Mighty Avengers #24

Ladies and gentlemen, these are your Avengers.
                                                                            
Now before someone calls shenangians and accuses me of being bitter about Bendis and his influence on me determining which team is the true torchbearer of the Avengers, sit back and think about this: Is there a finding Avengers member in the New Avengers? No. Mighty Avengers? Yes: Hank Pym. Hank Pym the way Hank Pym should be, after decades of being shunned and misused and misplaced. Oh, and who brought together the original Avengers? Loki. And I don’t mean to spoil things, but…

Well can I tell you without spoiling this book? I’ll just go ahead and say it’s awesome. You have superheroes saving the day in more ways than just beating up the bad guy; sometimes, especially in a conflict-oriented environment like the Marvel Universe, it’s refreshing to see heroes being heroes, helping those less fortunate and in peril. Hank Pym and his crew of Stature, Vision, Quicksilver, US Agent, and my boys Hercules & Amadeus “Ant-Boy” Cho are doing just that, while also taking out glorious lunatics consisting solely of bees and making Norman Osborn show his true form.

Yes, even the mightiest of us are still susceptible to bureaucracy and lunch meetings, but at least Slott does it interestingly enough and does not stretch it out any longer than needed. Slott earns bonus points with me when Doom reveals his “naked soul” and “true essence,” only to show the face of an unscarred, dark & handsome man. This is juxtaposed when Osborn starts turning green at the sign of restlessness and discontent with Pym’s mighty misadventures and the Cabal’s complaints.

The art is wonderful, especially when compared to the grit and sharpness of Billy Tan. Sandoval’s work is pleasant to look at and highly functional in most cases, which is about the best one artist can shoot for when taking on a team book such as this. Compared to this week’s other Avengers book, he manages to pull off the work of six or so artists and still manage to make a book more visually pleasing than New Avengers.

The only complaint that I have about Mighty Avengers at this point is that it is not getting the recognition of a flagship book which it so painfully deserves. This is the book that gives us hope and amazement. These are Earth’s mightiest heroes.