One thing no one ever tells you about parenting is how much time you’ll put in poring through Marvel storybooks, arranging the stories into a proper sequence of continuity and spreading apart Avengers and Spider-Man stories so they’re not all clumped together. pic.twitter.com/ApWNXNpibj
— Matt Re (@MC_RE) February 18, 2018
Among other smaller issues, the main concern, from my perspective, was that the story introducing the Avengers gives us the original lineup of Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp, and the Hulk -- but all the stories in the AVENGERS STORYBOOK COLLECTION feature the more movie-centric team of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Falcon. I wanted the stories to get from Point A to Point B, and while there was no specific story showing Ant-Man and Wasp leaving the group, there were tales about the Avengers recruiting Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Falcon. But then -- catastrophe!
Update: None of these books features the story of Captain America waking from suspended animation. One story he’s in WWII, next time we see him he’s hanging with the Avengers. Major continuity glitch. 18 month-old will surely notice. Need to find a storybook covering this.
— Matt Re (@MC_RE) February 18, 2018
Fortunately, I found a solution: a book called 5-MINUTE MARVEL STORIES featured Captain America's defrosting in the twenty-first century. I quickly ordered it from Amazon, and while I was at it, I picked up 5-MINUTE AVENGERS STORIES and 5-MINUTE SPIDER-MAN STORIES. These three books are hardcovers like the Storybook Collections, the stories are about at the same reading level, and they mostly feature different stories than those in the other books (with a few exceptions, particularly the bizarre fact that there's a story about Hawkeye joining the Avengers in three of these books, but it's basically the same telling, with different words and pictures, every time).
Anyway -- all this is my way to fill some space since I have nothing else -- no books, no digital stuff -- to unbox. And after typing all the above, I'm thinking maybe I'll write up a post on the "Marvel Storybook Universe" I've concocted at some point in the not-too-distant future. No one is likely to care other than me, but I think it'll be fun anyway.
Yes, but it bears repeating how the carnival master archer Hawkeye got mistaken for a thief and then infatuated by the Soviet super spy Black Widow and then battled with Iron Man a couple of times before joining the Avengers with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.
ReplyDeleteTrue, though the storybook version omits the Black Widow connection and only has him fight Iron Man one time, at the conclusion of which he's invited to join the Avengers.
DeleteBut I give the stories bonus points for including references to the Swordsman and even Trickshot when Clint was growing up in the circus!
Dammit. I was, obviously, going at them for doing some Barton Agent of SHIELD nonsense, but apparently the real deal is still good for them for toddlers' storybooks even if the high-standard cinema audiences need something that's more 21stMill.
DeleteLater stories in these books do have Hawkeye as an Agent of SHIELD, but the origin is always the original comic book version.
DeleteI'm sure no thought was put into any sort of overarching continuity for these things, but the way I see it, Storybook Hawkeye probably joined SHIELD after becoming a hero alongside the Avengers. Same with Black Widow.