Yeah, I would not call the Avengers C-team.
I didn't grow up reading comic books, I was more into movies. Still, I had some awareness of many of these characters. When I was probably 10 or so, I came across a hard-bound book in my grandmother's house (book had likely belonged to an uncle who was 14 years older than me but had moved on to college by then, and that I have since inherited after my grandmother's passing in 2004) that was a compendium of great American comic book characters.
The book had "chapters" of a single comic book issue for all of the characters it covered, among them Superman, Batman, Captain America, and many others (it's been many years since I looked at that book, but I may have to go pull it off my shelf to see who else is in it).
Then there were TV shows - Batman (campy crap but awesome nevertheless), Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, animated Justice League, Super Friends - that kept me invested in some of these characters.
My afore-mentioned grandmother lived in Lake Jackson in a house located literally on the other side of a fence from a 7/11. She'd frequently walk me over there, roughly 50 feet, when I was real little for a Slurpee and a candy bar. Often times, 7/11 had plastic cups with characters printed on them. Since Superman was my favorite, that cup was my prized possession for a long time, but I also had several others.
There were not many movies featuring comic characters that came out while I was growing up. Just Superman, the first two movies of which were fantastic and among my favorites for many years.
But for someone like me, with no interest in comic books themselves and fairly limited alternate media exposure to the characters, I still found a way to at least be aware of the existence of characters like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, etc. Now I will admit to having no idea of the existence of characters like Black Widow or Hawkeye - never heard of them until Thor and Iron Man 2 introduced them.
edit - completely forgot to mention Spider-Man as one of the characters that I was familiar with through cartoons, 7/11 cups, etc
I didn't grow up reading comic books, I was more into movies. Still, I had some awareness of many of these characters. When I was probably 10 or so, I came across a hard-bound book in my grandmother's house (book had likely belonged to an uncle who was 14 years older than me but had moved on to college by then, and that I have since inherited after my grandmother's passing in 2004) that was a compendium of great American comic book characters.
The book had "chapters" of a single comic book issue for all of the characters it covered, among them Superman, Batman, Captain America, and many others (it's been many years since I looked at that book, but I may have to go pull it off my shelf to see who else is in it).
Then there were TV shows - Batman (campy crap but awesome nevertheless), Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, animated Justice League, Super Friends - that kept me invested in some of these characters.
My afore-mentioned grandmother lived in Lake Jackson in a house located literally on the other side of a fence from a 7/11. She'd frequently walk me over there, roughly 50 feet, when I was real little for a Slurpee and a candy bar. Often times, 7/11 had plastic cups with characters printed on them. Since Superman was my favorite, that cup was my prized possession for a long time, but I also had several others.
There were not many movies featuring comic characters that came out while I was growing up. Just Superman, the first two movies of which were fantastic and among my favorites for many years.
But for someone like me, with no interest in comic books themselves and fairly limited alternate media exposure to the characters, I still found a way to at least be aware of the existence of characters like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, etc. Now I will admit to having no idea of the existence of characters like Black Widow or Hawkeye - never heard of them until Thor and Iron Man 2 introduced them.
edit - completely forgot to mention Spider-Man as one of the characters that I was familiar with through cartoons, 7/11 cups, etc
