Post by Dead Sidekick on Jun 27, 2010 18:00:39 GMT -5
Labeled "Earth's Mightiest Heroes", the Avengers originally consisted of Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor, Iron Man, and The Hulk. Captain America was revived from ice shortly after the team's formation and became their leader.
The rotating roster has become a hallmark of the team, although one theme remains consistent: the Avengers fight the foes no single superhero can withstand — hence their battle cry, "Avengers Assemble!" The team has featured humans, mutants, robots, gods, aliens, supernatural beings, and even former villains.
Their first adventure features the Asgardian trickster god Loki, who seeks revenge against his adopted brother Thor. Using an illusion, Loki tricks the Hulk into destroying a railroad track, after that he then diverts a radio call by Rick Jones for help to Thor, whom Loki hopes will battle the Hulk. Unknown to Loki, the radio call is also answered by Ant-Man, the Wasp and Iron Man. After an initial misunderstanding, the heroes unite and defeat Loki. Ant-Man states the five work well together and suggests they form a combined team — with the Wasp naming the group "the Avengers" because it sounded "dramatic" (Ironically, occasional commentary questions exactly what the Avengers are supposed to be "avenging," not realizing the name was, as noted, chosen simply because it sounded good.) The original members are known as the "founding members", and courtesy of an Avengers Charter are responsible for the name of the team. As a result, their wishes regarding the direction of the team are given additional weight and deference.
The roster changes almost immediately; by the beginning of the second issue, Ant-Man has become Giant-Man and, at the end of the issue, the Hulk leaves once he realizes how much the others fear his unstable personality. Feeling responsible, the Avengers try to locate and contain the Hulk, which subsequently leads them into combat with Namor the Sub-Mariner. This would result in the first major milestone in the Avengers' history - the revival and return of Captain America. Captain America joins the team, eventually becoming field leader. Captain America is also given "founding member" status in the Hulk's place. The Avengers go on to fight foes such as Captain America's wartime enemy Baron Zemo, who forms the Masters of Evil; Kang the Conqueror; Wonder Man; and Count Nefaria.
The next milestone came when every member but Captain America resigned and were replaced by three former villains - Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver. Although lacking the raw power of the original team, "Cap's Kooky Quartet"(as they were sometimes jokingly called), proved their worth by fighting and defeating the Swordsman; the original Power Man; and Doctor Doom. They are soon rejoined by Henry Pym (who changes his name to Goliath) and the Wasp, along with Hercules, the Black Knight, and the Black Widow, although the last two do not obtain official membership status until years later.
The Black Panther joins the team, followed by the Vision. The Avengers establish headquarters in a New York City building called Avengers Mansion, provided courtesy of Tony Stark (Iron Man's alter ego), who also funds the Avengers through the Maria Stark Foundation, a non-profit organization. The mansion is serviced by Edwin Jarvis, the Avengers' faithful butler, and also furnished with state-of-the-art technology, and defense systems, including the Avengers' primary mode of transport: the five-engine Quinjets.
The adventures increased in scope as the team cross into an alternate dimension to battle the Squadron Supreme and fight in the Kree-Skrull War, an epic battle between the alien Kree and Skrull races alongside the Kree hero Captain Marvel. The Avengers also briefly disband when Skrulls impersonating Captain America, Thor and Iron Man use their authority as founders of the team to disband it. The true founding Avengers, minus the Wasp, later reform the team in response to complaints from Jarvis.
The Vision and the Scarlet Witch fall in love, although the relationship is tinged with sadness as the Vision believes himself to be inhuman and unworthy of her. Mantis joins the team along with the reformed Swordsman. Mantis' origins link to the very beginnings of the Kree-Skrull conflict in a time-spanning adventure involving Kang the Conqueror and the mysterious Immortus, who are revealed to be past and future versions of each other. Mantis is revealed to be the Celestial Madonna, who is destined to give birth to a being that will save the universe. This saga also reveals that the Vision's body had only been appropriated, and not created, by Ultron, and that it had originally belonged to the 1940s Human Torch. [Actually, the Vision's body is a temporal duplicate of the original Human Torch android's frame, the original of the MSHG Universe timeline remains undiscovered and buried in Nevada] With his origins now clear to him, the Vision proposes to the Scarlet Witch. The Celestial Madonna saga ends with their wedding, presided over by Immortus.
