The throwdown you've been waiting for -- and that Loki, God of Mischief -- has been scheming toward: The Mighty Avengers vs. The Dark Avengers! Hank Pym's team has tried their best to be a shining light in the world of Dark Reign but this might be the time that light gets snuffed out! Special appearance by the Mighty Thor!
Dan Slott is an American comic book writer, the current writer on Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man, and is best known for his work on books such as Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, The Superior Spider-Man, and Ren & Stimpy.
I hate Crossover event tie-in books that barely nod to the actual event itself. Sure, there’s a few panels at the end of this book, but if you hadn’t read any other Siege books, you’d be rather puzzled.
At best.
The “Mighty” in this title might be stretching in a bit. The Avengers are now led by Hank Pym and the first order of business after checking out the new club house…
…is a team-up of sorts with the Dark Avengers, which leads to the exchange of the year between Pym and Norman Osborn:
They battle against that mook, the Absorbing Man, who’s gotten a hold of the Cosmic Cube, and who gives them a “reality” punch and splits the participants into before and after versions of themselves.
Next: Hey, Quicksilver, that wasn’t your sister, that was Loki, in drag! Which leads to some ill-will and choice words.
Finally, it wouldn’t be a Hank Pym book if there wasn’t an appearance by his red-haired step-robot child, Ultron, who he tries to appease by marrying him to Jocasta.
So how’s Hank Pym doing fellows?
Bottom line: Let’s face it, who doesn’t love humor at the expense of Hank Pym, plus Loki gets what coming to him.
When Dan Slott (She Hulk, Spider-Man: Brand New Day) was announced as the new Mighty Avengers writer, succeeding Brian Bendis (Powers, Ultimate Spider-Man), he said he intends to write the most “Avengery” Avengers title available. Avengers is Marvel Comics’ to property, at the time Slott made his boast, there were several Avengers titles being published, including New Avengers and Dark Avengers by Bendis. In a way, Slott succeeded in his intentions.
I’ve read the first few issues of his run and he utilized key Avengers elements. This version of the Avengers has their roster filled by B and C list characters. It has a founding member who provides the mansion and technology and a super soldier and a god. Sadly, it is not the big three of Iron Man, Captain America and Thor. It has Hank Pym as their tech wizard and U.S. Agent and Hercules instead. It has a few legacy characters and former foe seeking redemption. This description fits Hawkeye perfectly but instead they have a couple of Young Avengers and Quicksilver, who recently turned villain but now seeking to regain acceptance as a hero. Once again the impetus for its formation is Loki.
I managed to get my hands on a bargain hardcover which gave me a chance to sample a complete arc. It truly was an Avengers title that certainly tried to emulate the classic stories. They even faced off against a trio of traditional Avengers villains. The Masters of Evil, or some of the Dark Avengers and Absorbing Man, Loki and Ultron were the villains this team faced in this collected edition.
In a way, Slott did succeed in penning tales similar in flavor to the classic stories. His Avengers were not in hiding and fighting street level crime (New Avengers) or villains pretending to be heroes (Dark Avengers). His Avengers had adventures in space, outwitted trickster gods and fought homicidal robots. It was great to read high adventure in an Avengers title again.
I will certainly be looking out for the earlier collected editions of his past arcs.
OK so this Mighty Avengers team is one of many at this time in the Marvel Universe (Siege). However, lead by Hank Pym, things will be different, as he's the big brains scientist, not the great leader like your Captain America or your Iron Man, or even your Cyclops...this makes for a team where the guy most likely to use you as a chess piece is the boss. Though this falls under the sphere of a 'Siege' tie-in, most of it seems to be occurring parallel to Siege, and not nearly as involved as one would think. (For a tie-in) There's some cool stuff here, like Thor showing up and...taking Loki's side against his former teammate Pym? The Mighty Avengers teaming up with Osborn's Dark Avengers?? The return of ULTRON??? Wow. Crazy shit. Also nice to see the insanity of ideas that flows through Hank Pym's brain. He's not quite balanced, but that's the beauty of it. Fun book, even though he's rather disjointed, that adds to the fun (at least I thought it did. Unpredictable is more fun that boring) Pym is still an asshole, but at least he's working towards trying to be better... featuring: Hank Pym (as the Wasp), Stature (Cassie Lang, daughter of 2nd Ant-Man Scott Lang), Vision (the new version), Hercules, Amadeus Cho, Quicksilver, and USAgent...not forgetting of course: Jarvis!!! (and Jocasta the robot).
