Some Assembly Required: A Brief History of The Avengers

On September 25^th The Avengers (2012) will storm onto DVD and Blu-ray across the world. The film made history in multiple ways. It is currently the third highest-grossing film of all time, and was the first theatrical film to combine the actors and characters of four separate film franchises into one sweeping epic. The result was something to marvel at.

Following two Iron Man films and films for Captain America, Thor, and a revamped Hulk, The Avengers is part six in the ever-connected Marvel Cinematic Universe. Each character has a rich history and the task of sorting out the complex, interweaving workings of the Avengers can be a daunting task. Enter in Michael Mallory's authoritative, exhaustive-in-research book Marvel: The Characters and Their Universe which was published in 2001 with a second edition in 2007. This is the perfect source for garnering an in-depth understanding of the Avenger characters and the Marvel Universe at large.      

If you saw the The Avengers (2012), and even if you didn’t, you know that it builds to a climactic battle in Manhattan. New York City (which David Letterman calls “The Greatest City in the World”) is a nostalgic mother-land and was the birthplace of many Marvel comic-book creators and a fitting location for their heroes to save the day. A quick overview of some birthplaces:  

Martin Goodman and John Romita are from Brooklyn, NY. Joe Simon is from Rochester, NY. Carl Burgos, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Gene Colan, John Buscema, and Sal Buscema are all from New York City, NY. Likewise, Timely Comics (which became Marvel) was head-quartered in Manhattan, New York City. 

THE AVENGERS – SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

CAPTAIN AMERICA, dubbed “The First Avenger” by the 2011 film, was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby 70 years earlier in March of 1941. Although Tony Stark is the first hero recruited by Nick Fury in the Marvel Film Universe, Steve Rogers is chronologically the First Avenger by a long shot. Simon and Kirby stayed with the comic-book for the first year (58), but with WWII coming to a close, the new writers could only keep Captain afloat for so long. As a result, the hero faded out and the title officially ended in 1954. Characters like the Johann Schmidt (aka the Red Skull), Bucky Barnes, and Abraham Erskine (all created by Simon and Kirby) were featured in the 2011 film. Additionally, Rogers develops a friendship with Howard Stark, which is a point of enmity between Rogers and Tony in The Avengers (2012). Speaking to Bruce Banner, Tony says, “This is the guy my father wouldn’t shut up about? I’m starting to think we should have left him on ice.”  

The Tesseract (or the Cosmic Cube) is a source of unlimited power and the focal point of The Avengers (2012). In Captain America (2011), Johann captures the cube (originally from Asgard) in Norway and enlists the help of HYDRA to weaponize the power source. Some of these weapons are recovered by SHIELD (much later) and stored in their arsenal in The Avengers - the weapons are known as Phase 2. The theme of “weaponizing” is seen throughout the Marvel Film Universe and causes Steve to remark “I guess the world hasn’t changed that much” upon discovering the HYDRA fire arms in SHIELD’s floating fortress. At the end of Captain America, Howard finds the Tesseract while searching for Rogers. The Tesseract is kept by SHIELD and seemingly depowered until it awakens in The Avengers when Loki activates it as a portal.

23 years after his debut, Captain America returned after a decade-long absence in the fourth issue of The Avengers (created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby). Rather than having the Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Giant Man, and the Wasp) find Steve Rogers and resurrect him, the film updates the continuity by having SHIELD discover and house Rogers. Indeed, Agent Coulson “watched him sleep,” or rather he was “there for the unfreezing process.” After being asleep for 70 years, Rogers runs outside (at the end of his solo movie) to modern day Times Square – a hint of things to come when Captain suits up in The Avengers (2012).

