The Avengers are the single most well known
superhero team in the entire Marvel universe, but they’ve actually expanded and divided
themselves so many times that there have been many teams over the years that have used the
Avengers title. So today, let’s take a look at every single
one of those teams in the mainstream Marvel universe. We first need to start off in the 1950s. No, not the actual 50s, but rather that time
period WITHIN the comic book continuity. See in 1959, President Eisenhower apparently
set up a covert team called The Avengers to “combat the forces of chaos that would push
the world into darkness.” Led by Nick Fury, because he has to have his
finger in everything, these old school Avengers were made up of a few character you might
have heard of with a couple of obscure ones thrown in for good measure. Bloodstone, Kraven the Hunter, Namora, Sabretooth,
SIlver Sable, and Dominic Fortune. These guys only had two major missions. The first one was stopping an imposter of
the Red Skull who was trying to combine a couple of super serums to create the most
powerful super soldier out there. The second was when they fought a dude with
dark magic powers given to him by a demon. This guy manipulated the government into letting
him form an organization made up of former Nazis to fight communists. Because comics. Yeah… there wasn’t a lot to these guys and honestly,
I wasn’t a huge fan of their short series. So next on the chopping block are the big
guys, the ORIGINAL Avengers. Starting off with just Iron Man, The Hulk,
Thor, Ant-Man, and the Wasp, these dudes united to take on the villainous Loki. What are they avenging? Nothing. Nothing at all. It was literally just a name that Wasp pulled
out of nowhere to sound dramatic. It’s too bad they didn’t go with like…
the Defenders or something. Oh well. It’s too late to change it now. Pretty much every single Marvel superhero
and even some villains have been an Avenger at some point in time with its constantly
rotating cast of characters and the team constantly breaking up and reforming. Look, what you really need to know about The
Avengers is that they’re cool dudes saving the world from bad guys and they typically
live in a big party mansion. Well… except for the current “All-New,
All-Different Avengers” which exist simply because there wasn’t a team calling themselves
The Avengers at the time. No I’m serious, that’s the in continuity
reason. Anyway, they now work out of an old Stark
Industries airfield in New Jersey. So, with the OG Avengers out of the way, let’s
move onto the first ever side team, Avengers West Coast or the West Coast Avengers, either
name works. When looking to expand the team, Vision decided
to open up a branch on the west coast and appointed Hawkeye as its leader. Fun Fact: Vision also wanted to create an
Avengers team in the midwest, but was shot down. Anyway, the west coast team initially got
a four issue mini series, but later got an ongoing that lasted for over one hundred issues! To this day, no other spin off team has lasted
that long in a single stretch. Well… unless you count the Thunderbolts
comic getting renamed to Dark Avengers at issue 175, but we’re getting way ahead of
ourselves. The team, sometimes nicknamed the Wackos,
were a somewhat more laid back, but more chaotic team which led the government to step in and
assign a new leader named… U.S. Agent. This prompted Hawkeye to quit and join the
Great Lakes Avengers which we’ll get to into a moment. Because of all the constant in fighting, members
up and leaving, and the fact that their base was seemingly always under attack, the West
Coast Avengers were shut down by Vision and Captain America by being folded back into
its east coast counterpart. The members of the team that didn’t want
to go back however instead formed a new group called Force Works, but we’re not going
to really talk about them today. So yeah, I mentioned the Great Lakes Avengers. These guys are uh… interesting to say the
least. They are the epitome of knock offs. The Avengers have a Quinjet? The GLA has a Quin-Jetta. Heck, they didn’t even get permission to
call themselves Avengers in the first place! The team started when a not so great hero
named Mr. Immortal, who obviously can’t die, tried his hand at being a vigilante,
but quickly realized that having a team would make things much easier. How did he recruit his members? By literally putting up an ad in the personals
of his local newspaper. This attracted the lizard like Dinah Soar,
Flatman who is basically a 2D Mr. Fantastic, Doorman who turn himself into a doorlike portal,
Leather Boy who was just really into BDSM and kicked out pretty early on because of
his lack of powers, and finally… Big Bertha. A supermodel that can gain an insane amount
of weight at will and gets rid of it by… bulimia. Yep. Now around the time that the GLA established
