MUSICAL CHAIRS:
The Avengers Chairmanship
by Sean McQuaid


Here's a meaningless factoid for the day. While working on something for 
the web page, I came up with tallies on how many issues each Avenger has 
logged as chairman. Included in the tallies are all the Avengers-titled 
team books (including limited series and one-shots), but not solo stuff 
like Avengers Spotlight. 

It should be noted that the chairmanship used to be a rotating post held 
by every member in turn. That being the case, it's possible that Hulk, 
Quicksilver, Swordsman, Hercules and Black Knight all served as chair 
at some point, though they were never described as such on-panel. Mind you, 
with the exception of Quicksilver, none of these guys served for very 
long back in the rotating chair days, so they may have missed their 
shot at the top spot. 

It should also be noted that the chairmanship of the team and the leadership 
of the team used to be two separate posts. For instance, Cap often served as 
field leader no matter who might be chairman at a given time. The 
chairmanship powers and duties seemed to include chairing meetings and 
making decisions on other aspects of team business, but the chairman 
didn't always double as the field leader.  

The chairmanship became a full-time post incorporating all the leadership 
powers sometime after Avengers 112 (the last time a rotating chairman is 
observed), and the first full-time chairman was Captain America (as revealed 
much later in GSA 4). Cap left the team circa Avengers 126/GSA 1 and passed 
the chairmanship to Thor (as revealed in GSA 4). Thor passed it to Iron Man. 
And later on, the full-time chairmanship became an elected post held by Cap, 
Hawkeye, Wasp, Black Widow, Iron Man, Photon, Vision, Hank Pym, Scarlet 
Witch and Doc Druid at one time or another.  

So without further rambling, here's the tally: 

Captain America (110)
Hawkeye (79)
Wasp (72) 
Black Widow (55) 
Iron Man (54) 
Thor (29) 
Photon (20) 
Vision (16)
Hank Pym (12)
Scarlet Witch (7) 
Doctor Druid (4) 
Black Panther (3) 
Hulk, Quicksilver, Swordsman, Hercules & Black Knight (?)