Avengers director Joss Whedon has been forced to abandon social media after being called “sexist trash” by fans of the global franchise.

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Despite the Avengers second instalment Age of Ultron taking US $191 million over the weekend, comic fans accused Whedon of “ruining” the Marvel series, as well as character Natasha Romanoff.

Twitter users claimed the 50-year-old director turned Romanoff, the only Marvel female superhero, into a “victim” and “damsel”.

This is the real reason why @josswhedon left twitter. I don’t blame him. pic.twitter.com/Xfk7n0XvGS

— John Galt (@atlasnodded) May 4, 2015

“Thanks for ruining Natasha Romanoff you absolute trash can,” one of the kinder tweets levelled at Whedon said.

“Meet me in the pit you d***head,” read another.

“I am gonna [sic] do everything in my power to destroy you career the way you destroyed Natasha Romanoff’s character you piece of s***,” another person wrote.

Whedon announced he was leaving Twitter on Tuesday and in his final tweet thanked all his fans who had been “kind and funny and inspiring”.

Fellow Marvel director, Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn, took to Facebook to beg people to be kinder on the internet.

“The angry contingent of fandom is getting more aggressive all the time, and it’s difficult to block out as a person in the public eye,” Gunn wrote.

“I don’t believe you can tweet about wanting to find a movie director and ‘curbstomp’ him and be a happy person.”