The Avengers, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, brought together the greatest heroes of the Marvel Universe to face the biggest threats. Over the years, the team has been through some massive ups and downs but they've also supplied some of the best stories in comics history, even if some of them are a bit complicated even for hardcore fans.

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Thanks to the success of the MCU, the Avengers have become one of the biggest names in pop culture but none of that would be possible without the amazing cadre of writers who have worked on the team over the years, working to keep the concept fresh and creating something that generations of fans would enjoy.

10 Rob Liefeld And Jeph Loeb

Heroes Reborn Avengers

Rob Liefeld and Jeph Loeb wrote the Avengers during the infamous Heroes Reborn. Sales on the Avengers books were low, so Marvel got Image creators Liefeld and Jim Lee to take them over. A controversial move that would eventually be mostly ignored, Liefeld and Loeb would try and bring the Avengers into the extreme '90s.

While their time with the Avengers was short and not well loved, it helped readers remember exactly what they loved about the Avengers and spurred Marvel to take a back to basics approach once Heroes Reborn ended. Their time on the book's failure would bring forth a renaissance for the Avengers, so their run can be looked at as a positive even if it wasn't very good.

9 Bob Harras

Header Black Knight Sersi Proctor

Bob Harras would write The Avengers in the '90s before becoming Marvel editor in chief. While his run isn't the most well remembered time, he would do a lot of work with second string Avengers like Black Knight and the Eternal Sersi and navigate the book through the changing tides of '90s comics.

Harras tried to focus the Avengers on heroes who weren't Captain America, Iron Man, or Thor and while his time on the book isn't well known, he was still responsible for some pretty good Avengers stories and wrote the book during one of the most difficult times in the team's history.

8 Jason Aaron

Avengers Thor Captain America Black Panther

Jason Aaron took over The Avengers in 2018 and has been delivering blockbuster stories ever since. His team would be very much inspired by the MCU, highlighting Cap, Thor, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel, while also bringing Marvel mainstays like She-Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Blade into their ranks.

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Making Black Panther the leader of the team was an inspired choice, as his time with the Avengers is often overlooked, and Aaron has also introduced some new things to the history of the Marvel Universe in the book, as well as seeing the team fight a war against Atlantis, deal with the god Knoshu, and so much more.

7 Jim Starlin

Infinity Gauntlet

Jim Starlin never wrote the Avengers' comic but he was the writer of Infinity Gauntlet, one of the greatest superhero crossovers ever, and that story would go on to inform the MCU's first four phases. The creative talent behind the MCU used Starlin's story to drive the Avengers' films, making them into the biggest film franchise ever.

Without Starlin's Infinity Gauntlet, the MCU would be a very different place and there's a good chance it wouldn't be nearly as popular, meaning the Avengers wouldn't be the pop culture juggernaut they are today. Starlin's one story did more for the Avengers than many writers did in their entire run.

6 Rick Remender

The Uncanny Avengers, with Thor, , Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Wolverine in Marvel Comics

Rick Remender wrote Uncanny Avengers after Avengers Vs X-Men. The book teamed the Avengers and the X-Men in a powerful line-up that would face down threats to humans and mutants and work to rehabilitate the image of mutants after Phoenix influenced X-Men's attack on the world. Remender's book was a highlight of the post-AvX Marvel Universe and showed the team in a different light than ever before.

Combining mutants threats and Avengers' villains, Uncanny Avengers was a fan favorite book that holds up to this day. It was even responsible for a huge change in the history of fan favorite Avengers Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.

5 Jonathan Hickman

Avengers World

Jonathan Hickman would take on Avengers and New Avengers after AvX and bring the team to some all new places. Avengers would focus on a truly massive team of Avengers as they fought to protect the Earth from all threats and New Avengers would focus on an Illuminati inspired group working behind the scenes to stop the Incursions, alternate Earths appearing in the 616 Marvel Universe and endangering the planet.

Hickman's time would bring big sci-fi concepts to the Avengers for the first time in years and set the tenor of Marvel's publishing line until he left the book in 2015, changing the Marvel multiverse as readers knew it.

4 Brian Michael Bendis

New Avengers #1 cover by Brian Bendis and David Finch

Bendis would be brought onto Avengers at the height of his popularity in 2004 and give the group a shot in the arm. Relaunching the book as New Avengers, he would add fan favorites like Wolverine and Spider-Man and lesser known characters like Luke Cage and Spider-Woman to the team and helm the books until 2012.

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His time on the Avengers would drive the entire Marvel Universe, launching events and driving the narrative for Marvel's entire line. While a lot of his stories can be a bit on the boring side as he focused more on the character's quipping than action, his time on the books redefined the Avengers- and Marvel- for the 21st century.

3 Kurt Busiek

Heroes Return Avengers

Kurt Busiek relaunched Avengers (and Iron Man) after Heroes Reborn. Teaming with fan favorite artist George Perez, Busiek would remind readers why they loved the Avengers in the first place- they're the biggest heroes in the Marvel Universe, taking on the most dangerous threats. Focusing on a classic Avengers line-up, with the new members Firestar and Justice, Busiek told some stories for the ages.

Busiek's approach to the book was old school but still modern, taking everything that fans loved about the Avengers and repackaging it for the modern comic fan of the time and started the team on their eventual rise to prominence after years of mediocrity.

2 Roger Stern

The Avengers lying in defeat in rubble in Marvel Comics

Roger Stern wrote the Avengers throughout the 80s and was responsible for the creation of West Coast Avengers, the first ongoing Avengers spin-off book. His time on the team would see founder Wasp taking over as leader and includes one of the greatest Avengers stories of them all, "Under Siege", which saw the team take on the Masters of Evil.

Stern's time on the book navigated it through the Marvel Universe of the '80s, as the X-Men were on the rise and the Avengers were on the wane. Even though it was no longer Marvel's biggest book, Stern was still able to tell a lot of amazing stories and features some of the greatest Avengers to ever be on the team.

1 Roy Thomas

Captain Marvel gets captured in the Skrull War.

Roy Thomas would write the Avengers for nine years, from 1966 to 1975, and is responsible for some of the most important stories and characters in Avengers history. Thomas would take the concept of Earth's Mightiest Heroes and run with it, having the team tackle massive threats and getting involved in the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe more.

Thomas's run gave readers Vision and Ultron and included the classic story "The Kree-Skrull War". Thomas's time on the Avengers paid dividends both for fans and future creators, giving them fertile ground to work with and showing just how great the Avengers can be.

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