At first, when it seemed to be no progress with it, the Avengers Initiative was shut down. Gideon Malick put the focus on Phase 2, an initiative to reverse-engineer HYDRA weapons to create weapons for Earth's defense and examining the Tesseract as a source for such weapons. Loki arrived through the Tesseract from "the other end of space" and began attacking several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, taking control of Hawkeye and Erik Selvig with the Scepter and taking hold of the Tesseract. Following this, Nick Fury re-instates the Avengers Initiative and has Phil Coulson call for Black Widow to bringing in the others. Coulson has her go to Kolkata, India to bring in Bruce Banner, who can track the cube due to the fact that it is emitting low levels of Gamma Radiation, of which Banner is an expert. Meanwhile, Fury goes to Captain America to give him his first mission since being awakened. Coulson personally travels to Stark Tower to bring Tony Stark files containing information regarding his other potential teammates, Loki, and the Tesseract.
The team was assembled on the Helicarrier and initially had difficulty working together. Many of them did not want to form a team and they argued constantly over ideological differences. Tony Stark was reluctant to work under the command of Captain America. Thor demanded that Loki be returned to him and did not want to compromise. Everyone on the team was uncomfortable with the presence of Bruce Banner. After Loki killed Phil Coulson, and began his main attack, the Avengers decided to put their differences aside and went to New York City. During the battle they learned to trust one another and rally in defense of New York as it was invaded by extraterrestrials known as the Chitauri. Captain America took command of the team and they all worked to suppress the invasion force. Hulk beat Loki into submission and Iron Man carried a nuclear weapon fired by the World Security Council into the portal through which the aliens entered Earth and destroyed their fleet, breaking the neural connection with their ground troops and instantly incapacitating them. The team took Loki as their prisoner.
Following the conclusion of the war and capture of Loki, the team split up to finish their own individual pursuits. Captain America and Black Widow continued to work with S.H.I.E.L.D., often working with STRIKE to neutralize threats. Thor returned to Asgard, delivering Loki into the hands of Asgardian justice. The return of the Tesseract allowed the Asgardians to repair the Bifrost Bridge, after which Thor and his allies began to battle the bands of Marauders that had sprung up across the Nine Realms. Suffering from trauma after his near-death experience, Tony Stark focused on developing an Iron Legion for the purpose of countering future threats.
Members:
Captain America
Iron Man
Thor
Hawkeye
Black Widow
The Hulk
Supporting Cast:
Nick Fury
Maria Hill
Agent Phil Coulson
S.H.I.E.L.D.
Villains:
Loki
The Chitauri
