The MCU Avengers haven’t always made the right choices, but they barely hold a candle to the worst things the Avengers have done in the comics. Comics are a serialized medium where the ultimate goal is to get the reader to pick up the next issue. After 80 years of cliffhangers and wild choices, it results in a universe where all the characters have done some pretty wild things to keep readers interested – things that would never happen in the MCU.
The Marvel villains are pretty evil, but honestly, the heroes give them a run for their money at times. Whether it’s angrily striking down a loved one or altering all of reality to meet your selfish goals, heroes aren’t always so heroic.
1. Captain America Led A Hydra Takeover Of America
Look, it wasn’t Captain America’s fault, but that doesn’t change the fact that a version of Steve Rogers helped Hydra take over the United States in Secret Empire. Rogers used a group of fake strikes on Earth to trap the other heroes on either Manhattan or out in space. Rogers then tainted the water supply with substances that increased receptiveness, and he put the Inhumans in detention facilities.
As it turned out, Captain America’s life story had been changed through the Red Skull’s use of the Cosmic Cube. Still, his public image was definitely hurt by his involvement in a fascistic takeover. It’s unlikely that the MCU will be turning Captain America into a Hydra agent anytime soon, though, brainwashed or not.
2. Black Panther Consulted With Tyrants To Learn How To Squash A Rebellion
In a recent run of Black Panther, T’Challa found himself dealing with a problem many rulers have faced before him, a vicious revolution. His people under him were rebelling for numerous reasons – different groups had sprung up, and some had decided they didn’t want to live under a monarchy; it was a whole thing. To stop a rebellion, T’Challa had to reach out to men who had stopped rebellions before. By and large, these were evil men, tyrants of their nations, who kept people in line that had good reason to rebel.
Through his own narration, T’Challa described one of the men as a man who “kept the nation of Santo Marco enslaved for a quarter-century,” and that the man had “men broken, women disappeared, and villages erased.” Not exactly the sort of people you would expect a man like T’Challa to go to for advice.
3. Ant-Man Hit His Wife
In Avengers #213, Hank Pym found himself in the middle of a court martial where Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor convened to decide whether or not he would remain in the Avengers. His transgression was that in the previous issue, he had, completely unprovoked, went after a villain after she had already surrendered.
To garner some goodwill, Hank built a robot that he could use to go after the Avengers, thus saving the day. He was caught by his wife, Janet – the Wasp – while building said robot, and he was more than a little irritated by her intrusion. In anger, he struck Janet, knocking her to the ground. Ultimately, he was rightfully kicked from the Avengers, and Janet filed for divorce.
4. Captain Marvel Used A Psychic To Detain People Before They Committed Transgressions, Leading To The Second Superhero Civil War
The first Civil War made a villain out of Tony Stark, and the second copied the formula and applied it to Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel. The event was kicked off after an incursion was predicted by an Inhuman named Ulysses, and Captain Marvel decided that his powers should be harnessed by S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop major wrongdoings before they took place. Iron Man opposed this because he thought it would be unethical to punish someone for something they hadn’t done yet.
After Ulysses had a vision that Miles Morales would somehow terminate Captain America, Danvers attempted to have him detained, too. She also brutalized fellow Avenger Iron Man during the infighting. All in all, not actions befitting of a hero of her caliber.
5. Thor Succumbed To Warrior’s Madness And Went After His Loved Ones
In a storyline known as Blood and Thunder, Thor went completely bonkers in what was known as Warrior’s Madness. This culminated in him attempting to destroy Asgard itself, as well as beating up Drax and Lady Sif.
Eventually, to stop him, his friends called in help from the Mad Titan himself, Thanos. If Thanos has to show up to clean your mess, that’s when things are really bad.
6. Hulk Tried To Get Intimate With She-Hulk
The Hulk and She-Hulk are cousins. Even though they were the only two Hulks in existence for a long time, that simple fact should keep both of them from ever considering mating. Right? Wrong.
There was one instance in the comics where Hulk was feeling particularly animalistic. This resulted in him bombarding the Avengers out of nowhere, and the team couldn’t figure out why he was rampaging. That was, at least, until the Vision observed that Hulk was enacting a mating ritual commonly seen in primates. He was attempting to impress She-Hulk so that she would want to be his mate. Thankfully, she turned down his advances. Still, it is unlikely the MCU will show cousins with a romantic love for each other of any kind, even if it is unrequited.
7. Iron Man Created A Prison Camp For Unregistered Superheroes
Some fans criticized Civil War for its uncharacteristic and notably more evil depiction of Iron Man. And, in their defense, he did make a lot of questionable (to say the least) decisions. The conflict of heroes was fought over whether or not superheroes should have to register for the government. Iron Man was on the side of registration, which, when taken to its full extent, would eventually mean that any hero who refused to register would instantaneously become a criminal. Sadly for these old friends, the offenders needed to be dealt with, and Iron Man led the charge of capturing and imprisoning his old friends.
The prison, nicknamed 42, was an enormous facility inside of the Negative Zone. Unlike in the MCU, where the superheroes, like Ant-Man and Hawkeye, were let out on parole, these heroes were trapped in the Negative Zone indefinitely.
8. Spider-Man Had Doctor Strange Erase MJ’s Memory
One of the most controversial superhero stories of all time was published in the pages of Spider-Man. It was known as One More Day and served as a soft reboot of the life of Peter Parker, ultimately de-aging the character and stripping away his marriage. Bizarrely, it was all Spidey’s choice.
In the aftermath of Civil War, Spider-Man’s true identity was known to the world. He became a target, and Aunt May was hit in the crossfire of a bullet meant for his head. Parker felt responsible and was unwilling to lose her like Uncle Ben, so he traveled to all the big names in the Marvel Universe to find help for his aunt. The only being that offered their assistance was the demon Mephisto, and Mary Jane and Spider-Man agreed to exchange their marriage for Aunt May’s life.
Later, Spider-Man got Doctor Strange to make everyone in the universe forget he was ever Parker. Included on that list was his ex-wife, Mary Jane.
9. The Vision Created A Robot Wife For Himself Using His Ex-Wife’s Brain And Ultimately Caused The Demise Of Multiple People
In Tom King’s The Vision (of which WandaVision borrows some aesthetic, at the very least), the famed Avengers android attempted to build himself a new life. Part of metaphorically building himself a new life was the literal building of a family, as the Vision created android children and an android wife to call his own.
That wife, named Virginia, used the brainwaves from the Scarlet Witch to achieve conscious thought. Sadly, this left some of Scarlet Witch’s memories implanted in her mind, causing Virginia to be, by her own description, haunted by memories that weren’t her own, that all seemed to cause her to be incredibly sad. Before this story was over, she had to slay a man known as Grim Reaper, grieve as her son perished, and then terminate another AI member of the Avengers.
The Vision wasn’t content with his life, and his actions directly led to the demise of others. An honorable mention in this same story was when the Vision struck down the Scarlet Witch after she attempted to prevent him from going too far.