Although the Fantastic Four was inspired by the Justice League of America, even as a child I could see that the Avengers were conceived as a direct answer to the JLA.
A big part of the power and charm of the Justice League, like the Justice Society before it, was that it was a team composed of superheroes who already had their own preexisting features.
Did they inhabit a shared universe of continuity before the JLA appeared in 1959? Maybe yes, maybe no. The textual evidence is contradictory.
But suddenly, here were those characters you’d seen haunting the back pages of Detective Comics and Adventure Comics — the Martian Manhunter and Aquaman — teaming up with the cover-featured stars of Wonder Woman, World’s Finest and The Flash, along with that new guy spotlighted in the pages of Showcase, Green Lantern. That was quite a thrill to see on the newsstand, I can tell you, and the magazine’s sales reflected it.
Chasing those sales led to the creation of The Fantastic Four and, in turn, The Avengers (Sept. 1963) — a team that, like the JLA, was initially composed of the superhero stars of preexisting Marvel features.
Thor, Iron Man, Ant Man, the Wasp and the Hulk didn’t organize themselves into orderly little pairings to fight fairly cerebral menaces, the way the JLA did. They were brooders and brawlers whose founding membership lineup lasted only two issues.
Nevertheless, their title was clearly the stepchild of DC’s JLA. And sticking to that formula — teaming up superheroes only after they have already all been introduced in their own features — is what Disney-Marvel did for its 2012 film The Avengers, which was a breathtaking success.
Each earlier movie helped create audience anticipation for the big event to come, and the fact that each character's personality had already been well defined meant that director Joss Whedon needed to waste no time introducing anyone. They all arrived ready to interact in witty, suspenseful, crowd-pleasing ways.
And spare me the "It was really the Challengers of the Unknown" theory. In 1961, the Justice League sold 335,000 copies per issue, and the Challengers of the Unknown sold 235,000. Obviously, Martin Goodman wanted the sales of the former, not the latter.
ReplyDeleteBob Ruprecht wrote: One of Lee's distinctions was holding the gang down to 4 or so, to allow for character development and chemistry. Despite their awesome powers, their personalities shown through, connecting with us readers. The line up re-cast starting in #16 -- a gamble -- gave us some of the best stories and character development, and needless to say, I was hooked!
ReplyDeleteBob Doncaster wrote: Being a long time fan I liked the build up to the Avengers film. Among other things I think the audiences unfamiliarity with some of the characters hurt the Justice League film.
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