Establishing Team Shot
You've seen this a thousand times. So the gang's all here! Hyped up for most of the arc this dream team makes an epic appearance! How? With a establishing shot with its name in bold letters of course! The Team establishing shot is a process when a newly assembled or created team appears in a a big flashy pose with them all together. It's common on covers but also appears on the back page or final shot when the preceding installment has been about the formation of the team. Sometimes little bios or epithets for each of the members will accompany the images.
It comes in many flavours of subtropes:
- Super Sentai Stance - when they have a standard "action pose"
- Team Shot - when it's a posed photo or portrait.
- V-Formation Team Shot - a very standard standing in a line.
- Jumping At The Screen - all the characters are jumping at the reader.
Not to be confused with Avengers Assemble, a film and TV trope for a montage of Establishing Character Moments for each member of a team.
Examples of Establishing Team Shot include:
Anime and Manga
- In Hunter X Hunter, the Thirteen Spiders got this during the YorkNew arc.
- Hao's Followers of Shaman King as seen When falling out of the Patch Plane
- These get used quite effectively in One Piece. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the StrawHatCrew bicker, goof-off, are are otherwise consumed with bickering. About once every story arc, however, they pull it together for whatever it is they have to do (typically saving one of their own). Good examples are four of them marching on Arlong Park for Nami, or six of them (including one who was persona non grata, under an assumed identity) standing on a battlement, squaring off with the Cipher Pol No. 9 and declaring war against the whole world to save Nico Robin.
Comic Books
- Marvel Loves this as shown in The Mighty Avengers, Illuminati, Cabal, Dark Avengers Dark X-Men, Secret Warriors, Hydra and God Squad all got these during their establishing issues. Most of which had their own Font
Film - Live Action
- The rotating team shot of Hawkeye, Thor, the Black Widow, Captain America (comics), Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk in The Avengers.
- Another one later when Loki opens his eyes and sees the entire team glaring at him, with the tip of Hawkeye's arrow in the center, pointed right at his face.
Web Comics
- This MS Paint Adventures: Problem Sleuth panel where Ace Dick, Problem Sleuth and Pickle Inspector get together for the first time.
- This takes up most of a guest comic for El Goonish Shive.