New Avengers

• 1. Introduction

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  The New Avengers began with a date that was slightly off. The first issue of the Marvel Comics series carried a cover date of January 2005, yet it reached readers in November 2004. That head start was fitting for a book built on a bold claim. Its heroes were not an official team. They were fugitives who insisted they were the real thing. The name has since been used for four separate American comic book series. Each one reinvented who could carry it, from a rebel superhero squad to a secret council of the world's smartest heroes to a former terrorist organization's field team. Why did a group with no official standing claim the Avengers name, and who decided they could? What did the title become once its first creators moved on? And what happens to a team's identity when its members keep changing sides?

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• 2. The Authentic Avengers

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  David Finch penciled the opening six issues of The New Avengers, and Brian Michael Bendis wrote them. Finch returned for issues 11 to 13. Steve McNiven, Leinil Francis Yu, Billy Tan and Stuart Immonen later drew longer runs.

  The first roster held Captain America, Luke Cage, Iron Man, Spider-Man and a character billed as Spider-Woman. Later stretches added Wolverine, the unstable and godlike Sentry, and the deaf ninja Echo, who operated under the name Ronin.

  Inside the story, no one ever labeled the group the New Avengers. They were a splinter faction that refused to follow the federal superhuman registration law, and they saw themselves as the genuine article. The government answered with its own approved squad. The Mighty Avengers launched in early 2007 as a sister series for that sanctioned team. In late 2008 a different sanctioned team arrived in Dark Avengers. Around then the rebels welcomed Clint Barton, newly back from the dead as Ronin, along with Doctor Strange and Iron Fist.

  Bendis explained the logic in an interview. These heroes were the true Avengers because Captain America had said so. The comics echo that idea when the team believes Steve Rogers is alive and tries to rescue him. Spider-Man argues that getting Rogers back would let them use the name again. Luke Cage replies that they already have it.

  By the close of the first volume, the lineup was Ronin, Bucky Barnes as Captain America, Ms. Marvel, Mockingbird, Spider-Man, the real Spider-Woman, Wolverine, and Cage as leader. The run ended with issue 64 in April 2010, after the Siege storyline. A one-shot called The New Avengers: Finale followed.

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• 3. Breakout at the Raft

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  Forty-two inmates escaped from the Raft, a prison the story calls maximum-maximum security. That breakout is where the team was born. The Avengers had disbanded after a reign of destruction by an insane Scarlet Witch. Six months later, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men were unable to help. The villain Electro cut the power at the Raft and set off a riot.

  Inside were Jessica Drew, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent known as Spider-Woman, the attorney Matt Murdock, who is Daredevil, and the hero for hire Luke Cage. Captain America, Iron Man and Spider-Man arrived to join them. The mentally unbalanced Sentry, himself a prisoner, helped too. Once the riot was quelled, Captain America declared that fate had gathered them, just as it had gathered the original Avengers.

  Most agreed to stay together. Daredevil said no, and the Sentry flew away.

  Their first assignment was to recapture the escaped criminals. Two complications soon appeared. A young group called the Young Avengers emerged unexpectedly, and S.H.I.E.L.D. grew unsettled after the disappearance of its leader, Nick Fury. The trail led to the Savage Land to catch the reptilian mutant Sauron. There the team met resistance from the Savage Land Mutates, led by Brainchild, and from a rogue S.H.I.E.L.D. squadron under Yelena Belova.

  During that fight, the Canadian mutant Wolverine signed on, while keeping his place in the X-Men. The team also recruited the Sentry, who had erased every memory of his career from the world after the mutant Mastermind and the General manipulated him.

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• 4. Reality Rewritten, Heroes Divided

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  Quicksilver feared that heroes were preparing to kill his sister, the Scarlet Witch. Professor Xavier could not repair her fractured mind, and the New Avengers and a team of X-Men under Cyclops debated what to do. Quicksilver pushed her to use her reality-altering powers on the entire planet.

