The Order Changeth . . . Again and Again: What The Avengers Can Teach Writers about Shaking Things Up

Avengers # 1   © and ™ Marvel.

While I’m waiting for a chance to see Marvel’s The Avengers, let's take a look back at what made the latest super-team to become a film franchise so popular to begin with.

It wasn't heroes such as Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. 


It wasn't the villains.  


It wasn’t even the writing or art, both of which vary widely from era to era. 

It was the personnel changes.

The Avengers stood apart from other super-teams in that its membership changed—and changed often.  These days, almost every super-team undergoes radical changes, but the Avengers did it first.

The early issues of The Avengers, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby (and later Don Heck), demonstrated how you can shake things up to keep your own stories interesting.

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes . . . and Then Some

The Avengers debuted in the first issue of their self-titled series, cover dated September 1963. To put this in context, very few super-hero teams preceded them: the Justice Society of America (which debuted in 1940), the short-lived All-Winners Squad (1946), the Legion of Super-Heroes (1958), the Justice League of America (1960), the Fantastic Four (1961), and the Doom Patrol (June 1963). The now mega-popular X-Men debuted the same month as the Avengers.

Most of these teams were built around a core cast of characters. The Avengers' fellow Marvel Universe team, the Fantastic Four, for example, always returned to its core cast of Reed, Ben, Sue, and Johnny.  Even when Crystal, Medusa, and others joined in later years, they were temporary stand-ins.  

Over at rival DC Comics, the JLA and the LSH accumulated members, becoming small organizations. This posed enormous challenges for writers, few of whom wanted to squeeze 14 to 25 heroes into stories on a regular basis.

The JSA, during its initial run from 1940-51, lost a few members here and there, but it revolved around a core team that included the Golden Age Hawkman and Atom. After the JSA's revival in the '60s, it, too, accumulated members. 

The Doom Patrol, like the FF, consisted of the same four characters, and the X-Men, throughout the '60s, featured the same five.

Lee and subsequent Avengers writers, on the other hand, regularly dropped members from the roster—and sometimes almost the entire team.

Marvel’s JLA?

The Avengers initially consisted of Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Ant-Man and The Wasp. Borrowing an idea from the rival company's JLA, this lineup boasted all of Marvel's heroes at the time who starred in their own series and were not otherwise engaged in a team, except for Spider-Man.  (Lee apparently wanted to preserve Spidey's loner status.)

Marvel, then a small company, published only a few titles in those days, most of which were anthology series held over from the '50s. Thus Thor starred in Journey into Mystery (which was eventually re-titled The Mighty Thor), Iron Man appeared in Tales of Suspense, and Ant-Man and The Wasp co-starred in Tales to Astonish.  After a six-issue series of his own had failed, The Hulk became the second feature in TtA.

It was quite an eclectic team by early '60s standards, and it didn't last.

Changes started happening as early as the second issue.

Over in TtA, Ant-Man changed his powers and his name, and so, midway through Avengers # 2, he appears as Giant-Man. Then, following the team's battle with the Space Phantom (who had disguised himself as the Hulk), the Hulk became the first Avenger to quit, after realizing the others would never trust him.

I can't be sure why Lee instituted two changes in the same issue, so early in the book's run. After all, this risky move was bound to unsettle new readers.  Storywise, however, the second change made sense.  The Hulk, an unpredictable, rage-filled monster, was hardly team material. And, though no longer a member, he continued to appear for the next few issues: In # 3, he teamed up with Marvel's other celebrated anti-hero, The Sub-Mariner, to fight the remaining Avengers.

As for Ant-Man, I suspect this character lagged behind the others in terms of popularity or fan appeal. Even the change to Giant-Man did little to improve his standing: Within two years, he and The Wasp would lose their own series in TtA (replaced by The Sub-Mariner).  

In any event, Giant-Man provided the team with more muscle—they still had Thor and Iron Man in that department—so they needed something different, something . . . patriotic.

Enter: Captain America

Cap, the stalwart WWII hero, joined in Avengers # 4. He brought acrobatic ability, a shield, and an iconic sense of what a hero should be.

Later writers played up Cap's leadership qualities: his ability to lead heroes much more powerful than he is, the reverence other Avengers hold for him, and his sense of duty which inspires the best in those around him. These qualities are evident during Lee's tenure, as well, although Cap spends much of his time hanging out with teen sidekick Rick Jones, and not so much time interacting with his new teammates. Nevertheless, Cap (who joined Iron Man as co-feature of Tales of Suspense) proved overwhelmingly popular with fans and came to dominate the book.  

