Al Ewing and Greg Land made an outstanding opening statement with Mighty Avengers issue #1, and their follow up attack is more of the same. Greg land continues to deliver on pencils despite what his detractors would say. The diverse group of characters comes to life on the page with Land’s restless style – which is perfect for the electric dialogue provided by Ewing. Al is extremely humble on his Twitter feed. He was handed “yet another” Avengers book and has made it intriguing to anyone suffering from event fatigue. The story is bigger than life, the characters are compelling and funny, the stakes couldn’t be higher, and there’s still a nunchaku wielding neon Spider-man.
Despite being an Infinity cross-over, Mighty Avengers is easily read as a standalone. Despite that, in Marvel style, it still fills you in on what’s going on over in the main Marvel Now event. It’s refreshing that this rag-tag bunch of super-heroes gets to take on Thanos and his minions but it’s a treat when the Watcher shows up in this comic just one week after appearing over in Guardians of The Galaxy.
The book starts with Dr. Strange being manipulated by Thanos’ Knight Maw into performing dark magic against his will. We then meet up with the latest member to make an appearance, The Blue Marvel. He responds to the attack on New York because it’s a “level 7” and his monitoring system has only ever seen a level 4. While he speeds towards New York, things get out of hand and our Mighty Avengers are taking a beating. That’s when something beautiful happens and the citizens of New York call on the Avengers to assemble. Proving they may be down but not out, this new Avengers team still led by Luke Cage, gives the beating right back.
Al Ewing has been very vocal about his passion for this book and these characters. When I asked him over Twitter why he was so excited about the Mighty Avengers, he answered me very succinctly tweeting, “It’s fun super heroics with a communitarian streak. It’s the people’s Avengers. This first arc, I get to lay out those concepts.” The community aspect he was talking about comes through clearly in this issue. The heart of this book really is the about the people’s Avengers, and that’s what makes it so good.
To keep the conversation going, follow Al Ewing on Twitter @Al_Ewing and Me, Mark Avo @MarkAvo.