Chitauri. Kree. Those alien armies are just the warm-up for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on the big screen. Thanos (Josh Brolin) is the big bad behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe and will go head to head with the heroes in Avengers: Infinity War, Part I & II.
The Avengers have been on the front line protecting Earth from invaders from space. Thanos, The Infinity Gauntlet & War evolved from comic book legend Jim Starlin and are a massive influence on modern creators and filmmakers.
As we anxiously await the next Avengers film and showdown with Thanos, here are five of the biggest cosmic epics pitting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes against alien enemies:
Operation: Galactic Storm
The Kree (blue skinned warriors who created the Inhumans) vs Shi’ar (birdlike aliens with a long history with the X-Men) with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in the middle. Two empires went to war. The Supreme Intelligence of the Kree (a giant sentient cloud) detonated a bomb against his own race in an bizarre attempt to jump start the Kree’s evolution. Should the Avengers kill the Kree’s mad leader to prevent an intergalactic war? Captain America and Iron Man were each leading split factions of the team with a huge moral dilemma at the heart of a massive battle between empires. This epic was devised by the late Mark Gruewald with Bob Harras and Fabian Nicieza.
The Final Threat in Avengers Annual #7
Adam Warlock vs Thanos! Jim Starlin’s cosmic rivalry lead to this incredible showdown with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes plus Thing and Spider-Man joining Warlock in battle against the Mad God of Titan who possessed the six Infinity gems. Spidey made a sacrifice to save the captured Avengers and Warlock used a gem to defeat Thanos.
Secret Invasion
The endgame of a long running story by Brian Michael Bendis in his New Avengers run. A faction of the shapeshifting Skrulls decided to claim Earth as their new homeworld. The Skrulls infiltrated every superhero team, SHIELD and even villain organizations waiting patiently, plotting and counter-plotting until it was time to strike and seize Earth. New heroes rose to join the battered fan-favorites in an epic winner take all battle.
Avengers World: Infinity
When two strange new aliens arrived on Mars to terraform it, Steve and Tony knew they had to get bigger. The two recruited one of the biggest roster in Avengers history. The team went into deep space to unite the universe’s greatest alien civilizations (including old enemies Kree, Skrulls, Shi’ar) against The Builders, an ancient race who built, destroyed and rebuilt worlds. Earth was their next reconstruction project. With the Avengers in space, Thanos invaded the Earth with his Black Order to find his darkest secret hidden among the Inhumans. Black Bolt detonated the Terrigen Bomb in his battle with Thanos. The aftermath led to a huge boom in the emergence of new Inhumans, a new genetic threat to mutants. As huge as this all sounds, it was just the start of Jonathan Hickman’s epic Avengers run that capped with the destruction of the Marvel multiverse and Secret Wars.
The Kree-Skrull War
Earth is caught in the middle an ancient feud between two rival empires. A Skrull imposter in the form of a political leader attempts to turn the public against alien heroes like Captain Marvel. Ronan the Accuser went rogue from the Empire and plotted to Earth into a living laboratory creating primitive super soldiers to launch against the Skrulls.
By Editor