THE HULK was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1962 a year after the two giants began Marvel’s Platinum Age (a three year period in which most of Marvel’s classic superheroes were introduced) with The Fantastic Four (189). After starring in a groundbreaking, live-action TV show from 1977 to 1990, the Hulk’s venture into cinema would prove as tumultuous and uniquely troubled as the un-jolly giant himself. Ang Lee’s 2003 film was more miss then hit. Five years later, The Incredible Hulk was released two months after Iron Man in 2008, as a loose sequel to Lee’s original. The 2008 Hulk, however, featured an all new cast and creative team and is Bruce Banner’s first official outing in Marvel’s shared universe. 

According to the Official Marvel Timeline, the events of Iron Man 2, Thor, and Hulk (2008) all occurred simultaneously. What then is the time gap between these events and The Avengers? The best clue comes from Natasha Romanoff. In the film, Dr. Banner is ripped of his supporting cast and living in Calcutta. Natasha comments that Banner has been "a year without an incident," referring to the climatic battle in Hulk (2008). The following are additional signs that illustrate the year gap: The Stark Tower in New York is complete, Tony and Pepper Potts have a developed relationship, Tony is genuinely surprised to see Agent Coulson, and Jane Foster has been promoted within SHIELD (more on that later). And while the location of the SHIELD base at the beginning of the film in unknown, it's possible that it's the same base that SHIELD built around Thor's hammer in New Mexico. SHIELD declared that area a hot-bed for extra-terrestrial activity.           

There are a few references are made to Hulk (2008) in The Avengers (2012) and all are revealing. Bruce comments, “The last time he was in New York, I kind of broke Harlem” – Joss Whedon is wise not to state when this happened. The theme of weaponizing is prominent in Banner’s origin. Agent Coulson informs Rogers that Thunderbolt Ross forced Banner into re-creating the Captain America, super-solider serum using gamma radiation to disastrous results. General Ross means to weaponize the formula and create an army of super-soldiers. This goes horribly wrong when Emil Blonsky injects himself with the defective serum as well as Banner’s blood and transforms into Abomination. Thus, the Hulk and Abomination “break Harlem” in a fight; Banner flees afterwards.

The Avengers (2012) features an ongoing joke about how Banner is able to control his transformation. Natasha suggests “yoga,” Tony proposes “a huge bag of weed,” and everyone including Nick Fury (Director of SHIELD) thinks the solution is “avoiding stress.” In a highlight scene, Banner reveals the secret. “I’m always angry,” he says right before transforming at will. This moment echoes back to the last scene in Hulk (2008) when Banner begins transforming in a controlled manner – his eyes turn green. Thus Banner could go “a year without an incident” where nightmares used to set off the beast in Hulk lore. While Bruce has developed this useful “parlor trick,” previous scenes indicate that he can still transform involuntarily when provoked to extreme angry or when his life is endangered. As Banner comments, “I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out.”

THOR - Although Iron Man appears in film three years before Thor in the Marvel Film Universe, the reverse is true in the comics. After the success of the Hulk, Stan Lee searched for something “bigger and stronger than the Hulk” (209) as a follow up. Lee turned to Norse mythology for inspiration (which makes Thor the actual, chronological ‘First Avenger’ by a really, long short) and in 1962 created Thor with Jack Kirby and Larry Lieber (Stan’s younger brother, also a Manhattan native, who scripted the series). The debut featured Don Blake as an Arthurian-inspired, good guy worthy enough to posses Thor’s mighty hammer and be transformed into the Thunder God. Later this origin was altered, and Don was revealed to have been Thor all along.

In Thor (2011), the name Don Blake is referenced as Jane Foster’s ex-boyfriend. In addition, Jane and Erik Selvig convince SHIELD that the depowered-Thor is really their colleague Don and SHIELD releases Thor from captivity. “He’s a bit of a fitness nut,” explains Erik after Thor beats up a plethora of SHIELD security guards. In the film, Thor is not around long enough to necessitate a human alter-ego. In Thor’s comic debut, the Uru hammer (also known as Mjolnir) is discovered in Norway – the same country where the Red Skull retrieves the Tesseract (in Captain America) in the early 1940s. How the cube originally got to Earth remains unrevealed in the Marvel’s shared universe.

