10 Terrible Mistakes That Almost Ruined The Avengers For Everyone

The Avengers are as close as the Marvel Universe gets to celebrities. Well, most of the major superheroes tend to be pretty well known, obviously, but Earth's Mightiest Heroes are really the only ones to be universally loved, adored and respected - after everyone got bored of the Fantastic Four, anyway. Spider-Man is painted a menace, the X-Men and mutants as a whole are hated and feared, but so long as true patriot Captain America and his team are seen saving the universe, the public can't get enough of them. In a meta-textual twist this adoration has crossed over into the real world (that's Earth-1218 in the official Marvel Multiverse, True Believers!), with the movie adaptation raking in record-breaking numbers. Whilst they've been a constant within Marvel, the Avengers comics have never quite been as consistently popular as the likes of the X-Men and Spider-Man. They have kept up a steady level of quality, however, that earned them a small yet dedicated fanbase who followed them as they went from strength to strength, growing in popularity until they became the multiple-title-having, box-office-dominating behemoth they are today. Things could have been a lot different. Time and again the Avengers have faced down untold menaces, enemies to our very existence that would have destroyed all of humanity as soon as look at us, and they lived to tell the tale. Well, most of them, anyway. There have been times, though, where those threats were not ones that the Avengers themselves could face. Times when writers were responsible for crappy storylines, editors enforced changes, or characters acted...out of character, which very nearly threatened to tear the team apart. Or at least set knock them off course for the universal popularity they boast today. We've assembled the ten terrible mistakes that nearly ruined the Avengers for everyone.