History YMMV / TheAvengers

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

** A group of scientists who call themselves "The Enclave", those who first created Adam Warlock, had a mistery cargo in a plane, and crashed into the water. There is a rescue and cleanup, but there is a cocoon down there with some serious PowerIncontinence. It turns out that the Enclave were just a RedHerring: the being inside the cocoon was a resurrected Jean Grey, who had died years before during ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga.

** The Vision. Let's see, met the [[ComicBook/ScarletWitch love of his life]] who accepted him even though he was a robot, married her, and had two lovely boys with her, only to have his sons turn out to be false entities created by the Scarlet Witch's magic which turned his wife into an unstable Villain and later caused her to kill him when the memories of her sons returned. ([[ContinuitySnarl Even though she had never forgotten them in the first place. Blame Bendis for not getting his facts straight.]]) Not to mention all of the [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer fear and hatred]] he met with when he first became an Avenger! What's more, Vision's artificial human status has leas to constant, casual FantasticRacism, even among some of his teammates and friends, who fail to realise just how human and alive he really is, and more importantly how emotional he is; regularly they fail to consider his feelings on a subject, and almost never think to check on him after something traumatic, since they assume he doesn't ''get'' traumatised.

** ''Avengers Annual'' #10 in 1981 included a cover blurb that announced, "A Shocking Mystery Guest!" The guest was Carol Danvers, who had been absent for some time before this. But the issue happened to include a one-time extra named [[NamesTheSame "Maddy Pryor"]], who some readers decades later sometimes confuse with the other one because the ComicBook/XMen were guest characters in the ''Annual'', it was written by Creator/ChrisClaremont, and the cover blurb.

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** Avengers fans have largely forgiven the Comicbook/ScarletWitch for her actions during the ''Disassembled'' and ''House of M'' arcs, mainly because it was established in ''ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade'' that she was [[NotHimself not herself]] at that time and even with X-Men fans, she's quite popular with female comic book readers and those with mental illnesses. On the other hand, for most parts of the X-Men fandom, she is viewed as a KarmaHoudini who never got any real punishment. A point of contention is while Cyclops (whose actions also happened under a mental breakdown and possession) gets hunted down like a criminal, she has largely been forgiven. This has been pointed out InUniverse on occasion. Her attempts to fix her mistakes has often been aborted or something wrong happens during the attempts, with fans either saying she should be punished even more or are annoyed that the writers are pulling an invoked RonTheDeathEater for her good intentions.

* MagnificentBastard: ComicBook/KangTheConqueror, born Nathaniel Richards, turned to conquest due to being bored by a utopia in the 30th century. Forging a galaxies-wide, centuries-spanning empire by his tactical genius, Kang routinely returns to the 20th century to engage the Avengers, repeatedly outsmarting them and always [[NearVillainVictory coming close to ultimate victory]]. Combining an insatiable drive to conquer with an odd sense of honor, Kang often fails solely due to future versions of himself interfering. At one point, Kang even manages to divest his destiny from his future self and forms a council consisting of alternate Kangs, only to completely outwit and destroy them. In ''[[ComicBook/TheKangWar The Kang Dynasty]]'', Kang razes Washington DC and masterminds a near complete take over of earth, planning even in defeat to leave his empire to his son Marcus, before being forced to kill Marcus for his betrayal when Marcus rescues him. Kang repeatedly shows he is one of the Avengers' most resilient and dangerous enemies, stopping at nothing until all he can imagine falls under his dominion.

** The Vision. Let's see, met the [[Characters/MarvelComicsScarletWitch love of his life]] who accepted him even though he was a robot, married her, and had two lovely boys with her, only to have his sons turn out to be false entities created by the Scarlet Witch's magic which turned his wife into an unstable Villain and later caused her to kill him when the memories of her sons returned. ([[ContinuitySnarl Even though she had never forgotten them in the first place. Blame Bendis for not getting his facts straight.]]) Not to mention all of the [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer fear and hatred]] he met with when he first became an Avenger! What's more, Vision's artificial human status has leas to constant, casual FantasticRacism, even among some of his teammates and friends, who fail to realise just how human and alive he really is, and more importantly how emotional he is; regularly they fail to consider his feelings on a subject, and almost never think to check on him after something traumatic, since they assume he doesn't ''get'' traumatised.

