The Avengers’ 6 Biggest Space Battles

Over the years, the Avengers have earned their reputation as the greatest heroes on Earth. Together, they've defended their home planet from errant gods, would-be time-traveling despots, and alien invaders from all corners of the cosmos. In that time, the group has also gotten mixed up in more than a few space exploits.

Never ones to leave innocents in danger, the Avengers will fight for the rights of every living being they encounter. That means that even when the odds are stacked against them and they're far from home, the Avengers do whatever it takes to preserve life. Here are six of the times Earth’s Mightiest Heroes did exactly that.

The Kree-Skrull War

In AVENGERS (1963) #89-97, the team found itself unwittingly dealing with both sides of a war that had been going on longer than humanity had been living outside of caves. After experiencing both Kree and Skrull threats on Earth, the team traveled the spaceways where perennial sidekick Rick Jones wound up saving the very planet he hailed from. Thanks to some help from the Kree Supreme Intelligence, the Destiny Force unlocked an incredible ability to create Golden Age heroes from his mind who sprung forth to defeat the Skrulls. This conflict not only brought Earth into the realm of cosmic conflagrations, but also led to the heroes of that planet secretly banding together to create an Illuminati to ostensibly keep the third planet from the sun safe.

Secret Wars

When a cosmic entity of unknown origins with incredible power levels teleports a small army of Super Heroes and Villains to a strange planet called Battleworld, you know you're in for a wild tale. That's how SECRET WARS played out with the Beyonder doing exactly that with some of the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and their enemies. Captain America, Thor, Wasp, She-Hulk, Hawkeye, Monica Rambeau, and Iron Man worked together with the others to stop Doctor Doom after he stole the Beyonder's powers. In the end, the heroes outlasted Doom, who eventually found himself betrayed by his lackey Klaw, who had been possessed by the Beyonder himself. That eventually led to a return trip home for all those who wanted it.

The Nebula Conflicts

The Avengers never leave a member behind, but sometimes it takes a while to find them! That was the case with Monica Rambeau, then carrying the mantle of Captain Marvel, when she was accidentally stolen away by Nebula in Thanos' ship Sanctuary II. In AVENGERS (1963) #259, the rest of the team finally caught up to their ally who had faked her own death while working with the space pirate. The villain had been amassing power in the wake of the Skrull Empire's near dissolution. This made for a shaky alliance between the shape-shifters and the humans in an effort to stop Nebula's rampage before it reached their own home planet. Some unexpected help from the Beyonder helped wrap the whole adventure up in the following issue. Nebula caused even more trouble in AVENGERS (1963) #316-318 when she nearly destroyed all of space, but was stopped once again by the Earth's Greatest Heroes and their pal Spider-Man.

The Infinity Gauntlet

Thanos intended to impress his beloved Death by acquiring the Infinity Gems and using them to prove his worth to her in INFINITY GAUNTLET. After halving the population of reality, he set himself up to further impress his beloved. Instead, he garnered the attention of Captain America, the rest of the surviving Avengers, and other heroes to get their pals and loved ones back. Many stood up to him and wound up dead, including Captain America. However, after the necrotic Nebula stole the Gauntlet from the Mad Titan, a group including Hulk and Thor managed to wrest the Gems away from her after she restored the lives that Thanos had ended.

Operation: Galactic Storm

As with the Kree-Skrull War, the Avengers and more of Earth's heroes got tangled up in a conflict between the Kree and Shi'Ar in OPERATION: GALACTIC STORM. This company-wide crossover involved the Avengers developing a three-pronged approach that kept one group on-planet and sent two others to the respective Kree and Shi'Ar homeworlds to try and broker peace. As you might expect, the respective intergalactic empires didn't take kindly to these pesky Earthlings interfering with their affairs. Ultimately, they discovered that the eventual loss of Kree life had actually been orchestrated by the Kree Supreme Intelligence itself! Though disgusted with this action, the team found trouble in its own ranks when a faction, led by Iron Man, demanded to kill the Supreme Intelligence for its atrocities. The Avengers eventually got over their differences, but the wounds took time to heal.

Avengers: Rage of Ultron

Often, when the Avengers head into space, it's to deal with a threat born of the stars. However, in the AVENGERS: RAGE OF ULTRON graphic novel, they traveled to Titan to deal with the villain who literally sprung from their own ranks. The evil robot created by Hank Pym had taken over the technologically advanced moon and its inhabitants with designs to do exactly the same across the universe. The entire team worked hard to bring Ultron down, but ultimately the villain's absorption of Pym -- then serving as Giant-Man -- brought him down and tied these two characters together even more clearly moving forward.

Who will the Avengers have to face next? Stay tuned to Marvel.com for news about the Avengers and more Marvel heroes!