What Do The Avengers, Their Members & Their Mythos Mean to YOU as a Fan?!

[CJStriker]

A General, Straight Forward Question like the Thread Title Says;

The Avengers have had a Long & Massive Mythos in the Marvel Universe Going Back to the Early 1960's! It is a Deep History Full of Various Members, ThemeS, Adventures, Events, Commendatory & Trials! The Avengers are one of Marvel Premiere & Long Lasting Teams!

Since their Incarnation, The Avengers Started out in Comic & Been Adapted into TV Shows, Movies, Video Games, Books & Much More!

So for You as a Fan of The Avengers, Their Members & Their Mythos, with All you Know Of, Enjoy & Love about the team, What Makes you a Fan of The Avengers, Their Members & Their Mythos?!

What Brings you to The Avengers, What makes you a Fan, What makes you keep Coming Back, Things you Enjoy, Events & Themes that Effected you Personally, How does this Franchise Speak to You & Much More!

Please give Details, No Limits on the Amount of Reasons or Length, just True, From the Heart Fandom!

BTW, this is a Similar to a Thread I made about the X-Men & If you Like to Share Your Fandom on the X-Men Please Visit the Link Below!

http://community.comicbookresources....-YOU-as-a-Fan-!

[Mighty Roman]

Okay, this will be a bit abstract

The Avengers have always appealed to me, because they're Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Ever since I was a child, I'd just put all of my toys together-The Hulk, Batman, the Ninja Turtles-because they were my favourites-the mightiest heroes. And that's what the Avengers are-everybody's favourites, all of the favourite toys, fighting together for the greater good, because they can-to fight the things that can't be faced alone. And there's nothing more admirable than that.

Avengers Assemble!

[Pat Thomas]

Damn, CJ. There isn't really an easy answer for this one for a long-time reader like myself. What first drew me to the Avengers way back in the 1970's was this team of
characters I didn't know anything about in flashy, colorful uniforms, and a demeanor about them that made the DC heroes of the time look ridiculously simple. I quickly took
a liking to the Vision, and he has remained one of my favorites to this day. After I had been reading Avengers for a few months, I began to see past all the fights that I
originally cared the most about, and got to witness all types of drama between the characters behind the scenes. Eventually, the soap opera element is what I preferred
about anyway. In just the first year I read comics, Vision and Wanda's blossoming relationship was already being tested by Mantis, who was hitting on Vision in front of
Wanda and also her supposed love, the Swordsman. Meanwhile, Wanda's brother reveals himself as a bigot in regard to Vision., so there is always a tension in the background
of every scene. All of that went on for months before they finally got married, with Swordsman's death being the only thing to get Mantis back to reality and away from
Vision. And the entire time, Kang kept attacking the team for good measure. The longer I read, the more attached I became to the book itself and the characters that
rotated in and out. Some of my favorite characters have been developed almost exclusively in Avengers, with maybe a mini series here or there. So that's what got me reading
Avengers and why I stuck around. I became so familiar with the characters that they naturally became the ones I care the most about (besides Spidey). The stories definitely
weren't anything like the current run, but they weren't like the Bendis stories either. They have traditionally been a good split of action and pretty intense character work.
The last 2 writers have mostly gone to extremes.

[MindofShadow]

i like the characters


Thats... pretty much it.

[Arfguy]

I always thought of the Avengers as pretty much leftover characters. Not good enough to be Marvel's leading franchise. I actually don't really care about most of the characters in the comics, as I find them to be quite tame. I was very interested in Brian Michael Bendis's reboot with the New Avengers roster. That roster of Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Wolverine and the Sentry was a pretty awesome line-up. I read that for a long time and then it kind of deteriorated for me.

IMO, Brian Michael Bendis had a few good ideas about the Avengers, but his execution left much to be desired. The roster of characters is usually what would intrigue me. I think the movies are awesome and I am glad that Avengers fans may be seeing in reality what they always felt was the case: the Avengers are Marvel's premier characters. I, however, don't think they're all that great.

[sifighter]

I like the group and I honestly really see the group really as one of the main teams of the Marvel Universe. It's a team made up of characters from all over the marvel universe, including from other super hero teams, and that they are always at the center of big events.

If anything they are kind of also like a sample platter, meaning you could try out some of the Marvel Universe in this title, decide you like a character and go read said characters seperate series. Not to mention all the seperate teams give you access to characters who don't have their own series.

Mainly though, I just enjoy all the great stories that I get from reading them.

[MsAngel]

The Avengers have historically been the Justice League if DC didn't keep falling back on the Big 7 -- mostly made up of lesser-known characters, the group fights traditional evil-for-the-sake-of-being-evil villains, lives in a posh mansion/tower and supposed to inspire. There's a certain wish fulfillment there -- while the Fantastic Four were a bickering family of explorers and the X-Men were angsty heroes who stayed in their mansion, only leaving to deal with mutant bigots or police their own, the Avengers were just a group of folks coming together to save the Earth. They've often been middle-class or higher heroes who could ignore most of the problems faced by the street heroes like Spider-Man or the Heroes for Hire. It's an outdated concept, to be sure, but it's one that tends to be far easier to pull off than F4 or X-Men.

