Review by Ian Keogh
Dan Slott’s team of Avengers picks up right after the events of Secret Invasion, with the Skrulls impersonating many heroes, and reaches to Siege, which proves the end of Norman Osborn’s run in charge of American security. As part of that role he’s assembled his own team of ‘official’ Avengers, actually villains in the costumes of heroes, and much of the Mighty Avengers’ time is spent annoying him.
Slott’s Avengers consist of the misfits and outsiders from the team’s history coming together under the guidance of founding Avenger Hank Pym, all of them with something to prove. It’s Pym’s arc that dominates, though. Starting at the low point just after his former wife’s death, adopting her alias of the Wasp for his shrinking heroics at first suggests a loose screw, and it’s not as if Pym hasn’t experienced mental health issues in the past. However, this is a redemption story overall, with Slott dazzling in displaying what a scientific genius is capable of, not least a new Avengers HQ stretching into infinity yet accessible from anywhere.
The bulk of the artwork is supplied by Khoi Pham, who’s frustrating for lacking consistency. The three chapters of the team coming together fail to maximise the visual possibilities, as does the sequence where Pym’s Avengers meet the team led by Osborn. On the other hand, his final chapters featuring the return of Ultron and assorted scientific trickery are visually imaginative and sell the idea of a genius vs malign AI, while he also shines when the Avengers take on a planet-threatening Inhuman. Most of the other artists look better for being more consistent, although Sean Chen is strangely lacklustre.
Slott’s writing always has a comedic element to the dialogue, picked up well by Christos Gage when he scripts a sequence, and is characterised most of all for the creativity applied to what can be achieved with super powers. Time and again he’ll surprise with the possibilities, even with characters who’ve been around for decades. Pym’s the defining character, but over 16 chapters there are fine moments for Loki, Stature, Osborn, Hercules, and particularly Quicksilver, whose established hubris is a gift to Slott. There’s a wonderful moment where he has everyone else fooled, but can’t fool his estranged daughter.
The initial sequence of the team coming together is a little bumpy and overcrowded, but past that pretty well everything is imaginative and enjoyable.
As part of the run Slott devised a new team of global protectors, and missing from individual paperback collections Earth’s Mightiest, The Unspoken and Siege is a selection of two page stories featuring their paired operatives Blackjack. They’re violent fun nicely drawn by Pete Woods, and also available in this collection’s hardcover iteration The Mighty Avengers: Dark Reign.
