The Avengers: Four

About 50 years ago, Marvel made a weird decision.

Writer Stan Lee decided the Avengers would lose its founding members of Iron Man, Thor, Ant Man/Giant Man and the Wasp. The Hulk had left in issue No. 2.

The new team was comprised of Captain America and three former bad guys: the archer Hawkeye, and mutant siblings Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

The line-up of the four superheroes lasted about a year, but the four would be the core of the Avengers for several years before Thor, Iron Man, etc., returned.

This was in the days when there was only one Avengers title. It came out once a month, so the four were the main Avengers for some readers throughout their childhoods.

But generations of readers know nothing of that long-running Avengers line-up. At least until recently.

Creators Mark Waid and Barry Kitson, etc., return to the Cap, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver line-up with “The Avengers: Four.”

Thor, Iron Man, Giant Man and the Wasp decide to leave the team in the hands of Captain America, who joined the Avengers in issue No. 4. They pick the archer and mutants as his new Avengers.

The absence of the heavy hitters lead the public to question the new team which has been dubbed the “Mighty Pretenders.” The new team meets scorn as it is beaten by low-level villain teams such as the Frightful Four and the new members get to know one another.

Writer Waid and chief penciller Kitson re-create the 1960s feel of the old Avengers title while presenting a detailed look at the back story of the “Four.” 

“The Avengers: Four” is a fun read, a great bit of nostalgia, especially for readers who recall the original comics, or the reprints available in the early 1970s.

But one must wonder with the spate of what seems like dozens of “Avengers” titles cropping up in the past few years and the blockbuster movies, if younger readers have any idea that “The Avengers: Four” represents a long-ago link to the super team’s past.