** Avengers fans have largely forgiven the [[Characters/MarvelComicsScarletWitch Scarlet Witch]] for her actions during the ''Disassembled'' and ''House of M'' arcs, mainly because it was established in ''ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade'' that she was [[NotHimself not herself]] at that time and even with X-Men fans, she's quite popular with female comic book readers and those with mental illnesses. On the other hand, for most parts of the X-Men fandom, she is viewed as a KarmaHoudini who never got any real punishment. A point of contention is while Cyclops (whose actions also happened under a mental breakdown and possession) gets hunted down like a criminal, she has largely been forgiven. This has been pointed out InUniverse on occasion. Her attempts to fix her mistakes has often been aborted or something wrong happens during the attempts, with fans either saying she should be punished even more or are annoyed that the writers are pulling an invoked RonTheDeathEater for her good intentions.

** [[Characters/MarvelComicsMariaHill Maria Hill]] may be the biggest example of one in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse. Even her actress in the films happily referred to her as 'the biggest bitch in the Marvel Universe'. She is the woman who tried to arrest ''Captain America'' for reasons she wouldn't be able to arrest him for, going out of her way to sabotage others to get ahead, and generally being a jerk to everyone she meets while her competence as a SHIELD director leaves much to be desired. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Her actions in]] ''ComicBook/SecretAvengers'' do not help with this (a combination of [[WhatTheHellHero]] and [[KickTheDog]]. ''However'', a good number of fans ''do'' sympathise with her, especially thanks to her CharacterDevelopment under Fraction's pen in ''Iron Man'' and the handling by Creator/MarkWaid in his ''Hulk'' work. A number of fans point out that Nick Fury is generally given a free pass for similar stunts, while she gets derided [[note]]which, again, her actress acknowledges, pointing out the DoubleStandard of how when a guy does something cruel and morally questionable, he is a badass, but when a woman does it, she is just a bitch[[/note]]; not to mention, her clear guilt during ''Secret Avengers'' helps to at least humanize her and make it clear that she is not OK betraying Mockingbird or Hulk (but not Daisy; she is happy screwing over Daisy).

* MagnificentBastard: [[Characters/MarvelComicsKangTheConqueror Kang the Conqueror]], born Nathaniel Richards, turned to conquest due to being bored by a utopia in the 30th century. Forging a galaxies-wide, centuries-spanning empire by his tactical genius, Kang routinely returns to the 20th century to engage the Avengers, repeatedly outsmarting them and always [[NearVillainVictory coming close to ultimate victory]]. Combining an insatiable drive to conquer with an odd sense of honor, Kang often fails solely due to future versions of himself interfering. At one point, Kang even manages to divest his destiny from his future self and forms a council consisting of alternate Kangs, only to completely outwit and destroy them. In ''[[ComicBook/TheKangWar The Kang Dynasty]]'', Kang razes Washington DC and masterminds a near complete take over of earth, planning even in defeat to leave his empire to his son Marcus, before being forced to kill Marcus for his betrayal when Marcus rescues him. Kang repeatedly shows he is one of the Avengers' most resilient and dangerous enemies, stopping at nothing until all he can imagine falls under his dominion.

