October 30th, 1999 was a day unlike any other, when Earth's Mightiest Heroes found themselves united against a common threat! On that day, the Avengers were formed - to combat those foes no single hero could withstand! Over the... months... their roster changed marginally, but their spirit remained unconquerable! Heed the call, then - for now, the Avengers stand united!
Or something like that.
It is true that October 30th, 1999 marked a new era for the Avengers - their first real foray into television animation. Yes, the 1990s Iron Man animated series had featured Force Works for most of its first season, and the Avengers did make a cameo in one of the last few episodes of the Fantastic Four series that, with Iron Man, formed the Marvel Action Hour. A couple of individual team members had even appeared in episodes of Spider-Man and X-Men, and the Captain America portion of the 1960s Marvel Super Heroes series featured a faithful animated retelling of Avengers (vol.1) #4; but 1999's Avengers: United They Stand was the first time that Earth's Mightiest had really taken centre stage, or had a series named after them specifically.
Yet, the Avengers' greatest foes were not Kang or Ultron or Immortus or any of the other stalwart villains of the comics (well, they were, but more on that later!). The Avengers truest, most deadly foes turned out to be low ratings and a largely negative reaction from fans. How could a team of almost-universally beloved heroes fail so wholly at winning the hearts and minds of the TV-watching masses?
The Issue of the Armour
The Avengers wore armour. Tacky, grey armour that covered their tacky, multi-coloured costumes, and this concept was poorly received by many viewers. The armour actually played an integral role in the series, but it was felt by many to be a cheap gimmick - the Avengers were no longer a team of wildly different heroes with their own strengths and weaknesses; they had become a bunch of folks with only marginally different personalities who relied heavily on generic, high-tech armour to dispatch their foes.
The concept of armour (or uniforms, for that matter) was not new to the Avengers. After all, founding Avenger Iron Man relies exclusively on a set of high-tech armour to take care of his issues, as does War Machine, and while there have been complaints about the characters' reliance on the armour over the years, such complaints have never been expressed as vocally as fans' opposition to the armour in Avengers.
The armour did, however, serve a purpose: United They Stand was clearly set in the not-too-distant future, where the police carried laser weapons and even civilian cars could fly. In such a setting, the Avengers needed an edge. Against such technology gas arrows, bioelectric shocks and probability-altering magick were only going to accomplish so much. It set the Avengers on a level playing field technologically, allowing their more unique attributes to shine through.
And therein, I believe, lay the real problem. The armour itself was not an issue; like the scandal surrounding the brown leather jackets present during Bob Harras' run on Avengers in the early-mid 1990s, it wasn't that the armour changed something essential to the characters - it simply made the teammates more alike visually, something which bothers a very large subset of Avengers fans who feel the strength of the team lies not in the characters themselves but in the differences between them. Anything, even something as trivial as shared uniform, bothers such fans - justifiably so, if you agree with their point-of-view.
However, this issue was addressed in episode seven, "Command Decision", where an electromagnetic pulse released by Baron Zemo short-circuits the Avengers' armour temporarily, forcing them to rely on their individual abilities to beat the Baron's team. As Hawkeye quite rightly points out: "We're not just armour... we're the Avengers!"
The Subplots
One aspect of the Avengers comic series that is popular among many fans is its long-running subplots. From the mysteries surrounding the origins and true agendas of Kang the Conqueror and Immortus to the epic, sweeping plans of the Gatherers and the slow-building madness of the Scarlet Witch, Avengers is well-known for its several-year-spanning storylines.
United They Stand tried to replicate this.
Unfortunately, United They Stand was a weekly television series limited to 13 episodes!
Most of the series' attempts at series-spanning story arcs were lifted directly from the comics, most notably the decision by Ultron to base the Vision's personality on brain engrams taken from Wonder Man and eventually, after accepting the Vision as a teammate, the Avengers recover the injured body of Wonder Man and nurse him back to health, creating a bizarre love triangle between the Scarlet Witch, the Vision and Wonder Man.
The equivalent storyline in the comics spanned close to two hundred and fifty issues covering more than twenty years.
In the animated series, the interesting subplot took only three weeks to reach a reasonably amicable conclusion.
The very nature of a weekly animated series, with its need to wrap up plot lines in a relatively short period and limitations based on a twenty-two minute format (few people would argue that a lot more can happen in one page of a comic book than one minute of a television program!) did not lend itself well to Avengers-style ongoing storylines - and in its attempt to emulate the comic format too closely, the series missed opportunities to capitalise on its unique position in the Avengers family.
Been There, Done That
Another issue raised by fans was the series' unorthodox roster. The "Big Three" - Captain America, Iron Man and Thor - were not part of the team, although Captain America and Iron Man did make guest appearances in the second half of the series. Instead, fans were shown a team consisting of Ant-Man, the Wasp, the Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, Hawkeye, Tigra, the Falcon and the Vision.
