens fire, destroying several of them. While he flies he tries to call War Machine to join the battle, but he said he was busy fighting soldiers working for the Ten Rings at the battle of Hong Kong. Thor arrives at Stark Tower and threatens Loki to turn off the Tesseract. Loki states that it cannot be turned off, and the two fight on the tower as more Chitauri arrive. In a Quinjet, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Captain America fire on several Chitauri before being shot down by Loki, who then jabs Thor with a small dagger before fleeing on a Chitauri Chariot. On the streets, the NYPD fires on the invading army to no effect, as Rogers, Barton, and Romanoff fight the army on the streets while protecting as many civilians as they can. Captain America takes command of the NYPD, and tells them to set up a perimeter down to 39th Street. The NYPD are later supported by the National Guard.

When Thor is flying around in New York, Iron Man asks him if he has ever seen , saying that he reminds him of it. In response, Thor asks how can Tony joke when they are in the middle of a war. Before he could finish his sentence, Thor is eaten by a Leviathan. In a rage, Thor uses Mjølnir to get out of the creature.

Arrival of Hulk
After some fighting, Bruce Banner arrives, and Stark leads a Leviathan towards him. Banner transforms into Hulk and destroys it with Stark's help. For the first time, the Avengers stand united, ready to defend New York City. Loki orders the Chitauri to arrive in full force. Captain America assumes command: he details Hawkeye to take a high vantage point and call out attack patterns and strays; Stark will maintain air superiority against the Chitauri; Thor can use his lightning to bottleneck the portal; Rogers and Romanoff are to keep the fighting on the ground, and Hulk only gets one word, "Smash." With that, Hulk attacks any and all targets of opportunity. Though they are more than capable of fighting the invasion, Romanoff knows they need to close the portal in order to win. With Captain America's help, she jumps onto a Chariot to make her way to the portal only to be pursued by Loki. Hawkeye targets Loki with an arrow, which he catches, but it explodes, causing him to crash at the top of Stark Tower. Hulk arrives and beats Loki into submission. Unfortunately, even with Loki defeated the Chiturai continue to invade and begin to wear the Avengers down.

Now free of Loki's control, Selvig tells Romanoff that he had enough control to build a failsafe into the portal device which could shut it down using an energy just like it, which means they can use Loki's spear to close the portal.

The Nuclear Missile
Meanwhile, Nick Fury's superiors, the World Security Council, order Fury to launch a nuclear missile at New York City to end the invasion, but Fury refuses the order. The Council orders a jet launched anyway, so Fury orders Stark to intercept the missile and takes it through the portal toward the Chitauri fleet. Stark follows Fury's command and tries to call his girlfriend, Pepper Potts, realizing that he may not survive. Pepper fails to answer because she is watching the battle on a television, wondering if Tony is still alive. Tony then goes through the portal to Chitauri Space, where the missile detonates, destroying the invaders' mothership and leaving their forces disabled on Earth. Stark's suit runs out of power and he falls back through the portal just before Romanoff closes it. Hulk catches Stark in mid-fall and he survives. The Avengers are victorious.

Aftermath
"The Battle of New York was the end of the world. This is the new world."

- Maria Hill

After the fight, the Avengers went to Stark Tower to capture the injured Loki. They take him into custody. The team later ate at a shawarma restaurant. James Rhodes, who was busy fighting against the Ten Rings terrorist group on the other side of the world, soon joins them, too late to have any effect in the battle.

Various news sources report the Chitauri invasion and the Avengers' victory, and there is a widespread feeling of gratitude toward the superhero team, as opposed to Senator Boynton who publicly calls for the regulation of people with super powers.

Later, the team meets in Central Park to send Loki, Thor, and the Tesseract back to Asgard. The rest of the team go their separate ways. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner leave together, Steve Rogers leaves on the motorcycle Hulk brought, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff leave together.

Later, The Other tells Thanos that the Chitauri failed, and tries to excuse himself by saying that to challenge the humans is "to court death", to which Thanos simply smiles.

The consequences of the battle were numerous. The extensive repairs cost New York $160 billion dollars. Many Chitauri weapons and metals were picked up by ordinary people and found their way to the black market. The nations of Earth finally realized that humanity isn't alone in the universe. The leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to organize a special team that would deal with other supernatural threats.

Phil Coulson, who was killed by Loki before the battle, became the leader of the team after his revival days later.

Many toy manufacturers felt that the Avengers would make great toys to distribute around America, which led to the "Heroes of New York" toyline.

Amongst the pieces of Chitauri technology that found its way to the general population after the battle include a Chitauri Gun that was used in several bank robberies, a Chitauri Neural Link that found its way into the hands of the international criminal Vanchat and a Chitauri Helmet that carried an alien virus that caused three deaths in Wrigley, Pennsylvania.

In a speech to the United Nations in 2014, General Glenn Talbot told an assembly of representatives, including Adamo Dioli of Italy, that he was a witness to the Chitauri invasion of New York City. He went further in saying that this was when S.H.I.E.L.D. first revealed itself to the world, began accumulating super powered individuals, and started to abuse the public's trust.