It All Began Here
The Avengers are as an iconic team as one could get in this day and age. They are the keystone upon which the grand Marvel Cinematic Universe is constructed, a franchise of films which as of my writing this is the most successful cinematic franchise of all time (I doubt very much of that changing) with a total gross of 8.5 BILLION dollars! And it all began here. And it’s something of a disappointment when compared to similar works of the time.
The villain of our piece is Loki and if you are familiar with Journey Into Mystery of the time will elicit quite the groan. Through some pieces of mischief he convinces the people of America that the hulk is on a rampage. An attempt by the Hulk’s compatriots the Teen Squad to contact the Fantastic Four is blocked, causing it to instead be caught by Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp. The rest of the book details their attempts to halt the rampage of The Hulk and Thor’s simultaneous attempts to seize Loki and prove him the cause of The Hulk’s rage.
The issue with this comic is there are pacing problems throughout. The two concurrent plot threads feel disparate, unconnected and really too much for a single 22 page issue. And yet at the same time the pacing is glacial here, the writing is too verbose and the dialog is poor even for the standard of the time. So many characters are thrust into so many situations that they have no time to converse, the situations themselves feel like they take forever, but it is all set up or in fight monologues. There’s none of the cross character banter you’d want from the first issue of a team up comic. Stan Lee fails to write engaging or memorable dialog and only sets up the team in the very last panel of the book. The name is sprung from thin air by the Wasp. The Avengers are born in the most slap dash manner you could imagine.
The art here feels like a poor effort by Kirby. I’ve said before that he lacks the eye for detail that his peers of the time bring to the table, but here he is unable to make up for that with interesting compositions because he is shackled by the poor script. There are a number of fights here between multiple participants but they never feel exciting, either the setups are too mundane (they drop a barrel on The Hulk at one point) or the script is restrictive (The Troll just kind of hugs Thor for several panels). Things pick up in the final fight in a Detroit car factory but it is never anything to match Kirby’s best nor really his average. I will say that the cover is Iconic and it is so for a reason. All of our heroes are posed dynamically, bearing down on their ultimate foe and I imagine that cover alone drive huge sales of this comic. It has detail that the interior lacks, and is refreshingly sparse of word bubbles.
This is one of the most important comic events of all time. The first gathering of The Avengers, the team which very much will come to form the core of the Marvel Universe. It is a shame that their first foray together is so narratively disappointing and poorly drawn. This is quite a misstep for Stan Lee and his team, one which I am confident they will move past quickly going forward.
That’s Right! We Need A Name! It Should Be Something Colorful And Dramatic Like… The Avengers
The Wasp