Located “at the edge of infinity across a shimmering rainbow bridge” (210), Asgard is home to Thor, Odin, Loki, and the Warriors Three. At the end of Thor (2011), the bridge is broken, and a bitter Loki falls into the abyss of space. In The Avengers (2012), Loki returns as the central villain. As Thor says, “it’s not just power he craves, its vengeance.” The film continues the saga of Thor more than any other Marvel hero, ironic given Thor’s entrance 40 minutes into the film.

After the events of Thor, SHIELD digs out the Tesseract from storage and begins to monitor its newfound activity in some unknown, desert location, in the southern United States. Loki makes a deal with a mysterious alien known as the Other to retrieve and trade the Tesseract for full use of his alien army, the Chitauri. “They will win him the Earth,” explains Thor. As the film opens, Loki and the Other use the Tesseract as a portal and send Loki to Earth. But the portal is unstable and begins to destroy the SHIELD base as Loki escapes with the Cube. Director Fury escapes with the Phase 2 weapons (including HYDRA gun prototypes) and begins to recruit “The Avengers.”

While recruitment is straight-forward enough for Coulson, Natasha, and Fury, Thor has to travel across galaxies without a rainbow bridge or a gatekeeper to help him. “How much dark magic did the old man have to conjure up to send you here?” inquires Loki of Thor, paying lip service to the portal dilemma. This implication of dark magic makes the task of stopping Loki all the more consequential. And unlike Thor’s previous outing where the Warrior Three came to his partial aid, Thor is now without familiar faces – Asgard and human alike.

In The Avengers (2012) a picture of Jane Foster receives a brief cameo. As Coulson explains, Loki’s attack motivated SHIELD to move their prized researcher to a safe, secluded, location featuring a “handsome fee” and a “private jet.” This seems to parallel the cost of an actual Natalie Portman cameo. Erik Selvig’s role in The Avengers proves better written then his role as the annoying skeptic in Thor. Loki uses mind-control to turn Erik into “his personal flying monkey” (a reference not lost on Captain America). Later on, however, the spell is broken and Erik assists Natasha in using Loki’s Tesseract-powered staff (or “the glow-stick of destiny” as Stark calls it) to close the portal.

And what about this theme of weaponizing? Before he is killed, Coulson shoots Loki with a powerful gun. "We started working on the prototype after you sent The Destroyer," comments Coulson (in reference to Thor). The Avengers are distrustful of weaponizing (even Phase 2) because the technology may fall into the wrong hands. Should Nick Fury and SHIELD "build an arsenal with the Tesseract?" The jury says no, and the Tesseract, along with Loki and Thor, are teleported back to Asgard. In all this excitement, one thing remains: no one knows more about the dangers of weaponizing then Iron Man. 

IRON MAN was created by Stan Lee (concept), Jack Kirby (character design), Don Heck (story design), and Larry Lieber (scripter) in March of 1963. The group effort is appropriate given Iron Man’s role as an Avengers founder and SHIELD collaborator. With two films in Marvel’s shared universe, Tony Stark has the richest back-story leading up to The Avengers (2012). Modernizing AC/DC-loving hero for his live-action debut (in 2008) meant some location changes. Vietnam became Afghanistan, and Stark’s New York mansion became a Malibu, California one. Stark, however, is no stranger to the Big Apple. Flushing Meadows (in New York City) plays a big role in Iron Man 2, while the Stark Tower in Manhattan is Tony’s main hub in The Avengers (2012).

The Iron Man films are largely concerned with Tony Stark developing an arc reactor powerful enough to sustain the suit and the electromagnet that protects his heart. Tony is a prodigy, a genius, and a technology expert. He chooses to put his mind, resources, and wealth into developing the all-powerful Iron Man suit. Tony’s first act of heroism (in the 2008 film) is to repay Yinsen who died saving Tony’s life. Iron Man flies back to Afghanistan and saves Yinsen’s village from Raza and his evil terrorist group called the Ten Rings.

