Avengers Campus California

Avengers Campus, California is the setting for the Avengers Campus in Disney California Adventure.

Description[]

Avengers-campus-is-hiding-a-pretty-dark-marvel-comics-easter-egg — A vintage map of the location

Avengers Campus is a superhero outpost (predominately for the Avengers) located in the city of Orange, California. Specifically, it is at the coordinates 33.8121° North, 117.9190° West. The campus was originally constructed as a science colony for Stark Industries before being transformed into a superhero base in the 2010s. The campus was part of Stark's, "Global Avengers Initiative" to train a new generation of superheroes across the world. Much of the campus was connected to Stark's A.I. program, "F.R.I.D.A.Y.".

Features[]

Aircraft Runways: Near the Avengers Headquarters is a series of runways which used to be used by Stark Aeronautics.
Ancient Sanctum: The sanctum was created by the Vishanti and housed a temporal anomaly. The site of this temporal anomaly was later quarantined off by the Strategic Scientific Reserve.^[1] In modern day, a series of ruins were located at the site that were used by Doctor Stephen Strange and Agatha Harkness.
Avengers Headquarters: The Avengers Headquarters is the campus' command centre on the campus, with a landing-pad for the Quinjet on its roof. The building previously served as a base for Stark Aeronautics.
Boiler Plant:
Campus Supply Pod: A station in Avengers Campus for recruits to get supplies.
Control Tower: In the old Stark facility was a control tower. After the facility was converted to Avengers Campus, the Control Tower's land became used to host the teleporting Fortress tower of the villainous alien collector, Taneleer Tivan.
Gate #1: The main entrance to the campus was also home to a giant arc reactor built into the ground to power the complex.
Gate #2:
Gate #3:
Hangars: The campus was constructed with two aircraft hangars: one the Assembly Hangar and the other the Quadjet Hangar.
Housing Complex: The Housing Complex was built nearby Gate #1.
PYM Test Lab: This facility was originally constructed as a standard outpost for Pym Labs, a division of Pym Technologies. When the facility was turned into Avengers Campus, the modern Ant-Man's daughter Cassie Lang proposed they turn it into an experimental kitchen which would use size augmentation technology to combat world hunger.
- Pym Tasting Kitchen:
Scrap Yard: This was a scrapyard during the complex's original design located outside the main entrance. It is unknown if it remained during the campus' time as Avengers Campus.
Shawarma Palace: This was a food-stand from a New York City shawarma franchise, gimmicked towards super-heroes.
Utilidors:
W.E.B. Workshop: This was the California headquarters for the Worldwide Engineering Brigade. The building was repurposed from an old Stark Motors factory.
W.E.B. Suppliers: WEB Suppliers was a shop which sold equipment from the Worldwide Engineering Brigade. It was previously an outpost for AccuTech, a division of Stark Industries.

History[]

Background[]

The Vishanti[]

The land which would become Avengers Campus was visited by a god-like group of sorcerers known as the Vishanti. The Vishanti created mystical sanctums around the world including one in this piece of California land. The sanctum was ultimately left in ruins and became a temporal anomaly in the years to come.

Stark Industrial Complex[]

CampusBlueprints — Blueprints of the area

The campus was originally constructed as the Stark Industries Complex, an industrial complex created by Stark Industries with plans made for the December 16th of 1952. These designs were finalized on the July 17 of 1955 and the construction was contracted to S. Sizemore Construction Inc..^[2] This property would be run by inventor Howard Stark, not far from a vineyard and wine tasting complex which he owned. In addition to Stark Industries divisions, Howard also invited in the military organization S.H.I.E.L.D. which he co-founded with Peggy Carter, the Strategic Scientific Reserve of which Stark was a member and the company Pym Technologies which was run by one Hank Pym. Originally, a railroad cut through the campus for additional transportation.

SHIELD was aware of a temporal anomaly on the complex which lead to them quarantining off the area of said anomaly. Peggy Carter herself would often frequent the complex, potentially for business relating to the anomaly which SHIELD was studying.

During the 1950s, Howard Stark and Stark Motors developed the flying cars which were only finalized for the Stark Expo of 1974. The Stark subsidiary Geffen-Meyer Chemicals also constructed subterranean, "Utilidors" throughout the complex, an idea potentially picked up from Stark's affiliate Walt Disney. Additional experiments conducted by Stark Industries and its subsidiaries on the complex included those with Gamma Radiation, and the Negative Zone.

