The Avengers (Comic Book)



""And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes were united against a common threat! On that day The Avengers were born -- to fight foes no single hero could withstand!""

The Marvel Universe's all-star super-hero team, equivalent to The DCU's Justice League of America... except with more B-List heroes originally and a name that is based firmly on the concept of Rule of Cool (literally, Wasp picked the name because it sounded cool; some adaptations provide better explanations, though). The team debuted in The Avengers #1 in 1963. The classic lineup is Captain America (comics), Iron Man, Ant-Man, The Wasp, Thor and The Hulk. The team also within the first few issues gained the series trademark of shifting lineups, with the Hulk leaving the group with issue two, and Captain America not actually joining until issue 4, and with the major change of all the originals save Captain America being replaced by issue 16. Over the years, half of the Marvel Universe has been a member (to the point that every member of the Fantastic Four except the Human Torch has been a member at some point), with new members being recruited and old members coming back or leaving as story dictates. Other long-serving members include Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, the Vision, Hercules, Wonder Man, the Beast, Black Widow, and many many more.

The comic has produced a good number of spin-offs and side team books including:
 * West Coast Avengers (later renamed Avengers West Coast): spin-off book that ran from 1985 through 1993. Was subjected to a reboot/revamp in 1994, becoming the Darker and Edgier Force Works, lasting two years before being canceled.
 * Solo Avengers (an anthology/companion book for West Coast Avengers; featuring Hawkeye, US Agent, and Mockingbird and a rotating back-up feature involving past members of the Avengers team).
 * New Avengers: Replaced the regular Avengers comic in 2004. With the return of the main Avengers title, it has continued as the adventures of a second official team. Headed by Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, who was explicitly given permission to choose anyone he wanted (except Iron Man and Thor), the roster has rotated somewhat over the years but typically includes Wolverine, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Mockingbird, the Thing, and Iron Fist. Hawkeye, Doctor Strange, and Daredevil have also featured, along with Strange's assistant Wong and also Squirrel Girl (as a babysitter for Cage's daughter).
 * Thunderbolts: The Avengers' evil counterpart, the Masters of Evil, decided to pretend to be heroes when the Avengers are presumed dead after the events of Onslaught, but ended up turning good for good after getting a taste of life as heroes. The group however fell on hard times and after the events of Civil War, was co-opted by the government and given to Norman Osborn, who corrupted the program (and was later moved into his own book with most of the cast brought in with the reboot into Dark Avengers). With Norman's defeat, the book is back to dealing with redemption with the title focusing on criminals being offered time off of their sentences in exchange for going on missions.
 * Secret Avengers: A black-ops team led by Steve Rogers, who after his resurrection, allowed Bucky Barnes to continue being Captain America. The book is similar to the current version of X-Force, except being Avengers the team tries harder to stick to the Avengers No Killing policy then X-Force does. Currently it is being lead by Hawkeye.
 * Avengers: The Initiative: Following the events of the Civil War, Iron Man opens "Camp Hammond", a military base where heroes old and young are put into bootcamp to train them to be "proper" heroes. Unfortunately everything that can go wrong actually goes almost horribly wrong with young heroes dying, mysterious attacks on faculty, a secret black ops team, alien invasions, numerous betrayals and Norman Osborn. Ultimately shut down following the events of Dark Reign and The "Siege" and relaunched (literally and figuratively) as...
 * Avengers Academy: Hank Pym (the real one, not the Skrull who ran Avengers Initiative) and a group of experienced heroes (Tigra, Justice, Speedball, Quicksilver, and Jocasta) team up to train young heroes. Originally the book focused upon a group of young teenagers recruited or forcibly turned into super-powered beings by Norman Osborn during his time running the Avengers Initiative, in hopes of ensuring that they don't become super-villains. Following the events of Fear Itself, they have opened the team up to all heroes and have taken on other teen heroes like Spider-Girl (Anya Corazon, formerly Araña), X-23, Power Man (Victor Alvarez), Thunderstrike (Kevin Masterson, son of the original Thunderstrike), and White Tiger to the Academy.
