TheAvengers' adventures have taken them around the world, across the universe, and into the Multiverse, but Earth's Mightiest Heroes still need somewhere to hang up their costumes at the end of the day. Whether they've set up shop in Avengers Mansion, Stark Tower, or other lesser-known locales, the Avengers have always made their headquarters a second home. With a mix of places to train, study, and live, the Avengers' primary bases have everything they need to become Earth's mightiest defenders.
As the Avengers establish their new headquarters inAVENGERS (2023) #6 byJed MacKay,Ivan Fiorelli,Federico Blee, andVC's Cory Petit, let's take a closer look at all of the Avengers' main headquarters so far.
Located at 890 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, Avengers Mansion is the team's oldest headquarters. Although the mansion initially belonged tothe Stark family,Iron Man donated it to the team, and it served as the group's base starting inAVENGERS (1963) #2 byStan Lee andJack Kirby.
Avengers Mansion was primarily maintained byEdwin Jarvis, the longtime Stark family butler who went on to become an indispensable Avengers ally. With three above-ground stories and three underground levels, Avengers Mansion included living quarters for any team member who wanted to stay there, as well as various training facilities and equipment rooms.
Avengers Mansion has been destroyed on several notable occasions. InAVENGERS (1963) #277 byRoger Stern andJohn Buscema, for instance,Baron Zemo and theMasters of Evil left most of the mansion in ruins. When theScarlet Witch had a breakdown inAVENGERS DISASSEMBLED, Avengers Mansion was leveled by an explodingJack of Hearts and theVision, who crashed a Quinjet into the building, inAVENGERS (1998) #500 byBrian Michael Bendis andDavid Finch.
Luke Cage's New Avengers and theAvengers Unity Division eventually operated out of the repaired Avengers Mansion. The building was then destroyed again by theBlack Order inAVENGERS (2016) #676 byMark Waid,Al Ewing,Jim Zub, andPepe Larraz. Since Avengers Mansion has been repaired, the building has served as both a themed hotel for the public and an emergency gathering spot for heroes.
Early in the Avengers' existence, Iron Man turned an underground warehouse into the Avengers Auxiliary Headquarters. Located inside a bombproof vault in Queens, this Spartan facility contains a hangar, medical bay, and kitchen.
The Avengers used their emergency base for the first time inAVENGERS (1964) #13 byStan Lee andDon Heck whenCount Nefaria turned the team into fugitives. Although it went unused for quite some time after that, the Avengers Auxiliary Headquarters served as the team's base during the "No Surrender" crisis inAVENGERS (2016) #677 byMark Waid, Jim Zub, Al Ewing, andPepe Larraz. After the Black Order destroyed Avengers Mansion, a cosmic entity called the Voyager teleported the team to this backup facility, and they used it for the duration of the event.
Located roughly 9 miles off the coast of New York, the Hydrobase, AKA Avengers Island began as a floating ocean research station operated by the villainous Doctor Hydro inSUB-MARINER (1968) #61 byBill Everett,Steve Gerber, andWin Mortimer. The heroicStingray eventually took over the Hydrobase and invited the Avengers to park their larger vehicles there.
After the Masters of Evil destroyed Avengers Mansion, the Avengers made the island their full-time base of operations inAVENGERS (1963) #278 byRoger Stern andJohn Buscema. Eventually, the Hydrobase was destroyed in an attack byDoctor Doom, but it was later rebuilt as part of the underwater city Hydropolis. AfterSunspot purchasedA.I.M., he moved Avengers Island to the Pacific Ocean, where his New Avengers team used it as a base.
For most of their existence, theWest Coast Avengers operated out of the Avengers Compound, a sprawling beachfront estate in Southern California. Originally owned by actors Sylvia Powell and Moira Brandon, the Avengers Compound debuted inAVENGERS (1963) #246 byRoger Stern andAl Milgrom. Under the supervision and planning ofGoliath (Bill Foster), the facility was retrofitted as a headquarters for the newly formed West Coast Avengers, complete with aircraft hangars, research labs, and living quarters for the team.
However, the Avengers Compound was heavily damaged in numerous attacks, and the Vision even cited the base's destruction as one of the reasons he disbanded the West Coast Avengers. After it was repaired, the Avengers Compound also served as the second site forAvengers Academy, where veteran Avengers trained teenage heroes.
Located in Manhattan's Columbus Circle, Stark Tower served as the headquarters for the New Avengers starting inNEW AVENGERS (2004) #3 byBrian Michael Bendis andDavid Finch. Although Tony Stark originally intended to live on the top three floors of the building, he donated those floors to the team, andSpider-Man even moved into the building withAunt May andMary Jane. When theSentry joined the New Avengers, his Watchtower also manifested on top of the building.
AfterCIVIL WAR (2006), Stark Tower became the main base of operations for Iron Man and his Mighty Avengers squad. Since Stark usedS.H.I.E.L.D. funds to repair the damage to the building fromWORLD WAR HULK, the tower became the property of S.H.I.E.L.D. WhenNorman Osborn used hisH.A.M.M.E.R. directorship to seize control of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources, he and theDark Avengers took over the building.
