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Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes II #1-8
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes II
Goliath! The Wasp! Hawkeye! The Black Panther! The Vision! They are... Earth's Mightiest Heroes?! A second look into the history of the Avengers begins as a new team rises to supplant the original legends - and these members must prove their worth all over again. Can Goliath withstand the pressures of leadership? Can the Black Panther reconcile his duties as both king and Avenger? Can Hawkeye survive his own dysfunctional love life? And will the public ever accept the Vision as a hero? An all-new, previously untold adventure featuring the mostly unlikely Avengers lineup of all! Collects Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes II #1-8.
188 pages, Hardcover
First published August 22, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 1, 2018
1.5 stars... I guess?
I didn't really like anything about this. T'Challa was in Stand By Me, Clint called Black Panther Bagheera and Jarvis' two minutes were okay. This was just terrible and when it wasn't terrible, it was boring.
To preface: I don't like Hank Pym. I'm not getting into the broad debate for why most people don't like him, just going by this book alone, he's a complete prick. He's a dick to Jan who's just there to be protective and caring towards him despite the fact that he treats her like shit. He's annoyingly self-entitled, rude to just about everyone and he refuses to listen to just about everyone in this book. So, when he's the biggest character in this volume... you understand why I was seriously disappointed. He's having some sort of psychotic break in this book and I just didn't want to read about it.
There wasn't enough of Hawkeye or T'Challa to salvage this for me. Cap and Iron Man are barely here. Wanda and Pietro are gone. Basically they didn't do anything great with the line up they had here, the writing for the inner city kids was painfully bad, this plot was just hard to read because good god, if this was a complete rehash of an actual plot, the original writers owe Janet van Dyne an apology.
So, yeah, not a recommend. Not at all.
1.5 stars.
I didn't really like anything about this. T'Challa was in Stand By Me, Clint called Black Panther Bagheera and Jarvis' two minutes were okay. This was just terrible and when it wasn't terrible, it was boring.
To preface: I don't like Hank Pym. I'm not getting into the broad debate for why most people don't like him, just going by this book alone, he's a complete prick. He's a dick to Jan who's just there to be protective and caring towards him despite the fact that he treats her like shit. He's annoyingly self-entitled, rude to just about everyone and he refuses to listen to just about everyone in this book. So, when he's the biggest character in this volume... you understand why I was seriously disappointed. He's having some sort of psychotic break in this book and I just didn't want to read about it.
There wasn't enough of Hawkeye or T'Challa to salvage this for me. Cap and Iron Man are barely here. Wanda and Pietro are gone. Basically they didn't do anything great with the line up they had here, the writing for the inner city kids was painfully bad, this plot was just hard to read because good god, if this was a complete rehash of an actual plot, the original writers owe Janet van Dyne an apology.
So, yeah, not a recommend. Not at all.
1.5 stars.
February 6, 2021
Well then, that was one of the stranger Avengers comics I've read in a while. Taking place at a time when the original members are leaving and a "new" team is put into place. These Avengers are led by Chairman Pym, now calling himself Goliath. This is the time frame where the Vision just joins the Avengers and isn't popular with the public, nor with the Government.
The volume revolves around the story of capturing the Super Adaptoid. The story really begins to get weird when Pym fights a bunch of Super Adaptoids and snaps. He starts calling himself Yellowjacket and decides to "marry" the Wasp. For some inexplicable reason, the Avengers listen to the SHIELD head shrinker and play along. We even have a moronic scene where a bunch of other heroes are invited to a wedding..of Wasp with Yellowjacket, even though she's already married to him . No one, in a house full of heroes, seems to notice, nor ask why Wasp was marrying someone else. WTF? Oh and some clown crew attacks the Avengers at that moment.
Oh there is another side story with the Black Panther choosing to be a High school teach. Um what? It's hardly "out of character" since Ta'challa is already parading around the UN without his mask on...oh never mind. Anyways, BLack Panther befriends a troubled inner city youth while dodging attacks from the White Tiger assassin. At some point the assassin attacks Black Panther in his teacher persona and the youth shoots him with a gun. For some reason Black Panther leaves the kid at the police station with some weird speech about paying the price? Um? What price? For shotting an assassin who was standing over his teacher with a knife? Yeah? What's he being charged with?
A VERY odd issue. Wasn't terrible, just made me wonder what is going on. These Avengers, honestly, are not impressive.
The volume revolves around the story of capturing the Super Adaptoid. The story really begins to get weird when Pym fights a bunch of Super Adaptoids and snaps. He starts calling himself Yellowjacket and decides to "marry" the Wasp. For some inexplicable reason, the Avengers listen to the SHIELD head shrinker and play along. We even have a moronic scene where a bunch of other heroes are invited to a wedding..of Wasp with Yellowjacket, even though she's already married to him . No one, in a house full of heroes, seems to notice, nor ask why Wasp was marrying someone else. WTF? Oh and some clown crew attacks the Avengers at that moment.
