The avengers
The Avengers ( Engl .: The Avengers ) is an American comic book series of the publishing house Marvel Comics , which the adventures of the eponymous superhero team says. The first edition appeared in September 1963.
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The original series brings together some of the more famous heroes of the Marvel Universe and let them go on adventures together. Founding members of the Avengers were Iron Man , Thor , Ant-Man (other assumed second identities Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket. The Wasp II), Wasp and the Hulk , who left the team after the first edition. Captain America ( aka Nomad, The Captain, Commander Rogers) joined the Avengers in issue # 4 .
In the 1960s, Hawkeye (aka Goliath, Ronin), Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Swordsman, Hercules, Black Panther, Vision and Black Knight also joined the team.
Constant change was and is a part of the Avengers / Avengers, in the 70s the team Black Widow, Mantis, Beast from the X-Men , Moondragon, Hellcat, Two-Gun Kid, Ms. Marvel (aka.Binary, Warbird, Captain Marvel) and Falcon.
The 80s newcomers were: Tigra, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel (aka Photon, Pulsar, Spectrum), Starfox, Namor (aka Sub-Mariner) and Doctor Druid.
In addition, the first spin-off team of Avengers was formed in the 1980s; the West Coast Avengers. The series ran from 1984 to 1987. Its members were among others Mockingbird, War Machine (aka Iron Man II, Iron Patriot), Das Ding, Moon Knight and Firebird (aka Esprita).
After the crossover Inferno , the avenging team formed again in 1989-90 and the following characters were added: Demolition Man, Forgotten One, Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible, US Agent, Quasar, The Torch (Jim Hammond), Sersi and Stingray .
In 1991 and 1992 more figures were added, but many of them only became avengers as reserve members, so they were only used when they were needed. The following figures should be mentioned here: Spider-Man, Sandman, Rage, Machine Man (aka X-51), Living Lightning, Spider-Woman (aka Arachne, Madame Web II), Crystal, Thunderstrike (aka Thor II) and Darkhawk.
After the events Rebirth of Heroes and Return of Heroes , the following figures were used in the years 1998-2004: Justice, Firestar, Triathlon (aka 3-D Man), Silverclaw, Jack of Hearts, Ant Man II (Scott Edward Lang), Captain Britain (Lionheart).
This series ended in the comic event Heldenfall , in which the New Avengers then formed and Luke Cage (Power Man), Wolverine , Sentry and Echo (aka Ronin) joined the Avengers.
In the Marvel event Civil War , in which Norman Osborn tried to present himself as the savior of humanity from superhero 'renegades', the team split into the contra-registration side Secret Avengers and the pro-registration side, which later split up collected under the name Mighty Avengers. Osborn did this with his Dark Avenger team. Here, some well-known super villains slipped into the costumes of the Avengers, such as Moonstone as Captain Marvel, Ragnarok as Thor, Daken as Wolverine, Venom as Spider-Man and Bullseye as Hawkeye.
The leader of the Secret Avengers is Luke Cage, who is supported by Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Spider-Woman, Iron Fist and the second ronin, under whose mask is Hawkeye, the former leader of the West Coast Avengers and the Thunderbolts, as well as Echo and Wolverine. Miss Marvel has been named leader and co-founder of the Mighty Avengers, who now leads Iron Man, the Sentry, Wonder Man, Ares, Black Widow and Wasp. After the Civil War, Amadeus Cho, Jocasta, Stature and the new Vision joined the team.
The Civil War was finally followed by the Heroic Age, Steve Rogers was considered dead and James 'Bucky' Barnes, who had previously worked as a Winter Soldier, took on the role of Captain America. Other new Avengers in 2010-2011 were: Spider- Woman (Jessica Drew), Valkyrie, Sharon Carter (aka Agent 13), Nova (Richard Rider), Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady), Iron Fist, Power Woman (aka Jewel), Protector (aka Marvel Boy, Noh- Varr), Doctor Strange, Red Hulk.
Once again, the team went through some changes after the Fear Itself event , such as Daredevil, Storm, Quake, Captain Britain and Venom (Flash Thompson) as avengers.
Annually, Marvel brought out events that always meant changes and new members for all teams. After the Avengers vs. X-Men got the pleasure of being an avenger: Havok, Sunspot, Cannonball, Manifold, Shang Chi, Captain Universe, Smasher, Hyperion, Rogue, Sunfire, Doombot and Victor Mancha.
