The Avengers are a Marvel Comics superhero team. They were first gathered together in The Avengers #1 (1963).

The first Avengers line-up consisted of many of Marvel’s most popular superheroes, making the team a counterpart to DC Comics’ all-star Justice League of America. However, The Avengers soon became something much different.

The team's character and tensions are best embodied in three key members: Captain America, who represents sheer heroism and nobility; Iron Man, a technological genius who represents humanity's creativity but also its frailties; and Thor, the Norse god who possesses tremendous power but who is also stubbornly single-minded.

Over the years, the team has included dozens of members, who have been human champions (Hawkeye, Black Widow), technological wonders (The Vision, Hank Pym) and mythical heroes (Hercules, The Black Knight). Yet, all of them join together to serve and protect, not rule, humanity. Stories often consider the question of what it means to be human, inhuman, or superhuman.

The team has been more or less consistently popular since their inception. They are often advertised with the tagline “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” and “Avengers Assemble” is a popular catch phrase from the series.

The 1960s

The cover of Avengers #4 by Jack Kirby featuring (from left to right) the Wasp, Ant-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor

The Avengers were created as a team by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a group of five of Marvel's popular heroes at the time: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Ant Man, and The Wasp. The heroes were brought together by the machinations of Thor's nemesis Loki, who drove the Hulk to join a traveling circus as a clown and diverted the other heroes after the Hulk while Loki fought with Thor in Asgard; but Loki's plans backfired, and the heroes formed a team of surprising longevity (sixteen issues), given the circumstances of their founding.

The apparent model for the series was the Justice League of America, a series published by rival DC Comics that featured an assortment of DC's super-powered characters, although by the 1960s it was commonplace for most superhero comic publishers to produce a book featuring all the characters in a team. The lineup and personalities of the Avengers were far more volatile than the JLA, however. Case in point was the Hulk, who left at the end of the second issue after being mistaken for the Space Phantom, opening the door for the return of Captain America in Avengers #4 (March 1964). Captain America was a 1940s patriotic hero who had been absent from comics for a decade. The comic explained his absence by stating that he'd been in suspended animation since near the end of World War II. Captain America's obsession with his dead partner Bucky Barnes provided some melodrama and a unifying theme for the early issues of the series. Captain America, a trained acrobat, was considerably less powerful than the other characters, and letters to the editors commented on this fact. Other fans have countered that Captain America is an ideal member for the team with his three years of combat and superhero experience in World War II enabling him to direct the other member's powers to the team's maximum advantage. This, they argued, made him an ideal leader and to this day the character usually holds that position in the team.

The Avengers' next watershed moment was when all of the remaining founders left the team in issue #16 (May 1965), replaced by three former criminals: The Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Hawkeye (the first two having been mutant foes of the X-Men). These three were less powerful than the departing members. Led by Captain America, this ushered in the long tradition of the Avengers changing line-ups periodically as members joined and departed.

Kirby was replaced as artist by Don Heck, and eventually Lee was replaced by his protegé, Roy Thomas, who would become the writer probably most associated with the comic. Heroes who joined the group during this period included the Greek demigod Hercules, The Black Knight, and The Black Widow.

Thomas' biggest contribution to Avengers lore was the creation of the android hero the Vision in #57 (October 1968), who was loosely based on another 1940s hero of the same name and who turned out to be the body of the original Human Torch with the mind patterns of the villain Wonder Man. The Vision was a tragic hero due to the extent to which he stood apart from his human (or nearly-human) companions, his assimilation into human society was akin to that of Mr. Spock from Star Trek (of whom he was a contemporary).

Thomas also established that The Avengers are headquartered in a New York City building named Avengers Mansion. Their butler, Jarvis, is sometimes featured in stories which contrast the normal human experience to that of the superheroes.

John Buscema was the primary artist on the book during Thomas' 1960s run. The other highlight came in #60 (January 1969) when Ant Man (who by then had gone through identities as Giant-Man, Goliath and finally Yellowjacket) married The Wasp.

