Mighty Avengers #36 Review
- Details
- Published on Saturday, 08 May 2010 20:34
- Written by Andrenn
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Mighty Avengers has been a very hit and miss series, but through it all I stuck to it in hopes that Slott would give me the Avengers book I always wanted. There have been high points and low points, but now it’s all coming to a close with Hank Pym taking on his robot son Ultron. All the development of the series ends here, does Slott end his run on a high note or low note? Let’s find out.
Creative Team
Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Koi Pham
Story Rating: 8 Ultrons out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Ultrons out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Ultrons out of 10
Synopsis: Hank Pym is giving exposition about how Underspace works, the way the infinite mansion helps Janet keep her form and everything. When he asks Jocasta if she knows her role in this as she’s getting enraged she smacks him away. Berating him and saying he was just using her. When Ace asks if she went evil Jax says that was the most human thing she could do.
Hank gets up and then Ultron breaks through the door. Hank says how Asgard would be better than this and we switch to the Mighty Avengers fighting the Thunderbolts in Asgard. Stature gives exposition as to why the Thunderbolts are there as she squeezes Ant-man. Random Thunderbolt guy uses the spear of Odin to cut off US Agent’s right arm and leg. (what’s a guy gotta give to get a spear in this place, an arm and a leg? Ha, though seriously what the hell, Marvel?) Ghost asks where is Herc and Quicksilver as Vision is spazzing out on the ground. Ghost gives Amadeus’ gameboy a boost and Amadeus calls Quicksilver for help.
Back at Underspace they are running across the infinite mansion, Hank brings up using a Pym Wave across time and space and Ultron and his army of Jocasta’s show up. Telling him it’s over, Ultron makes Janet speak since he’s overwritten her brain patterns. When Ultron starts talking about how he’s won Hank berates him saying he did all this to impress him rather than use this power to take over the world. Ultron stutters for a moment.
Hank grows large, berating Ultron as he grabs him and Ultron’s army of Jocasta’s start attacking him. As he fights them off Jocasta leads Ace and Jax away after saying it’s what Janet would have wanted. Ultrons and Hank fight, Hank saying this is all a distraction. Jocasta takes over Janet’s body again and all the other Jocasta bodies turn off. Jocasta says they have something to barter with so Ultron comes down, asking what they could possibly barter over.
Jocasta says if Ultron leaves she will marry him. She says she’s Avengers royalty and that this will protect Hank and the mansion. Ultron agrees so Hank marries them. After the brief ceremony Ultron asks why he wouldn’t destroy Hank right now. Hank says he’s used a Pym-wave to call forth Avengers from different times and places all at once. Ultron says that’s impossible, Hank smiles and says Avengers Assemble and several doors open.
As the room fills up with several super heroes Hank says that for Hank Pym nothing is inconceivable. Ultron agrees to retreat to Underspace, when Jocasta goes with him Hank tells her she doesn’t have to go but she says it’s best if she keep an eye on them and they leave. Hank tells Ace he can shut it off and we see the heroes where all holograms.
Jarvis shows up, apologizing for leaving like that. Jocasta appears, projecting her mind into one of the Jocasta bodies. She says she can multitask, still help the Avengers. Hank apologizes and she says he can make it up by being an Avenger, he asks her to open a door as he knows where to start.
We switch to Asgard where the Void is tearing Loki apart. The Mighty Avengers watch in horror and say how Hank was right all along. He shows up and gives them a speech about how it’s not all about him, that they are a team. He then calls out Avengers Assemble as they charge into battle for the last time as the Mighty Avengers.
Commentary
The Good: Mighty Avengers #36 was a solid enjoyable conclusion to Slott’s run on Mighty Avengers. He closed all the prior developments while leaving plenty of room for the next writer (in this case Christos Gage) to come in and continue where he left things off.
Slott’s farewell to the book was more about the character he devoted the book to restoring and that’s Hank Pym, which is perfectly fine. It was nice to see just how far Hank Pym has come this last year. Slott has done a great job of really building up Hank and putting him back in the saddle as one of the most important men in the Marvel universe.