In ensuing years, the Avengers participate in several classic adventures, with missions they have named "Bride of Ultron", the "Nefaria Trilogy," and "The Korvac Saga", featuring nearly every Avenger who joined the team up to that point. New members added during this time include the Beast, a resurrected Wonder Man, Captain America's former partner the Falcon, and Ms. Marvel.
Henry Peter Gyrich becomes the Avengers' liaison to the United States National Security Council. Gyrich is prejudiced against superhumans, and acts in a heavy-handed, obstructive manner, insisting that the Avengers follow government rules and regulations or else lose their priority status with the government. Among Gyrich's demands is that the active roster be trimmed down to only seven members, and that the Falcon, an African American, be admitted to the team to comply with affirmative action laws. This last act is resented by Hawkeye, who because of the seven-member limit loses his membership slot to the Falcon. The Falcon, in turn, is unhappy to be the beneficiary of what he perceives to be tokenism, and decides to resign from the team, after which Hawkeye rejoins.
The current active roster of the Avengers is:
Captain America (Steve Rogers)
Thor (Donald Blake)
Iron Man (Tony Stark in his Mark IV armor)
Wasp (Janet Van Dyne)
Hawkeye (Clint Barton)
She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters)
Reserve, inactive, former, and honorary members of the Avengers:
Ant-Man / Goliath / Giant-Man / Yellowjacket - (Henry Pym, inactive, currently imprisoned)
Beast (Henry P. McCoy, former member, currently with the Defenders)
Black Knight III (Dane Whitman, reserve)
Black Panther (T'Challa, reserve)
Black Widow II (Natalia Alianovna Romanova, reserve)
Captain Mar-Vell (Mar-Vell, honorary member, deceased)
Crystal (Crystalia Amequelin Maximoff, reserve)
Falcon II (Samuel Wilson, reserve)
Hellcat (Patricia Hellstrom, reserve)
Hercules ("Harry Cleese," reserve)
Hulk (Robert Bruce Banner, resigned)
Jocasta (reserve member)
Mantis / Willow ('The Celestial Madonna." inactive member)
Moondragon (Heather Douglas, reserve member turned villian)
Miss Marvel (Carol Danvers, resigned)
Photon (Monica Rambeau, reserve)
Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff, reserve)
Richard Milhouse Jones (honorary member)
Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff, reserve)
Swordsman I (Jacques Duquesne, deceased)
Tigra (Greer Grant Nelson, resigned)
Two Gun Kid (Matthew Liebowicz, reserve, returned to 19th Century Old West)
Vision ("Victor Shade," reserve)
Whizzer (Robert Frank, reserve, medical restriction)
Wonder Man (Simon Williams, reserve)
The members of a possible future 31st Century team called the "Guardians of the Galaxy" are also honorary Avengers members.
Recent Events:
The Silver Surfer chances upon the Molecule Man's discarded wand, but proves invulnerable to its power of possessing the bodies of those who touch it, so the wand instead recreates the body of the Molecule Man. At his request, the Surfer relates his origin, which gives the insane evildoer the idea of emulating Galactus and destroying the entire planet. When the Surfer tries to stop him, the Molecule Man imprisons him easily. Soon the Surfer's board is sighted hovering near the Baxter Building and, since the Fantastic Four are away, the Avengers investigate. The board takes them to the Silver Surfer, who joins them in confronting the Molecule Man. The villain has erected a huge dome over the New Jersey countryside containing his newly constructed palatial headquarters. The heroes prove no match for the madman whose power now resides in himself, not in his ornamental wand. With a single gesture, he destroys Thor's hammer, Iron Man's armor, Captain America's shield, and the Silver Surfer's board. He then imprisons all but Tigra in a gigantic crushing machine and activates it.
