This date in 1922 saw the birth of Stan Lee, creator of many Marvel characters. Today, 10 things you might not know about The Avengers:
- The original team was made up of solo heroes who got together with Thor to fight the trickster god, Loki. When they'd dealt with that particular threat, they decided to continue working together and that they needed a name. In the comics, a character who has never appeared in the films named the new team. That was Janet van Dyne, a.k.a. The Wasp, who said, “It should be something colourful and dramatic like 'The Avengers,' or...” We'll never know what her second suggestion was going to be, because Ant-Man interrupted, saying “Or nothing! That's it! The Avengers!”
- The Avengers only exist at all because there was a hold up getting Daredevil #1 to the printer in time for the scheduled print run. Rather than cancel it, Stan Lee suggested bringing a bunch of existing superhero characters together to form a team. Readers would already know their origin stories, so they'd be ready to hit the ground running in a scenario which could be put together quickly. There was another issue when it came to publication. DC had control over Marvel at the time and could dictate how many titles they had. So in order to allow the Avengers and The X-Men to be distributed, Marvel had to cancel two existing titles. Love Romances and Gunsmoke Western were the two chosen to bite the dust.
- The Hulk was only an Avenger for one issue of the comics, and Captain America wasn't in the initial line up at all. The Hulk quit in a huff by the end of the second issue, and on their first outing after he'd gone they were chasing Namor, the Sub-Mariner and discovered a frozen man under the sea – Captain America, who joined the team after he'd been thawed out.
- The team has undergone countless changes in line up since the 1960s, far too numerous to list here. Not everyone who was offered a place on the team accepted. Both Spiderman and Daredevil initially declined, and only joined the Avengers much later.
- Avengers featured one of the first civil rights stories in comics history when the villains were a thinly veiled version of the Ku Klux Klan called the Sons of the Serpent.
- The Avengers headquarters was in New York City, in a building called Avengers Mansion, provided by Tony Stark, Iron Man's billionaire alter-ego. They had a butler to look after them, named Edwin Jarvis, and their own private plane, the five-engine Quinjet.
- The synthetic human character Vision was originally going to be an alien, because the writer Roy Thomas planned to revive a hero from another title, an alien cop called the Vision. Stan Lee, however, was adamant that their Vision should be a robot.
- Nick Fury was originally a white World War II vet. At some point, it was decided that a new version of the character should be African American. They explained the change by introducing the original Nick Fury's long lost African American son, Nick Fury, Jr., to take over from him when he got chained to the Moon. Artist Bryan Hitch decided to base the new character on Samuel L. Jackson. When it came to casting for the films, Jackson hadn't failed to notice the resemblance between himself and the character and put himself forward for the role.
- The bosses of Marvel and DC might have a somewhat antagonistic relationship, but their employees got along just fine. Roy Thomas and DC writer Mike Friedrich got together to produce a crossover with the Avengers and the Justice League of America. They had to do it on the QT so their bosses wouldn't know anything about it until the respective comics hit the shops.
- It's all very well having a superhero team in New York, but what if the villains attack California? Even with super powers and a private jet, the Avengers can't do it all. So West Coast Avengers was set up, featuring former members of the New York Team, led by Hawkeye. There were other spin offs, too, including the Secret Avengers, New Avengers, Great Lakes Avengers (who were a bit inept but managed to save the world in spite of that), and Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers Unleashed, which was made up entirely of animal characters: Lockjaw, Throg, Redwing, Lockheed, Hairball, and Ms. Lion.
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The Power of Love
Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic ordering and the significance of chance encounters. She believes there's a spiritual explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.
A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.
Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.
When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.
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