Why I Love The Avengers

I considered The Avengers probably the worst team in all of comics, until one night when I had a certain nightmare.

 

Without giving details it was one of the most gutting dreams I've ever had. It was the kind that plays on very real things happening in your life at the time. I felt anxious, embarrassed, regretful, basically any caustic emotion you can think of, and it was so bad that I couldn't go back to sleep afterward. So instead I started flipping through some issues of The Avengers from the 70s.

I ended up falling into the stories and reading for about three hours which was a very long time for me. At the time I couldn't believe how enthralled I was with this book that I historically had never liked, and I couldn't explain to myself why I was so hooked.

 

I had never understood The Avengers. They weren't like the X-Men who were brought together by being mutants, or the Fantastic Four who were a family, or the Justice League who were the all-stars of their universe. They were just an assortment of characters who worked together for some reason, who weren't particularly effective, who didn't come across as greater than the sum of their parts, and I wasn't even a fan of the characters individually (except for Captain America). They didn't inspire me or make me feel anything. I wasn't even a fan of most of their power-sets.

Yet because of this team, all the bad feelings I was having from the nightmare slowly dissipated across the hours; and I eventually felt so assured, so comfortable, and so relaxed that I went back to sleep. The Avengers helped me sleep. The question is how.

My mind wasn't changed: I still don't "get" The Avengers or enjoy most of the characters or think there's something deeper underlying the team -- but I think that's why I love them so much. The Avengers book is a stripped-down example of the artform: pure entertainment, pure adventure, just a superhero action book. In a word: meaningless.

But this "meaningless superhero action book" affected me strongly. A "meaningless" story brought me comfort and joy and a sentimental memory I now look back on.

 

This is such an easy thing to take for granted: you can say "the book itself was nothing, it was just a distraction from some bad feelings". And that's true. But when you're struggling, when life is taking a heavy toll on you, there is absolutely no substitute for a distraction, for something that brings you comfort. Those pockets of joy and relief can be the most important things in the world no matter where they came from.

I don't know who you are or anything about you, but I know your life has been hard, and I know my life has been hard, and from the moment we're born we're a terminal patient moving towards death. Everything we do is about trying to make ourselves as comfortable as possible while we're here. So it doesn't matter if the things we use for this are "meaningless", or small, or goofy. If it helps you get through this life, it has value beyond words.

My experience with The Avengers reminds me that everything that helps you weather the storm of life is sacred and beautiful, and matters in its own way. Comics, or movies, or shows, or games, or videos, or conversations -- they may be small but they're all bright spots in a life that can get very, very dark, and for that reason they are heavy and should be cherished, no matter how small or ostensibly "meaningless" they seem at a glance. Accept and appreciate those bright spots when you see them. You don't have to second-guess them or analyze whether they have some other type of value. If they bring you warmth, they not only matter, but they matter a lot.

There's a line from Batman: Black and White where Batman says, "Make yourself at home in this world." That is all we're trying to do. Take everything that makes you happy or brings you solace and unashamedly use them to build your life. If our life is all we have, then the things we use to assemble it are the most important things in the universe.