The Marvel Cinematic Universe's main appeal has been the Avengers, the team that has brought characters in the series together. The Avengers fought the likes of Loki, Ultron, Thanos, and even split itself into two factions for a time, all of which saw the members come up with plans for victory.
Not all of these ended up being the best, though, as some of the plans led to greater defeat or big-time consequences. Of course, seeing as the Avengers ultimately did have victories like the Battle of Earth, there were also a number of plans that were very much worth it.
Worst: Captain America's Faction Getting Caught As A Distraction
Captain America: Civil War was mainly about Steve’s attempt to prove that the Winter Soldier wasn’t a villain as Helmut Zemo had framed him. The original plan of his faction was to confront Zemo together but when they realized they couldn’t beat Iron Man’s team, Sam came up with a new plan.
This involved getting everyone apart from Captain America and the Winter Soldier caught so that the two could escape. Although it worked at the time, the repercussions of this plan were dire. It ended up getting the faction sent to the Raft prison, following which they were branded as war criminals for years.
Best: Ambushing Thanos On Titan By Employing Their Big-Hitters
After Thanos defeated the Avengers while they were separated in Avengers: Infinity War, the remaining team decided to ambush him on the planet he was residing on. This time, the main part of the plan involved beating him into submission before questioning him.
To this end, Captain America sent the most powerful members first, with Captain Marvel launching the attack, the Hulkbuster grabbing one arm of Thanos while War Machine the other. Finally, Thor sprang a surprise by cutting off Thanos’s hand containing the Infinity Gauntlet. This did the trick as the plan’s successful execution left Thanos at their mercy.
Worst: Facing Thanos's Forces In Wakanda Head-On Without Any Strategy
Despite having a number of options to choose from Wakandan technology and artillery, the Avengers came up with the bizarre plan to fight Thanos’ force with their bare hands, minimal firearms, and using spears and swords. However, the worst part of this was the lack of strategy.
Instead of using the evacuated city to hide their positions and launch an ambush, the Avengers fought Thanos’ forces in an open field where they were eventually overwhelmed by the Outriders and had to rely on Thor’s intervention to bail them out.
Best: Black Widow's Closing Of The Chitauri Portal While The Other Avengers Held Them Off
Loki was able to begin his invasion of Earth in The Avengers where he chose New York as the location where the Chitauri would enter through the portal. Here, the Avengers assembled and Captain America gave orders over their battle plan.
This involved Hawkeye setting up as a scout and shooting down targets from a vantage point, Iron Man, taking down enemies like the Chitauri Leviathans, Thor attacking anything that came out of the portal, and Hulk smashing everything up, Meanwhile, Black Widow was to close the portal, with the team accomplishing their individual tasks to put an end to the invasion altogether. This way, they ensured lives lost were minimal while the fate of the world was secure.
Worst: Sending Captain America To Fight Loki
The Avengers played right into Loki’s hands for the majority of their conflict, as they fell for Loki’s distraction in Germany while the mind-controlled Hawkeye stole iridium to stabilize the Tesseract’s power. Regardless, their own plan wasn’t exactly clever, as it saw Captain America fight Loki.
Loki may not be as powerful as Thor, but Captain America had no chance against him as Loki ended up making short work of him. The plan was ridiculous as well, in that the backup option was for Black Widow to shoot at Loki using a Quinjet canon, which was very likely to kill innocents around them. They “won” due to Iron Man’s intervention and mainly the plot twist that Loki planned on being captured.
Best: Attacking HYDRA Bases To Weed Out Von Strucker
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it was revealed that HYDRA had been manipulating events of the world the whole time and had compromised S.H.I.E.L.D. Avengers: Age of Ultron’s opening showed the team taking down the remnants of HYDRA.
This plan involved identifying the bases of the villainous faction and destroy them one by one. It allowed the Avengers to eventually zero in on Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and finally end HYDRA by defeating him, while also retrieving Loki’s scepter. The core aspect of the plan was Captain America's philosophy of working together, as the fully assembled team accomplished what S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't been able to do.
Worst: Banner & Stark's Ultron Program
Everything about Ultron was wrong to begin with, as Tony Stark and Bruce Banner came up with the idea to use Loki’s scepter to create an A.I. they hoped would protect the world. This was actually part of a larger plan as the Ultron Global Defense Program was already active.
In all fairness, this was never going to work since it was too ambitious to be pulled off, with the entire world just too big for Banner and Stark to watch over. In addition, the plan didn’t involve the rest of the Avengers, whose failed execution led to trust being shattered within the group.
Best: Captain America's Plan To Ambush Crossbones
The opening of Captain America: Civil War saw the Avengers launch a surprise attack on Crossbones, who had stolen a biological weapon from a lab in Lagos. Here, the team came up with a strategy to weed out Crossbones’ mercenaries while making the latter reveal his position.
It saw everyone blend in with the crowd to identify the villains and secure each other to prevent themselves from being separated. The plan worked effectively since the weapon was retrieved and it was only Crossbones’ explosion that put a damper on things.
Worst: Keeping The Infinity Stones Within The Battle Of Earth
The original plan was for Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor to kill Thanos before he could reach the Infinity Gauntlet but this changed when Thanos proved too strong and the resurrected Avengers arrived to begin the Battle of Earth.
The later plan was to return the Infinity Stones to their original timeline, which was actually a pretty bad strategy since Thanos was right in the middle of things. A better plan would’ve been to hand someone like Captain Marvel the stones to leave the scene of the battle to ensure Thanos had no chance of getting the Gauntlet. Due to the botched plan, Thanos did manage to win and was only thwarted after Tony Stark sacrificed himself.
Best: The Time Heist
This was the plan that brought back half of all life in the universe. It’s also the overarching plotline of Avengers: Endgame, as the team got back together to retrieve the Infinity Stones from different points in time in order to assemble a new Gauntlet.
The best part about it was that it was probably the most thought-out plan the team came up with, as they researched extensively over where the stones were in the past along with using the limited supply of Pym particles to ensure they all got back to the present. Although it did hit a few snags, the Time Heist was overall the Avengers’ biggest success.