Top 10 most important Avengers

So, for an organization thats gone 60 years and boasts near 200 remember, the simple fact is, some of them just cant be as important to the group as others. So who are the most Important Avengers? (note I am not saying these are the best avengers or most powerful, just that if one were to write a history of the Avengers, these are the 10 you would HAVE to focus on.)


#10 Hulk

Its funny in a way, Hulk's tenure in the avengers would barely be a footnote....if not for one thing. He was there when it all started. See Hulk was actually the menace the Avengers came together to face...before realizing Loki was behind the whole thing and joining with the Hulk to take him down.....although not to long after that Hulk quit the team for about the next 50 years.

Thing is, he quit in Issue 2. Which was basically unheard of in comics at the time, no major character was written out that fast, it was in part his quitting that helped put the team on the map in the first place.

In universe the effect is no less profound, it was his quitting that made the other avengers see the teams membership as more fluid.,,,heroes could come and go as needed, but the team would remain. And of course his joining in the first place was the first time the avengers took a risk on a menace or possible/redeemed villain (in the public eye) joining the team....an outlook that would later produce much better results with Hawkeye, Vision, Scarlet Witch,  Luke Cage, Spider Woman, Falcon, Black Widow, Wonder man and others (and of course some other failures, like Moondragon, and Namor from my previous avengers list....but they cant all be winners)

#9 Thor

So at the times of the worst crisis the Avengers bring out the big guns. And here he is. Seriously, this is the Avengers go-to member for the biggest largest most universe shattering problems. You can actually grade avengers fights on a difficulty curve thanks to Thor....if he aint around the best the villain can hope for is to rate moderately difficult. If Thor shows up.....well now you know the Avengers found themselves some heavyweight evil.

Plus, Thor helped found the team....albeit accidentally. The signal that brought the original team together was created by Loki in an attempt to have his brother Thor, fight (and hopefully lose to) the Hulk. So while its true without Loki there would be no avengers.....well without thor there would have been no reason for Loki to create the team....even by accident. 

#8 (tie) Vision.

So you know the game six degrees of Kevin Bacon? you can do that with both our number 8 entries too. Starting off they used to be married to each other......which also means that anyone who connects to one connects to the other as well.

And well, as it turns out for this now separated couple, Avenging runs in the family.

Vision considers himself the son of Avengers Villian Ultron....and therefore the Grandson of Ultron's creator, and his then wife.....AKA Hank Pym(ant man/giant man/goliath/yellowjacket)  and the Wasp.

And his brain patterns were originally based on Wonder Man....who Vision considers a brother, and by extension Wonderman's biological brother, avengers villian the Grim Reaper. Kinda awkward note, after Vision and his wife split up she spend years in a relationship with Wonder Man.

And oh yea, did I forget to mention that Ultron also created the Avengers known as Victor Mancha, Jocasta and the villian Alkhema...all of whom are Visions siblings. Then theirs the fact that Visions body was created using the body of the original android Human Torch....who himself would later become an Avenger.

Oh and Hank Pym later created a virus to take Ulton down...which happened to go rogue and create 6 different AI's including the Avenger Alexis....who in a manor of speaking could be considered Vision's cousin (being the offspring of a program created by Pym' visions grandfather)

Finally we get to the time where Vision was killed by the She-Hulk and his program was merged with the brain waves of a Young Avenger named Iron Lad.....later revealed to be the villian Kang the Conqueror....who is a decedent of Reed Richard...who himself is an Avengers as is his wife the invisible woman and his brother in law the [more famous actually human] Human Torch.

By the way, during the period Vision engaged in a romance with Young Avenger Stature...who herself was the daughter of Visions avenger team mate Scott Lang, AKA the second Ant-Man.

Also as we reach full on 6 degrees territory, Kang, whose brainwaves the Vision was once pattered on (as previously mentioned) had a son named Marcus Immortus.  Marcus would go on to rape the Avenger Ms. Marvel....who actually doesnt really remember the rape, due to her memories being permanently stolen by Rogue...who would later become an Avenger herself.

#8 (tie)

And now we get to the Scarlet Witch's side of the 6 degree game.

Lets see, shes the sister of Quicksilver...who like her was an Avengers....as is Quicksilver's ex-wife the Inhuman named Crystal. Crystal meanwhile happens to be Sister to Medusa, the queen of the Inhumans, who along with her husband Black Bolt was once a member of the secret Illuminati sect of the Avengers.

It's also worth mentioning that she spend years believing herself to be the daughter of magneto...and therefore the sister of Polaris...whose ex-Fiance Havok was previously leader of an Avengers team . By the way Havok happens to be brother-in-law to Deathbird, the aunt of former Avenger Deathcry.

Oh and did we mention her son's with the Vision? I put them under her entry and not his because they were created via her magic....in this case Vision did nothing more than provide some spell components. Anyways, her kids are Wiccan and Speed of the Young Avengers. Wiccan by the way is engaged to fellow Young Avenger Hulking...who is himself the son of Honorary Avenger, the original Captain Marvel, and therefore brother to Marvel's daughter, Martyr the life partner of former Avenger Moondragon.

And you thought I was kidding when I said pretty much any avenger can be linked to these two.

#6 Wasp

In a nutshell, well she did name the team. they literally wouldnt be the avengers without her.