The focus of the book was always on the slice of life and soap opera elements. Some of their villains are okay, but most were hijacked by the rest of the Marvel U or got overused (Ultron, Loki, Masters of Evil). At its best, the team contains characters with wildly different powers and personalities; the best writers added new characters, but also kept old ones around, keeping things from feeling too nostalgic while also respecting what had come before. The best current example is Al Ewing's Captain America and the Mighty Avengers.

To me, the team is about what we could be -- cooperation between people of different countries, ethnic backgrounds, social statuses, to help make the world a better place. When taken literally, they look like part of the problem as they spend most of their time sitting in their mansion/tower waiting for bad guys to show up, but don't do much to stop people from becoming bad guys, but it could be argued that that's not their jurisdiction. But ideally, the Avengers are about us coming together under a cause we can all agree on (supervillains/evil needs to be stopped) and examining how such disparate people interact when uniting.

[HaveAtThee]

It's an appealing idea when you have several alpha-type characters coming together because they realize they can accomplish much more as a unit rather than a singular force. A collection of extraordinary, unique individuals forming a very formidable team.

[Zero Hunter]

I used to think they were premiere team in the Marvel U. The team you called when **** was about to hit the fan. Now I see them as just the dumping ground for every character in the Marvel U who is not an X-Man. Being and Avenger used to mean something, but now pretty much every character in the Marvel U (besides mutants) either are Avengers or were in the very recent past. When every character is part of something then that something kinds of loses its specialness. Plus these days they are not even really a team anymore and instead have become a virtual army of super heroes all under one banner.

[Jumpoff AKA JohnnyBlazed]

I used to think they were premiere team in the Marvel U. The team you called when **** was about to hit the fan. Now I see them as just the dumping ground for every character in the Marvel U who is not an X-Man. Being and Avenger used to mean something, but now pretty much every character in the Marvel U (besides mutants) either are Avengers or were in the very recent past. When every character is part of something then that something kinds of loses its specialness. Plus these days they are not even really a team anymore and instead have become a virtual army of super heroes all under one banner.

Basically this! I remember when it was a big deal if a hero became an Avenger , I was so happy when Justice and Firestar became Avengers because it seemed like a natural progression. I know Bendis raised the profile of The Avengers but I also think he killed what made them great.

[jackolover]

What brings you to Avengers?

The diversity of characters was a remarkable mixture of pretty much the supreme powers of the MU. But even when this was not the case, it was the first time a group was flung together and had to address things single heroes couldn't. That's why Bendis' New Avengers also worked. They weren't necesarily the classic team, but it slowly morphed into a completely non-classic team, with a range of uncomfortable power sets, but could still handle some pretty bad threats. It's probably because of the intrigue about different mixes of characters and what they each bring to the table.

What makes you a fan?

The Avengers can do stuff in a group they can't do in a solo. The group brings out more from an individual.

What makes you keep coming back?

The writers having to come up with new threats, a new take on a classic villains story.

Things you enjoy, Events, themes that effect you personally?

Secret War (Fury invading Latveria with his Avengers team)
AvengersDisassembled
Dark Avengers
The Crossing
Age of Ultron

Time travel, androids, space adventures, aliens, the win.

I was effected by Wanda and Pyms character assassinations, the destruction of Avengers Mansion and disbanding turning the Avengers into criminals and psychos, Avengers Initiative as such a radical separation from tradition, and the disgrace to the Avengers of Dark Avengers.

How does this franchise speak to you?

It speaks as the authority. It's not a personal story like a solo. It has one purpose in that it has to address the threat put in front of it, and it does this by having a mandate to be the law giver. Whatever the Avengers call the law, that's the morality and the higher order. It basically preachers the editor/writers world view.

[Vic Vega]

In story the Avengers were ALWAYS the elite heroes of the Marvel Universe founded by the greatest public heroes of the time. They were good guys who deliberately got together just to do good.

The FF were a family of explorer/adventurers bound together by familial ties and a shared profession.

The Xmen were a group of outsiders who were bound together by thier outsider status as well as a need to police their own.

The Avengers chose their mission they weren't born into it.

The problem was that "doing good" is really vague and suffers relevance wise when you compare it to the Xmen concept. The other problem was
that the Avengers subverted their own elitism every chance it got, drawing many member from the ranks of Marvel lesser known characters. Its only just now that the concept of the Avengers core "big six or seven" has taken any hold. So it took a long time for the Avengers to feel as important as the Justice League tended to.

For all the bickering and membership shuffles that the team was/is marked by they are the first line of defense for the people of Marverl Earth. Which is what is most inspiring about them.

[Kieran_Frost]

The Young Avengers mean a lot to me; nearly as much as the X-men. It was so rare and so exciting to see a happy, beautiful young gay couple. It was unique for Marvel; and meant the world to me at 15 when they débuted. As a hardcore Thunderbolts fan, the Dark Avengers mean a lot to me; because it lead to both Daken becoming the most prolific LGBT solo star (thankyou Bendis) and was my dear Moonstone's most famous hour. That said: the main Avengers mean less than nothing. I have never cared for Cap, or Iron Man (and only care for Thor through Loki). And if the "big trinity" and core of a team isn't your cup of tea, it's unlikely to mean much.