It’s the big finale to Marvel’s week of MIGHTY teasers! Mighty Avengers is a brand new book tied to the INFINITY event! When Earth’s Mightiest Heroes must go on a mission across the galaxy – these heroes will rise up to protect our world!
Luke Cage, Superior Spider-Man, She-Hulk will be joined by Blue Marvel, White Tiger and the new Power Man. Today Marvel revealed more members of the roster (Falcon and Monica Rambeau now with new code-name: Spectrum and a new Ronin) and the creative team: Al Ewing and Greg Land.
“Mighty Avengers is launching in the midst of Infinity. It’s a pretty key component. The gist of the opening story is that the Avengers are off in space dealing with the Builders and in their absence, Thanos comes to Earth. A number of other characters rise up and join together to oppose to what’s going on, arraying themselves around Luke Cage. ‘If the Avengers aren’t here, we’re the Avengers,'” says Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort.
“The book really came about because we saw an opportunity to launch a different kind of Avengers title out of Infinity. We had just wrapped Dark Avengers, so we were one Avengers book down from previous months, and I’m not one to let an opportunity like that pass. I floated the basic idea to Al,” he continued.
“I looked at the possibilities with what was happening with Infinity and thought there was a nice for a team of Avengers more on the ground and part of the community, almost a community outreach thing. During the first few issues, ‘There comes a day…’ as they say,” says writer Al Ewing.
Monica Rambeau is fan-favorite character once known as Captain Marvel in the Roger Stern Avengers era and Photon (from Nextwave by Warren Ellis) and is a surprise addition.
“Monica Rambeau will be on the team. She’s the field leader. New costume, new name, kind of rejoining and rebranding herself. She’ll be called Spectrum,” Ewing revealed, “I remember Monica from the Roger Stern days of Avengers leading the team. It’s great to have her back in that role. I like her personality and her powers. When you start thinking about her, there are so many ways she use those powers. She’s definitely one of the ones I’m most looking forward to writing.”
During the Brian Michael Bendis New Avengers run Echo and Clint Barton wore the Ronin costume. Watch for a new hero under the uniform in this new series:
“Ronin is the character find of 2013. We batted around some ideas for him with putting on the Ronin suit. We’ll find out in issue #1 why we can’t know who he is. I feel like even revealing his gender I’ve said too much. This is the man who will be Ronin. His mystery will be explored in the first year,” said Ewing.
Luke Cage retired to raise his child in safety but answers the call when the world’s needs him again.
“With Luke having a kid now and having quit the Avengers before, he’s no longer the first one in the line of fire always, but he is taking a strong role guiding the team,” says Al Ewing.
“It’s a sort of idealistic assortment of characters really embodied by Luke. He has an idea for what the Avengers could be. It dates back to a lot of stuff Brian Bendis alluded to when he was writing Avengers but we never had the space to expand on,” adds Brevoort.
This roster has some very unexpected characters – some high profile and some might say forgotten. But for every “forgotten” hero there are fans who remember. The writer talks about respect for fans and their love for heroes that have been waiting for a comeback.
“I take these characters’ fan followings very seriously. I’ve never been a big fan of A-list, B-list, C-list. You never tell a firefighter he’s a C-list firefighter. I hadn’t heard of the Blue Marvel before this assignment and I’ve kind of fallen in love with him. He’s powerful, but also multi-faceted. He’s almost the opposite of the Sentry. He thinks and cares very deeply about everything he does,” say Ewing.
When you look at the promo art you will notice this is a very ethnically diverse team and that’s on purpose.
“The racial diversity of the line-up is no accident, really. I’ve always responded to people asking why we don’t have a black Avengers or Latino Avengers that it feels artificial. But, the reality is that people who want to see characters in comics representing them have a point. We first started conceptualizing this book in February around Black History Month and the anniversary of the death of my friend Dwayne McDuffie. So I set out no to do ‘Black Avengers’ but more Dwayne McDuffie Avengers. I wanted to have a minimum of non-white characters but not have that necessarily be the point, then a lot of the characters who fit into what we wanted to do ended up being minorities. It’s not a ‘solution’ to lack of diversity elsewhere, but it’s something we considered,” says Brevoort.
The new Power Man introduced in the Shadowland epic is mentored by Cage and Iron Fist.
“Power Man’s power set is actually a lot like Iron Fist’s, so there’s that with him and Luke. Their dynamic is not the teacher-student relationship Victor has with Danny Rand. It’s more boss and intern. It’s like when you’re running a business and there’s a spot for your friend’s kid who you don’t really like. There’s a pretty massive argument between them right in the first issue,” says Ewing.
Captain America recruits Falcon to join and keep an eye on the new team while Cage recruits another former Avenger.
“Luke brings in She-Hulk as much for her legal knowledge as her powers. What he’s planning will involve not necessarily being connected to S.H.I.E.L.D. or the main Avengers. They’re the Ron Swanson and Leslie Knope of the Avengers” says Ewing of the jade giant attorney.
Jessica Jones (Mrs. Cage) became a fan favorite during New Avengers. Will Luke’s wife be part of the series?
“She’ll definitely be showing up. She might even get some hits in. She’s not totally happy Luke is back with an Avengers team, but she also fell in love with a man who had dreams and this is one of them. He’s trying to compromise between his dreams of what super heroics should be and the family that he has built. The short answer is: they love each other,” says Ewing.
“This is a team that initially comes together out of necessity because the world is in jeopardy and the guys who would usually step up to the plate are otherwise occupied. Thereafter, personalities gel and a framework begins to evolve that defines the goals of the team, their vision, their work. The cast will evolve beyond these nine characters.” says Brevoort.
Mighty Avengers #1 arrives in September.
For the entire liveblog here’s the Marvel.com link.
By Editor