The first major mission the Avengers had to accomplish was to protect their home planet and prove themselves worthy of being called Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was the Battle of New York.
Marvel was just setting up the MCU back then, so it marked the beginning of Thanos’ plan to make himself known in the universe.
Considering that Loki had no companion or army whatsoever and had a villainous reputation and goal to rule, it made him the perfect candidate to work with Thanos.
Now, the question is, why did Loki have to attack New York? What was that meant to do?
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Thanos Employed Loki For Massive Destruction
The 2012 Avengers movie revolved around Thanos and Loki working together due to the fact they’re aware of just how powerful the Tesseract is. It was evident how little they thought of humans and their intelligence.
Since Loki felt robbed of not being personally picked by Odin to rule Asgard, his chase for his ‘burden of glorious purpose’ matched Thanos’ plan. That said, he handed over the scepter that contained the Mind Stone, which the Infinity Stone had manipulated Loki.
The ‘manipulation’ in question here was that it fed more on Loki’s rage and tendency towards violence and revenge, making him even more villainous than he intended to be.
The scepter would also provide Loki the army of the Chitauri to wield at his bidding, to help him conquer New York. And with the Tesseract, the Space Stone’s power easily opened the door for the Chitauri to slaughter humankind.
Because of Loki’s ‘foiled’ plan of wanting to rule Asgard, he opted to conquer Earth for his own. Convinced that ‘humans’ are ants he could easily kick off under his boot, he believed they were easy to manipulate.
That is, without the calculation of just how capable the Avengers were when they worked together.
How the Battle of New York ‘Saved’ the MCU
The Battle of New York remains to be one of the biggest incidents that trampled over the MCU. It caused massive destruction on Earth and put the Avengers to the test — traumatizing most of them, including Tony Stark himself. As seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
A small price to pay for whatever outcome Loki’s winning would have caused for Earth-616.
Had Loki won the Battle of New York, Thanos would have come at a much earlier pace, instead of Avengers: Infinity War.
If Earth’s Greatest Defenders had not lived up to the task, there is the possibility of Earthlings going extinct, thus, the loss of the MCU ever being whole and reaching the Multiverse timeline.
The Battle of New York was also responsible for making the Avengers' assembly for the first time, a testimony they were meant to kickstart Nick Fury’s secret response team project.
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