Mr. Stark is not afraid to kill, and the writers are not afraid to place him in a real American war. The latter often brings hesitation because the writers wish to respect the real men and women who die for their country. In addition, Iron Man cannot end a war that is still ongoing after the back-page is flipped or the credits role. Director Jon Favreau succeeds in giving Tony a brief and personal role in the war without overstepping his bounds. Stark, after all, is a human with weapons and armor. An F-22 Raptor has more destructive power.

Obadiah Stane (later Iron Monger) and Ivan Vanko (later Whiplash) have a lot in common. Both see the power and attention of Stark’s mini-arc reactor and Iron suit, and both want it. Obadiah fails to create his own reactor and steals Stark’s. Ivan, meanwhile, is able to work from Stark’s original design and create an arc reactor to power his whip-like energy beams. The mini-arc reactor is the precious and its Stark’s baby. That’s why Justine Hammer doesn’t want Ivan making drones. Anyone can have a drone army, but a self-piloted suit with an arc reactor will turn a man into a god.

When the palladium core in the original arc reactor begins poisoning Tony, he sets off to create a new element. Using Howard Stark’s research, Tony succeeds. Obadiah, Ivan, Nick Fury, and Steve Rogers are all connected to Howard Stark. Obadiah was Howard’s old partner and the company manager. The evil Mr. Stane arranged for Tony to get kidnapped in Afghanistan which would render Obadiah CEO of Stark Industries. Ivan’s father Anton, meanwhile, collaborated with Howard on the first arc reactor. But after sending information to the Soviet Union, Anton was deported by Howard. In the opening of Iron Man 2, Anton dies penniless in Russia motivating Ivan’s revenge. Howard was also a founding member of SHIELD and Director Fury knew him personally. Thus, SHIELD has been in possession of the Tesseract since Howard fished it out of the arctic in the 1940s.

While Obadiah and Ivan sought to weaponize the Iron Man suit for their evil ends, James Rhodes becomes a trustworthy ally to Tony Stark donning a weapon-heavy version of the Mark II called War Machine. The US Government demanded Stark to turn over the Iron Man technology. But as we saw in the Hulk (2008), General Ross had less then noble intentions when making similar demands of Bruce Banner. Playing the middle man, Rhodey presented the government with the Mark II suit, but not the secret to Stark’s new arc reactor.

NICK FURY was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963 and debuted two months after Iron Man in the World War II, combat series Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. In Captain America (2011), Rogers leads a group of five Commandos against HYDRA and Red Skull sans the “cigar-chomping, nail-tough, wartime commando” (257). In the 1965 title Strange Tales #135 (also by Lee and Kirby), Fury went from sergeant to colonel and became James Bond-esque, Cold War spy. In the same issue, Fury was put in charge of SHIELD – a secret, military, law-enforcement agency – and in 1970 the adventures continued in Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD.

In 2002, “Ultimate” Nick Fury was re-imagined by Mark Miller and Brian Hitch in The Ultimates #1 as a bald, black general based off the likeness of Samuel L. Jackson. Here Nick Fury, as SHIELD director, recruits the revamped Avengers to create a response team and stop a rampaging Hulk. The Miller-Hitch creation inspired the Nick Fury of the Marvel Film Universe, as well as the status of Hawkeye and Black Widow as SHIELD agents first and foremost.

Director Fury has appeared in every film of the Marvel’s shared universe except Hulk (2008) which featured a post-credits cameo by Tony Stark. Fury’s biggest role was in Iron Man 2, and in The Avengers, he leads much of the action. In the film, Fury is often seen consulting an ominous “council,” implying that SHIELD works within government parameters when possible. Fury, however, frequently defies the council’s wishes especially when they make a “stupid-ass decision.”           