Oh there is another side story with the Black Panther choosing to be a High school teach. Um what? It's hardly "out of character" since Ta'challa is already parading around the UN without his mask on...oh never mind. Anyways, BLack Panther befriends a troubled inner city youth while dodging attacks from the White Tiger assassin. At some point the assassin attacks Black Panther in his teacher persona and the youth shoots him with a gun. For some reason Black Panther leaves the kid at the police station with some weird speech about paying the price? Um? What price? For shotting an assassin who was standing over his teacher with a knife? Yeah? What's he being charged with?
A VERY odd issue. Wasn't terrible, just made me wonder what is going on. These Avengers, honestly, are not impressive.
May 4, 2022
big meh for me, the last 2-3 issues made it better but still pretty eh
March 8, 2018
Okay story, but not really that impressed..
September 22, 2016
Very inspirational and fun tale of the Avenger's foundation. It was quite the struggle and as Captain America says in New Avengers, almost a fateful meeting. Its fun to see how all the different personalities join together to make the team.
Read
March 19, 2025I was mixed on the first Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes miniseries (AEMH hereafter) and its sequel leaves me even less enthusiastic.
The first miniseries revisits early 60s Avengers (specifically Avengers #1 - 16 by Kirby/Heck/Lee). The Avengers book was still finding its footing early on, and AEMH retells these classic stories with an emphasis on their dramatic through line.
The sequel AEMH miniseries focuses on a later period for the title, around Avengers #59 - 60. By this point, writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema had hit their stide in a classic run with consistently entertaining stories. However, Thomas had developed a tendency to suddenly pick up and drop subplots. By revisiting this era in AEMH, writer Joe Casey and artist Wil Rosado seem to have a goal of fleshing out these half-developed subplots.
Most of all, Casey/Rosado are focused on bringing some sense to Thomas/Buscema's original Yellowjacket story. In the original plot, Hank Pym spills gases in his lab and falls victim to "accident-induced schizophrenia." This brings out his id, which takes the form of the egomaniacal Yellowjacket persona. In a new costume, Yellowjacket demands membership to the Avengers and brags about killing Hank Pym (without realizing he himself is Hank Pym). Janet Van Dyne, Hank's longtime girlfriend, catches on and convinces Yellowjacket to quickly marry her, which Hank had previously been too timid to do. After the wedding, Yellowjacket recovers from his schizophrenia and reveals to the Avengers that he was Hank all along.
The story is absurd and nearly nonsensical, making it one of my favorites of the era. While Thomas plays it off as a one-time gag for Hank, later writers would recontextualize this story as an early sign of the character's serious mental health problems. In AEMH, Casey and Rosado iron out the kinks of the Yellowjacket story to offer its definitive version "in continuity." The updated version of events depicts the anxieties that lead to Hank's breakdown. The Avengers immediately recognize Hank as Yellowjacket (why wouldn't they?) but play along with him to avoid further mental decline. Rather than a trick to get Hank to finally marry her, Janet sets up the wedding in an effort to reach Hank under his Yellowjacket persona. With these updates, the classic story nearly makes sense if you squint hard enough.
Hank's characterization is easily the best aspect of this series. Its most compelling sequence focuses on the stress Hank faces as team leader when the Avengers fight Super Adaptoids on AIM Island (which is a fun new adventure that the creators insert into continuity). While the original story distances readers from Hank, the update in AEMH gives us insight into how he feels during his breakdown.
Unfortunately, AEMH doesn't transcend the misogyny latent in the classic comics. Janet faints twice out of shock and comes off as irrational in her sudden decision to marry Yellowjacket. Her relationship with Hank is hard to read, a quality shared with Casey's scripting of Hawkeye and Black Widow's breakup. While this couple splits off-panel in the Thomas/Buscema run, Casey/Rosado choose to depict their separation on page instead. These scenes are a drag and I can't help but feel it was better left off-page.
The miniseries's biggest misfire is Casey/Rosado's attempt to flesh out T'Challa's decision to become a teacher in an inner-city school. This subplot doesn't make a lick of sense in the original comics and it doesn't make a lick of sense here either. Marvel should have hired a person of color to tackle this subject. Casey gives it an honest shot but something feels off about a white guy writing a relatively privileged African king lecturing a class of Harlem students on global history.
All things considered, what I've described so far sounds like a decently entertaining if flawed miniseries. This sequel suffers from similar problems as the first - drawn out conversations, a longer length than necessary - but with the masterful Scott Kolins on art, it could have been in the same ballpark of quality as its predecessor.
