

Black Widow fought Hawkeye, who had arrived to help Loki, managing to bring her friend back to his true self in the process. Escaping in the chaos, Loki then ejected Thor from the Helicarrier in his own enclosed cell and retrieved his scepter, killing Phil Coulson with it. While engaging in a fight with Thor, Hulk nearly destroyed the Helicarrier, before crashing down to Earth.

Loki revealed that it was his plan to be captured all along and triggered Banner to turn into the Hulk. had been using the Tesseract to recreate dangerous HYDRA weapons. While Stark and Banner found some common ground through their love of science, the would-be team were at odds as they discussed their next course of action, and arguments escalated in the wake of discovering that S.H.I.E.L.D. A fight ensued between Thor and Iron Man, but Captain America broke it up, and the group all returned with their prisoner, Loki, to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Captain America and Iron Man, assisted by Black Widow, were able to capture Loki, but during their flight back to S.H.I.E.L.D., Thor arrived, attempting to bring his brother back to Asgard to face justice. Once the Asgardian trickster god Loki arrived on Earth and absconded with the massively powerful object known as the Tesseract-possessing Hawkeye and turning him into his brainwashed pawn in the process-Fury found it necessary to finally bring together his potential super team, calling in Romanoff, Banner, Rogers and Stark.

In the meantime, some of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s most skilled members, Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), and Hawkeye (Clint Barton), were making a name for themselves and impressing Fury. Fury kept his eye on several potential members, as Bruce Banner struggled with life as the Hulk, the Asgardian Thor appeared on Earth, and Steve Rogers, AKA World War II hero Captain America, was discovered alive decades after his apparent death. He first approached Tony Stark with the idea, following Tony’s defeat of Obadiah Stane and his subsequent public announcement that he was Iron Man. The Avengers Initiative was the brainchild of S.H.I.E.L.D.