After the Sentry's death, the Watchtower faded away from the top of Stark Tower, just before Stark regained control over the building. Although Asgard briefly placedHeimdall's observatory on Stark Tower, theThing—while possessed by the evil Asgardian spirit Angrir—destroyed the structure duringFEAR ITSELF (2011) inAVENGERS (2010) #14 byBrian Michael Bendis andJohn Romita Jr. Using funds from Asgard, Iron Man had Stark Tower rebuilt in the same location, but was ultimately forced to sell the building.
The longtime home and headquarters ofDoctor Strange, the Sanctum Sanctorum also served as a base for the unsanctioned New Avengers in the wake ofCIVIL WAR. Located at 177A Bleecker Street in New York's Greenwich Village, the Sanctum debuted alongside Doctor Strange in aSTRANGE TALES (1951) #110 story byStan Lee andSteve Ditko.
Since Doctor Strange felt he had not done enough to help his fellow heroes during CIVIL WAR, he opened his home to the New Avengers inNEW AVENGERS (2004) #28 byBrian Michael Bendis andLeinil Francis Yu. The Sanctum Sanctorum was hidden by a spell that disguised it as a construction site, allowing the New Avengers to stay there safely until they were reabsorbed into the central Avengers team.
Shortly afterHank Pym was freed fromSkrull custody inSECRET INVASION (2008), he took over a new team known as the Mighty Avengers. To house his new squad, Pym created the Infinite Avengers Mansion in Underspace, the dimension beneath the sub-atomic Microverse, inMIGHTY AVENGERS (2007) #27 byDan Slott, Christos Gage, andKhoi Pham.
With almost a million floors, the Infinite Mansion was primarily maintained byJocasta, an android Avenger who inhabited several bodies throughout the sprawling complex. The Infinite Mansion contained teleportation access points to various locations around the world, and it also served as the first training ground for the students of Avengers Academy. Despite its size, the Infinite Mansion was destroyed by a possessedAbsorbing Man andTitania duringFEAR ITSELF inAVENGERS ACADEMY (2010) #19 byChristos Gage andTom Raney.
When Iron Man joined theGuardians of the Galaxy, his prolonged absence from Earth erased most of his wealth—and his funding for the Avengers. So when Stark and a few other veteran heroes teamed up with younger heroes likeMs. Marvel (Kamala Khan) andSpider-Man (Miles Morales) to form a new Avengers team, they established a headquarters called Avengers Hangar on an abandoned Stark Industries airfield in New Jersey inALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT AVENGERS (2015) #4 byMark Waid andMahmud Asrar.
Although the facility only had space for one Quinjet, Avengers Hangar featured some advanced computers that Iron Man salvaged from Stark Tower. However, the team was forced to leave Avengers Hangar when Stark lost the deed to the airfield.
Before it was briefly an Avengers base, the Baxter Building served as the longtime headquarters of theFantastic Four, starting inFANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #3 byStan Lee andJack Kirby. AfterSECRET WARS (2015), the Fantastic Four split up as half the team set out to rebuild the Multiverse.
While the Baxter Building was vacant, Spider-Man (Peter Parker) used the financial resources of Parker Industries to buy the building and made it the company's New York headquarters. When the Avengers lost Avengers Hangar, Spider-Man joined the team and moved the group's headquarters to the Baxter Building inAVENGERS (2016) #1 byMark Waid andMike Del Mundo. However, the Avengers were forced to move again when Parker Industries collapsed and Spider-Man lost control of the building.
After the Avengers defeated the Final Host of the Dark Celestials, theCelestials gave the heroes the gigantic body of an ancient Celestial called the Progenitor inAVENGERS (2018) #8 byJason Aaron andDavid Marquez. With help fromWakandan engineers, the Avengers modified the Celestial's body to be their new headquarters: Avengers Mountain.
Located in the Arctic Circle, this base included living quarters, labs, training facilities, and a time machine built around the Celestial's unique anatomy. DuringA.X.E.: JUDGMENT DAY (2022), Iron Man and several other scientists reanimated the Progenitor, but the Celestial rebelled and tried to pass judgment on the world. The Progenitor eventually realized it was not a worthy judge and returned to being Avengers Mountain.
ADeathlok unit ultimately took over the Progenitor's body and reconfigured it into a giant Deathlok unit. After joining the Avengers in a Multiversal battle againstMephisto, this Celestial-size Deathlok unit became the base for Avenger Prime, a heroic version ofLoki.
Shortly afterCaptain Marvel and Iron Man recruited a new Avengers team, they received a dire warning from an ailingKang about the Tribulation Events, a group of massively destructive cataclysms. Just as the Avengers started to believe Kang, a group of world-killing villains known as theAshen Combine arrived on Earth and attacked, setting the first Tribulation Event into motion. The Avengers split up to deal with the Combine's attacks around the world whileCaptain America (Sam Wilson) andBlack Panther broke into the Impossible City, the massive ship that the Combine used to travel to Earth.
After boarding the ship as it orbited the Earth, the heroes realized the Impossible City was a sentient being who had been forced into serving the Ashen Combine. The Impossible City once belonged to another group of heroes who held the Combine as prisoners, but the villains escaped, conquered it, erased its memory, and restrained it to keep it from fighting back.
With some well-placed explosives, Black Panther broke the bonds that held the Impossible City under the Combine's control. After the Avengers defeated the villains, the grateful Impossible City wanted to join the Avengers, and they accepted the base as their new orbital headquarters.
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