Also she did lead the team durring what was arguably their most trying period, including the original secret wars and the takeover of avengers mansion by the Masters of Evil. And when a team of time crossed avengers were pulled out of time to save the very existence of the universe in the Destiny War, it was the Wasp.....and not Captain America, they believed would have the skill to lead them due to their disparate chronological locations and personalities.

All of which had led to the Wasp being one of the 2 de facto secondary leaders of the avengers....basically if Cap aint around, its Wasp's show to run if she wants it...and hell even if Cap or someone else is officially leading the team, if the Wasp says to do something, the Avengers do it.

Oh and finally to top it off, shes rich. Not Stark level rich....but rich enough to help fund an entire team of Avengers (the Unity Division) on her own. Not many other members can say that.

#5 Luke Cage

By far the newest entry on this list, in terms of tenure, Luke Cage has fast become one of the most important avengers ever. Joining the team after they reformed following the events of Avengers Dissembled and the demise of the original team, it would be Luke Cage who would pick up mantle of leadership following the events of the Civil War, and the death of Captain America, the Wasp and Hawkeye.
And he basically aint put that mantle down since. Even after the New Avengers were disbanded years later Cage would later return to the team to lead the Mighty Avengers. This actually makes him one of the longest serving leaders of the Avengers....second possibly to only Hawkeye and Cap.

Cage also has a very distinct vision for the teams he leads, different than the normal avengers mandate to focus on world and universe threatening even.. Cage believes his avengers should be for all the people who need them, and should help any way they can....even tackling street crime when needed, although in a pinch he will happy stomp out a threat to the whole universe as well.

Its actually a testament to Cage's skill that he has been allowed to lead "splinter teams" as long and as often as he has....of all the Avengers only Hawkeye and Hank Pym can claim longer or as varried stints leading splinter teams of the Avengers.


#4 Iron man

Iron Man's contributions to the team are actually very limited. He tends to take long breaks from the team, and actually seems almost allergic to leading the team, passing over leadership whenever possible (notably to Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Scarlet Witch and the Black Panther).

Tony Stark's contributions on the other hand are invaluable. All funding for the team comes from Stark. All the tech used by the team comes from Stark, and of course the team is based out of Starks House....and later Stark Tower.

So even though Iron Man isnt around alot of the time.....hes still the reason the Avengers are able to operate at all. Although as my blog of "bad" avengers pointed out....it might have been in the avengers best interests if he had only even been associated with them as Tony Stark.

#3 Hawkeye

So the Avengers roster boasts multiple gods, and even a few heroes more powerful than that....not to mention 3 different Hulks. Yet one of the guys most likely to come running when the call rings out is Hawkeye...a guy with no superpowers.

In fact, a guy who shuns superpowers having previously been Goliath, and deciding to no longer use those powers. He's also been deaf on at least 3 different occasions. So he could considered the weakest member of the team. Yet he's usually their backbone, just by sheer git and deterination.


In fact it was Hawkeye who was picked to the lead the first, and most successful avengers Splinter team, the West Coast Avengers. He's also led the Secret Avengers, Great Lakes Avengers and New Avengers, making him the other de facto secondary team leader....and therefore, like the Wasp, making him an irremovable part of the Avengers History.

#2 Captain America 

Because of course. Both in and out of Universe, the Avengers are often called Cap's team. Because hes pretty much always in charge. Which means he kinda gets this spot by default....as you cant do a history of the Avengers without looking at who's running the show. Hell the avengers even rewrote their charter to give Cap all the extra bureaucratic powers the team's founders held for themselves, and Cap didnt even found the team....and he's the only non founder to be given Founder status.

So really the only question you should be asking yourself, is why did he only come in #2?

#1 Jarvis

No, this isnt a joke. Edwin Jarvis is far and away the most important "Avenger" on the team.....I put "Avenger" in quotes, cause it turns out he's not even actually on the team,which is a travasty given that the teams ranks of "honorary members" included a teenage kid (Rick Jones, decades before he had powers) and the heiress who donated the Avengers West Coast mansion to the team.

But despite the team failing to officially honor him, it is Jarvis who is most central to the team.

In fact out of the several hundred members of the team, there are only a few dozen Jarvis hasnt met....making him the most connected member of the team. Plus he also functions as the Avengers PR man.....he's the guy screening visitors when they show up at the mansion seeking the avengers.

He also keeps the press away from the team, keeps the place clean (a harder task than normal given the number of times the mansions been attacked), functions as the team moral officer (having stopped a few discouraged members from quitting or worse on multiple occasions). And he regulalry functions as the teams communication and data officer when the team needs something analysed and is still in the field or needs to communicate with another faction of the group

Put simply, without Jarvis around to do all the shit the rest of the team doesnt have time to do, there would be no avengers.

Oh and once was the ENTIRE team unto himself.  When the team disbanded for the first time, following the chairmanship of Dr. Druid and his betrayal of the team, Jarvis was the last occupant of the Mansion, and it was Jarvis, and Jarvis alone, who was willing to stand against the next threat...the unleashed demons of hell itself. And as a result of that attempt it was Jarvis who was able to convince Captain America (then just the Captain, having been stripped of his name by the government) to restart the team.

Oh and it should be noted, Jarvis did this AFTER previously being beaten so badly by the supervillian Mr. Hyde that he almost lost a leg and an eye and had to have multiple joints replaced.....and still even after that beating had refused to resign from his job with the avengers.

 Thats a level of dedication that goes far above and beyond many of the official team members.

Given that, maybe its well past time this guy was inducted as an Honorary member....just saying the Avengers really should support the most important part of the team.