Review by Ian Keogh

Without the context of the times it now seems bonkers that Norman Osborn once headed the US national defence administration, and did so very publicly as Iron Patriot, leading a team of dubious Avengers masquerading as the real articles. As such, he’s not very happy at the attention Hank Pym’s Avengers team are attracting, and unaware he’s being guided into decisions by Loki, who’s also manipulating the Avengers. That sets up most of Siege without having to read The Unspoken.

Conceptually and accounting for the surprises, this is the best of Slott’s Avengers. It’s packed with original ideas about how assorted characters can use their super powers and talents, and also how some are restricted. The Absorbing Man can absorb any substance he touches, so what if he touched a Cosmic Cube, a device able to alter reality? The newly confident Pym’s genius is given full flight, and if the prospect of his Avengers against Osborn’s Avengers wasn’t thrilling enough, there’s the return of arch-enemy Ultron. Even butler Jarvis preparing breakfast for the Avengers involves an interesting use of possibilities.

Khoi Pham draws four of the five chapters, and is frustrating. On the first two he fails to maximise the visual possibilities of what’s going and in the final two he’s really good in supplying a largely abstract realm and puts a lot of work into drawing multiple versions of the same character. On the remaining story Neil Edwards has a more consistent idea of the power and presence a superhero story needs.

Toward the end a few pages segue into events of the Siege crossover, but if there were any doubt Slott’s focus was on Pym, he prioritises a threat unconnected with Earth’s superheroes invading Asgard. It’s clever, in effect a good Pym solo story, and ties up some loose ends.

These days Slott’s Mighty Avengers is best read as a combined volume collecting everything, either as Mighty Avengers: Dark Reign, or subsequently as Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott: The Complete Collection.