Editing Marvel Comics (section)

===The Avengers===
Like DC, Marvel came up with a big meta-team for its superheroes. But whereas the Justice League was built around the idea of "people love these superheroes, so if we have them all adventure together, it'll be even bigger!", the Avengers originally began as a kind of dumping ground for B-lister and C-lister superheroes whom Marvel really didn't think could pull off their own comic lines. Characters like Iron Man, Ant Man, and Thor.

It should be added that the Avengers was originally more of a "place to stay" than a traditional superteam; there was a large mansion donated by Tony Stark, which was effectively the Avengers "clubhouse", with people cycling in and out as they needed a place to stay. The thing is, as so many characters cycled through, and so many minor characters who suddenly got popular had the Avengers in their history, their profile was raised until the Infinity Gems became a thing, at which point the Avengers became the big "all hands on deck" team Marvel used when they wanted to do a big "event" comic. (The Fantastic Four and X-Men both being restricted in membership to Four members and mutants, respectively.)

Nowdays, you'd be hardpressed to remember that they began as, basically, Marvel's league of losers.

With how many different iterations of the Avengers there have been, it's harder to create an iconic line up similar to their Justice League counterparts. Arguably the closest you've got to a "core trio" is Iron Man (who tends to be bankrolling the Avengers), Captain America (who tends to be the team's field leader or at least its emotional center), and Thor (who is usually the heaviest hitter who remains part of the team instead of wandering off like the Hulk).
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