That line-up, while appearing to many fans as only a slightly-altered Avengers West Coast roster, did come across as unusual to many. In the comic series, those characters had not interacted very closely on any significant storylines - there was not, for example, any major story revolving around the Scarlet Witch and Ant-Man.
Rather, the characters seemed to be chosen for their potential interactions. There was enough of a set-up in the comics to allow for reasonable plots centred on Ant-Man and the Wasp or the Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man and the Vision. As a team they were not tremendously impressive, but broken into smaller pairings or groups the possibility for deep, character-driven storylines was enormous.
But that never happened.
Rather than seeing new, bold storylines featuring existing, long-time Avengers team members, United They Stand introduced us to familiar storylines only slightly altered to accommodate the new, futuristic setting. Fans were shown the same Scarlet Witch/Vision/Wonder Man love triangle as shown in the comics. Long-time followers of the Avengers were not surprised to learn of the connections between the Wasp and the head of the Zodiac. Even the most casual fan of the comics who turned onto the television series would have predicted the interaction between Hawkeye and the villainous Swordsman and groaned as Ant-Man fretted over his self-perceived flaws when compared with the likes of Captain America.
The stories had all been seen before. Rather than taking advantage of the differences between a printed comic and an animated series and telling stories that could not be told on paper, United They Stand simply reproduced well-known stories for the small screen, stories that would have already been experienced by most viewers.
The Comic Tie-In
Accompanying the thirteen-episode animated series was a seven-issue Avengers: United They Stand comic series by Ty Templeton and Derec Aucoin telling stories set before, during and after the animated series with clear indicators of where they fell in the United They Stand continuity. This comic series was generally more well-received than the animated series... by the few who knew about it.
The comic explained a lot of elements integral to the animated series that the cartoon never explained itself. These included:
- the origin and purpose of the Avengers' armour;
- the chosen roster; and
- how the Vision, a figure clearly considered a major threat, was able to secure a position on the team.
As well as its solid support of the "new" ideas presented in the animated series, the comic also featured a lot of popular Avengers characters and villains who did not make their way into the cartoon, such as the Black Panther, the Black Knight, the Black Widow, Doctor Doom, HYDRA, the Collector, AIM and Baron Strucker.
In the eyes of many fans, the comic accomplished exactly what the animated series should have: explored how - with a slight alteration to the usual setting and with the addition of one new gimmick (the armour) - the Avengers would react differently to threats. These stories took advantage of the unique elements presented in the cartoon that the animated series failed to capitalise on itself.
Unfortunately, the comic was poorly advertised and did not sell as well as it may have. No indication was given in advertisements that the comic series tied in directly with the animation, and I recall myself - in a non-US market, where the animated series debuted more than a year after the comic series ended - assuming that the comic series was simply an adaptation of the animation, a belief shared by many patrons of my local comics shop!
The Second Season That Wasn't
For all its potential, the United They Stand animated series fell flat and was not renewed for a second season. However, scripts were finished that featured appearances by Thor and his half-brother Loki -two popular Avengers-related characters - and the X-Men, with the cast of the 1990s animated series planned to reprise their roles. Whether this would have addressed fan concerns about the series is unknown.
The Verdict
Avengers: United They Stand remains as the Avengers' only real foray into the world of animation, but like any major shake-up to the Avengers' status quo (read: New Avengers) it failed to find a suitable and immediate fan following and was eventually considered unsuitable for continued production. However, due to the producers' decision to so radically separate the premise of the animated series from that of the comic, it could be argued that the Avengers have never really been given a true chance to demonstrate their suitability for animation.
I share the belief that a more classic-style Avengers series may find a stronger foothold and hope that one day the Avengers as we know them from their near half-century of publication will find their way into the hearts of new TV-watching fans across the world and it will be Loki, not low ratings, that poses the greater threat to the team's success!
2026 Update
When this article was written, as noted, other than appearances in other cartoons, United They Stand was the only Avengers-dedicated series to air. Since then, there have been several others, including:
- a cancelled series called The Avengers, which had a trailer posted online;
- Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010-2012)
- Avengers Assemble (2013-2019)
- Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers (2014-2015)
- Marvel Future Avengers (2017-2018)
Also, many animated films and specials:
- Ultimate Avengers: The Movie (2006)
- Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of the Panther (2006)
- Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (2008)
- Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher (2014)
- LEGO Marvel Super Heroes: Avengers Reassembled! (2015)
- LEGO Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum (2020)
- LEGO Marvel Avengers: Code Red (2023)
- LEGO Marvel Avengers: Mission Demolition (2024)
- LEGO Marvel Avengers: Strange Tails (2025)
Most importantly for United They Stand, Tigra from this series appeared in the film Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)!