There was a time when every super-team had its own identity: The Outsiders, The Defenders, The Young Heroes… In modern parlance, it seems that every Big Two gathering is labeled Avengers or Justice League, with adjectives and modifiers as necessary. In one issue of New Avengers, a character explicitly asked why the team (composed largely of former Defenders and their allies) wasn’t going by the name, to which the only answer is “marketing,” leading us to today’s nomenclatural query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) appreciates that Marvel is using the old names, and awaits the ABC debut of The New Warriors, asking: Do we need The Defenders, or is it perfectly okay to have Avengers, New Avengers, Uncanny Avengers and All-New All–Different Avengers all at once?
6 Comments
I guess its alright to have dozen Avengers teams, but I cant help but feel like its cheap marketing trick.
Well, what is wrong with a comic called “The Defending Avengers” anyway??
I’d rather have the Defenders than multiple, separate Avengers teams.
Alternatively, make everyone an Avenger-Avenger member and simply have different people handling different situations, with no need to make them a completely separate group.
I miss The New Defenders. Loved that weirdness.
Just like there’s multiple CSI series now there’s multiple Avengers titles.
Avengers would mention by-laws and other structural elements that I highly doubt that Deadpool would abide by. Can you even imagine a Deadpool / Robert’s Rules of Order joke? I’m not sure the audience would follow other than a simple reference like that one of his pockets is specifically for that book.
I’m happy to remember different times at Marvel when the executives were oblivious to their job. Instead the current Marvel executives are aware of their job but I totally disagree with their choices.
The current epithet approach is silly and will always be viewed as a gimmick. For instance, something like “Defender of a Day” but on an event-scale would be a way to work many characters into using the Avengers name. Imagine, having random groupings like the Punisher, Jean Grey, Silver Surfer, Lady Sif, etc. How do they deal with one another in the middle of a stressful event? What about when all is quiet? Would these characters change? For any that do, how would that change their established relationships? There could be a lot to explore other than punch Thanos in the face once they learn to work as a team.
Neither really.
The Defenders had a mistique all of their own because they were such an accidental grouping of slightly weird characters. For good or worse, that is a self-limiting premise, and IMO ran out of gas as of 1984 or so.
However, I don’t think there is a point to having so many so-called Avengers either. I miss the Avengers.