Unknown to the Molecule Man, the Avengers are saved by the Silver Surfer's cosmic power. While their foe is occupied repulsing an attack on his dome by the Fantastic Four, they gather in the basement of his headquarters to plot strategy. Although Thor and Iron Man are now merely the powerless Don Blake and Tony Stark, they insist on joining the assault. Meanwhile, Tigra, whom the Molecule Man has kept alive as a companion, attempts to murder him in his sleep, but cannot bring herself to do so. She discovers the others are alive, but before they can attack the Molecule Man, he locates them and is about to defeat them when Don Blake gets close enough to punch him in the nose. Unaccustomed to physical pain, he panics and runs, but when the heroes pursue him, he still proves powerful enough to down the Silver Surfer. Captain America, however, manages to deliver a single powerful blow, and the Molecule Man is knocked unconscious. While the others debate the morality of killing the insane menace, he regains his senses and to everyone's amazement, Tigra talks him into surrendering and seeking psychiatric help. He then restores Mjolnir, Cap's shield, and the Surfer's board, although Iron Man's armor proves too complicated for him to replicate. The Silver Surfer departs, as does Tigra, who has decided she is not comfortable dealing with the types of threats the Avengers face and tenders her resignation.
Shortly after the death of the Kree hero Captain Mar-Vell, he is given honorary Avenger membership status.
After Iron Man disposes of an ineffectual armored challenger called the Mechano-Marauder outside Avengers Mansion, the Wasp, now officially divorced, returns to the roster with a vengeance by proposing a new election for chairman, nominating herself, and winning. Elsewhere, a penniless Henry Pym meets his old enemy Egghead, who claims to have reformed and pays him half a million dollars to deliver a cybernetic prosthetic arm to his disabled niece, Trish Starr. No sooner does Trish don the device, however, than she falls under Egghead's mental control, and the villain, now able to see and hear through Trish's eyes and ears, forces Yellowjacket to obey him or the arm will self-destruct. Together, Yellowjacket and Trish invade S.A.C. headquarters in Omaha and steal the government's stockpile of priceless adamantium resins. Hank has managed to summon the Avengers secretly, but with Trish's life at stake, he has no choice but to battle them when they arrive. Yellowjacket gives a good account of himself but is finally beaten, whereupon there proves to be no evidence whatsoever of Egghead's involvement. Even Trish cannot recall what really happened, and the hapless ex-Avenger is jailed for robbery.
A small boy appears at the mansion demanding to see the Avengers. On a whim, the Wasp admits him, but when the heroes refuse to take him seriously, he puts a gun to his head and commits suicide. His bo4y instantly disintegrates, then reforms as if from nothing, and the Avengers realize that he is truly what he claims to be: a man who cannot die. Among his many past identities is that of Captain America's recent antagonist, Morgan MacNeil Hardy. Reborn continuously through the ages, his current incarnation is the first to remember all his previous lives and is slowly being driven insane. When the Avengers do not agree to help him find the peace of a permanent death, "Hardy" steals away and, days later, reappears at Cape Canaveral, where he stows away aboard a NASA solar probe about to be launched. Causing the probe to crash into the sun does not grant him the death he seeks, however, but instead transforms him into a fiery behemoth which returns to Earth and wreaks havoc in midtown Manhattan. The Avengers battle the monster and appear to destroy it, but "Hardy" reforms once again as a small boy, now apparently amnesiac.
The four current Avengers are drawn from their everyday routines and compelled by Moondragon's mental powers to assemble at the landing site of her spaceship. Once aboard the unmanned craft, they are whisked to the planet Ba-Bani, where Moondragon and her father, Drax the Destroyer, have quelled a global war, but now face a potentially devastating attack by the last of the planet's warmongers. Despite severe misgivings about interfering in the politics of another world, the Avengers crush the rebellion, then decide to stay on and tour the planet. Actually, each privately suspects that Moondragon has secretly seized control of the planet. Captain America and the Wasp discover that the "rebels" they had fought were actually peaceful inhabitants mentally compelled to attack the city, while Iron Man forces Drax to realize that his daughter has been controlling his mind. When Thor confronts Moondragon with his suspicions, she admits having forced the current peace, then subtly uses her powers to seduce the Thunder God to her side.
