Marvel Database
Advertisement
Marvel Database
Marvel Database
253,903
pages
in: Teams, Public Identity Teams, Defunct Teams,
and 6 more

Mighty Avengers (Initiative) (Earth-616)

Sign in to edit

The world needs the Avengers. The best of the best. The best and the brightest. Symbols. Icons. It's a time of healing. It's a time to tell people we're looking out for them.

—Iron Man[source]

History

Initiative[]

In the wake of the Superhero Civil War led by Captain America and Iron Man and the enforcement of the Superhuman Registration Act, the 50-State Initiative was implemented and each American state was patrolled by a team of registered heroes.[4] The Avengers were reformed to serve the main superhero unit on Earth, operating in the state of New York. Tony Stark, the invincible Iron Man, who became the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. after the Civil War, selected the members of the group. Although Iron Man was active on the team, his obligations led him to appoint longtime Avenger Ms. Marvel to act as field commander. Unlike previous rosters of the Avengers which were assembled by chance, Iron Man and Ms. Marvel picked the line-up from the registered heroes at their disposal. They chose the wealthy fashion icon Wasp, the optimistic Hollywoodian star Wonder Man, the troubled powerhouse Sentry, the lethal spy Black Widow, and the Olympian God of War Ares to compose the roster.[1]

Before any formalization, the new group was forced to debut as the Mole Man and its monstrous creatures unleashed chaos in New York City. In fact, Mole Man was a victim of another aggressor,[1] the long-time robotic nemesis of the Avengers Ultron, who infected and possessed Iron Man's armor and body, reshaping them to resemble the Wasp's organism. Having seized control of Starktech, Ultron had complete control over Earth's weather patterns, igniting a climate collapse around the globe to eradicate humanity.[5] The Avengers battled him as he also corrupted S.H.I.E.L.D.'s systems.[6] The climate crisis was stopped as the Avengers destroyed Stark's satellites. In retaliation, Ultron caused a massive blackout in America, took control of Iron Man's arsenal and murdered the Sentry's wife Lindy Reynolds.[7] Ultron's creator Hank Pym envisioned a solution by having the villain's organism infiltrated by a microscopic Ares, whom Ultron had knowledge about.[8] Completely out of control, the volatile Sentry brutally maimed Ultron, which endangered his host Tony Stark's life. Empowered by a missile Ultron had fired, Ms. Marvel was able to prevent the Sentry of assassinating Ultron and, consequently, Iron Man. Ares was successful in his mission and survived thanks to the Wasp. Ultron was purged from Tony Stark's body, making a recovery possible.[9]

While some Avengers joined the Initiative, many others rebelled against the Registration Act even after the loss and death of Captain America after the Civil War.[4][10] The outlaw Avengers maintained their operations, hiding from S.H.I.E.L.D. in Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.[11] When identifying the fugitive Spider-Woman fighting the Grey Gargoyle in an illegal act of vigilantism, Ms. Marvel approached her and insinuated Captain America was, in fact, alive and being kept sedated in the maximum-security prison known as Raft.[12] Spider-Woman fled and informed the outlaw Avengers about it. They decided to raid the Raft to rescue Captain America only to be ambushed by the Initiative's Avengers, who staged the situation to trick them.[13] Doctor Strange haunted the Avengers with illusions about their deepest nightmares to cover a retreat. However, Iron Man and his Avengers tracked them to the Sanctum Sanctorum, though Doctor Strange's mystic defenses proved to be impenetrable.[14] Around this period of grief, the Avengers of the Initiative vented their anger about Captain America's demise by focusing on their duty, such as defeating Tiger Shark and a host of summoned sea-beasts.[15]

