To Avenge or Not Avenge

X-Men, a group of people with the X-gene. Reasonable. The Fantastic Four, four people who have fantastic powers. Okay, that works. The Guardians of The Galaxy, a handful of folks trying to guard the galaxy. Tall order, but yeah, that works. The Avengers, people who avenge stuff. Hmm, might have to look this one over.

Two minor facts about me, readers: I love noir character designs and I like titles. Titles-as taught by my English teacher-are an important opener to any story. That's why a name like "The Avengers" seems a little too specific for my taste. Yes, the movie Avengers try to avenge Agent Phil Coulson, but he ends up coming back to life in "Agents of SHIELD". So, purpose ruined? Taking a look at every Avenger we have so far, how many of them have people to avenge? Captain America is an easy example of an Avenger, avenging all the dead soldiers during World War II, not to mention Doctor Abraham Erskine, the man who gave him his superpowers. What about Iron Man? Well, it was Tony's weapons that took lives, but that's more of a redemption thing and these guys aren't called The Redeemers (trademark). Like Cap, Tony had a scientist help him in becoming a superhero, Professor Ho Yinsen died while trying to help Tony escape his imprisonment. So those two check out, but what about The Hulk? It's highly possible the years of running from the U.S. government could have caused some collateral damage, but again I'd count that as redemption. Nobody of importance dies in "The Incredible Hulk", well maybe Stan Lee's character. And Thor? Still no deaths! People are put at risk, Loki might have killed a few Asgardians, but what is Thor directly avenging? By "The Avengers" movie, you could put death toll on Thor for not keeping Loki locked up. Cap counts, Tony counts, Thor kind of counts, Hulk does not. What about the little people? Black Widow was an assassin before she joined Shield, again a redeemer. Hawkeye-while not yet confirmed-was a criminal before Shield, another redeemer. Phil Coulson-who Nick Fury regards an Avenger in AoS-probably has fellow agents to avenge. Same could go for Hawkeye and Black Widow after joining Shield, as well as Nick Fury. So technically, the only legitimate Avengers during the Avengers movie are Cap, Tony, Thor (kinda), Widow, Hawkeye, Nick Fury and Coulson. Maybe The Hulk is just avenging his ripped jeans.
With narrow names for super-teams, you'll always run into variations that play with the name: The Secret Avengers were a covert-operations team, The Dark Avengers were comprised of villains, and The Young Avengers were made up of young Avenger-related characters. But dipping our toes into the comics only widens the question of: who among these people have someone/something to avenge? We can't all have an Uncle Ben! Of course a post like this measures up to complaining about Wolverine's regenerating hairline or how many superheroes can get drunk, it's a void argument. Regardless of that, I don't often see comic book fans picking apart team names, so I wanted to take a look into the subject. Oh, and Marvel-I know you're listening-if you ever use "The Redeemers", I'll expect a check on my doorstep. Thanks for reading!

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