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With the rise of Marvel shows on Disney Plus and the pandemic video game boom, it's time for Avengers Academy to make a comeback. Avengers Academy has a long history in the Marvel world, it was a popular comic book series before being adapted into a mobile game.
The comic book series first came to fruition in 2010 and lasted two years. It spanned 39 issues penned by Christos Gage who has famously written House of M: Avengers, Thunderbolts: Secret Invasion, and Iron Man 2020. Based on the already-established Marvel characters, the comics unfold a storyline surrounding around younger versions of the super-powered team who were brought together at a training facility headed by Henry Pym. Students involved in the comics included Spider-Girl, She-Hulk, and Batwing, among many others.
More notorious characters like Captain America, Hawkeye, and Doctor Strange served as faculty and mentors throughout the run. However, the mobile game adaptation of the series changed things up in a dramatic way that drew together a shatterproof fanbase.
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The game version, which insists that it has nothing to do with the comic book series, has a similar storyline. But instead, it transforms the six core Avengers into students. Marvel Avengers Academy had a brief but lively stint in 2016 as a mobile game, available on iOS and Andriod products. It was published by TinyCo and shut down four years later, in 2019.
Marvel Avengers Academy had a star-studded cast, putting forth the voices of Alison Brie as Natas, Dave Franco as Tony Stark, and John Cena as the Hulk. Leading the pack of angsty teen characters was SHIELD director Nick Fury. While the concept may seem like it's far off in the past, there's no better time than now to reboot the game and look into other creative ways to continue the story, such as an animated series.
One of the best things that arose from Marvel Avengers Academy was its fervent fandom. Although they haven't received new content in years, fans of the game have continued to stay active on social media platforms. Tumblr is filled with screencaps, cosplayers, and fanfiction written within the universe. The fandom is also popular on fanfiction websites like Archive of Our Own. On the website, the fandom makes up for hundreds of stories from 2016 to 2021.
Many fans felt at home with the game's adolescent drive, finding comfort in the quintessential storylines and artifacts. To see a fictional world as renowned and unattainable as the Marvel tackling such mundane tropes like school-aged crushes, snarky competition, and homework is fuel for fans to feel comforted and drawn to the storyline.
Even on Reddit, fans are still reminiscing over the joyful times that Avengers Campus brought them. Earlier in September, one fan wrote, "I really do miss this game, I mean if by miracle it gets revived, I hope it’s the original game, it would be nice without the constant events either. Regardless if it is revived I’m going to be on it. Just feeling very nostalgic." Other fans joined in the comments, sharing their thoughts in agreement.
One fan stated that they missed the game's "Halloween events." Rushing to agree, a commentator added, "Saving the world through the power of friendship and the Thriller dance." Teen shows are all the rage right now. Riverdale and Stargirl have recently proven the success of shows within this genre, based on comic book characters. Other shows like Outer Banks, Never Have I Ever, and Love, Victor are outside of the comic genre but are teen orientated and regularly trend on their respective platforms.
While Marvel Studios has yet the dramatically bend the ages of its core characters, it has found success in its recent television shows. Loki, WandaVision, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier were all highly-acclaimed and all-consuming shows, with each new episode, the internet buzzed to crack the latest easter eggs and predict what happens next.
Recently, Marvel Studios also launched its risky endeavor, the animated series What If..?, which tells creative tales involving the core Avengers in random scenarios that take place in alternate universes. Before that was the animated series by Marvel Animations, Avengers Assemble, which introduced the loved Avengers squad as quirky and friendly superheroes, who were much closer with one another than previously seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sam Wilson, also known as the Falcon, was also introduced as a starstruck, younger character who idolized his teammates and went the extra mile to fit in.
A series that combines the silliness of both premises would work perfectly to reenergize the Avengers Academy community and provide new content for fans. The likelihood of series success, combined with the drastic boom of single-player video games during the Covid-19 pandemic, makes now a safe time for creatives to explore more within the Avengers Academy world.
However, no further initiatives related to Avengers Academy have been teased or announced— not even following the opening of the recent Disney theme park, Avengers Campus. It seems like a swing-and-a-miss for Marvel to ignore this niche, especially with the continuing interest that it's sparked.