Mighty Avengers #23

I see where you're going, Dan Slott. Nicely played. It is almost hard to talk about most of the issue after the big reveal at the end, but I'm not going to spoil it here. I will say I like the idea, and the parallel to the formation of the Avengers is a very clever. As to the bulk of the issue, wow, Iron Man is a read dick, isn't he? I love Iron Man, he's one of my favorites, but it is hard to like him when he comes off like such a jerk in this issue. Now sure, when he comes in and takes over from Pym, Pym immediately launches into a tirade that would probably hurt IM's feelings, but still. IM is so darn harsh to Pym, if Pym was as weak as Iron Man seems to believe, this would send him right down the drain. Fortunately, the purpose for Mighty these days is to make Pym a kick ass leader, and he steals the show again here. I loved how quickly US Agent and Herc left for Iron Man's leadership, but then how quickly they realized they made the wrong call. The actual method Pym and Cho used to take out Cthon was a lot of fun, since it follows the rules and lets the team defeat an immensely powerful foe. How great was Iron Man calmly noting that when you take out a reality shaper, the world goes back to normal. He wasn't even worried! I'm really enjoying the sparring between Cho and Pym in this book. They obviously are starting to respect each other, but they seem to be having fun trying to one-up each other too. It is a neat relationship I'm looking forward to seeing more from.

The actual line-up is starting to take form too. Hulk is out (as expected) and I'm not sure about Stature and Vision. At a guess, I'd say they're gone. It also looks like Iron Man will not be sticking around to follow Pym as leader. The team right now looks like Pym, Herc, Cho, US Agent, Jocasta, and Jarvis. Not a bad start, but I'd love one or two more members like Wonder Man or Falcon. Songbird would be a great fit too if she wasn't still in play in Thunderbolts.

Khoi Pham's art still fluctuates between nice tight pencils and more sketchy pages. I can't really tell why he switches around, but overall he's fine. I really liked the panel at the end with Pym surrounded by his friends, the variety of expressions on their faces was fantastic. Cho's grudging respect, Herc's open friendship, Jarvis looking pleased, and Jocasta's now-standard worried look. Overall, this is my Avengers title.

Good