** Within the Marvel fandom, a fierce rivalry has come to brew between Avengers fans and ComicBook/XMen fans since the mid-2000s, thanks in part by the push in popularity the Avengers got from the success of ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'' and even moreso with the massive success of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. The success essentially propelled the Avengers and its affiliated characters to enjoy the kind of mainstream recognition the X-Men enjoyed, after decades of largely playing second fiddle to them. X-Men fans as a result have become increasingly resentful of the Avengers, with some fans going as far as to accuse Marvel Comics of playing favorites with the Avengers (and to a lesser extent, the Guardians of the Galaxy). The rivalry died down somewhat after Marvel reacquired the film rights to both franchises and announced plans to integrate them into the MCU.

* Avengers fans have largely forgiven the [[Characters/MarvelComicsScarletWitch Scarlet Witch]] for her actions during the ''Disassembled'' and ''House of M'' arcs, mainly because it was established in ''ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade'' that she was [[NotHimself not herself]] at that time and even with X-Men fans, she's quite popular with female comic book readers and those with mental illnesses. On the other hand, for most parts of the X-Men fandom, she is viewed as a KarmaHoudini who never got any real punishment. A point of contention is while Cyclops (whose actions also happened under a mental breakdown and possession) gets hunted down like a criminal, she has largely been forgiven. This has been pointed out InUniverse on occasion. Her attempts to fix her mistakes has often been aborted or something wrong happens during the attempts, with fans either saying she should be punished even more or are annoyed that the writers are pulling an invoked RonTheDeathEater for her good intentions.

** Avengers fans have largely forgiven the Characters/MarvelComicsScarletWitch for her actions during the ''Disassembled'' and ''House of M'' arcs, mainly because it was established in ''ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade'' that she was [[NotHimself not herself]] at that time. On the other hand, for most parts of the X-Men fandom, she is viewed as a KarmaHoudini who never got any real punishment. A point of contention is while Cyclops (whose actions also happened under a mental breakdown and possession) gets hunted down like a criminal, she has largely been forgiven. This has been pointed out InUniverse on occasion.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: In the 1960s Marvel created the Black Panther, the first black superhero. Still, there was reluctance in most of the media to use black characters as main characters, beyond BlackDudeDiesFirst or as the PluckyComicRelief of the white main character. And so, Black Panther was created as an African character, instead of an Afro-American character. Feeling that he had to go one step further, Stan Lee created the "Sons of the Serpent", who were basically a CaptainErsatz of the infamous UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan. There was nothing fantastic about them: they were not mad scientists, evil mutants or had any superpowers, they were just a bunch of racists attacking people. Those two issues made constant references at every page to everything that is wrong with racism, xenophobia and intolerance.

* CrazyAwesome: [[OneSceneWonder Pilot Marko]].

** Some characters in [[Creator/BrianMichaelBendis Brian Michael Bendis']] Avengers comics - Spider-Woman, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Ares - are accused of being this. There is some balance though, because Bendis has a tendency to showing his affection by [[BreakTheCutie heartlessly breaking them]], so all four went through some serious crap under his care. But for many fans it's still not enough to equal all the attention he gives them. And that's not counting Bendis' "love" for Hawkeye, who has become nothing more than a vehicle from which Bendis [[TakeThatCritics attacks his critics]] (and to spite fans whose overwhelming hatred for Bendis' attempt to permanently kill Clint off led to Bendis being forced against his will to bring him back to life, at which point he turned him into a ninja to further spite fans).

** Similarly, the {{ComicBook/Thunderbolts}} were so popular that they eventually grew into their own standalone superhero team.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Most people think that Spider-man only joined up in 2004, when Bendis took over the franchise and radically changed the direction of the series. The truth is that Spidey has been a member since 1991, and while he may have initially joined only as a reservist, he wasn't the first. Black Knight and Black Widow followed much the same path, starting out as reservists before joining full time decades later, and Spidey followed suit. But when most people think of when Spidey joined the Avengers, 2004's New Avengers is what they tend to point to.

** Carol Danvers in the 2018 volume. Not only does she still hold a grudge against Tony for the events of ''ComicBook/CivilWarII'' (despite Tony being willing to bury the hatchet enough to work, and even flirt, with her), she absolutely refuses to apologize for putting him in a coma (with a blow that would have ''killed him'' if not for his unique physiology), and even makes light of it on occasion.