Incensed at the realization that he has been under Moondragon's mental control, Drax accompanies the Avengers as they race to confront the self-styled goddess, but Thor, now totally in Moondragon's thrall, battles his allies on her behalf. After a titanic struggle, the Avengers try to reason with the Asgardian, and he ultimately thwarts Moondragon's will by changing back into Donald Blake. When the heroes enter her temple, Moondragon withdraws her psychic presence from the minds of the Ba-Bani, allowing them to resume their warlike ways, thus regaining sufficient power to telepathically paralyze her attackers. Drax will not be denied, however, and he presses forward in a maddened rage, finally collapsing only inches from his goal. The effort needed to stop him forces Moondragon to release the others and, before she can strike again, the Wasp resumes her normal size and deals her a knockout blow. As the Avengers return home, Dr. Blake ministers to Drax, but the Destroyer is beyond help. Blake again becomes Thor and transports Moondragon to Asgard to face the judgment of Odin, while back on Earth, his teammates send the mind-goddess's ship aloft for the final time as Drax's funeral pyre.
The Avengers decide to replenish their depleted ranks, and the Wasp calls for suggestions for new members to be submitted by their next meeting. Thor seeks out Spider-Man and asks him to join, but the flattered web-spinner promises only to consider the idea. Iron Man and Captain America ask Hawkeye to return to the roster, and he enthusiastically accepts. The Wasp decides the group needs more female members and invites several costumed adventuresses to brunch. The gathering is crashed by Fabian Stankowicz, the Mechano-Marauder, who again attempts to gain notoriety by battling an Avenger, but the women defeat him easily, while all but one decline Jan's invitation to join the team. Thus, a few days later, following an altercation in traffic on their way to the meeting, the two new recruits, Hawkeye and the She-Hulk,' are officially inducted. (Avengers Vol. 1, #215 - 221)
The rotating roster has become a hallmark of the team, although one theme remains consistent: the Avengers fight the foes no single superhero can withstand — hence their battle cry, "Avengers Assemble!" The team has featured humans, mutants, robots, gods, aliens, supernatural beings, and even former villains.
Their first adventure features the Asgardian trickster god Loki, who seeks revenge against his adopted brother Thor. Using an illusion, Loki tricks the Hulk into destroying a railroad track, after that he then diverts a radio call by Rick Jones for help to Thor, whom Loki hopes will battle the Hulk. Unknown to Loki, the radio call is also answered by Ant-Man, the Wasp and Iron Man. After an initial misunderstanding, the heroes unite and defeat Loki. Ant-Man states the five work well together and suggests they form a combined team — with the Wasp naming the group "the Avengers" because it sounded "dramatic" (Ironically, occasional commentary questions exactly what the Avengers are supposed to be "avenging," not realizing the name was, as noted, chosen simply because it sounded good.) The original members are known as the "founding members", and courtesy of an Avengers Charter are responsible for the name of the team. As a result, their wishes regarding the direction of the team are given additional weight and deference.
The roster changes almost immediately; by the beginning of the second issue, Ant-Man has become Giant-Man and, at the end of the issue, the Hulk leaves once he realizes how much the others fear his unstable personality. Feeling responsible, the Avengers try to locate and contain the Hulk, which subsequently leads them into combat with Namor the Sub-Mariner. This would result in the first major milestone in the Avengers' history - the revival and return of Captain America. Captain America joins the team, eventually becoming field leader. Captain America is also given "founding member" status in the Hulk's place. The Avengers go on to fight foes such as Captain America's wartime enemy Baron Zemo, who forms the Masters of Evil; Kang the Conqueror; Wonder Man; and Count Nefaria.