 * Young Avengers: Created by Allan Heinberg Teen Titans-esque group of young heroes who gathered following the events of "Avengers Disassembled" in the wake of the seemingly destruction of the original Avengers. Despite originally patterning themselves after the original core group, most have completely different connections to the Avengers, if any at all. Among the heroes recruited are Vision and Scarlet Witch's long lost children, who would later seek the Avengers' help in finding their missing mother.
 * Dark Avengers: Short-lived book set during the Dark Reign about a Norman Osborn led team of supervillains disguised as the Avengers. Set to return taking over the numbering of the current Thunderbolts series.
 * Mighty Avengers: First a team of Avengers who were on the Pro-Registration side of the Civil War storyline, then later a team led by Hank Pym that was active outside the United States during the events of Dark Reign.
 * Pet Avengers: A series of mini-series that focuses upon various animal companions of superheroes teaming up to fight evil.
 * The Ultimates: The Ultimate Universe counterpart, darker and edgier alternate universe version, of the Avengers. This version draws many comparison to The Authority, with taking a "widescreen" action approach along with attempts to take a look at how such actions would come across in a closer to real world setting. After a line wide relaunch it split into two different teams: Ultimate Avengers and The Ultimates, but another relaunch has since reunited under the Ultimates banner again.

In 1999 they had a short-lived animated series, The Avengers United They Stand. Additionally, the two Ultimate Avengers direct-to-dvd animated films were Lighter and Softer versions of the team, and an origin for The Ultimates. A more successful animated series, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, came in 2010, and ends in either 2012 or 2013. The Superhero Squad Show can be considered a Lighter and Softer take on the Avengers. Yet another cartoon, Avengers Assemble, will premiere in 2013.

A big-budget Avengers film was released April 26, 2012, using a mixture of the 616 Avengers and their Ultimate universe counterparts. With Joss Whedon as writer/director, the roster consists of: Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (comics) (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and his assistant Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). The main antagonist was Loki (Tom Hiddleston), previously introduced in the 2011 Thor movie. The 'Avenger Initiative' was referenced in several preceding Marvel films; both the Iron Man films, the The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America the First Avenger.

Not to be confused with the British Spy Couple series The Avengers.

"Norman Osborn: Still smacking around women? Hank Pym: Still throwing them off bridges?"
 * The Alcoholic: Iron Man and Ms. Marvel both fell Off the Wagon.
 * Alien Invasion: Kree-Skrull War, Operation Galactic Storm, Secret Invasion
 * All Your Powers Combined: Super-Adaptoid.
 * Count Nefaria copied the powers of Power Man, the Living Laser, and Whirlwind; the combination turned him into an evil Captain Ersatz of Superman.
 * Wolverine got this, getting the powers of the whole new Avengers and the two Supreme Sorcerers (And Hellfire) to fight Agamotto
 * Animal-Themed Superbeing: Tons of members: Ant-Man (three versions), The Wasp (two versions), Yellowjacket (also two versions), Spider-Woman (again, there were two different versions) Mockingbird, Falcon, Hellcat / Tigra, Stingray, Mantis, Black Panther, Black Widow, Spider-Man, and Wolverine.
 * They have also fought dozens of villains with animal-based themes: Scorpion, Rhino, Porcupine, Armadillo, Dr. Octopus, Cobra, the Serpent Society, the Unicorn, the Gryphon, etc.
 * Alternate Continuity: The Ultimates is a version of the team that is tilted heavily towards a cynical viewpoint.
 * Arch Enemy: Depending on who you ask, either Kang or Ultron. Possibly both.
 * Artifact of Doom: The Avengers confronted the threat of the Serpent Crown, a Mind Control Device channeling the power of Set, an Elder God.
 * Army of the Ages: The Anachronauts, Kang's elite fighting force.