THE AVENGERS were created in 1963 (four months after Fury’s debut) by Lee and Kirby using mostly Lee and Kirby characters. Rather than meeting accidently and deciding to form a team, the Marvel Film Universe used the Ultimates storyline where Director Fury and SHIELD are responsible for the “Avengers Initiative.” This wise update helps tie together four characters from four franchises. Like the 1963 comic debut, The Avengers (2012) features Loki as the central protagonist and his successful scheme to pit the Hulk and Thor against each other.

THE BLACK WIDOW (the aforementioned Natasha Romanoff) was created a year after Marvel’s Platinum Age ended in 1963 by Stan Lee, Don Rico (scripter), and Don Heck in Tales of Suspense #52. The 1964 character began as a Soviet spy and supporting nemesis to the newly created Iron Man, and even recruited Hawkeye (Clint Barton) to her cause five issues later. Like Fury, Natasha jumped around the Marvel Universe. She became the 16^th member of the Avengers in 1966, donned her trademark, black outfit in 1970’s The Amazing Spider-Man (#86), and became an agent of SHIELD in the 1980s.      

In Iron Man 2, SHIELD instructed Natasha to work undercover as a personal assistant to spy on Tony Stark and his ailing condition. Natasha kept an eye on Stark Industries as Stark shut himself off from the world to work on a new arc reactor. Later on, she came to Stark’s aid when she infiltrates Ivan’s layer and reprogrammed the Ivan-controlled War Machine into free operation. In The Avengers (2012), Natasha is the lone, female hero and SHIELD field-agent. She recruits Banner, fights a mind-controlled Hawkeye, and closes the portal to the Chitauri army. Agent Maria Hill is another, notable agent of SHIELD who works closely with Fury and the SHIELD helicarrier.

HAWKEYE, as mentioned, is the last Avenger (2012) hero to enter the Marvel Universe. He was created by Stan Lee and Don Heck (no involvement from Kirby this time) in Tales of Suspense #57 – also in 1964, naturally. Hawkeye had a small part in Thor (2011), making him the last Avenger, chronologically, to be featured in the Marvel Film Universe. In yet another example of consistency, Clint Barton, who was mind-controlled by Loki for half of the film, is also the last hero to join the newly-assembled team.

There we have it folks – the Avengers have assembled and they cannot be stopped. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have spawned Earth’s Mightiest Film Franchise. With a 1.4 billion worldwide box-office gross, The Avengers (2012) remains the third highest-grossing film of all time. Writer-director Joss Whedon is set to return for the sequel with its May 2015 release. In the meantime, Disney/Marvel is moving forward with Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and I don’t mean alien weapons). A third Iron Man is due for May 3 of next summer, followed by Thor: The Dark World five months later in November of 2013. 2014, meanwhile, will see the release of Captain America: The Winter Solider (in April) and Guardians of the Galaxy (in August) which will also be part of the Marvel shared universe. And to keep it all straight, Michael Mallory’s non-fiction opus Marvel: The Characters and Their Universe is a must read for any fan of the comic-book empire. It’s a collector’s dream and a Fort Knox of information. There should be a sticker that reads “SHIELD CLASSIFIED” stamped on it.         

[End Note] Michael Mallory is a Marvel expert with a Marvel name. The tradition of using double-initial names for the alter-egos of heroes was popularized by Stan Lee and became a trademark for the Man. The first ones were Reed Richards and Sue Storm, followed by Bruce Banner, Scott Summers, Warren Worthington III, Peter Parker and the like. Lee was producing characters at such a high speed that the double-initials helped him keep track of the names. In a famous example of renaming, the powers that be were on “B” overload and not fond of actor Bill Bixby playing Bruce Banner on The Incredible Hulk TV show, so Banner was renamed David Banner (126). 

Caleb S Garcia

August 26, 2012