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Posted by Don MacPherson on March 9th, 2007
Mighty Avengers #1
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Frank Cho
Colors: Jason Keith
Letters: Dave Lanphear
Cover artists: Frank Cho (regular) & Leinil Yu (variant)
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99 US/$4.75 CAN
When I was a kid, it wasn’t long after I discovered the world of super-hero comics that I was drawn to the team books. I loved me them team books, even through my teens and into my adult years as a comics reader. I still love super-hero team books. I’m a sucker for a good team book. Unfortunately, Mighty Avengers #1 is not a good team book. It’s a good-looking super-hero comic, and Bendis’s story is fairly accessible. But in this first issue, the characters contradict themselves, react blindly for no good reason and speak to one another in such a high-speed, pitter-patter banter mode that it would give Aaron Sorkin a headache. There’s certainly some fun to be had here. Seeing the heroes take on giant monsters was amusing, and Bendis offers up an interesting take on Tony Stark. In the end, though, this new title reaches for the stars but fails to really take flight with its debut issue, and the cliffhanger doesn’t instill confidence regarding what’s to come.
Tony Stark, the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., selects Ms. Marvel to lead the New York-based team of Avengers, the top team in his initiative to establish government-sanctioned super-hero teams in all 50 states. Together, they set to the task of selecting their lineup, and they do so just in the nick of time. A legion of monsters erupts from beneath Manhattan. As the new team of Avengers — Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, the Wasp, Wonder Man, Sentry, Black Widow and Ares — does battle with the behemoths, Iron Man worries that there is a connection to bizarre atmospheric and geothermal events wreaking havoc the world over.
I think it was a mistake on Marvel’s part to release this book the same week as Captain America #25. Cap is garnering a lot more attention, and I suspect that as readers’ scramble to grab a copy of the death of a comic icon, this new Avengers launch will be eclipsed and even go unnoticed by a portion of the potential fanbase.
I think it’s safe to say that Frank Cho is best known in the industry as a cheesecake artist. Given that this lineup of Avengers features three female members, I was pleased to find that the T&A factor in their portrayal was not terribly overt or distracting. Where Cho really manages to turn heads is with his depiction of the uglier characters. His vision of the sort of monsters originally envisioned by Jack Kirby in Silver Age issues of Fantastic Four is appropriately immense and impressive but also playful and colorful. I didn’t much care for the two-page spreads that serve to introduce each new recruit; they’re far too busy, and images and text converge in a trying clutter. Jason Keith’s colors are vibrant and serve as an important cue that the reader can expect a lighter, super-hero romp from this book.
There is one visual in the book that’s far too gratuitous in terms of sexuality, but one can’t really blame the artist. Bendis, by retooling a classic Avengers villain as a shiny, naked woman, is clearly writing to Cho’s “strengths,” but it’s terribly obvious and completely unnecessary.
There’s a solid bit of dialogue early on in the book in which Iron Man explains to Ms. Marvel that the lineup should be a diverse one, that a team of powerhouses wouldn’t be equipped to handle more delicate, sensitive situations. It makes a lot of sense, which makes it all the more frustrating that this new roster consists of five powerhouses and a couple of other heroines. It’s also disappointing to see the heroes take so long to figure out that the Mole Man is behind the monster mash. Any reader with the slightest familiarity with the villain can see it right away; it makes no sense that experienced heroes are so slow on the uptake.
There are a couple of elements here that I find intriguing. Ares’s inclusion is interesting, and it’s nice to see someone picking up on the strong work that Michael Avon Oeming and Travel Foreman did on the 2005 Ares limited series. I also liked Bendis’s script for Stark’s thought-processes. It figures that a genius of his level would have multiple trains of thought and codes running through his head at any given moment. But the rest of the script isn’t nearly as clever, though Bendis certainly strives to make it so. The back-and-forth between Stark and Ms. Marvel is so frenzied that it seems impossible that the characters would even have a chance to consider what they’re saying, hearing and thinking. Furthermore, the only members with a clear motive for joining are Stark, Ms. Marvel and Ares. The others seem to be there because, well, they were Avengers before and gosh darn it, they like it.
From a marketing perspective, Mighty Avengers faces another challenge. Of its seven members, only one — Iron Man — is any kind of an icon or name brand. If this is meant to stand up as a major Marvel team (or even the Marvel team), there need to be more familiar figures with which more casual comics readers or newer ones can connect. 4/10
March 9th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Bendis is going to have to pull out all his bag of tricks to make this work. There really isn’t one character on this roster that I can get behind and trying to sell us Ares as some kind of Wolverine is a really tough one for me. I know Wolverine, and you Ares, are no Wolverine.
March 9th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Stutron wrote:
There really isn’t one character on this roster that I can get behind and trying to sell us Ares as some kind of Wolverine is a really tough one for me. I know Wolverine, and you Ares, are no Wolverine.
