Mighty Avengers #10 Review

The Revolution was absolutely stunned and shocked that Bendis delivered such an entertaining read with the last issue of Mighty Avengers. I couldn’t believe that we got an issue that actually moved along at a quick pace, progressed a major plotline, gave us plenty of action and ended the issue with a bona fide hook ending that got me excited for the next issue. For a minute I thought maybe Bendis had gotten replaced as the writer on Mighty Avengers. I can only hope that Bendis keeps this ball rolling and delivers back to back entertaining reads on Mighty Avengers. Let’s go ahead and crank out this review for Mighty Avengers #10.

Creative Team
Writer: Brain Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inks: Danny Miki

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Sentry waking up in an alley completely disoriented and wondering where he is. Sentry begins to panic and thinks that he may have imagined the fight at Doom’s castle. Sentry flies toward Avengers Tower. He sees Thor flying past and then thinks to himself that Thor is dead. That this can’t be happening. Sentry then arrives at his Watchtower and realizes that Avengers Tower is gone.

The Sentry begins to freak out that he made everything up. That he made up the Avengers and everything that has happened to him. That the Void is still in him. Sentry hears gunshots and flies to the scene and sees the silver age Sentry springing to action. The silver age fights with the Void. The present day Sentry collapses and covers his eyes.

We cut to Doctor Doom squaring off with Iron Man. Iron Man tells Doctor Doom to back off and to stop being an idiot. That they have to avoid doing or saying anything to anyone that could alter the course of human history that would make either of them cease to exist in their time. Doctor Doom agrees with Iron Man’s logic.

Iron Man then asks Doctor Doom if he is “one of them.” Doom has no idea what Iron Man is rambling on about. Iron Man then says that they will have to locate a time machine. Suddenly, the Sentry comes streaking in and punches Doom and demands to know what Doom has done to them.

Doctor Doom then battles back. Iron Man grabs the Sentry and tells Doom to back off. That the Sentry will kill Doom and not even realize it. Iron Man then calms down the Sentry and tells him that they are in the past. Doom begins to wonder if Sentry is insane.

Doom then mentions that in this era only other person has a time machine other than Doom: Reed Richards. Iron Man figures that they will have to sneak into the Baxter Building to avoid seeing any of the Fantastic Four members and creating havoc with the time stream. Iron Man realizes that Sentry could go into the Baxter Building and get the time machine. That the world eventually forgets that the Sentry existed so this will all be like it never happened. Iron Man explains to Doom how Mastermind rigged it so no one remembered that Sentry ever existed.

The Sentry flies off to the Baxter Building while Doom mentions that you have to admire Mastermind’s achievement. Iron Man responds that Doom is a horror to which Doom quips back that more people hate Iron Man than Doom. (Thanks to writers like Bendis that is absolutely true.)

We see The Sentry enter the Baxter Building and asking the Thing if Reed is home. Thing says that Reed is gone and that no one can enter Reed’s lab without his permission. The Sentry quickly takes out The Thing.

Iron Man and Doom then enter the lab at the Baxter Building. The three men go over to the time machine. Doom sets in the time and coordinates from where they left that his armor logged. Iron Man confirms that they are the same as what his armor logged down to the second. Doom activates the time machine and the three men disappear.

We see Iron Man and the Sentry appearing back in Doom’s Castle in the present time. However, Doctor Doom is not with them. He is missing. Iron Man and Sentry fly up into the air and see something streaking toward them. Iron Man tells Sentry to fly ahead and see what the object heading toward them is. Sentry streaks forward and the object turns out to be Ms. Marvel.

Ms. Marvel screams for Sentry to get out of here. Ms. Marvel then screams toward Iron Man for him to get out of there immediately. Suddenly, there is a massive explosion from inside of Doom’s castle. The explosion envelops Iron Man. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Mighty Avengers #10 was another fun read. Imagine that. We actually got back to back reads from Bendis that were actually solid stories. Mighty Avengers #10 was a well paced issue as Bendis gets our heroes back to the present day with little delay. The issue had a nice flow to it that made for a quick read.

Bendis cranks out plenty of his usual humorous dialogue. The snappy witty banter between Iron Man and Dr. Doom was hilarious and entertaining even if it was totally out of character for both men.

Bendis impressed me with his handling of the Sentry’s character in this issue. Bendis did a great job playing off of Sentry’s history of mental illness and that it prevented him from being able to deal with this time travel situation like Tony and Doom were able to do so. I’m glad that Bendis continually reminds the reader that the Sentry is emotionally unstable without driving it into the ground. It is done just enough to disable Sentry in order to temper is obvious power advantage that he has on just about every character in the 616 universe.

Bendis ends Mighty Avengers #10 with an excellent hook ending. The reader is left wondering how Doom managed to escape. And of course, it should be interesting to see how Iron Man manages to get himself out of this seemingly impossible predicament with the massive explosion that claims Doom’s castle.

Bagley does a fantastic job with the artwork in this issue. I absolutely loved all the old school touches that were done during the scenes set in the past. Employing the old style Marvel use of advertising other comic books at the bottom of each page was a cool touch. So was the use of the old “Continued after next page” that used to appear at the bottom of a page before an advertisement. Reading this issue was evoked a flashback to when I was six years old. This was a great idea and brought a smile to my face.

The Bad: Plotting still a serious weak point on the Mighty Avengers. A good team title always runs several plotlines at the same time. Bendis fails to do this on Mighty Avengers. This title seems to run only one plotline at a time. I get the feeling that Bendis has not sat down and created a master plan for this title and is simply just flying by the seat of his pants.

Mighty Avengers #10 was also a bit of a shallow read. There is not much substance to the story in this issue. Also, the character work on this title is still glaringly feeble. The way Bendis writes characters reminds me of how Samuel Jackson acts. Bendis has failed to create any unique and well developed personalities to the various members of the Mighty Avengers. Instead, Bendis writes all the characters pretty much with the same personality. And all the members of the Mighty Avengers have the similar external voices including that trademark Bendis snappy dialogue zinging one liners.

Overall: Mighty Avengers #10 was an enjoyable read. I can only hope that Bendis manages to keep this title rolling in order to make up for the plodding, pointless and dull read that we get each and every month on New Avengers. However, Mighty Avengers still isn’t good enough for me to recommend it to any comic book reader. This title will probably only appeal to comic book readers who like action over drama and don’t mind a read that is a bit thin.