The next milestone came when every member but Captain America resigned and were replaced by three former villains - Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver. Although lacking the raw power of the original team, "Cap's Kooky Quartet"(as they were sometimes jokingly called), proved their worth by fighting and defeating the Swordsman; the original Power Man; and Doctor Doom. They are soon rejoined by Henry Pym (who changes his name to Goliath) and the Wasp, along with Hercules, the Black Knight, and the Black Widow, although the last two do not obtain official membership status until years later.
The Black Panther joins the team, followed by the Vision. The Avengers establish headquarters in a New York City building called Avengers Mansion, provided courtesy of Tony Stark (Iron Man's alter ego), who also funds the Avengers through the Maria Stark Foundation, a non-profit organization. The mansion is serviced by Edwin Jarvis, the Avengers' faithful butler, and also furnished with state-of-the-art technology, and defense systems, including the Avengers' primary mode of transport: the five-engine Quinjets.
The adventures increased in scope as the team cross into an alternate dimension to battle the Squadron Supreme and fight in the Kree-Skrull War, an epic battle between the alien Kree and Skrull races alongside the Kree hero Captain Marvel. The Avengers also briefly disband when Skrulls impersonating Captain America, Thor and Iron Man use their authority as founders of the team to disband it. The true founding Avengers, minus the Wasp, later reform the team in response to complaints from Jarvis.
The Vision and the Scarlet Witch fall in love, although the relationship is tinged with sadness as the Vision believes himself to be inhuman and unworthy of her. Mantis joins the team along with the reformed Swordsman. Mantis' origins link to the very beginnings of the Kree-Skrull conflict in a time-spanning adventure involving Kang the Conqueror and the mysterious Immortus, who are revealed to be past and future versions of each other. Mantis is revealed to be the Celestial Madonna, who is destined to give birth to a being that will save the universe. This saga also reveals that the Vision's body had only been appropriated, and not created, by Ultron, and that it had originally belonged to the 1940s Human Torch. [Actually, the Vision's body is a temporal duplicate of the original Human Torch android's frame, the original of the MSHG Universe timeline remains undiscovered and buried in Nevada] With his origins now clear to him, the Vision proposes to the Scarlet Witch. The Celestial Madonna saga ends with their wedding, presided over by Immortus.
In ensuing years, the Avengers participate in several classic adventures, with missions they have named "Bride of Ultron", the "Nefaria Trilogy," and "The Korvac Saga", featuring nearly every Avenger who joined the team up to that point. New members added during this time include the Beast, a resurrected Wonder Man, Captain America's former partner the Falcon, and Ms. Marvel.
Henry Peter Gyrich becomes the Avengers' liaison to the United States National Security Council. Gyrich is prejudiced against superhumans, and acts in a heavy-handed, obstructive manner, insisting that the Avengers follow government rules and regulations or else lose their priority status with the government. Among Gyrich's demands is that the active roster be trimmed down to only seven members, and that the Falcon, an African American, be admitted to the team to comply with affirmative action laws. This last act is resented by Hawkeye, who because of the seven-member limit loses his membership slot to the Falcon. The Falcon, in turn, is unhappy to be the beneficiary of what he perceives to be tokenism, and decides to resign from the team, after which Hawkeye rejoins.
