How did you become an Avengers fan?

[Tien Long]

Hey all. Just wanted to know how you become a fan of the Avengers. For me, the process was incremental and piecemeal. For instance, I started out reading Iron Man and Captain America comics here and there. I was a huge fan of the Hulk and knew about Thor from Marvel's old trading cards. But, I didn't know they were all a part of a team until I started to see this piece of art in the Marvel handbooks and encyclopedias:



Hmmm, okay. Avengers. In a lot of the comics I was reading at the time, I'd heard characters like Spider-Man mentioning this team. Ok, whatever, like any kid growing up in the early 90s, I was totally a Spider-Man and X-Men guy. Pretty soon, however, I was playing video games like Marvel Superheroes, and reading TPB's like the Amalgam crossover that featured characters like Captain America and Iron Man. Damn, this Captain America, he's a f()%ing badass. Where can I read more comics featuring him?

Finally, I became interested in the Avengers with Busiek/Perez's Avengers run. As a lot of us know, that title was one of the best of the late 90s. Wizard Magazine was running featured articles talking about how great this series was. They also featured mini-specials like this that gave a good, thorough rundown on who the Avengers were and how (ahem) they could beat the X-Men:



For me, the Avengers were this hidden gem of the Marvel universe. They were Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but still had this underdog quality about them. A god of thunder. A modern day knight. A mere super-soldier armed with an indestructible shield and principles of freedom and nobility. A mutant with hex powers in love with an synthezoid who could phase through walls one moment, and become diamond hard the next. Giant-men and wasps, an ionic man of wonder and an archer who never missed. All of them fighting against evil robots and time conquerors. Damn, that was compelling stuff! I wanted to know more about these characters, and more importantly support them. There was all of this potential that seemed to be lost within the midst of X-Men and Spider-Man this and that. Pretty soon, I started to read Avengers, learn my Avengers history, got a lot of issues and trades, and well, I've been a fan for nearly 20 yrs. now. Can't tell you how proud I am to see the Avengers become THE powerhouse superteam of pop culture of today.

So, yes, how did you become an Avengers fan?

[Huntsman Spider]

I'll admit, I first became aware of the Avengers through older comics, specifically one of the West Coast Avengers issues, and then watching Iron Man's 90s cartoon (he did have one, even though it wasn't as popular or long-lasting as the ones for Spider-Man and the X-Men) and seeing characters there who were from the West Coast Avengers team that was later revamped as Force Works. Then there was the short-lived Avengers cartoon that debuted around 1999-2000, and while it was in retrospect a poor showing for the overall franchise (on top of lacking the Big 3 in Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, though the first two made guest appearances), it still attuned me to the existence of the Avengers.

If I may be honest, I didn't fully get into them until the shakeups of the 2000s spearheaded by Brian Bendis, and what I found so compelling about them in that period was the willingness to address more explicitly the social and political implications and ramifications of an organized team of superhuman crimefighters in a setting relatively close to our own in that era. As controversial as a lot of that was, it did bring me fully into the Marvel fold for more than just Spider-Man and the X-Men, so mission accomplished, I suppose. Like Tien Long pointed out, I can also appreciate the Avengers being the underdogs of the Marvel Universe despite their status within the comics as "Earth's Mightiest Heroes," though, which simultaneously parallels and contrasts Spider-Man and the X-Men being the underdogs within the same setting while being beloved, iconic characters and franchises in real life at that time.

[Falcon16]

By watching Age of Ultron in 2015

[mikelmcknight72]

Avengers 263 - A mysterious large cocoon is found at the bottom of Jamaica Bay.....

This was part 1 of the return of Jean Grey, and I picked it up off of a spinner rack at a minimart back in the day. The siege of Avengers Mansion story began within the year, and I read regularly for years thereafter.

[HipHopAvenger]

Avengers movie from 2013 then I read Hickman’s Avengers and Mighty Avengers

[Matt Parker]

This may show how relatively young I am (still in college), but the MCU is what first introduced me to the team. I started really reading comics around 2011, but for some reason I never really went out of my way to read the Avengers. I did read some solo books starring members of the team (mostly the big 3, who's solo comics I've read a decent amount of) and I read a few of the events that aren't technically labelled as Avengers stories even though they are absolutely Avengers stories (like Infinity Gauntlet, Secret Invasion, and Fear Itself), but Spider-Man and Daredevil were my two favorite marvel comics for the longest time and the only ones I was an expert on (Spider-Man is still my favorite comic book character period, and Daredevil isn't far behind him). However, my love of Age of Ultron (the film) compelled me to try out Kurt Busiek's Avengers run in January of 2018, and the first two trades of that (everything up to the end of the Ultron Unlimited Story) made me a huge fan instantly.

I loved how, as written by Busiek, the Avengers felt like the ultimate superhero book. It was the superhero genre boiled down to it's core elements, focusing on cool, inspirational characters (of great diversity, by the way) working together to save people from all kinds of giant villains. Plus, I also loved the political overtones, as many. Avengers books focus on the team';s relationship to the public at large and the somewhat realistic politics that would come with a team of godlike vigilantes forming a public alliance. I was hooked.

I slowly read more of. Busiek's Avengers, while also dabbling in Geoff John's run, Mark Waid's recent run (2015), and the Uncanny. Avengers stuff. I was slowly becoming a fan. The Avengers was the first team book that I was really able to get into wholesale (though I'm starting to get into X Men and FF). In the past 3 months, I've been on an Avengers binge, reading. a majority of the Bendis run (at least almost everything up to the Infinity story with the Hood), as well as the first, third, and fourth epic collections of the silver age stories (along with starting Hickman's run).

I gotta say, the Avengers may have become tied with Daredevil as my favorite Marvel franchise.

[Matt Parker]

I accidentally posted my answer twice, so ignore this

[Frontier]

Watching the Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon and the movie.

Then I got into Busiek, Stern, and even the Lee/Thomas/Englehart stuff and became fans of the comic versions.

[Snoop Dogg]

A Marvel Unlimited sub, good taste, and a lot of oregano. A. Lot. Of. Oregano.

[ARkadelphia]

Went to a local convenience store with an older cousin who collected comics. Saw West Coast Avengers vol 2 issue 1 on the rack and thought that would be a good opportunity to get in on the ground floor on a series. I was right!

[9th.]

Bendis New Avengers, I loved every minute of it.

[Star_Jammer]

I subscribed to Avengers after picking up #1-3 of the Busiek/Pérez run, which is also when I fell in love with my favorite comics character (Wanda).

I haven’t gone back and read any of the older stuff, so I probably should.

[Mike]

I received Avengers #156 in one of those 3 comics for .50 cents, in a plastic bag, for Christmas.
I must have been around 10 years old.
avengers156.jpg

[Triniking1234]

I mostly became a fan due to my country mostly having back issues. So most of the Avengers books I read had Vision in it and I was interested in the character. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were Magneto's kids around that time so I tried to collect books with them in it too.

[comicscollector]

By reading Captain America pocket comic books that besides the Captain America stories had Avengers stories as well in the 80´s.