So, I don’t want to spend too much time on this book, because Spider-Man’s not in it, but it will be intersecting with New Avengers pretty often, and it’s the other place Bendis can set up Secret Invasion. so I think it’s a good idea to look at it some. Mighty Avengers sees Bendis teaming up with Frank Cho, noted overgrown 12-year old. For all his many flaws, he was a great draftsman, and I guess Bendis was into it, so he wanted him on this book. For his troubles, he got a collaborator who made this first 6-issue arc take 10 months to come out. And, like I said, Bendis had been planning this Skrull stuff from jump, and had some pretty specific dominoes he wanted to knock down, and Cho goes and makes Mighty Avenger miss its ship date 4 times.I heard he privately vowed never to work with Cho again. This first issue hit stands alongside New Avengers 28, giving Cho more lead time than Yu. And yet… Well, anyway, we’ve seen them remarkably often before already(The fact that they were in New Avengers before the comic where the team formed was released seemed weird at the time), but here they are, your Mighty Avengers. A powerhouse Avengers lineup if ever there was one. Frank Cho apparently insisted Wonder Man return to his 70s jumpsuit look, which Bendis openly mocked in a “kidding/not kidding” way even before things went sour. I’m gonna try to make this the speediest speedrun I’ve done so far, both because it’s not a Spider-Man story, and also because… it’s not great, honestly. Cho inks himself, which isn’t helping the schedule, one assumes, and is colored by Jason Keith. The whole team’s together on a the opening splash, Ms. Marvel noting they’ve been together all of 14 minutes, and then a 2-page splash reveals they’re fighting a bunch of the Mole Man’s giant monsters, having torn up through the street like they tend to do.
Yeah, Tony made Spider-Man wear his colors, and now he’s made a whole helicarrier in his colors. This aggressive new idea that he’s so obsessed with these colors will make it all the more frustrating when he changes to black & gold for no reason and with no explanation in a few years. Also, Bendis was hyped about trying this stuff with thought balloons. Thought balloons had long fallen out of fashion, but I wanted to try this experiment where they’re revealing what people are actually thinking instead of just allowing people to narrate. They go look at the wall o’ heroes Tony was looking at in the Initiative one-shot, and he asks her who they should choose. The issue begins cutting back and forth between the Avengers fighting monsters in the present and Tony & Carol talking about building a team in the past. Which, given that New Avengers was doing the same thing, with a fully formed Mighty team in their PAST, really makes this book feel weird.
More cutting back and forth, starting a neat trick where Tony & Carol discuss each member on ¼ of a 2-page spread while that member gets a moment to shine in the fight in the present. The Wasp, who they agree was the best Avenger. Wonder Man, who Tony has heard has a thing with Carol right now. The Sentry, who Carol doesn’t want (And rightly points out was useless in Civil War), but who Tony wants to keep an eye on and train. Black Widow, who, despite not having powers, they feel can take care of herself on this level, as we see her downing 4 monsters at once with explosives. And Carol suggests Ares, who is currently working construction when they go find him.
Ares’ son, Phobos, will be important later, tho I don’t know if he will on this blog. It’s hard to keep track. Ares is impressed by Tony’s courage and is in for the money, and in the present, tears a swathe through the monsters. So, now we got a team, and they’re already on a mission, pretty efficient first issue work, and it’s not even over. Maria Hill calls Tony tell him there’s natural disasters happening all over the world at once, so they try to end this, but instead…
Yes, Ultron. Now appearing as a nude woman for no obvious reason other than giving people who bought the comic for Frank Cho what they’re looking for. But what of Iron Man?? So, then, #2:
(So stupid) After a 2-page flashback to Wonder Man having trouble getting work he likes before being recruited as an Avenger (Odd), we’re back, with the fully nude female Ultron emerging from a crater.
So naked lady starts easily destroying all Mole Man’s creatures as he weeps and panics, and various flashbacks to what the Avengers were doing before they got recruited are interspersed with them trying to figure out what to do. Eventually Ares can’t be stopped from attacking, and his axe breaks on her shield, and then he and Sentry are struck by lightning.
Count me among them not understanding what’s happening. And I read this before! Every woman has the same body with Cho. He’s got a fetish and you’re gonna look at it, I reckon. Last we saw, Hank & Jan were “going to try to work it out,” but that was then, I guess. My memory of this story is it’s just this dumb naked lady Ultron standing in this crater while everyone freaks out for 3 solid issues. Maybe I’m wrong. #3:
The thing I’ve never understood about these incredibly horny artists is why they don’t just go do porn. All you want to draw is women showing off their butts. You have a dedicated fanbase that is clearly looking to you for butt pictures. Why waste your time drawing comics, at this point? You know, back in the day, a Dave Cockrum or John Byrne maybe couldn’t make a living like that, but by 2007, an established comic book artist could pivot to either porn comics or just lewd commissions and probably make more money, if we’re being honest. And then I wouldn’t have to read comics made for 12-year old boys by overgrown 12-year old boys. Win/win. For all that Cho has mastered drawing his particular brand of woman, he doesn’t draw things like men’s faces or action scenes very well, and he only has 1 face for women. Look at this cover. Natasha and Tigra might as well be the same person if colored differently. The guy has no range. Ultron continues to stand there. Jan asks how it controls the weather and it says it has “new interface tools,” which explains nothing. The Avengers stand around talking some more, then retreat, leaving Sentry to keep Ultron busy while they figure out what to do.
