Mighty Avengers, Vol. 3: Original Sin - Not Your Father's Avengers

Mighty Avengers (2013) (Collected Editions)

by Al Ewing (Writer), Greg Land (Illustrator), Salvador Larroca (Illustrator)

Dr Adam Brashear, super-scientist! James Lucas, cop on the edge! Kaluu, master of black magic! Constance Molina, two-fisted reporter! The Bear, explosives expert and were-woman! Blade, vampire slayer! In 1972, they banded together to fight what couldn't be fought alone - as the Mighty Avengers!

Collecting: Mighty Avengers 11-14

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Ebooks

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 23, 2014

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is the first Mighty Avengers title I've read, and it was pretty cool.
Since this was an Original Sin tie-in, I thought I might be lost (more than usual), but I was able to follow the story fairly well. In fact, since it was a lot of flashbacky stuff, I think I was able to get the gist of it even better than I normally would have.

Hello, 1970...



{Insert Isaac Hayes' Shaft theme song playing during this reveiw}
Go on, open up a new tab, and let it play...
Can you dig it?

Alright, now that I've ensured my review is cooler than all the others, let's get started.
After the events of Original Sin, Luke Cage pays a visit to his estranged father. It turns out to be quite an eye-opening chat.
His father was involved (reluctantly) one time with the original Mighty Avengers.
And the villains from that adventure are back! They're gonna Take Over the Wooooorld! Unless, or course, the past Mighty Avengers and the present Mighty Avengers team up and create the Unbelievably Awesome Mighty Avengers.
I'm still working on the name...



Is this story necessary? No.
But it was fun. Really fun. And even though I didn't recognize all of the characters, most of them were familiar enough to me.
I'm going to try to find more of this team's stuff, and see where where it goes. Overall, I enjoyed myself, and I'm looking forward to more.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, but not quite as much as some of the previous volumes. I liked the 70s era story quite a bit.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvel keeps finding these terrific, new writers. Excellent adventure and something very new and different from the other Avengers titles. Loved the 70s flashbacks. Can't wait to see what Ewing will come up with in CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE MIGHTY AVENGERS.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 3 out of 5]

Después de ver Viuda Negra el viernes, necesitaba un poco de impulso comiquero (no, no me gustó), así que este finde se lo he dedicado en la parte de lectura a los Vengadores casi por completo, así que nada, reseño este último tomo de Poderosos Vengadores y luego haré de un tirón el de la serie en la que se convirtió, Capitán América y los Poderosos Vengadores.

En este último arco de la colección, nos metemos de lleno en Pecado Original, el evento de Marvel que arrancaba con el asesinato del Vigilante y que provocaba que muchos de los héroes recuperaran recuerdos que habían perdido. Bueno, muchos de los héroes y muchas de las personas de la calle, pero en lo que a nosotros nos afecta aquí, toca tener en cuenta a los héroes, claro. El caso es que Al Ewing va a aprovechar esta revelación de viejos secretos para poner fin a una de las tramas que llevaba arrastrando desde el número 1 de la colección y la aparición de Blade como SpiderHéroe: los Caminantes de los Muertos. Así, por fin vamos a averiguar quienes son estas personas que están persiguiendo a Blade desde el principio de la serie, cuatro poderosos hechiceros inmortales procedentes de todo el mundo que quieren dominar la existencia (son hechiceros inmortales y malvados, claro), para lo cual necesitan un ritual que requiere de elementos mágicos y de la sangre de Blade. Ewing no se va a quedar ahí, y va a trazar su historia en dos tiempos, la actualidad y la que sería la primera formación de los "Poderosos Vengadores" treinta años atrás, con un equipo formado entre otros por James Lucas (el padre de Cage), Blade, el hechicero Kaluu, una periodista y un ser místico llamado "La Osa", que se enfrentaron entonces a los Caminantes de la Muerte.

Y las cosas como son, la historia adolece de todo lo que ya he comentado en los tomos anteriores, y la estrellita extra se la lleva el dibujo compartido de Greg Land y Salvador Larroca, pero en fin, la historia es un poco insulsa, bastante acelerada, y los villanos tienen el mismo carisma que... no sé, un zapatero, por ejemplo. Muy prescindible.

[Ryan Morris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book (and in fact, the entire series) started off great, but just seemed to be going through the motions by the end. A lot of set up with not much payoff. I'm not even entirely sure what the big baddies whole plan was. Did I miss something? Did I not? Did I care? Not really. And the Deathwalkers? Really? I hope this was only supposed to be a funny name for our elemental vampire villains and not something that was meant to be taken seriously because all it did was make me laugh.
The first volume of Mighty Avengers was fantastic, but #2 and #3 seemed to be falling into the trap of Marvel focusing on its bigger plans, which sometimes dictate just how much mileage an individual series can gain on its own.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Deathwalker plot just didn't click in the first two volumes. It was just mysterious happenings and the mysterious Ronin. But here we get a great flashback to show the Mighty Avengers of the '70s, we get some shocking background on Luke's dad, and we get all the origin we could want to make the Deathwalkers actually interesting ... with cool '70s styles the whole time.