 * Avengers Assemble: The Trope Namer.
 * Back From the Dead: Pretty much the entire roster has died at one point of another during an Avengers storyline (most notably "The Korvac Saga", "Onslaught Saga", and Avengers Annual #17).
 * Separately: Hawkeye, Wonder Man, Vision, Mockingbird, Hellcat, Jack of Hearts, Quasar, and Ant Man II have all come back from the dead in various ways and forms.
 * Badass Normal: Team members Hawkeye, Black Widow, Mantis (until she gained powers), Black Panther, and Mockingbird.
 * Battle Butler: Jarvis.
 * Battle Couple: Hank Pym/Wasp, Vision/Scarlet Witch, Mockingbird/Hawkeye, Jessica Jones/Luke Cage
 * Big Applesauce: Like so many Marvel heroes, they're headquartered in New York City, New York.
 * Big Damn Heroes: A famous line: "ULTRON! We would have words with thee!"
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Hercules, Luke Cage.
 * Butt Monkey: Hank Pym, Hank Pym, Hank Pym. The latter era runs did a good job trying to lift him from his Butt Monkey status, but then, THIS is apparently the cover image of the final issue of Mighty Avengers.
 * No worries, that was just Covers Always Lie.
 * Catgirl: Tigra is the team's woman/cat hybrid.
 * Hellcat is another feline-themed heroine.
 * Catch Phrase: "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE" - so cool, it gets its own font.
 * The Chosen One: Mantis
 * Church of Happyology: The Triune Understanding was a Cult that harassed the Avengers and gave powers to the team member 3-D Man AKA Triathlon.
 * Civvie Spandex: The early 1990s "leather jackets" period.
 * Conqueror From the Future: Kang the Conqueror, an invading warlord and ruler of the world in the distant future, has attempted to conquer the Earth in our modern time period. The Avengers have repeatedly thwarted his ambitions.
 * Continuity Snarl: Kang's backstory.
 * Alternatively, pretty much every other Brian Bendis-written Avengers story, due to his refusal to acknowledge any other story another writer does. Even Bendis can't be bothered to keep his continuity straight, having the Mighty Avengers team running around in the pages of New Avengers even though their first arc makes it impossible for them to be running around in the pages of the New Avengers.
 * Cool Plane: The Quinjet.
 * Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, sponsors the Avengers through Stark Industries.
 * Deadly Training Area
 * Defector From Commie Land: The Black Widow
 * Disability Immunity: Hawkeye used a sonic arrow to make himself almost completely deaf but immune to sonic mind control.
 * Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Hank Pym used to smoke a pipe from time to time, before it became PC not to smoke.
 * Distress Ball: Scarlet Witch and Wasp used to be held prisoner a lot in the 1960s. Most recently, Hawkeye being captured by Norman Osborn was a major plot point during Dark Reign.
 * Distress Call: How the group first formed.
 * Dysfunction Junction: More than a few lineups over the years, but especially Avengers Academy, teachers and students both.
 * Earth-Shattering Poster
 * Face Heel Turn: In Avengers: The Initiative, Hardball defects to the terrorist group Hydra; also, The Sentry deciding to join up with Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers.
 * Five-Man Band: The original lineup:
 * The Hero: Iron Man
 * The Lancer: Thor
 * The Big Guy: Hulk
 * The Smart Guy: Ant-Man
 * The Chick: Wasp
 * And, let's not forget the Sixth Ranger, Captain America, who later became the Hero as Iron Man became the Lancer and Thor replaced Hulk as the Big Guy.
 * The Initiative's first wave of recruits had its own Band
 * The Hero: MVP
 * The Lancer: Hardball
 * The Big Guy: Komodo and Armory
 * The Smart Guy: Trauma
 * The Chick: Cloud 9.
