The Mighty Avengers

The Mighty Avengers
The Mighty Avengers #1 (May 2007) Cover art by Frank Cho
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Publication date	May 2007 – April 2010
Main character(s)	Former Members Ares Black Widow Amadeus Cho Hercules Iron Man Jocasta Loki (as Scarlet Witch) Ms. Marvel Quicksilver Sentry Stature U.S. Agent Veranke (as Spider-Woman) Vision (Jonas) The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) The Wasp (Hank Pym) Wonder Man
Creative team
Writer(s)	Brian Bendis Dan Slott
Penciller(s)	Frank Cho Khoi Pham
Inker(s)	Danny Miki
Colorist(s)	Jason Keith
Creator(s)	Brian Bendis Frank Cho

The Mighty Avengers is a comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics. Originally written by Brian Michael Bendis, also the writer of New Avengers, the title first featured an officially sanctioned Avengers team of registered superheroes, residing in New York as part of the Fifty State Initiative, as opposed to the unlicensed team featured in The New Avengers. This first incarnation of the team is led by Iron Man and Ms. Marvel, with the later lineup featuring Hank Pym as the leader.

Publication history

The team first appears in The Mighty Avengers #1 (May 2007), written by Brian Michael Bendis and pencilled and inked by Frank Cho. The roster, led by Ms. Marvel, also consisted of Iron Man, The Wasp, Wonder Man, Ares, the Sentry and the Black Widow. In the wake of the superhero "Civil War", Iron Man recruits Ms. Marvel as leader of the revamped team, and together they select the first roster.

The Mighty Avengers was originally intended to run parallel with New Avengers, with characters and events crossing over and being viewed from both perspectives. However, artist Cho fell behind schedule, and left the book after six issues and an additional cover.^[1] Successor Mark Bagley drew the series from issues #7-11 (early March - late May 2008).

The series was canceled with The Mighty Avengers #36 (April 2010), at the conclusion of the Siege storyline.^[2]

Fictional team biography

See also: List of Mighty Avengers story arcs

Following the federally sanctioned creation of this iteration of the Avengers, Iron Man (Tony Stark) is discredited and publicly vilified after his inability to anticipate or prevent a secret infiltration and invasion of Earth by the shape-shifting alien Skrull race, and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual monopoly on worldwide defense.

Following the Skrulls' eventual defeat and the subsequent dissolution of SHIELD, the officially sanctioned team of Avengers, now led by Norman Osborn under the H.A.M.M.E.R. banner, is spun off into the pages of Dark Avengers ^[3]

In response, Henry Pym, in his latest superhero persona as the new Wasp, leads an Avengers team outside the U.S. and H.A.M.M.E.R.'s jurisdiction. With the apparent help of the Scarlet Witch—actually, a disguised Loki, the Norse trickster god—he summons the Vision and Stature of the Young Avengers, U.S. Agent, the Hulk, Jocasta, Hercules, Amadeus Cho, and Iron Man.

Claiming to be the only authentic team of Avengers due to being the only team operating under that name to have a founding member on the roster, the team operates from an interdimensional headquarters. It is granted official recognition outside the U.S. by the international organization G.R.A.M.P.A., and combats supervillains and other entities including Chthon,^[4] and the Unspoken.^[5]

Team Roster

Initiative Team (2007–2008)

The Mighty Avengers were founded by Ms. Marvel and Iron Man, as New York's team under the Fifty State Initiative.

Character	Real Name	Joined in	Notes
Iron Man	Anthony Edward Stark	Mighty Avengers #1 (May 2007)	Removed from being director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Secret Invasion #8.
Ms. Marvel	Carol Susan Jane Danvers		Became member of the New Avengers.
Wonder Man	Simon Williams		Resigned in Secret Invasion #8.
The Wasp	Janet van Dyne (a.k.a. Janet Pym)		Died in Secret Invasion #8.
Black Widow	Natalia Alianovna Romanova (a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff)		Resigned in Secret Invasion #8.
Sentry	Robert Reynolds		Became member of the Dark Avengers. Presumed deceased as of Siege #4.
Ares	Ares (a.k.a. John Aaron)		Became member of the Dark Avengers. Presumed killed in Siege #2.
Infiltrator (2007)
Spider-Woman	Veranke (posing as Jessica Drew)	Mighty Avengers #7 (November 2007)	A double agent with the New Avengers. Revealed to be a Skrull in Secret Invasion #3 (May 2008). Died in Secret Invasion #8.

