Avengers #1
The Coming of the Avengers!
Following his last defeat at the hands of Thor, Loki has been banished to the Isle of Silence.[1] Desiring revenge against Thor, Loki then looks down upon the Earth to look for a proxy for this goal. Looking upon Thor’s alter ego of Donald Blake, Loki’s blood boils but decides against attacking Blake as it would be an easy victory. Instead, he sets his sight on the Hulk and comes up with a plot for Thor to fight the gamma-spawned monster. As the Hulk leaps by a railroad track, Loki uses his magic to create an illusion of a bundle of TNT is on the tracks. When the Hulk leaps down to remove the explosives he ends up demolishing the tracks instead. With an oncoming train on its way, the Hulk props up the tracks so it can pass safely, but the engineers still think the Hulk is responsible for the damage.
When Rick Jones learns about the situation from the news he meets with the members of the Teen Brigade.[2] Rick suggests that they contact the Fantastic Four and enlist their help to see if the accusations against the Hulk are true or not. Their message is intercepted by Loki who uses his magic to have it delivered to the office of Donald Blake. Deciding to get involved, Blake taps his cane on the ground, triggering his transformation into Thor. However, Thor is not the only person who receives the intercepted message. Ant-Man and the Wasp also receive it and launch themselves onto the backs of some flying ants to make the trip to the Southwest. Tony Stark also receives the message and changes into Iron Man and flies off to face the Hulk as well.
Meanwhile, the Teen Brigade finally gets through to Mister Fantastic at the Baxter Building. Reed tells them that the Fantastic Four are busy on another mission and tells the youths that others are on their way. That’s when Thor, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Iron Man arrive in answer to their distress call. Loki is not pleased by this outcome and uses his power to create an illusion of Hulk bounding by when Thor looks out the window. Thor, not wanting to disturb the others, goes after the illusion of the Hulk. However, when Mjolnir passes harmlessly through the “Hulk”, Thor realizes who is really responsible and heads to Asgard to confront Loki.
As the other heroes begin looking for the Hulk, the brute has found a cover by performing in a circus as a highly sophisticated robot. However, this flimsy disguise doesn’t fool Ant-Man’s network of ants and they relay the Hulk’s location. As Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp head for the circus, the ants burrow through the ground under the Hulk in the middle of his performance causing him to fall through the ground. When he pulls free, Ant-Man and the Wasp arrive and try to convince the Hulk to talk to them. However, the Hulk is furious and in no mood to talk. The Hulk fends off Ant-Man and the Wasp’s attacks until Iron Man arrives. When the Hulk tries to leap away, he ends up getting snared in a net that Iron Man set for him. However, this proves to be a flimsy trap and the Hulk succeeds in getting away.
In Asgard, Thor seeks an audience with his father, Odin, for permission to battle Loki on the Isle of Silence. His voyage to the island is impeded by various mystical traps that Loki has set for him, but Thor gets past them all. Loki even tries unleashing a Rock Troll on Thor but he overpowers this creature as well. He then snares Loki and brings him back to Earth to reveal his involvement in events.
By this time, the Hulk has fled to an automobile factory where he continues fighting with Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp. That’s when Thor arrives with Loki as his prisoner and reveals his involvement. Loki then tries to slay his foes by making his body radioactive. Luckily, Ant-Man has activated a trap door under Loki’s feet to dump the villain into a lead-lined holding tank. Once Loki is no longer radioactive, Thor promises to bring him back to Asgard for punishment. In the aftermath of the battle, Ant-Man and the Wasp point out that they all worked well together and suggests that they form a team. Everyone, including the Hulk, agree. When the Wasp suggests that they call themselves the Avengers, they unanimously agree and thus a legend was born.[3]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp, the Hulk), Loki, Teen Brigade (Rick Jones), Jane Foster, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Odin
Continuity Notes
Loki’s previous defeat was chronicled in Journey into Mystery #96.
The narration reminds readers that Teen Brigade was formed in Incredible Hulk #6.
