Mighty Avengers, though not as dreadfully dull and stagnant of a read as New Avengers, still hasn’t been all that impressive. Bendis has delivered a slow and lumbering story on this title. Now that we finally have an artist on board who can keep a monthly schedule and Bendis has finally gotten past the horribly executed Venom symbiote story arc, maybe this title can finally get rolling. If anything else, Mighty Avengers #9 has the potential to deliver a fun action packed read. Let’s do this review for Mighty Avengers #9.
Creative Team
Writer: Brain Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inks: Danny Miki
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: We begin with Doctor Doom finishing having what I’m sure was some phenomenal sex with the one and only Morgan Le Fey. Morgan asks why Doom continues to come back in time and visit her. Doom says it is because she entices him. Morgan comments that she thought it was so that he could gain her knowledge of the Dark Arts that mankind will forget once she passes. Doctor Doom says that that is true, but that wasn’t the question that she asked.
Morgan then demands Doom bring her a gift from the future the next time that he visits her. Doom says that such an act could wreak havoc on the time continuum. Morgan insists by stating either Doom brings back a gift from the future or he had better not visit her again.
Doom then transports back to his castle in our present time. One of Doom’s aides informs him that there was a problem with one of their satellites and that the Venom virus was accidently launched. Doom is enraged at this mistake. Doom is then informed that the Avengers and SHIELD are about to attack Doom’s castle.
We see the Mighty Avengers arriving at Doom’s castle. Ares tells everyone to get out of the Quinjet. Ares then crashes the Quinjet through the castle walls. The Mighty Avengers then engage Doom’s troops in a massive battle that consists of back to back to back double page splash shots.
Iron Man makes his way to Doom and the two armored men face off against each other. Doom, realizing he can’t beat Iron Man’s armor, whips up some black magic and attacks Iron Man. The Sentry rushes to Iron Man’s aid. Sentry pounds away at Doom. The castle turret collapses due to the fighting. Iron Man, Sentry and Doom then all fall into Doom’s time platform. The time platform has been activated by the fight and the space time energy is fluctuating unstably. All three men disappear into the time stream.
The rest of the Avengers finish off the rest of Doom’s army. They then discover that Iron Man, Sentry and Doom all fell through Doom’s time platform. The time platform appears to be broken. That means that the three men are at best lost in time and at worst dead.
We cut to Iron Man waking up in New York City in the past. There is no internet for Iron Man to connect to and no satellites for him to hook into. Doom then appears in front of Iron Man and curses Tony for trapping them in time and that Tony will pay for it with his dying breath. End of story.
Comments
The Good: I cannot believe it. Mighty Avengers #9 was a fun read! What a refreshing change of pace to read an Avengers comic book that actually felt like the Avengers. Bendis cranks out a fast paced issue. Mighty Avengers #9 was properly plotted, which is also a surprise. This issue is quite focused and progresses with a clear purpose. The fact that this issue was so well paced and plotted was a pleasant surprise. For as plodding and dull as New Avengers has been, it was nice to see Bendis flash his ability to actually produce a tightly written and quick paced issue.
Bendis serves up some solid dialogue. It isn’t anything special, but it gets the job done. Bendis certainly writes a proper Doctor Doom. I particularly enjoyed the dialogue between Morgan Le Fay and Doom. Bendis does an excellent job handling these two characters and their unique relationship with each other.
I definitely love me some Morgan Le Fay. I dig the Arthurian tales so I always like it when Morgan makes an appearance in a Marvel comic book. Bendis certainly gives us an appropriately slinky, sexy and deadly Morgan. No matter how powerful Doom may think he is, even he knows better than to cross paths with Morgan Le Fay.
And it is fantastic for the Avengers to finally tangle with a legit villain. The Hood over on New Avengers simply isn’t Avengers material. Hood is a fine villain for tiles like Heroes for Hire, Daredevil, Iron Fist or Spider-Man. But, not for the premier super team in the Avengers. Nope, the Avengers deserve quality A-list villains like Doctor Doom.
Bendis completely stunned me by cranking out some fantastic action in this issue. This was one huge massive brawl that certainly makes this a fun issue to read. Bendis shows off that he can do something other than deathly boring, slow, pointless and talky issues. There is no doubt that action junkies will love Mighty Avengers #9.
Bendis ends this issue with a pretty cool hook ending. We have Iron Man, Sentry and Doom all trapped in the past. Doom’s time platform is terribly damaged. And to top it all off Iron Man and Doom are squared off ready to brawl while the Sentry is missing somewhere. I certainly am looking forward to the next issue. It should be interesting to see how these three character manage to get themselves back to the present time.
Bagley delivers some nice artwork in this issue. Bagley absolutely spoils the reader with three double page splash shots in a row. That certainly made the fight scene rather dynamic. I love that the final scene with Iron Man and Doctor Doom in the past is drawn with the old style with the color dots. That was a cool little touch.
The Bad: Mighty Avengers #9 was a bit of a shallow read. This issue relies heavily on a massive action scene to carry the story. If you prefer stories with plenty of depth and substance then you might not particularly enjoy this issue.
Overall: Mighty Avengers #9 was a fun action adventure story with a legit big-time villain. This is what I expect when I pick up an issue of the Avengers. I was pleasantly surprised that Bendis was able to crank out such an enjoyable issue. Readers who love what is currently being given to us on New Avengers probably won’t dig this issue. But, I would certainly recommend Mighty Avengers #9 to any readers who enjoy an action packed issue that is nothing more than an enjoyable bit of escapism.
4 thoughts on “Mighty Avengers #9 Review”
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“Morgan then demands Doom bring her a gift from the future the next time that he visits her. Doom says that such an act could wreak havoc on the time continuum.”
No, the correct response from is:
“Doom has already gifted you with his matchless bodily fluids! That is more than any mere wench deserves!”
Yup, this is certainly more like it. I would have much more respect for Bendis if he continued to write Avengers books like this.
Doom could always bring her the gift of the pill, I suppose, just to head off an Victor/Victoria Jr. being born 800 years in the past.
This is Bagley’s last Marvel job for a while, so it’s cool to see him do some real widescreen action (something USM didn’t really afford).
The real star, though, is Djurdjevic’s three pages; I absolutely cannot wait to see his Thor guest issues (#7-8).
I really liked the side-by-side armour readouts from Iron Man and Doom’s respective suits; it’s a cool compare/contrast (advantage: Doom, for his being much more readable).
Since Doom didn’t launch the symbiote bomb (intentially) (that was always way too random for him), my guess is the Skrulls did it to pit two major players (the Avengers and Doom) against each other. Which is, you know, an actual interesting Skrull story, rather than a small group of people repetitively wondering who’s a Skrull.
I also thought it was kinda of a slow read. I agree that they deserve to battle a class A villain but I think Bendis’ dialogue is atrocious. Check out my full review.