The Avengers are Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Their entire mandate is saving the world from the biggest threats imaginable and they do a good job. Thanks to the MCU, they’ve become one of the biggest franchises in pop culture, with stories that have entertained people for decades. While they haven’t been Marvel’s biggest book for a while, they’re still very important to the Marvel Universe.
As popular and important as they can be, it doesn’t mean the Avengers are perfect. There are a lot of things wrong with the team. Cracks in their facade (both in-universe and in the real world) prevent them from reaching the heights of greatness they have in the past.
10 The MCU Showcase Team Isn’t Very Interesting
The MCU brought the Avengers to the masses. MCU films are some of the biggest movies of all time. To an extent, it makes sense to tailor the comic team to more accurately reflect the movies. However, the crossover audience between the comics and movies is pretty much nil, so it’s often pandering to a non-existent audience.
Beyond that, it’s cut down on the number of characters who don’t have any other showcase than the Avengers. In the past, one of the most interesting things about Avengers comics was how the book focused on and fleshed out the Avengers without their own books.
9 They’re Very Bad At Noticing When Their Members Are Getting Up To Shenanigans
A common trope in comics is a hero going bad in a team setting. If done well, it can make for great stories. While it happens to nearly every team, it happens a lot to the Avengers. The weirdest part is that the team almost certainly knows, but they don’t have anything in place to deal with it.
Multiple Avengers have been adversely affected by the stress of superheroism, including Hank Pym, Iron Man, Vision, and Scarlet Witch. They usually snap in violent ways that harms the team. But, the Avengers never notice the warning signs or have any way to help but a punch.
8 Going Back To Only Having One Avengers Team Limits Them
One of the coolest things about the Avengers over the years has been the many Avengers teams. The West Coast Avengers had a different feel from the main team. The Secret Avengers handled different missions than any of the others. The Uncanny Avengers made it seem like the team cared about mutants.
Each team had unique members and missions, which made a big difference in the world. From an in-universe perspective, they could handle more threats. From the readers’ perspective, it gave fans more stories and characters, expanding the Avengers mythos in entertaining directions. After teams were disbanded, there’s only one Avengers team standing.
7 They’re Responsible For Ultron
Ultron is one of the Avenger’s most iconic foes. All of the terrible things he’s done can be laid directly at their feet. Hank Pym created the android, then tried to kill it after realizing it was sentient. This birthed Ultron’s hatred of humanity and led to millions of deaths. It could have been stopped if someone was watching Pym.
Beyond that, the team never tried to get rid of the technological terror. They just punched it into submission. The team has access to the greatest geniuses on the planet, yet couldn’t figure out how to erase Ultron. Everyone that dies at Ultron’s hands is the Avengers’ fault.
6 They’re Bad At Avenging
One of the strangest things about the Avengers is that they rarely do any avenging. The team faces down the worst villains. Instead of making sure they can’t hurt anyone again, the Avengers move on to the next battle. While killing villains isn’t always warranted, one would imagine that (if it was an option) it would make a difference.
The Avengers have a very business-as-usual approach, which makes them extremely inefficient. They frequently end up fighting the same villains. Kang might be less likely to mess around if he knew it could cost him his life.
5 The Team Is Extremely Resistant To Change
Some of the best eras of the Avengers have been the ones that weren’t afraid of changing the formula. The New Avengers years introduced a lot of great changes. The Heroic Age era expanded the Avengers to an unseen extent. Cap’s Kooky Quartet in the Silver Age redefined what the Avengers could be.
The problem is – the team can only change so much. Even the aforementioned eras of the team leveled out. Those eras saw the same members return eventually, having the same adventures. Oftentimes, Avengers fans don’t want anything new, even though a shake-up would do the team a lot of good.
4 They’ve Found A Way To Get Rid Of A Lot Of Powerful Heroes
One of Marvel’s go-to tricks is taking new, popular heroes and making them Avengers. Being an Avenger is the pinnacle for the superheroes in the Marvel Universe. It’s weird how few of these heroes stick around. Plenty of powerful heroes have left the Avengers over the years, leaving the team with the same perennial members.
For a team that is supposed to consist of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, they’re often just a team of classic Avengers with one or two new members who don’t stay long.
3 Working With The Government Means The Avengers Name Can Be Used In Terrible Ways
For a long time, the Avengers were an official arm of the US government. They had a minder that watched over their affairs and reported them to the authorities. Depending on who was reporting them, this could go badly. Eventually, the team became an arm of S.H.I.E.L.D., especially when Avengers like Tony Stark or Steve Rogers ran the organization.
Situations like this have put the Avengers into some tough spots. They’ve had to work for and with people that aren’t above the board. One of the worst examples of this was in Dark Reign when Norman Osborn was put in charge and used the team for his own purposes.
2 The Avengers Don’t Care About Mutants
The Avengers’ relationship with mutants has always been fraught with peril. The team is perfectly fine with having them as members but do nothing for them as a people. If the government is building Sentinels, the Avengers sleep. If the X-Men do something the Avengers don’t like, the Avengers are there.
Avengers Vs. X-Men was a solid example of this. The Avengers’ meddling in the situation made everything worse. When the Inhumans’ Terrigen Mist cloud was killing mutants, the Avengers did nothing. The Avengers are very quiet when bad things happen to mutants.
1 They Keep Enabling Scarlet Witch To Do Terrible Things
The Avengers are particularly bad at noticing when their members are about to snap. They’re especially terrible when it comes to Scarlet Witch. Wanda Maximoff is known for snapping and doing things that even the worst villains aren’t capable of. She only gets away with it because she’s an Avenger.
Wanda is responsible for countless deaths, and the Avengers never do anything to make sure she stops. They don’t get her help and actively fight to make sure she never gets in trouble.
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