meanwhile, Black Panther joins in issue #53, The Vision is introduced in #57, Giant Man becomes Goliath, then becomes Yellowjacket i #59, and Hawkeye becomes The (new) Goliath! oh yeah, and Capt. Here we get bad guys The Red Guardian,The Super Adaptoid,Zemo,The Masters of Evil and The Black Knight.

Roy Thomas takes over the writing from Stan, and John Buscema grabs the reigns of the art duties. Giant Man returns to the group (as Goliath), with gal-pal The Wasp in tow.įrom here, the turnover is great, in characters and artists. Oh, and we get guest stars, too! Some good, some bad - like Spider-man, Hercules and Dr. Throughout Heck's tenure on the book, they come up against a bunch of baddies that we first see in these pages : Kang, Power Man, The Black Widow, The Swordsman, and the Serpent. With issue #17, we see the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Hawkeye made permanent Avengers (exit Iron Man, Thor, Ant/Giant Man and the Wasp). It's here in Don's tenure on the book that the personnel changes start happening. Go-To artist Jack Kirby handled most of the initial run, but with issue #9, thedrawing would be left in the capable hands of Marvel veteran Don Heck. He knew instictively that if he gave his heroes everday, real world problems, people would personally be more invested in their adventures. Cap would end up joining the Avengers, becoming their defacto leader, while having his share of turmoil over the hardship of adjusting to the 'modern world.'

The constant bickering of Ant Man and Wasp, who were involved in a personal relationship, adding a strange dynamic in the context of the group, and, of course Thor, an actual God on earth, whose overbearing arrogance would get on everyone's nerve.Įver changing members, The Avengers would make a major change within just the first 4 issues, with the discovery of a frozen Captain America, who turns out was in a state of 'suspended animation' since the late 40's after plunging into the icy water after falling from a plane that exploded - taking the life of his young partner, Bucky Barnes. In 1963, Marvel decided to throw their hat in the ring and offer a 'Super-Team,' a concept that was more the territory of DC, with their highly successful Justice League of America, and introduce The Avengers, a team that was comprised of characters that each had their own degree of personal baggage, which would often create tensions within their own ranks!įor example, the first team had an ambivalence to the participation of the Hulk - an often volitle force, that with his brute strength would often just do what he wanted to do, which more than often was NOT following a leader Iron Man, whose fragililty of health issues that would always be looming over the group's ability to get the job done.

Avengers (1963-1996) #80 by Roy Thomas