Proto Avengers almost Assemble

It's 1963 and dinosaurs wander the Earth, well that a little mean - though it would be cool (and they do in the Savage Land). Dr Kerr comes up with a metric, which he names after himself, which predicts spinning Black Holes and Dr Haldane coined the word Clone which apparently makes the (old) Spider-man come out in cold sweats. Nasa had launched the last Mercury, all of which had totally failed to be bombarded with Cosmic Rays.

In Asgard, which looks suspiciously like some rock and cliffs, and not like some awesome Metal album cover (so I'm told), Loki is being all broody like. They don't look as nice as they do now, not even appearing as a Mare, but they're pretty mercurial so I'll let them off (besides I don't have their number to give them a text). Stuck on some island on Asgard there wandering eyes of exposition (a lovely green) goes looking for trouble. We get a proper cool Asgard shot and the eyes of Loki shake a metaphorical fist at the cute Doctor and Nurse that are both Thor, before deciding Hulk is the right one to cause a little mischief. 

And by mischief |I mean trying to trick the poor Hulk into damaging some train track and then even though the Hulk saves the train he still gets the blame, bad Loki! Even worse some teens decide it was somehow the last straw and us there massive radio set, like the Internet for the 60s, to get the Fantastic Four to sort things out. Because this isn't a FF comic the messages gets redirected to the proto-Avengers, first boy Thor, then my dad Ant-Man and the wonderful Wasp (that pointy hat is some choice though), then Iron Man in his really fancy (if bulky) gold suit. The FF even get a few panels in a cameo, though they're suuppper busy so it's lucky the others turn up to get antsy at some teenagers.

These proto Avengers aren't party of Loki's plan so they conjure up an illusion of Hulk to get him away from the others, which is a mistake as why Thor isn't the smartest he's sharp enough to figure Loki is involved. So he takes a trip up the Rainbow bridge to see what's the plan is, which I guess was sort of the plan anyway? Meanwhile the other notice Thor has bailed but aren't bothered, deciding to look out for the Hulk anyway, trusting in a Scientist to find them.

Hulk sensibly has chosen to run away to the circus, appearing as a juggling clown, though I feel sorry for the poor animals he's been juggling as they really don't look happy. Luckily before he can juggle anymore animals the real hero of the story, ants, discover the Hulk location and dig underneath him causing him to fall into the ground. The whilst the humans distract the Hulk the ants drop a cylinder onto the Hulk trapping him within. Hulk manages to catch the poor Wasp but luckily Iron Man finally decides to turn up, he obviously need something like roller skates to travel quicker. Even then the Hulk manages to get away from the Big Top as Iron Man runs out of juice.

Meanwhile Thor get's his dad's permission to visit Loki and this Avengers comic turns into an Norse epic as Thor is slowed down by various means. This goes on for a few pages where he end up fighting trolls and ghost Lokis before finally catching the tricky god. Hulk meanwhile has ended up in a tire factory where he and Iron Man (who's apparently fine now) fight by throwing various metal doodads at each other. This is only stopped when Thor shows up with Loki to explain his machinations. Loki tries that old now I'm Radioactive trick but Wasp being the smartest on there dumps him through a trapdoor and into a furnace.

Then right at the very, very end, like six panels or so, everyone makes up and they (including the Hulk) decide to form a team with Wasp, again the smartest, coming up with the name Avengers.

And that the very first comic of what's really the proto Avengers, but I'm sure they'll be a proper team by the next issue!

Boring Technical Stuff

Coming of the Avengers, Avengers #1 - Author: Stan Lee - Artist: Jack Kirby - Inker: Dick Ayers - Lettering: S Rosen