- Iron Man heads off to blow up the aliens and Thor arrives to pound on Loki a bit, but the damage is done: the Chitauri army is coming.
- Cap, Black Widow and Hawkeye arrive, rallying the NYC police and other concerned folks into evacuating the civilians from the area.
- They're joined by Thor and Dr. Banner, who arrives on a motorcycle just as Iron Man herds a Moby-Dick-sized alien monster right towards them.
- Dr. Banner Hulks out and said monster takes a tumble.
- The six heroes rally around Captain America, who quickly lays out a plan of attack.
- Let the alien butt-whooping commence.
- The Avengers make progress in their butt-kicking, but the SHIELD higher-ups aren't convinced it's going to work.
- Over Nick Fury's protests (and judicious rocket launcher use), they launch a nuke at Manhattan to wipe out the aliens.
- Tony Stark interrupts the flight of the missile and pushes it into the wormhole leading to the alien fleet; he knows it's a one-way trip.
- The nuke goes off, the aliens on the ground drop like they've been cut off like a switch, and the Black Widow—with help from a revived Dr. Selvig—shuts down the wormhole.
- Just before it closes, Stark falls out of it… but he's unconscious and dropping like a stone to the ground.
- The Hulk catches him and takes him to the ground, where he's revived with a gorilla-like bellow.
- The Avengers win…and go off to snack on some well-deserved shawarma.
- Loki is duly rounded up, and—all things being equal—is being an amazingly good sport about the whole thing.