4. Epic Stories
With some exceptions, the Avengers have commonly gone up against pants-pissing, world-threatening menaces. And really, they kind of have to. Their roster has included super soldiers, powerful androids, magic-wielding mutants, armored heroes who can take on armies, the best fighters in the world, a few gods, and even a Hulk or two. Thats why the Avengers have traditionally had some of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe. People like Kang, a time-traveling warlord with armies and technology centuries ahead of anything the Avengers have ever seen. Or Ultron, an indestructible, genocidal robot. Or the Grandmaster, a nigh-omnipotent demi-god. Or Thanos, who controlled all aspects of reality with the Infinity Gauntlet. These are the kinds of threats that would probably make most solo heroes pull a Hicks and shout, game over, man! But for the Avengers, its an average Wednesday. The comics slipped away from that when the title became New Avengers and they started going up against ninjas or a Kingpin wannabe with a magic cloak. And one of the biggest threats the Avengers have gone up against up until recently? Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin. The guy whose claim to fame is killing Gwen Stacy. Maybe Osborn can give Spider-Man a rough go of it, but I dont really see Thor putting up with his s*** for too long before he gets to smiting. Basically, its all there in the description: Earths Mightiest Heroes, gathered together to face the threats that no single superhero could withstand. With criteria like that, Norman freaking Osborn doesnt quite register. The Avengers movie delivered this in spades. You had Loki armed with the Tesseract and an alien army. And waiting in the shadows was none other than the Death-worshipping mad Titan himselfThanos. Here you had a threat that really needed the combined might of all these heroes. One of them alone wasnt going to cut it. I will give credit to current Avengers writer Jonathan Hickman, because he has brought in some universe-shaking threats to the Avengers, and that is a good start, but there are other things holding him back, which Ill get to soon.