Avengers Assemble...um...again...

And the buildup to 2012's Avengers movie continues with this fall's animated series from Disney, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It's got the original Avengers along with teases of Captain America, Hawkeye, and the Black Panther plus tons of villains, Nick Fury and SHIELD, and all that jazz.

Could be cool.

Avengers Assemble! (Yeah, we'll wait...)

14. For the first 110 issues of the series (roughly 1963-1973) Marvel’s premier super-hero team, the Avengers, managed to get by with just 14 official members (and that number includes 3 “blink and you’ll miss ‘em” members: The Hulk, the Swordsman, and the Black Knight.)

14 Avengers (the others were, of course: Thor, Iron Man, the many faces of Hank Pym, the Wasp, Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Hercules, the Black Panther, and the Vision) during the course of a decade’s worth of issues (mostly written by two guys: Roy Thomas and Stan Lee)…kind of an exclusive club and that was pretty cool.

Since that time though just about every writer who has come on the book has felt the need to put a personal stamp on the series by adding new faces to the team; a fact which has caused the membership to be something less than exclusive with seemingly dozens of heroes (including a couple of X-Men and three-fourths of the Fantastic Four) carrying Avengers ID cards over the years. There are enough Avengers to fill an auditorium and yet all these writers feel they need to add their pet characters to the mix (as opposed to just drawing from the already incredibly deep bench of formerly active Avengers.)

With the recent announcement that the beloved character Red Hulk would be joining up, the beat goes on.

Hell at this point they might as well just issue every costumed hero in the Marvel Universe an Avengers ID card and tell them “we’ll call you when we need you.”

Don’t get me wrong, I know that some of the later characters have gone on to have distinguished Avenger careers (Beast, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Luke Cage come to mind offhand) but just once I’d like to see somebody take over an Avengers title and not feel the need to add somebody new to the already lengthy roster of Avengers.

That’s probably not gonna happen but I, as long time Avengers fan (the book was my first favorite Marvel title back when I started reading comics in the 60’s), I can dream…

14…imagine that…

Young Justice

Preview of the upcoming Young Justice cartoon series. Looks like it could be fun.

Beware His Power...

Entertainment Weekly, showcasing the Hollywood elements of next week's San Diego Comic-Con (nope, not going...already sold out...too many people (with no parking and overpriced concessions)...too much Hollywood hype and hoopla...many less annoying things to do here in our fair city) with Ryan Reynolds all ringed up and ready to use his might as Green Lantern in the upcoming movie.

First impression is that it's okay (the mask is kinda funky but it's hard to make a mask like that work on real people however cool they might look in the comics)...I'll have to see it more fully...and in action...before I give my full fanboy pontification on it :-)

Wonder Woman

DC Comics' amazing Amazon, Wonder Woman, gets a new modern look...well, if by "modern" you mean the Eighties (tights and a jacket with rolled-up sleeves? Really?) But hey at least Diana isn't fighting monsters and criminals in a bathing suit anymore...