In 1963, President John F. Kennedy proposed a joint U.S.-Russia mission to the moon, the Rolling Stones had their first tour (opening for Bo Diddley and the Everly Brothers) and the United States performed dozens of nuclear tests in Nevada. If historians had been taking note, they might have seen how (er, whether?) these events helped lead Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to create the Avengers that year.
There are other reasons — chief among them a desire to compete against rival DC Comics’ team book Justice League of America — but the team’s creation was groundbreaking (to comics fans).
September marked the 50th anniversary of both the X-Men and Earth’s mightiest heroes, the Avengers, whose core members usually are Captain America, Iron Man and Thor. The Avengers’ lineup varies wildly, with a roster of dozens of reserve members as well. In a recent article about the team’s 50th anniversary, Hero Complex contributor Noel Murray wrote, “In scrambling to compete with characters from another publisher, Lee and Kirby (and the rest of the Marvel crew) created characters so alive and outsized that they practically burst off the page.”
The Avengers, though, were in a bit of a lull until recently. Maybe it was Joss Whedon’s film interpretation that led to the Avengers’ rise in stature, or Brian Michael Bendis’ recent run on the New Avengers book — which united many of the most popular characters in Marvel’s stable — or even Robert Downey Jr.’s surprise success as Tony Stark in the 2008 movie “Iron Man.” It’s most likely a combination of all of those, but the popularity of the team has helped spawn a new hit television series, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” that looks to spread the Avengers cinematic universe even further among mainstream viewers.
With this resurgence and so much history behind them, we looked back at 50 seminal moments in the team’s history. The list includes long-lost characters and events that shaped the Avengers. Story lines, characters, shows, writers and artists that we haven’t mentioned can be left in the comments. There are sure to be many.
– Jevon Phillips and Thomas Suh Lauder
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