* ValuesDissonance: Zigzagged with "The Avengers #200". On the surface, it seems like this trope, since its attitude towards Carol Danvers' impregnation and courtship by Marcus (and yes, that order is right) seems like just old-school borderline misogynistic patriarchy. Except that, even in the day and age it came out it, this story ''horrified'' readers, forcing Marvel to scramble to fix it.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: The infamous "belly dancer" outfit George Perez gave Scarlet Witch in ''Avengers'' vol. 3. The character claims that she intended to "get in touch with my gypsy roots" ([[ValuesDissonance Yeah...]]) but really, and let's not kid here, it's for {{Fanservice}}, plain and simple. Problem is, it makes Wanda (who is your typical comic book babe anyhow) look like a belly dancer.

** Wasp, though she crosses into IronWoobie: Her dad died, to kick things off, but she didn't let that get her down too much. Then she joined a superhero team only to be regulated to DistressedDamsel roles and ignored due to being the weakest member of the team (she eventually TookALevelInBadass but it too a long time for her to get there). Then her personal chauffeur starts making advances on her until eventually trying to kill her and Hank or to get her money; the chauffeur, it turns out, is Whirlwind, a villain that constantly kicks her ass when they battle, who's since developed an obsessive crush on her. Then she marries Hank, only for him to be in the middle of a psychotic break down that is partially her own fault, eventually resulting in a painful string of events that involve her almost being mind-raped and killed by Ultron, the crazy robot Hank built, when Ultron tries to make himself a wife, Jocasta, based on Jan's brainwaves (complete with Jan being forced to endure some very NightmareFuel ShamefulStrip FanDisservice), getting slapped across the face and knocked to the floor, forever turning her into a poster child for domestic abuse in comics. THEN, she spends the next bit of time recuperating from that and dealing with a messy divorce and, when her and Hank start to patch things up, she's attacked and almost raped by Whirlwind, whose crush has turned him into an obsessed psychopath. Then, after not being allowed to do anything for a while, she's used as a [[spoiler:SacrificialLion]] during ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion''. [[spoiler:During which, she's secretly lost in the Microverse, fighting for her life]].

** The Vision. Let's see, met the [[Characters/MarvelComicsScarletWitch love of his life]] who accepted him even though he was a robot, married her, and had two lovely boys with her, only to have his sons turn out to be false entities created by the Scarlet Witch's magic which turned his wife into an unstable Villain and later caused her to kill him when the memories of her sons returned. ([[ContinuitySnarl Even though she had never forgotten them in the first place. Blame Bendis for not getting his facts straight.]]) Not to mention all of the [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer fear and hatred]] he met with when he first became an Avenger!

* MagnificentBastard: Kang the Conqueror, born Nathaniel Richards, turned to conquest due to being bored by a utopia in the 30th century. Forging a galaxies-wide, centuries-spanning empire by his tactical genius, Kang routinely returns to the 20th century to engage the Avengers, repeatedly outsmarting them and always [[NearVillainVictory coming close to ultimate victory]]. Combining an insatiable drive to conquer with an odd sense of honor, Kang often fails solely due to future versions of himself interfering. At one point, Kang even manages to divest his destiny from his future self and forms a council consisting of alternate Kangs, only to completely outwit and destroy them. In ''[[ComicBook/TheKangWar The Kang Dynasty]]'', Kang razes Washington DC and masterminds a near complete take over of earth, planning even in defeat to leave his empire to his son Marcus, before being forced to kill Marcus for his betrayal when Marcus rescues him. Kang repeatedly shows he is one of the Avengers' most resilient and dangerous enemies, stopping at nothing until all he can imagine falls under his dominion.

