Super Serious 616 Presents: WHAT IF... Marvel was real
What If Marvel was Real?
Episode 143 - Avengers Inc.? (Avengers #7) -- August 1964
0:00
-11:41

Episode 143 - Avengers Inc.? (Avengers #7) -- August 1964

In this episode:

Mike and Ed discuss Iron Man’s suspension and reinstatement by the Avengers. Under whose authority was he suspended? Who had the ability to reinstate him? Are the Avengers contractors, employees, or something different? What is the legal structure of the Avengers? Do they have an office manager and corporate lawyer? Who takes the meeting minutes? How does insurance work? Is the job a lot more boring that the media makes it out to be?

Avengers Vol 1 7 | Marvel Database | Fandom

Behind the comic:

Stan Lee definitely makes the team dynamics of the Avengers very different from the Fantastic Four. Most Avengers issues DO have standing meetings where they discuss “Avengers business” - as opposed to the Fantastic Four, who are presented as a bickering family. Lee takes pains to let readers know that the Avengers each have their own private lives, and that they do not know each other’s secret identities, almost as if he is saying, “these people are not close friends - they are just work colleagues” (which eventually turned into a joke in the third Thor film).

In this issue:

Iron Man is suspended from active duty with the Avengers because he failed to respond to an Avengers alarm. At the same time, the Enchantress and the Executioner are banished by Odin from Asgard to Earth. They join up with Zemo to form a team of villains who fight the Avengers. The first thing they do is bewitch Thor into thinking his fellow Avengers are evil, which leads to him battling them as bitter enemies. Iron Man sees his comrades in peril and joins the fight, which eventually leads Thor to breaking the spell. They chase away the three villains, the “Masters of Evil”.

Assumed before the next episode:

People are taking note of villains joining up to fight superheroes.

This episode takes place:

After the Masters of Evil have been taken down, for now.

Discussion about this podcast

Super Serious 616 Presents: WHAT IF... Marvel was real
What If Marvel was Real?
What if... the Marvel Universe was real?
In 1961 the Fantastic Four revealed themselves to the world and everything changed. Mike and Ed discuss the in-universe implications of super powers, aliens, monsters and more. From how Avenger Insurance will pay for Thor's property damage to why Spider-man needs a new PR agency, its comic books discussions in a whole new way.
Every issue covered in the Marvel Universe from the very beginning.
Full backstory on every episode with transcripts at www.SuperSerious616.com