In the years 2013-14 the Infinity Event ran, which again new members could be registered. These were: Abyss, Ex Nihilo, Nightmask, Star Brand, Alexis The Protector, Ronin (aka Blade, Eric Brooks), Blue Marvel, Power Man (Victor Alvarez) and White Tiger.
Avengers Now started in 2014. Here, too, there were newcomers: Kaluu, Nova (Sam Alexander), Doctor Voodoo, Sabretooth, Pod and Validator should be mentioned.
From 2015 to the present day, All-New All-Different has made further changes. So now is Thor (Jane Foster), Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Deadpool, Synapse, Die Fackel (Johnny Storm), Songbird, Squirrel Girl, Wiccan, Hulkling, Cable, Medusa, Singularity , Dazzler and Sister Grimm with the Avengers in the team.
Honorary members appointed for either doing themselves or giving their lives for the Avengers are Rick Jones, Captain Marvel (Walter Lawson), Whizzer, Moira Brandon, Shroud, Marrina, Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara), Swordsman ( Phillip Javert), Magdalene, Deathcry, Masque, Iron Man and Flux.
There were also many spin-off series, such as the Young Avengers , the Great Lakes Avengers, Avengers Resistance, Astonishing Avengers and the Avengers Initiative.
Important characters in the series
Ant-Man
Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym is a biophysicist who discovered a chemical substance with which he can vary his size: the Pym particles named after him. When it shrinks, it becomes Ant-Man (dt. Ant-Man ) and when it grows to superhuman size, it becomes Giant-Man (dt. Giant-Man ). He can also talk to insects, mostly ants. Hank Pym is married to Janet van Dyne alias "Wasp", who also owes her powers to his Pym particles. He is one of the founding members of the Avengers. In the course of his career he often changed his costume and finally broke off his work as a superhero after his divorce. But he supports the Avengers as a scientist.
A film of the same name with Paul Rudd in the role of Ant-Man was released in 2015. Dr. Hank Pym was played by Michael Douglas .
Black panther
Behind the mask of the Black Panther is T'Challa , king of the fictional, highly developed African state of Wakanda . The young T'Challa took over his throne after the murder of his father T'Chaka. Black Panther has no superpowers, but only uses various learned fighting techniques, his panther-like agility and special strength-increasing herbs. Black Panther was created by comic book writer Stan Lee and comic book artist Jack Kirby. He first appeared in Fantastic Four # 52 (July 1966). This makes Black Panther the first African superhero in the US comic mainstream.
The character is played in the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Chadwick Boseman and appears for the first time in The First Avenger: Civil War .
Black Widow
Black Widow (German Black Widow ) is an agent of the former Soviet secret service KGB. The original Black Widow, Natascha Romanoff (first published in Tales of Suspense # 52 [April 1964]) came into conflict with Iron Man on her first assignment in the USA, which she then tried to kill. She eventually defected and became an agent of SHIELD and a member of the Avengers. She is a professionally trained hand-to-hand fighter and spy. Their equipment is conventional weapons and aids, disguised as everyday objects.
The character was played by Scarlett Johansson in the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe .
Captain America
Captain America is an American cartoon character, a superhero who wears a costume in the colors of the flag of the United States. It was created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon for Timely Comics, a predecessor of what is now Marvel Comics. Captain America first appeared in issue 1 of the Captain America Comics series in 1941. The comic stories, laid out as propaganda during wartime, often allowed Captain America to compete against National Socialists, saboteurs and other symbols of the war opponents of the time. In later years the stories with Captain America were used by many authors for social criticism, but reception is difficult, especially in Germany. Over the years, characters with different names appeared in Captain America's costume. The original and best-known figure bears the name Steve Rogers as an alter ego.
In the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe , the role of Cap was taken over by Chris Evans .
Hawk Eye
Behind the mask of Hawkeye is Clint Barton, the character was conceived by Stan Lee and Don Heck and made its first appearance in the series Tales of Suspense # 57 in 1964. Hawkeye does not have a real superpower, he is a marksman, who has different trick arrows, he is also a martial arts expert and a very good tactician. In his form as a Goliath he also had increased strength and resilience and could also change his size.