'''You'd expect:''' That Spider-Man would call the others and then figure out what to do next.\\

** 1960s, there is a special comic book character. A black superhero, named "Black Panther". What do you mean that it is not a veiled reference to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party Black Panthers]]? No, really, it is not: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the character first. There was even a brief attempt to rename the character as "Black Leopard", to escape from the confusion, but it was short lived. Until the late Eighties, the character was almost always referred to as either 'Panther', 'the Panther' or T'Challa (his name), in order to avoid the implications of the name. According to "Comics Should Be Good", it's [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/11/27/comic-book-legends-revealed-183/ actually just a coincidence]] that the two have the same name and became prominent at the same time.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: The infamous "belly dancer" outfit George Perez gave her in ''Avengers'' vol. 3. The character claims it's to "get in touch with my gypsy roots" ([[ValuesDissonance Yeah...]]) but really, and let's not kid here, it's for {{Fanservice}}, plain and simple. Problem is, it makes Wanda (who is your typical comic book babe anyhow) look like a belly dancer.

** The second Wasp, Nadia Pym, starts out with a deep dislike for Spider-Man, unable to go a single issue without insulting him in some way. It's hard to let this slide, because not only is she sweet and kind to everyone else (even ''Doctor Doom''), but we're never given a solid reason as to why she seems to [[IrrationalHatred hate him]] so much.

* TheUntwist: All the gatherers are actually Avengers from alternate realities. But who is Proctor's identity in the main reality? Let's see, he has [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]], he knows everything there is to know about the "Gann Josin" mind link between Sersi and the Black Knight, he can subtly manipulate them, he claims that Sersi destroys all realities and hates her with a passion... who can it be? Nobody bats an eye when it was "revealed" that Proctor was an alternate Black Knight.
* ValuesDissonance: Zigzagged with "The Avengers #200". On the surface, it seems like this trope, since its attitude towards Carol Danvers' impregnation and courtship by Marcus (and yes, that order's right) seems like just old-school borderline misogynistic patriarchy. Except that, even in the day and age it came out it, this story ''horrified'' readers, forcing Marvel to scramble to fix it.
* VindicatedByHistory: Geoff Johns' run was not well-received at the time due to characterization problems and Johns' lack of knowledge of the Marvel universe being quite evident. However, in the years since, it's been looked back on more fondly, as it preceded the much more loathed Chuck Austen run and the ''very'' divisive Bendis run, and Johns' standing as a comic creator has also far improved. He himself, however, looks on his run as something an OldShame.
* WhatAnIdiot: Avengers 317. Iron Man informs the Avengers that an orb in the ship has been booby-trapped to explode if it is touched by anyone except Nebula. The Avengers split up and search for it, aware that they must touch it. Spider-Man finds it first.\\

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: When the Swordman first shows up, Iron Man tells the Avengers with an hologram to accept him as a member. He's a good guy and they misunderstood him. The Swordman then betrays the team, leaves a bomb in the mansion, and runs away. The hologram was actually sent by the Mandarin, but the Avengers didn't know that. Iron Man fought alongside the Avengers in the next annual, and the Swordsman was one of the villains, but none of this was brought up.

** A group of scientists who call themselves "The Enclave", those who first created Adam Warlock, had a mistery cargo in a plane, and crashed into the water. There is a rescue and cleanup, but there's a cocoon down there with some serious PowerIncontinence. It turns out that the Enclave were just a RedHerring: the being inside the cocoon was a resurrected Jean Grey, who had died years before during ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga.

** Then there's the story arc in Avengers #211-230 that shows the downfall of Hank Pym as he slaps his wife, humiliates himself, gets divorced, expelled from the Avengers, framed from a crime and imprisoned, and then framed again as an accomplice before overturning and defeating the Masters of Evil by himself, and taking responsibility for his actions. This story which was strongly serialized redefined the Avengers group dynamic, and made them flawed and conflicted heroes, and it is also for better and worse, the defining story of Hank Pym and ''ComicBook/AntMan''.
** In Creator/RogerStern's lengthy run it's definitely, ''ComicBook/UnderSiege'' where the Masters of Evil go big like never before and infiltrate and take over Avengers mansion and imprison and/or decommission many Avengers making Earth's Mightiest Heroes the underdogs as they take back their headquarters.

