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Mighty Avengers is a monthly comic book currently published by Marvel Comics, starring the superhero team The Avengers. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, the writer also behind the New Avengers series, and illustrated by Frank Cho, the series depicts a group of superheroes that form a new team of Avengers. The series is set after the events of the Civil War storyline. Mighty Avengers #1 was released on March 7, 2007.

The initial team roster was revealed in Wizard Magazine #180, in August 2006 ^[1]. The team members of the book are:

• Ares, Olympian God of War turned anti-hero. Chosen due to the team's described need for "a Thor" and "a Wolverine".
• Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, a former Russian spy and longtime ally of the Avengers. She was also one of Tony Stark's many lovers.
• Iron Man, Tony Stark, the original armored Avenger and founding member of the Avengers, also currently serving as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers, former super-agent now trying to do her best to become a great super-hero. Iron Man has appointed her team leader.
• The Sentry, Robert Reynolds, superhero with a troubled past, and the "powerhouse" of the Mighty Avengers
• Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, wealthy fashion icon and a founding member of the Avengers, able to shrink herself, growing "wasp" wings on her back in the process and fire power blasts of electricity from her hands.
• Wonder Man, Simon Williams, former industrialist turned super heroic actor and stuntman.

While artist Angel Medina was slated to pencil the second arc, it was recently announced that Bendis will instead be reunited with Ultimate Spider-Man artist, Mark Bagley.^[2]

The Mighty Avengers are first seen as a team at the end of Civil War #7, where they are shown as the New York branch of the Fifty States Initiative. However, Tony Stark says that while the Initiative covers each state, he intends the Mighty Avengers to serve the entire world. Further clarification will be needed to determine if the Mighty Avengers are part of the Initiative.

Issue #1 begins with The Mighty Avengers, having only been a team for 15 minutes, descending from their Quinjet into the streets of New York City, currently infested with monsters. (One of the monsters appears identical to Godzilla, who made his comic debut in a 1977 Marvel series.) The story then flashes back to a few hours ago, as Iron Man and Ms. Marvel select the membership of their new team of Avengers. Back to present time, Iron Man receives a report from Maria Hill about abnormal weather throughout the world. An angry Mole Man emerges from the underground, claiming that the monsters are his and that the attack is retaliation for his underground home being destroyed. Iron Man begins to morph and twist, eventually changing into a female figure who closely resembles Wasp.

Issue #2 continues the battle as the Avengers have realized that the robot is a new Ultron who admits to being responsible for the destruction of Moleman's home and also the strange weather affecting the world.

In Issue #3 the Sentry and Ultron clash while the other Avengers fall back to come up with a plan to stop Ultron. Maria Hill is knocked unconscious and Black Widow, realizing that she is the highest ranked agent present, assumes command of S.H.I.E.L.D. At the end of the issue, the original Iron Man suit appears and tells the Avengers that if they are hearing its message then Tony Stark is dead.

Issue #4 sees the Starktech 9 (the suit that informed them Stark was dead) and Henry Pym helping the Avengers to foil Ultron's plans of destroying humanity. They manage to destroy the satellites she is using to control the weather, only for her to cut power to New York and then murder The Sentry's wife. As Ultron uses all the other Iron Man armor suits to attack the Avengers and stall them, they realize that she is only using plans and ideas that have happened before or been thought of by other people.

In Issue #5, as the Sentry battles Ultron, the group prepares to deliver a virus into it's system, using Ares, of whom the machine knows nothing, as the point man.

It has been revealed through official artwork that a set of symbiotes identical to that which makes up half of Venom will be featured in Mighty Avengers after their first storyline. New Avengers #36 reveals that Doctor Doom is behind the attack and that the Mighty Avengers will lead S.H.I.E.L.D forces in war against Latveria afterwards. Information for the upcoming Issue #9 in February hints that it might not be the true Doom, and that Spider-Woman will join the Mighty Avengers.^[3] Frank Cho admitted that he found the schedule for Mighty Avengers too demanding and has decided to leave the series after the Annual and issue #6 is complete.

I learned the hard way that I'm not a solid 6 week guy anymore and drawing a team book is like drawing two books a month due to the copious amount of figures that I have to draw in multiple panels in every page. It's weird the more I draw comics the more self-conscious I get about the quality of my drawing, thus slower I get. My original goal was to stay on Mighty Avengers for the long run but with my tardiness I was hurting all the books that are tied in with Mighty Avengers. So I pulled myself out.^[4]

Mark Bagley will be replacing him in issue seven.

• Newsarama - Comic Con '06
• Marvel Publishing Catalog - Mighty Avengers #1
• Angel Medina At The Phoenix Cactus Comicon