 * The New Avengers lineup from the first arc:
 * The Hero: Captain America (comics)
 * The Lancer: Iron Man
 * The Smart Guy: Spider-Man
 * The Big Guy: Luke Cage
 * The Chick: Spider-Woman
 * The Sixth Ranger: Wolverine
 * Flanderization: In Ultron's origin story, he attempted to kill his creator, Hank Pym, while referring to him as "father"; this prompted Pym to remark that the robot had developed an Oedipus Complex. Later writers took that connection and ran with it, having Ultron attempt to turn Pym's wife, the Wasp (his "mother"), into a robot bride named Jocasta, and at one point he was reduced to a talking head being carried by a robot offspring named Antigone, after Oedipus's daughter who took care of him after his blinding. Ultron's recent Retool in Mighty Avengers had him actually take the Wasp's likeness.
 * Another Ultron (number 12) was peaceful and loved his "father". Jocasta and Pym started dating (yes people have pointed out in comic she's more or less dating her grandfather... which she sees as dating GOD) and the current Ultron is an Evil Overlord with a (bigger) god complex. The Pym family is weird...
 * Flying Brick: Thor, Iron Man, Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, Namor, The Sentry.
 * Fog Feet: Veil from Avengers Academy.
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: "Cap's Kooky Quartet", aka the second lineup: Cap was choleric, Hawkeye sanguine, Quicksilver melancholic, and Scarlet Witch phlegmatic.
 * Fully-Absorbed Finale: The first Spider-Woman series, ending with her apparent death, was resolved in The Avengers #239-242 with Jessica Drew losing her powers in order to help the Avengers beat Morgaine LeFey.
 * The Good Captain: Captain America, Captain Marvel, Captain Britain.
 * Gravity Master: Graviton, one of the Avengers most formidable foes, has the ability to create and manipulate fields of gravitational force.
 * Heel Face Turn: Quite a few of these. Hawkeye, Black Widow, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, the Swordsman, the Sandman, Rage, the second Living Laser, US Agent (back when he replaced Steve Rogers as Captain America), Namor, and the Vision all started off as villains.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners -> Vitriolic Best Buds: Cap and Iron Man, the transition following Civil War. Tony even voices his concern about working with Steve when the Avengers reform, following the Siege of Asgard, but he relents when he learns that it won't be Steve who will coordinate the team, but his Civil War-time Lancer Maria Hill.
 * Hawkeye and Hank Pym, ignoring Chuck Austen's attempts to derail the duo.
 * Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Giant-Man and The Wasp in what may be the biggest example available. Pym growing up to skyscraper height and Wasp dropping down to only a few inches tall.
 * I Have Many Names: Hank Pym, aka Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, Wasp, and now Giant-Man again.
 * I Just Want to Be Special: Komodo.
 * Interrupted Cooldown Hug: Happens to the Hulk himself when fighting the Avengers, but also a recurring theme with arch-villain Ultron as his "extended family" among the Avengers. Subverted in "Ultron Unlimited" when Ultron betrays the cooldown hug-administering Vision before the cavalry comes charging in.
 * Killer Robot: Ultron long time Avengers foe, consumed with a desire to Kill All Humans.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: Pretty much every single Marvel hero who is not an X-Man, except for Wolverine and the Beast, has been an Avenger at some point.
 * Storm's a member in the Marvel Adventures version, and soon to be in the mainstream title.
 * It's more guaranteed to go the other way: Namor was an Avenger before his current tenure with the X-Men.
 * The Human Torch is the only member of the Fantastic Four never to have been a member of the Avengers (his namesake was a member on the West Coast team). Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman even served together.
 * Longtime solo player Daredevil has recently joined the New Avengers. Out of the well-known heroes who don't fit the previous categories (remembering that Deadpool is more closely associated to the X-Men, being an X-Force member and all), only The Punisher remains unaffiliated, but considering it's the Punisher we're talking about...
 * Look Ma, No Plane: A 1970s-era comic has the title heroes engaged in a battle against Thanos' starfleet. Most of the heroes fly around in small, vaguely Star Wars-ian ships, but Thor flies around smashing apart enemy ships under his own power!