The current active roster of the Avengers is:
Captain America (Steve Rogers)
Thor (Donald Blake)
Iron Man (Tony Stark in his Mark IV armor)
Wasp (Janet Van Dyne)
Hawkeye (Clint Barton)
She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters)
Reserve, inactive, former, and honorary members of the Avengers:
Ant-Man / Goliath / Giant-Man / Yellowjacket - (Henry Pym, inactive, currently imprisoned)
Beast (Henry P. McCoy, former member, currently with the Defenders)
Black Knight III (Dane Whitman, reserve)
Black Panther (T'Challa, reserve)
Black Widow II (Natalia Alianovna Romanova, reserve)
Captain Mar-Vell (Mar-Vell, honorary member, deceased)
Crystal (Crystalia Amequelin Maximoff, reserve)
Falcon II (Samuel Wilson, reserve)
Hellcat (Patricia Hellstrom, reserve)
Hercules ("Harry Cleese," reserve)
Hulk (Robert Bruce Banner, resigned)
Jocasta (reserve member)
Mantis / Willow ('The Celestial Madonna." inactive member)
Moondragon (Heather Douglas, reserve member turned villian)
Miss Marvel (Carol Danvers, resigned)
Photon (Monica Rambeau, reserve)
Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff, reserve)
Richard Milhouse Jones (honorary member)
Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff, reserve)
Swordsman I (Jacques Duquesne, deceased)
Tigra (Greer Grant Nelson, resigned)
Two Gun Kid (Matthew Liebowicz, reserve, returned to 19th Century Old West)
Vision ("Victor Shade," reserve)
Whizzer (Robert Frank, reserve, medical restriction)
Wonder Man (Simon Williams, reserve)
The members of a possible future 31st Century team called the "Guardians of the Galaxy" are also honorary Avengers members.
Recent Events:
The Silver Surfer chances upon the Molecule Man's discarded wand, but proves invulnerable to its power of possessing the bodies of those who touch it, so the wand instead recreates the body of the Molecule Man. At his request, the Surfer relates his origin, which gives the insane evildoer the idea of emulating Galactus and destroying the entire planet. When the Surfer tries to stop him, the Molecule Man imprisons him easily. Soon the Surfer's board is sighted hovering near the Baxter Building and, since the Fantastic Four are away, the Avengers investigate. The board takes them to the Silver Surfer, who joins them in confronting the Molecule Man. The villain has erected a huge dome over the New Jersey countryside containing his newly constructed palatial headquarters. The heroes prove no match for the madman whose power now resides in himself, not in his ornamental wand. With a single gesture, he destroys Thor's hammer, Iron Man's armor, Captain America's shield, and the Silver Surfer's board. He then imprisons all but Tigra in a gigantic crushing machine and activates it.
Unknown to the Molecule Man, the Avengers are saved by the Silver Surfer's cosmic power. While their foe is occupied repulsing an attack on his dome by the Fantastic Four, they gather in the basement of his headquarters to plot strategy. Although Thor and Iron Man are now merely the powerless Don Blake and Tony Stark, they insist on joining the assault. Meanwhile, Tigra, whom the Molecule Man has kept alive as a companion, attempts to murder him in his sleep, but cannot bring herself to do so. She discovers the others are alive, but before they can attack the Molecule Man, he locates them and is about to defeat them when Don Blake gets close enough to punch him in the nose. Unaccustomed to physical pain, he panics and runs, but when the heroes pursue him, he still proves powerful enough to down the Silver Surfer. Captain America, however, manages to deliver a single powerful blow, and the Molecule Man is knocked unconscious. While the others debate the morality of killing the insane menace, he regains his senses and to everyone's amazement, Tigra talks him into surrendering and seeking psychiatric help. He then restores Mjolnir, Cap's shield, and the Surfer's board, although Iron Man's armor proves too complicated for him to replicate. The Silver Surfer departs, as does Tigra, who has decided she is not comfortable dealing with the types of threats the Avengers face and tenders her resignation.
Shortly after the death of the Kree hero Captain Mar-Vell, he is given honorary Avenger membership status.
After Iron Man disposes of an ineffectual armored challenger called the Mechano-Marauder outside Avengers Mansion, the Wasp, now officially divorced, returns to the roster with a vengeance by proposing a new election for chairman, nominating herself, and winning. Elsewhere, a penniless Henry Pym meets his old enemy Egghead, who claims to have reformed and pays him half a million dollars to deliver a cybernetic prosthetic arm to his disabled niece, Trish Starr. No sooner does Trish don the device, however, than she falls under Egghead's mental control, and the villain, now able to see and hear through Trish's eyes and ears, forces Yellowjacket to obey him or the arm will self-destruct. Together, Yellowjacket and Trish invade S.A.C. headquarters in Omaha and steal the government's stockpile of priceless adamantium resins. Hank has managed to summon the Avengers secretly, but with Trish's life at stake, he has no choice but to battle them when they arrive. Yellowjacket gives a good account of himself but is finally beaten, whereupon there proves to be no evidence whatsoever of Egghead's involvement. Even Trish cannot recall what really happened, and the hapless ex-Avenger is jailed for robbery.
