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One of my biggest complaints about Marvel's recent Avengers comics is that they've gotten too big. And I don't mean that in a successful way, because that's awesome. More comics selling well is good for the industry, right? However, as much as I enjoy Jonathan Hickman's Avengers, they're almost too sprawling, with too much going on. Especially with the recent Infinity crossover storyline, it took three titles coming out biweekly to capture the entire story, and STILL it felt like I was being overwhelmed with details and too much going on.
Fortunately, Marvel does once in awhile get the idea of diversity, in more ways than one. They realise if they have a successful franchise and they add more titles, it is to their benefit to at least try and do different things to get different audiences with the same name.
So that brings us to Mighty Avengers, their latest attempt at cashing in on their wildly successful Avengers brand. And this time around, they decided to back away from the gigantic "Avengers World" concepts and cosmic battles and multiversal catastrophes of Hickman's main titles.
Which is, quite frankly, a breath of fresh air. The team is made up of largely street-level heroes from Luke Cage, to Iron Fist, She-Hulk, White Tiger, Photon and others. Spider-Man showed up for a few issues, but the Doctor Octopus possessed Peter Parker didn't play well with his pals, so he buggered off back to his own title.
They so far haven't dealt with gigantic threats, so far taking care of the Infinity crossover stomping through the streets of Manhattan, the fallout of that, and a few personal issues cropping up. The book operates on a much more personal level, and I hesitate to say anything like they're dealing with more street level crime, because there was the giant hovering Inhuman city of Attilan crashing into the bay, and a few cosmic threats, but for the most part yeah, we're talking a more street level view of things.
I am loving this book. Al Ewing has crafted a believable reason for these characters to come together and be Avengers, and while the cast largely reads like this should be a Heroes for Hire team, he just as wisely realises that, and has the team start out that way. Not until a threat shows up demanding the Avenegers face them, does Luke basically say, "Okay, fine, you want Avengers? Here we are, let's punch."
Also worthy of note, which may have been noticed from whom is on the team, is that Mighty Avengers has one of the most racially diverse casts in Marvel Comics, with almost every character being a person of colour, save for Iron Fist and She-Hulk. Insert jokes about She-Hulk's colour being green at your own risk. The book got blasted for being unrealistically diverse, but any book featuring wider casts can only be good for an industry seen as overly white and male. So yeah, this book gets diversity of ideas and cast as big old pluses from me.
Ewing nails the family aspect of the team, which is helped by Luke being married with a kid, and a number of the other members being friends and protégés. They have a friendly camaraderie and banter amongst them that keeps things light, even when the city is being destroyed by Thanos and his minions.
The biggest stumbling block for the book is that Greg Land is the regular artist. Now, for myself, I don't have a problem here. I like Land. Sure, he traces some of his own work, and uses inspiration from other sources, but often appropriately so. Maybe too much sure, but I think he has too much of a hatred against him in the community for doing things every artist does, but doing it in an overly obvious way. Well, overly obvious when you have hundreds of thousands of people all picking over every last panel to find where he traced them from. That's like plugging thousands of computers together to solve a problem, of course they reach it faster. And more angrily because it's the internet.
But I digress. You either like Land or you don't, but I will say that even here, his art is better than usual. He seems to be doing less tracing, things feel more natural and appropriate emotions are being used. If Greg is keeping you from buying this book, you should at least try an issue. You might just be surprised.
Mighty instantly became one of my fave Avengers titles, and easily competes right up against Hickman's books. The flavours of stories are completely different, but still very Avengers. Mighty feels more like old-school, classic Avengers in all the best ways, and I am glad there is a book out there catering to that core of fandom. If you're hankering for something a little more street level, and a little less epicly cosmic war mongering, Mighty Avengers is a great book to try out. With most storylines being short or single issues so far, it is also easy to try out and not feel too lost. Give a title with great writing, and a racially diverse cast a chance, because the industry simply needs more books like this.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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