The 1970s

Thomas continued to write the book into the early 1970s. In #85 (February 1970) he introduced the Squadron Supreme, a pastiche of DC Comics' Justice League of America. Buscema left the book later that year, and the stories leading up to #100 (June 1972) included a cosmic war involving Captain Marvel, and early work by artists Neal Adams and Barry Windsor-Smith.

The next major author of the book was Steve Englehart, who introduced the character Mantis in #113 (August 1973) and wrote a number of cosmically and socially profound stories. Foremost among these was the romance and eventual marriage between The Vision and The Scarlet Witch, two outsiders who found a life together.

Englehart's tenure coincided with the debut of George Pérez on the book in #141 (August 1975). A newcomer to comics, Pérez's early work was strongly reminiscent of Kirby's, and he would go on to become one of the most popular comic book artists of the next 15 years.

After Englehart's departure, Jim Shooter took over the writing chores. He wrote a lengthy and cosmic story about a villain from the future who came to the 20th century, acquired the ultimate godlike power, and decided to become a new messiah. The story's strength was the tension between the lengths to which the messiah would go to achieve his goals, vs. the good he could do with his powers and the question of whether the Avengers had the right to oppose him. The story culminated in #177 (November 1978).

David Michelinie and John Byrne also contributed stories and art to the book in the 70s. New members added during this time include the Beast, a reformed Wonder Man, Captain America's former partner the Falcon, and Ms. Marvel. The Falcon, an African-American, was introduced to the team because the United States government had taken authority over the Avengers and affirmative action laws required the addition of a non-Caucasian.

The 1980s

Shooter returned with #211 (September 1981) to write a number of stories culminating in the emotional breakdown of Yellowjacket, his expulsion from the Avengers and sentencing to jail, and eventual redemption.

Many of these plot threads were carried on by the next writer, Roger Stern, who established a parallel team called The West Coast Avengers (who had their own series for about 10 years). Stern wrote the book for quite a few years, primarily illustrated by Al Milgrom, Joe Sinnott, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer.

New Avengers during the 1980s included She-Hulk, Tigra, Namor and Hawkeye's wife Mockingbird.

The 1990s

The 1990s were a turbulent time for the Avengers, as Marvel Comics was aggressively trying to expand its business by greatly increasing the number of comics it published. This coincided with the speculators boom in the industry as a whole. Marvel then fell on hard times in the ensuing industry-wide slump, and filed for bankruptcy in 1997.

After a period of creative turbulence for the title, Bob Harras and Steve Epting took over the title, and reintroduced a stable lineup, with ongoing storylines and character-development, largely focused around Black Knight, Sersi, Crystal, Quicksilver, Hercules and Vision, as the team found themselves facing increasingly murderous enemies, and were forced to question their rule against killing, after the Supreme Intelligence committed genocide on it's own people, the Kree. The ideological split amongst the ranks of the team led, in part, to the demise of the Avengers' West Coast team, and Iron Man used the opportunity to recruit a number of ex-Avengers into a more proactive team named Force Works.

Controlled by Kang the Conqueror, (or, according to subsequent claims, Immortus) Iron Man betrayed both the Avengers and Force Works, and committed several murders before breaking the villain's hold, and sacrificing his life in the process. Force Works disbanded shortly afterwards. Mere months later, almost all of the active Avengers were presumed slain in battle with Onslaught.

The first series of The Avengers ended with #402 (September 1996), and included 23 Annuals and 5 Giant-Size issues.

That year, Marvel contracted out several books to creators of Image Comics, and The Avengers was reborn briefly as a new series, starting with issue #1 (November 1996), throwing away the continuity of the first series as the Avengers seemingly killed by Onslaught were 'reborn' in a 'pocket universe'. It was created by Rob Liefeld. This line of comics, called "Heroes Reborn", was ended after only a year, and the Avengers returned to their own world.

Marvel then relaunched many of their main titles in a line of comics called "Heroes Return", and The Avengers volume 3 began with another #1 (February 1998), written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by George Pérez. Busiek restored many dead members of the team to life, and added a few new ones, notably Justice, Firestar and Triathlon. Pérez was succeeded by Alan Davis and then Keiron Dwyer, and Busiek wrapped up his run with a lengthy time travel story involving Kang the Conqueror. He also wrote a side limited series, Avengers Forever, illustrated by Carlos Pacheco, with similar themes.