A small boy appears at the mansion demanding to see the Avengers. On a whim, the Wasp admits him, but when the heroes refuse to take him seriously, he puts a gun to his head and commits suicide. His bo4y instantly disintegrates, then reforms as if from nothing, and the Avengers realize that he is truly what he claims to be: a man who cannot die. Among his many past identities is that of Captain America's recent antagonist, Morgan MacNeil Hardy. Reborn continuously through the ages, his current incarnation is the first to remember all his previous lives and is slowly being driven insane. When the Avengers do not agree to help him find the peace of a permanent death, "Hardy" steals away and, days later, reappears at Cape Canaveral, where he stows away aboard a NASA solar probe about to be launched. Causing the probe to crash into the sun does not grant him the death he seeks, however, but instead transforms him into a fiery behemoth which returns to Earth and wreaks havoc in midtown Manhattan. The Avengers battle the monster and appear to destroy it, but "Hardy" reforms once again as a small boy, now apparently amnesiac.
The four current Avengers are drawn from their everyday routines and compelled by Moondragon's mental powers to assemble at the landing site of her spaceship. Once aboard the unmanned craft, they are whisked to the planet Ba-Bani, where Moondragon and her father, Drax the Destroyer, have quelled a global war, but now face a potentially devastating attack by the last of the planet's warmongers. Despite severe misgivings about interfering in the politics of another world, the Avengers crush the rebellion, then decide to stay on and tour the planet. Actually, each privately suspects that Moondragon has secretly seized control of the planet. Captain America and the Wasp discover that the "rebels" they had fought were actually peaceful inhabitants mentally compelled to attack the city, while Iron Man forces Drax to realize that his daughter has been controlling his mind. When Thor confronts Moondragon with his suspicions, she admits having forced the current peace, then subtly uses her powers to seduce the Thunder God to her side.
Incensed at the realization that he has been under Moondragon's mental control, Drax accompanies the Avengers as they race to confront the self-styled goddess, but Thor, now totally in Moondragon's thrall, battles his allies on her behalf. After a titanic struggle, the Avengers try to reason with the Asgardian, and he ultimately thwarts Moondragon's will by changing back into Donald Blake. When the heroes enter her temple, Moondragon withdraws her psychic presence from the minds of the Ba-Bani, allowing them to resume their warlike ways, thus regaining sufficient power to telepathically paralyze her attackers. Drax will not be denied, however, and he presses forward in a maddened rage, finally collapsing only inches from his goal. The effort needed to stop him forces Moondragon to release the others and, before she can strike again, the Wasp resumes her normal size and deals her a knockout blow. As the Avengers return home, Dr. Blake ministers to Drax, but the Destroyer is beyond help. Blake again becomes Thor and transports Moondragon to Asgard to face the judgment of Odin, while back on Earth, his teammates send the mind-goddess's ship aloft for the final time as Drax's funeral pyre.
The Avengers decide to replenish their depleted ranks, and the Wasp calls for suggestions for new members to be submitted by their next meeting. Thor seeks out Spider-Man and asks him to join, but the flattered web-spinner promises only to consider the idea. Iron Man and Captain America ask Hawkeye to return to the roster, and he enthusiastically accepts. The Wasp decides the group needs more female members and invites several costumed adventuresses to brunch. The gathering is crashed by Fabian Stankowicz, the Mechano-Marauder, who again attempts to gain notoriety by battling an Avenger, but the women defeat him easily, while all but one decline Jan's invitation to join the team. Thus, a few days later, following an altercation in traffic on their way to the meeting, the two new recruits, Hawkeye and the She-Hulk,' are officially inducted. (Avengers Vol. 1, #215 - 221)
