The Mighty Avengers

This article is about the comic book series. For the 1960s British pop group, see The Mighty Avengers (band).

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)	Current Members Blue Marvel Luke Cage Captain America (Wilson) Kaluu Power Man She-Hulk Spectrum Spider-Man White Tiger
Creative team
Created by	Brian Michael Bendis Frank Cho
Written by	Brian Michael Bendis Dan Slott
Penciller(s)	Frank Cho Mark Bagley Khoi Pham
Inker(s)	Danny Miki
Colorist(s)	Jason Keith

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 second lineup featuring Hank Pym as the leader, and the third led by Luke Cage and Monica Rambeau.

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 Ares, Black Widow, Iron Man, Sentry, Wasp and Wonder Man. In the wake of the superhero "Civil War", Iron Man recruits Ms. Marvel as leader of the revamped team. 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. 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.

The team was relaunched in September 2013 under the creative team of Al Ewing and Greg Land. The new team is more street-level, and is led by Luke Cage. The team contains new versions of Ronin, White Tiger and Power Man, plus Blue Marvel, the Superior Spider-Man, She-Hulk, Spectrum, the Falcon and the new hero Spider Hero.

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 S.H.I.E.L.D., 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.

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, 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, and the Unspoken.

During the events of Infinity, a new team of Mighty Avengers are formed during Thanos' invasion of Earth. With the main Avengers branch off in space, the defense of New York falls to a group of former Avengers and the remnants of Luke Cage's recently disbanded Heroes for Hire squad. They are given the name "Mighty Avengers" after a Twitter hashtag used to describe the group.

During the Inhumanity storyline, Luke Cage keeps the Mighty Avengers together and made the remodeled Gem Theater as their base. The Mighty Avengers now have the purpose of helping those in need. During this time, the Spider Hero becomes the new Ronin.

During the "Last Days" part of the Secret Wars storyline, Steve Rogers tells the Mighty Avengers team that the world is ending and asks them to side with him or the Illuminati. Two weeks before the end of the world, the Mighty Avengers join Steve Rogers in a fight against the Illuminati. The Mighty Avengers help out in the incursion against Earth-1610.

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. Later revealed that she was actually shunted to the Microverse
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 II	Jonas (alias)
Quicksilver	Pietro Django Maximoff	Mighty Avengers #24	Joined the team after helping them defeat Titan.
Infiltrator (2009)
Scarlet Witch	Loki (posing as Scarlet Witch)	Mighty Avengers #21 (March 2009)	Joined and assembled the Mighty Avengers in Mighty Avengers #21 (March 2009). Revealed in Mighty Avengers #29 (November 2009).

Infinity recruits (2013–2014)

During the Infinity event a new team was assembled. "The Mighty Avengers" volunteer organization is based out of the old Gem Theatre in Times Square, offering their services as non-profit heroes for free or a charitable contribution.

Character	Real name	Joined in	Notes
Luke Cage	Lucas Cage (born Carl Lucas)	Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 #1	Founder and business director.
Spectrum	Monica Rambeau		Field leader, former member of Nextwave
Ronin	Eric Brooks (aka Blade)		First appeared as "Spider Hero." His identity was leaked in an earlier draft of a script. His identity was officially revealed in Mighty Avengers #9.
Blue Marvel	Adam Brashear	Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 #2
Power Man	Victor Alvarez	Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 #3	Former students at Avengers Academy, former members of the Heroes for Hire.
White Tiger	Ava Ayala
Falcon aka Captain America	Samuel "Sam" Wilson	Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 #4	Also a member of the main Avengers team as Captain America.
She-Hulk	Jennifer Walters	Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 #6	Legal counsel for the Mighty Avengers and current member of the Future Foundation.
Infiltrator (2013)
Superior Spider-Man	Otto Octavius's mind in Peter Parker's body	Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 #1	Self-declared member, also member-on-probation of the main Avengers team. He leaves the team in Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 #5.

Avengers NOW! (2014–present)

In November 2014, the book was relaunched under the new title of Captain America and the Mighty Avengers as part of "Avengers NOW!" This volume was cancelled in June, 2015, after 9 issues.

Character	Real name	Joined in	Notes
Kaluu	Kaluu	Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #1 (November 2014)	Current members of the Mighty Avengers.
Spider-Man	Peter Parker	Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #3 (January 2015)

Reception

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

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."

Circulation

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

Collected editions

Title	Material collected	Year	ISBN
Mighty Avengers Vol. 1: The Ultron Initiative	Mighty Avengers #1–6	2008	978-0785123682
Mighty Avengers Vol. 2: Venom Bomb	Mighty Avengers #7–11	2008	978-0785123699
Mighty Avengers Vol. 3: Secret Invasion (Book 1)	Mighty Avengers #12–15	2009	978-0785130109
Mighty Avengers Vol. 4: Secret Invasion (Book 2)	Mighty Avengers #16–20	2009	978-0785136507
Mighty Avengers: Earth's Mightiest	Mighty Avengers #21–26	2009	978-0785137467
Mighty Avengers: The Unspoken	Mighty Avengers #27–31	2010	978-0785137474
Mighty Avengers: Siege	Mighty Avengers #32–36	2010	978-0785148005
Mighty Avengers Vol. 1: No Single Hero	Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 #1–5	March 2014	978-0785188742
Mighty Avengers Vol. 2: Family Bonding	Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 #6–10	August 2014	978-0785188759
Mighty Avengers Vol. 3: Original Sin – Not Your Father's Avengers	Mighty Avengers Vol. 2 #11–14	December 2014	978-0785190721
Captain America & the Mighty Avengers Vol. 1: Open for Business	Captain America & the Mighty Avengers #1–7	June 2015	978-0785193821
Captain America & the Mighty Avengers Vol. 2: Last Days	Captain America & the Mighty Avengers #8–9, Captain Britain & the Mighty Defenders' #1–2, Avengers Assemble #15AU	November 2015	978-0785198031

Title	Material collected	Year	ISBN
Mighty Avengers Assemble	The Mighty Avengers #1–11	March 11, 2009	978-0785137580
Mighty Avengers: Secret Invasion	The Mighty Avengers #12–20	March 24, 2010	978-0785142614
Mighty Avengers: Dark Reign	The Mighty Avengers #21–36	August 17, 2011	978-0785156697