Who are the Avengers?
an14...@anon.penet.fi
The Avengers is not the X-Men: they're "fighting for a dream".
The Avengers, obviously, is like that old TV show Mission
Impossible, except they're wearing costumes. Think about it:
whether they're working for the US government or the UN, they're
supposed to wait until ordered to go on a mission. (This plot
point is rarely used however.) One hopes they know what the
mission is about before they go and that they've prepared
accordingly. Ideally, the Chairman would be able to pick
and choose which members would go on the mission, taking
into account their own special talents. The only things missing
in this analogy are those little tapes that self-destruct. :)
Incidentally, John Byrne claimed that he was trying this take
on the Avengers starting with Avengers #306. He wasn't on the
Avengers very long though. Fabian Nicieza had a (very) short
run on the Avengers that captured the Mission Impossible feel
(The story had the Avengers teaming up with Alpha Flight and
some Soviet team. Wow... that's out of date now, eh?) but then
Larry Hama came along and we had the silly notion of substitute
Avengers! Bob Harras' run, on the other hand, included Galactic
Storm which, if nothing else, not only mixed the East and West
groups but brought back some of the older characters, thus making
it possible for groups to be formed on the spot for specific
missions... which in the Byrne model is how it should be.
Of course, if you're not happy with this analogy then you could
argue that the Avengers (or the JLA) are like a modern day
Legion of Super Heroes. The Legion of Super Heroes universe
has the advantage that the Legion is IT: there's no X-Men or
Fantastic Four to come save them if they fail. I think there's
a bit of cynicism with the Marvel and DC universes in that there's
so many heroes that villains really don't stand a chance in the
long run. :I
The question then is whether or not Jim Valentino will follow this
type of model. According to Mr. Valentino, the new line-up will be
"Captain America, Hawkeye, Hellcat, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Swordsman
and Thor" with Giant Man and the Wasp as supporting characters
but that "there will be no membership limit and, as with Avengers
Volume One, membership will be in a constant state of flux with
members coming and going". So the answer would appear to be yes.
Martin
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david beaulieu
: Well, the Avengers is not the FF: the FF is a family.
: The Avengers is not the X-Men: they're "fighting for a dream".
What the Avengers are is an order, along the lines of the midieval
knight orders. They are a group of hero who have banded together to
fight in defense of their planet and in defense of each other, though
this last point has never been expressly stated by any Avenger, this is by
far the current trend.
What makes the Avengers unique is the fact that each and every member
_chose_ to belong. Like you said, the FF are a family. You can't pick
family. The X-Men don't have a choice because they are "feared and hated".
The Avengers want to belong to something.
I think they would be a much more tighter group if the roster evolved much
more slowly and the chairperson was permanent, let's see two hundred issues of
just Cap (or whoever) in charge. Before issue 150, the biggest news in
comicdom was a radical change in the roster of the Avengers. Now, it's such a
state of constant flux even the steady readers can't tell who's coming or
going.
Also, the Avengers, as set up by Stan Lee, where the dream team. He took
the most popular characters of the time, the ones who had been around the
longest (except FF & Spi) and put them together. It would be interesting
to do that again. Who are the (very arguably) most popular characters?
Captain America
Wolverine
Hulk
Thor
Spiderman
Cable
It would be interesting to see these characters as the team, to
return the Avengers to the "Dream Team" mentality. That isn't to say
many of these characters would lend themselves well to the Avengers
ideology, but maybe the ideology can change. Maybe the Avengers can
begin "Avenging".
Ciao.
Abhay Khosla
Well, there was Emma Peel and Mr. Steed(?), for starters...
-Abhay
akh...@umich.edu
Uhm, just so I'm not guilty over what would otherwise be Spam... uhm,
lets throw in a story off the top of my head...
Once, there was this guy. And he got powers. From an accident right?
One day a villain attacked him? So, this guy was smart so he, get this,
he beat up the villain. THe moral: violence makes you a hero. The end.
MATTHEW Z. WOOD
On Tue, 16 Apr 1996, Abhay Khosla wrote:
>=20
> Well, there was Emma Peel and Mr. Steed(?), for starters...
>=20
> -Abhay
> akh...@umich.edu
> Uhm, just so I'm not guilty over what would otherwise be Spam... uhm,=20
> lets throw in a story off the top of my head...
>=20
> Once, there was this guy. And he got powers. From an accident right? =
=20
> One day a villain attacked him? So, this guy was smart so he, get this,=
=20
> he beat up the villain. THe moral: violence makes you a hero. The end.
>=20
>=20
Hey, yeah! And then Linda Thorson played Tara King, but she wasn't near=20
as cool as Emma Peel=C9 I think the whole thing started with John Steed and=
=20
some doctor too=C9 oh, wait=C9 I'm just chiming in on someone else's joke,=
=20
aren't I?
=09:)Never mind.(:
an14...@anon.penet.fi
Well, that sometimes happens with mail-to-usenet posts. :I
Just substitute "LNH" for "the Avengers" and it'll be on topic. :)
Jeff McCoskey
Abhay Khosla <akh...@umich.edu> writes:
>
>Uhm, just so I'm not guilty over what would otherwise be Spam... uhm,
>
this,
end.
ROFL! The RACCIE candidates are coming out early this year. The
modern classic "Not Guilty of SPAM" has raised the bar for the rest of
us...;]
JJMcC, this really smacked my funny bone.
Peter Milan
>
>In <Pine.SOL.3.91.960415...@qbert.rs.itd.umich.edu>
>Abhay Khosla <akh...@umich.edu> writes:
>>
>>Uhm, just so I'm not guilty over what would otherwise be Spam... uhm,
>>lets throw in a story off the top of my head...
>>
>>Once, there was this guy. And he got powers. From an accident
right?
>
>>One day a villain attacked him? So, this guy was smart so he, get
>this,
>>he beat up the villain. THe moral: violence makes you a hero. The
>end.
Curiously enough, that's the plot of this month's _Savage Dragon._
Verbatim.
With an evil cackle, it's...
Tick
(No sig--eerie!)