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The West Coast Avengers

The West Coast Avengers

The Avengers are a Marvel superhero team, consisting of many of the Marvel Universe's most popular and powerful heroes and the Marvel Comics counterpart to DC Comics' Justice League of America.

Publication history

The Avengers first appeared in their own comic book, titled The Avengers, in September 1963 (the same month as the debut of the X-Men). The team was created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers as an answer to DC Comics' Justice League. Marvel Comics' original answer to the Justice League — a group of already established superheroes — was to create the Fantastic Four, a team of original characters who had never previously appeared. The Avengers, created two years later, were truer to the concept of the all-star superhero team. Unlike most other superhero teams in the Marvel Universe, the Avengers team received official recognition from the government almost from the beginning and their authority was recognized internationally throughout most of their history, although the extent of that recognition has waxed and waned. As stated in the preamble that graced the top of the first page of the comic throughout the 1970s, the Avengers' purpose is to "fight the foes no single super hero could withstand." To that end, the roster of "Earth's Mightest Heroes" has featured humans, nonhumans, mechanical heroes, former villains and supernatural beings. Despite their many differences (which often erupted into infighting), they have managed to unite into a cohesive team to combat extraordinary threats to the world, coming together to their rallying cry, "Avengers Assemble!" The comic has had many of the comic industry's finest writers and artists work on it over the years. The series has continued, virtually uninterrupted, to the present day, with stories often exploring the meaning of what it means to be human or superhuman, and the role and responsibilities of superheroes. Two companion titles were published in the 1980s. West Coast Avengers Volume 1 was a four-issue limited series, with #1 debuting September 1984; Volume 2 (later re-titled Avengers West Coast with #47) was a regular series lasting for 102 issues from October 1985 to January 1994. Solo Avengers (later Avengers Spotlight), ran for 40 issues from 1987 to 1989. The comic has been relaunched three times in the past ten years. The first time, in 1996, was part of the Heroes Reborn reboot, the second, a year later, returned the team to its original continuity, and the third time, in 2005 with "New" added to the title, was done purely as a marketing exercise [http://www.newsarama.com/JoeFridays/BrianFridays.html].

History of the team

The 1960s

reboot and George Roussos.]] Loki, the Asgardian god of mischief, plotted revenge against his half-brother Thor, and tricked the Hulk into doing his bidding. Loki diverted a call for help to Thor, which was also answered by Ant Man, the Wasp and Iron Man. After defeating Loki, Ant-Man pointed out that the five worked well together and suggested they form a combined force. The Wasp named the group, and the Avengers were born. The team's line-up changed almost immediately. Ant-Man became Giant-Man and when the Hulk realized how much the others feared his unstable personality, he left at the end of the second issue. Trying to contain the Hulk led the Avengers to combat Namor the Sub-Mariner, and that in turn led to the first major milestone in the Avengers' history — the return of Captain America in Avengers #4 (March 1964). The 1940s patriotic hero was discovered frozen in suspended animation since the end of World War II, and needed a place where he could adjust to being a man decades out of time. Captain America joined the Avengers, beginning an almost indelible association with the team. Even when the chairmanship of the team was held by others, Captain America has always been the de facto tactical commander of the Avengers in the field, and few hesitate in carrying out his orders. The original members who put their names to the Avengers Charter are known as the "founding members", responsible for the good name of the team. As a result, their wishes regarding the direction of the team are given additional weight and deference. Captain America was given "founding member" status in the Hulk's place (as revealed in Avengers Vol. 3 #1, February 1998). Together, the Avengers fought foes such as Captain America's wartime enemy Baron Zemo, who formed the Masters of Evil; the time-travelling villainy of Kang the Conqueror; Count Nefaria; and the Lava Men. Lava Men.]] The next milestone was Avengers #16, which saw the resignation of all the members of the team except for Captain America. They were replaced by Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver; all former criminals. Don Heck took over the art chores from Jack Kirby. With less raw power than the team that preceded them, "Cap's Kooky Quartet" (as they were known) were not expected to be able to hold their own, but they proved their worth by fighting and defeating the Swordsman, the original Power Man, Doctor Doom and Kang once again. They were soon rejoined by Henry Pym (who changed his name to Goliath) and the Wasp. The team began to grow once more, with the Greek demigod Hercules, the Black Knight and the Black Widow also joining. The constant changing of the roster, with heroes joining, leaving and returning, became a hallmark of the series, with "the old order changeth" becoming a catch phrase. Under the tenure of Roy Thomas as writer, the stories began to focus more intently on characterization. Thomas introduced the hero the Vision in Avengers #57 (October 1968), a "synthezoid" — an android with artificial human organs — and creation of the homicidal android Ultron. After the Vision turned on his creator to help the Avengers, he was voted onto the roster. John Buscema was the primary artist on the book during Thomas's 1960s run. Another highlight came in #60 (January 1969) when Goliath (who had become Yellowjacket) finally married Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp. Thomas also established that the Avengers were headquartered in a New York City building named Avengers Mansion, which was provided by Tony Stark, the secret identity of Iron Man. Stark not only provided the mansion and Edwin Jarvis, the Avengers' faithful butler, but also furnished the mansion with state-of-the-art technology and defense systems, including the Avengers' primary mode of transport, the five-engined quinjets. Tony Stark also funded the Avengers through the Maria Stark Foundation, a non-profit organization.

The 1970s

non-profit organization. ]] Thomas continued his run into the early 1970s, introducing a pastiche of the Justice League called the Squadron Supreme in #85 (February 1970). Buscema left the title later that year, and the run up to #100 (June 1972) included the Kree-Skrull War, an epic interstellar conflict between the Kree and Skrull alien races, involving the Kree hero Captain Marvel, with Earth caught in the crossfire. The war ended when the Kree Supreme Intelligence unlocked the latent mental powers of Rick Jones, which paralyzed the warring fleets long enough for an uneasy truce to be called. The Kree-Skrull War also featured early work by Neal Adams, and marked the beginning of a period where the Avengers' adventures steadily grew more cosmic in scope. The Vision's love for the Scarlet Witch became more and more apparent, but although she returned his feelings, he held back because he believed himself to be inhuman and unworthy of her. Steve Englehart continued this emphasis on the cosmic, introducing Mantis in #113 (August 1973), who joined the team along with the reformed Swordsman. Englehart linked her origins to the very beginnings of the Kree-Skrull conflict in a time-spanning adventure involving Kang the Conquerer and the mysterious Immortus, who were revealed to be past and future versions of each other. Mantis turned out to be the Celestial Madonna, who was destined to give birth to a being that would save the universe. The Celestial Madonna saga also revealed that the Vision's body had just been appropriated by Ultron, and that it originally belonged to the 1940s Human Torch. With his origins now clear to him, the Vision finally summoned up the courage to propose to the Scarlet Witch. The Celestial Madonna saga ended with their wedding, presided over by Immortus, a future version of Kang. Englehart's tenure coincided with the debut of George Pérez on the book in #141 (August 1975). A newcomer to comics, Pérez's early work was strongly reminiscent of Kirby's, and he would go on to become one of the most popular comic book artists of the next 15 years. 1975]] After Englehart's departure, Jim Shooter took over the writing chores. Shooter conceived and wrote the Korvac Saga, a multi-issue storyline which involved Michael Korvac, a villain from the 30th century who acquired the powers of a god from an alien device belonging to Galactus. He planned to remake the universe in his own image, but his plans were interrupted by the Avengers. In an explosive confrontation with the Avengers in #177 (November 1978), nearly all the team died. However, betrayed by Carina, the woman he loved, and therefore losing the will to live, the dying Korvac used the last of his god-like powers to restore the heroes to life. The saga examined the tension between Korvac's claimed goals of universal order and questioned whether the Avengers were right to oppose him. Although the original ending was ambiguous as to the answer, when the Korvac Saga was reprinted years later in a collected edition an additional epilogue was added to make it clear that Korvac was in the wrong. David Michelinie and John Byrne also contributed stories and art to the book in the 1970s. New members added during this time include the Beast, a resurrected Wonder Man, Captain America's former partner the Falcon, and Ms. Marvel, while the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver took a leave of absence from the team to seek out the truth of their parentage. It was during this time that steps were taken to pare down the size of the team, which had gathered over a dozen active and supporting members. During the Korvac Saga, Shooter introduced the character of Henry Peter Gyrich, the Avengers' liaison to the United States National Security Council. Gyrich was prejudiced against superhumans, and acted in a heavy-handed, obstructive manner, insisting that the Avengers follow government rules and regulations or else lose their priority status with the government. Among Gyrich's demands was that the active roster be trimmed down to only seven members, and that the Falcon, an African American, be admitted to the team to comply with affirmative action laws. This last action was particularly resented by Hawkeye, who because of the seven-member limit, had lost his slot to the Falcon. The Falcon, in turn, was none too pleased to be a beneficiary of what he perceived to be tokenism, and decided in the end to resign from the team, after which Hawkeye rejoined.