I mean, it's not enough to save the big finale where we actually fight the Deathwalker(s) in two long issues, but at least it's fun getting there, and at least we got this long, dull plot out of the way.

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent continuation of the story from the last trade. Not sure why they need to go all cosmic sometimes small stories are the best maybe have a little character development oh and did I mention that Greg Land is a pretty awesome artist?

[Mr. Stick · Rating 3 out of 5]

"YOU READING A NOTE FROM YOUR MOMMA? 'GLAM-ROCK DRACULA CAN'T DO FOOTBALL PRACTICE TODAY. HE'S DELICATE.'" - Blade to Kaluu

The best thing to come out of Original Sin, has been EVERYTHING aside from the main story.
A flashback to blaxploitation films of the 70's, is a story told by Luke Cage's dad about his first introduction to superheroes and a failed mission to wipe out the Deathwalkers, a coven of super-vampires intent to destroy humanity. In the present, the Mighty Avengers must stop the recently returned Deathwalkers from finishing what they started in 1972.

I still don't understand how this relates to Original Sin. So Luke's hero-phobic Dad was in fact once a superhero. How is that an earth-shattering revelation? It's like a hard core, gay bashing homophobe who secretly LOVES Brokeback Mountain.
An fun action story garnished with a lot of shit talking and one liners served with a heaping spoonful of stunning art.

About the art:
Usually, when Greg Land draws women, their faces are nearly identical. While hair styles vary, they all possess intense/penetrating eyes, perfectly straight (almost pixie-like) noses and a tight, curvy mouth with full lips and perfect teeth. Body language is most often agressive and/or flitatious.
However, he seems to have made a departure from his ideal woman by trying to make them as diverse as he does the male characters.
Points to Land.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al Ewing is becoming my favorite writer of this era. He manages to create stories where the character and plot are perfectly intertwined. (Well, the main characters anyway. The backup characters like Falcon and She-Hulk were superfluous.) In this one, we hang out with Luke Cage's estranged father who met Blade and the Blue Marvel back in the 70's and encountered the same baddies the Avengers are dealing with now. The magic god villains story wasn't my favorite, and I didn't like the Doctor Strange standin guy. But this was a lot better than the main Avengers book.

[Ma'Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series was great ... right up til the ending, which was extremely lazy. The final boss fight looks like something I drew in 6th grade, and the big baddie speaks in the most cliché manner, more like something from the Silver Age than from the more progressive mind of Al Ewing. Also, they tried adding some kind of computer-generated texture to Luke Cage that makes him appear translucent, like his veins are running into the surroundings.

Seeing Blue Marvel become godfather to Uatu's offspring was sweet, and I really hope that carries weight down the road in this universe.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Mighty Avengers series ends (Not really, it continues in Captain America And The Mighty Avengers) mostly with a whimper. I've enjoyed the series and here is an interesting look back into the past and how some of our heroes are connected. While there was clearly too much magical macguffins for my liking, it was still an enjoyable read. I would have liked more of the interpersonal drama that has made the book so fun. The art was really good by both Land and Larrocca. Overall, a decent read with too much magical hoodoo.

[Daniel Sepúlveda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puntaje: 3 Estrellas.

Una serie más de cómics que termino.
Personalmente me gustan los miembros que conforman este equipo, logra tener un buen equilibro de personajes nuevos y antiguos. Los gráficos son, sin duda, la mejor carácterística de este volumen.
La historia no es muy interesante. Siempre me pasa con historias de magia o muy fantasiosas en los comics, simplemente no me matan.

Ahora a leer Captain America & The Mighty Avengers!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one has a very interesting premise. Luke Cage sees his father in a superhero team because of Original Sin storyline. The father who couldn't cope with him being a superhero.

So its part flashback about the original team, including a very disco version of Blade, who fight some bad guys. And then the modern story is the new team fighting the same bad guys. It is a lot of fun, and has some great character moments. A very good read.

[Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se volete leggere la mia recensione, cliccate qui! http://ascwblog.blogspot.it/2018/01/i...

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun, kind of simple/standard superhero plot. I loved the retro feel of the whole thing. This was also the first comic I ever read with Blade in it, so that was interesting.

[James Staten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice wrap up

Like how the two stories came together. Blue Marvel is the man. Kallu is a jerk Still love Monica Rambeau

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite of the series, but it's left me interested enough to follow the characters into their series after this one.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun book--Am Ewing writes team books better than most.

I love the 70s vibe to it, and it feels like a smarter version of Millar's Ultimate Avengers 3 and Jason Aarons Vampire Civil War

[Mana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that was a showstopper. #nuffsaid

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this with the 1972 story reflecting in modern days. more blade is always good. rambeau abd blue marvel are great, luke cage is cool as he'll.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Deathwalkers are an ancient enemy that have reappeared with everything they need to conquer the Earth. Shockingly one of the people who know all about them is Luke Cage's father James.

James Lucas had quite the interesting past.


Not Your Father's Avengers has some good parts to it. Mainly the fact that Luke Cage's father helped out some superheroes when the Deathwalkers were causing problems in the 70s. It's an interesting reveal that can't help but make me think how much do I know about my parents and will my kids know me better than I know my parents.

