Think You Know the Avengers? Here are 10 things you may not know.
Going to see Avengers: Age of Ultron this weekend? You'll probably want to
brush up on the sprawling history of Marvel's top super-squad. On September 10, 1963, The
Avengers #1 brought together Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, The Wasp, and Hulk to
battle the Asgardian trickster Loki, and the Marvel universe has been a little
safer ever since. More than five decades, 500 issues, and one record-shattering
movie later, the team dubbed “Earth's Mightiest Heroes” stands out as one of
the legendary duo Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's greatest creations.
Over half a century of
history, an ever-changing roster of Avengers has assembled to tangle with all
kinds of enemies. And like most long-running superhero teams (*cough* X-Men
*cough), the ongoing narrative has gotten pretty confusing at times. Thankfully,
you don't need to be an Avengers scholar to appreciate some of the most
interesting aspects of the team's long and storied history. Luckily, you don't
need to read all 51 years' worth of issues to enjoy the newest Marvel
blockbuster. Just use these 10 nuggets to regale your fellow fans in the box
office line.
1. CAPTAIN AMERICA WASN'T PART OF THE ORIGINAL TEAM
The Marvel movie-verse
may have cast America's favorite super-soldier as a founding member of the
team, but Captain America didn't actually join up until the fourth issue of The
Avengers comic series. The team—which had dropped to four members due
to the Hulk's departure—encountered a mysterious, frozen man in the ocean while
chasing Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Lo and behold, the frozen fellow turned out to
be Steve “Captain America” Rogers. After thawing him out, the existing Avengers
team granted Captain America “founding member” status in place of Hulk, and the
rest is comic-book history.
2. DAREDEVIL'S MISSED DEADLINE MADE THE AVENGERS POSSIBLE
If not for a delay in
sending Daredevil #1 to the printer, the Avengers might never
have existed. According to Marvel's Senior Vice President of Publishing, Tom
Brevoort, when the publisher realized that the first issue of Daredevil wasn't
going to be ready in time for its scheduled print run, Stan Lee proposed the
idea of bringing a bunch of existing Marvel characters together to
form a team like DC's Justice League of America. By doing so, they wouldn't
need to create complicated origin stories for the individual members, which
would allow the squad to jump right into whatever adventure Lee and Kirby could
come up with on short notice. The pair brainstormed for a while and came up
with the Avengers, then hastily put together the first issue and sent it off to
the printer.
3. THE WASP CAME UP WITH THE TEAM'S NAME
After the five heroes
of The Avengers #1 decided to work together, they needed a
name. Thankfully, the size-changing heroine Janet van Dyne—a.k.a. The Wasp—was
there with the right suggestion. “It should be something colorful and dramatic
like 'The Avengers,' or...” she said, only to be interrupted by Ant-Man. “Or
nothing! That's it! The Avengers!” he announced.
One can't help
wondering what her second suggestion was going to be—and why she was left out
of the movie series, given this key moment in the team's history.
4. AND THEN THEY WERE VILLAINS...
Since their earliest
rosters, the Avengers have always experienced a lot of turnover. After Hulk
left in the second issue, the team added Captain America in the fourth issue,
only to have everyone except Captain America depart the team in The
Avengers #16. The original four members were quickly replaced by three
new additions: Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye. These rookie Avengers
were interesting choices for a top super-team since they were previously
villains in the Marvel Comics universe. Few superhero teams had ever undergone
such a unique lineup change, and the transition is still regarded as one of the
most amazing stunts a superhero comic has ever pulled.
5. MARVEL HAD “THE AVENGERS” TRADEMARKED IN 1970
It only took a few
years for Marvel to realize they had something special in the Avengers, so it's
no surprise that the publisher didn't trademark the team's name until 1970. However, the
company ran into some trouble when the 2012 movie screened across the ocean, as
the British version of the The Avengers—a spy series that aired
during the 1960s—pre-dated Marvel's superhero team. The legal wranglings were
eventually settled with some clever re-titling of the film in certain markets,
including Marvel Avengers Assemble in the UK.
6. THE AVENGERS #1 HIT SHELVES THE SAME MONTH AS UNCANNY
X-MEN #1
The Avengers weren't
the only new team to hits newsstands in September 1963. Marvel's merry team of
mutants also made their debut that month in Uncanny X-Men #1, and
the two teams' paths have crossed plenty of times over the course of their
adventures.
7. HULK'S BUDDY AND TONY STARK'S BUTLER ARE “HONORARY AVENGERS”
The team has had many
“honorary members” over the years—usually friends, family, and allies who have
assisted the team in its battles. The first-ever inductee as an “honorary
member” was Rick Jones, the man Bruce Banner saved from a gamma bomb's explosion
by sacrificing his own body. Rick later became the Hulk's “sidekick” of sorts
and was instrumental convincing the new team that Hulk wasn't the evil behemoth
they originally believed him to be. In later issues, Tony Stark's butler,
Jarvis (a human in the comics, not the computerized entity familiar to movie
fans) was also granted “honorary member” status.
8. NOT EVERYONE ACCEPTS AVENGERS MEMBERSHIP
Of the many heroes who
have been offered membership in the Avengers, several prominent characters
turned the team down at one point or another. Both Spider-Man and Daredevil
initially declined to join the team when offered a spot on the roster, with the
two heroes each offering a similar reason for their decision: They want to keep
their crime-fighting close to home. It's worth noting, though, that both heroes
did eventually join the team, but only in recent years—long after they were
first offered membership.
9. EVEN SUPERHERO TEAMS CAN FRANCHISE
The Avengers may be
the team that unites to battle threats that no single hero can handle alone,
but what if there's more than one threat? That's the question that the team
hoped to answer with West Coast Avengers, a team that debuted in 1984 and
featured several members of the Avengers roster splintering off to form a new
group of heroes based in Los Angeles.
With the original
Avengers team handing things from their headquarters in New York City, the new
team—led by Hawkeye—kept the other side of the country safe from supervillains.
Subsequent years—and the popularity of The Avengers among
readers—would lead to several more spin-off teams and series outside the
primary The Avengers series, such as the Secret Avengers and
New Avengers.
Some of them were even a bit unofficial, such as the hapless,
accident-prone Great Lakes Avengers, who often managed to save the world
despite their own ineptitude.
10. THE AVENGERS HAD A CROSSOVER WITH DAVID LETTERMAN IN 1984
Yes, you read that
correctly. Way back in 1984, Late Night With David Letterman was
cruising along at the height of its popularity and The Avengers was
doing pretty well for Marvel. Naturally, the powers-that-be saw serious
crossover potential. The result was a single-issue story that saw several
members of The Avengers—including Hawkeye, Black Panther, Black Widow, Wonder
Man, and the X-Men's Beast—appearing on Letterman's show, only to be ambushed
by a pitiful villain who attempted to fry them with camera-mounted lasers.
Letterman saved the day, though, when he hit the bad guy over the head with a
giant doorknob. Seriously. This actually happened.
