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It seems like each week, the MCU is struggling with some kind of new evil that is lurking just around the corner. Over the years, there have been exciting and terrifying villains that many heroes wouldn’t have been able to overcome alone. Luckily, that is exactly why the Avengers are around to save the day.
An MCU team consisting of some of the greatest superheroes that the world has ever known, the Avengers, were capable of taking on the most fearsome of foes. When they would rise to a challenge, a problem known as an Avengers-level threat, it would take perfect teamwork in order to win the day. There have been a handful of Avengers-level threats, but whether or not they should have been considered as one is a different story.
What Is An Avengers-Level Threat?
Avengers Movies: | |
|---|---|
The Avengers | Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91% |
Avengers: Age Of Ultron | Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76% |
Avengers: Infinity War | Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85% |
Avengers: Endgame | Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% |
While an Avengers-level threat might be described as a villain that simply endangers the entire world at a glance, when put in the context of all MCU villains, this definition just can’t fit. Instead, an Avengers-level threat might be best described as a danger so great that the rest of the world can’t help but take notice, forcing a team of Earth’s champions to set things right and save the day no matter the cost – though it could be added that the infamous Nick Fury and his organizations are included in the call to action when possible. This fits perfectly with the three major threats that the Avengers take on, Loki, Ultron, and Thanos.
While Marvel does seem to be going in a different direction with their villain due to recent developments, Kang was slowly becoming a villain that would have been an undeniable public threat. In an interview with Screen Rant, producer Stephen Broussard described Kang in such a way:
“I think what makes Kang so dangerous is that we're almost caught in a war of Gods. They clearly exist in this heightened state. They've cracked the code of the multiverse, as He Who Remains kind of explains to us, and they form this uneasy alliance. [It] doesn't always go well, which is why they banish [Kang the Conqueror] here.”
Eventually, that war of the Gods would have come to Earth properly. Once that occurred, there would be no way Kang could have been considered anything other than a multiversal threat.
What Were The Avengers Biggest Threats?
Avengers Villains: | |
|---|---|
Thanos | Powers: superhuman Titan capable of wielding the Infinity Gauntlet |
Ultron | Powers: superhuman abilities, transit through the internet, creation of Ultron sentries |
Loki | Powers: superhuman abilities, magic, ice manipulation |
The first time the Avengers were brought together was a massive threat to the entire Earth. Having to fight against the villain with a great spin-off series, Loki, and a Chitauri invasion, the Avengers battled across New York City in order to keep the planet safe from an alien threat. Of course, no one could have known that the battle was a tiny fraction of what would be in store later, but the threat posed was massive. Even with the help of the Avengers, New York City still took massive damage, and countless lives were likely still lost. At the end of the day, it took the entire team and a massive near-sacrifice from Tony Stark to stop the alien invasion.
A few years later, the team was forced to contend with an evil AI of their own making. Intending to do good, but instead of creating great evil, the AI Ultron would spring into the world to cause destruction. Being able to control a variety of Ultron bots to take on the Avengers as the robot attempted to recreate an asteroid impact to begin wiping out humanity, Ultron posed a threat like no other. Instead of just the standard Avengers team, the heroes required additional help from the likes of Quicksilver and Wanda Maximoff, something that eventually resulted in the death of Wanda’s speedy brother. With a massive effort from all and major help from the new Vision, Ultron’s plans were eventually thwarted.
Arguably better than Kang, Thanos is easily the most famous Avengers-level threat at this point, and a large part of that is because the Avengers failed. Thanos managed to defeat them all and wipe out half of all life in the Universe. In their attempts to restore things, the team once again came up against Thanos, but this time, it would take every hero giving everything they had to win, and in the case of Tony Stark, that included his life. Not just anyone can beat the combined might of the Avengers, but Thanos did.
What Avengers-Level Threats Did The Team Ignore?
Other Potential Avengers-Level Threats: | |
|---|---|
The Scarlet Witch | Powers: magical abilities enhanced by dark magic |
Hela | Powers: superhuman abilities, weapon and armor manifestation |
Kaecilius | Powers: master of magic and hand-to-hand combat |
It may be a bit subjective as to which Avengers-level threats were ignored by the Avengers as public knowledge of various events isn’t always at the forefront of MCU movie writers’ minds. One of the most obvious Avengers-level threats that is entirely ignored by the Avengers is none other than Wanda Maximoff, also known as the Scarlet Witch. The team probably should have been involved as early as the Wandavision Disney+ series, but that becomes all the more true when taking Doctor Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness into account. The villainous Scarlet Witch could warp reality and execute magics that even Doctor Strange struggled to comprehend, making her a massive threat, even if her aggression may not have necessarily posed a threat to the whole planet.
Another example would be Hela from Thor Ragnarok. While the people of Earth wouldn’t have knowledge of what was going on with the Asgardian people, that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be able to call on the Avengers. Thor should have called up his friends for help as soon as possible to handle Hela’s immense powers, something that might have allowed the Asgardians to avoid losing their homes. Considering Asgard was lost in the conflict with Hela, it’s safe to say that the same could have occurred for Earth if things were different.
There are plenty of other villains in the MCU that a case could be made for whether one prefers to see an Avengers-level threat as a tremendous villain or something a bit more nuanced. It may just have been for the sake of the overarching story across the franchise, but all these threats that were ignored certainly don’t make the Earth's mightiest heroes look that good.
MCU
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a sprawling movie and television franchise that weaves together individual stories of superheroes including Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and many more. The first film in the franchise, Iron Man, was released in 2008. The MCU has garnered critical praise and financial success, earning billions at the box office and becoming a cultural phenomenon.
