Avengers (1998) #23
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Earth's Mightiest Heroes joined forces to take on threats that were too big for any one hero to tackle. With a roster that has included Captain America, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Hulk, Thor, Wasp and dozens more over the years, the Avengers have come to be regarded as Earth's No. 1 team.
Vowing to serve his country any way he could, young Steve Rogers took the super soldier serum to become America's one-man army. Fighting for the red, white and blue for over 60 years, Captain America is the living, breathing symbol of freedom and liberty.
Wounded, captured and forced to build a weapon by his enemies, billionaire industrialist Tony Stark instead created an advanced suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Now with a new outlook on life, Tony uses his money and intelligence to make the world a safer, better place as Iron Man.
As the Norse God of thunder and lightning, Thor wields one of the greatest weapons ever made, the enchanted hammer Mjolnir. While others have described Thor as an over-muscled, oafish imbecile, he's quite smart and compassionate. He's self-assured, and he would never, ever stop fighting for a worthwhile cause.
The metal monstrosity called Ultron created the synthetic humanoid known as the Vision from the remains of the original android Human Torch of the 1940s to serve as a vehicle of vengeance against the Avengers.
When Janet Van Dyne's father died, she convinced her father's associate Hank Pym to give her a supply of "Pym particles"; Pym also subjected her to a procedure which granted her the ability to, upon shrinking, grow wings and fire blasts of energy, which she called her "wasp's stings."
Simon Williams agreed to undergo an experiment to give him superhuman powers, and Baron Zemo gave him the costumed guise of Wonder Man, warning Simon that he would die without further treatments from Zemo in order to ensure his loyalty, but Simon betrayed Zemo to the Avengers and ultimately joined their ranks.