Avengers Assemble!

Welcome everyone to our first installment of Avengers November, now before I start I just wanted to state why this is the theme this month. #1 it rhymes and #2 With The Avengers movie coming out in 2012 I just wanted to give you guys a bit of background so following in that theme we will be covering almost all the different Avengers groups but the main focus will be The Ultimates because Joss Whedon (the Avengers movie director) is a big fan of the storylines from Ultimates, in fact he writes the foreword to the Ultimates 1 collection, and has said that the movie will be somewhat based off the Ultimates Universe. Also we’ll be covering the original Avengers because of course it will still cover the basics of the Avengers. So with that lets start with the beginning of it all the original Avengers.

Now the very first adventure that brings the Avengers together features the bitter Asgardian trickster god Loki, trying to get revenge on his adopted brother and arch-enemy Thor. Using an illusion, Loki tricks the Hulk into destroying a railroad track, after that he then diverts a radio call by for help by Rick Jones (Hulk’s/Bruce’s close friend who continually tries to help him but we’ll talk about that next month) to Thor, whom Loki hopes will battle the Hulk ending in the Hulk beating Thor to a long blonde haired pulp (my words not his). Unknown to Loki, the radio call is also answered by Ant-Man (Dr. Hank Pym), the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) and Iron Man (Do you need me to tell you who this is? Really?). After an initial misunderstanding, the heroes unite and defeat Loki. Ant-Man says that the five made a great team and suggests they form a combined team. The Wasp then names the group "the Avengers" because it sounded "dramatic" Not because they are “avenging” something which a lot of people say or they question what they were avenging The original members are known as the "founding members" and are responsible for the name of the team and for carrying out the team's charter. As a result, their wishes regarding the direction of the team are given additional weight.

The roster changes almost immediately by the second issue, Ant-Man is now Giant-Man (instead of shrinking as Ant-man he now grows to epic heights) and, at the end of the issue, the Hulk leaves once he realizes how much the others fear his unstable personality. Feeling that the Hulks leaving were the other member’s fault they go on a search to find him and bring him back. This brings them to the North Atlantic where they discover Steve Rogers'(Captain America’s) body frozen in a block of ice, the Captain's uniform under his soldier's clothes and still carrying his iconic shield. After he comes too, they piece together that Rogers had been preserved in a block of ice since 1945, surviving in such a state only because of the Super-soldier serum in his blood that made him Captain America. The block had begun to melt after the Sub-Mariner/ Prince Namor (another hero, another time), enraged that an Arctic Inuit tribe is worshiping the frozen figure, throws it into the ocean. Rogers accepts membership in the Avengers, and although long out of his time, his vast combat experience makes him a valuable asset to the team. He quickly assumes leadership and has usually returned to that position throughout the team's history.

In later issues Steve Rogers resigns from being Captain America when he refuses to become a government sponsored operative/lackey. He would later return but in his place three new members join the team, all former villains. The first of these is Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye. He was an orphan who ran away and joined the circus, there he was trained in how to use a bow and arrow and sword by two other circus members Swordsman and Trickshot. He later discovered they were both criminals and he rejected them. He saw Iron Man on TV years later and decided to become a costumed hero, but on his first outing a misunderstanding leads to him being accused of theft. On the run he meets then Soviet Union spy the Black Widow who he falls in love with her and she uses it to trick him into helping her steal technology developed by Tony Stark. They fight several times and Hawkeye eventually goes “straight”. He later breaks into Avengers Mansion (located in New York and funded by Tony Stark) and captures their butler Jarvis (yeah the computer system from the movies was a person in the comics) and “applies” for membership and is stunningly accepted.

The other two members are the siblings The Scarlet Witch a.k.a. Wanda Maximoff and Quicksilver a.k.a. Pietro Maximoff. Both are the children of Magneto and after his disappearance feel their debt to Magneto is paid and decide to use their powers for good. So these are the basic members of the Avengers. Later on the team was joined by the Black Panther (think a Batman from Africa) and the synthetic human/android Vision. Now let’s get onto the story.

Now the Avengers have had countless battles and adventures so let’s focus on 4 major events (I’m leaving out the Kree-Skull war because that’s a lot of back-story)
The first major development was the breakdown of Henry Pym/Ant-man/Giant Man. The frequent changes of costume and name were symptomatic of an identity problem and an inferiority complex(especially when you consider at first he was a small man then a big man) this was the underlying cause of a shocking event when he abused his wife Janet Van Dyne/Wasp. After the abuse he lost the trust of the Avengers and failed to win it back with an elaborate ruse and then being duped by the villain Egghead, Pym goes to jail. This is later resolved when Pym outwits Egghead and defeat the latest Masters of Evil single handedly, proving his innocence. Pym reconciles with the Jan, but they decide to remain apart Pym also retires from super heroics but returns some years later.

Another major event is "Ultimate Vision" in which the Vision takes over the world's computer systems in a misguided attempt to create world peace. He is stopped and forgiven by the Avengers but is dismantled by government agents in retaliation. However the Vision and the Scarlet Witch had fallen in love prior to this event, have gotten married and had two children, but we later find out that both of the children are and illusion. This startling revelation and the loss of the Vision drives Wanda insane, although she eventually recovers and rejoins the team it comes back into play in the biggest Avengers event. This story also revealed that the Scarlet Witch's powers include wide-range reality manipulation.

In the last series featuring the original Avengers, "Avengers Disassembled” the story titled "Chaos", featured the deaths of some members and a loss of credibility for the team. The culprit is revealed to be the Scarlet Witch, who has gone insane after agonizing over the memory of her lost children and loses control of her reality-altering powers. With the team in disarray and Avengers Mansion ruined, the surviving members agree to disband.

So there it is folks, our first on a journey. Now the rest of these should be much shorter but we'll see. Next time(probably tomorrow) i will cover the Ultimate universes take on the Avengers known as the Ultimates and after that we'll begin our comic reviews of the Ultimates series. So thanks again for reading and stay tuned all this month for more Avengers!