The Avengers

Back in the early 60s, Marvel had a great cast of characters that it wanted to bring together in a supergroup to compete against teams like the justice league. Avengers #1 does exactly that by bringing Thor, Iron Man, Ant Man, Wasp and the Hulk together to fight the menace of Loki, god of mischief. I really like the way these characters interact with each other but they seem a little immature and vain at first glance. In reading this issue you would think that these characters are way too different to come together and work as a team. The hulk just wants to be alone and I have never figured out why he wanted to be a part of the avengers in the first place other than the chance to strike a blow at Loki. Thor really seemed out of place on this team being from Asgard and all, I would think he would rather hang out with his powerful godhood friends rather than with mere mortals with everyday problems. Ant Man and Wasp seem a little over their heads on such a superpowered team and the Wasp comes off looking a little empty headed making flirtatious comments throughout the whole story. Iron Man was the one member who truly seemed at home with such a superpowered team. His aromor and gadgets look primitive but his character even back then had alot of potential. The characters pictured on the front cover eventually succeded in forming a super team and I have enjoyed the Avengers ever since. Reading this issue gives you a sense of history and it makes you realize how far these characters have come in the marvel universe. Long live the Avengers!!

The legendary first Avengers issue, from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, featuring the quasi-accidental formation of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Released all the way back in 1963, how does it read today?
 
Well, it's fun stuff. Some of it is goofy fun, but it's still fun. Any Marvel fan knows the plot already: the evil Loki manipulates the Hulk to get revenge on his brother Thor, causing a chain of events that forces Ironman, Ant-man, The Wasp and the aforementioned Thor to join forces against the God of Evil. After the battle, they join up with Hulk and eventually agree to form a permanent team called The Avengers.
 
All the characters are defined as quickly as possible, which is always good. Thor is a noble warrior, the God of Thunder, disguised on Earth as Donald Blake, a middle-mannered doctor. He jumps into the action when he hears of the Hulk rampage. Ironman, aka. millionaire industrialist Tony Stark, gets caught up in the whole Loki scheme for more selfish reasons, as he wants to measure up the power of his armor against the strenght of the Hulkster. Ant-man and the Wasp are already a bickering couple. Stan Lee writes Jan as the most superficial super-powered bimbo you can imagine and Hank seems constantly annoyed by her shallow behavior. Finally, the Hulk is portrayed as a good-hearted dude stuck in the body of a universally-despised green monster, which is classic Hulk.
 
There's a lot of action here and most of it is vintage Jack Kirby goodness, especially the Hulk/Ironman and Thor/Loki (which features Loki sicking a RIDICULOUSLY CREEPY giant troll on his brother) showdowns. The goofiness I was referring to mostly comes down to:
 
1- Rick Jones and the Teen Brigade! What the hell. 
2- The Hulk trying to escape all of this madness by becoming "Mechano", a circus performer robot (Yes). Nice try, Banner.
3- The all-powerful Loki, son of Odin and master of illusion, is defeated when Pym's telepathic ants get him to fall into trap door. D'OH!
 
This is still an enjoyable read and the concept of "a bunch of Marvel heroes getting accidently thrown together to fight a common threat" is a real winner. In the end, it's still freaking Avengers #1, from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Everyone should at least read it once.