The Oeming-penned Ares limited series actually brought considerable depth to the character, and with any luck, Bendis will capitalize on that work.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Once again, Don, I’ll say that you have a great site. But once again, I’ve gotta say that I disagree.
I really thought that this was a great first issue. It’s so radically different in tone then New Avengers, it’s hard to believe that it was written by the same writer. I personally loved the return of the thought balloons and I love that Bendis is trying to do something different with his writing.
This book is an old school approach set in an entirely modern (maybe postmodern) world. In a strange way, it almost reminded my of the Milligan/Allred X-Force or X-Statix with the action and breezy (but spot-on) characterization. And for the most part, that’s a GOOD thing, at least to me.
We get to see the motivations of Stark, Ms. Marvel, and Ares, and while you’re right that we don’t see the motivations for the others yet, I don’t think it’s necessary that we see it in the first issue. Give it some time. Meltzer is halfway through his JLA run and the team is barely together.
Cho’s art naturally runs towards the cheesecake so I get the motivation behind a female Ultron. But George Perez did it first with Jocasta.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Lou wrote:
Once again, Don, I’ll say that you have a great site. But once again, I’ve gotta say that I disagree.
No worries.
Cho’s art naturally runs towards the cheesecake so I get the motivation behind a female Ultron. But George Perez did it first with Jocasta.
Well, there’s a big difference between Perez’s robotic design for Jocasta and the naked shiny chick at the end of this issue. Worlds of difference.
Also, remember, there’s already been another female Ultron: Alkhema.
March 10th, 2007 at 8:54 am
Enjoyed this issue. Not a classic by any means but enough in it to get me to come back for issue 2. Ares could be a very interesting addition and Cho’s depiction of the Black Widow in action was really good. Bendis will have to work really hard to make sure that Mighty Avengers is different enough to New Avengers for readers. Can understand the need for another Avengers title but would’ve liked someone else to be writing it to give it a different perspective.
March 10th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
There are days (moments?) when I truly adore BMB’s dialogue, but lately I get the feeling he’s like a musician caught in his own free-form jazz solo, oblivious anything else except his own riffs … and the audience is starting to fidget.
March 10th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Am I the only one who found it strange that the Avengers killed those monsters so cheerfully? Isn’t that a little out of character for there to have been that much killing? I know it was only a bunch of monsters, but that still seemed strange. And what was with the Wasp flying right through that monster’s head? I didn’t realize she could fly through things. That was like something straight out of The Authority. Was she using her energy blasts to drill through? Would it have killed them to throw a little energy effect in there? I’ve been nitpicking a lot lately, but these are really obvious things.
I dig Ares.
March 10th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
John wrote:
And what was with the Wasp flying right through that monster’s head? I didn’t realize she could fly through things. That was like something straight out of The Authority. Was she using her energy blasts to drill through? Would it have killed them to throw a little energy effect in there?
I just assumed the monster’s head was made of pudding.
March 11th, 2007 at 7:13 am
dig jack donelly’s free jazz analogy – nice!
after all the nitpicking – i thought mighty avengers was quite good! and totally agree with john foley, ares is… well he’s a god isn’t he? cool site BTW
March 11th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I suppose those little parentheticals in the word ballons are the improved thought balloons Joe Q bragged about. Yuck, it really made the reading confusing in those three panels, what the rest of the book must be like.
Tony has always wanted to control the Avengers fully, blame democracy got in the way. In fact he has done this before in terms of having a female leader and sitting on high. Scarlett Witch lead Force Works and had Tony always pushing her aside and horning in on the leading. Bendis is really good at taking these elements and rewriting stories, so it should do well for those that have not read much Marvel.
Good job as always!
March 12th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
“From a marketing perspective, Mighty Avengers faces another challenge. Of its seven members, only one — Iron Man — is any kind of an icon or name brand. If this is meant to stand up as a major Marvel team (or even the Marvel team), there need to be more familiar figures with which more casual comics readers or newer ones can connect.”
Uhm, no offense, but the Avengers line-up before Disassembled used to change almost every 12-24 issues. They’ve had so many B-listers it’s crazy. So this comment, while cute, is sort of misplaced when talking about the Avengers. Most of the original classic Avengers haven’t been an Avenger for years [or decades in real time].
A healthy dose of reality is needed.
March 12th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
KG wrote:
Uhm, no offense, but the Avengers line-up before Disassembled used to change almost every 12-24 issues. They’ve had so many B-listers it’s crazy. So this comment, while cute, is sort of misplaced when talking about the Avengers. Most of the original classic Avengers haven’t been an Avenger for years [or decades in real time].
Yes, B-listers have been mainstays, but my point was that the team needs more than one A-list member. Furthermore, describing my comment as “cute” is rude and dismissive. Just because there have been Avengers lineups with as many B-listers in the past doesn’t make this new title any more marketable.