It was brilliant to use Hank Pym’s greatest mistake come to life Ultron as the enemy here. I’m a sucker for Classic Avengers villains like Ultron so seeing him here was great and Slott wrote him incredibly well. Ultron, much like Doom, is one of the cockier villains out there even when he doesn’t deserve such arrogance. It’s always great seeing him show off and not be afraid to act like he’s the ultimate being in the universe.
Of course then it was also great seeing Ultron finally stammer, lose his cool for once. After all any good Father vs. Son storyline has the superior side faltering for a moment. Seeing Ultron be called out for his obsession with his father was great and it gave Hank a great badass moment as well which made it even better.
I do love what Slott has done with the Hank Pym/Ultron Pym relationship. They’ve always hated each other but Slott has taken it and turned it into a classic father/son clash and that always makes things like this better.
I also like that Ultron is now calling himself Ultron Pym. I got tired of all the numbering so seeing Ultron accept his lineage. Ultron has always been nuts, but seeing him finally accept his heritage as the “son” of Hank Pym was just great and it can lead to some really exciting and interesting character moments in the future.
I was really impressed to see the coordination that Mighty Avengers had with the book it’s crossing over with during Siege, Thunderbolts. Certain moments where redone word per word and that was really cool to see how well coordinated these 2 books are as they tie in together. Though here we saw it through the eyes of the Mighty Avengers which was smart.
I didn’t review last issue so I didn’t get a chance to mention how brilliant the twist of Underspace was. Slott really did a great job of building up this reveal and when we finally saw it, it was absolutely great to see it and it was a really big twist that of all things Underspace is the body of Janet. Also of course seeing Jocasta’s reaction was great, even if I had a problem with what happened to her character later on in the issue, which I’ll get to later.
My favorite moment had to be the ending with Hank rallying his Avengers. It was sort of a bitter sweet farewell for Slott as the team was all rallied together and one last assembling to save Asgard and it was handled incredibly well. It left the book off on a high note and left the reader feeling like he’d just had a great Avengers experience.
Pham’s artwork, while not his best, was still really strong. I could tell that Pham was pouring all his energy into making this look as good as he could and really wanting to end his run on a high note as best he could. I appreciate that hard work and seeing Pham do all eh can to make Mighty Avengers look as good as he can make it.
Slott really did his best to end Mighty Avengers on a triumphant note and while I don’t feel this was the best issue of the series I think this was as good as an ending as we could hope for. While it had its highs and lows I for one am really going to miss Slott's Mighty Avengers. While it's not his best work at Marvel (Initiative holds that title) it was still a great run and he ended it as best he could.
The Bad: For all it’s good there where still some frustrations that came with the finale of Mighty Avengers. My biggest complaint being the loss of Jocasta. While it was a good twist as to why Jocasta now bears the last name Pym, it felt rather forced for the character and it ended her story arc on a somber note. She’s come a long way, just as Hank has, and for her to end up being written out was really sad.
Now she can still show up of course, she’ll probably have some role in Academy I figure, but she can’t be as big or important a character now I feel. Also I feel her relationship with Hank now went nowhere. While not everyone like their relationship, I thought it was handled well and to see it disbanded like this was really disappointing.
I mentioned that Pham really did his best and it was good art, but some of his usual faults remain. His art never has been quite as good as during the first story arc and I’m not sure why. He still has some annoying moments and weak spots with the character detail sadly even though the art is still solid.
I was very annoyed with how easily Ultron gave up. Yeah, he thought he was surrounded by tons of A-list Avengers ready to rip his head off and I can’t blame him for backing down a little but this is Ultron. He doesn’t scare easily and I would think he’d at least blast at one of them to make sure it was the real deal. That’s the smart thing to do at least and Ultron is a really smart villain.
While I didn’t mind it, I know readers of Siege are going to be frustrated that this issue spoiled a major plot point come Siege #4. It seems Loki dies fighting the Void, a great twist, but I know a lot of people wanted to read that in Siege and not Mighty Avengers so thanks to Siege’s delay this definitely will frustrate fans.
Overall: Mighty Avengers ends on a high note and anyone who missed Slott’s run should definitely give it a try. While it had some major low points in the end Slott ended things off right and delivered the Avengers book I’d been wanting since Disassembled. Slott has really given us a great Avengers series that will hopefully be remembered as time goes on, and he definitely ended it as best he could.