If you were starting the Avengers again from scratch, what would the initial line-up be? And who would their first villain be?
For context, here's what they've done in the past...
The original Avengers were Iron Man, Thor, Antman, Wasp and the Hulk, with Captain America joining pretty quickly.
The Heroes Reborn Avengers were (I think?) Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hellcat, Swordsman, Scarlet witch and Vision
The original Ultimates were Nick Fury, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Giant-Man and the Wasp.
The MCU line-up in the first movie was Nick Fury, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk and Hawkeye
So, if Marvel started a new superhero universe now what should the original lineup of the Avengers be? And what would be their first villain?
Let's keep the line-up at seven members max.
My choices...
Iron Man, Captain America and Thor are the big three.
The Hulk is iconic, and complicates matters.
Black Panther gets to the popularity of Wakanda, and allows for international complications. He can also be part of Cap's return (if Captain America is in Wakanda.)
Captain Marvel can be used to seed Thanos, and she is the most prominent female Marvel superhero (aside from maybe Storm who doesn't have an association with the Avengers.) Mar-vell can be an early casualty. He can be the one the team avenges.
Wasp can set up a mystery about Henry Pym going missing. But we don't need to start with both of them, since the team has enough scientists and straight white guys.
As for the first villain, I'd go with Doctor Doom. He's an A-lister. He can easily unite disparate heroes by stealing from Wakanda, Asgard, Tony Stark, and the Kree. He's not primarily tied to one Avenger. Doombots and Latverian soldiers would prevent the first story from the Avengers just fighting one guy. And he can have a rematch in a later volume when he creates a supervillain team, and can pose a bigger challenge to a more experienced Avengers.