The Avengers from Diana
New Avengers by John Bolton
The Avengers was a long running cult TV series from the 1960s, based in the spy genre and centred around the adventures of the enigmatic secret agent John Steed and his various (usually female) partners. There have been numerous comic strips based on the Avengers over the years, the earliest (featuring Steed and Cathy Gale) appearing in regional TV listings magazines Look Westward and The Viewer from 14th September 1963 to 9th May 1964 (later the same years, this run of four serials was reprinted in the Manchester Evening News). The Avengers-now consisting of Steed and Emma Peel-then began a run in TV Comic from issue #720 (2nd October 1965) to #771 (24th September 1966); this run was comprised of ten serials plus a four page one-off adventure in the TV Comic Holiday Special 1966. Also in 1966, Thorpe & Porter issued a 68 page one-off Avengers title featuring Steed and Peel in four 16 page stories with art by Mick Anglo and Mick Austin. The rights were subsequently bought by D.C. Thomson, where the daring duo found an unlikely home in girls' comic Diana from issue #199 (10th December 1966) to issue #224 (2nd June 1967) with art by Emilio Frejo and Juan Gonzalez Alacrojo (eight serials in total). Earlier, IPC had run a serial titled The Growing Up of Emma Peel, about the girlhood of the young Mrs. Peel-then a 14 year old Emma Knight-in another girls' title, June, from issue #52 (29th January 1966) to #63 (16th April 1966). This eleven part serial ran concurrently with the TV Comic series. The Avengers eventually returned to TV Comic with #877 (5th October 1968) with Steed now accompanied by new TV partner Tara King (and taking his orders from the wheelchair bound Mother). This last run consisted of 28 serials, plus a four page one-off in the TV Comic Holiday Special 1972, and finally ended in #1077 (5th August 1972).
The Avengers also featured in the TV Crimebusters Annual in 1962 (in a seven pages strip entitled The Drug Pedlar, featuring original star Dr. David Keel) and later in three editions of The Avengers Annual from Atlas Publications (1967-1969) which starred Steed, Mrs. Peel and later Tara King (like most British annuals, these contained a mix of strips and text stories) as well as appearing in the TV Comic Annual in 1967 (Emma Peel) and 1970-71 and 1973 (Tara King). The strips from the 1966 Thorpe & Porter comic, TV Comic, and some of the strips from the Annuals have been reprinted in translated versions in France, Germany, Holland and Chile. The Avengers returned to TV as The New Avengers in 1976-1977, and New Avengers Annual's featuring Steed and his new partners Mike Gambit and Purdey were published by Brown Watson in 1977-1978. The Avengers also featured in the TV Detectives Annual 1979.
American Strips[]
Several titles featuring the Avengers have been published in the U.S, though they have not been titled "The Avengers" since Marvel Comics own the copyright to the name there; instead, in 1968 Gold Key Comics published one issue of John Steed & Emma Peel (featuring two colourised strips from TV Comic), while in December 1990, Eclipse Comics launched a three part limited series titled Steed & Mrs. Peel in a story by Grant Morrison and Ian Gibson, titled The Golden Game, in which Steed and Peel reunited to search for the kidnapped Tara King. This series, which also featured a two part story called A Deadly Rainbow by Anne Caufield and Gibson, concluded in June 1991. This series was reprinted by Boom! Studios in 2012, and Boom! have since launched a new ongoing series under the same title, initially by writer Mark Waid.
Avengers Members[]
- This article relates to comics based on the Avengers TV series. For British comics based on the Marvel Comics characters, see Avengers (Weekly).