A big part of the world of Super heroes are teams. Even the
most lone of lone heroes at some point ends up joining a group in order to
fight threats that one single hero can’t deal with alone. But when you take a
look at most of the popular super groups, few of them are actual teams. In fact, when
it comes right down to it, very few super hero teams are actually teams. They
are something else entirely.
When Fantastic Four number one came out on the stands and
was a huge success it inspired the editor at DC Comics to put out a team book
of their own, hence the Justice League of America. But the irony is that when
you look at the Fantastic Four they’re not a team. They’re barely super heroes.
They’re a family. A family of super powered scientists. They sometimes engage
in the typical super hero antics, battling super villains and saving the world
from impending doom. But for the most part they are adventurers, seeking to
explore the unknown. And it’s not like at the end of the day they can all go
their separate ways. Two of the team members are married to each other (Mr.
Fantastic and the Invisible Woman), one of them is her brother (the Human
Torch), leaving the best friend and honorary member of the family (The Thing).
Even more obviously accepted teams, when you look at them
closely are not actually a team. The X-Men, who are considered one of the most
popular super teams in comics, are really not a team at all. They’re a class.
The X-Men are all students. They attend Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters
so that they can learn how to use their abilities to help others. Most of the
“super hero” activities they engage in are to protect their fellow mutants from
some sort of threat. So if anything they’re more missionaries than super
heroes, but definitely not a team.
Even a clearly labeled super hero team like The Teen Titans
(or Young Justice), though they engage in all the traditional super hero
activities, is not really a super hero team. They’re a support group. Being a
super hero is difficult. Being a teenager is difficult. Being a super hero
teenager must be double its difficulty. So it would help to have a group of
similar individuals who live a similar lifestyle to talk to and hang out with.
That’s what I see the Teen Titans as. They may fight crime together, but in
reality it’s about hanging out together after the fighting is done. It’s like a
book club, but instead of reading books they beat up bad guys.
In reality, most super hero teams boil down to a very few,
especially if you focus mostly on the big two companies, Marvel and DC. So when
you really look at it, there are two super hero teams. The Avengers and the
Justice League. There are variations of those two teams to be sure (West Coast
Avengers, Secret Avengers, Justice League International, Justice League
Taskforce, etc.) but they all fall under the same umbrella; Super heroes who
join together to deal with a threat that they cannot deal with alone. That is
what a true super hero team seems to be. Super hero teams like StormWatch
(original Warren Ellis run of the book) or Top Ten are not teams so much as
superhuman agents of the government.
With the constant attempts by so many writers to bring new
life and innovation into the comics, the traditional idea of the super team
seems to be more and more a foreign concept. Tradition seems to be the enemy of
innovation. The best way to gain fame as a comic book writer is to break the
mold of what has been done before. That is probably why writers like Alan
Moore, Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis have all gained such fame and acclaim in
the industry. They’ve taken the popular well like tropes and given them a new
and interesting twist.
A big part of the world of Super heroes are teams. Even the
most lone of lone heroes at some point ends up joining a group in order to
fight threats that one single hero can’t deal with alone. But when you take a
look at most of the popular super groups, few of them are actual teams. In fact, when
it comes right down to it, very few super hero teams are actually teams. They
are something else entirely.
When Fantastic Four number one came out on the stands and
was a huge success it inspired the editor at DC Comics to put out a team book
of their own, hence the Justice League of America. But the irony is that when
you look at the Fantastic Four they’re not a team. They’re barely super heroes.
They’re a family. A family of super powered scientists. They sometimes engage
in the typical super hero antics, battling super villains and saving the world
from impending doom. But for the most part they are adventurers, seeking to
explore the unknown. And it’s not like at the end of the day they can all go
their separate ways. Two of the team members are married to each other (Mr.
Fantastic and the Invisible Woman), one of them is her brother (the Human
Torch), leaving the best friend and honorary member of the family (The Thing). 
Even more obviously accepted teams, when you look at them
closely are not actually a team. The X-Men, who are considered one of the most
popular super teams in comics, are really not a team at all. They’re a class.
The X-Men are all students. They attend Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters
so that they can learn how to use their abilities to help others. Most of the
“super hero” activities they engage in are to protect their fellow mutants from
some sort of threat. So if anything they’re more missionaries than super
heroes, but definitely not a team.
Even a clearly labeled super hero team like The Teen Titans
(or Young Justice), though they engage in all the traditional super hero
activities, is not really a super hero team. They’re a support group. Being a
super hero is difficult. Being a teenager is difficult. Being a super hero
teenager must be double its difficulty. So it would help to have a group of
similar individuals who live a similar lifestyle to talk to and hang out with.
That’s what I see the Teen Titans as. They may fight crime together, but in
reality it’s about hanging out together after the fighting is done. It’s like a
book club, but instead of reading books they beat up bad guys.
In reality, most super hero teams boil down to a very few,
especially if you focus mostly on the big two companies, Marvel and DC. So when
you really look at it, there are two super hero teams. The Avengers and the
Justice League. There are variations of those two teams to be sure (West Coast
Avengers, Secret Avengers, Justice League International, Justice League
Taskforce, etc.) but they all fall under the same umbrella; Super heroes who
join together to deal with a threat that they cannot deal with alone. That is
what a true super hero team seems to be. Super hero teams like StormWatch
(original Warren Ellis run of the book) or Top Ten are not teams so much as
superhuman agents of the government.
With the constant attempts by so many writers to bring new
life and innovation into the comics, the traditional idea of the super team
seems to be more and more a foreign concept. Tradition seems to be the enemy of
innovation. The best way to gain fame as a comic book writer is to break the
mold of what has been done before. That is probably why writers like Alan
Moore, Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis have all gained such fame and acclaim in
the industry. They’ve taken the popular well like tropes and given them a new
and interesting twist.
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