Unfortunately, Kolins doesn't return for the sequel and Will Rosado steps in instead to deliver professional but frankly lifeless pencils. Rosado's character acting is stiff - I was frequently left asking what a facial expression is meant to convey. Likewise, the action is stiff. This is most obvious in a battle between Black Panther and a would-be assassin. In this nearly silent scene, Rosado has a full stage to make the action shine. But the figures lack dynamism and the choreography is dull. I frequently found myself skimming past the art to quickly read Casey's dialogue instead.
Ultimately, Rosado's main problem is his work pales in comparison to John Buscema, who draws the source material. Rosado strives for a "classic" superhero style similar to Buscema, but the latter's sense of drama and grasp of the human figure is difficult to beat. The original Yellowjacket story is so much more visually compelling than this revision. I can't help but feel this miniseries would have benefited from a totally distinct artist who doesn't invite comparison to Buscema. In the first AEMH book, Kolins is different enough from Kirby and Heck, the artists of the comics he was revisiting, that his work stands entirely on its own.
Wil Quintana's colors do few favors to Rosado's pencils. Quintana struggles in choosing coherent color pallettes, especially among scenes set in broad daylight. The darker scenes are better, but largely because Quintana can disguise his shortcomings in color selection. His gradients are often haphazard and distracting. The one positive about this book's art is the linework by longtime Avengers inker Tom Palmer. While this isn't the best work of his career, I always appreciate when his brushes grace a page.
All in all, this second AEMH series is a wash, largely due to the flat artwork and attempts to revisit old subplots that didn't need revisiting. Dave Johnson's stunning covers are the only real reason to buy these comics.
The first miniseries revisits early 60s Avengers (specifically Avengers #1 - 16 by Kirby/Heck/Lee). The Avengers book was still finding its footing early on, and AEMH retells these classic stories with an emphasis on their dramatic through line.
The sequel AEMH miniseries focuses on a later period for the title, around Avengers #59 - 60. By this point, writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema had hit their stide in a classic run with consistently entertaining stories. However, Thomas had developed a tendency to suddenly pick up and drop subplots. By revisiting this era in AEMH, writer Joe Casey and artist Wil Rosado seem to have a goal of fleshing out these half-developed subplots.
Most of all, Casey/Rosado are focused on bringing some sense to Thomas/Buscema's original Yellowjacket story. In the original plot, Hank Pym spills gases in his lab and falls victim to "accident-induced schizophrenia." This brings out his id, which takes the form of the egomaniacal Yellowjacket persona. In a new costume, Yellowjacket demands membership to the Avengers and brags about killing Hank Pym (without realizing he himself is Hank Pym). Janet Van Dyne, Hank's longtime girlfriend, catches on and convinces Yellowjacket to quickly marry her, which Hank had previously been too timid to do. After the wedding, Yellowjacket recovers from his schizophrenia and reveals to the Avengers that he was Hank all along.
The story is absurd and nearly nonsensical, making it one of my favorites of the era. While Thomas plays it off as a one-time gag for Hank, later writers would recontextualize this story as an early sign of the character's serious mental health problems. In AEMH, Casey and Rosado iron out the kinks of the Yellowjacket story to offer its definitive version "in continuity." The updated version of events depicts the anxieties that lead to Hank's breakdown. The Avengers immediately recognize Hank as Yellowjacket (why wouldn't they?) but play along with him to avoid further mental decline. Rather than a trick to get Hank to finally marry her, Janet sets up the wedding in an effort to reach Hank under his Yellowjacket persona. With these updates, the classic story nearly makes sense if you squint hard enough.
Hank's characterization is easily the best aspect of this series. Its most compelling sequence focuses on the stress Hank faces as team leader when the Avengers fight Super Adaptoids on AIM Island (which is a fun new adventure that the creators insert into continuity). While the original story distances readers from Hank, the update in AEMH gives us insight into how he feels during his breakdown.
Unfortunately, AEMH doesn't transcend the misogyny latent in the classic comics. Janet faints twice out of shock and comes off as irrational in her sudden decision to marry Yellowjacket. Her relationship with Hank is hard to read, a quality shared with Casey's scripting of Hawkeye and Black Widow's breakup. While this couple splits off-panel in the Thomas/Buscema run, Casey/Rosado choose to depict their separation on page instead. These scenes are a drag and I can't help but feel it was better left off-page.
The miniseries's biggest misfire is Casey/Rosado's attempt to flesh out T'Challa's decision to become a teacher in an inner-city school. This subplot doesn't make a lick of sense in the original comics and it doesn't make a lick of sense here either. Marvel should have hired a person of color to tackle this subject. Casey gives it an honest shot but something feels off about a white guy writing a relatively privileged African king lecturing a class of Harlem students on global history.
All things considered, what I've described so far sounds like a decently entertaining if flawed miniseries. This sequel suffers from similar problems as the first - drawn out conversations, a longer length than necessary - but with the masterful Scott Kolins on art, it could have been in the same ballpark of quality as its predecessor.
