Avengers (comics)
The Avengers are a superhero/antihero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1. Labeled "Earth's Mightiest Heroes", the original Avengers consisted of Iron Man, Ant-Man, Hulk, Thor, and Wasp. Captain America was discovered trapped in ice in issue #4, and joined the group after they revived him. The Avengers are an all-star ensemble cast of established superhero characters from the Marvel Comics portfolio.
Diegetically, these superheroes usually operate independently but occasionally assemble as a team to tackle especially formidable villains. This in contrast to certain other superhero teams such as the X-Men, whose characters were created specifically to be part of their team, with the team being central to their identity. The Avengers were created to create a new line of books to sell and to cross-promote Marvel Comics characters.
An Iron Man fan might buy an Avengers book because Iron Man appears in them, and perhaps in turn take an interest in Thor, who appears in the same book as Iron Man's friend and comrade. The cast usually features a few highly popular characters who have their own solo books, such as Iron Man, alongside a number of lesser-known characters who benefit from exposure, such as Quicksilver, Wonder Man, and Tigra.
The Avengers have appeared in a wide variety of media outside of comic books, including several different animated television series and direct-to-video films. Beginning in 2008, the group were adapted in a film series from Marvel Studios, known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, culminating with The Avengers in 2012, with more appearances of the team in subsequent films.
Publication history
The team debuted in The Avengers #1. Much like the Justice League, the Avengers were an assemblage of superheroes who each had an existing series of his own. All of the characters were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This initial series, published bi-monthly through issue #6 and monthly thereafter ran through issue #402, with spinoffs including several annuals, miniseries and a giant-size quarterly sister series that ran briefly in the mid-1970s. Writers of the first series included Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, and Roger Stern. Artists included John Buscema, Tom Palmer, Neal Adams, George Perez, John Byrne and Steve Epting.Other spinoff series include West Coast Avengers, initially published as a four-issue miniseries in 1984, followed by a 102-issue series, retitled Avengers West Coast with #47; and the 40-issue Solo Avengers, retitled Avengers Spotlight with #21.
Between 1996 and 2004, Marvel relaunched the primary Avengers title three times. In 1996, the "Heroes Reborn" line took place in an alternate universe, with a revamped history unrelated to mainstream Marvel continuity.
The Avengers vol. 3 ran for 84 issues from February 1998 to August 2004. Early issues were written by Kurt Busiek and penciled by George Perez. To coincide with what would have been the 500th issue of the original series, Marvel changed the numbering, and The Avengers #500–503, the one-shot Avengers Finale became the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline and final issues. In January 2005, a new version of the team appeared in the ongoing title New Avengers, followed by The Mighty Avengers, Avengers: The Initiative, and Dark Avengers. Avengers vol. 4 debuted in July 2010 and ran until January 2013. Vol. 5 was launched in February 2013. After Secret Wars, a new Avengers team debuted, dubbed the All-New, All-Different Avengers, starting with a Free Comic Book Day preview. Following Civil War II, the book was relaunched in 2016 as Avengers, while retaining the same writer and much of the cast from the All-New, All-Different run. The series ran for 11 issues before reverting to the numbering of the original Avengers series with issue #672. Starting with issue #675, all four Avengers titles being published at the time were merged into a single weekly series dubbed Avengers: No Surrender, lasting 16 issues, designed to close out this era of the team's history.
Following the conclusion of No Surrender in 2018, the series was relaunched again as Avengers.
History
1960s
When the Asgardian god Loki seeks revenge against his brother Thor, his machinations unwittingly lead teenager Rick Jones to collect Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Iron Man to help Thor and the Hulk, the latter of whom Loki used as a pawn. After the group vanquished Loki, Ant-Man stated that the five worked well together and suggested they form a team; the Wasp named the group Avengers.The roster changed almost immediately; in the second issue, Ant-Man became Giant-Man, and at the end of the issue, the Hulk left once he realized how much the others feared his unstable personality. Captain America joined the team in issue #4, and he was given "founding member" status in the Hulk's place. The Hulk, upset about being replaced by Captain America and the apparent betrayal by Rick, sought revenge against the Avengers, who teamed up with the Fantastic Four to stop him in The Fantastic Four #26. The Avengers went on to fight foes such as Baron Zemo, who formed the Masters of Evil, Kang the Conqueror, Wonder Man, and Count Nefaria.
The next milestone came when every member but Captain America resigned; they were replaced by three former villains: Hawkeye and the Maximoff twins, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Giant-Man, now calling himself Goliath, and the Wasp rejoined. Hercules became part of the team, while the Black Knight and Black Widow abetted the Avengers but did not become members until years later. Spider-Man was offered membership but did not join the group. The Black Panther joined after rescuing the team from the Grim Reaper and Klaw. The X-Men #45 featured a crossover with The Avengers #53. This was followed by the introduction of the android Vision. Pym assumed the new identity of Yellowjacket in issue #59, and married the Wasp the following month.
The Avengers headquarters was in a New York City building called Avengers Mansion, courtesy of Tony Stark. The mansion was serviced by Edwin Jarvis, the Avengers' faithful butler, and furnished with state of the art technology and defense systems, and included the Avengers' primary mode of transport: the five-engine Quinjet.