Fun, so long as you don't mind being a little lost and just going along for the ride...
Slott's writing continues to improve volume by volume. This one has great humor, a beautiful cosmic scope, and a really nice integration with the "Siege" crossover that at the same time doesn't dominate the comic. (So of course it’s also the end of this Mighty Avengers.)
Here we are, at the end of yet another Marvel title, so that it can be subsequently rebooted and get a short-term sales spike with a new Number 1. Rinse. Repeat. This sort of thing gets tedious to us fans who like runs of titles, not fake renumberings or reboots with a new creative team. This story arc (written by Dan Slott) ties in ever-so-slightly with Siege, especially the ending of Siege. It seems hastily re-written so as to be labeled a Siege crossover and to gain those sales spikes. I am numb to crossovers anymore. I mean, can't we just have stories in regular titles? Events used to happen in regular titles that had ripple effects throughout the entire Marvel Universe. Nowadays, everything is set up to milk the maximum amount of dollars out of an ever-diminishing fanbase. Sorry to be so cynical, but that's just how I feel after reading this. So what did I think of the story? It was okay. Not great, not bad, but okay and worth a read. I kind of like this team of also-rans, although things do seem to fall apart by the end of the book. I enjoyed seeing Ultron back in action, as he is one of my all-time favorite Avengers villains. I'm not sure that I buy the "scientist supreme" Hank Pym...it seems pretty contrived. I wish that Marvel would turn the Avengers back over to Roger Stern. Now that would be something to get excited about!
Book 7 in this iteration of the Mighty Avengers. Hank Pym and his team find themselves tackling the same problem as Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers when the Absorbing Man gets hold of the Cosmic Cube. Then, as most of the team joins the fighting at the Siege of Asgard, Hank reveals the secrets of the Infinite Mansion and has to thwart Ultron's attempts to take control of it.
This book really highlights why making Hank Pym the main character wasn't exactly the best idea. Here he lords it over everyone with his new title of Scientist Supreme, whilst simultaneously making terrible decision after terrible decision, culminating in him refusing Captain America's call for the Avengers to assemble to fight Osborn.
This book also largely fails as a tie-in to the Siege event storyline, going off on a tangent of its own and playing out an overly-familiar "Oh no! Ultron's back! ...Again." story. It feels like a huge missed opportunity and, in particular, compares badly with 'Siege: New Avengers' (by Brian Michael Bendis), which I read immediately before this and which actually does a tie-in the right way.
Art was all right overall, however, in a crossover event like this I would expect better. Of all Siege... crossovers, this was the least tied in to the actual Siege storyline. It was mainly about Pym. His Underspace dimension is pretty far-fetched. The Ultron tie-in is not really handled all that well. The book would have been better suited in actually being a tie-in the the Siege storyline instead of going on the side trip to Underspace.
This volume may say "Siege" on the cover, but it has very little to do with that Marvel event. Also: issue 34: the Mighty Avengers put the smack down on Loki, then Hank Pym invites him to join the team, and everyone up and quits, including Hercules. But then in issue 35, suddenly Hercules is dead? And there's no explanation, not even an editor's note?
Totálny guláš. Interdimenzionálne induktory a dvere, subatomické kotvy, Underspace, šialené Ultronove nevesty a Avengerské sídlo nekonečna. Toto nie je zrovna moja šálka kávy a som rád, že to mám za sebou.
And so another really good series ends abruptly just as it's picking up steam. Its a shame. This could have been a phenomenal Avengers run with more time. Ah well.
despite the title, it doesn't really have anything to do with siege, we barely even see the mess that is going on in asgard at the time; however, i was reading this series already and i wanted to see how it ended so this fact didn't really bother me
i do hope we'll see Ultron someday in the future, if only because making him comeback and having him defeated in the span of two issues would otherwise feel like such a poor usage of an incredible villain i also hope we'll eventually see more of Jocasta as well
overall this was a nice conclusion to an okay-ish run
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
On the one hand, this Siege tie-in was awesome - easily five stars. First, it has more Loki, who is mostly behind the scenes during the main Siege event, plus it details more happenings that lead into Siege instead of focusing solely on that epic battle. And though I was unfamiliar with this Mighty Avengers team, I found them engaging and interesting. However, the downside is that a quarter of the book is taken up by Ultron.