** Another reason could be his twin getting the SuperPowerLottery being a vastly powerful RealityWarper while he got SuperSpeed and is not even at the top of that power tier in the Marvel Universe.

** Literally everything about "The Avengers #200", in which Carol was [[MindRaped mentally compelled to fall in love with Marcus]], [[MedicalRapeAndImpregnate impregnated with his genetically engineered clone-avatar]], had her memories of the seduction and impregnation erased, had to go through the horror of giving birth to a baby she didn't remember conceiving, and then, when he aged literally overnight into a grown man, she immediately fell in love with him upon seeing him and abandoned her friends in the Avengers to go off to Limbo with him. And worse, all of her friends see absolutely nothing wrong with this! This issue was so badly written that this turned into AscendedFridgeHorror.

** The entire story of how Janet and Hank got married, not to mention much of their early relationship. [[ValuesDissonance Granted]], it was UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} but even by Silver Age standards, that is all kinds of unintentionally creepy. Their relationship itself starts with Hank taking Janet, fresh from the trauma of her father's death, as his superhero companion and girlfriend largely because she reminds him of his late wife, and then spends the next several years regularly being an InsufferableGenius and casual misogynist towards her, which she put up with because she was infatuated with him and wanted to marry him. Then the Yellow Jacket debacle happened, where Hank attacked her and the Avengers in a new costumed identity, telling them he had killed Hank Pym, before choking Janet out and kidnapping her, where he proceeds to force a kiss on her. After they get married and the Avengers find out it was Hank all along, none of them say anything about Janet marrying a clearly unhinged Hank Pym; the fact she's potentially taking advantage of his unstable behavior, or that she's putting herself in serious danger marrying someone who's dangerously unwell. Things do ''not'' go well, but the infamous slap that follows years later was really something everyone should have seen coming.

** Within the Marvel fandom, a fierce rivalry has come to brew between Avengers fans and ComicBook/XMen fans since the mid-2000s, thanks in part by the push in popularity the Avengers got from the success of ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'' and even moreso with the massive success of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, which essentially propelled the Avengers and its affiliated characters to enjoy the kind of mainstream recognition the X-Men enjoyed after decades of largely playing second fiddle to them. X-Men fans as a result have become increasingly resentful of the Avengers, with some fans going as far as to accuse Marvel Comics of playing favorites with the Avengers (and to a lesser extent, the Guardians of the Galaxy). The rivalry died down somewhat after Marvel reacquired the film rights to both franchises and announced plans to integrate them into the MCU.

** There's a lot of debate about Brian Michael Bendis's run, but pretty much everyone likes to ignore ''Avengers Disassembled''.
** The whole Issue #200 fiasco is generally ignored by both fans ''and'' writers; beyond Chris Claremont's AuthorsSavingThrow, it's hardly ever been referenced or brought up again for understandable reasons.

** There's also Ex Nihilo, for his pure charisma. That's pretty hard for a character who began as a villain who bombed major cities.

** Jason Aaron's run is one of the most unpopular runs yet. His characterization of many characters is questionable at best, and completely contradictory at worst; Robbie Reyes being the worst offender, going from a tragic and complex loner to jobbing PluckyComicRelief. His stories constantly try to change established canon for the sake of leaving a mark, tons of gimmick-based plots occur, and most stories rely on characters being written completely out of character for shock value. It says something when most concurrent books ignore the book's changes or outright ''mock'' them.

** From Jonathan Hickman's run, there's Smasher, who's very well-liked despite her small role, and became a BreakoutCharacter in her own right.