Still, something wasn't quite gelling. During the next dozen issues, the Avengers fought the likes of Kang, the Mole Man, and Count Nefaria—hardly awe-inspiring or earth-shaking villains.  Lee and artist Jack Kirby seemed to be saving their best ideas for their other books.  And then Lee decided to shake things up by getting rid of almost the entire team.

Leaner, Meaner, and More Quarrelsome

It was a bold move. It had never been done in a super-hero team comic before. But in Avengers # 16, Lee retired all of the original Avengers, leaving only Captain America. 

Who should replace Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp?  Three much less powerful characters—Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch.  All three had previously been villains.

This sort of thing usually happens when a book is on the verge of cancellation. I’m not privy to Marvel’s sales figures of that time, but it must be noted that the company itself was still small and struggling. The iconic characters we take for granted today were still in their formative stages, and Marvel as a comics publisher enjoyed little more than cult status. The company was a distant and non-threatening competitor in an industry dominated by DC Comics (then National Comics). 

When a company has little to lose, experimentation is welcome. 

And, in the Avengers’ case, the experiment paid off. Although I prefer having Thor and Iron Man on the team, the stories following their departure remain some of my favorites. Lee played off the personalities of his new Avengers, having them bicker and go through personal angst. Hawkeye and Quicksilver challenged Cap for leadership. Cap doubted his place as a hero in the modern world. And everybody fell in love with the token female, The Scarlet Witch—including The Swordsman, a villain who infiltrated the team in # 20.

Furthermore, the Avengers faced real challenges when they fought the likes of Power Man, Kang (again) and Attuma. They had to struggle to win.

Gathering No Moss

By keeping the team small and not being afraid to jettison fan favorites, Lee set the tone for a series which has endured almost 50 years and is now the subject of a blockbuster film. While the Avengers' lineup has almost always included some combination of core characters—Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Wasp, The Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye—the team was built on change, and change remains an important part of its appeal.  

If you find yourself stuck in your story, take a cue from The Avengers and shake things up.

If you like this article, you may also like: 

• How To Avoid Writing a “Travesty”: What Avengers # 200 Can Teach You

• 3 Comic Book Stories that “Work”

  
  
  
  

How To Avoid Writing a “Travesty”: What Avengers # 200 Can Teach You

Image via Wikipedia

Characters and Images © and ™ Marvel

What can a “travesty” of a story teach you about writing?

A lot, actually.

That word has been used to describe “The Child Is Father To . . .?” from Avengers # 200 (October 1980).

Fans throw words like “travesty” around all the time, but this condemnation comes from one of the story’s alleged co-writers, Jim Shooter.

Shooter (who was also then editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics) disavows any memory of working on or approving the story, but he agrees with fan opinion that the “The Child Is Father To . . . ?“ is both a "travesty" and “heinous”. 

And with good reason: the story features the kidnapping and seduction of a super-heroine, who is forced to give birth to her own abuser and then runs off to spend all eternity with him in limbo.

As someone once said, “Eeeew!”

But our disgust factor doesn’t begin to do the story justice.  When a sequel was published a year later, in Avengers Annual # 10, we learned just how flawed our heroes can be, how they took the villain’s account of things at face value, and how they unthinkingly betrayed one of their own.

Yet for all those reasons, Avengers # 200 can teach you to look at your own stories in a different way.

Earth’s Dumbest Heroes?

The story and its sequel are discussed in depth here.  A brief recap: The Avengers, billed as “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” is a team that includes three of the Marvel Universe’s most popular heroes, Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man, along with fan favorites such as The Vision, The Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, The Beast (who graduated from the X-Men),  and . . . Ms. Marvel.

Never heard of Ms. Marvel?  Originally a supporting character named Carol Danvers, she was given powers and her own series in the 1970s to capitalize on the Women’s Liberation movement and the popularity of “Ms.” as a form of address.

But in 1980, with the Reagan Revolution just around the corner and the country starting to swing toward Conservativism, “Ms.” seemed like an antiquated title.  One article I read years ago theorized that this was the reason she had to be removed from The Avengers.

