One reason why so many fans love the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that they enjoy seeing the relationships between the heroes. They become invested in the characters, and their journeys, and seeing the connections and issues between the Avengers is often more interesting than the conflicts between the actual villains.
But, while fans love to see the Avengers as a found family, they didn’t always act that way in the canon. In many ways, they aren’t as tight-knit as other comic book heroes such as the X-Men even though they do have moments of being very close. Here are the times they acted like family as well as the times they barely seemed to care about each other at all.
Found Family: The party scene in Age of Ultron
While Avengers: Age of Ultron is somewhat controversial amongst fans, there is one scene that many people loved. The party in Avengers tower with all of the heroes hanging out and having a good time isn’t the type of scene that’s shown very often.
While it ends with Ultron attacking them, seeing them joke around, drink, and tease each other was a great moment of friendship.
Co-workers: Heroes working alone in the solo movies
This point has more to do with the logistics of making these movies. When it comes to the solo movies, like the Captain America trilogy, for example, it often doesn’t make a lot of sense that the other Avengers don’t show up to help.
This is usually just done in order to focus on one particular character, but it does often make it seem like that the Avengers don’t care about one another much or keep in contact.
Found Family: Smaller groups within the Avengers functioned more like a family
While the Avengers as a whole, including the original six as well as other members, don’t always function like a found family or even like friends, some of the smaller groups of people do.
For example, Steve Rogers had close friends like Sam Wilson and Natasha Romanoff who were there for him. Or, the Guardians of the Galaxy started to become a family to one another. However, this doesn’t always apply to the Avengers movies.
Co-workers: The focus was mostly on romantic pairings
While there are moments where the friendships between different heroes were important, often these relationships would be cast to the side in favor of romantic relationships and children. This especially happened at the end of Avengers: Endgame when characters like Steve Rogers and Tony Stark abandoned their friends at various times to focus on their romantic relationships.
This is something that the MCU has been critiqued for especially c considering that it’s only heterosexual, monogamous relationships that are shown as valid. It would have been great to see even the platonic friendships shown as more important as well as actual LGBTQ+ representation.
Found Family: All being there for Iron Man’s funeral
While not everyone always got along with Tony Stark as he did have a conflict with many of the other heroes, they did all come together to celebrate his life and sacrifice.
Almost all of the heroes fans have ever seen in the franchise were there to honor his life and show their support. While it was a sad moment and not a joyous one, it did still feel like a large, extended family.
Co-workers: The conflict in Civil War
One of the most notable times when the Avengers didn’t work together and seemed more like enemies than even co-works, was the conflict in Captain America: Civil War.
While this fighting might have been a lot tamer than it was in the comics, it still pitted them against one another. There was a major lack of communication, especially between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, and things might have gone differently if they had just talked.
Found Family: Coming together as a team at the end of the Avengers
Perhaps one of the most iconic moments in the entire franchise between the Avengers happens at the end of the very first Avengers film. The original six finally are able to work together as a team and defeat Loki.
Fans absolutely loved seeing this happen, and perhaps the best scene of all was when they all gathered together after the battle to eat shawarma. It was a rare moment of them seeming like friends before going their separate ways.
Co-workers: Tony not talking to the Avengers for years
Given that Tony was often one of the team members most concerned about the Avengers and viewed them as a family, it was frustrating when he seemed to no longer care at all after he married Pepper.
After the Thanos snap, he didn’t seem to keep in contact with the other heroes at all even though many of them were still working together. He even refused at first to try to help them with time travel because he clearly cared about his wife and child but not necessarily his old co-workers.
Found Family: When they lived and worked together in the Avengers Compound
Age of Ultron brought another moment where the Avengers seemed like they really considered each other family. Tony created the Avengers compound, and we then saw some of the heroes living and training there in Civil War.
This place gave many of the Avengers, like Scarlet Witch and Captain America, a place to call home when they didn’t really have one anymore.
Co-workers: Not recognizing that Black Widow was their family
One of the more upsetting moments from Avengers: Endgame was when Black Widow died to retrieve the Soul Stone. But, what made it even worse, is that she didn’t even get a proper send-off like Tony Stark did after he died.
She didn’t get a funeral, and Tony even asked if she had a family. It was clear that Natasha thought of many of the Avengers as her family, so this all felt like a big slap in the face and seemed to devalue the idea of found family vs. blood family.