The Avengers 1,000,000 BC are a group of superheroes similar to The Avengers, but in the world one million years in the past. They were created by Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic, and first appeared in Marvel Legacy #1.
They are composed of:
- Odin: The Prince of Asgard. At this time, he wielded Mjolnir, and Thor was not born yet.
- Lady Phoenix: A mutant cavewoman who bonded to the Phoenix Force.
- Ghost Rider: A member of a mammoth-riding tribe who made a deal with Mephisto to become the first host of the Spirit of Vengeance.
- Iron Fist: Fan Fei was the first to kill Shou-Lao, becoming the first Iron Fist, but was exiled from K'un-Lun for her desire to help those outside the city.
- Agamotto: The very first Sorcerer Supreme.
- Black Panther: The leader of a tribe who worships the Panther Goddess, and the first caveman to unlock the power of the Vibranium meteorite.
- Star Brand: Vnn, the first human host of the Starbrand power on Earth.
In the Avengers Assemble event, they are joined by:
- Moon Knight: possibly the first ever Fist of Khonshu
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Tropes
In general
- Archenemy: They've often had to deal with Mephisto and his machinations. Plus a number of their members were being tempted by him before they joined the team. Doom Supreme and his Multiversal Masters of Evil (Dark Phoenix and her berserkers, Black Skull, King Killmonger, Ghost Goblin and Kid Thanos) were assembled by Mephisto to kill the Prehistoric Avengers.
- Battle Couple: Odin and Lady Phoenix, whose relationship is revealed in Enter the Phoenix to have eventually resulted in Thor (or so the spirit of Lady Phoenix claims, saying that Gaia was a necessary guise). Thor does not take this well, and the truth is a touch more complicated. Gaia was his biological mother, but Lady Phoenix persuaded her to give Odin a chance, and when Laufey killed Thor immediately after birth, she rebirthed him in her flames and got attached. She's sort of his godmother.
- Bolivian Army Ending: We never saw the fight of those Avengers against the Celestials. Did they win somehow? Or did they all die, except Odin (and possibly Agamotto), and every other appearance takes place before it? All Odin will say is that he refuses to talk about it, as the wound is still too raw.
- The Bus Came Back: Firehair returns as an avatar of the Phoenix, when Moon Knight had summoned the Phoenix to Earth and it initiates a tournament to see who'll be its next host.
- Call-Forward: The scene that introduces the team in "Avengers 1" is similar to the cover of that issue, that includes the modern Avengers.
- Conqueror from the Future: They had fought many, off-screen. That's why they attacked the time-displaced Iron Man. They knew that his armor was from the future (and no, they were not amazed by it or by the idea of time-travel). It's one of the factors that's left them pretty cynical about the future of the world they're defending.
- ET Gave Us Wifi: Before fighting against the Celestial host, Odin shared with his teammates a beverage they had never dreamed of: mead.
- Fantastic Racism: "Firehair" (not Lady Phoenix yet) was sent to her doom by his tribe, because she was born with red hair.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Their story also seems to detail how and why Mephisto first came to Earth.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Turns out the god Khonshu was around in this epoch and several times, the Prehistoric Avengers had kept him from taking over the world. But what really pisses him off is that, despite being so ancient he predated the arrival of the Asgardians to Midgard and other major events, the Prehistoric Avengers had never invited him to join the team.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Vnn, later Starbrand, was banished from his tribe for being gay.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: The Avengers' human members are more intelligent than the Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals of the time, this set them apart from others in their respective tribes and in the case of Ghost Rider, it led to his exile.
- Killer Gorilla: One of Fan Fei's first fights was with a Power Stone enhanced gorilla.
- Last Stand: They fought and defeated a Celestial, but he was weakened by an infection. Now there is a full Celestial host before them, with no such weakness, and aware of what the Avengers did to their compatriot. Odin knows the threat they face, he knows they have no chance, but he will fight anyway.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Avengers defeated a Celestial, and buried him. This eventually summoned a whole Celestial host in the modern-day, and the modern Avengers had to deal with that.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In Avengers #50 (2021), The Avengers saved a time-travelling Ka-zar by kicking Kid Thanos's ass. Instead of being just a bit pragmatic and executing the little monster, they merely send him back to where he came from. This allows Doom Supreme to recruit him and now Kid Thanos has a grudge against all Odins.