Global Avengers Initiative[]

Starting in the late August of 2019, the facility was transformed by the late-Howard's son Tony into, "Avengers Campus".^[3] Following an incident where the villainous organization HYDRA and Dr. Arnim Zola attacked a Stark Expo in Hong Kong, Tony chose to build the Avengers Campus program as a peacekeeping initiative. The Orange city campus was the first of these campuses with the second having been in development upon the first's opening.^[4] Tony renovated the campus with several upgrades such as a giant Arc reactor for power, Avengers headquarters, and base for the Worldwide Engineering Brigade.

Tony's fellow superhero, the sorcerer Doctor Strange took notice of the anomaly zone and undid its cloaking spell, revealing the ruins only noted by Stark as a, "Neat Party Trick". Doctor Strange would frequently visit the Sanctum to study its power for good.^[5]

Several notable superheroes came to the Avengers Campus however so too did the villainous alien Taneleer Tivan AKA The Collector. The Collector came to the campus in a giant teleporting fortress to show off his collection as an attraction; sending out various spam texts to promote his arrival. Secretly, the collector had come to Earth when his bounty-hunter Jeutar Mörat had tracked a, "Stranger" of interest to the planet. While on Earth, the Collector invited Peter "Star-Lord" Quill and his team the Guardians of the Galaxy in for a free tour, only to trap them all for his collection. During their imprisonment, Star-Lord and Gamora sent messages for help to Avengers member Wasp while Rocket managed to send out an S.O.S. signal to the California area.^[6]

Web-Slingers[]

At an open house intended to show off the Spider-Bots made by WEB member Peter Parker, the Spider-Bots replicated out of control and began replicating throughout Avengers Campus which they threatened to destroy. Peter switched into his Spider-Man costume and alongside S.H.A.R.I.N., enlisted guests of the open-house to board Web-Slingers and assist him in stopping the robots from destroying the campus.

Peter lead the Web-Slingers through Avengers Campus' underground utilidoors to stop the Spider-Bots. This took them into the PYM Tech lab base, Collector's Fortress, and Avengers Quinjet hangar while leaving a trail of webs and robot parts wherever they went.^[7] Ultimately, Spider-Man was successful but had to clean up the mess with other Spider-Bots, and tried hiding the event from Iron Man.^[8]

Mission: BREAKOUT![]

In the Fortress, Rocket Raccoon was recaptured by the Collector around the time some of the Terrans he contacted arrived to the fortress. Around this time, the Collector contacted Avengers member Scott Lang AKA Ant-Man and stated that he liked Scott's ideas and wanted to discuss them over, "Sakaaran Cold Brew". It was likely that this was a trap set up by the Collector though the outcome of this incident is unknown.

After escaping containment, Rocket Raccoon debriefed his recruits in the Collector's Office and orchestrated a plan to knock-out the fortress' generators by connecting it to Star-Lord's Walkman and using their guest ID hand-scans to hack into the system. This released all of the creatures in the Collector's possession while the Guardians escaped in their ship the Milano as piloted by Mantis, accompanied by the freed Cosmo the Spacedog though not realizing that they forgot Baby Groot.

The monsters of the facility proceeded to run amok and cause carnage in the powered-down facility. Various Tivan Group workers attempted to recapture the creatures as the monsters preyed on the fortress' inhabitants. During this time, the ghost of outlaw guardians ally Yondu Udonta was spotted wandering the hallways. Rocket Raccoon returned to the fortress to find Baby Groot and had a group of tourists act as bait and distractions from within the Gantry Lifts as Rocket did so. The tourists were terrorized by the Fire Dragon before escaping while Rocket and Groot did likewise.

Assorted incidents[]

The Campus has had various incidents and events with a less clear timeline in relation to one-another.

At some point in the late 2010s-2020s, the villainous mercenary, "The Taskmaster" lead an attack on the campus' headquarters to hijack a payload of vibranium from the Avengers' quinjet. This plan was thwarted by Black Widow and by Black Panther. Following this defeat, Taskmaster used a smoke-bomb to escape capture. On an incident in an unidentified December, the headquarters were attacked by, "The Tracksuit Mafia", a criminal syndicate historically run by the villainous crime-lord Wilson "The Kingpin" Fisk. The tracksuit mafia was fought off by the two, "Hawkeye"s, Clint Barton and Kate Bishop.