The 1980s

tokenism and Tom Palmer.]] Shooter returned with #211 (September 1981); his biggest contribution during this period being a storyline that chronicled the breakdown of Henry Pym. Shooter saw Pym's frequent changes of costume and name as symptomatic of an identity problem and an inferiority complex. Jealous of his wife's fortune and frustrated by the failure of his own research, his personality growing increasinlgy unstable, Pym eventually lost his temper with Janet and struck her in a case of spousal abuse. Put before an Avengers court martial for his growing number of reckless and dangerous actions, Yellowjacket tried to "redeem" himself by constructing a robot to attack the Avengers, so that he could then heroically save the day. However, it was the Wasp who deactivated the robot, revealing Pym's ruse. Yellowjacket was expelled from the Avengers in disgrace. At his lowest ebb, Pym was contacted by his old enemy Egghead, and blackmailed into stealing top secret government information. Pym was caught, but with no evidence to prove his innocence, was sent to jail pending trial. Janet also filed for divorce. After a few fill-in issues by other writers, Roger Stern took over the Avengers, writing the book for the next 6 years, primarily illustrated by Al Milgrom, Joe Sinnott, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer. Stern introduced a new Captain Marvel to the Avengers, an African American woman named Monica Rambeau. He also picked up the threads of Pym's shattered life, leading to Pym finally defeating Egghead's latest incarnation of the Masters of Evil single-handed and proving his innocence. Pym made his peace with the Wasp, but they decided to remain apart. Pym also retired from superheroics, but returned to it some years later. Stern's era saw several major storylines, including the "Ultimate Vision" storyline, when the Vision, who had merged with the Titanian Eternal computer ISAAC and was also under the influence of a control crystal, decided that the Avengers should take over the world for its own good. The Vision began to manipulate the team towards this goal. Under ISAAC's mental influence, Gyrich stepped down as NSC liaison, to be replaced by the milder Raymond Sikorski, who removed most of the strictures Gyrich had imposed. The Vision expanded the team's roster, creating a new branch of the Avengers in California led by Hawkeye. Eventually the other Avengers discovered the Vision's plan and stopped him, the Vision coming to his senses and removing the control crystal himself. The Avengers decided to retain the West Coast Avengers team, which graduated into their own title (published concurrently with Avengers) that lasted about ten years. Captain America decided to pare down Gyrich's member limit further to six per branch to prevent the team from becoming too unweildy. Another significant storyline was the "Siege of Avengers Mansion". The second Baron Zemo had reformed the Masters of Evil and performed a coordinated attack on the Avengers in an attempt to break Captain America's spirit. The Masters separated the team, trapping several members within the Mansion. Jarvis was nearly killed by Mr. Hyde, Captain America's keepsakes were destroyed and Hercules was beaten into a coma. Captain America, however, refused to break, and with the Wasp coordinating efforts from the outside, eventually the Avengers triumphed once more. New Avengers during the 1980s included She-Hulk, Tigra, Namor and Hawkeye's wife Mockingbird. Henry Pym emerged from retirement to join the West Coast Avengers. Stern's run became notable for its strong female characters, like Monica Rambeau, who even chaired the Avengers for a time. Also in the chairman's seat at one point was the Wasp, whose previously flighty exterior concealed a strong leader. Stern left the title abruptly in 1988, in the middle of a storyline after a disagreement with editor Mark Gruenwald over the removal of Captain Marvel as Avengers chairman. She was to appear incompetent and be replaced by Captain America whose solo title was losing readers at the time. Gruenwald believed that Captain America's return to status as Avengers chairman would help the sales of the solo title. Stern did not see how this would work without looking racist or sexist, and after voicing his misgivings, was dismissed from the title. Stern then went over to DC Comics. [http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe/msg/2e239a0caccaa323] After a few fill-in story arcs by Walt Simonson and Ralph Macchio, the writing was taken over by John Byrne, who was also doing the Avengers West Coast title at the time. A storyline which had repercussions in both the Avengers and Avengers West Coast titles was a plot by several world governments to abduct and dismantle the Vision for his near takeover of the world. The Vision was reassembled, but his personality was largely a blank, emotionless state. His "twin" Wonder Man, harboring feelings for the Scarlet Witch, declined to serve as a template for his "brother's" thoughts again, while the Scarlet Witch discovered that her and the Vision's twin sons, who were born of magic, were actually illusory, fragments of the demon Mephisto. The loss of her sons and the Vision drove the Witch into madness and villainy for a time, but she eventually recovered and rejoined the team.

The 1990s

Mephisto and Tom Palmer.]] The 1990s were a turbulent time for the Avengers, as Marvel Comics was aggressively trying to expand its business by greatly increasing the number of comics it published. This coincided with the speculators' boom in the industry as a whole. Marvel then fell on hard times in the ensuing industry-wide slump, and filed for bankruptcy in 1997. Bob Harras and Steve Epting took over the title, and reintroduced a stable lineup, with ongoing storylines and character development largely focused around the Black Knight, Sersi, Crystal, Quicksilver, Hercules and the Vision. During this period, the team found themselves facing increasingly murderous enemies, and were forced to question their rule against killing. Things came to a head in the epic "Operation: Galactic Storm", a 19-part storyline that was told across seven related titles, Captain America, Avengers West Coast, Quasar, Wonder Man, Iron Man, Thor and of course Avengers. This title featured the conflict between the Kree and the Shi'ar Empire and was sequel of sorts to the Kree-Skrull War. The Supreme Intelligence tried to jump start the Kree's evolution by manipulating the various factions involved into detonating a Nega-Bomb over the Kree homeworld. The Avengers tried to stop this but they were unsuccessful and the explosion decimated the Kree Empire, killing a large percentage of its population but succeeding in restoring the evolutionary potential of the race. Faced with the scale of destruction and the entity that had orchestrated such genocide, a schism developed between those that wanted to execute the arguably inhuman Supreme Intelligence for its crimes and those that felt that they did not have the right to do so. Eventually, Iron Man led the group that apparently killed the Supreme Intelligence. This led to a deeper split and ultimately to the disbanding of the West Coast team. Iron Man used the opportunity to recruit a number of ex-Avengers into a more proactive and aggressive team named Force Works. When Wonder Man was killed again and Force Works split up, Iron Man attempted a reconciliation with the Avengers and rejoined the ranks. However, it was revealed soon after that a traitor was among the Avengers, and it turned out to be none other than Iron Man himself. It appeared that Kang the Conqueror had been manipulating Stark for years, using him as a sleeper agent and causing him to push aside his friends and unconsciously serve Kang. Stark, fully in Kang's thrall, killed Marilla (the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna) as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, an ally of the Avengers. It was revealed later that everything had actually been the machinations of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and the mental control had only gone back for a few months. Yellowjacket]] "Teen Tony" was part of the Avengers team that went up against the gestalt psychic entity Onslaught, and died together with the rest of the heroes. It was revealed later that Franklin Richards had preserved these heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, but this was not known to the world at large. In the heroes' absence, the Black Widow disbanded the Avengers, with only Jarvis remaining to look after the Mansion. The first series of Avengers ended in September 1996, after 402 issues, 23 Annuals and 5 Giant-Sized specials.

Heroes Reborn (Vol. 2)

Marvel contracted out several books to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld, two of the founding creators of Image Comics. These books were set in this pocket universe where the previous continuity of the Marvel Universe was thrown aside as the heroes were "reborn" in this new setting. The Avengers was reborn briefly as a new series, starting with Vol. 2, #1 (November 1996) by Rob Liefeld. The "Heroes Reborn" line ended after only a year, and the license reverted to Marvel. The Avengers were returned to their own world, with Iron Man restored to adulthood and the Wasp to her old self. Heroes Reborn.]]

