MRL - Avengers Assemble

[sonotadream]

Let’s meet Marvel’s no. 2 team (until the X-Men take off)! This section of the list alternates between 4 series written in 3 different time periods (and I didn’t read them in the right order), so forgive me if things are a bit jumbled.

 

Avengers (1963) #1-3- Stan Lee/Jack Kirby

 

So, what brings the Avengers together? Loki!

He’s imprisoned in the Isle of Silence and wants to lure Thor, so they can fight and Loki can escape. He takes a look around Earth and sees the Hulk, who is perfect for his purposes. Loki sends him a mental image of a bomb in a train track. Hulk leaps to grab it, but accidentally destroys the tracks, just as a high speed train is approaching. He avoids a train wreck, but still gets the blame.

His buddy, Rick Jones, calls on his team - the Teen Brigade - for help. If the Hulk is innocent, he’ll need help to prove it; if he’s guilty, he’ll need to be stopped. The teens figure only the Fantastic Four are up to the task and send them a message on the radio. Loki interferes with the radio waves to prevent the FF from hearing the message, but making sure it reaches Dr. Blake. Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp - who gets credited on the splash page, but not the cover, btw - also get the message and make their way to the Brigade’s base in New Mexico.

 

While everyone meets, Loki lures Thor away by sending him a mental image of the Hulk. When he sees the Hulk disappear, Thor realizes Loki must be behind whatever is going on and travels to Asgard to confront him.

The others go after the Hulk, after being alerted by an ant that he's hiding in the circus. He’s masquerading as a mechanical man in clown makeup. His act includes juggling elephants and other feats of strength and dexterity. Despite his reputation, the Hulk is not a mindless, slumbering brute.

Ant-Man sets a couple of traps, but the Hulk escapes and Iron Man gives chase, all the way to a factory in Detroit.

It should be mentioned that all this time both Iron Man and Ant-Man try to talk the Hulk into surrendering, but he maintains he needs no friends - the Hulk has a bit of a persecution complex.

Thor - dragging Loki with his hammer, after defeating him in Asgard - interrupts the fight between Iron Man and the Hulk. Loki tries to scare them away by becoming radioactive, but Ant-Man springs another trap - the ants are doing all the work, he just commands them - and Loki is stuck inside a lead-lined tank intended for radioactive waste.

The heroes decide it wouldn't be a bad idea to work together - Hulk included, since he'd rather they be with him, not against him. The Wasp says they should have a cool name, like Avengers, and everyone decides that name is cool enough.

And, so the Avengers are formed.

The first official Avengers meeting doesn't go very well. Iron Man thinks they should meet regularly, even if there’s no major crisis going on, so they can all get to know each other better. Halfway trough the meeting, the Hulk's body is taken over by the Phantom Stranger - an alien who wants to destroy the Avengers before they get strong enough to stop his people's invasion of Earth.

So this issue is spent with the Avengers fighting each other, not realizing there's a stranger in their midst.

In the end, Hulk finds this as proof no one wants him on the team and leaves.

To find him, Iron Man decides to test his new projector and sends his image to talk to the other heroes. Everyone - meaning the FF and Spider-Man - is too busy to give him the time of day, except the X-Men. Professor X actually hears him out and agrees to contact him, in case they learn something about the Hulk's whereabouts.

Of course, Rick Jones is the who finds the Hulk. He takes him to Banner's secret cave laboratory and gets the Hulk to turn human again. He remarks that the Hulk keeps getting harder to control and it's more difficult to bring Banner back.

The Hulk returns sooner than expected and escapes the cave. He fights the Avengers in a train - as seen in A:EMH.

The Hulk escapes to the sea, where Namor finds him. Still reeling from the loss of his kingdom, Namor enlists the Hulk to wage war against Humanity. Hulk doesn't want to team up with a puny human, to which Namor responds by demonstrating he's not human - Hulk might be the strongest creature on land, but Namor has the strength of all sea creatures.

They team up anyway, only to immediately start plotting to betray the other. Namor sends a message to the Avengers to come find them in Gibraltar, where he and the Hulk can take advantage of the natural caves and the artillery left behind after WWII for an ambush. The ensuing fight doesn't seem to go in the Avengers favour, until the Hulk disappears - he randomly turns back into Bruce Banner and runs before anyone sees him.

Namor decides it's time to return to the water to regain his strength. Thor is the only one who can stop him, but refuses, saying Namor was a worthy opponent.

Random stuff:

Janet thinks Iron Man is hideous, the Hulk dreadful, but Thor is dreamy. And so is Donald Blake.

Odin won't interfere between Loki and Thor because they're both his sons.

The Fantastic Four have a cameo. They contact the teens to let them know someone else who can help got their message. The Human Torch doesn't think anyone can do what they do.

Iron Man isn't sure the Hulk is real at the beginning.

Everyone is keeping their identities secret, although Iron Man is the only one making a big deal out of it. Thor gave out Blake’s contact if anyone needed to reach him.

 

Tales to Astonish (1959) #49 - Stan Lee/Jack Kirby

Tales of Suspense (1959) #48 - Stan Lee/Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers

The issue where Ant-Man becomes Giant-Man (and puts his serum in different colour-coded capsules to achieve different sizes) and the issue where Iron Man develops his new suit.

 

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2005) - Joe Casey/Scott Kolins

A miniseries filling in the gaps of the original stories, but set in modern times.

We get to see how Tony Stark and Iron Man work behind the scenes to make things legit - a base in the mansion - formerly just Tony’s, now built by his grandfather Howard, - support from the US government and the UN (in the form of access to privileged information, once a security clearance is granted) and a charter for everyone to sign - in order to assuage the public's misgivings about the enterprise. Public distrust in super-heroes happens in the earlier stories, but it’s not very significant, unless it’s part of the current villain’s plan.

The first official meeting of the Avengers goes a little different.

Ant-Man and the Wasp are on board, and so is Thor, eventually, after he convinces himself their mission is just. Hulk is the hold out, which he makes clear by leaving trough the roof - of his own volition this time, - despite Rick Jones’ assurance he'll change his mind.

Two weeks later, Ant-Man became Giant-Man, Iron Man has a new suit, and the team fails to stop the Hulk. Tensions are high in the post-mission debrief and Iron Man seems close to give up, until they find a man floating in the ocean…

Random stuff:

Iron Man’s clunky gold suit looks much sillier in modern style.

Jarvis is introduced in this one.

The right to keep the heroes secret identity is on the charter.

Hank and Janet have some cute banter at one point, but when everyone gets in a fight at the end, Henry's particularly vicious towards Janet. He doesn't act like that in 1963, he's just very condescending towards her. Although, tbf, she's not contributing a lot to the team(at least Sue Storm figured out she could trip people while invisible rather quickly).