Top 10 Shocking Times The Avengers Lost

Top 10 Times The Avengers Lost Sometimes even Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have a bad day. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Times The Avengers Lost. For this list, we’re looking at the most brutal defeats that Marvel’s premiere superhero team have faced over the years. Thankfully, the team always manages to bounce back in the long run.

#10: The Korvac Saga

What’s more dangerous than a supervillain with near-limitless godlike power? One who’s also crazier than a bag of cats. Originally hailing from the 30th century, this once-normal human was transformed into a cyborg by the alien Badoon, and later imbued with massive cosmic power. Driven insane by his traumatic past and the new energies coursing through him, he then traveled back in time to the modern era, where he battled the combined force of the Avengers and the original Guardians of the Galaxy. During the battle, the cosmically empowered villain actually killed most of the two teams, only to resurrect them later. Were it not for a last-minute change of heart, this would have been the end for Earth’s greatest heroes!

#9: Secret Invasion

When the Earth of the Marvel Universe gets invaded by aliens, it’s usually an Independence Day kind of affair with lots of chaos and explosions. But not so with this covert invasion of Earth by the shape-shifting Skrulls, who secretly invaded by slowly replacing normal humans and superheroes alike with doppelgangers. It was eventually discovered that Spider-Woman and even the Avengers’ beloved butler Jarvis had been replaced, and a full-scale invasion eventually erupted. To make matters worse, the Skrulls places a bomb inside The Wasp in case their invasion plan failed. Thor manages to prevent the devastating explosion, but the Wasp is killed in the process. But when the dust settled after the climactic battle, it wasn’t the Avengers who saved the day. That honor actually went to the most unlikely party, the former Green Goblin himself, Norman Osborn!

#8: Dark Reign / Siege

Picking up directly from our last entry, you heard right! By the time of the “Secret Invasion” storyline, Spider-Man’s arch-foe had seemingly reformed. After single-handedly killing the Skrull queen, Osborn was given control over a new organization, H.A.M.M.E.R, that replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. He was also put in charge of a new team of Avengers, with Norman personally taking over as team leader as the Iron Patriot. As you might expect, this turned out to be a catastrophe, as Norman was still up to his evil ways and was secretly using his new authority to further his own agendas. The true Avengers were forced to go on the run, helpless as the notorious supervillain was placed in control of the world they had sworn to protect. On top of all that, Osborn was being manipulated by Loki, making matters way worse than they already were. Ultimately, Osborn’s Dark Avengers and Earth Mightiest Heroes came to blows during the Siege event, and Osborn was defeated, but our heroes were ultimately unable to stop the destruction of new Asgard.

#7: Onslaught

This terrifying entity was created when a fragment of Magneto’s psyche entered Professor X’s mind, mixing Charles’s psychic powers with Erik’s rage and hatred to create a hugely powerful psionic entity. This being eventually took full control over Xavier’s body, transforming into a hulking supervillain that cut a swath of destruction across the Marvel Universe. It took the combined might of the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four to destroy the entity, a victory that seemingly took the lives of everyone on each team. Of course, it was later revealed that they were alive and well on an alternate Earth, but before that, it appeared that the heroes had met their end.

#6: The Kang Dynasty

The classic Avengers foe Kang the Conqueror may not be the most well-known villain on the block, but he’s got a pretty impressive track record. A time-traveling despot determined to rule the world, Kang and his armies defeated the Avengers in this 2001 story, pulling off a feat that countless other supervillains have only dreamed of. Attacking the Earth with a massive warship, Kang lived up to his name and conquered Earth, successfully became ruler of the planet after stranding many of the Avengers in space and devastating Washington DC. Of course, the team eventually regrouped and won the day, but Kang’s victory still left lasting scars.

#5: Civil War

Even though they’ve had their disagreements over the years, the Avengers had always presented a united front. After an accident in a small American town left a school in ruins and numerous children dead, a Superhero Registration Act was enacted with the goal of controlling superhumans. While Iron Man was fully on board with this plan, Captain America felt it was a step too far. This led to a battle that split the Avengers in two, the once-mighty team sundered by internal strife. It took years for the team to truly recover, and some say the scars have never truly healed.

#4: Under Siege

United by the supervillain Baron Zemo, some of the Avengers’ greatest villains banded together in this notorious storyline to attack Avengers Mansion en masse. The result was one of the darkest days in Avengers history, as the Wrecking Crew, the Absorbing Man, Goliath, Moonstone, and others descended on the mansion like a force of nature. The attack left even the mighty Hercules in a coma, and the Avengers butler Jarvis was taken hostage and brutally beaten. To add insult to injury, Captain America’s classic triangular shield was even destroyed by the villainous Mister Hyde. The villains were eventually dealt with, but not before the once-mighty Avengers experienced a brutal defeat.

#3: Age of Ultron

One of the most iconic Avengers foes, the rogue AI known as Ultron has only one true goal: to exterminate humanity. This epic storyline took place in a timeline where he managed to do just that, attacking Earth with an armada of robots. The Avengers fought valiantly against their old foe, but were ultimately defeated by the overwhelming mass of Ultron’s forces. The remaining Avengers were able to find a time machine, which Wolverine used to go back in time with a plan to prevent the disaster, but you know what usually happens when you go messing around with the timeline. Ultron was defeated in the end, but Logan’s time-travel hijinx actually wound up damaging the space-time continuum.

#2: Infinity Gauntlet

The Avengers put up a valiant effort when the arch-villain Thanos completed the Infinity Gauntlet and gained near-absolute power, but there’s only so much a can-do attitude and an unbreakable shield can do when your opponent has absolute control over all of creation. Thanos made short work of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, effortlessly wiping out Vision, Iron Man and countless others until only Cap remained to deliver a stirring speech. And the worst part? Thanos was holding back when he fought the Avengers, having been convinced by Mephisto to give them a fighting chance. He basically defeated the Avengers with one hand tied behind his back.

#1: Disassembled

The Avengers have saved the world from numerous threats and supervillains over the years, but their darkest day came at the hands of one of their own. For years, the Scarlet Witch had struggled to control her powers, which allowed her to alter reality by controlling probability. After suffering a mental breakdown, she lost control over these vast abilities and the resulting fallout left numerous Avengers dead and the team formally disbanded. It was a massive blow to the team, and the Marvel status quo at large, that sent shockwaves throughout the Marvel Universe. The team was reformed as the New Avengers not long after, but this was definitely the end of an era.