I loved learning more about Loki's scheming, beyond what was in "Siege: Loki"; this included his staging a confrontation with the Absorbing Man, in order to make Norman Osborn look heroic again. Plus, the book overlapped with the story arc where Loki impersonated the Scarlet Witch to fool the Mighty Avengers. They go so far as to capture Loki, and that story alone was worth the purchase of this book. Though this tie-in included a bit more background material not directly related to Siege, it was interesting and set the stage for these characters. Plus, the battle of the Absorbing Man against the Mighty and Dark Avengers was expertly played out.
The downside of this book, and why I deducted a star, is that I found Hank Pym to be a loathsome, arrogant a@@ whose battle with Ultron was boring and had no influence on Siege. I'm not a fan of Ultron to begin with, and this event has more than enough villains without devoting a quarter of this book to a battle with him - a battle which has no other Avenger taking part. It was very disappointing.
Overall, most of this book was excellent and a great tie-in with the Siege event. It's especially good for those who are fans of Loki as he is more directly involved in the story. Though I didn't like Ultron's part, I still wouldn't hesitate to recommend this title. It's well worth reading.
And here I thought that Marvel was trying to redeem the character of Hank Pym somewhat (although he's still creepy), but he seems like a self-absorbed jerk in this trade (once again). The Mighty Avengers disband, mainly because Hank is off his rocker, and while Siege is going on, Hank is too busy to take part until the end because he's giving his robot human limbs (and fighting off Ultron...again...but that's only after he's turned Captain America's request for assistance down). What a creep.
Speaking of going off his rocker, Quicksilver (one of my favorite characters) is fast approaching that as well. Loki's pretending to be the Scarlet Witch, which he doesn't know until the end of the book (yet another thing Pym decides to keep to himself). He's literally vibrating with rage. And with him living a lie (that a Skrull impersonated him and was the one who stole the crystals from the Inhumans) and his daughter (who knows it's a lie) hating him, all Pietro wants is his family - which is Wanda. I hope that his character is redeemed soon and he finds his way back into Luna's good graces once again.
If you're here because you want a tie-in to the mega-event Siege, you're going to be sorely disappointed. If you're here because you've been following the Hank Pym led version of the Mighty Avengers, then this is the perfect ending for that run.
Hank Pym is a bit of an ass. Loki tells him here that it was all a trick and Pym is not really Scientist Supreme, but the reader is left to make his own judgement of how truthful Loki is being. I like to think that Pym really is that guy and Loki was trying to psych him out, but who knows? Sadly this was all dropped after this title as Pym becomes a headmaster at Avengers Academy.
Ultron and Jocasta support a nice Pym-centric storyline that I thoroughly enjoyed.
I do love the exchange between Pym and Osborn early on, where Osborn asks if Pym is still beating up women and Pym asks if Osborn is still throwing girls off bridges. Perfect banter.
Derivative and dull for the most part. Everything, in 2011, in a Marvel comic still has to lead to Ultron or some other ancient creaky villain? I love the old Marvel, and even I am sick of this patter. A super long story arc in which you do not know who the real mastermind behind the evil plan is. Then you find out it is Red Skull/Dr. Doom/Mephisto/Ultron/Skrulls/etc. Come on! Get some freshness, Marvel! Do a "new 52" Marvel style! DC is rocking!
Hank's team gets outdone by Osborn's team of Avengers. Later, the gang captures Loki, breaks up and then gets back together. Hank gains confidence, US Agents acts like a tool and Quicksilver joins the team...briefly.
With only a couple of pages about the Siege, this is a fairly weak book. There are some great concepts but they are resolved too quickly. You can skip this book and not miss anything.
Notes Hercules dies in this story line but the details are omitted.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I'm not super familiar with these characters, so it didn't do much for me. If you're going to read a Siege TPB, read the New Avengers. Though the art and the story line in that are harder to follow, there is a more compelling story with a much better payoff.
Si arriva al crossover che pone fine al regno di Osborne, e tutto sommato ci spiace perché avremmo voluto vedere questo gruppo di Vendicatori andare avanti.