1970s
The journeys increased in scope as the team cross into an go back and forth dimension to fight the Squadron Supreme and battle in the Kree-Skrull War, an epic fight between the alien Kree and Skrull races and guest starring the Kree hero Captain Marvel. The Avengers also quickly disband when Skrulls impersonating Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man use their authority as locateders of the team to disband it. The true locateding Avengers, minus the Wasp, later reform the team in response to complaints from Jarvis.
The Vision and the Scarlet Witch fall in love, even though the relationship is tinged with sadness as the Vision believes himself to be inhuman and unworthy of her. Writer Steve Englehart then introduces Mantis, who joins the team along with the reformed Swordsman. Englehart linked her origins to the very beginnings of the Kree-Skrull conflict in a time-spanning journey involving Kang the Conqueror and the mysterious Immortus, who are revealed directly to be past and future versions of each other.
Mantis is revealed directly to be the Celestial Madonna, who is destined to give birth to a being that will save the universe. This saga also reveals that the Vision's body had only been appropriated, and not developed, by Ultron, and that it had originally belonged to the 1940s Human Torch. With his origins now clear to him, the Vision proposes to the Scarlet Witch. The Celestial Madonna saga ends with their wedding, presided over by Immortus. Englehart's tenure also coincided with the debut of George Pe'rez as artist.
Shortly after Englehart's departure (and a seven-issue stint by Gerry Conway) Jim Shooter began as author, generating multiple classic journeys, including "Bride of Ultron", the "Nefaria Trilogy", and "The Korvac Saga", featuring almost every Avenger who joined the team up to that crucial point. New members added during this time include the Beast, a resurrected Wonder Man, Captain America's former partner the Falcon, and Ms. Marvel.
Shooter also introduced the character of Henry Peter Gyrich, the Avengers' liaison to the United States National Security Council. Gyrich is prejudiced against superhumans and acts in a heavy-handed, obstructive manner, insisting that the Avengers follow government rules and regulations or else lose their priority status with the government. Among Gyrich's demands is that the active roster be trimmed down to only seven members, and that the Falcon, an African American, be admitted to the team to comply with affirmative action laws. This last act is resented by Hawkeye, who due to the seven-member limit loses his membership slot to the Falcon. The Falcon, in turn, is unglad to be the beneficiary of what he perceives to be tokenism, and decides to resign from the team, after which Wonder Man rejoins.