Mighty Avengers #1 cover by Greg Land
By Paul Montgomery
When Thanos lays siege to the Earth, he and his alien forces believe the planet largely undefended. The mad Titan knows Captain America and his elite Avengers team have aligned with former enemies to stave off the Builders in their plot to level entire galaxies. Fortunately, Luke Cage and his Heroes for Hire squad remain planet-side, ready to rally a resistance.
This September, Al Ewing and Greg Land unveil the pluckiest, scrappiest super hero team of them all in MIGHTY AVENGERS.
Today writer Ewing muses on two of the team’s field leaders, and remains mum on its enigmatic wild card.
Falcon
Harlem native Sam Wilson counts years of service with the Avengers and countless team-ups with Captain America as chief feathers in his cap. Helping out Luke Cage down in lower Manhattan seems only natural, but his teammates still might question his priorities.
Falcon
“Sam is old school,” explains Ewing. “He's a dedicated super hero who's dividing his time between this and [Tony Stark’s] team, which causes a little friction. He's here because he wants to be, but some of the other Mighty Avengers might feel that he's only on the team as a hobby, with Tony's Avengers being his main, ‘important’ job. She-Hulk doesn't get this, but She-Hulk isn't working with Tony Stark. Luke has a suspicion that he's acting as a pair of eyes for Steve Rogers.”
“Which...it's more complicated than that, is all I'll say for now.”
“The impression I always got of Sam—mostly from Christopher Priest and Ed Brubaker—is that he's utterly professional in everything he does, and extremely cool,” Ewing says. “He's equally at home fighting aliens in space, mixing it up with crime lords in dark alleys and doing stealth missions on a helicarrier somewhere; he's the jack of all super-trades, and he'll be bringing all those trades to the team. He's James Bond with a deeper skill set, which includes Hitchcock's ‘The Birds’ as an offensive weapon.”
Mighty Avengers #1 preview art by Greg Land
Monica “Spectrum” Rambeau
“Monica's an old favorite of mine from my childhood, and it's great to be writing her,” notes Ewing.
The super hero formerly known as Lady-of-Light, Daystar, Photon and Sceptre once led the Avengers into battle as Captain Marvel—to the constant consternation of her colleagues in Nextwave some time later. Imbued with electromagnetic power, Monica can transform into any number of energy waves, from gamma and cosmic rays to electricity and various forms of light. Such transformations afford Monica the ability to fly and travel at super speeds, emit energy blasts and achieve intangibility.
Most importantly, she appears at the right place at the right time.
“She's the other ‘core member,’” explains Ewing. “One of the original three to show up to Proxima Midnight's attack—four if you count The Splendiferous Spider Hero—and when we join her, she's making a push to establish a new hero identity as Spectrum, which involves some rebranding on her part: a new costume, a new look.”
“Historically, she's always been at her best in a leadership position,” the writer continues, “So she's the field leader of the team. She has a say in the overall direction as well, but down on the ground in the thick of it, she calls the shots. She's the backbone of the Mighty Avengers—strong-willed, pragmatic and powerful—but there are a couple of nagging questions: what prompted this sudden rebranding, and will a spot on this team be enough for her in the long run?”
Mighty Avengers #1 preview art by Greg Land
The Splendiferous Spider Hero
Redacted.
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Pre-order MIGHTY AVENGERS #1, available everywhere on September 11