Heroes Return (Vol. 3)

Avengers, Vol. 3, began with another #1 (February 1998), written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by George Pérez. A rash of attacks by Asgardian creatures on every person who had ever been an Avenger caused the majority of them to gather back together at the Mansion. The attacks were traced to the magics of Morgan le Fay, who had kidnapped the Scarlet Witch and was using her to shape reality into le Fay's own image. Defeating le Fay and reversing her spell, the founding members culled the team down to a manageable number and announced the reforming of the Avengers. They regained their priority status from the government and a new liaison in Duane Freeman who, unlike Gyrich, admired the Avengers and did his best to help them. Busiek's run harkened back to the heyday of the Avengers in the 1970s and 1980s, and both restored Wonder Man to life and added new members to the team, including Justice, Firestar and Triathlon. Busiek's run was known for its attention to continuity and the bringing back of elements from the series' past. "Live Kree or Die", for example, dealt with the consequences of "Operation: Galactic Storm" and saw the return of the Supreme Intelligence. Triathlon.]] Simultaneously, Busiek wrote a limited series, Avengers Forever, illustrated by Carlos Pacheco, a time travel story involving Rick Jones, the Supreme Intelligence, Immortus and Kang, that explored the history of the Avengers and several continuity loose ends. Another major storyline during Busiek's tenure was "Ultron Unlimited", which featured Ultron on a scale never seen before, with hundreds of Ultron drones laying waste to an entire country and stretching the team's resources to the breaking point. Because of this, the Avengers decided to become more proactive, keeping firmer tabs on potential threats around the world. The end of Avengers Forever would also dovetail with other storylines and culminate in the Maximum Security crossover miniseries where the Supreme Intelligence, using the Forever Crystal obtained at the end of Avengers Forever, evolved the Kree into the Ruul, a species that could change their evolutionary stages at will. 1998 also saw the launch of A-Next, a series about a "next generation" Avengers, set in the same alternative future of Spider-Girl. However, this series only lasted 12 issues, although the characters continue to occasionally appear in the pages of Spider-Girl.

The 2000s

Spider-Girl Pérez eventually left the title and Busiek wrapped up his run with the epic "Kang War", which saw the destruction of several major cities, including Washington, D.C.. Busiek wrote Kang as a master strategist, who was only defeated when he was betrayed by his son Marcus, the Scarlet Centurion. Geoff Johns took over as writer on the Avengers title with Vol. 3, #57 (October 2002), which dealt with the aftermath of the war as the Avengers were given international authority by the United Nations. Members joining during this period included Jack of Hearts and the second Ant-Man. Johns left the book after signing an exclusive agreement with DC and was followed by Chuck Austen who added a new Captain Britain to the team. Subsequently, the writing reins fell to Brian Michael Bendis. Bendis planned to reboot the title, and with the blessings of Marvel editorial wrote the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, which was highly controversial and largely criticized, running through several titles, with the climactic chapters in Avengers (vol. 3), #85-88 (October-December 2004), renumbered #500-503 for the occasion. Appropriately titled "Chaos", it saw the return of Jack of Hearts, the destruction of the mansion and also claimed the lives of Ant-Man, the Vision and Hawkeye. Tony Stark was also forced to resign as the United States Secretary of Defense and the United Nations severed their ties with the Avengers. All this senseless mayhem turned out to have been caused by the Scarlet Witch, who had gone insane once more over the memory of her lost children and had lost control of her reality-altering powers. Eventually, Doctor Strange was forced to put the Witch in a coma and she was taken away by her father, Magneto. Her story continued in the House of M series. With the team in disarray and the Mansion a wreck, She-Hulk, Henry Pym, the Wasp, Captain Britain and Warbird expressed their desire to leave in the Avengers Finale one-shot (January 2005). Faced with this as well as the loss of both funding by Tony Stark and the authority of the United Nations, the team agreed to disband.

New Avengers

2005, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Captain America, Wolverine, and Ronin.]] The New Avengers was launched in February 2005, written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by David Finch. With the Avengers team disbanded, and the Fantastic Four and the X-Men unable to act, supervillain Electro shut down the S.H.I.E.L.D Raft installation, a maximum-maximum security prison for super-powered criminals. Trapped on the island were S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman), Daredevil and Luke Cage. They were joined by Captain America, Spider-Man and Iron Man, helped by a seemingly insane Sentry. The riot was quelled, although some forty-two inmates escaped. Captain America decided that fate had brought this group together, just as it had the original Avengers. All but Daredevil joined up and Tony Stark headquartered them in Stark Tower. The X-Man Wolverine joined the team following a trip to the Savage Land followed by the mysterious Ronin (recently revealed to be Echo from the Daredevil series in a new guise) on their most recent expedition in Japan to seize the Silver Samurai. The team have since made it their most important mission to learn the truth about the Sentry, and to capture the remaining super-powered criminals who escaped during the riot. The emergence of the Young Avengers is also matter of concern, as is the growing sense of unease with S.H.I.E.L.D.

Other comic book Avengers

The Avengers have existed in multiple continuities and universes.

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, the Avengers are named The Ultimates, and were formed by Ultimate Nick Fury to protect against his America's new menaces, such as Ultimate Spider-Man and the Ultimate X-Men. Mark Millar wrote the first two story arcs, then relaunched to a second volume. He wrote one story arc for Ultimates 2 and an annual. Fans sometime refer to them as the "Ultimate Avengers".

The Avengers in other media

annual The Avengers appeared in a 1966 animated series, alternating with the characters of several other Marvel comics of the time. This series is remembered for the poor quality of its animation, which often simply transferred comic book panels directly to film without adding much in the way of motion. In 1991, the Avengers were featured in the arcade and console game Captain America and the Avengers. The Avengers (also known as The Avengers: United We Stand), was an animated series consisting of 13 episodes. It originally aired from 30 October 1999 to February 26 2000, and was produced by Avi Arad and distributed by 20th Century Fox Television. This series featuring a somewhat peculiar team comprising of the Wasp, Wonder-Man, Tigra, Hawkeye, and Scarlet Witch, led by Ant-Man. The Falcon and the Vision were added to the roster in the opening episodes. Quite strangely, the characters best-known as Avengers hardly appeared at all: Captain America made only one appearance in episode #6; Iron Man only briefly in episode #8. Thor did not appear in the series outside of the opening titles. The series saw the Avengers battle such comic book enemies as Ultron, Kang the Conquerer and Egghead. The team itself had undergone some very drastic changes from their comic representation. These Avengers were consideribly more militaristic and their efforts were more formally coordinated, with a plethora of 'maneuvres' and offensive and defensive formations, as well as various gadgets and vehicles. Visually, The Avengers was very similar to the last episodes of the X-Men animated series, and these similarities continued in its sound. Tigra sounded incredibly Rogue-esque, and Hawkeye's own voice was not far removed from Wolverine's. It is remembered for its anime-inspired artistic style as well as its equally Japanese "Avengers Assemble" montages, which showed the various characters donning their "battle armor" to theme music. The Avengers: United We Stand comic book series by Ty Templeton and Derec Aucoin was published to accompany the series and is considered vastly superior to the animated series by fans. Due to low sales it lasted only seven issues. Throughout the years, Avengers in various groupings have made cameo appearances in several Marvel cartoons, and they often cross over into other Marvel comics. Marvel announced intentions for two 'Avengers' animated, direct-to-dvd feature films, with earliest possible release in 2008, when they introduced their new film subsidary Marvel Studios.