 * Master Swordsman: The Swordsman
 * The Mole: Evil, shapeshifting Skrulls impersonated scads of heroes during the Secret Invasion storyline - and even before!
 * Mole in Charge: In one storyline, the Red Skull becomes the Secretary of Defense.
 * And Norman Osborn as the Director of S.H.I.-- er, H.A.M.M.E.R.
 * Monster Modesty: The Thing, Marina, Incredible Hulk, and Beast were all members at one point or another.
 * Name's the Same: Jessica. Jones or Drew?
 * Never Live It Down: Pym hit his wife... only once, while Freaking Out and doing far worse, but that's what everybody remembers.
 * Never Live It Down: Pym hit his wife... only once, while Freaking Out and doing far worse, but that's what everybody remembers.


 * In-universe example, everyone is suspicious of Spider-Woman, because they think she is still the Skrull Queen - even after Norman Osborn vehemently shot her in the face to death.
 * The queen was a skrull!!!
 * Nineties Anti-Hero: Force Works.
 * Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Hank Pym is an expert in many scientific disciplines. In fact, the depth of his scientific knowledge has earned him the title of "Scientist Supreme" from Eternity, the living embodiment of the universe's Life Energy.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Thor.
 * The Real Remington Steele: The "Ronin" identity.
 * Reed Richards Is Useless: Black Panther, whose Avengers tenure featured him basically being utterly useless, even though he's supposed to a super-genius PLUS expert at the Xanatos Gambit/Roulette.
 * Also Richards himself spent a brief time with the team.
 * Henry Pym has: discovered Pym Particles, sub-atomic particles which can cause anything to shrink or grow (with an attendant increase in mass); created devices which allows communication with insects; and invented a device which converts thoughts into radio waves for transmission. Any of these scientific achievements would change the world. Pym uses them to pursue his passion of being a costumed adventurer. Talk about useless...
 * Ret-Gone: The 1950s team of Avengers, shown to have been wiped out when Immortus destroyed their timeline in Avengers Forever. They were later "resurrected" in 616 canon as the Agents of Atlas.
 * Ridiculously-Human Robots: Team members Vision, Jocasta, and Machine Man
 * Jim Hammond, aka the Golden Age Human Torch, was a member of the West Coast Team for a short time.
 * Robotic Spouse: The Vision, who happens to be a "synthezoid", married the Scarlet Witch.
 * Science Hero: Iron Man and Hank Pym are both prone to using their scientific/technological acumen against a threat when brute force proves insufficient.
 * Sidekick: Rick Jones, honorary member and sidekick of The Hulk, Captain America, and Captain Marvel.
 * Sizeshifter: Ant-Man (all three of them) and The Wasp, Hawkeye as Goliath, and Stature of the Young Avengers.
 * Sociopathic Hero: Norman Osborn, at least in the eyes of the civilians of the MU, as he runs the Dark Avengers.
 * Spin Offspring: The Young Avengers.
 * Spot the Imposter: Basically the plot of Secret Invasion.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Whirlwind to the Wasp, going as far as to be her chauffeur to be near her. In Avengers Academy, he attacks the young heroes and Hank Pym for letting the Wasp die in Secret Invasion.
 * Staring Down Cthulhu: The team confronted the threat of the Elder God Chthon on Wundagore Mountain.
 * Though it's really sometimes a matter of perspective. Last time it happened, he was possessing Quicksilver's body.
 * Steven Ulysses Perhero: Jack of Hearts, true name Jack Hart.
 * Surfer Dude: Mettle before his recruitment into the Initiative/Avengers Academy, also making him one of the few ethnically Hawaiian superheroes.
 * Superhero
 * Super-Hero Gods: Team members Thor, Hercules, and Ares all claim to be actual mythological deities. Which, in the Marvel Universe, they are.