The prequel comic Avengers #1 1/2, by writer Roger Stern and artist Bruce Timm, told a retro-style story taking place between issues #1 and #2, detailing Ant-Man's decision to transform himself into Giant-Man.
1970s
The team encountered new characters such as Arkon in issue #75 and Red Wolf in #80. The team's adventures increased in scope as the team crossed into an alternate dimension and battled the Squadron Supreme, and fought in the Kree-Skrull War, an epic battle between the alien Kree and Skrull races and guest-starred the Kree hero, Captain Marvel. The Avengers briefly disband when Skrulls impersonating Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man used their authority as founders of the team and disbanded it. The true founding Avengers, minus the Wasp, reformed the team in response after complaints from Jarvis.Mantis joined the team along with the reformed Swordsman. "The Avengers-Defenders Clash" storyline crossed over between the two team titles. "The Celestial Madonna" arc linked Mantis' origins to the very beginnings of the Kree-Skrull conflict in a time-spanning adventure involving Kang the Conqueror, and Immortus, who were past and future versions of each other. Mantis was revealed to be the Celestial Madonna, who was destined to give birth to a being that would save the universe. It was revealed that the Vision's body had only been appropriated, and not created by Ultron, and that it had belonged to the 1940s Human Torch. With his origins clear to him, the Vision proposed to the Scarlet Witch. The "Celestial Madonna" saga ended with their wedding, presided over by Immortus. The Beast and Moondragon joined the team soon after. A seven-part story featured the Squadron Supreme and the Serpent Crown.
Other classic storylines included "The Bride of Ultron", the "Nefaria Trilogy", and "The Korvac Saga", which featured nearly every Avenger who joined the team up to that point. Henry Peter Gyrich became the Avengers' liaison to the United States National Security Council. Gyrich was prejudiced against superhumans and acted in a heavy-handed, obstructive manner, and insisted that the Avengers follow government rules and regulations or else lose their priority status with the government. Among Gyrich's demands was that the active roster be trimmed down to only seven members, and that the Falcon, an African American, be admitted to the team to comply with affirmative action laws. This last act was resented by Hawkeye, who because of the seven-member limit lost his membership slot to the Falcon. The Falcon, in turn, was unhappy to be the beneficiary of what he perceived to be tokenism, and decided to resign from the team, after which Wonder Man rejoined. The true origins of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were revealed in a three-part story that ran in issues #185–187. After this adventure, the Scarlet Witch took a leave of absence and Ms. Marvel officially joined the team as her replacement.
1980s
The first major development was the breakdown of Hank Pym, with his frequent changes of costume and name being symptomatic of an identity problem and an inferiority complex. After he abused his wife, failed to win back the confidence of the Avengers with a ruse and was duped by the villain Egghead, Pym was jailed. Pym would later outwit Egghead and defeated the latest incarnation of the Masters of Evil single-handedly, and proved his innocence. Pym reconciled with the Wasp, but they decided to remain apart. Pym retired from super-heroics, but returned years later.This was followed by several major storylines, such as "Ultimate Vision" in which the Vision took over the world's computer systems in a misguided attempt to create world peace; the formation of the West Coast Avengers; and "Avengers Under Siege" which involved the second Baron Zemo and the Masters of Evil taking over the mansion and severely injuring Jarvis and Hercules. "Assault on Olympus" featured Hercules' father, Zeus, blaming the Avengers for his son's injuries and brought them to Olympus for trial, and the "Heavy Metal" arc saw the Super-Adaptoid organized several robotic villains for an assault on the team. New members during the 1980s included Tigra; the She-Hulk; Monica Rambeau ; Starfox ; Hawkeye's wife, Mockingbird; and Namor, while Hank Pym emerged from retirement to join the West Coast Avengers. Spider-Man was again offered membership, but failed to gain admission due to security concerns by the Avengers' government liaison.
The villain Nebula falsely claimed to be the granddaughter of Thanos. The team relocated for a period to a floating island off the coast of New York called Hydrobase after Avengers Mansion was severely damaged during the events in "Under Siege". Hydrobase was later sunk during the Acts of Vengeance crossover.
The Avengers and West Coast Avengers changed to allow members to be active when available and reserved when not available and merged the two separate Avengers teams into one team with two bases. The Vision had his personality fundamentally altered, along with the discovery that the children of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision were actually illusions. The loss of the Scarlet Witch's children and the Vision, who was disassembled by government agents in retaliation for the Ultimate Vision storyline, drove her insane, although she eventually recovered and rejoined the team. This story revealed that the Scarlet Witch's powers included wide-range reality manipulation and she was what the time-traveling Immortus refers to as a "nexus being" setting the stage for 2004's eventual Chaos and Avengers Disassembled storylines. This played out in the Darker than Scarlet storyline which ran in Avengers West Coast from issues #51–62. The Avengers titles in late 1989 were involved in the major crossover event "Acts of Vengeance" where Loki assembled many of Marvel's arch-villains, his inner circle consisted of Doctor Doom, Magneto, Kingpin, Mandarin, Wizard, and Red Skull, in a plot to destroy the team. Loki orchestrated a mass breakout of villains from prison facility, the Vault, as part of his "Acts of Vengeance" scheme, but he ultimately failed in his goal to destroy the Avengers.