Marvel's "Avengers"—whence the name?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve got kind of a stupid comics question—why did Marvel’s superhero team the Avengers decide to call themselves that?

A little web searching—I’m ashamed to say I’ve never read the first Avengers story—showed that the Wasp apparently suggested the name after the team first formed up, but doesn’t say why…and the first mission didn’t look like something you’d call an “Avenging.” (I could be wrong, though.)

So…was there some story subtext that I’m missing, or does this just boil down to “because it sounded cool, and we needed a title”?

2

I’ve read the first story many times and as far as I can tell, it was merely a matter of it sounding cool. I guess it might have made sense if they spent the next several issues hunting down Loki, but they didn’t.

–Cliffy