Bibliography

Published titles

:Main article: Bibliography of Avengers titles
- Avengers Vol. 1 #1-402 (Marvel Comics; September 1963 - September 1996) :
- Avengers Annual #1-23 (Marvel Comics; 1967-1969, 1971-1972, 1976-1979, 1981-1994) :
- Avengers: The Crossing (Marvel Comics; September 1995) :
- Avengers: Timeslide (Marvel Comics; February 1996)
- Avengers Vol. 2 #1-13 (Marvel Comics/Wildstorm; November 1996 - November 1997)
- Avengers Vol. 3 #1-84, #500-503 (Marvel Comics; February 1998 - December 2004) :
- Avengers #0 (Marvel Comics/Wizard Entertainment; 1999) :
- Avengers Annual '99 (Marvel Comics; 1999) :
- Avengers Annual 2000 (Marvel Comics; 2000) :
- Avengers Annual 2001 (Marvel Comics; 2001) :
- Avengers Finale (Marvel Comics; November 2004)
- New Avengers #1-present (Marvel Comics; January 2005 - present)

List of significant issues

Avengers, Vol. 1


- #1: "The Coming of the Avengers": The first incarnation
- #4: "Captain America Lives Again!"
- #8: First encounter with Kang the Conqueror
- #16: "The Old Order Changeth!": Old Avengers leave, new Avengers replace them for the first time.
- #57-58: Introduction of the Vision.
- #88-97: The Kree-Skrull War, a cosmic epic partly illustrated by Neal Adams.
  - This storyline features the first disbandment of the Avengers, as skrulls impersonating Captain America, Thor and Iron Man use their authority as founders of the team to disband it (Captain America, while not a true founder of the team, is administratively so). The true founding Avengers, minus the Wasp, reform it the following issue in response to complaints from Jarvis.
- Notable issues in the Vision/Scarlet Witch romance: #106-108, #113. They married at the end of the Celestial Madonna saga, in Giant-Size #4.
- #129-135: The Celestial Madonna saga.
- #167-177: The Korvac Saga.
- Annual 10: "By Friends Betrayed": Ms. Marvel returns to Earth, and after months of avoiding the Avengers, has her powers stolen by Rogue before giving the team a piece of her mind for allowing her to be mind-controlled, raped and kidnapped.
- #212-230: The decline, fall, and redemption of Henry Pym.
- #243-252: "Ultimate Vision": The Vision takes over the Avengers, and nearly the world.
- #273-277: "Siege of Avengers Mansion": The fourth incarnation of the Masters of Evil take over the Avengers' Mansion.
- #291-297: The team is torn apart by the manipulations of Terminatrix and her pawn, Doctor Druid, and the Avengers disband.
- #300: Captain America, in his short-lived guise as the Captain, reforms the team with only Thor continuing from the previous lineup.
- #345-347: "Operation: Galactic Storm": The Avengers decide the fate of the genocidal Supreme Intelligence.
- Notable issues in the "Proctor and the Gatherers Saga": #343-344, 348-349, 355-357, 359-364, 372-375.
- Avengers: The Crossing, Avengers: Timeslide and #390-395: "The Crossing": Iron Man betrays the Avengers.
- #402, Onslaught: Marvel Universe: "Onslaught": The Avengers apparently die battling Onslaught.
- Avengers Annual 1999 (published during vol. 3): Black Widow, as the sole remaining active member of the team, attempts to scratch together a new lineup, but fails and officially disbands the team.

Avengers, Vol. 2 (Heroes Reborn)


- #1: "Heroes Reborn": The Avengers are reborn in the pocket universe.
- #12: Crossover with the other Heroes Reborn titles, where they fight Galactus.

Avengers, Vol. 3


- #1-4: "The Morgan Conquest": Returned from the pocket universe, the Avengers reform, a year after their disbandment, to face Morgan le Fay.
- #19-22: "Ultron Unlimited": Ultron slaughters a small country and launches his most devastating plan yet - to use the brain patterns of Avengers to breed an army of Ultrons.
- #40-55: "The Kang Dynasty": The Avengers' time-travelling adversary declares war on Earth, actually conquering it for several months.
- #500-503 (renumbered from #85-88) and Avengers Finale: "Chaos": Part of the "Avengers Disassembled" event, the Avengers face their "worst day ever", as a series of disastrous events lead to death, betrayal, and the dissolution of the Avengers.

New Avengers


- #1-6: "Breakout": The Avengers reform

See also


- Bibliography of Avengers titles
- List of Avengers members
- Solo Avengers
- West Coast Avengers
- Ultimates
- Young Avengers

External links


- [http://www.marvel.com/publishing/showcomic.htm?id=6 Official webpage at Marvel.com]
- [http://www.avengersassemble.us/ Avengers Assemble! fan site]
- [http://www.avengersforever.org/ Avengers Forever fan site]
- [http://www.hostultra.com/~jarvis/index.html The Avenger Files fan site]
- [http://www.knightmare6.com/faq/avengers Knightmare6.com, Avengers] Category:Marvel Comics superhero teams Category:Marvel Comics titles

Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics, (AKA Marvel Entertainment Group, Marvel Characters, Inc., and Marvel Enterprises, Inc.) sometimes called by the nickname The House of Ideas, is an American comic book company. Its best-known comics include The Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, and X-Men. Since the 1960s, it has been one of the two largest American comics companies, along with DC Comics. rightrightright

History

Origins

right), the first comic from Marvel precursor Timely Comics. Art by Frank R. Paul]] Marvel Comics was founded by established pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman in 1939 as an eventual group of subsidiary companies under the umbrella name Timely Comics. Its first publication was Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939), featuring the first appearance of Carl Burgos' android superhero, the Human Torch, and the first generally available appearance of Bill Everett's mutant anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner. The contents of that sales blockbuster were supplied by an outside packager, Funnies, Inc., but by the following year Timely had a staff in place. The company's first editor, the writer-artist Joe Simon, teamed with soon-to-be industry legend Jack Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superheroes, Captain America, in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). It, too, proved a major sales hit. While no other Timely character would be as successful as these "big three", some notable heroes — many continuing to appear in modern-day retcon appearances and flashbacks — include the Whizzer, Miss America, The Destroyer, the original Vision, and Paul Gustavson's The Angel. Timely also published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton's best-known features, Powerhouse Pepper. Sales of all comic books declined drastically in the post-war era, and the superheroic übermensch archetype popular during the Depression and the war years went out of fashion. Like other comics companies, Timely — generally known as Atlas Comics in the 1950s — followed pop-cultural trends with a variety of genres, including funny animals, Western, horror, war, crime, humor, romance, spy fiction and even medieval adventure, all with varying degrees of success. An attempted superhero revival in 1953-54 with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner and Captain America failed. In 1957, Atlas nearly closed its doors due to the bankruptcy of its distributor, American News Service. This summer of 1957 debacle is infamously known as the "Atlas Implosion". The final comic to bear the famous Atlas Globe on its cover was Dippy Duck #1, the only "Atlas" comic with an October 1957 cover date. The Atlas "one-shots" of 1957 reveal that Martin Goodman was attempting to open a new range of "kiddies" titles just as the ax fell. Goodman switched to the distributor Independent News on constrained terms that allowed him only a limited number of titles per month. The surviving sixteen titles are sometimes referred to as the "sweet sixteen" (published bi-monthly, eight titles per month), the first of which to bear the new "Ind." label was Patsy Walker #73, ironically (like Dippy Duck) bearing an October 1957 cover date. The sixteen survivors of the summer of 1957 (the two fantasy and two war titles clearly were simply using up left over "inventory") reveal that the best selling titles were westerns (Kid Colt Outlaw starring in two titles) and girl humor (led primarily by Millie the Model along with Patsy Walker and Hedy Wolfe). The two fantasy titles (Strange Tales and World of Fantasy) clung on printing "inventory" (stories stored away in summer 1957) from late 1957 until late 1958. At the end of 1958 Martin Goodman attempted a new direction (after recently reviving Journey into Mystery) by launching a short-lived space fantasy sci-fi range of stories in six titles :Strange Worlds #1, World of Fantasy #15 , Strange Tales #67, Journey into Mystery #50, Tales of Suspense #1 and Tales to Astonish #1. The space fantasy tales were unsuccessful and faded out after less than a year, but by the end of 1959 most of these titles (Strange Worlds and World of Fantasy were both cancelled) were now sporting covers featuring great hulking monsters and featuring a line-up of Jack Kirby-drawn stories (often inked by Dick Ayers) followed by Steve Ditko's wonderful mysterious "ooky" tales and Don Heck's very atmospheric rendering of jungle/prison escapes and weird adventures. The Kirby/Ayers monster stories were riding on the coattails of popular movie trends of the time with a science fiction bent. Ind-Marvel also expanded its line of girls humor titles in 1959-61 with Kathy the Teen-Age Tornado (Oct 1959) and Linda Carter, Student Nurse (Sept 1961). This fact along with the fanstasy title expansion of late 1958 (and the addition of Amazing Adventures, cover dated June 1961 -- a title which eventually became the Lee & Ditko showpiece Amazing Adult Fantasy before becoming Amazing Fantasy #15 which in turn led to Amazing Spider-Man #1) clearly reveal that Martin Goodman and Stan Lee were looking for ways to expand their comics line.

