Wednesday, April 01, 2009

the Mighty Avengers #23 - Marvel


I actually didn't like this issue very much. The Mighty Avengers are in complete disarray right now . . because of the whole Norman Osborne / Thunderbolts / HAMMER thing, but we did have a team assembled last issue by Wanda. It consists of Hank Pym, the Vision, the Hulk, Stature, Hercules, US Agent, Jocasta Amadeus Cho and Jarvis. An eclectic team to say the least. And with their current troubles with Chthon and Quicksilver at Mount Wundagore . . Iron Man showed up last issue to try to help 'fix' things. But really his appearance only proved 2 things. First of all, most of the team question whether or not they still respect him or can follow him. Secondly, he's still making the wrong decisions. He asks for Hercules and US Agent to help him, and then his plan is to demolish Mount Wundagore to cut of Chthon from his source of power. However it's Hank that figures out the real solution and ends up being the one to save the day. My problem with this story is two-fold. First of all . . I don't really like Hank's character. I never really have. And it's not because of all the glaring reasons . . he's arrogant, he's moody, he's probably bi-polar or schizophrenic, he's the face of the Skrull invasion. No, I just don't really like the guy . . the character, the costume, the powers that seem to change every issue . . I just can't get into his character. Secondly, the team is still in disarray. They borrowed some Young Avengers this issue to help them out, so they'll be heading back there. The Hulk is not a stable character, so he won't be around. And, the team was put together by Wanda. Yes Hank will probably be taking over and running it from here, but . . we find out this issue that the whole thing was a ruse and was actually Loki posing as Wanda. We don't find out the motivations for his actions, but . . there's gotta be some reason he's doing all of this. Also, I just didn't like the resolution of this story-line. It was all to neat and clean. One minute they're fighting Chthon, and the next . . it's all over. It just seems to me that the whole future of the team is up in the air right now. Dan Slott wrote the story and Khoi Pham does the art. I'm sorry. This issue may serve as a piece in a much larger story, but . . as a stand alone issue . . I've seen better. It makes me question the future of this series. Sorry!

3 comments:

  1. Huh, I actually liked this issue a lot more than the last two... It's funny, all the adjectives you used to describe Hank I would use to describe Iron Man! I actually think Hank's(many)flaws make him a more complete, interesting character.

    I agree that this team is kind of a mess, but at least THIS team actually contains some traditional Avengers characters, unlike New and Dark Avengers. Plus I thought the Loki revelation really puts some added interest into this series. It shows that Loki is working directly against Norman Osborn and the rest of the Dark Reign stuff.

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  2. Some good points. True. I hadn't really made the Loki / Dark Reign connection. Thanks for pointing that out. That should be interesting. I see what you mean about my description of Hank. You're right. And I'm sorry, I just don't like his character. I never have.

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  3. Honestly, I would say that more people view Pym the way you do. That's why I was kind of surprised that Dan Slott chose Pym to be the leader of his Avengers team. When most people think of Hank Pym, they tend to think poorly of him. Me, I've been a fan of Pym's since the West Coast Avengers series... Most of my favorite Avengers were actually members of the WCA, I loved that series! Anyway, I just wanted to say that your views on Pym are probably WAY more in line with the majority than my views are.

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