And removed she was.  In Avengers # 198, she discovers she’s pregnant in spite of insisting there can be no father (apparently, the word “virgin” was taboo in comics in those days).  In three days, she carries the baby full term and gives birth in Avengers # 200.

(Avengers # 200, by the way, lists four writers: David Michelinie as the main writer, and Shooter, George Pérez, Bob Layton, and Michelinie as co-plotters.  Art is by Pérez and Dan Green.  If you’re going to create a travesty, it’s a good idea to spread the blame around.)

 

The child grows at an accelerated rate and reveals himself to be Marcus Immortus, a resident of the dimension known as limbo.  Marcus says he kidnapped Ms. Marvel from our world, impregnated her with his own essence, and returned her to earth so he could be born on earth and leave limbo forever.

However, Marcus’s presence on earth disrupts “the local time stream,” causing dinosaurs and medieval knights to appear in the present day.  When it becomes clear that Marcus cannot remain on earth, he tearfully agrees to return to limbo, alone.  But wait!  Ms. Marvel says.

Dim feelings from their brief “relationship” in limbo and the fact that she’s given birth to him have caused her to “feel closer” to Marcus than anyone in a long time.  Deciding this is “a relationship worth pursuing,” she abandons her life on earth and returns to limbo with him. 

Though puzzled by her decision, the Avengers go along with it.  Thor even provides the “happy couple” transportation back to limbo.

The article linked to above analyzes the problems with this story. 

But what can you as a writer take from it?  Five things . . .

1. Examine your own assumptions.  The writers of Avengers # 200 apparently did not do this.  They treat Ms. Marvel as a stereotypical female comics character of those days:  She makes a life-changing decision based on feelings of the moment and a need to "feel close" to someone.  She leaves behind her career and her friends to be with her man  –  a man who kidnapped and impregnated her without her knowledge. 

Did the writers intend to write a story that justifies rape?  Probably not.  More likely, they didn’t examine their own assumptions regarding women. 

Most writers find it difficult to write characters who are not like them – whether the character is of a different sex, race, religion, or whatever.   This can result in stereotypical, flat, and demeaning characters.

This difficulty is perfectly normal and human.  That’s why writers do research.

2. Look beyond the surface of your story.  In the sequel, Carol sharply criticizes the Avengers for taking everything Marcus said at face value.  Unfortunately, many writers do the same with their own stories.  They finish the first draft and think it’s brilliant.

Drill deeper.  Write multiple drafts.  You may be surprised what you uncover.

3. Heroes (and writers) have feet of clay.  This point seems less shocking today than it did 30 years ago.  The media is all over our political leaders and celebrities every time they screw up.  In some ways, we’ve gone to the opposite extreme by seeing heroes as imperfect specimens whose flaws are just waiting to be exposed.

Even so, it’s worth noting that The Scarlet Witch comes to realize that she not only failed her friend, but that she is capable of such a failure.

All writers are capable of writing a “travesty”.  Don’t delude yourself into thinking otherwise.

4. Own up to your mistakes.  The Avengers walk away in the sequel with egg on their faces.  It’s not a very heroic depiction, but it is necessary for them to face “harsh truths” about themselves so they can “emerge stronger” the next time a challenge presents itself.

Likewise, facing up to your own weaknesses may be the hardest thing you'll ever do.  But it's necessary if you want to grow as a writer.

5. Life is not fair, and our actions have consequences for others.  The sequel, written by Chris Claremont, brilliantly depicts this, as the former Ms. Marvel confronts the Avengers over how their actions have led to her present circumstances.  Yet despite losing everything  –  including her powers and memories  –  Carol Danvers is determined to carry on.

As writers, we may think our stories are meant merely to entertain the reader.  But stories have much deeper effects on readers – particularly young readers.   A wonderful essay entitled “Lucy, You Have Some ‘Splainin’ To Do” by Nicole Benbow examines the depictions of working women in the 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy and how they – unintentionally, perhaps – reinforce the notion that women are not cut out to hold jobs.

Your stories convey messages to readers whether you intend them to or not.

You cannot control what messages the reader takes away from your story.  But you can control what messages you send.

Work Cited:

Benbow, Nicole.  “Lucy, You Have Some ‘Splainin’ to Do.”  The Writer’s Way by Jack Rawlins and  

     Stephen Metzger, 7^th ed.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009. 336-41. Print.