In addition 1998 saw the launch of A-Next, a series about a "next generation" Avengers, set in the same near future as Spider-Girl.

The 2000s

Busiek was succeeded as writer on the main Avengers book with #57 (October 2002) by Geoff Johns who left after signing an exclusive agreement with DC. He was then followed by Chuck Austen and finally Brian Michael Bendis who finally rebooted the title with the blessing of Marvel editorial by disposing of most of the regulars through various (usually violent) means in the Avengers Disassembled storyline. Characters disposed of include: the Vision, Hawkeye, Ant Man, and Scarlet Witch who was revealed to have gone insane. She-Hulk, Yellowjacket, Wasp, and Warbird left in the Avengers Finale one shot. The series has relaunched as New Avengers, again being renumbered with a new issue #1. The new teammates will include Spider-Man, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, and the Sentry.

The Ultimates

Also of note is Marvel's launch of the "Ultimate" line. Intended to appeal to non-comics fans through a somewhat more realistic treatment of the characters, more lavish artwork, and no backstory to catch up on, the Ultimate version of The Avengers was called The Ultimates, written by Mark Millar and illustrated by Bryan Hitch. Issue #1 was dated March 2002.

Young Avengers

As a last note, Marvel began publishing a new "spin-off" called Young Avengers which contains the adventures of a mysterious group of young versions of classic Avengers. This new comic is Marvel's reaction to DC's successful Teen Titans comic. It will debut in 2005 and will be written by Allan Heinberg

Notable issues

• Vol. 1, #4: "Captain America Lives Again!"
• Vol. 1, #8: first encounter with the Avenger's archnemesis, Kang the Conqueror
• Vol. 1, #16: "The Old Order Changeth!" Old Avengers leave, new Avengers replace them.
• Vol. 1, #56, Annual #2: The Avengers find a time traveller has changed history and turned the original Avengers into his pawns. The displaced heroes must fix the mess.
• Vol. 1, #57-58: Introduction of The Vision.
• Vol. 1, #88-97: The Kree-Skrull War, a cosmic epic partly illustrated by Neal Adams.
• Vol. 1: Notable issues in the Vision/Scarlet Witch romance: #106-108, #113. They married at the end of the Mantis storyline, in Giant-Size #4.
• Vol. 1, #129-135: The Celestial Madonna Saga.
• Vol. 1, #167-177: The Korvac Saga, about an alien messiah from the future.
• Vol. 1, #200: "The Child is Father To...?" Ms. Marvel gives birth after a few weeks of pregnancy, and the child himself is aging as quickly.
• Vol. 1, #212-230: The decline, fall, and redemption of Yellowjacket.
• Vol. 1, #273-277: The fourth incarnation of the Masters of Evil take over the Avengers' Mansion
• Vol. 1, #291-297: The team is torn apart by the manipulations of Terminatrix and her pawn, Doctor Druid, and the Avengers briefly disband
• Vol. 1, #345-347: "Operation: Galactic Storm": The Avengers decide the fate of the genocidal Supreme Intelligence
• Vol. 1: Notable issues in the "Proctor and the Gatherers Saga": #343-344, 348-349, 355-357, 359-364, 372-375
• Vol. 1, #390-395: "The Crossing": Iron Man betrays the Avengers
• Vol. 3, #19-22: "Ultron Unlimited": A robot once created by Hank Pym seeks to take over the world. Perhaps the best of the various Ultron stories, as it takes his nature to its logical extreme, puts the team in a truly dire situation, and ends with some personal catharsis.
• Vol. 3, #40-55: "The Kang War": The Avengers' time-travelling adversary plunges the entire world into war, actually conquering the entire Earth for several months
• Vol. 3, #85-89 (aka #500-503) and Avengers Finale: "Chaos": Part of the Avengers Disassembled event, the Avengers face their "worst day ever", as a series of disastrous events lead to death, betrayal, and the end of the team's current incarnation, paving the way for the "New Avengers"

External link

• Official webpage at Marvel.com (http://www.marvel.com/publishing/showcomic.htm?id=6)

Related articles

• Bibliography of Avengers titles
• List of Avengers members