Avengers (vol. 8) #36 has implied that Mephisto played a part in creating the Avengers. The full ramifications of this revelation have yet to be revealed at the time of this writing. (April 2021)
Topical References
The Teen Brigade is depicted using ham radios to communicate. While these were popular in the 1960s, they are a laughable hobby for teenagers in the age of the internet.
The revolutionary technology in Iron Man’s armor is said to be transistors. Not quite so impressive now that these are one of the most common components in electronics.
Reconciling This story With Avengers: The Origin Series.
A number of plot elements in this story have since become very dated since Avengers #1 was published in 1963. In 2010, Marvel published Avengers: The Origin, a five-part limited series that retold the Avengers’ origins in a modern context. A lot of the dated portions of the story could easily be explained away as topical references and this is exactly how Avengers: The Origin handles most of the story. However, there is some conflicting information.
Changes between versions of the story are:
Avengers: The Origin #1
Instead of using the illusion of dynamite on train tracks, Loki creates the illusion of a demonic monster to trick Thor into damaging the train tracks.
Rick Jones learns about the near-accident from a television news broadcast instead of the newspaper.
Instead of being ham radio enthusiasts, the Teen Brigade is depicted as a group of hackers who communicate via the internet.
Rather than a radio transmission, Teen Brigade sends an e-mail. That e-mail is intercepted and instead of hearing the transmission on a radio, it ends up on a nurse station computer written in the Viking alphabet.
Tony Stark has this message appear on a projection screen in the middle of a Stark Industries public announcement
This version of events reveals that Ant-Man and Wasp received the message through the helmets they use to communicate with ants.
The Pre-Avengers meeting with the Teen Brigade is a lot more aggressive, with the Teen Brigade having guns.
Avengers: The Origin #2
It is explained how the Hulk ends up working for the circus. He’s found by the members of a freakshow who blackball the owner in to allowing the Hulk stay with them.
Instead of sending Thor on a wild goose chase with an illusion of the Hulk, he makes Thor experience a vision where the Hulk violently kills his allies.
The Pre-Avengers later go to a Stark Industries facility in Sugarland, Texas. There, Thor tells them about Loki’s involvement instead of keeping it to himself until later and takes off for Asgard. The other Pre-Avengers are also depicted as being doubtful of Thor’s godly origins. They think he’s just a superhero calling himself Thor, not the Thor.
Avengers: The Origin #3
Iron Man is depicted calls on Mister Fantastic to vouch for some of his sudden allies and advice.
It’s also depicted that Ant-Man uses Tony Stark’s Texas facility to build a device that boosts his ant communication range, hence how he is able to use ants to locate the Hulk.
The battle at the circus is extended upon to include the freakshow that welcomed the Hulk into their posse.
Instead of swimming to shore underneath his boat, Thor is depicted as having his ship capsized by a tentacled sea-creature.
Avengers: The Origin #4
The reason the Hulk flees the circus is that he is convinced to go by the bearded lady who points out innocent people might get hurt.
Thor and Loki’s battle on the Isle of Silence is expanded upon.
Instead of fighting in an automobile factory in Detroit, the final battle with the Hulk is depicted as happening at a weapons manufacturer in Denver, Colorado.
Instead of a lead-lined container where radioactive materials were kept, the Wasp finds a containment unit used for on-site explosive testing.
Avengers: The Origin #5
Instead of becoming radioactive, Loki turns into a type of energy that Iron Man’s sensors can’t identify. He’s still defeated the same way, more or less.
Instead of agreeing to form a team at the end of the battle, the Wasp makes the suggestion but they don’t agree on forming a team until meeting three days later at Stark’s Texas facility. In this version of events, it is a speech given by Thor that convinces them to call themselves the Avengers instead of the Wasp.
Most of these differences can be easily woven into the narrative as happening “behind the scenes” of Avengers #1. Other scenes a congruous despite the differences. In fact, that’s how Official Index to the Marvel Universe: The Avengers chooses to slot these into continuity, suggesting that both the original account and Avengers: The Origin are both true and one does not retcon the other. For how these stories slot in together, I recommend checking the Marvel Chronology Project who have done a great job figuring out how everything fits chronologically.