What I’ve Been Reading: Mighty Avengers

Both of the Mighty Avengers trades I read were kind of a mess: Bendis depending too much on the flashback-heavy storytelling that valiantly tries to bulk up paper-thin plots, everyone sounding pretty much the same (except for the hilarious machismo of Ares,) and the goofiest take on Dr. Doom since Star Jaws. Pretty art by Frank Cho in the first book, mind, and the second story’s jaunt into the Marvel Universe circa 1982 is handled very nicely, with Mark Bagley doing a more-than-passable John Byrne when drawing The Thing, yellowed pages, coloring dots, and text ads for period titles on the bottom of the page.

I know I’m not really the target audience for these titles, but it seems to be so much more about flash than story at this point. Bendis and Marvel’s concerted efforts to build to their events – Secret Invasion, Dark Reign – seems to take priority over making a superhero comic that’s fun to read on its own.