- Power Floats: Firehair met a prehistoric Charles Xavier equivalent, who had psy powers and levitation.
- Precursor Heroes: They are essentially the Avengers during the Stone Age.
- Raised by Wolves: Firehair was saved as a baby by a pack of wolves, and joined them and lived and hunted like one of them.
- Super Team: The first in Earth-616's timeline and easily one of the most powerful ever.
- Two Girls to a Team: Fan Fei and Firehair were the only women.
- Universal-Adaptor Cast: All the characters resemble in some way modern characters from Marvel Comics (not all of them Avengers, just those whose powers could reasonably exist or manifest in the prehistoric era). Ghost Rider, Iron Fist and Black Panther are Legacy Characters, Lady Phoenix is very similar to Jean Grey, Agamotto is a predecessor of Doctor Strange, and Starbrand is both a Legacy Character himself and much like the Hulk. As for Odin, he is Thor’s dad, and assumes his role in these adventures. In addition, the composition of the big establishing splash page in Avengers (2018) #1, when compared to the cover, suggests that Lady Phoenix and Iron Fist serve the same roles as Captain Marvel and Captain America in the modern team.
- Unperson: Fan Fei was exiled from K'un-Lun. When Iron Fist sought information about her, there was none, because K'un-Lun did not keep any.
Odin Borson
Odin Borson
Alter Ego: Odin Borson
Notable Aliases: The All-Father, Sky-Father, Gagnraðr, Grímnir, Atum-Re, The Wanderer, Orrin, Infinity
First Appearance: Journey into Mystery #86 (November 1962)
Team Affiliations: Asgardians, formerly Avengers of 1,000,000 BC
Joined In: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
See Marvel Comics: Asgardians for more info.
Agamotto
Agamotto
Alter Ego: Agamotto
Notable Aliases: Light of Truth, Agamotto the All-Seeing, Agomotto, All Seeing
First Appearance: Marvel Premiere #5 (November, 1972)
Team Affiliations: Vishanti
Joined In: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
See Doctor Strange: Supporting Characters for more info.
Black Panther (1,000, 000 BC)
Black Panther (1,000,000 BC)
Alter Ego: Unknown
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
Team Affiliations: Avengers of 1,000,000 BC
Joined In: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
See Black Panthers for more info.
Iron Fist (1,000, 000 BC)
Iron Fist (1,000,000 BC)
Alter Ego: Fan Fei
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
Team Affiliations: Avengers of 1,000,000 BC
Joined In: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
See Iron Fist for more info.
Starbrand (1,000, 000 BC)
Starbrand (1,000,000 BC)
Alter Ego: Vnn
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
Team Affiliations: Avengers of 1,000,000 BC
Joined In: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
- Actual Pacifist: He was a pacifist, unwilling to kill even to feed himself while starving to death.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Originally Vnn was the much smaller partner of the couple.
- Composite Character: He is a combination of Starbrand and the Hulk.
- Headbutting Heroes: Just like Thor and Hulk in modern times, he and Odin got along the least.
- HULK MASH!-Up: He's essentially a prehistoric version of The Hulk.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: While he communicates only in grunts, Iron Fist can understand him.
- The Lost Lenore: His lover Brrk, who died before he obtained the Starbrand powers. He's in a state of perpetual anger out of grief, enough to destroy the world if he didn't have monsters and villains to direct it at.
- Smarter Than You Look: He's much more intelligent than he seems.
- Straight Gay: Since the concept of campiness didn't exist back then, he didn't act in a way that would be considered gay.
- The Unchosen One: Like Kevin Conner, he is implied to be correct when he suspects that he wasn't meant to be the Starbrand, and that Brrk was the real chosen one.