 * Tangled Family Tree: Ultron. No, seriously. You've got his "father" Hank Pym, Pym's wife Janet, his bride Jocasta based on Janet's brain patterns, his bride Alkhema based on Mockingbird's brain patterns, his "son" Vision, Vision's wife the Scarlet Witch (and her brother Quicksilver), Vision's brother-by-way-of-once-being-the-same-guy the original Human Torch, Vision's brother-by-way-of-copied-brain-patterns Wonder Man, Wonder Man's brother the Grim Reaper, and finally Mockingbird and her husband Hawkeye. Ultron actually calls this entire group his family.
 * And let's not forget that Vision was later brought back but with the mental imprint of Iron Lad aka Kang the Conqueror and is currently dating Ant Man's daughter.
 * And actually, if you choose to follow the tree a little further, you'll see that they're actually all part of the former Trope Namer Summers Family Tree (Vision -> Vision II -> Iron lad -> Kang -> Richards family -> Franklin Richards -> Hyperstorm -> Rachel Summers -> Cyclops).
 * TWICE. Vision's wife Scarlet Witch is the daughter of Magneto and half-sister of Polaris, the on-again off-again girlfriend of Havok.
 * Don't forget about Victor Mancha - Ultron's second son.
 * And if we go a bit further still, Quicksilver's ex-wife Crystal, and their daughter Luna. And this could also include Medusa, Crystal's sister, and then Blackbolt, Medusa's husband, and then Maximus, Black Bolt's nutso brother...
 * Thou Shalt Not Kill: Usually played straight. However, the Avengers recognize that the rules are different in times of war. And when they say war, they mean actual war, such as Thanos invading with a massive space fleet, or Kang bringing in his army from the future to conquer the whole planet. Even then, however, they take it very seriously; after defeating Kang, for example, Warbird requested an official inquiry into her own actions, to see if they thought she had gone too far at one point. They decided she hadn't, but gave it the full consideration she requested.
 * Time Machine: Kang the Conqueror uses various machines to travel through time and conquer various periods in time, stopped only in our own due to the efforts of the Avengers.
 * Time Master: Immortus whose motives have always been a mystery to the Avengers. On several occasions he has worked to aid them in crucial times of need; on others he is trying to destroy them.
 * Token Minority: The Falcon resigned because he felt he had been recruited due to affirmative action--which he was--but he was the second Avenger of African descendent. There were echoes of this when Triathlon (now named 3-D Man) was forced onto the team.
 * Trick Arrow: Hawkeye, long time resident bowman.
 * Unlimited Wardrobe: The original Wasp, Janet van Dyne, has worn dozens of different costumes over the years. While this was originally just a joke based on her Chick personality, it was later justified as being a side perk of being a fashion designer, since she could make them all herself.
 * And despite being a female superhero with so many costumes, the vast majority are not Stripperiffic.
 * How many are actually different costumes, and how many are just drawing/coloring continuity errors is questionable, but still, Damn.
 * Villain Team-Up: The Masters of Evil, The Lethal Legion, and well, the Thunderbolts.
 * We Can Rebuild Him: Yelena Belova, the second Black Widow.
 * West Coast Team: West Coast Avengers; co-Trope Namer with the Teen Titans' "Titans West".
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Operation Galactic Storm is an in-story example with the execution of the Supreme Intelligence.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Scarlet Witch and Iron Man. The former from having merged with an alien power source which was taking orders from Doctor Doom and the later, when he was appointed by the US Government to oversee forced registration of the super-hero community, which led Tony to do crazy morally unethical and downright illegal crap.
 * Sentry, full stop.
 * Wolverine Publicity: Guess who happens to be on not one, but two Avengers teams at the same time.
 * ...Spider-Man?
 * Working with the Ex: Ant Man and The Wasp, to the point where this is almost what the two are most famous for.
 * You Taste Delicious: Whirlwind once licked an unconscious Wasp, making this instance one of the male-pervert inversion variety.