1960s

Stan Lee), the cornerstone of Marvel and the introduction of a new style of superhero. Art by Jack Kirby.]] In the wake of DC Comics' success reviving superheroes in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly with The Justice League of America, Marvel decided to follow suit. Editor/writer Stan Lee and freelance artist Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four, vaguely reminding one of DC's adventuring quartet the Challengers of the Unknown. The book was a success, and Marvel began publishing further superhero titles featuring such heroes and anti-heroes as the Hulk, Spider-Man, The Mighty Thor, Ant-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men and Daredevil, and such memorable antagonists as Doctor Doom, Magneto, Galactus, the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. The most successful new series was The Amazing Spider-Man, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Marvel's comics were noted for focusing on characterization to a greater extent than most superhero comics before them — Spider-Man in particular, its young hero suffering from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager. Marvel superheroes are often flawed, freaks, and misfits, unlike the perfect, handsome, athletic heroes found in previous traditional comic books. Some of the Marvel heroes looked like villains and monsters. In time, this non-traditional approach would revolutionize comic books. Peter Sanderson, in an October 10, 2003, column for IGN.com [http://comics.ign.com/articles/595/595576p1.html], said that
"DC was the equivalent of the big Hollywood studios: After the brilliance of DC's reinvention of the superhero ... in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it had run into a creative drought by the decade's end. There was a new audience for comics, now, and it wasn't just the little kids that traditionally had read the books. The Marvel of the 1960s was in its own way the counterpart of the French New Wave.... Marvel was pioneering new methods of comics storytelling and characterization, addressing more serious themes, and in the process keeping and attracting readers in their teens and beyond. Moreover, among this new generation of readers were people who wanted to write or draw comics themselves, within the new style that Marvel had pioneered, and push the creative envelope still further."
Lee became one of the best-known names in comics, with his charming personality and relentless salesmanship of the company. The "voice" of Stan Lee is what one senses in so many of the Marvel Comics of the first half of the 1960s. His sense of humor and general light-hearted manner, and the depiction of the Bullpen (Lee's name for the staff) as one big happy family. In later years it became clear the artists often had as much to do with Marvel's product and success as Lee. Jack Kirby in particular is often credited as the creative well from which sprang many of the cosmic ideas and characters of The Fantastic Four and The Mighty Thor (such as The Watcher, The Silver Surfer and Ego the Living Planet) while Steve Ditko is recognized as the driving artistic force behind the moody atmosphere and street-level naturalism of Spider-Man and the surreal atmosphere of Dr. Strange. Lee, however, continues to deserve great credit for his well-honed skills at dialog and story sense; for his keen hand at choosing and motivating artists and in assembling creative teams; and for his uncanny ability to connect with the readers. In 1968, company founder Martin Goodman sold Marvel Comics and his other publishing businesses to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation. It grouped these businesses in a subsidiary called Magazine Management Co. Goodman remained as publisher.

1970s

Martin Goodman). Art by Gene Colan and Steve Leialoha]]In 1972, Goodman retired as publisher and was succeeded by Lee, who stepped aside from running day-to-day operations at Marvel. A series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to diversify, and achieved moderate success with titles themed to horror (Tomb of Dracula), martial arts, (Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu), sword-and-sorcery (Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja), satire (Howard the Duck) and science fiction ("Killraven" in Amazing Adventures). Some of these were published in larger-sized black-and-white magazines, targeted for mature readers. Marvel was able to capitalize on its successful superhero comics of the previous decade by acquiring a new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line. Even more importantly, during a time when the price and format of the standard newsstand comic were in flux, Marvel captured a significant piece of DC's market share by offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor discount. In 1973, Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation changed its name to Cadence Industries, which in turn renamed Magazine Management Co. as Marvel Comics Group. Goodman, now completely disconnected from Marvel, created a new company called Atlas/Seaboard Comics in 1974, reviving Marvel's old Atlas name, but this project lasted only a year-and-a-half. In the mid-1970s, Marvel was affected by a decline of the newsstand distribution network. Cult hits such as Howard the Duck were the victims of the distribution problems, with some titles reporting low sales when in fact they were being resold at a later date in the first specialty comic-book stores. An attempt by Marvel to buy DC was frustrated by DC's refusal to sell its entire library of characters (wanting to retain control of Superman and Batman), and DC was sold to Warner Communications instead. By the end of the decade, Marvel's fortunes were reviving, thanks to the rise of direct-market distribution (selling through those same comics-specialty stores instead of newsstands) and the sales increase of previously borderline books — such as the canceled '60s title The Uncanny X-Men, revived to become a hit series under team of writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, or the more naturalistic, urban-crime superhero comic Daredevil, by writer/artist Frank Miller.

1980s

Frank Miller). Art by Mike Zeck]]By the 1980s, one-time wunderkind Jim Shooter was Marvel's Editor-in-Chief. Although a controversial personality, Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel (including repeatedly missed deadlines) and oversaw a creative renaissance at the company. This renaissance included institutionalizing creator royalties, starting the Epic imprint for creator-owned material, and launching a brand-new (albeit ultimately unsuccessful) line named New Universe, to commemorate Marvel's 25th anniversary, in 1986. However, Shooter was responsible for the introduction of the company-wide crossover (Contest of Champions, Secret Wars) and was accused by many creators, especially near the end of his tenure, of exercising his job in a draconian manner and interfering with the writers' creative process. In 1981 Marvel purchased the DePatie-Freleng Enterprises animation studio from famed Looney Tunes director Friz Freleng and his business partner David H. DePatie. The company was renamed Marvel Productions Ltd. and it produced well known animated TV series such as G.I. Joe, The Transformers and Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, Dungeons & Dragons and movies based on the G.I. Joe and The Transformers TV series. Following the acquisition of Marvel by Ronald Perelman, Marvel Productions sold its back catalog to Saban Entertainment and Marvel management permanently closed the animation studio opting to have its animation projects contracted out to third party production companies. In 1982, Marvel launched its creator-owned imprint Epic Comics, specifically for the "direct market," the emerging retail phenomenon of comic-book stores. In 1988, Marvel was bought by investor/entrepreneur Ronald Perelman, who made Marvel a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and oversaw a great increase in the number of titles published by the company.

1990s

New York Stock Exchange), one of many spin-offs of The Amazing Spider Man. Art by Todd McFarlane]] Marvel earned a great deal of money and recognition during the early decade's comic-book boom, launching the highly successful 2099 line of comics set in the future (Spider-Man 2099 etc.) and the creatively daring though commercially unsuccessful Razorline imprint of superhero comics created by novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker. Yet by the middle of the decade, the industry had slumped and Marvel filed for bankruptcy amidst accusations that Perelman had strip-mined the company for his own gain. The casualties included the comic-book distribution industry in 1994, when Marvel announced it was acquiring Heroes World to use as its exclusive distributor. As the industry's other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the loss of the industry's largest companies threw the majority of the comic book distributors out of business. Although Marvel's plan failed, only Diamond Comic Distributors Inc. now exists as the major distributor of comic books in North America, a development many comic retailers believe profoundly damaged the business status of the industry. Investor Carl Icahn attempted to take control of Marvel, but after protracted legal battles, in 1997 control of the company landed in the hands of Isaac Perlmutter, owner of the Marvel subsidiary Toy Biz. With his business partner Avi Arad and publisher Bill Jemas and editor-in-chief Bob Harras, Perlmutter helped Marvel back on its feet. In addition to Marvel revitalizing its comics line, several of its properties have been licensed to become hit movies, most notably X-Men and Spider-Man. Creatively and commercially, the '90s were dominated by the use of gimmickry to boost sales, such as variant covers, cover enhancements and regular company-wide crossovers that threw the universe's continuity into disarray. In 1996, Marvel had almost all its titles participate in the Onslaught Saga, a crossover that allowed Marvel to relaunch some of its flagship characters, such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, in the Heroes Reborn universe, in which Marvel defectors Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld were given permission to revamp the properties from scratch. After an initial sales bump, sales quickly declined below expected levels, and Marvel killed the experiment after its planned one-year run; the characters returned to the Marvel Universe proper. In 1998, the company launched the imprint Marvel Knights, taking place within Marvel continuity; helmed by soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, and featuring tough, gritty stories showcasing such characters as the Inhumans and Daredevil, it achieved substantial success.

