To Better Know a Team: The Avengers

Unless you've been living under a pop culture rock lately, it's no secret that tomorrow marks the debut of Marvel's much-hyped, years-in-the-making blockbuster feature film starring the Avengers. In an effort to piggy back on that hype and to enable our readers to nod approvingly at whatever winks to the fans are included in the movie, here's a look at Earth's Mightiest Heroes (and here are links to past "To Better Know a Hero" profiles on the various Avengers appearing in the film: Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk, and Iron Man).  

First Appearance
The Avengers #1, Sept. 1963

THE NERD WITHIN - New Avengers: The Reunion (2009)

Skrulls.

I don't pay too much attention to the wide reaching comics blog-o-sphere so I miss a lot of the current "backlash" that runs therein, however I believe there is a common concensus that the whole SECRET SKRULL INVASION mega-event sucked unshorn donkey balls.

Hawkeye has always been one of my favorite characters. I first became aware of him at the start of my comic reading days as he smoothly advised me in the back of some issues that I could save almost $3.00 a year!


Then he died, apparently.

And came back as a ninja. Normally ninjas are sweet but I wasn't buying this Ronin thing.

Hawkeye was married to Mockingbird. Her personality was that she was the chick that hung around Hawkeye. Then, she wasn't around. Apparently, she died, too. I never really noticed.

So, then Mockingbird shows up in the middle of this SECRET INVASION thing saying "I didn't die. The Skrull who replaced me did!" and we're meant to be all "whoop-i-dee do" but I was more "whoop-i-dee don't care".

That was until I read NEW AVENGERS: The Reunion.


Writer Jim McMann transforms Mockingbird into a strong female lead you can care about and turns Hawkeye into the boy who desperately wants to get the girl but the girl is more intent on beating people up at the moment.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird are now MR and MRS SMITH ( the version in my head where the movie is clever and funny. I never saw the movie since I heard it was neither funny nor clever.)

You even get to see what happened to Mockingbird while she was a SKRULL prisoner! And it's cool! Unlike SKRULLS. Who still suck. And should have stayed cows.

For those of you who have Marvel Digital Comic Subscriptions, check out this series! For those who don't, jump on ebay or peruse your local comic shop and pick it up.

To Better Know A Hero: Black Widow

Real Name: Natalia Alianovna Romanova

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense 52

Nicknames and Aliases: Natasha Romanoff (Anglicized name).

Powers and Abilities: Heightened (but not superhuman) physical abilities, stamina and longevity thanks to an offshoot of Captain America's super solider serum; Black Widow is also an accomplished hand-to-hand combatant, marksman, linguist, acrobat and espionage agent.

To Better Know A Hero: Hawkeye

Real Name: Clint Barton

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense 57, Sept 1964

Nicknames and Aliases: Hawkeye the Marksmen, Br'er Hawkeye, Golden Archer, Goliath, Ronin.

Powers and Abilities: Hawkeye is the best archer in the Marvel Universe; trained in hand-to-hand combat by Captain America; Carny trickery.

Weaknesses and Achilles’ Heels: blonds, brunettes, redheads (but especially blonds); Hawkeye also suffered, at one point, from a slight inferiority complex.

Gadgets and Accessories: An assortment of custom-made bows and not-quite-as-goofy-as-Silver-Age-Green Arrow trick arrows; Hawkeye is 80% deaf in both ears and wears specially designed miniature hearing aids to compensate.