When he first appeared in a comic, Hawkeye wasn't a hero, but competed against Iron Man. Hawkeye was seen as an opponent twice in the Tales of Suspense series, more precisely in issues # 60 and # 64. Eventually, however, he joined the Avengers in Avengers # 16 in May 1965 . Here he quickly established himself as a regular member of the team.
Clint was married to the superhero Mockingbird, but the relationship did not last, he had other partnerships with Black Widow and Kate Bishop, who was also called Hawkeye in the Young Avengers .
Clint was a member of a wide variety of teams, for example the Defenders , Great Lakes Avengers , Thunderbolts , West Coast Avengers , Secret Avengers and the Avengers Academy .
In the movies, Hawkeye is played by Jeremy Renner and made an appearance in the films Thor , The Avengers , Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War .
Hulk
Hulk (English Colossus, Klotz) is the title character from the Marvel Comics of the same name. The first edition was published in May 1962 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The comic tells the story of the nuclear physicist Dr. Bruce Banner tells how he was exposed to large amounts of gamma radiation after an accident with the prototype of a gamma bomb and from then on turns into the maddening monster Hulk with every hint of anger. Because of his resounding strength, the gigantic muscle man often gets into confrontations with armed forces who want to stop the Hulk and use him as a "weapon" for themselves. Hulk is one of the founding members of the Avengers. However, he left it after a short time.
Hulk's green skin color is explained by the innumerable chloroplasts in his skin, with which he can produce the metabolic products necessary for his energy needs.
The story has been adapted many times, including in a number of animated series, a television series and various television films with Bill Bixby as the banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk. In the movie Hulk (2003) the character was played by Eric Bana .
In the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe , the Hulk was first played by Edward Norton and later by Mark Ruffalo .
Iron man
Iron Man (Eng .: "Eisenmann", in the first German publications "Der Eiserne") is a comic figure from Marvel Comics. It was created by Stan Lee, Don Heck and Jack Kirby. Her first appearance was in the comic Tales of Suspense # 39 in March 1963. In 1968 she received her own series called Iron Man, which continued until 1996.
Iron Man is the alter ego of multi-billionaire Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark. He takes over the family business Stark Industries after his parents were killed in a car accident (in the MCU, his parents were killed by the Winter Soldier). Stark Industries is a technology group that develops weapons systems on behalf of the US government, among others.
While viewing his inventions, which were used in the Vietnam War, Stark is injured in a bomb explosion and taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese. A splinter hurts him very close to his heart. The warlord Wong-Chu promises Stark a rescue operation if he works for the North Vietnamese. Together with the also captive Nobel Prize winner in physics, Ho Yinsen, Stark develops his first Iron Man armor (Mark One), a heavily armored exoskeleton. On the one hand, this gives Stark great fighting power; on the other hand, it is vital for him, as it holds back the metal splinters in his body with a built-in electromagnet and allows him to escape from the camp. In the process, Stark met his future friend Jim Rhodes, a helicopter pilot. Back in the United States, Tony Stark poses Iron Man as his bodyguard and lives two identities.
While Iron Man fought mainly against communist opponents and business competitors in the first few years, he later reconsidered the effects of his military assignments. He then founded various charities, such as the Maria Stark Foundation named after his mother. Since then, Tony Stark has been considered a philanthropist. Iron Man is a founding member of the Avengers. Over the years he has provided accommodation, the Avengers headquarters, to this association of superheroes.
Tony Stark is a tech-savvy and inventive businessman. At the same time, he also has personal problems such as alcoholism. This even forces him temporarily to put down his Iron Man armor. It is then worn by his friend Jim Rhodes. Rhodes later gets his own armor with Iron Man technology and becomes a superhero called War Machine, who fights alongside Tony Stark.
In the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe , Iron Man was played by Robert Downey junior .
Luke Cage
Luke Cage was in 1972 by Archie Goodwin and John Romita Sr . and made his first appearance on the Luke Cage series , Hero for Hire # 1.
Luke has superhuman strength, accelerated self-healing power and indestructible skin. At Heroes for Hire , he was often seen alongside other superheroes such as Iron Fist, Coleen Wing and Misty Knight, with whom he still has close ties to this day. In 2005, the author Brian Michael Bendis brought him to the new series New Avengers , where he had a permanent place and also met his wife Jessica Jones, with whom he now has a child.
Luke was represented in different hero teams, in addition to the New Avengers and Heroes for Hire he was also a member of the Defenders , the Mighty Avengers , Fantastic Four and the Thunderbolts .