2000s

With the new millennium, Marvel Comics escaped from bankruptcy and again began diversifying its offerings. In 2001, Marvel withdrew from the Comics Code Authority and established its own Marvel Ratings System for comics. It also created new imprints, such as MAX, a line intended for mature readers, and Marvel Age, developed for younger audiences, including children. In addition to this is the highly successful Ultimate Marvel imprint, which allowed Marvel to reboot their major titles by deconstructing and updating their major superhero and villian characters to introduce to a new generation. This imprint exists in a universe parallel to the proper Marvel continuity, which allowed the writers freedom from the characters' convoluted history and the ability to redesign them, and to maintain their other ongoing series without replacing the established continuity. This also allowed Marvel to capitalize on an influx of new readers who were not familiar with comics but became familiar with their characters through their film franchises, making it easier for a mainstream audience to follow. The company has also revamped its graphic novel division, establishing a bigger presence in the bookstore market. Marvel remains a key publisher in the comics business, even as the industry has dwindled to a fraction of its peak size decades earlier. Stan Lee is no longer officially connected to the company, save for the title of "Chairman Emeritus," but remains a visible face in the industry and occasionally remarks on his fondness for the characters. In 2002, he sued successfully for a share of income related to movies and merchandising of Marvel characters, based on a contract between Lee and Marvel from the late 1990s; according to court documents, Marvel had used "Hollywood accounting" to claim that those projects' "earnings" were not profits. Regardless, Marvel has also become a key player in Hollywood, with many of its characters being turned into successful film franchises, with perhaps the best examples being X-Men starting in 2000, and Spider-Man beginning in 2002.

Editors-in-chief

The Marvel editor-in-chief has great power and oversees many creative decisions taken within the company. The position evolved sporadically. In the earliest years the company had a single editor overseeing the entire line, but as the company grew it became increasingly common for individual titles to be overseen separately. The concept of the "writer-editor" evolved, stemming from the days when Stan Lee wrote and oversaw most of the line's output. Overseeing the line in the 1970s were a series of chief editors, though the titles were used intermittently. Confusing matters further some appear to have been appointed merely by extending their existing editorial duties. By the time of the appointment of Jim Shooter in 1978 the post of editor-in-chief was clearly defined. In 1994, Marvel briefly abolished the position, replacing Tom DeFalco with five "group editors", though they each held the title "editor-in-chief" and had some editors underneath them. It reinstated the position later in the year, installing Bob Harras.
- Joe Simon (1939-1941)
- Stan Lee (1941-1942)
- Vincent Fago (acting editor during Stan Lee's military service) (1942-1945)
- Stan Lee (1945-1972)
- Roy Thomas (1972-1974)
- Len Wein (1974-1975)
- Marv Wolfman (B&W magazines 1974-1975, entire line 1975-1976)
- Gerry Conway (1976)
- Archie Goodwin (1976-1978)
- Jim Shooter (1978-1987)
- Tom DeFalco (1987-1994)
- No overall editor-in-chief (1994-1995)
- Bob Harras (1995-2000)
- Joe Quesada (2000-) Sources: [http://www.newkadia.com/MarvelComics.html], [http://www.manwithoutfear.com/interviews/ddINTWolfman.shtml], [http://www.geocities.com/marvel80s/mrv_hist.html].

Imprints


- Current
  - Marvel Next
  - Icon Comics
  - Marvel Age
  - Marvel Knights
  - MAX
  - Ultimate Marvel
- Defunct
  - Curtis Magazines
  - Epic Comics
  - Marvel 2099
  - Marvel Music
  - Tsunami
  - MC2 (only Spider Girl remains)
  - Marvel UK
  - Malibu Comics
  - New Universe
  - Paramount Comics
  - Razorline
  - Star Comics

See also


- List of Marvel Comics characters
- List of Marvel Comics publications
- List of Marvel Comics people
- List of Marvel Comics movies
- List of Marvel cosmic beings
- Marvel Universe
- Toy Biz v. United States, which ruled that action figures of certain Marvel characters are legally toys, not dolls

External links


- [http://www.marvelpics.co.uk Official Marvel Picture site]
- [http://www.marvel.com Marvel Comics official site]
- [http://www.marvel.co.uk Official UK Marvel Site]
- [http://www.marvelstore.co.uk Official UK Marvel Store]
- [http://www.marveldatabase.com Marvel Database Project]
- [http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/ The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe]
- [http://www.marveldirectory.com/ Marvel Directory]
- [http://www.comicboards.com/marvelguide Marvel Guide: An Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe]
- [http://www.comics-db.com/comics/page.cgi?g=Marvel_Comics%2F Big Comic Book DataBase: Marvel Comics]
- [http://www.comicartville.com/bellmanpg2.htm A Timely Talk with Allen Bellman]
- [http://www.atlastales.com/ Atlas Tales]
- [http://www.timely-atlas.comics.org/ Timely Atlas Cover Gallery]
- [http://www.samcci.comics.org/index.html Nick Simon's Silver-Age Marvel Comics Cover Index]
- [http://collectedcomicslibrary.blogspot.com/ Collected Comics Library] Category:Comic book publishers (companies)
- Category:Companies based in New York City ja:マーヴェル・コミック simple:Marvel Comics

DC Comics

.]]DC Comics is one of the largest companies in comic book and related media publishing. Today a subsidiary of Time Warner, DC is responsible for such famous characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and their teammates in the Justice League. For decades, DC Comics has been one of the two largest American comic book companies (the other being Marvel Comics). Located in New York City for many years at 575 Lexington Avenue, DC Comics moved to 75 Rockefeller Plaza (which is still Time Warner corporate headquarters) and then to 666 Fifth Avenue. Relocating at 1325 Avenue of the Americas in 1992, DC took over several floors when it moved to 1700 Broadway in the mid-1990s. The initials "DC" are an abbreviation for Detective Comics, after one of the company's flagship titles.

History

The corporation was originally three companies: National Allied Publications (founded by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in 1934 to publish the first American comic book with all-original material rather than comic strip reprints); Detective Comics; and All-American Publications. The first two companies merged in the 1930s to become National Comics (later National Periodical Publications) and the third shared offices until it was bought by the merged company in 1945. At this time "DC" was simply an informal logo regularly used on the cover; the name National Periodical Publications remained the company's official name into the 1970s.

Golden Age (1930s and 1940s)

1945 This company was the first to publish original stories in comic book form in 1935 with its first title, New Fun Comics, and then was the first to feature superheroes beginning with Action Comics in 1938. It was the foremost exploiter of the new genre in the Golden Age of Comic Books, introducing such popular characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the first superhero team, the Justice Society of America. When the superhero genre faded in the late 1940s, the company focused more on other genres, such as science fiction, westerns, humour and romance. They largely avoided the crime and horror trends of the time, and thus avoided taking the brunt of the backlash against crime and horror comics in the 1950s. A handful of the most popular superhero titles (most importantly Action Comics and Detective Comics, the two longest-running titles in comics history) continued publication.