By The Angry Comic Book Critic
      The Silver Age Classics role on with the first tale of Marvel's premier super-team of the Earth Mightiest Heroes I'm talking about of course The Avenger's and with a live action film coming in 2012 I thought why not review the ultimate team's first adventure together against the god of mischief himself the shame of Odin the one the only Loki...or as Thor would say "Ye Old douche bag of the year " so lets give the douche bag of the year a round of applause.......wow I've heard of cemeteries that gave a better reception. Okay enough of my corny jokes let's dive into this bad boy.
      This book was the love child of two I the most Iconic names in comics I'm talking of course about Stan Lee and Jack Kirby the creator of Komadi and the ever ass kicking Captain America. I have to say Jack Kirby's artwork is great it gives it a golden age feel with the silver age writing style of Stan Lee giving it that classic nostalgia feel of decades past. Now some of you might not be aware of this but Captain America was not one of the founding members of the Avengers in fact Steve Rogers didn't come into the picture until about 3 issues after this one the Actual founding members of the Avenger's were Iron man, Thor, The Hulk, Ant Man and of course the pint size beauty the Wasp. The story itself starts out with Loki trying to get revenge on his brother Thor by tricking the hulk into a rampage my making him destroy a train thinking he was saving the train from dynamite on the tracks after the disaster is narrowly avoided Rick Jones the boy responsible for the creation of the Hulk calls for help pver the radio for the Fantasic Four to help stop The hulk but Loki again changes up the game and instead the signal is intercepted by Ant-man Thor Ironman and the wasp who all join forces to stop the rampaging Hulk after finding him at a circus and after a brief fight they end up going toe to toe with Loki himself who the manage to defeat. The group then decides to become a team to combat threats no single hero can stand against and it is the Wasp who gives them the name Avengers. The story is pretty good and gives us all a chance to see the Marvel Universe at large and all in all is pretty good for the time it came out. I'm the Angry Comic Book Critic and this gets the Stamp of approval. Next up Iron man's first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39
 
The Avengers #1
CERTIFIED GOOD!!!!

With this comic, superhero teams were redefined.
 
A mix of personality types and characters with both strengths and weaknesses were put together from the growing Marvel stable by the titanic team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. An issue this important almost defies criticism, but I'm going to try to tackle it anyway.
 
While it's great to see all these heroes on the same stage, one has to remember that both in terms of powers, and in terms of personality / characterization, these were all fairly new Lee/Kirby/Ditko works-in-progress. As such some things just seem off... Loki & Thor use their magic like pseudo-science, dealing with radio waves, molecules, electro-magnetism, and radiation. Ant-Man has a worldwide army of ants, and the Hulk... well, the Hulk acts pretty un-Hulk-like by modern standards.
 
It's also a typical Silver Age comic in that it often feels like the creators are making it up as they go along - throwing out new powers of the heroes, and having tons of convenient objects and circumstances close at hand (for example when Hulk wants to get rid of Wasp, he just picks up a giant set of bellows that happen to conveniently be lying around as if for that purpose). And please don't ask how and when Hulk had time to reinvent himself as a robot / clown and join the circus.
 
Instead, look at it as a great example of 'King' Kirby's style, and an essential piece of Marvel history that you know you're going to read it sooner or later... why not today?

You know I thought that maybe Stan and company might have gotten their supergroup fix when they introduced The X-Men earlier this month to mimic the success of The Fantastic Four, but apparently not it would seem. So they'd been teasing us with it for months, testing ideas out and trying a mixture of characters together, but it's here with the arrival of The Avengers that Marvel truly goes all-out with their interconnected universe. Featuring a whole handful of characters so far inducted into the Marvel superhero pages thus far (all with the exception ofSpider-Man, Doctor Strange and The X-Men), Lee and company go ahead and offer readers what they'd be hoping for; the Marvel equivalent (or better) of DC's Justice League. Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp & eventually The Hulk unintentionally cross paths and team up to take down the mischievous God and brother of Thor, Loki. If you've been reading the Journey into Mystery series so far, you know the score—Loki can pretty much do anything (with renders his physical escapes pretty much superfluous if he can just cause havoc from Asgard) and wants to spoil his brother's day whilst having as much fun as he possibly can at the same time. So it's probably little surprise that reading the issue is pretty much like reading either of the central character's solo books in that it's fairly mediocre in comparison toThe Fantastic Four or Spider-Man.

So yeah, ostensibly it's a pretty lame plot yet taken as a whole with theHulk sideplot thing going on (but seriously, The Hulk joins the circus and we don't get to see how that transpires? Come on!) and all this crossover madness, the issue distils some awe as you read it knowing that things would irrevocably be changed from here on in. So while it may not be as momentous on its own as, say, an origin issue, The Avengers is nevertheless just as significant in its boldness and change of direction for the company. Some will argue that it was a mistake, but most will agree that much of Marvel's success comes directly from this very issue. In that regard the issue is worth a read, despite the fact that much of it (like many origin stories thus far) is plainly middling and standard-set whilst the writers really get a feel for all these new toys they get to play around with.

For full reviews complete with digitally recovered covers and art work, visit http://manicmarvel.tumblr.com/