Avengers: International

So with the coming Heroic Age comes a slew of new Avengers titles. I think Marvel may have missed an opportunity here though.

There have been a number of attempts to showcase different titles of heroes from all over the globe. Each meeting with moderate success but never fully carrying on. Cap Britain, Alpha, Big Hero 6 and so on. The new title on the block is The Winter Guard - Russia's big super team. I want to check it out! I saw them in a War Machine issue back during the Secret Invasion and remember talking about how interesting they could be.

It seems there is an interest in the readers to read about heroes not solely based in the US.

So I got to thinking and was wondering why Marvel doesn't just put an Avengers team together combined of supers from around the globe?

Captain Britain - England/UK
Black Panther - Africa/Wakanda
Darkstar - Russia
Namora - Atlantis
Sasquatch - Canada
Sunfire - Japan/Asia
Ms. Marvel - US

Im sure there are other countries that couldbe represented that Im missing and these were just suggestions. The actual make up of the team could differ over time with other characters from the same countries making appearances.

I think it would make for an interesting dynamic to see how heroes from all these different cultures and backgrounds interact with one another. Its always bothered me how The Avengers have all this international jurisdiction but so little international membership. They represent the world, yet are so American.

As fellow Alpha fans is this something that might pique your interest? Would you care to see Alphans make appearances on a team like this?

Depends on how it was done.

Thing is, Marvel Comics are pretty much written by Americans for Americans - so they're always going to be American-heavy. It's natural to write what you know, and write your own culture; compound that with the notorious insularity and solipsism of the U.S., and some countries you just can't reach, so you get what we had here last week; which is the way they want it. Well, they get it.
Um...

Anyway, an international team that actually is international is appealing, but unlikely to happen.
If it does, it'll be cancelled after 12 issues, and in a few years 'relaunched' by having a new comic with the same title and all-American characters... [/cynical]

- Le Messor
"Great works are performed not by strength, but perserverance." ~ Samuel Johnson

I see what you did there :)

"Would you care to see Alphans make appearances on a team like this?"

Nope.

An "International" title would be cool, but rather than focusing on a single, multinational team -- a la the All-New, All-Different Uncanny X-Men -- I'd prefer to see one in which space was devoted to different non-American heroes and hero-teams ... anywhere from one issue to three or four issue arcs -- but none of that 1/4 of an issue crap -- before some other hero or team got their chance in the limelight; only to eventually come back around to your favourite.

Alpha Flight, Big Hero 6, Winter Guard, S.H.E., Captain Britain, and any number of other less prolific non-American heroes left on the shelf to gather dust after a mere use or two.

S.H.E. ? I'm not... familiar with that term. (Super-Heroes Europe?)

- Le Messor
Gumperson’s Law: "The probability of anything happening is inversely proportional to its desirability."

Yeah, Super-Heroes of Europe. A refernce was made to them a few years back in one of the C.W. issues, and also had something to do with Sentry in his early days.

Ummm ... yeah! Here's a link ...

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix2/shesentry.htm

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Originally Posted by Le Messor

S.H.E. ? I'm not... familiar with that term. (Super-Heroes Europe?)

- Le Messor
Gumperson’s Law: "The probability of anything happening is inversely proportional to its desirability."

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Very close Le Messor, S.H.E. stands for Super Heroes of Europe. Here's a link with more info on them...

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix2/shesentry.htm

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Originally Posted by Powersurge

An "International" title would be cool, but rather than focusing on a single, multinational team -- a la the All-New, All-Different Uncanny X-Men -- I'd prefer to see one in which space was devoted to different non-American heroes and hero-teams ... anywhere from one issue to three or four issue arcs -- but none of that 1/4 of an issue crap -- before some other hero or team got their chance in the limelight; only to eventually come back around to your favourite.

Alpha Flight, Big Hero 6, Winter Guard, S.H.E., Captain Britain, and any number of other less prolific non-American heroes left on the shelf to gather dust after a mere use or two.

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I like your idea much better but wouldnt sales peak and valley as readers only bought the issues that featured their favourite team?

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Originally Posted by Wildcard

I like your idea much better but wouldnt sales peak and valley as readers only bought the issues that featured their favourite team?

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Well, I think that over time, dealing with a slew of international teams and heroes, perhpas introducing new cone's, some story arcs wold proved to have great sales, while others would prove to have poor sales, but I also think that the person, particularly the American, that is interested in AF or Captain Britain is also interested in other international heroes and teams.

So, the end result might be a handful of teams and/or heroes carrying the title, while others benefitted from their success. And of course this isn't all that different than any other title, in which sales soar for some issues -- based on any number of factors -- and plummet for others, but are carried forward by the meat and potatoes of the book.

I think that a "Marvel: International" might succeed by offering what no other title does, without being too picky about what, precisely, it's offering ... beyond tales of non-American superheroes. Some might well be attracted to just AF stories, or just Captian Britain, but I think that many would be sold on the "International" theme in and of itself, and the oppurtunity to learn what is and/or has been going on in the super-powered world outside of America.

My greatest non-success in trying to land something writing for Marvel was an Avengers Europe team. The submission got a phone call from Ralph Macchio, who was getting back to me because they couldn’t do it at the time but he wanted to hold onto it. The proposal, sent in the early to mid 1990s, did a full first issue and detailed direction for about 2 years, with enough play to work into any crossover events. Less detailed but with definite direction of where the series was headed
It was a truly European team including established heros like Shamrock, Hauptmann (sic) Deutschland, Union Jack, Spitfire, Peregrine and the Winter Guard/various Russian heroes.
Formation was a space-born threat that landed in central Europe.
Membership was somewhat rotating and always political and rife with internal strife, mostly instigated by a new hero from Greece, whose name was a Grecian translation for Warhawk. To keep it Avengers, Black Widow was chair of the team, until ousted because the membership did not want leadership from either super-power and Widow, a Russian who worked extensively in the US, was seen as the worst. The series went on from there being an Avengers Europe book., but without any pre--established (American) Avengers. The Greek character took chair, and was an Avengers embarrassment in the first planned Avengers-East crossover/team-up when Hercules instantly recognized Warhawk as the SAME Warhawk from Avengers #98-100: ARES. The thought was that what better way to be a God of War in the modern Marvel Universe than join a team that lets you go kick butt regularly? Obviously, it was not a bad idea.
(I do not think the idea was stolen. To me it is such an obvious connection that I was almost surprised back then that no one else had ever thought of it.)
The proposal contained some other Avengers-related ideas that all these years later have still not played out in any Avengers book.
(Ralph, if you’re reading this, contact me and I’ll get you an updated proposal....)

I also tried to get into the big M but no success. So I went and try to do my own book and found an artest, because I'm a slow drawer. I ended up working in a studio which later splintered and the group I was part of went on to work with Ken Lashley and became Draxhall Jump Studios. After about seven years working my day job monday to friday 7 -6 and working at DHJ from Friday through Sunday (Fri 7 - 1am, Sat 10 am -1am and Sun 10 am - 6pm) I found myself burntout. I wrote 23 issues of my own book, which never got published, plus I'd help lay flats for coluring, ink digility, and lettering as well. Not only comic books but toy designs, toy boxes, and animation charaters, and never got paid for it, believeing that the promises that were made back when we started DHJ would be fallowed through.

I would have loved to have worked for Marvel back then. I had some ideas for Ghost Rider that I would have love to have done. I had some ideas for AF, but they were never any good to really hammer out fully. Such as an Alpha East and West.

My first personal contact with Marvel was triggered by a Northstar/Sasquatch story in MCP.

Captain Britian recently joined the Avengers, so you kind of got some international feel there. However, he is just part time