MOSCOW, July 9 (RAPSI) – The Russian telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor will analyze Marvel’s The Avengers comics for incitement of violence and acts of cruelty at the request of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Media, Izvestia newspaper writes on Wednesday, citing a source at the press and mass media agency.

The agency “has made a request for a review of the children’s magazine The Avengers, issue #1 for August 2014, designed for middle school age children, regarding the use of Soviet symbols, the presentation of the characters as Russian service personnel, and the incitement of violence and cruelty,” the press and mass media agency wrote in its letter.

According to Izvestia, the request was likely filed because one of the characters, Vanguard (Krasnogvardeets in the Russian version), has the Soviet symbol – the hammer and sickle – on his breastplate. Vanguard is affiliated with the Winter Guard: three human mutants and a bear, a group of superheroes based in Russia. When the Avengers ask who they are, Vanguard answers: “We are servicemen for the Russian Federation.”

The Avengers is a popular Marvel comic about a group of superheroes and has been turned into a movie. Other Marvel comics that have become movies are The Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America.