  At once, Magneto ruled the world under the banner of the House of M. Mutants were the majority and humans without powers were an oppressed minority. Reality was eventually restored, but the Scarlet Witch stripped abilities from more than 99% of Earth's mutants.

  Those lost powers gathered into the Collective. It was steered by an intelligence called Xorn, who had once posed as Magneto, and it used the energy-wielder Michael Pointer as a host. The Avengers managed to pull the two apart after the Collective and Xorn tried to re-power Magneto.

  The bigger fracture came in Stamford, Connecticut. The reckless actions of the New Warriors there killed more than 600 civilians. Congress responded with the Superhuman Registration Act, requiring every superhuman to register with the federal government. Many heroes complied. Others said it violated civil liberties. The result was a Civil War that ran through the New Avengers, with Iron Man leading those who complied and Captain America leading those who resisted.

  When open fighting stopped, Spider-Man's closely guarded secret identity had been exposed to the world. Bill Foster, one of Hank Pym's successors as Giant-Man, had been killed. Soon afterward, Captain America was apparently assassinated.

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• 5. Underground and Undercover

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  Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village became the new base for the unregistered New Avengers. The team recruited the resurrected Clint Barton, who now wore the Ronin name and costume. Later they moved into an empty apartment building owned by Danny Rand's Rand Corporation. The lease was held in the name of Samuel Sterns, the Leader, an adversary of the Hulk.

  The Skrulls, a shapeshifting alien race that had long sought to conquer Earth, then launched the Secret Invasion. In one confrontation the New Avengers freed heroes who had been kidnapped and replaced by Skrull impostors. Among them was the presumed-dead Mockingbird, who reunited with her husband, Clint Barton.

  Another reveal reached back to the beginning. The Skrull queen Veranke had replaced Jessica Drew before the Raft breakout that formed the team. Jessica Drew had therefore never been a member at all.

  After the Skrulls fell, S.H.I.E.L.D. was dismantled and replaced by a new intelligence agency, H.A.M.M.E.R. Norman Osborn, long Spider-Man's enemy as the Green Goblin, took control of it and of the Thunderbolts. He also built a team of Avenger imposters from supervillains.

  The revamped real team included Bucky Barnes as Captain America, Cage, Ronin, Mockingbird, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, the true Spider-Woman and Wolverine. Captain America offered them his home as a base. Iron Fist said he had to leave for personal business but would stay on call. The team elected Ronin as leader, with Ms. Marvel as second-in-command, and persuaded Spider-Man to reveal his identity to his teammates once more.

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• 6. A Mansion Sold for a Dollar

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  Tony Stark sold the rebuilt Avengers Mansion to Luke Cage for one dollar. That odd transaction opened the Heroic Age. Norman Osborn's Siege of Asgard had ended with his arrest, and the Registration Act was revoked. Steve Rogers, back from his alleged death, reassembled the Avengers. He talked a reluctant Cage into accepting the New Avengers and gave him carte blanche to run them.

  Marvel announced in March 2010 that the series would relaunch in June under its Heroic Age rebranding. Cage could recruit nearly anyone, except Iron Man or Thor. His first lineup was Hawkeye, Iron Fist, his wife Jessica Jones as Jewel, Ms. Marvel, Mockingbird, Spider-Man, the Thing and Wolverine. Victoria Hand came as well, because Rogers believed her insight would help them.

  Hawkeye soon left when a crisis hit the main Avengers, saying he had only joined to spend time with his wife. The team later enlisted a weakened Doctor Strange after he helped with a dimensional crisis. Squirrel Girl and Wong joined the household as a babysitter for the Cages' baby and as housekeeper.

  Before the Fear Itself event, Spider-Man nearly quit over his distrust of Victoria Hand. Talks with Wolverine and Cage kept him aboard. Afterward Daredevil joined in issue 16, and Jessica Jones left out of fear for her baby Danielle.