Mike Colter plays Luke Cage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and appeared here on Marvel's Jessica Jones . The first season of a stand-alone series was seen as Marvel's Luke Cage on Netflix from September 30, 2016 .
Quicksilver
Just like his sister Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver was first a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, following his father Magneto. It was also created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in 1964 for X-Men # 4. He left his criminal past behind and became a permanent member of the Avengers. His real name is Pietro Django Maximoff and he was also temporarily married to Inhuman Crystal, with whom he has a daughter named Luna. His skills are super speed and super quick reflexes.
The character was played in the movies The Return of the First Avenger and Avengers: Age of Ultron by Aaron Taylor-Johnson . Here Pietro has no connection to Magneto and is not a mutant either. It is different with the X-Men films: Here Pietro is a mutant, in X-Men: Apocalypse he claims to be Magneto's son. It was also mentioned that he has a sister, but it was not stated whether it was Scarlet Witch. In the X-Men films X-Men: Future is Past and X-Men: Apocalypse , Quicksilver is played by Evan Peters .
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch is also a regular member of the Avengers, her real name is Wanda Maximoff and is the daughter of Magneto and a mutant. She had her first appearance in the comic X-Men # 4 from 1964. She was seen here at her father's side as an opponent of the X-Men and a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
Her twin brother is Quicksilver, also a mutant and avenger. Her powers are probability manipulation, reality change and she can also summon chaos magic. The character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby , Wanda was temporarily married to the android Vision. Her desire for children and missing memories finally made Wanda go nuts. In this train vision was destroyed, Hawkeye died and Scott Lang apparently also died, only Doctor Strange stopped Wanda, who was then gone for a long time. Wanda also wiped out 94% of the mutants when she simply robbed them of their strength by changing their reality.
Only Wiccan and Speed, reincarnations of their lost children, found Wanda again, now she is an integral part of the Marvel universe again.
In the movie The Return of the First Avenger , Scarlet Witch made her first appearance in a scene after the credits. She then got a central role in the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron . In both cases she was played by Elizabeth Olsen . The character also appeared in Captain America: Civil War . Unlike in the comic, Wanda is not a mutant in the film and has no connection to Magneto.
Thor
Thor is the god of thunder from Norse mythology . He comes from Asgard , the world of gods, but is drawn to Midgard , our world. There he fights together with the other Avengers super villains. His only weapon is his hammer Mjölnir , with which he can generate thunder and lightning. Mjölnir keeps coming back to Thor. Thor is one of the few who have proven worthy of lifting Mjolnir. He often gets into an argument with his father Odin , the father of gods, who wants Thor to stay in Asgard. His adoptive brother, Loki, has become a great enemy of the Avengers, even if Thor believes there is still a spark of good in him.
In the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe , Thor was played by Chris Hemsworth .
publication
The original series was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963. The series was discontinued in 1996 with issue # 402 as part of the Onslaught event . For 12 issues, the draftsman Rob Liefeld was supposed to take over the group's history in a new series, but Liefeld separated from Marvel after six issues and the series was ended by James Dale Robinson .
Another new start was overseen by Kurt Busiek and George Pérez , who shaped the series for over 50 issues. The last restart of the Avengers took place after the Avengers: Disassembled event , after which the third Avengers series was also discontinued. Author Brian Michael Bendis has since made the Avengers appear in the New Avengers series with a completely revised line-up. In addition to Iron Man and Captain America , members of the team now include Spider-Man and Wolverine .
German publication
The German publication has been published by three publishers so far, from 1974 to 1978 by Williams Verlag , here the series reached 100 editions.
In 1979 Condor Verlag took over the licenses and published the series in paperback format in 47 editions, the last being published here in 1996.
The Panini Verlag eventually took over the US licenses of Marvel and published since 1999, the series of the Avengers, began here with the Marvel event Onslaught where most Avenger were disappeared and dead. The first regular series of the Avengers at Panini was the follow-up series under the banner "The Rebirth of Heroes". In addition to the Avengers, Iron Man, Die Fantastischen Vier and Captain America were first published in booklet form by Panini Verlag. The series ended after 13 issues.
After the end of the "rebirth of the heroes" series specified by Marvel Verlag, Panini started a second avenging series that had 10 issues. Iron Man was included as the second series and thus the issue was twice as thick as the previous one Series that only ever contained one US issue. The second series concept met with little approval from the readers and so the series ended after only 10 issues to appear in the new format.
