A Guide to the Avengers

And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth’s mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united against a common threat.  On that day, the Avengers were born – to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand!  Through the years, their roster has prospered, changing many times, but their glory has never been denied!  Heed the call, then – for now, the Avengers Assemble!

Those words graced the title page of hundreds of Avengers comics since their beginning in 1963.  The original team of Thor, Iron Man, Giant Man, the Wasp, and the Hulk united to defeat the maniacal plans of Thor’s evil half-brother, Loki.  Hulk would soon leave feeling the team could never trust him, but the team would gain a living legend, Captain America.  Cap’s influence was felt so deeply that the original charter of the team was revised to list him as a founding member.

The Avengers #1

Over the years, their ranks would grow to include such mainstays as the Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and the Vision.  They battled near unstoppable foes like Doctor Doom, Magneto, Ultron (a creation by their own founding member, Hank Pym), Kang the Conqueror, Immortus, Skrulls, Kree, Count Nefarious, and Michael Korvac, a man so powerful, he killed the entire team.  Each and every time, the Avengers stood up to them and won the day.

The Classic Avengers

But, then came an unforseen and horrible day in their glorious history.  One of their most powerful members, the Scarlet Witch, no longer able to control her mutant hex powers, systematically destroyed the team by altering reality around them and killing long standing members the Vision (her ex-husband) and Hawkeye.  Unable to repair the damage she brought and the heartbreak caused, the team disbanded.

Avengers: Disassembled

Six months later, the team reunited with a new roster while stopping a prison break of the world’s most powerful supervillains.  Joining Iron Man and Captain America were Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Wolverine, and Luke Cage.  They would later be joined by the Sentry, Marvel Universe’s Superman if you will, and Ronin (the new guise of Daredevil’s brief love interest Echo from Brian Michael Bendis’ run).

The New Avengers

When the Superhero Civil War began, the new Avengers were torn right down the center with a Captain America-led team on one side and an Iron Man-led team on the side of the government who was requiring masked heroes to register their real names and take government jobs.  Iron Man’s side would win and in the aftermath of Captain America’s surrender, he was shot and killed.

The Superhero Civil War

Captain America’s legacy would continue to drive his team in the pages of The New Avengers while Iron Man’s new, government-sponsored team debuted in The Mighty Avengers.  Also during this time, the Superhuman Registration Act required the creation of a training facility that would later feed each state’s team of Avengers.  These youngsters made their debut in Avengers: The Initiative.

The Initiative

All was not safe, though.  For years, the evil Skrull Empire had been posing as heroes and villains across Earth in preparation to take over the planet to make it their new homeworld.  After a devastating war with the shapeshifters, it would not be a hero that saves the world.  Instead, in front of the whole world, Norman Osborn executed the Skrull Queen elevating him to the status of a hero of the people and the most powerful man in the world.  He would go on to create his own team of Avengers in the series, Dark Avengers.

Dark Avengers

With Tony Stark on the run with war criminal charges following him, Steve Rogers dead, and Thor secluding himself in his recreated Asgard, Norman Osborn was free to do whatever he wanted.  And now, he’s prepared to take on his greatest plan, the invasion and destruction of Asgard in 2010′s Siege.  Nevermind the Asgardians and all their power.  Osborn will be facing the combined might of three teams of Avengers and the return of Steve Rogers from the dead.

As of Siege #1, the rosters for the respective teams are as follows:

The Dark Avengers – Iron Patriot (Norman Osborn), Hawkeye (Bullseye), Spider-Man (Mac Gargan/Venom), Wolverine (Daken), Ms. Marvel (Karla Sofen/Moonstone), Ares, The Sentry and Captain Marvel (Noh-Varr, who I might add has recently gone AWOL upon learning what kind of company he’s kept with these Avengers)

The New Avengers – Ronin (Clint Barton), Luke Cage, Mockingbird, Captain America (Bucky Barnes), Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Wolverine, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist (an occasional contributor)

The Mighty Avengers – The Wasp (Hank Pym), U.S. Agent, Stature, Vision, Amadeus Cho, Hercules, Quicksilver, and Jocasta

The Avengers Resistance/Counter Force* – Justice, Rage, Slapstick, Debrii, Scarlet Spider, Night Thrasher, Tigra, Gauntlet, Melati Kusuma (Komodo), and Diamondback (serving as a mole inside Camp H.A.M.M.E.R.)

(* This Avenger team is made up of former students/instructors of the original camp created for the training of young heroes.  They are more or less a second New Warriors team than an Avengers team.)

The Avengers fight continue to fight for the freedom and safety of all life and will soon be taking on Norman Osborn for the ultimate fight to bring down his evil empire at the steps of Asgard.  Even beyond Siege, the Avengers will be the most powerful collection of superheroes in the Marvel Universe and one of the most popular comics sold today.

(Images courtesy of Marvel Comics.)