7 Times Marvel Almost Tore the Avengers Apart, Ranked

by

The Avengers are Marvel’s leading superhero team, known for taking on incredibly dangerous villains and saving the universe countless times. While not a traditional family like some other teams, the Avengers have formed strong bonds with each other, and it’s this unity that has allowed them to overcome seemingly impossible odds and defeat powerful enemies.

Over the years, the Avengers’ unity has faced numerous challenges. They’ve repeatedly been pushed to their limits, and several events nearly caused the team to fall apart. In fact, there were seven instances that came dangerously close to breaking the Avengers’ bond.

7) “Operation: Galactic Storm”

“Operation: Galactic Storm” is a somewhat overlooked Avengers story from the early 1990s that involved a conflict between the Kree and Shi’Ar empires. It was inspired by the classic “Kree/Skrull War” and is a decent story overall. The Avengers discover that the Kree Supreme Intelligence secretly orchestrated the entire war, even allowing the Shi’Ar to destroy the Kree capital city, Hala, with a powerful weapon, hoping to force the Kree to evolve. The team was divided on whether to try and kill the Supreme Intelligence, and after they did, several members left, leaving the Avengers with a smaller group of heroes.

6) The Battle Against the Apocalypse Twins

Honestly, some Avengers teams just haven’t worked out, and the first Avengers Unity Squad was a prime example. It formed right after the big Avengers vs. X-Men conflict, and let me tell you, tensions were high. There was so much built-up resentment about how the Avengers had treated mutants in the past, and it created a really unstable team. The Apocalypse Twins saw that weakness and exploited it, driving wedges between the members until the team fractured. They couldn’t stop the Twins, and things got really bad – Earth was actually destroyed! Thankfully, they were able to go back in time and try to fix their issues, eventually succeeding and saving the day, but it was a close call.

5) Secret Invasion

While the recent Secret Invasion series hasn’t been well-received, the original comic book event was a much stronger story. It featured a near-total collapse of the Avengers. At the time, the team was already divided, and the discovery of a Skrull invasion – with Skrulls secretly replacing heroes and other important figures – created chaos for both factions. Though they eventually reunited, the conflict ended with Iron Man being held responsible, leading to Norman Osborn taking control of the Superhero Initiative and forcing many heroes into hiding.

4) The Incursions

Jonathan Hickman’s run on Avengers was a great story that introduced the idea of ‘Incursions’ – collisions between different Earths in the multiverse that were wiping out entire universes. Initially, only a secret group called the Illuminati were aware of these events and tried to fix them. Eventually, the Avengers found out and confronted the Illuminati, leading to a fracturing within the team. Though they couldn’t prevent the Incursions, the Avengers managed to regain some teamwork before the entire multiverse came to an end, with Sunspot playing a key role in keeping them together.

3) “Dark Reign”

As a huge Marvel fan, I always thought the “Dark Reign” period was incredibly compelling. It really shook things up by introducing the Dark Avengers, and watching both sets of Avengers constantly on the run from each other was just brilliant. What fascinated me most was how fragile the Dark Avengers were, despite being in a position of power. Norman Osborn was basically holding that whole team together with intimidation and willpower, and it felt like they were always on the brink of falling apart – those villains constantly butted heads! It really highlighted that, for them, teamwork wasn’t exactly a priority.

2) Henry Peter Gyrich as Government Liaison to the Avengers

During the 1970s, the Avengers team grew significantly, becoming larger than ever before. Concerned about a powerful, unsupervised team, the government assigned Henry Peter Gyrich as a liaison. Gyrich quickly insisted the team reduce its size, which caused considerable conflict among the members. Though the Avengers ultimately complied and remained together, the situation created distrust and fears that the team might fall apart due to concerns about working effectively under Gyrich’s supervision.

1) Civil War

The storyline Civil War revolves around a disaster caused by superheroes, which finally pushed the government to pass the Superhero Registration Act – something they’d been considering for a long time. This led to a major conflict between Captain America and Iron Man, with heroes picking sides. The resulting war was brutal and fractured the superhero community. The fallout from Civil War lingered for years, impacting the heroes even after they attempted to reconcile, and it remains a defining event in Marvel Universe history.

https://comicbook.com/comics/list/the-10-best-avengers-stories-in-marvel-history/embed/#

Read More

2026-03-09 00:42