The third Avengers series at Panini appeared from 2001, here Panini now published the title every two months, but with four US issues in a row. The aim of this publication was to get closer to the US publications in order to be able to publish the comics more up-to-date and not be two years behind the current US state. When this was the case after about six issues, the format was retained and published in the format two US editions as well as Avengers Annuals and other special editions such as booklets from the series Thunderbolts or a miniseries of the Tigra character. This series was discontinued after 12 issues.
A fourth avenger series followed in 2003, the series appeared again every two months, but now only had two US issues. After a year and six issues, this format was also abandoned.
It was decided again for the second series concept, but this time in which one indicated the issues as equivalent in the title of the series. From 2004 the series “The Fantastic Four & The Avengers” was released. Captain America's series was temporarily discontinued in Germany due to insufficient response, Iron Man appeared as a "Monster Edition", a kind of annual edition.
The series "The Fantastic Four & The Avengers" also met with little approval from customers and made it to 15 issues, as well as four series specials, which collected the last issues and ended with the crossover "Heldenfall". In this comic book event, the Avengers broke up and were re-founded in the US series New Avengers by author Brian Michael Bendis . The idea behind the new series was no longer to unite the most powerful heroes of the Marvel universe, but rather the audience favorites, so Spider-Man and Wolverine joined the Avengers as team members . Panini also took advantage of this restart and now brought out the title Spider-Man and the new Avengers . The series ran from 2005 to early 2011, appeared mostly bi-monthly with two US issues and had 35 issues.
The title was then restarted in the course of the movie under the title Avengers in March 2011. The series was now released monthly and contained both the new US series Avengers and the US series New Avengers. The series ran to 28 issues and was eventually discontinued and restarted under the title Avengers (vol.2). This series again included the adventures of the US series Avengers and New Avengers, this series made it to 36 issues and was discontinued in 2016 and restarted in the course of "The brand new Marvel Universe" (All New, All Different Marvel) . The monthly series now only contains the Avengers series. Other Avengers series, such as the New Avengers, which were previously included in the issue, have now been published in special volumes.
Furthermore, Panini published many sub-series as anthologies, in which mostly six or more US editions were included, for example: New Avengers (vol. 2), Avengers: The Initiative, Mighty Avengers, Uncanny Avengers or Dark Avengers.
Film adaptations
In several films from Marvel production, the ground was prepared for a film adaptation after the end credits with short epilogue scenes. Such scenes can be found in Iron Man , The Incredible Hulk , Iron Man 2 , Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger . On April 26, 2011, Marvel announced that Marvel's The Avengers was going into production. The German film release was one year later on April 26, 2012. The follow-up Avengers: Age of Ultron was released in 2015, Avengers: Infinity War 2018. Iron Man is played by Robert Downey Jr. , Captain America by Chris Evans , Thor von Chris Hemsworth , Black Widow by Scarlett Johansson , Bruce Banner by Mark Ruffalo and Hawkeye by Jeremy Renner .
The 13-part animated series The Avengers - United They Stand was released in 1999 . From 2010 to 2012, an animated series entitled The Avengers - The Mightiest Heroes in the World was broadcast, consisting of two seasons of 26 episodes each and 20 mini-episodes each 5 minutes long. Another animated series followed in 2013 called Avengers - Together Invincible .
Loosely based on the comic series The Ultimate , two direct-to-DVD cartoons were released in 2006 : Ultimate Avengers - The Movie and Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of the Panther .
In addition, a 4D film entitled Marvel Super Heroes 4D has been shown at Madame Tussauds in London since 2010 . The superheroes were Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Hulk, Wolverine, Captain America, and Spider-Man.
literature
- Alan Cowsill: Marvel Avengers. Lexicon of superheroes. Completed and updated new edition. Dorling Kindersley, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-8310-2759-0 . (228 heroes and villains from Abomination to Yondu )
Web links
- The Avengers in Marvel Database (English)
- Meeting of Ultron Unlimited (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Comic Hunters: ComicHunters - comic series of the publisher Panini Verlags GmbH - Marvel Germany & Icon. In: www.comichunters.net. Retrieved March 29, 2016 .
- ↑ Official website for the film
- ↑ www.filmstarts.de