Avengers #1 (1963)
by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
And then came a day, a day unlike any other, when a comic book company created a team of its most popular superheroes.
Come to think of it, there are lots of days like that.
We begin in a dimension where Loki has been imprisoned.
Loki’s previous appearance was in Journey Into Mystery #96, which shares the same cover date of Avengers #1.
But he wasn’t exiled by Odin in that story: he was just tied up by “Merlin” (long story). I’m guessing Odin took the opportunity to get rid of him for five minutes.
Brief tangent here: that’s the issue where “Merlin” (long story) refuses to believe that JFK is the President because he’s too young.
That issue had a plot by Stan Lee and a script by Robert Bernstein, writing under the pseudonym “R. Berns”, longtime writer of Superman and Aquaman.
Looking for a new pawn to use against Thor, Loki senses that the first Hulk series had been cancelled six months earlier.
I’m guessing that Loki knows Hulk enough to know that he’s not really the monster that the general population believes, because he creates an illusion to lure him into saving civilians.
This makes national news, and the only person who believes the Hulk is innocent is his sidekick Rick Jones.
He decides to ask the Fantastic Four to help with the help of his friends, the Teen Brigade.
That is probably the first and last time the Teen Brigade does anything notable.
They started out as ham radio enthusiasts, and remained as such for a long time in their very few appearances. By the time 2010 miniseries “Avengers: The Origin” retold the story, they were changed into computer hackers.
The Teen Brigade has so few appearances that I don’t know if this stuck.
However Loki doesn’t want the Fantastic Four to get involved, so he magically redirect the Teen Brigade’s signal to Thor’s secret identity.
But I’m guessing Loki isn’t used to del with science-based communications, so the signal is received by other heroes as well.
Including Ant-Man and Wasp, with the latter being a relatively recent character compared to the others: at the time she had only 6 months of appearances.
I wonder how powerful is that ant-pult.
The last to hear the signal is Iron Man, still in his second-ever armor.
Iron Man’s armor was environmentally friendly as far back as 1963.
Loki REALLY messed up his spell, because the Fantastic Four eventually DO get the warning.
Interesting to see the Fantastic Four dismiss the Hulk so easily. They had already met him in Fantastic Four #12, published before the Hulk’s first series ended.
Notably, this recruits nearly all of Marvel’s existing superheroes.
Considering the X-Men share the same cover date of the Avengers, the ONLY other superheroes who are not summoned are Doctor Strange and Spider-Man.
Which means that the 4 superheroes summoned represent 36% of ALL current superheroes and 57% of those who were not in a team yet.
Yeah Loki REALLY needs to work on his radio spells.
Loki lures Thor away from the others with an illusion, and it really says a lot of just how ubiquitous Loki was in early Thor stories that he IMMEDIATELY figures out he’s the one behind it.
Aaaaand Thor immediately ditches the team to return to Asgard at the first occasion.
I’m sure that won’t be a constant in his membership.
But where IS the Hulk right now?
Posing as a super-strong clown robot.
Sounds legit.
Take a moment to appreciate the absurdity of a circuit not even questioning the idea of a robot showing up to join their act.
In the original, the disguise is 100% the Hulk’s idea.
In “Avengers: The Origin”, he’s discovered by the circus performers and THEY come up with it.
Ant-Man’s ants are absurdly efficient at gathering information in the early years…
…and they can be a surprisingly physical threat.
Not to the Hulk, but still.
First hero fight: the Hulk vs Ant-Man and Wasp.
Avengers: 0
Hulk: 1
Avengers: 0
Hulk: 2
Meanwhile Thor has gone into a completely different quest.
Thor finds and confronts Loki, looking to AVENGE what he’s done.
Loki has a trap ready: some trolls. Yeah I’m sure that will hold Thor.
Never change, Thor, never change.
Unfortunately for Loki, Silver Age Thor can do pretty much anything.
Although I would rather avoid knowing how Thor rubs his hammer.
Meanwhile on Midgard*, Iron Man almost causes a plane to crash looking for the Hulk.
*Earth
Little known fact, the Avengers are canonically founded in Detroit.
Iron Man does a lot better in his second fight with the Hulk: it’s essentially a tie.
Avengers: 1
Hulk: 3
However there’s only 2 pages left, so Thor has to show up to stop the fight to delivery the real villain.
Loki’s surprise attack is to turn himself radioactive.
I’m guessing Thor and the Hulk are only bothered by the sudden light, right?
However it’s Ant-Man of all people who defeats Loki, because his ants burrowed a tunnel to take him into a lead tank.
Which I’m guessing Ant-Man took with him, because the fight was happening at a car factory.
And I really hope Detroit doesn’t carry out atomic tests beneath its factories.
Also Thor knows that Loki cannot stay radioactive for too long because shut up.
Ant-Man suggests taking the opportunity to form a team, and everybody agrees… even the Hulk.
He will famously leave the team next issue.
I absolutely love that the canonical reason for the team’s name is that it sounds cool.
Historical significance: 10/10
It’s the Avengers!!!
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
The Hulk is posing as a robot clown strongman AND the evil god of magic is defeated by shoving him inside a tank.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Silliness aside, this holds up rather well. The team forms completely by accident, and despite the initial fight they actually try to reason with the Hulk several times.
However the interactions between heroes are still kept at a minimum, and Thor solving everything with his side quest feels very disconnected.
How close is this to the modern team? 7/10
While they are admittedly modeled after the Justice League, the Avengers develop in kind of the opposite way.
The JLA begins as a well-established team of friends and colleagues, while the Avengers are barely hold together for quite a while.
Over time, however, the Avengers creates several unique internal dynamics that the JLA lacks for the longest time. To me the JLA often feels like its members don’t really interact with each other between missions, while the Avengers get their own subplots quite early… mostly because the Avengers have had members without their own series for the longest time, while for the JLA that starts to be the case only in the 80s.
Tracking the whole history of the Avengers would take way too much time, and I’ve already talked about the team multiple times, including my personal ranking of its members.
They’re not always my favorite team and frequently not my favorite series, but considering how they touch every single corner of the Marvel Universe… to me, the Avengers ARE the Marvel Universe.
