Appearing in "What If... the Avengers Had Been Formed During the 1950's?"
Featured Characters:
- Avengers (First appearance)
- 3-D Man (Charles Chandler) ⏵ (First appearance)
- Gorilla-Man (Ken Hale) (First appearance)
- Human Robot (M-11) (First appearance)
- Marvel Boy (Robert Grayson) (First appearance)
- Venus (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Uatu the Watcher (Earth-616)
- Avengers (Earth-616)
- Agent Jimmy Woo (First appearance)
- Suwan (First appearance)
- Jann of the Jungle (Jane Hastings) (First appearance)
- Namora, the Sea Woman (Aquaria Neptunia) (First appearance)
- Professor Matthew Grayson (Only in flashback)
Antagonists:
- Black Dragons (First appearance)
- Yellow Claw (First appearance)
- Herr Fritz Voltzmann (Karl von Horstbadden) (First appearance)
- Skrulls (Only in flashback)
- Yellow Claw's Super-Slaves (First appearance)
- Skull-Face (First appearance)
- Great Video (Heathrow Vance) (First appearance)
- Electro (Ivan Kronov) (First appearance)
- Cold Warrior (Eric Sinkovitz) (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Squadron Supreme (Mentioned)
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (First appearance)
- Richard Nixon (First appearance)
- Nikita Khrushchev (First appearance)
- Lyndon B. Johnson (First appearance)
- U.S. Army (First appearance)
- Joseph McCarthy (First appearance)
- Numerous unnamed soldiers (First appearance)
- Elvis Presley (First appearance)
- Lucy Arnaz (First appearance)
- Desi Arnaz (First appearance)
- Hercules (Only in flashback)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Sirens
- Watchers
- Mutants
- Asgardians
- Synthezoids
- Atlantean-Human Hybrids
- Skrulls (Only in flashback)
- Human-Olympian Hybrids (Only in flashback)
Locations:
- Earth-616
- Earth-9904 (First appearance)
- Earth (First appearance)
- United States of America (First appearance)
- California (First appearance)
- San Francisco (First appearance)
- Chinatown (First appearance)
- An abandoned warehouse
- Chinatown (First appearance)
- San Francisco (First appearance)
- Washington, D.C. (First appearance)
- National Mall (First appearance)
- Washington Monument (First appearance)
- Capitol Building (First appearance)
- A Washington golf course
- National Mall (First appearance)
- California (First appearance)
- China (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- United States of America (First appearance)
- Earth (First appearance)
Items:
- Captain America's Shield
- Captain America's Uniform
- Iron Man's Dimensional Transporter
- The Claw's Viewing Crystal
- Hand-Held Communicators
Vehicles:
- U.S. Army Tank
- Silver Bullet
- The XF-13
- Sputnik 1 (First appearance)
Synopsis for "What If... the Avengers Had Been Formed During the 1950's?"
Iron Man calls an Avengers meeting with Captain America, Thor, the Vision, and the Beast to show them video from a dimensional viewer he made based on the transporter used by the Squadron Supreme [1]. The images show the late 1950s of what may or may not be their own world. As they watch the video, the Watcher watches them.
In this world, Jimmy Woo of the FBI recruits Marvel Boy, 3-D Man, Gorilla Man, the Human Robot and the goddess Venus into a team to save President Eisenhower, who has been kidnapped by the Yellow Claw. Dubbing themselves the Avengers, they clash with Yellow Claw's minions which consist of the heroes' old foes: The Great Video, Cold Warrior, Electro, and Skull-Face. Ultimately, the heroes succeed in rescuing the President, defeating Yellow Claw and his minions, although Yellow Claw himself escapes. Following his rescue, the President, believing that the knowledge of super-beings such as the Avengers would send the American public into a panic, orders the group to disband and let their brief grouping together remain a secret. The members of the Avengers agree with the President's decision and part company.
After the viewing, the modern day Avengers remark how similar the quintet of the past was to each of them, comparing 3-D Man to Cap, Marvel Boy to Iron Man, Venus to Thor, Gorilla Man to Beast, and the Human Robot to the Vision.
Notes
- For many years, the Beast's question of whether he was viewing the past of Earth-616 or another dimension went unanswered. In Avengers: Forever #4 it was finally revealed that he had tuned in to another dimension, when heroes from Earth-616 visited that dimension (named Earth-9904) shortly before it was destroyed by Immortus.
- The editor's note on Skull-Face mistakenly refers to his story as Mystic #6 instead of Mystery Tales #6.