Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #9 Review

In Earth’s final hours, the Mighty Avengers come together one last time…

…but in the face of the end of everything, what help can they give?

Guest-starring the latest and perhaps the greatest Mighty Avenger – YOU!

Reflecting on Al Ewing’s Mighty Avengers

There was a great deal of excitement when the initial announcement was made about a team of minority superheroes thrown together on a team. It harkened back to Milestone comics Blood Syndicate or Christopher Priest’s The Crew, unlike either though this one was backed by a major company with a recognizable brand behind it. I mean this had “Avengers” in the title after Joss Whedon had made the word a household name. Then we had that Peanut Butter Jelly time Deadpool cover which made the series the most talked about book set to debut in 2013. Did the cover hurt or help sales? Your guess is as good as mine but it made the more racially conscious fans wary of what would take place in the book and put the writing capabilities of Al Ewing under the microscope of scrutiny before Mighty Avengers #1 even debuted.

Now here at the end of what Ewing himself classifies as the end of the second season of the Mighty Avengers he’s satisfied by the book he gave fans. Am I? Well the opening arc of the initial series tied into INFINITY. It started the manifesto though that this was a more grounded Avengers team connected and intricately bound with the community. Sure they had big superhero adventures but this Avengers team was for the people. Being formed by Luke Cage was also a nice touch since he’s always been a grounded character. Sure he has lead, both the Avengers and Thunderbolts teams but started out and had most of his history as a decidedly street level character. Say what you want about the series, it wasn’t perfect but a perfect comic is a rare thing nowadays. Characters like Blue Marvel benefited greatly from being included as we got the filler tales of what he did after he publicly retired, we met both his sons and got a better sense of who he was as a person. As an Easter egg we got fleshing out of his friendship with Uatu the Watcher. I would argue that the Mighty Avengers did for Adam Brashear what Reginald Hudlin’s run on Black Panther did for T’challa, it humanized him. Ava Ayala also got some progress as she took quite literal control over the Tiger God who had been powering every White Tiger before her. Falcon/Captain America had smaller highlights from using his power over birds to become a killer spy before progressing into his role as Captain America and becoming the public face of the team. Monica Rambeau was also notable as she got a power upgrade and used her powers like the sun goddess the Black Panther always said she was. The budding romance between herself and Blue Marvel was also a “fanboys”, wet dream. My only disappointment as the world ends is that Blue Marvel and Monica don’t share a kiss ala Rogue and Gambit before the Age of Apocalypse. Let’s also not forget Blade masquerading as Ronin….though the mystery was spoiled in advance of the reveal which again perhaps hurt the series. The second season titled Captain America and the mighty avengers tied into the disappointing AXIS event which was bland and pointless on all levels. The series transitioned into its mantra of community based avengers with a call centre and expanding membership to civilians from the community. It was a neat idea but in this last issue with the end imminent we see why the manifesto was important as we often only view heroes in comics as the guys and gals with powers or costumes but everyday people are capable of bouts of heroism too. This also made this last issue the most emotional of the series thus far as the reality of the end of creation hits you but still the Mighty Avengers whether they were telephone operators, Superheroes, Doctors or just from the community helped in the way they could to make Earth a better place even if it was for five more seconds.

Finale Thoughts

Overall this last issue and the series in general get a resounding recommendation from me. It was different from all the other Avengers series and featuring some truly new villains who proved to be a satisfying threat especially Cortex and his company who reminded me of that law firm from the Angel TV series. Al Ewing you have done a wonderful job and whether the series continues or not I am a happy camper and I enjoyed being a Mighty Avengers right up until the very end of all creation! 4 5 stars