Stark was secretly approached by Spider-Woman, who had possession of a Skrull corpse. She informed him the alien had posed as Elektra, the leader of the Hand. Upon this revelation, they discussed Earth was being the target of a Secret Invasion. To deal with the situation, Spider-Woman joined the Avengers as other members remained unaware of the Skrull crisis. The team faced an infection of Symbiotes, alien parasites that bonded themselves to people throughout Manhattan,[16] including many Avengers, namely the Wasp, Black Widow, and Spider-Woman. Iron Man developed a cure to purge the creatures and he traced the attack's origin to Latveria.[2] In an act of war, the Avengers marched to Latveria to apprehended its monarch, Doctor Doom.[17] During the confrontation, Iron Man, the Sentry and Doctor Doom were transported to the past through the Time Platform, being forced to work together to return to the present.[18] Doctor Doom cunningly delayed his enemies' return, emerging moments before them to ambush the rest of the Avengers with his forces. Spider-Woman broke her allies free with unpredictable power levels, raising suspicions. Iron Man and the Sentry then defeated Doom, humiliating him and placing him under arrest.[19]

Skrull Invasion[]

The Skrull invasion to take over Earth finally came to a boiling point when a Skrull ship landed in the Savage Land. Iron Man and the Avengers were informed about the imminent crash by S.W.O.R.D. director Abigail Brand. Without her teammates' knowledge, Spider-Woman tipped the outlaw Avengers about the situation and they hijacked a Quinjet from the Avengers Tower. Upon reaching their destination, both Avengers teams found the Mutates' citadel in ruins. The Skrulls corrupted Iron Man's technology all over the globe with a virus through his armor's systems, not only were Iron Man and the Avengers affected, but S.H.I.E.L.D., the Initiative and many others. The landed spaceship opened, revealing a group of many costumed adventurers claiming to have escaped Skrull captivity, including Captain America.[20] Confused, the Avengers were not sure who was a shapeshifter and who was legit. The Sentry was tormented by the invaders and left the battle site. Meanwhile, Manhattan was invaded by thousands of Super-Skrull soldiers.[21]

While Ms. Marvel went to the major battle with her team's powerhouses, Spider-Woman reached out to a poisoned Iron Man in the Savage Land as he attempted to recover from the infection in his systems. She played with his mind, revealing to be Queen Veranke, the liege of the Skrulls and mastermind behind the infiltration and invasion of Earth. The Avengers put aside their differences and join forces against the common enemy, as Black Widow managed to bring Iron Man back to sanity.[22] The veil of uncertainty ended when Reed Richards activated a device that could reveal the Skrulls' true nature. The alien imposters were slain and the Avengers marched to Manhattan to fight for Earth.[23]

In the climactic battle against the Skrulls, the Avengers fought alongside a slew of comrades, most prominently Thor, the new Captain America, Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors, the Thunderbolts, Noh-Varr, and even the Hood's Gang.[24] As a last resort, the Wasp was transformed into a giant living bomb by the Skrull, since Pym had been replaced and disrupted her powers in secrecy. Thor was forced to end her life to prevent a detonation. On a happy note, on the other hand, the real heroes replaced by the Skrulls were found to be alive and well.[25] During the final stand, the director of the Thunderbolts, the unscrupulous Norman Osborn, who used to be the villain Green Goblin, killed the escaping Veranke. Using his technology from OsCorp, Osborn was not affected by the corruption of Iron Man's Starktech.[25] S.H.I.E.L.D. was decommissioned and replaced by H.A.M.M.E.R., with Osborn as its head in charge of the Initiative.[26]

The blame for the invasion was placed on the shoulders of Tony Stark and he lost his clearance as head of security. The Avengers disbanded, and dark reign descended upon Earth's Mightiest Heroes.[27] A new roster led by Osborn was assembled to act as the Initiative's Avengers. The Dark Avengers were formed mostly by former Thunderbolts adopting classic mantles of the Avengers.[28] Concurrently, the God of Mischief Loki, masquerading as the Scarlet Witch, manipulated the real Hank Pym into creating a team from the ashes of the disbanded team of Avengers. As an ally of Osborn, Loki wished to cause disorder with his actions. These Mighty Avengers operated independently, evading Osborn's reach.[29]

Paraphernalia

Transportation

Avengers Quinjet

Trivia

  • An interview with series writer Brian Michael Bendis on the Word Balloon Podcast said that the roster revealed in Wizard was not entirely accurate. Bendis stated that some of the members shown on the promo image would be on the team, while others wouldn't. Because of this, fans speculated on the roster, but the one as shown was used in the first issue, and on throughout the next 19.

See Also

Links and References

References

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
More Fandoms
Advertisement