I've always felt that the Fantastic Four discovered the Marvel Universe, and the X-Men made the M.U. much more interesting. Other than having the largest roster in comic history, what contributions have the Avengers made to the Marvel Universe?

I'm specifically looking for places, concepts, and villains (i.e. the Negative Zone, Unstable Molecules, Galactus) introduced in the pages of the Avengers.

The top villains I could find were:

Ultron (Arguably the Avengers biggest contribution to the Marvel U)

Taskmaster

Grim Reaper

Grandmaster

Collector

What and whom else am I missing?

zemo, thunderbolts, space ghost

I think I overlooked the Space Phantoms and Immortus.

The 12th Baron Zemo? That's questionable as a debut.

Thunderbolts debuted in the Incredible Hulk.

Do you mean Space Phantoms?

I would say Thunderbolts regardless of them making their debut in Hulk their creation came due to the Avengers supposed death. The Zodiac, Graviton, Cthon, and Taskmaster.

Wow, I thought at least Pym Particles debuted in the Avengers, but it looks like Tales to Astonish takes that honor.

According to the Comic Vine wiki the Marvel Multiverse first appeared in The Avengers issue 23.

There at least has to be some alien races or locations introduced in the Avengers. The X-Men had the Savage Land, Genosha, Krakoa, Asteroid M, Otherplace (Limbo), Muir Island, Madripoor, Phalanx, Brood, and Shi'ar.

The Avengers have Transia and the lesser known Limbo.

@knighthood: The realm of Limbo was introduced in Avengers #2.

Yeah, that is what I was referring to as the lesser known Limbo. Belasco's Limbo AKA Otherplace is more commonly referred to a just Limbo. I didn't even know the original Avenger's Limbo existed until started researching the answers to this thread.

It's actually a bit sad. My perspective of the Avengers over the decades have been that they use concepts, popular characters, villains, and locations introduced by other books. I'm not knocking the Avengers. I was actually hoping to find some larger contributions to the MU than what I previously knew of.

Thankfully, Hickman and Remender are introducing characters, concepts, and even a few locations. Such as Universal Incursion, Builders, Mapmakers, Black Swan, Black Dwarf, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, Aleph, The Garden, Builder Machine Code, Uriel, and Eimin. Personally I feel this might be one of the most innovative times in Avenger's history (but I'm still a bit of a Avengers newbie, so take that for what it is).

Great characters, team conflict, moral code issues....many things.

I think a major difference when comparing the the contributions of other stories to that of the Avengers is mainly that the X-men (or the Fantastic Four or whoever) represent their own mythology in and of themselves, whereas the Avengers is sort of where all those mythologies come together. Most marvel comics take place within this shared universe, but it's really only in the Avengers that it's actually integral to most of the stories. The Avengers actually represent that shared universe, and couldn't exist without it.

That's not to say that I think the mythos of the Avengers has added less to that shared reality than the other corners though. Take your Pym particles there as an example; yes, Hank Pym and his amazing particles did debut outside of the Avengers, but would he or they have had any impact on the MU if he hadn't been one of the original Avengers? Would anyone even know who he was? I think if you look at most of the classic Avengers (outside of the big 4, and maybe Black Panther), characters like the Pyms, Hawkeye, Black Widow, the Vision, and probably even Iron-man, would probably not even be remembered, let alone central characters within the MU, had they not been Avengers.

The Avengers, more than any other marvel mythology simply, can't exist off in it's own little corner of the MU because it's basis really is that it's the center of that world.

@oldnightcrawler: Yeah, I'd agree that the Avengers took many already existing aspects of the Marvel U and made them more important and interesting. I'd still like to see some world building like FF and X-Men. That's is partly why I love what Hickman is doing.

Even organizations like S.W.O.R.D. were developed in X-Men. Ughhhhh. Essentially a S.H.I.E.L.D. knock-off team should appear in the Avengers first. What have the Avenger editors been doing for the past 50 years?

@knighthood: i see you are hating hard on the avengers and the avengers mythos. why?

Marvel/DC are the "reality TV" of the comic book industry

@thetimestreamer:

Not hating, my friend. I'm genuinely interested in the Avengers, but as I started to look up Avengers characters, concepts, and locations to dive deeper into the "Avengers Mythos" I keep seeing that these people and place actually debuted in other books. I'm honestly perplexed.

Also when I mention character, I'm speaking mainly of villains because I feel the villains make the stories most of the time. I haven't even look to see which heroes have or haven't debuted in the Avengers. I'm honestly kinda scared to.

Honestly, I generally dislike "All-Star" type teams. So there might be a slight biased. As a X-fan first I hate Wolverine being on the Avengers, but I'm looking past that. I want to learn more about Tigra and Wonderman and character I've always been interested in, but avoided because the Avengers as a "All-Star" team never interested me. Sadly, now that I'm looking deeper into their history, I feel that the Avengers only play with other kid's toys instead of bringing their own to the sandbox.

@knighthood: well you should stop knocking avengers for not appearing in a book with avengers in the title. the avengers characters are some of the oldest in marvel. namor, cap, wasp and ant man, thor they all appeared in books with different title because marvel hadnt created a larger universe at the time. thor appeared in journey into mystery first, iron man tales to astonish etc etc. every company does this, even today.

Not knocking. Listen to me. I know those characters appeared in other books (well not Ant-Man and Wasp, but I should have known better). They are not why I am interested in the Avengers. In fact Cap, Thor, and Hulk are the reasons why I avoided the Avengers for decades. I can't say the same for Iron Man because he's one of my faves.

What specifically piqued my interest is lack of original major villains. Of course Ultron is the exception. The original volume of the Avengers lasted for 402 issues and to be honest with you I feel like Chris Claremont did more world building in his first 100 or so issues. I'm not hating the Avengers, I'm actually shocked. I am asking for input.

Here's a factoid that I just found out...

Adamantium is originally from the Avengers, not the X-Men. I always assumed the Avengers decided to use Adamantium for Cap's shield and Ultron after Wolverine's skeleton. It appears, I had that backwards for a very long time. That is the type of information I was looking for by creating this thread.

@knighthood: oh so you want trivia. interesting bits. well hawkeye was a villain of the avengers. grew up in a circus. swordsman was also a villain and then an avenger. dr druid tricked his way into leading the avengers for a short period of time. cap wasnt a founding avengers. he came later. list some of your favorite ones. might know something interesting about them.

I'm sensing a trend. Wasn't Wonder Man also a villain first? Maybe that's why I can't find any worthwhile Avengers villains.

Yes Wonder Man was a villain. You should honestly watch "Avengers Earth's mightiest heroes". Great show that got a lot of people interested and educated on the Avengers

@peppeyhare: I actually really like that show, but I know there are major differences between cartoons and actual comics. To me the comic versions are more important.

Okay, here is something else. I just read FF issue 19, FF annual issue 2, and Avengers issue 8. Kang made his orginal appearance in the Fantastic Four, but was known as Rama-Tut during his stint in the FF books. He became the Kang we all know in Avenger issue 8. So that is another major villain for the Avengers.

Plus he is a descendant to Dr. Doom. I didn't know that.

I could be into that. It's not really what appeals to me about the Avengers, but I can appreciate it.