Avengers (1998) #44
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Characters
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.
Seriously wounded, young lawyer Jennifer Walters was given a blood transfusion by her cousin Bruce Banner. Usually in better control of her powers and temper than the Hulk, She-Hulk has been a high profile New York lawyer as well as an upstanding member of both the Avengers and Fantastic Four.
When her father died, Lupe was taken in by the Church orphanage, despite their misgivings about her “ungodly” powers.
Creating the Stingray costume, Newell succeeded in capturing the Sub-Mariner, although Namor soon escaped and Newell, while initially defeating him a second time, allowed his friend to go.
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.
After being exposed as a steroid user and stripped of his awards, gifted sprinter Delroy Garrett Jr. sought new direction in the Triune Understanding, a philosophical movement that preaches the fulfillment of one's innate potential by balancing various aspects of environment and self, after which he developed a superhuman triple-powered physique, and, believing the Triune teachings had unlocked his latent powers, Garrett became the costumed hero Triathlon and celebrity spokesman for the Triune Understanding.
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."
David Cannon was always a bully, so his mutant abilities naturally led him to a life of crime and petty thievery, until his constant defeat at the hands of the Hank Pym and the Wasp led him to create the Whirlwind identity.
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.