The Complete Avengers by… William Shakespeare?!
Grab your mother’s curtains and head to Central Park, because on September 28th, 2021 you can get your hands on William Shakespeare’s The Avengers: The Complete Works written by Ian Doescher and illustrated by Danny Schlitz. The collection includes Shakespearian makeovers for all four of the Avengers movies that have been released so far (replete with era-appropriate stage direction).
William Shakespeare’s Avengers: The Complete Works. Photo: Marvel/Quirk
An Avenger by Any Other Name
Doth this seem out of left field to you? Verily, thou should have seen it coming!
That’s in part because Doescher has previously written Shakespearian makeovers for Lucasfilm: every single one of the nine movies in the Skywalker Saga has received the Shakespeare treatment, and the original trilogy even has a nice box set!
Royal Imperial Boxed Set. Photo: Quirk Books
But now, the Merry Marvel Multiverse is getting gussied up Globe Theatre-style for William Shakespeare’s The Avengers!
Double, Double; Lieutenant Trouble
While you do have to wait for September 28th to get your hands on William Shakespeare’s The Avengers, Doescher has previously written Shakespearian makeovers for other beloved pop culture stories, as well.
William Shakespeare’s Get Thee Back to the Future! Photo: Quirk Books
You might check out William Shakespeare’s Get Thee… Back to the Future (even if we know from Avengers: Endgame that its theories on time travel are less than accurate), or William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Clueless (which is especially funny because Clueless was loosely based on The Taming of the Shrew… I guess what comes around really does go around).
William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Clueless. Photo: Quirk Books
The Twelfth Spider
William Shakespeare (and his works) have already made many appearances in the pages of Marvel Comics! Here’s just a few of our favorites (but we hope you’ll share more in the comments).
One such appearance took place in the 2014 Free Comic Book Day story “Staging Ground” by Dan Slott, Guiseppe Camuncoli, John Dell, Edgar Delgado, and Cory Petit, one of the Spider characters from the Spider-Verse story makes an appearance. This version of Parker performs at the Globe Theater alongside the family Watsonne, and although his appearance is brief, he definitely channels the Shakespearian vibe.
“Staging Ground.” Photo: Marvel Comics
And another Marvel Comics story that heavily relies on Shakespeare begins in The Vision (2015) #1 by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles, and will end in Marvel Studios’ The Vision series?
Vision #1. Photo: Marvel Comics
Throughout the run of the 12 issue series, lines from The Merchant of Venice play an important role, thematically emphasizing the liminal space between synthetic and organic which is occupied by the Vision family.
Vin and Sparky in Vision #8. Photo: Marvel Comics
WandaVision is Such Sweet Sorrow
While you may have to wait until autumn to get your hands on this collection, you can head over to the Quirk Books website to preorder the book now.
Will you be picking up William Shakespeare’s The Complete Avengers? Marvel Blog wants to hear from you!