themselves, Hawkeye and Mockingbird had quit the West Coast Avengers and they temporarily
took it upon themselves to lead and train this new team. But yeah, the GLA is such an absolute joke
that they got a mini-series in 2005 that satirizes how dark and edgy comics had gotten at the
time with a member dying off in each issue. Of course, with members dying, the team needed
to recruit new ones. Pretty much everybody said no, but they WERE
able to recruit Squirrel Girl, one of the strongest characters in the entire Marvel
universe! At the end of the series though, the team
got a cease and desist from the real Avengers, but after discovering that they were all mutants,
they decided to rip off another team and instead became the Great Lakes X-Men. This didn’t last very long either. See the Great Lakes Avengers change their
name constantly and have gone by the Great Lakes Champions, the Great Lakes Defenders,
and even the Lightning Rods, parodying the name of the Thunderbolts. Now when the Superhuman Registration Act came
into effect, the GLA were amongst the first in line to sign up. As a part of this, they joined the 50-State
Initiative where each state got their own superteam. Thus, the Great Lakes… whatever they were
deciding to call themselves at the time… became the Great Lakes Initiative and was
the official superhuman team of Wisconsin. These days however, they’re back to calling
themselves the Great Lakes Avengers and as of this recording, they’re about to get
a new ongoing series! Though after losing fan favorite, Squirrel
Girl, the team is literally going around with a cardboard cutout of her so that when people
want photos of the team, they can pretend like she’s there. That alone has me sold. Also forming with 50-State Initiative was
the Mighty Avengers. Much like how the GLI had Wisconsin, the Mighty
Avengers were the official superhuman team of New York. These mighty fine guys were assembled by S.H.I.E.L.D. director, Iron Man (Yes, that actually happened)
and was led by Carol Danvers A.K.A. Ms. Marvel. If I’m going to be honest though, this team
was pretty much the normal Avengers, but just… mighty. The original team broke up after the Secret
Invasion event with many of its members joining different Avengers teams, but a new set of
Mighty Avengers quickly formed up afterwards led by Hank Pym, the first Ant-Man. Hank’s team was recruited by the organization
G.R.A.M.P.A. (Yes, that’s an actual thing) to give his
Mighty Avengers international jurisdiction. In typical Hank Pym fashion though, he overexerts
himself, goes slightly insane, gets the team’s G.R.A.M.P.A. status revoked, but when he tries to recruit
freaking LOKI into the Mighty Avengers, that was the final straw and the team went its
separate ways. Now the Mighty Avengers were formed again
later… technically. See, Luke Cage restarted his Heroes For Hire
business which is exactly what it sounds like, but when the normal Avengers went out to space
to fight some aliens called the Builders, the big supervillain, Thanos, came to Earth
and wrecked shop. After successfully kicking his butt, Cage
reworked the team into the new Mighty Avengers, a non-profit organization to help those in
need and let ANY superhuman have a shot at doing good as part of a team. They also helped out in the AXIS storyline
where many bad guys became good and many good guys became bad. The inverted Luke Cage tried selling the Mighty
Avengers, but because of legal safeguards his wife, Jessica Jones, and his best friend,
Iron Fist, held the majority ownership of the business and trademarks. Though the inverted Tony Stark sued the Mighty
Avengers for using the Avengers name without consent so the team had to shut its doors…
as soon as the entire multiverse was ending because of the Incursions. Alright, next team. Remember how I mentioned the Superhuman Registration
Act? Well that led to the superhuman Civil War
against groups led by Captain America and Iron Man. Cap’s team was working against the law so
they had to work in secret. In fact, you could say that they were Secret
Avengers of sorts. Yep, that was literally all the Secret Avengers
were at first. We’re going to come back to these guys in
a bit, but first, we need more history. After the storyline, Secret Invasion, the
government peacekeeping organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. was shut down and replaced by a new organization
called H.A.M.M.E.R. Oh yeah, and it was led by Norman Osborn,
the former Spider-Man villain, Green Goblin. Well Norman made a new team of Avengers…
by taking bad guys and posing them as previously established heroes. We’ll call them the Dark Avengers to keep
things easier to understand. The Dark Avengers were made up of Venom, Bullseye,
Moonstone, Sentry, Daken, Ares, Marvel Boy, Osborne himself, but with a suit of Iron Man
armor that he stole, repainted, and rebranded as the Iron Patriot. They went on a few adventures, much to the