March 12th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Well, I find it interesting that one of the main criticisms of New Avengers when it first debuted was that it was just an excuse for Marvel to throw their “big guns” Spider-Man and Wolverine into a team book where they didn’t belong. Now, we get an Avengers book where every member of the team (excusing Ares) has been an Avenger before and the first criticism is that it doesn’t have any icons.
Bendis has a history of taking second and third-tier characters and breathing new life into them (Luke Cage, Jessica Drew, Scott Lang Ant Man even). Wasp, Wonder Man, et. al have been sitting on the sidelines for a couple of years now and I’m willing to give him a chance and see what can be done.
I enjoyed Bendis’ characterization of the Wasp in the few scenes she had during the “childbirth” arc in the Pulse, loved what he did with Black Widow in Daredevil, and I’m interested to see what he can do with Wonder Man. Excluding the Black Widow minis (which were excellent), no one else has had any success with these characters in years (the PAD Wonder Man mini is/was awful).
March 12th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Lou wrote:
Well, I find it interesting that one of the main criticisms of New Avengers when it first debuted was that it was just an excuse for Marvel to throw their “big guns” Spider-Man and Wolverine into a team book where they didn’t belong. Now, we get an Avengers book where every member of the team (excusing Ares) has been an Avenger before and the first criticism is that it doesn’t have any icons.
But there’s no denying that the mix of those icons — Spidey, Wolverine, Cap and Iron Man — made for a winning combination. That’s why I’m surprised Bendis and Marvel have ignored that formula with this spinoff.
March 13th, 2007 at 5:31 am
Don, you are right in your review that it was frustrating how Iron Man shot down Ms. Marvel’s “powerhouse” idea, and ended up picking mostly powerhouses anyway using a “we need the best previous Avengers, and a Wolverine and a Thor” method. If Iron Man and Ms. Marvel wanted to assemble a true team of diverse Avengers, they would probably be much more objective and calculating. Not just saying we need “a Wolverine and a Thor” idea, but who has the intelligence, the diversity of powers to handle a variety of situations, and the sheer physical strength. When Iron Man mentioned that he would bring in She-Hulk and Vision to take down Ares if he needed to, a lightbulb went off in my head. Why not bring in the Vision! A classic, reliable Avenger who has the useful ability to phase and access computers on top of Tony Stark. Why not bring in She-hulk with useful legal skills, super-strength, and experience? Why not bring in Warlock from the Young Avengers, with his powerful magical abilities? Besides that Tony has failed to consider the iconic factor involved with any team of Avengers.
Also, the crop of heroes that Bendis has chosen all are pretty flat in the personality department, which hurts the “team dynamic” that he mentioned before. Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man have always seemed vanilla to me, Black Widow is the sexy Russian that rarely speaks, Ares is a barely known tough guy, Wasp is the ditzy but serious when she has to be socialite, Sentry is a modest basketcase, and Iron Man is a technical master but way overexposed in the past few months. Say what you will about whether Luke Cage and Spider-man as street heroes really fit into the Avengers, but they had witty dialogue and sparks of personality. I don’t see the same here in this new group (except possibly with Jan). I wonder how long Bendis can restrain himself, before he has the heroes start to speak out of character in his patented snappy patter.
Sigh.
March 14th, 2007 at 4:52 am
I loved this issue. Throughout the book I was reminded of one of my favorite team books – the original Giffen/Dematteis/Maguire Justice League. A team of lesser known second-stringers lead by Batman and J’onn Jonzz. Marvel’s also been positioning Ms. Marvel as their big iconic female superhero for the last couple of years, so it makes sense to have her in that role, here.
While there’s some truth to the criticism that we don’t know much about the motivation for some of the characters to join, I think this issue was actually full of moments for each of the characters. You’ve got Iron Man, the hero who’s perceived by some as a villain, Ms. Marvel, stepping up to a leadership position, while being challenged by the person who put her in that position. The Sentry, a somewhat unbalanced hero who wants to do the right thing and be accepted, but who everybody’s afraid of. Black Widow, who is cool,efficient, and seems to have captured the attention of Ares, Wonder Man, smacked down twice in the same fight, something that’s sure to become an issue down the road, given his history of insecurity. The Wasp, who’s a contrast between her ditzy persona, and her skill and experience. And Ares, in the Hawkeye/Wolverine role of challenging Tony’s authority at every turn.
All of that without even getting to the art, which might be the best of Cho’s career.
I love reading your reviews, Don, but I respectfully disagree.
June 4th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
This was a good read. I enjoyed Ms. Marvel’s struggle with leading a group of veteran and powerful capes (Some of them A-types). Keeping the reigns on Ares is no easy feat! She must deal with not only the comments and complaints of others, but with her own fears about failing in her mission. The use of thought balloons is a great vehicle for sharing the inner struggles/thoughts of each member.