  Cage himself departed after Avengers vs. X-Men. The ghost of Daniel Drumm then returned and possessed each remaining member while killing evil sorcerers. Doctor Strange defeated him with dark magic, and regained his title of Sorcerer Supreme.

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• 7. The Illuminati Years

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  In July 2005, issue 7 of the first volume introduced the Illuminati, a secret circle of heroes. Eight years later, the title was renumbered as a third volume in January 2013 and handed to Jonathan Hickman, with art at first by Steve Epting. Hickman was overseeing the whole Avengers line, so this book ran parallel to the main series. It dropped the traditional team and focused on Black Bolt, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Mister Fantastic and Namor.

  The threat was incursions. Black Panther and Reed Richards found that universal decay centered on Earth was making universes collide. Unless one Earth was destroyed, both universes would be lost. Black Panther joined in issue 3, and Beast replaced the late Professor X. As the group weighed darker options, Captain America's firm morals clashed with the rest. They voted him out with a spell of forgetfulness cast by Strange.

  Their scientists then built weapons. They made antimatter injection bombs, a Dyson sphere meant to weaponize the sun, a Builder Worldkiller ship parked in Jupiter's orbit, and a rogue planet kept slightly out of phase with Earth. At one incursion near Liberty Island, Galactus ate the alternate Earth. Over Latveria, they used an antimatter bomb on a dead Earth.

  In issue 12, after helping defeat Thanos's army in the Infinity event, Black Bolt's brother Maximus joined. Thanos and his generals Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive ended up imprisoned in amber by Thanos' son Thane. Bruce Banner arrived after spotting the decay himself and confronting Tony Stark.

  The cost of secrecy piled up. Proxima Midnight destroyed Namor's kingdom, and Black Panther was cast out of Wakanda. Doctor Strange sold his soul at the Sinner's Market for godlike power. A device that viewed other Earths' pasts revealed that Black Swan had worked with alternate Illuminati and killed versions of Iron Man and Reed Richards. Before they could confront her, an incursion pitted them against the Great Society.

  After an eight-month ellipsis during Time Runs Out, a new group using the New Avengers name emerged. It was made of former Avengers who broke away after Captain America partnered with S.H.I.E.L.D. to hunt the Illuminati.

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• 8. Rebrands and Revivals

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  Al Ewing and artist Gerardo Sandoval launched the fourth volume in October 2015 as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel relaunch. Its heroes worked for A.I.M., once a super-villain group, now rebranded as Avengers Idea Mechanics. Sunspot led A.I.M., Songbird led the field team, and Hawkeye acted as an open informant for S.H.I.E.L.D. Their first opponent was W.H.I.S.P.E.R., a terrorist group founded by Maker, Mister Fantastic's Earth-1610 counterpart.

  The team's souls-in-crystals fight against W.H.I.S.P.E.R. also conjured Moridun, who planted a seed of his consciousness in Billy Kaplan. Billy renamed himself Demiurge and grew amoral, until Hulkling helped him expel the entity. During the Avengers: Standoff! event, Hulkling, Wiccan and Squirrel Girl were expelled from A.I.M. and given the New Avengers name by Sunspot. Hawkeye, fired from S.H.I.E.L.D., later joined them. A joking nickname followed: Wiccan's Kooky Quartet.

  After Sunspot's funeral, the group was declared dead and broke up, but it later reformed as U.S.Avengers. In June 2025 a fifth volume appeared, retitled from a planned New Thunderbolts* series by Sam Humphries and Ton Lima. Led by the Winter Soldier, it hunted a cloned group of Illuminati called the Killuminati.

  Beyond the comics, Earth-2099 had its own New Avengers formed by Moon Knight, and the Ultimate Marvel version was called the New Ultimates. On television, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes showed a fail-safe team built by Tony Stark. The film Thunderbolts* in 2025 gave the name to a government-sanctioned team formed by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. That team is set to return in Avengers: Doomsday in 2026.

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