Panel Discussion: When "A" Table is Not Just a Table!

Martinex1: We talk about a lot of comics, tropes, themes, characters, and covers here at the BitBA blog, but I don't think we've stooped so low as to talk about the furniture... until today!  One of my favorite Avengers Mansion accoutrements is the conference meeting room table that the Avengers have used throughout their illustrious career.

I first encountered the table in a panel from Avengers #72.  This was a masterfully rendered issue from Sal Buscema and inker Sam Grainger.   Not only did the issue include the first appearance of the maniacal Zodiac, it introduced me to a scene that I would always admire.  There was just something about that huge table, and the chairs with each character's symbol, and the extra-large chair for Goliath that had me examining the image for a long time.  One flaw is that I never understood the Vision's chair symbol.

It appeared again during the same era in Issue # 83 when the Lady Liberators assembled for the first time.

But it had been around for some time, as I eventually stumbled upon these images from earlier Avengers' days.

So it goes back to at least the Don Heck days. Does anybody know where and when that magnificent table first appeared?   Sure they had a table back in the early issues, even as far back as when Kirby first drew the team.  But they may as well have been sitting on milk crates or at my grandmother's kitchen table.  The Hulk looks like he has been banished to the kid's table at Thanksgiving.

I've shared these John Byrne and George Perez images from the classic Avengers #181 before; as you can see the table made it to center stage with the best artists of the era.

 But have you seen Fred Hembeck's version?  Obviously it is iconic enough to be part of a parody.

 But there are even more examples, from Bronze Age George Perez to modern era Perez.

 Michael Golden penciled a version in Avengers Annual #10 and John Buscema used it on occasion, as did others.

 It appeared in animated sequences.  And Namor more recently delivered an Atlantean replacement.

Sure other super-groups had tables, and the JLA and Justice Society had nice furnishings but there is nothing quite like the Avengers' symbolic conference setting.  So the DC versions just had something missing in my opinion.

I contend that for the Avengers, other than the Quinjet and the Mansion, the table is one of the most iconic elements of the book.   I hope to see it appear in the cinema versions sometime soon.  Take a seat at the "A" table and share your thoughts about these panels and this topic.  You may not have much to say, but we have left a place open for you so pull up a seat.  Cheers.