Silver Age (Late 1950s through early 1970s)

In the mid-fifties, there came a renewed interest to explore superhero properties. Instead of creating new characters, editor Julius Schwartz decided to recreate popular older characters starting with the Flash. This heralded the beginning of what is commonly referred to as the "Silver Age" of comics. The character's civilian identity, costume, and origin were all changed for a more modern audience. The new series was so popular that it soon led to similar treatment for Green Lantern and a new series which featured a team-up of all of the company's popular characters entitled the Justice League of America. On the other hand, Mort Weisinger oversaw the Superman family of titles that established many of the elements of Superman's supporting characters and villains that still influence the character to this day. In 1967, Carmine Infantino became the artistic director of the company with the declining sales, in part with the growing competition of Marvel Comics being the primary challenge. He attempted to remedy the situation with new titles like The Secret Six and recruited major talents like Steve Ditko and rising new blood as in Neal Adams. However, the results had a mixed success at best. A major change happened in the late 1960s when many veteran creators petitioned DC management for health plans, pensions and similar considerations. DC responded by curtly firing most of the offending staff and replacing them with young people who had largely grown up with the Marvel influence in comics. This proved to be a mixed blessing: for while the new employees strove for sophisticated storytelling and characters, they had little experience in the industry and the relative lack of professionalism in their work hampered the product of the company. Neal Adams), the first issue of an acclaimed run that delved into social commentary in the genre.]] social commentary There were, however, bright lights, like Dennis O'Neil, who worked on Green Lantern and Batman. Nevertheless, the period was plagued by short-lived series that started out strong, but quickly petered out when the creators, not having strong financial reasons to stay, abandoned their creations. In addition, Jack Kirby defected from Marvel to create his most artistically ambitious creation, The Fourth World titles, in which Kirby attempted to create an original sophisticated sub imprint that could appeal to a loyal fan audience. However, conflicts with management who had little faith in the concept led to the venture's premature cancellation, although the characters and concepts would become integral to the DC Multiverse.

Late 1970s and 1980s

The company was acquired by Warner Communications (now Time Warner) in 1976. During this time, DC attempted to compete with Marvel by dramatically increasing its output, which they called the "DC Explosion", including series featuring new characters, such as Firestorm and Shade, the Changing Man and several non-superhero titles. This didn't last long, with many of these series being abruptly cancelled in what industry watchers dubbed "the DC Implosion". DC Implosion In the early 1980s, the new management of publisher Jenette Kahn, vice-president Paul Levitz, and managing editor Dick Giordano decided to address the problem of talent instability in their series. To that end, they began to offer more concrete financial rewards to their talents, such as royalties which gave a direct incentive to foster successful properties and to keep with them. In addition, the company created the publishing concept of the limited series that allowed more flexible arrangements for storylines that could be successful without the pressure of immediately following them up on an indefinite basis. These policy changes immediately paid off with the success of The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, a superhero comic that earned significant sales with its artistic quality and the stability of the talent who kept with the title for years. In addition, the creative team took early advantage of the limited series option to create a spin off title, Tales of the New Teen Titans, to present the origins of their original characters without having to break the narrative flow of their main series or obliging them to double their work load with another ongoing title. This successful revitalization of a minor title led the editorship to look at doing the same to their entire line comics. The result was the limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, which gave the company an opportunity to dismiss some of the "baggage" of its history, and revise major characters such as Superman and Wonder Woman. Yet DC did not abandon their history completely. In 1989, they began publication of the DC Archive Editions, a series created to collect their early, rare issues into a permanent hardback format. DC Archive Editions Meanwhile, British writer Alan Moore had re-energized the minor horror series Saga of the Swamp Thing, and his highly acclaimed work sparked a comic book equivalent of rock's British Invasion, in which numerous British talents, including Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison, came to work for the company. The resulting influx of sophisticated horror and dark fantasy material led not only to DC abandoning the Comics Code for particular titles by those talents, but also to the later establishment in 1993 of the Vertigo imprint for mature readers. Acclaimed limited series such as The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Alan Moore's Watchmen, also drew attention to changes at DC. This new creative freedom and the attendant publicity allowed DC to seriously challenge the dominance of Marvel.

1990s

The comics industry experienced a brief boom in the early 1990s, thanks to a combination of speculative purchasing of the books as collectibles and several storylines which gained attention from the mainstream media. DC's extended storylines in which Superman was killed and Batman was crippled, resulted in dramatically increased sales, but the increases were as temporary as the substitutes, and sales dropped off as industry sales went into a major slump. DC's Piranha Press and other imprints in the 1990s were introduced to facilitate diversification and specialized marketing of its product line. They increased the use of nontraditional contractual arrangements, including creator-owned work and licensing material from other companies. They also increased publication of trade paperbacks, including both collections of serial comics and original graphic novels. The Vertigo line was aimed at an older and more literary audience, largely free of the "kid stuff" stigma its main superhero line still held. DC entered into a publishing agreement with Milestone Media, which gave the company a line of comics featuring a more culturally and racially diverse range of superhero characters; although the Milestone line ceased publication, it yielded the popular animated series Static Shock. Paradox Press was established to publish material that would be considered "mainstream" in the book trade - including the large-format Big Book of... series, and crime fiction such as Road to Perdition - but paradoxically remained a niche in the comics industry. DC purchased Wildstorm Comics from Jim Lee and maintained it as a separate imprint with its own style and audience. Likewise they added the Wildstorm imprint America's Best Comics, created by Alan Moore, including the titles Tom Strong and Promethea.

2000s

Comics sales stopped declining but remained weak in the early 2000s, as DC continued diversifying its publishing activities to reach new markets. In March 2003 DC Comics acquired publishing and merchandising rights to the long-running fantasy series Elfquest, which had previously been self-published by its creators Wendy and Richard Pini under the Warp Graphics banner. In 2004 it established the CMX line to reprint translated manga volumes (an already-booming market at the time), and temporarily acquired the North American publishing rights to graphic novels from European publishers 2000 AD and Humanoids. It also rebranded its titles for younger children with the mascot Johnny DC. Starting in 2004, DC's began laying groundwork for a "sequel" to Crisis on Infinite Earths, promising substantial changes to the DCU to come out of it. In 2005 they published several limited series establishing increasing conflicts between the heroes of the DCU, which are expected to come to a climax in the limited series Infinite Crisis. At the conclusion of that series in 2006, all of DC's ongoing series will skip to "one year later", showing the medium-term consequences of that crisis and continuing from there. In 2005 DC Comics launched an "All-Star" line, featuring some of DC's most famous characters, written and illustrated by popular creators. These series were intended to appeal to more casual readers, featuring familiar versions of the characters without tight continuity with the main line of books. All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder was launched in July 2005, with All-Star Superman begining in November 2005.

Logo history

November 2005 DC's first logo appeared on the March 1940 issues of their titles. The letters "DC" stood for Detective Comics, the name the company used at the time. The logo was small and did not have a background. It simply said, "A DC Publication". The November 1941 DC titles introduced an updated DC logo. This version was almost twice the size of the first one, and also was the first version with a white background. The name of Superman was added to "A DC Publication", effectively acknowledging both Superman (the company's flagship character) and Batman (star of Detective Comics). This logo was also the first version to occupy the top left corner of the cover, where the logo has usually resided ever since. In November 1949, the logo was modified, incorporating the company's current name (National Comics Publications) into the logo. This logo would also serve as the round body of Johnny DC, DC's mascot in the 1960s. In October 1970, the circular logo was briefly retired in favor of a simple "DC" in a rectangle with the name of the title, or the star of the book (i.e. many issues of Action Comics said "DC Superman"). An image of the lead character either appeared above or below the rectangle. For books that did not have a single star, such as House of Mystery or Justice League of America, the title and "DC" appeared in a stylized logo, such as a bat for House of Mystery. This use of characters as logos helped to establish the likenesses as trademarks, and was similar to Marvel's contemporaneous use of characters as part of their cover branding. DC's "100 Page Super-Spectacular" titles and later 100-page and "Giant" issues published from 1972 to 1974 featured a logo that was exclusive to these editions, the letters "DC" in a simple sans serif font, in a circle. (A variant had the letters in a square.) The July 1972 DC titles featured a new circular logo. The letters "DC" were rendered in a block-like font that would remain through later logo revisions until 2005. The title of the book usually appeared inside the circle, either above or below the letters. In December 1973, the logo was modified, adding the words "The Line of DC Super-Stars" and the star motif that would continue in later logos. This logo was placed in the top center of the cover from August 1975 to October 1976. When Jenette Kahn became DC's publisher in late 1976, she commissioned graphic designer Milton Glaser to design a new logo. Popularly referred to as the "DC bullet", the logo first appeared on the February 1977 DC titles. Although it varied in size and color and was at times cropped by the edges of the cover, or briefly rotated 45 degrees, it remained essentially unchanged for nearly three decades. On May 8, 2005, a new logo was unveiled, debuting on DC titles starting in June 2005 with DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy #1 and the rest of the titles the following week. In addition to comics, it was designed for DC properties in other media, such as Batman Begins, Smallville, Justice League Unlimited, collectibles, and other merchandise. The logo, which some have dubbed the "DC spin", was designed by Josh Beatman of Brainchild Studios.