I didn't love the Deathwalkers idea because a lot of it seemed reminiscent of the Blade movie, which I watched an absurd amount of times in college because of my roommate. I'm not too interested in the maniacal villains who want to literally control everyone on Earth. I'm partial to petty powerhouses like Thanos, the self righteous villains who know what's best for everyone like Dr. Doom, and crazy characters who cause problems just because they're bored like Loki and Maximus. I do enjoy other villains, but suffice to say the Deathwalkers wouldn't be villains I'd choose for a story.

This volume of Mighty Avengers wasn't bad, I just was looking for something different.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collects Mighty Avengers (2013) issues #11-14

This is an "Original Sin" tie-in story in which Luke Cage finds out that his father was a part of a super-powered, Avengers-like team in the 1970's.

I love Al Ewing as a writer, and I think I may finally be at the point where I want to track down and read everything that he has written. For me, this is a writer that I like so much, he is approaching the level that I'm at with writers like Jonathan Hickman, Dan Slott, Brian Michael Bendis, and Geoff Johns.

Final rating = 5 stars

SECOND TIME READING THIS REVIEW:

I've been wanting to return to this title for a while, and having just read the miniseries that spotlights Blue Marvel's origin story, I decided it was a good time. But here's the thing, I thought that I stopped at Volume #3, so when I went to log this on Goodreads, I was surprised to find that I already read this almost four years ago. There were things from here that seemed vaguely familiar, but I don't remember reading this in full at all. I skimmed this volume a little bit this time, so I wonder if I did the same thing last time. I can see that I gave it 5 stars back then, but I think I'll lower my star-rating a little bit because I forgot that I ever read it, and because I didn't like it at a 5-star level this time around. This is still a great title, though, and I love the team members that make up the Mighty Avengers.

New Final Rating = 4 stars

[Silas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This continues to be an interesting series that fills in some of the gaps of an updated history of the Marvel universe in an interesting and somewhat ironic fashion. Due to the events of the Original Sin event, we find out that Luke Cage's father (from whom he has long been estranged) was a part of a superhero-like team that fought a team of immortal elementals, and that tied this whole series together. We get the history from a reluctant father, and through the process of the story, we find out why he has kept Luke at arm's length through an interesting '70s Blaxploitation-esque story (that is oddly like the original Power Man comics that I have read, and is likely a lot like Blade comics of the same era that I haven't). While this story fills in some history of the universe as it is now, I am curious just what the actual comics from the '70s are any more, since I rather enjoyed them. In any case, this is an interesting story with a kind of Captain Planet ending that I guess sets up the new series that apparently gets a new name after this, and is probably completely different. Whatever the case, this was an enjoyable romp with a diverse cast of characters (though as a huge Iron Fist fan, I was a little disappointed that he was just apparently hanging around in the last volume, and didn't stay for this one... I think he and Luke are both better when they are together).

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great mix of b-level heroes deal with a weird variety of menaces from across the marvel universe, while reminding us what it means to be a hero, as well as an Avenger.
Most of the Avenger series out there have forgotten how to do that.

Love how Blue Marvel is not just a superman rip-off...ahem...homage, but is specifically a silver age superman homage.
Like the growing chemistry between White Tiger and Power man 2.
And especially loved 70's blaxploitation Avengers!

When do those guys get their own mini-series?

Just an all around good series that goes from street level to big and cosmic without wasting anytime trying to convince us they are hip, relevant, realistic or ironic.
Instead they just want to tell good super hero stories.

[Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ewing offers a satisfying conclusion to this arc of Mighty Avengers. Though this book is light on the character moments that drive the series and make up its primary strengths, there's a lot of resolution for Luke Cage in particular. Because of this, the volume reads more like a solo volume for Luke with much less of a focus on team dynamics. The barely disguised deus ex machina coming out of Original Sin that resolves the plotline between Luke, Blue Marvel, and Luke's father is easier to forgive because it results in a long overdue narrative payoff. Though this ending isn't the strongest moment for Mighty Avengers, the series as a whole is one of the better and more interesting Marvel series in recent memory.

[Logan · Rating 2 out of 5]

4/10:
There are just WAY too many characters here. We haven’t even spent time in this run with each of the modern Mighty Avengers and now we’re throwing old members into the mix? Blade was the only one that needed to be included in this story (why were there non-powered civilians joining them?).

To end on this note for this run is incredibly disappointing, but I’m looking forward to seeing the story continue now that Sam Wilson is Captain America! How will the former Falcon utilize the Mighty Avengers?

[Scott Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A save the world story that managed not to feel old hat. And this is entirely because the characters work so well. The characterization in these books is stellar. Ewing seems quite capable of making anyone at all into a fascinating character--so hand him characters with the built-in potential of Luke Cage, Blade, Spectrum, the Blue Marvel, etc. and what do you expect he'll do with them ? Pure awesomeness. This is a fascinating story, and wonderfully powerful.

[Alex Sarll]

As so often, the story at the margins of a big event proves more interesting than the core. Plausible retcons, shocking reveals, and plenty of punching.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sin that is street level...which totally makes since most of these are street level heroes.