dismay of many heroes, but they disbanded after the Siege storyline when Osborn decided
to invade Thor’s homeworld of Asgard. So back to the Secret Avengers. After H.A.M.M.E.R. fell, Captain America took over as the head
honcho in charge of global security. In a surprise move, he didn’t bring back
S.H.I.E.L.D. or create a new organization. Instead, Steve opted to create a handful of
Avengers teams. We also got the Secret Avengers as an official
unit along with the creation of Avengers Academy and the New Avengers. Let’s go over these in order. The new Secret Avengers were a stealth ops
team led by Steve Rodgers with his girlfriend, Sharon Carter, supervising the logistics and
tactical operations. Later though, Hawkeye took over as the field
leader while Cap more or less supervised. The Secret Avengers disbanded after running
a few big missions, mostly due to Hawkeye not being able to handle the responsibilities
of leadership. Funnily enough though, almost as soon as he
broke up the team, the newly re-formed S.H.I.E.L.D. created their own Secret Avengers after being
so impressed by Hawkeye’s crew. They recruited him as well as many other heroes,
but there was a catch. For the sake of confidentiality, each member
of the team was given a memory implant that made them forget anything that happened during
their missions. Both Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s
Secret Avengers had some fun stories, but nothing too universe changing. They’re fun reads though so check them out
if you can. Alright, let’s move on. So while Norman Osborn was in charge of H.A.M.M.E.R.,
he was recruiting and experimenting on teenagers with powers. Once the organization fell, Hank Pym founded
Avengers Academy to train the teens that were most likely to become super villains. In addition to Hank’s guidance, the Academy
featured a few other full time teachers and a rotating cast of guest instructors that
taught these kiddos about every aspect of the superhero world. What’s also interesting is that while the
school was initially taught out of Hank Pym’s otherworldly Infinite Mansion, it was later
moved to the old Avengers West Coast compound and opened its doors to any young superhuman
who wanted instruction and training. The bad news is that when war erupted between
the X-Men and the Avengers over what to do about the Phoenix Force that was on its way
to Earth, Avengers Academy was shut down since the name AVENGERS Academy just put a target
on its students’ backs. The school was re-opened a bit later, but
it kind of faded to the background when the main cast of students graduated to become
like… mini Avengers or something… Still, if you get a chance, the Avengers Academy
series is pretty damn great! Alright, this next part is INSANELY confusing
so please bear with me. There was a series called New Avengers which
launched in 2005, but these guys were just a continuation of the normal Avengers team
and is even backed up by this entry on the official Marvel website. In 2010 however, the New Avengers title was
relaunched and featured a team actually called that. Yes, the New Avengers this time around were
a totally separate team from the regular Avengers. Because comics… Captain America gave this team to Luke Cage
and was housed in the Avengers Mansion which Tony Stark sold to him for a dollar, but oddly
enough, many members of the New Avengers are also members of the standard Avengers. Wolverine even points out how insane it is
that he’s an X-Man and on two different Avengers teams at the same time! Mostly, this group supplemented the main Avengers
team in the big storylines, but I personally enjoyed it when they took on Norman Osborn
who reformed H.A.M.M.E.R. and did the whole Dark Avengers thing... again. The New Avengers disbanded in the aftermath
of the war between the Avengers and X-Men, but don’t worry. Another team popped up soon afterwards. To prevent another large scale fight between
mutants and superpowered humans, a new Avengers team made up of both Avengers and X-Men were
made to bridge the gap between both species. This was the Avengers Unity Division or the
Uncanny Avengers. Pick whichever name you like more. The team mostly dealt with the Nazi villain,
Red Skull, who had become a powerful telepath and was broadcasting feelings of hate all
across the world. Later though, the team expanded their mission
statement to promote unification between humans, mutants, AND Inhumans. Oh yeah, and they also threw in Deadpool so
that people would go buy the book since that’s one of Marvel’s main way of trying to get
sales. The next group that I’d like to dive into
is a personal favorite, the Young Avengers. This is a group of teenagers that got together
during one of the many times that the Avengers disbanded in order to fight a time traveling
villain named Kang the Conqueror. Now believe it or not, they didn’t dub themselves
