Super heroes are plastered all over the media nowadays. No sooner have Thor, the X-Men and Green Lantern gone from this summer's cinema screens than Captain America springs up to replace them.
Last night I watched a BBC documentary called Scotland's Amazing Comic Book Heroes. Amusingly, it had visual echoes of the 1966 Batman tv series, in spite of its patriotic presentation of Morrison, Millar and Quitely. Meanwhile, STV is screening the new Avengers cartoon series at 8am on Sunday mornings. I've missed about half of the episodes but, despite using the prison breakout from New Avengers as a framing device, it's the classic Roy Thomas/ John Buscema line-up from 1968. Pity about the theme music: where the Justice League cartoon featured a stirring march, Avengers have a bratty, nasal rock song.
Maybe this is some meta-commentary on DC as the rather staid company (whose iconic characters are in a paddy trying to get into their Nineties wardrobe again, like the Take That mums last month) while Marvel loves to see itself as the rebel with pink hair and piercings, all devil-worship and misanthropy. However, it doesn't alter the fact that Avengers has been a monster of a franchise for almost half a decade.
As a Bronze Age Boy, the Mighty Avengers were my favourite comic book team, at least until the Claremont and Byrne X-Men came off their bimonthly schedule (At DC it was the Mike Grell Legion; the JLA only had two brief periods of excellence: the Wein/Dillin period and the Conway/Perez issues in the very early 80s.).
I was always tinkering with the roster of the Assemblers, even in 1977. My fantasy line-up included Darkstar, Captain Britain, Venus, Colleen Wing, the Guardsman and Spider-Woman- anyone I had just read about that week, basically.
One factor that makes the Avengers different from other superhero squads is that the ever-changing membership is part of its unique appeal:
I'd have that blazing, black 80s logo for my team
It's traditional to impose your own pet character on the team, if you're the writer...
I wonder who Fishbowl-Head was supposed to be?
I've grown to love Marvel's cinema-friendly roster and sighed at The Johns Lee-gue of America ( Element Woman? Cyborg? Really?) so my recent tinkering in this blog took the form of "Change Partners and Dance". Having "fixed" the Justice League by applying Brian Bendis's Big Marquee Names Fight Urban Crime formula, I tried employing James Robinson and Mark Bagley's short-lived model of Former Proteges and Obscurities for the Assemblers. But it still didn't feel right. Much as I liked them, Starfox and the Phantom Blonde would be cannon fodder for the Supreme Intelligence, Kang or Ultron.
New Avengers falls back through time thirty years!
So, once again, I'm playing at “Build Your Perfect Avengers.” But, because my dream team should look like a genuine and commerical Marvel lineup, not just a random assortment of folks that are cool, there are guidelines: 1) Spider-Man isn't a loner, he's a loser. If he joined the Earth's Mightiest Heroes, he'd only end up being kicked out in a twist of fate. Sorry, Peter.
2) Avoid pilfering from other teams- so, no Ben Grimm, Emma Frost or Wolverine. I also have a bit of a problem with that "hated and feared mutants" business.
3) Ethnic diversity is encouraged (The new DC is trumpeting its inclusion agenda, after all).
4) The membership limit is seven. Unlike the JLA who had over a dozen members in the Bronze Age or the Legion who had twice that number, the Avengers often had five or six.It benefits character interaction and...
The Man says so.
Each character should ideally be selected with two criteria in mind : what do they bring to the table? (A particularly useful power set, experience, insight, etc.) and what makes them an interesting choice, from a team-dynamic/storytelling perspective? So, let's get to work.
Leadership/iconic status;barbaric might; and futuristic technology. The clash between the man from the past and the man who lives in the future could be explosive. There simply cannot be an Avengers team without at least one of this trio.
Ah. Spoke too soon...
This line-up only has two more slots remaining...
At this point, I want to introduce two members on whom I was keen but who didn't make the final cut. They would have occupied the places of T'Challa and Jan, when it was a six-person team.
There are two reserve members: the perennial hothead and the magical support.
I had a bizarre idea for a guest character: Nina Price, Vampire By Night.
...because where I'm really going with this is the return of Mys-Tech and these guys in a Nineties revival...
Hell's Angel, Death's Head and Motormouth
...since Disney have placed a dumb embargo on home-grown super-hero product. Stupid corporate twonks.
Rage was going to be the next Wolverine. Hmm...
Okay, your turn. Who did I miss? Who should never, ever be permitted to join the team? Where’s the Beast? ( I feel like I haven’t seen the "Real McCoy" in years.) Why should Daimon Hellstrom lead the Avengers? Let's go crazy.
Next: Who New
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