Newell marries Diane Arliss, the sister of Todd Arliss (the real name of villain Tiger Shark) and leased part of Hydro-Base to superhero team the Avengers, and becomes an associate member of the team. During the first "Armor Wars" storyline, Avenger Iron Man confronts Stingray, mistakenly believing that Newell's suit was based on technology stolen from Stark Enterprises, forcing Stark to publicly fire Iron Man to protect his company from being affected by his current actions after he confirmed that Stingray's suit had been independently created. Stingray aids the Avengers when Hydro-Base is invaded by Heavy Metal, a team of robot villains (consisting of the Super-Adaptoid, Machine Man, Awesome Android, TESS-One, and the Kree Sentry 459).