Review by Ian Keogh
A couple of years before Jed MacKay became writer of the regular Avengers series he came up with Mech Strike. Under other circumstances, who wouldn’t want to see the idea of the Avengers in mechanical armoured suits? Well, Iron Man already is, but now he’s in an even bigger one. This, though is a toy tie-in, designed to promote a line of Hasbro designs unlikely to be seen in any regular continuity, and let’s be honest, comics don’t have a great record of quality when it comes to toy tie-ins (although some Transformers fans may beg to differ). MacKay might just change your mind.
In the opening chapter the Avengers confront a device that pulls items from its surroundings that it modifies to create itself a body, and then that body grows. All the Avengers can determine is that the initial device is man-made, but using technology beyond even Tony Stark’s capacity to reverse engineer. It almost defeats the Avengers first time out, and there are more of the devices out there.
Because they’re rather cramped when squashed into the cover illustration, the sample art supplies the full Biomechanoid Response Unit designs from Carlos Magno (Stark in-story) tailored to individual Avengers. Just in case you’re wondering, it’s a project Stark had been working on for some while, and this is the threat rendering use necessary. And it might not be obvious that the person at the bottom of the page is the Black Widow.
Magno certainly delivers the power of the Avengers with or without the suits, and his art is otherwise incredibly detailed. He relishes noodling away at the tech aspects, wires and lights planted all over, and when seen in full they’re magnificent creations, yet Magno still keeps the heroes defined.
What seems at first to be a gimmick to sell some toys becomes an Avengers epic as MacKay has the biomechanoid threats manifest again and again. Fifty days later the Avengers know little more than they knew on day one, yet the threats keep recurring. Long time Avengers readers may have an idea who’s responsible, as the clues are there, but if not, all is revealed to end the second chapter, and the villain’s reasoning becomes clear. Even that’s not the whole story, as the villain’s not completely considered the possibilities of what they’ve unleashed, and it moves beyond their control. MacKay involves others commensurate with the threat and one in particular is brilliantly characterised.
While there’s really no great need for the mech suits, they look good, and on this basis it’s easy to see why MacKay was next in line to take on the regular Avengers series. Mech Strike is big, bold and brash.