Unfortunately, Kolins doesn't return for the sequel and Will Rosado steps in instead to deliver professional but frankly lifeless pencils. Rosado's character acting is stiff - I was frequently left asking what a facial expression is meant to convey. Likewise, the action is stiff. This is most obvious in a battle between Black Panther and a would-be assassin. In this nearly silent scene, Rosado has a full stage to make the action shine. But the figures lack dynamism and the choreography is dull. I frequently found myself skimming past the art to quickly read Casey's dialogue instead.
Ultimately, Rosado's main problem is his work pales in comparison to John Buscema, who draws the source material. Rosado strives for a "classic" superhero style similar to Buscema, but the latter's sense of drama and grasp of the human figure is difficult to beat. The original Yellowjacket story is so much more visually compelling than this revision. I can't help but feel this miniseries would have benefited from a totally distinct artist who doesn't invite comparison to Buscema. In the first AEMH book, Kolins is different enough from Kirby and Heck, the artists of the comics he was revisiting, that his work stands entirely on its own.
Wil Quintana's colors do few favors to Rosado's pencils. Quintana struggles in choosing coherent color pallettes, especially among scenes set in broad daylight. The darker scenes are better, but largely because Quintana can disguise his shortcomings in color selection. His gradients are often haphazard and distracting. The one positive about this book's art is the linework by longtime Avengers inker Tom Palmer. While this isn't the best work of his career, I always appreciate when his brushes grace a page.
All in all, this second AEMH series is a wash, largely due to the flat artwork and attempts to revisit old subplots that didn't need revisiting. Dave Johnson's stunning covers are the only real reason to buy these comics.
August 30, 2025
Hawkeye was STRESSING in this one, heh. 😆
“He went from Ant-Man to Giant-Man and now Goliath. The guy’s had more names than a Spanish aristocrat.”
And that was BEFORE Yellowjacket. Jesus.
I felt like giving it three stars, but Hawkeye carried it pretty solidly. Plus, the wedding was entertaining.
“He went from Ant-Man to Giant-Man and now Goliath. The guy’s had more names than a Spanish aristocrat.”
And that was BEFORE Yellowjacket. Jesus.
I felt like giving it three stars, but Hawkeye carried it pretty solidly. Plus, the wedding was entertaining.
January 1, 2024
Heyyyyy Marvel why not a third volume ?
January 23, 2011
Author Joe Casey openly admits that his favorite era of the Avengers was the Roy Thomas era, and I myself have a nostalgic spot for those comics as well. Unfortunately, the high melodrama, super soap opera storylines just don't hold up with age. Angsty, heavy handed dialogue is difficult for the modern reader, and lacks any real narrative drive. Casey works under the concept of filling in all the detail behind the scenes of the more chaotic shifts in the Avengers line-up. He tries to provide modern explanations for some of the more bizarre events of those early issues, primarily the mental break-down of Hank Pym and the appearance of Yellow Jacket. It actually makes the idea of Hank and Jan's shotgun wedding even more unrealistic than it was originally, and just serves to point out the old style, less sophisticated story telling, not enhance it.
All this is further undermined by the flat and frankly boring art by Will Rosado. There is nothing visually stimulating to help out the often tedious lack of action in the book. This is unfortunate, because Hawkeye, the Black Panther and the Vision are three of the more interesting characters in Avenger's history.
Two stars just because it is the Avengers... but I struggle to recommend it beyond that.
All this is further undermined by the flat and frankly boring art by Will Rosado. There is nothing visually stimulating to help out the often tedious lack of action in the book. This is unfortunate, because Hawkeye, the Black Panther and the Vision are three of the more interesting characters in Avenger's history.
Two stars just because it is the Avengers... but I struggle to recommend it beyond that.
August 17, 2015
Not as good as the first volume, although that isn't all Joe Casey's fault. The time period covered in this volume is when Hank Pym was crazy and it made no sense at the time. Trying to form it into something that does make sense is probably an impossible task, and while Casey gamely tries, I'm not sure how well the results work.
March 28, 2014
Joe Casey, a sua detta, ama questo periodo degli Avengers. Tanto da riscriverne un'altra volta uno dei momenti cruciali del gruppo focalizzandosi su Henry Pym e i suoi crolli psicologici, su Occhio di Falco, e Wasp. Tanti momenti "dietro le quinte", attimi mai narrati ma parte della storia.
August 9, 2012
eeehh. had higher expectations.
May 22, 2014
A good herorik story and you should differently read this
July 23, 2016
Joe Casey se rozhodl vyplnit některá bílá místa mezi starými sešity Avengers. Na to, že je svázán předlohou, si s tím poradil velmi dobře, příběh dává smysl a jeho změny jsou inteligentní.
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