It’s become something of a joke about superhero fiction that superheroes have a bad tendency to destroy a city while they are trying to save it. While superheroes are often shown trying to save people during whatever mass conflict is breaking out around them, it seems that property damage is of little concern to them.
This bears out to be pretty true in Marvel Comics as well. While saving lives is important to the likes of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, it seems that letting a few skyscrapers get knocked over first isn’t completely out of the question.
10 The Mighty Avengers Fighting Shuma-Gorath In New York While Thanos Invades
While the Avengers were off-world fighting the Builders’ War during Infinity by Jonathan Hickman, Jerome Opena, and Jim Cheung, Luke Cage, She-Hulk, Blade, Spectrum, Blue Marvel, Power Man, and White Tiger formed a new Mighty Avengers team to watch the little guy while the Avengers dealt with global and galactic threats. This was the Mighty Avengers title by Al Ewing, Greg Land, and Luke Ross.
Thanos invaded during Infinity in a mad quest to kill all his biological children. The Mighty Avengers fought off much of his fighting force in New York, but they were also dealing with a mystical threat in the form of Shuma-Gorath. This ended in a catastrophic threat, as Shuma-Gorath was summoned to Times Square while the Mighty Avengers tried to deal with the demon as well as Thanos’ invading forces.
9 Iron Man Failing To Stop Grey Gargoyle From Petrifying All Of Paris
During the Fear Itself (by Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen), Cul, the Norse God of Fear, invaded Midgard and distributed several mystical hammers to those he claimed were “the Worthy” including Sinthea Schmidt, the Hulk, the Thing, Juggernaut, Absorbing Man, Attuma, Titania, and Grey Gargoyle. Even the heroes among that number were corrupted by the hammers’ power.
Grey Gargoyle attacked Europe, and Iron Man tried to deal with the threat. Unfortunately, Iron Man was unable to deal with the powered-up Grey Gargoyle who petrified all of Paris in retaliation.
8 The Avengers Trying To Stop Blitzkrieg USA, Only For It To Decimate New York
Sinthea Schmidt, daughter of the Red Skull, used her newfound Norse power to attack New York in an event called “Blitzkrieg U.S.A.” She rallied an army of Nazis in mech suits and began bombarding the city.
The Avengers tried to stop her and fought valiantly, but, as to be expected, the city was decimated in the ensuing battle.
7 Hydra Destroying Las Vegas To Punish The Heroes For Trying To Stop Them
The Secret Empire event (by Nick Spencer, Andrea Sorrentino, Rod Reis, Steve McNiven, Ron Lim, David Marquez, and Paco Medina), found a Hydra-corrupted copy of Captain America taking over the United States government on behalf of Hydra.
A resistance group of heroes tried to fight against the new regime. These heroes hid out inside a hollowed-out plateau outside Las Vegas, Nevada. After a series of skirmishes between the heroes and Hydra, the latter completely destroyed Las Vegas in retaliation.
6 Doctor Strange Resurrecting Las Vegas Only For It To Be Covered In Demons
Later, Doctor Strange tried to make up for this chaos using newfound magic power to resurrect Las Vegas–both the city and the people who died. This story was called Doctor Strange: Damnation by Nick Spencer, Donny Cates, Szymon Kudranski, and Rod Reis.
This led to a returned Las Vegas flooded with demons and the forces of Hell. Mephisto was now the ruler of Vegas and threatened to spread his Hell-realm across the Earth.
5 Earth-616 And Ultimate Earth Destroying Each Other’s New York Cities
In the finale of Time Runs Out, which was, at its core, a crossover between Avengers and New Avengers by Jonathan Hickman, Jim Cheung, Mike Deodato Jr., Stefano Caselli, and Kev Walker, the mainstream Marvel Universe, Earth-616, was about to collide with the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Earth-1610. The Maker, who is the Ultimate version of Mr. Fantastic, along with Namor’s Cabal coaxed Earth-1610 to openly attack Earth-616 for survival.
The ensuing war destroyed both New York cities, with 616’s NYC taking the brunt of the damage. In the middle of it all, Cap and Iron Man had another grudge match as the world literally ended around them. Spectrum of the Mighty Avengers almost flew through Earth-1610 at post-lightspeed to destroy it, but she stopped herself at the last moment and was captured by the Maker.
4 Hulk And His Warbound Wrecking New York To Get Back At The Illuminati
The Illuminati shot Hulk off to another planet called Skaar (they intended to send him to a peaceful planet but the rocket was knocked off-course by the Hulk’s raging) to deal with this threat for good. However, Hulk became the gladiator king of Skaar, only for the rocket’s engine to detonate and destroy most of the planet (thanks to the tampering of the alien Miek).
This prompted Hulk to return to Earth and seek vengeance. He began abducting the members of the Illuminati and putting them in a gladiatorial arena. The war between the Hulk’s army and the Avengers once again decimated New York City. The actions of the Illuminati, in their attempt to spare cities from future Hulk rampages, put New York through the worst one yet. This event was called World War Hulk and was created by Greg Pak and John Romita Jr.
3 Asgard Being Absolutely Decimated While The Avengers Defended It From The Dark Avengers
When Norman Osborn turned his Dark Avengers and the Hood’s Masters of Evil on Asgard, which was then located on Midgard outside Broxton, Oklahoma, it seemed to be the end for the Asgardians. The Avengers, Young Avengers, and Nick Fury’s Secret Warriors rallied to defend Asgard. This event was called Siege and was by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel.
Unfortunately, the city was still completely destroyed during the fight, largely thanks to the actions of Sentry crashing the city down to Earth. The destruction was so extreme that, when Odin returned to Asgard, he once again moved the city off Earth and into the stars.
2 Captain America And Iron Man Trashing New York During The Superhuman Civil War
The first Civil War by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven found Captain America and Iron Man battling it out in different locations across New York City over the Super Hero Registration Act, which required all heroes to turn their secret identity over to the government and become officially trained and employed agents of the United States government.
Cap didn’t want to do this, but Iron Man thought it the best move forward. The ensuing battles between the two devasted the city. Of course, an ironic inciting factor to this was the New Warriors accidentally vaporizing part of Stamford, Connecticut live on television while trying to apprehend Nitro, the Exploding Man. The destruction and threat to life became so bad that Cap surrendered in the end, only to be assassinated by the Red Skull and Crossbones while in custody.
1 All The World’s Heroes Coming Together To Wreck Washington DC
Going back to Secret Empire, the heroes of Earth finally rallied in the end to stop Evil Cap and Hydra’s new empire. This involved the Avengers, FF, X-Men, Inhumans, Asgardians, forces from Wakanda, the real Captain America, and others coming together and completely smashing Washington DC to save it from Hydra.
In fairness, Hydra had completely remade the city in its own image to suit its new empire, but the scale of destruction, especially when Magneto got involved, is pretty comical in retrospect considering so many different factions came together to carry it out.
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