They beat on each other for awhile as the Avengers reach Maria Hill’s helicarrier, apparently not Iron Man’s. Jan is trying to find Hank. Hank is at Camp Hammond in Stamford, where superhero training is done for the Initiative, having a romantic evening with Tigra, ignoring phone and email, when the feds bust in guns out to take him back to SHIELD. On the helicarrier, they’re analyzing the energy Carol absorbed off Ultron until Ultron notices somehow and disables the helicarrier. All while fighting Bob. So now the helicarrier is falling out of the sky in Manhattan.
Sentry, Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man are able to set it down without hurting anyone. Maria Hill is knocked out, leaving Black Widow the highest ranking SHIELD officer around, so she takes charge of them while Ms. Marvel leads the Avengers back outside. Then something else flies in.
Can you believe Iron Man died and not even in his own comic? #4:
The last one to ship on time. Ultron continues (In this extremely weird and stunted manner of speech) to say it’s going to make Earth uninhabitable for organic life, and its new lifeform with replace them. The usual. Back on the ground, the Iron Man suit tells the Avengers its an AI Tony made to help if he ever dies (Weird to use such an old suit) and then Ares cuts it in half. He’s wrestled to the ground by his teammates, and then Hank shows up.
Gotta agree with Carol on that one. This is all pretty absurd. It’s so strange that Bendis can be such a deft and skillful writer on New Avengers and USM while whiffing it on Mighty Avengers. But that’s life, I guess. Sentry & Wonder Man go smash all the weather satellites. Just when the heroes think they have some breathing room, Ultron says “Plan B” and seems to deactivate all electricity on Earth. Except some in the helicarrier. It’s pretty silly.
I really only ran that last page because it just baffles me. What in the world. Ultron tells Lindy “This is plan B” as Iron Man’s whole collection of armors is mobilized against the approaching Avengers. Fighty fight fight as Sentry flies into the tower to seemingly find Lindy dead. Ares has produced a gun bigger than he is from thin air somehow, and says he knows how to stop Ultron.
Looks bad! 3 months later, #5:
It appeared, in my recollection, that Cho wasn’t even working on this the whole time it was late. He just didn’t feel like doing it anymore, or something. It was kind of a scandal in comics at the time, as I recall. His demented need to get a butt on every cover thwarted by the UPC code. Ares once again yells that he knows what to do and, sticking a knife in the head of an Iron Man, drives it like a vehicle. Which does not seems at all plausible, but whatever. Inside the tower, Sentry is mourning his dead wife when Ultron comes in to taunt him about it. Fighty fight fight for several pages. Then Ares lands his Iron Man on the helicarrier, asking Hank if he “invented a potion that turns a man to the size of an insect.”
The power comes back on in the helicarrier (for some reason?) just in time for them to find out Ultron is trying to crack the passcodes to every nuclear facility. Maria Hill wakes up and commands them to get Hank his dumb Commodore 64, and Ares makes the case that he has to be the one to deploy the virus because Ultron isn’t familiar with him. Sentry and Ultron are still bashin’ each other around until Ultron cracks one of the codes and launches a nuke. Ms. Marvel is able to go grab it and straddle it very suggestively and detonate it in the upper atmosphere. The others have joined the fight with Ultron, and nowHank flies out in tiny Ant-Man form on an ant, like old times.
Ares has zoomed into her mouth on a SHIELD flying thingie with the virus. 3 months later, #6:
Brief flashback to Hank having put his virus on a doohickey. How he did that with no physical interface between a Commodore 64 and modern technology, who can say, this isn’t very scientific. He further says he needed the old computer to use “program language” so out of date Ultron won’t know it, which does not require the use of an old computer. Eh. Then Ares flying into Ultron and now we’re back.
Cho draws weird lips in profile. Wel, then Sentry comes back and smashes Ultron in to the Chrysler Building, blind with rage and not aware of the plan, so they gotta go try to wrangle him. So it’s the Avengers vs. Sentry as he’s trying to pull Ultron’s head off, and then Ares connects the thingie by, like, tapping it on a screen. Ok, sure. Ultron seems to be failing, but Ares is trapped inside. Jan flies in at the last minut as Ultron turns into a huge flash of light…
Hank explains what happened and is devastated that his worst creation just keeps coming back. Tony is not totally all there yet.
Meanwhile, Sentry seems to learn that Lindy was dead, and he brought her back to life, but who even knows with that guy? I appreciate Bendis was trying to do something really different with him, but different isn’t always good. Then we see Carol and Simon do have a thing going, and Simon says she can’t be trying to protect him in fights.
Whatever. Almost out. This last bit is the important bit:
One last gratuitous butt shot for the road!
She did it! And thanks to Cho, she did it almost half a year after taking the body in NA 32. This issue comes out alongside NA 37. Great stuff. And he had the nerve to sign the last page. A misfire, this one. Bendis has his weird blindspots, his strange characters and story types that just don’t work for some reason. Ultron is surely one. He’s got another Ultron story coming up in the future that’s even worse than this one. But there you go. The Mighty Avengers. Next post, a couple detours, but at least they have Spider-Man in them.