International Team (2009–2010)

After the events of Dark Reign, the Mighty Avengers were followed by a reorganized Initiative team published in Dark Avengers, and a new international team was featured in Mighty Avengers.

Character	Real Name	Joined in	Notes
The Wasp	Dr. Henry Jonathan "Hank" Pym	Mighty Avengers #21 (March 2009)	Chosen by the "Scarlet Witch", who was actually Loki. Challenged for leadership by Iron Man, but assumed full leadership after defeating Chthon.
Hercules	Heracles		Presumed killed in the Assault on New Olympus. Returned in Chaos War #1 (Oct. 2010).
Amadeus Cho	Amadeus Cho
Jocasta	Jocasta
U.S. Agent	John Frank Walker, Jack Daniels (alias)	Mighty Avengers #22	Former member of Omega Flight, chosen in the place of an incapacitated Captain America. Removed by Norman Osborn in Mighty Avengers #33.
Stature	Cassandra Lang		Concurrent members of the Young Avengers.
Vision	Jonas (alias)
Quicksilver	Pietro Django Maximoff	Mighty Avengers #24	Joined the team after helping them defeat Titan.

Reception

The first issue of Mighty Avengers was the second highest selling comic for that month based on Diamond Publisher's indexes.^[6]

IGN reviewer Richard George said Brian Michael Bendis' writing for The Mighty Avengers #1 "manages to move through the roster selection, convey their basic information and personality, marshal them against a huge threat and leave us with a solid cliffhanger". George also praised Frank Cho's artwork, saying, "The artist not only delivers with some excellent action sequences, he does a great job with the increasingly standard widescreen format that many are adopting."^[7]

Circulation

Issue	Qty	icv2 Top 300 Ranking
1	141,288 [6]	2
2	121,365 [8]	8
3	115,440 [9]	8
4	107,768 [10]	8

Collected editions

Title	Material collected	Year	ISBN
Volume 1: The Ultron Initiative	The Mighty Avengers #1-6	2008	978-0785123682
Volume 2: Venom Bomb	The Mighty Avengers #7-11	2008	978-0785123699
Volume 3: Secret Invasion (Book 1)	The Mighty Avengers #12-15	2009	978-0785130109
Volume 4: Secret Invasion (Book 2)	The Mighty Avengers #16-20	2009	978-0785136507
Volume 5: Earth's Mightiest	The Mighty Avengers #21-26	2009	978-0785137467
Volume 6: The Unspoken	The Mighty Avengers #27-31	2010	978-0785137474
Volume 7: Siege	The Mighty Avengers #32-36	2010	978-0785148005

References

1. ^ Kean, Benjamin Ong Pang: "Frank Cho: On Leaving The Mighty Avengers", Newsarama.com, September 27, 2007
2. ^ George, Richard (January 15, 2010). "Siege Ends the Avengers". IGN. http://comics.ign.com/articles/106/1061476p1.html. Retrieved January 15, 2010. 
3. ^ Dark Avengers #1 (March 2009)
4. ^ The Mighty Avengers #21 (March 2009)
5. ^ The Mighty Avengers #27 (Sept. 2009)
6. ^ ^{a b} "Top 300 Comics Actual--March 2007". icv2.com. http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/10404.html. Retrieved 2009-01-05. 
7. ^ George, Richard. "Advance Review: Mighty Avengers #1". IGN. http://au.comics.ign.com/articles/770/770533p1.html. Retrieved 2009-01-16. 
8. ^ "Top 300 Comics Actual--April 2007". icv2.com. http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/10618.html. Retrieved 2009-01-05. 
9. ^ "Top 300 Comics Actual--May 2007". icv2.com. http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/10766.html. Retrieved 2009-01-05. 
10. ^ "Top 300 Comics Actual--June 2007". icv2.com. http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/11131.html. Retrieved 2009-01-05.