While I didn’t review every single issue of the series, I still greatly enjoyed Al Ewing’s Mighty Avengers. It was the first time in a long time that I read an Avengers book that felt… good. It felt what a superhero team book should be like; heroes teaming up to fight villains and interacting with each other in a way that actually sounds normal and not a dry lecture rife with sci-fi lingo. Well, the book got cancelled and was recently relaunched with a much longer title and a new—and in my opinion, better—artist, Luke Ross. Is it good?
Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #1 (Marvel Comics)
Tying into the events of Axis and taking place, most likely, before #4, we see what’s been going on with the Mighty Avengers. Sam Wilson, aka Captain America, is now fighting crime in New York in a rather brutal and violent fashion. The Mighty Avengers seem to be going through some changes and Luke Cage is getting all professional. Also, another villain is starting to act all heroic.
He may look professional, but his shoes say differently.
This issue and the previous Mighty Avengers Ewing wrote have a rather interesting similarity: both of them happen to start up during an event comic and are tying directly into in the first issue. However, unlike that comic, this one has problems and it’s mostly because of two very big reasons.
This may be a first issue, but it is really just a direct continuation of Mighty Avengers (this might as well be the next arc). While that’s good for people like the original book, this one is problematic because it does not do a good job of introducing new readers at all. It barely introduces the idea of what the Mighty Avengers are, it only spotlights two members of the team, and the majority of the members don’t even appear in the book at all (no She-Hulk or Blue Marvel for you). So newcomers will be lost and returning readers will be rather disappointed.
This comic ties directly into Axis. While the original book tied directly into Infinity, that event didn’t really involve personality changes or the heroes becoming villains. As such, a newcomer to this book will probably be put off with how jerkish and mean-spirited these heroes are acting. Plus, Mighty Avengers fans who aren’t fans of Axis or who just don’t like seeing their heroes act like this will probably not be pleased either.
I expect to hear this sort of talk from Fox News, not Captain America.
As simply a tie-in to Axis, though, it honestly isn’t too bad, and offers an interesting direction for where the book could go. However, the story doesn’t really get going until the very end of the book and even then, where and when this book would fall during this event raises a lot of questions and opens some plot holes that need to be answered. Also, Captain America ends up killing someone or at the very least, ends up getting someone killed so… yeah. This is kind of a mess and this whole tie-in thing isn’t remotely helping this book out.
The writing does fare better, on the plus side. The characterization of everyone seems to match who they are or at least their inverted version fairly well. The dialogue and narration is solid, though a bit goofy at times with how villainous Sam is. The pacing is decent and the story flow is solid, always keep the story going with no odd breaks in anything. The comic does retain its sense of humor it had in the previous run, providing a couple of good chuckles and even a laugh (though said laugh was quickly changed to a rather shocked, stunned look of disbelief). Overall, the quality of writing is still there, and if the story can quickly improve next issue, I can see the book getting back on the same of the level of quality as the original Mighty Avengers.
Commie? I thought the word you use to insult people these days was calling them a socialist or a hipster?
The artwork by Luke Ross is pretty solid and a nice jump in improvement over Greg Land. The thing with Ross is that he is very good at being able to draw very human looking characters and making them very expressive, which gives the audience a bit of a better connection with the people in the book. His layouts are very good, if a bit forgettable, and the bit of action he draws does look nice. The level of detail he puts into people, locations, and objects is also rather nice as well. Ultimately, Ross is the artist this book deserves and hopefully can hang onto as the series goes on.
Is It Good?
Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #1 is a big disappointment in its initial outing. The whole relaunch thing just really screwed things up, and the story being a forced tie in to Axis doesn’t help matters. It really hurt the potential of this comic, because the writing and artwork are pretty solid otherwise. Hopefully things can really turn around in the next issue and get this book back on the right track. It was Marvel’s best Avengers book and I hope it can quickly regain that title.
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