Ghost Rider (1,000, 000 BC)
Ghost Rider (1,000,000 BC)
Alter Ego: Ghost
Notable Aliases: Rider, Spirit of Vengeance
First Appearance: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
Team Affiliations: Spirits of Vengeance; formerly Avengers of 1,000,000 BC
Joined In: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
See Ghost Rider (Title Character) for more info.
Phoenix (1,000, 000 BC)
Phoenix (1,000,000 BC)
Alter Ego: Firehair
Notable Aliases: Lady Phoenix
First Appearance: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
Team Affiliations: Avengers of 1,000,000 BC
Joined In: Marvel Legacy #1 (November, 2017)
- All-Loving Hero: She chose to form the Avengers out of a desire to protect the Earth. She knows that eventually the Phoenix will have to leave or burn the planet to ash, but refuses to do so until she's sure someone else can take up protecting the Earth. This love of the Earth is something she connects with Gaia over.
- Cosmic Entity: She has an unusually close connection to the Phoenix Force and became powerful enough to barge her way into Asgard with the gods unable to stop her. Even a million years after her death, she can force her way out of it to talk to people in a way we usually only see from Jean Grey.
- Determinator: She's quite capable of forcing her way out of the Phoenix for a chat with Thor and the Avengers, despite being dead.
- Famous Ancestor: Her red hair and connection to the Phoenix Force basically says she's a very distant ancestor of Jean Grey, Rachel Summers, as well as Cable, and X-Man - probably Hope Summers too, though the nature of Hope's birth is... ambiguous. She's also Thor's mother — or so she claims. The truth is complicated - Gaea gave birth to him, but Firehair 'rebirthed' him when Laufey killed him instants after birth, and became instantly attached to him. Per Gaea, they're both his mother, along with Freya.
- Heroic Host: As host of the Phoenix Force, she could have burned the planet to ashes, but chose to save it thanks to the love of her wolf family.
- Interspecies Romance: She was in a relationship with Odin back then.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: In the Enter the Phoenix arc, she claims to be Thor's actual mother, and that Gaia was a necessary guise. Thor does not take it well and Tony (who's had his share of unsettling parental reveals) hangs a lampshade on it. It eventually turns out this is because it was her idea for Gaia and Odin to hook up and eventually conceive Thor, whom she resurrected shortly after birth when Laufey struck a killing blow. Per Gaea, that makes them both his mother - though perhaps godmother is the best analogy.Tony: "Why can none of us have nice, normal parents?"
- Mutant: She's the team's token mutant and one of the earliest mutants in Marvel history, predating Selene and Apocalypse by a huge margin - though this is explained in passing during Judgment Day as a bunch of modern humans having been temporally displaced to the distant past.
- Nubile Savage: She lived a million years ago as a near feral cavewoman yet was a dead ringer for Jean Grey. To be fair, she was very much not nubile, being decidedly unkempt and more or less as you'd expect from a feral child until she hosted the Phoenix.
- Parental Substitute:
- She was taken care of by a mutant known as Highwalker, until he and the other mutants were killed by another tribe and she was the only survivor.
- She was also, very briefly, this to Thor, which is why she claims she's his mother - she sort of 'rebirthed' him following his murder instants after he was born, and apparently got somewhat attached.
- Posthumous Character: Being dead doesn't stop her from essentially forcing her way out of the Phoenix for a chat with Thor and the other Avengers.
- Raised by Wolves: Literally. She was abandoned by her tribe and raised by wolves. She didn't even understand human words until she met the mutant Highwalker.
- Really 700 Years Old: She was present for the birth of Thor despite hundreds of thousands of years having passed between 1,000,000 BCE and Thor's birth ~1500 years or more in the past (while Thor's age in the comics is... ambiguous, it was relatively much more recent), implying that she was either alive for all that time or posthumously manifested from the Phoenix Force.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Just like her distant descendants in the Grey line (the female ones, anyway), she had green eyes and red hair.
- Take a Third Option: Instead of creation and destruction, Firehair has opted for something different as the Phoenix's avatar. She and a group of special individuals will protect the Earth and so she goes to recruit Odin...
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: When compared to Fan Fei, she's the Girly Girl.