the Young Avengers. That was a name given to them by the Daily
Bugle after they reported on the group’s first outing. Because of the inherent risk of the superhero
lifestyle, Captain America and Iron Man were not fans of the team so the kids kind of had
to work a little outside of the superhero community. Now there was another group of young heroes
which also decided to use the Young Avengers name, but because of tension between them
and the REAL Young Avengers, the non real Young Avengers joined Norman Osborn’s Dark
Avengers and… got their asses kicked pretty hard. With this notch under their belt, the Young
Avengers led a crusade to find the Scarlet Witch who had disappeared after the House
of M event. After successfully doing that which also involved
helping taking down a suped up Doctor Doom with godlike powers, the Young Avengers were
officially welcomed to join the main Avengers team. However, some point in the future, the team
left the Avengers, but partly reassembled one last time with some new additions to fight
an interdimensional parasite mom lady. Oh, here’s a short lived one. The Avengers Artificial Intelligence Squad
(sometimes called the Robot Avengers) was formed to take out a virus that Hank Pym once
made to defeat Ultron which then evolved into a complex self aware life form. The team was exclusively made up of characters
driven by A.I. and led to a uh… pretty underwhelming title. Okay, let’s most onto something more fun
liiiiike the Pet Avengers! Hey, do you like animal superheroes and/or
animal companions of some of your favorite Marvel characters? If so, this is the team for you! Headed up by Throg, a frog with the power
of Thor, the Pet Avengers also included the Inhuman dog, Lockjaw, Falcon’s bird, Redwing,
Kitty Pryde’s alien dragon, Lockheed, Speedball’s cat, Hairball, Ms. Lion, the cat of Spider-Man’s
Aunt May, and Zabu, the sabretooth tiger of Ka-Zar. Their mission? Collect the Infinity Gems and protect the
world from Thanos. I’m not even kidding. They actually did it! After taking the mad titan down, Lockjaw used
the Infinity Gems to unite the team with a psychic bond which they used to assemble a
few more times like when a bunch of mystical creatures started to appear on Earth and a
totally separate incident involving a bunch of dragons wreaking havoc. Okay, just a few more teams! Lately, there’s a new team going by the
New Avengers, but I prefer to call them by their official company name, Avengers Idea
Mechanics or A.I.M. for short. If that acronym sounds familiar, it should
because yes, this version of the New Avengers are a reformed version of the terrorist organization,
A.I.M. Turns out that the company was being publically
traded on the stock market and billionaire Avenger, Sunspot, performed a totally legal
hostile takeover. Initially, Sunspot sent out a team of “Multiversal
Avengers” to discover the source of the Incursions. After the Secret Wars event though, he formed
an all new team dedicated to international rescue operations. Some of the members were kicked out though
and formed the All-New New Avengers so yeah… We’ve currently got two teams of New Avengers
with one is being run by a former terrorist organization and both are in one book. The final team that I want to dig into is
A-Force. So after the Incursions destroyed the entire
multiverse, all that remained was the patchwork planet of Battleworld. One of its countries was Arcadia which was
defended by the all-female team A-Force. I’m not going to dwell too long on the Battleworld
A-Force, but it’s important to mention because a mysterious girl named Singularity met that
team and ended up in the new Marvel universe after Secret Wars was resolved. Unlike most characters, Singularity actually
remembers the events of Secret Wars. So when she’s being attacked by the mysterious
Antimatter, she wanted to turn to her friends, the A-Force. The only problem is that the team didn’t
exist in the main Marvel universe. It’s because of this that Singularity assembled
the team and managed to take Antimatter down, but that kind of ripped open tears in reality
and now the team is dealing with that. Some people speculate that the A in A-Force
stands for Arcadia after the country in Battleworld where it was founded, but I actually reached
out to one of the writers on the book who confirmed that the A is in fact for Avengers. Now listen, I might have missed a detail or
two or three, but to the best of my knowledge and the people that I consulted with, this
is every single Avengers team that was out there. But when you’re combing through literally
decades and decades of complicated and convoluted comic book lore, you’re bound to slip up
once or twice. But hey, which Avengers team that I talked
about today has been your favorite? Let me know in the comments below or tweet
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