Noteworthy creators


- Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
- Bob Kane and Bill Finger
- William Moulton Marston
- Jack Kirby
- Julius Schwartz
- Gardner Fox
- Jerry Robinson
- Dick Sprang
- Wayne Boring
- Mort Weisinger
- Gil Kane
- John Broome
- Steve Ditko
- Carmine Infantino
- Joe Kubert
- Curt Swan
- Neal Adams
- Dennis O'Neil
- Dick Giordano
- Archie Goodwin
- Paul Levitz
- Keith Giffen
- Marv Wolfman
- George Pérez
- Doug Moench
- Alan Moore
- Frank Miller
- John Byrne
- Jerry Ordway
- Dan Jurgens
- Roger Stern
- Mike W. Barr
- Chuck Dixon
- Barbara Kesel
- Karl Kesel
- Neil Gaiman
- Grant Morrison
- Mark Waid
- Alex Ross
- James Robinson
- Devin Grayson
- Geoff Johns
- Jeph Loeb
- Greg Rucka
- Jim Lee
- Murphy Anderson
- Gail Simone

Imprints


- Current
  - All Star
  - America's Best Comics
  - CMX
  - DC Archive Editions
  - Johnny DC
  - Humanoids
  - Vertigo
  - Wildstorm
- Defunct
  - DC Focus
  - Helix
  - Impact
  - Milestone
  - Paradox Press
  - Piranha Press

See also


- DC Universe
- History of the DC Universe
- List of DC Comics publications
- List of DC Comics characters
- List of DC Comics movies

References


- [http://www.dccomics.com/ DC Comics official site]
- [http://www.comics-db.com/DC_Comics/index.html Big Comic Book DataBase: DC Comics]
- [http://braveandthebold.net/ Brave and the Bold]
- [http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/features/106143682856239.htm Interview with DC publisher Paul Levitz]
- [http://collectedcomicslibrary.blogspot.com/ Collected Comics Library]
- Goulart, Ron, Ron Goulart's Great History of Comics Books (Contemporary Press, Chicago, 1986) ISBN 0809250454 Category:Comic book publishers (companies)
- Category:Time Warner subsidiaries ja:DCコミック simple:DC Comics

Justice League

The Justice League of America, also often referred to as the Justice League or JLA for short, is a DC Comics superhero team. In most incarnations, its roster includes DC's most popular characters and thus many of the most recognizable superheroes in pop culture. The original, and arguably most popular, line-up is Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. The League has also included Green Arrow, Hawkman, Atom, Elongated Man, Firestorm, Zatanna, Captain Marvel, Blue Beetle, Plastic Man and dozens of others. The team first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #28 (1960). Although series featuring the League have occasionally gone stale and been subjected to ill-fated experiments, the team has been fairly popular since inception. The team's concept was loosely adapted into the cartoon series Super Friends (1972-1985) and more directly into the series Justice League (2001-2004) and Justice League Unlimited (2004-present). Between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, the team had also gone by the names Justice League America and Justice League International.

History

Silver and Bronze Age

Justice League Unlimited and Murphy Anderson.]] The original team first appeared in The Brave and The Bold #28 (1960) as a revival of the Justice Society of America (or "JSA") under a new, more dynamic name of "League" and soon gained its own title that same year. The creator was a writer named Gardner Fox, who was inspired by the Justice Society to create a similar, contemporary concept, and who decided upon the word "league" influenced by the National Football League and Major League Baseball. The artist for the first five years of the comic was Mike Sekowsky. During this period, the team operated from a secret cave outside of the small town of Happy Harbor. They also had a team "mascot" that tagged along on some missions, a teenage sidekick named Snapper Carr, noted for speaking in "hipster" dialect. Snapper had earned this status in the team's first appearance, after helping them to defeat the villain of that story, Starro the Conqueror (a giant starfish bent on conquering Earth). The JLA comic was initially amongst the most popular of DC Comics' publications, but by the end of the 1960s, it had become overshadowed by Marvel Comics' equivalent super-team, the Avengers, in sales and quality. Various changes were made as an attempt to boost sales; the first of these changes included dropping Snapper as a "mascot." As told in Justice League of America #77 (December 1969), Snapper was tricked into betraying the secret location of the cave headquarters to the Joker, which resulted in his resigning from the team in shame. After this, the Justice League was shown moving into a new orbiting space station "satellite" headquarters (in Justice League of America #78, February 1970). The 1970s would present the team's membership as occasionally varying in makeup and size. Those involved in producing the Justice League of America comic during the 1970s included writers Cary Bates, E. Nelson Bridwell, Steve Englehart, and (longest of them all) Gerry Conway, while the art chores were primarily handled by Dick Dillin. The JLA comic had a brief spike in popularity in 1982 when artist George Pérez stepped in following Dillin's death, but the commercial success was short-lived. In 1984, in an attempt to emulate the success of DC's most successful comic at that time, The New Teen Titans, an editorial decision was made to have most of the regular members leave the team, to be replaced by young unknowns. It was also decided to have the team move from its orbiting satellite headquarters into a new base located in Detroit, Michigan. This move was highly unpopular with readers, who dubbed this period of time the "Justice League Detroit" era. Created by Conway and artist Chuck Patton, this version of the Justice League was eventually disbanded by writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Luke McDonnell. The final issue of the original Justice League of America series was #261.

Modern Age

Luke McDonnell The team was rebuilt in the 1987 company wide crossover miniseries, Legends. This new team was given a less America-centric mandate than before, and was dubbed the Justice League International (or "JLI" for short); the new comic was written by Keith Giffen and DeMatteis, with art by Kevin Maguire. This new and very popular series added a quirky sense of tongue-in-cheek humor to the stories, with an occasional slant toward excessive silliness. In 1989 Secret Origins #32 updated the JLA's classic origin from Justice League of America #9 (1962). See more below in "Origin of the JLA". The Justice League titles expanded to a total of five by the early 1990s: Justice League of America (formerly Justice League International), Justice League Europe, Justice League Task Force, Justice League Quarterly, and Extreme Justice. By the 1990s, however, with the departure of Giffen as writer, the humor prevalent in the early JLI-era had disappeared in favor of more serious stories, and as the commercial success of the series faded, each of the titles were cancelled. In 1997, a new Justice League series titled JLA debuted, written by Grant Morrison and with art by Howard Porter and John Dell (though the new version of team first appeared in the miniseries JLA: A Midsummer's Nightmare, written by Mark Waid and Fabian Nicieza). This series, in an attempt at a "back-to-basics" approach, used as its core the original and most famous seven members (or their character successors) of the team: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash III (Wally West), Green Lantern V (Kyle Rayner), and the Martian Manhunter. Added to this core roster was the character Plastic Man, as well as a new headquarters for the team, the "Watchtower", based on the moon. Morrison introduced the idea of the JLA allegorically representing a pantheon of gods, with their different powers and personalities. Since Morrison left the title, other writers and artists have taken over, though none with the success of Morrison's version of the Justice League. In 1999, storytellers Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson re-tooled and expanded the Secret Origins origin with the miniseries JLA: Year One. In 2003, Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire returned with a separate miniseries called Formerly Known as the Justice League with the same humor as their Justice League run, and featuring some of the same characters in a team called the "Super Buddies" (which parodies the Super Friends). A follow up miniseries entitled I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League soon began to be prepared, though it was delayed due to the events shown in the Identity Crisis limited series. In 2004, Morrison teamed with artist Ed McGuiness to produce a miniseries called JLA: Classified. The story involved Batman's efforts to stop Gorilla Grodd's subjugation of humanity while the rest of the core JLA pursued a mission inside a cubical "proto-universe". Following the three-part Morrison story in JLA: Classifed, the delayed I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League finally saw print in this series, reteaming the "Super Buddies" for one more adventure. Also in 2004, George Perez and Kurt Busiek came out with a Justice League/Avengers crossover miniseries, an idea that had been delayed for 20 years due to various reasons. In this miniseries, the Justice League and the Avengers were forced to find key artifacts in one another's universe, as well as deal with the threats of villains Krona and the Grandmaster. Grand