Avengers

"Yeah, your missing the point. There's no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. And maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you, cause if we can't protect the Earth you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."

- Tony Stark to Loki

The Avengers are a team of powerful super-heroes assembled by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. through the Avengers Initiative as a team that could fight the battles that they could never handle alone. After saving the world in the Battle of New York, they gained world-wide recognition. They oversaw the return of Loki to Asgard, and then dissolved.

Starting the Initiative
The Avengers are the result of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury's Avengers Initiative. Fury realized that a group of extraordinary individuals would be needed to the battle the growing forces that conventional military forces 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 returned home to find Fury waiting for him. Fury consulted with Tony regarding the Avengers Initiative, telling Tony that he's not the only superhero in the world. Stark declined but Fury still kept eyes on him in the meantime.

Rejecting 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, Tony Stark helped to stabilize peace between East and West relations. However, he discovered that the very thing keeping him alive, the Palladium Arc Reactor, was slowly killing him. Beginning to do questionable things such as donating a large number of his personal things and giving Pepper Potts control of Stark Industries, Fury began to intervene, sending in his top agent Natasha Romanoff, in the guise of Stark's new assistant Natalie Rushman, to keep an eye on him.

Following a number of altercations, including an attack on Tony by Ivan Vanko and a fight with his friend James Rhodes during a drunken stupor, Fury meet with Stark to discuss his condition and help him get back on the path to save himself and back to work. After finding a new element that stabilized his health and ending a large scale attack by Vanko, however, Romanoff wrote a report on Stark and stated that while the armor would benefit the Avengers Initiative, Stark himself was deemed unsuitable and was instead given a position as consultant, which he accepted on the condition that he and Rhodes would be given medals for their heroics, personally awarded by Senator Stern.

Meeting Thor
After Thor was exiled to Earth and landed in New Mexico, he tried to recover Mjølnir after discovering it had made its way to Earth as well. 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 came to Earth to kill Thor, Thor willingly handed himself over, an act that allowed him to regain his power and defeated the Destroyer. After that, Coulson approached him and 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.

The Consultant
"So, on the Council's orders, we have to send one of our people down to General Ross to ask for Blonsky, who we don't even want." "Exactly."

- Jasper Sitwell and Phil Coulson

Soon after the confrontation between the Hulk and the Emil Blonsky in Harlem, a request came down from the World Security Council that blame for the incident be placed on Banner and that Blonsky, who was being held in General Thaddeus Ross' sector, be exonerated for his crimes and placed on the team's roster.

Director Fury didn't want Blonsky for the team, but was in no position to disobey a direct order from the council. Hoping to resolve the situation for Fury, Agents Phil Coulson and Jasper Sitwell conspired to sabotage the request by sending in their newly minted consultant Tony Stark to be the one to contact the General.

As planned, Stark's abrasive manner and disdain for authority resulted in Ross not only turning down the request, but also attempting to have Stark removed from the bar. In response, Stark bought the establishment and had it scheduled for demolition.

Captain America's return
After being frozen for nearly 70 years, Steve Rogers woke up in an 1940's-style hospital to find something wrong. When he realized the game playing on the radio was a game that he had already seen, he escaped onto the streets of 2010s New York City. There, he met Nick Fury who told him the entire incident was meant to break the news to him slowly that he had been missing for 70 years.

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 seemed to be no progress with it, the Avengers Initiative was shut down. Instead, focus was put on Phase 2, an initiative to reverse-engineer HYDRA weapons to create weapons for Earth's defense and examining the Tesseract as a source for such weapons. Loki arrived through the Tesseract from "the other end of space" and began attacking several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, taking control of Agent Barton and Erik Selvig with his staff and taking hold of the Tesseract. Following this, Fury re-instates the Avengers Initiative and has Coulson call for Romanoff to bringing in the others. Coulson 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, of which Banner is an expert. Meanwhile, Fury goes to Rogers himself to give him his first mission since being awakened. Coulson personally travels to Stark Tower to bring Stark files containing information regarding his other potential teammates, Loki, and the Tesseract.

Battle of New York
The team was assembled on the Helicarrier and initially had difficulty working together. Many of them did not  want to form a team and they argued constantly over ideological differences. Tony was reluctant to work under the command of Captain America. Thor demanded that Loki be returned to him and did not want to compromise. Everyone on the team was uncomfortable with the presence of Bruce Banner. After Loki killed Coulson, and began his main attack, the Avengers decided to put their differences aside and went to New York City. During the battle they learned to trust one another and rally in defense of New York as it was invaded by extraterrestrials known as the Chitauri. Captain America took command of the team and they all worked to suppress the invasion force. The Hulk beat Loki into submission and Iron Man carried a nuclear weapon fired by the World Security Council into the portal through which the aliens entered Earth and destroyed their fleet, breaking the neural connection with their ground troops and instantly incapacitating them. The team took Loki as their prisoner.

Aftermath
"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

In the aftermath of the battle, the team rested and ate at a nearby Shwarma restaurant. While they were eating, James Rhodes, who had come to New York to help fight but was too late, entered the restaurant and was introduced to the Avengers. Later, the Avengers reassembled in their civilain clothes to watch Thor take both Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard.

Meanwhile, Nick Fury worked to resurrect the person that the team avenged, Phil Coulson.

Allies

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

Enemies

 * Thanos - Archenemy
 * Loki
 * Chitauri
 * Leviathan
 * Ultron
 * Vision
 * HYDRA
 * Wolfgang von Strucker
 * Jasper Sitwell