Doctor Strange conducted several studies of the ruins of the Vishanti Sanctum. At these ruins, he saved the campus from being invaded by Dormammu through hiding an Astral Ring with the Box of Transformation, and being advised by the Soul Seeker to summon a fellow superhero (Thor or America Chavez) to assist in creating the Spectral Staff.

Several characters would visit the campus over the years. One was martial-artist hero Shang-Chi who was welcomed as an ally to the campus, and fought Ten Rings assassin, "Death Dealer" while there. The campus was also visited by Ms. Marvel who made social-media video posts on the grounds, the vigilante Moon Knight, three of the Eternals (Kingo, Sersi and Phastos) at the sanctum, an alternate universe president version of Loki, and the universe's main Loki in custody of the Time Variance Authority. One October, campus security cameras captured attacks from the lycanthrope, "Werewolf by Night", followed by the werewolf being hunted on the campus by monster-hunter Elsa Bloodstone. On another incident, the villainous time-travelling warlord Kang the Conqueror found himself in Avengers Campus.

Oogie Boogie Bash[]

One Halloween, the bogeyman, "Oogie Boogie" summoned various villainous entities to disperse across California. Amongst these were an alternate-universe zombie version of Captain America who terrorized the Avengers Headquarters, and the sorceress Agatha Harkness who would be drawn to the dark magics of the campus' sanctum.

Black Panther Celebration[]

When Princess Shuri became the new Black Panther (likely after the death of her predecessor T'Challa), a Wakandan celebration event was held in Avengers Campus. Here, M'Baku of the Jabari tribe would teach recruits in the way of his people, while a celebration garden was created to honour and mourn members of Wakanda's royal family.

Awesome Dance Off[]

By the time Groot regrew from a baby to an adult, Star-Lord had the Guardians return to the fortress to take back his boombox (though he did not tell Gamora this). Quill retrieved the boombox from a box outside of the fortress in Avengers Campus only for him and Gamora to realize that the Collector was tracking their body-heat signatures. Star-Lord then used the boombox to play music for nearby Terrans to dance to in order to overload the Collector's sensors while he and Gamora escaped.

Development history[]

Avengers Campus replaced A Bug's Land and portions of Hollywood Land (namely the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror) in Disney California Adventure.

Appearances and allusions[]

Avengers Campus (Disney's California Adventure)[]

The campus is the titular setting of this land.

Trivia[]

During the Spider-Man stunt-show, Spider-Man mentions being able to see, "The Rollercoaster"; referring to the IncrediCoaster of Pixar Pier. This might imply the campus is located geographically near the Pixar Pier/Paradise Pier.
The scrapyard mentioned on the campus' vintage map is a reference to the CarsLand attraction Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, located in the same location indicated on the map.
It is possible that the Walt Disney Studios Park show Avengers: Power the Night is actually set outside of the Californian Avengers Campus due to FRIDAY assembling recruits in the, "Production Courtyard", an area of the park set in Los Angeles with the show's centre-piece being the Hollywood Tower Hotel.
S. Sizemore Construction Inc. which built the Stark complex is a tribute to Imagineer Shelley Sizemore.

Gallery[]

References[]

[1] ttps://www.marvel.com/articles/culture-lifestyle/avengers-campus-history

[2] ttps://wdwnt.com/2022/02/photos-magic-key-holders-given-blueprint-of-stark-industries-campus/

[3] ttps://dlnewstoday.com/2019/08/photos-a-closer-look-at-avengers-campus-projects-coming-to-disney-parks-at-d23-expo-2019/

[4] ttps://www.laughingplace.com/w/news/2021/06/04/marvel-character-text-messages-at-avengers-campus/

[5] ttps://www.endorexpress.net/parks/disneyparks/2019/08/marvel-cinematic-universe-at-the-disney-parks-2020-and-beyond/

[6] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzQjUcdlv1c

[7] Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure

[8] PYM Test Kitchen

[9] ttps://wdwnt.com/2022/07/review-great-theming-but-mediocre-food-from-stark-factory-in-avengers-campus-at-walt-disney-studios-park/

[10] ttps://www.laughingplace.com/w/news/2022/06/30/disney-wish-youth-activities/

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