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Mighty Avengers: Earth's Mightiest #[nn]
The 'Earth's Mightiest' arc, spanning Mighty Avengers #21–26 (2009), marks the formal debut of the Hank Pym–led Mighty Avengers team, the only sanctioned Avengers squad deliberately assembled outside Norman Osborn's Dark Reign authority. Written by Dan Slott with art by Khoi Pham, it gave Hank Pym his most prominent leadership role in decades—adopting the Wasp identity as a tribute to the fallen Janet Van Dyne—and assembled a deliberately old-school roster of under-represented Avengers such as Hercules, Amadeus Cho, U.S. Agent, Jocasta, Vision (Jonas), and Stature at a moment when the franchise's 'prestige' rosters were co-opted by Osborn's villains. The arc stands as a character-driven counterpoint to Dark Reign, arguing through plot that the heart of the Avengers lies in its founders and 'second-string' veterans rather than its celebrity heavy-hitters, a thesis that resonated with readers hungry for classic-continuity storytelling and directly seeded the later Avengers Academy series.
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Dan Slott took over Mighty Avengers beginning with issue #21 (release date January 21, 2009), launching simultaneously alongside Dark Avengers #1 on the same week, as part of Marvel's coordinated 'Dark Reign' publishing initiative. The handoff was telegraphed by Secret Invasion: Requiem, a Slott/Pham framing story that established Hank Pym's adoption of the Wasp codename, serving as a direct prologue to #21. Editor Tom Brevoort oversaw the run; Christos N. Gage co-wrote beginning with #27, deepening the G.R.A.M.P.A. and Unspoken storylines. The 'Earth's Mightiest' trade paperback (ISBN 978-0785137467) collected issues #21–26 plus the Requiem framing sequence, and the complete Slott run was also gathered in the hardcover Mighty Avengers: Dark Reign.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Mighty Avengers #21 (January 21, 2009) marks the first appearance of Hank Pym's post-Secret Invasion Mighty Avengers team, created by Dan Slott and Khoi Pham, with Tom Brevoort as editor.
- Hank Pym debuts the Wasp identity in this arc (formally established in Secret Invasion: Requiem) as a tribute to the deceased Janet Van Dyne, making this the first sustained storyline featuring a male hero bearing the Wasp name.
- The team is covertly assembled by Loki posing as the Scarlet Witch—a plot twist seeded throughout the arc—to embarrass Osborn and counter the threat of the Elder God Chthon, who is possessing Quicksilver and attempting to rewrite reality via the Darkhold.
- The arc's principal antagonists are Chthon and his vessel Modred the Mystic, with the action centered on Mount Wundagore in Transia; the three-part 'Earth's Mightiest' story concludes in #23 ('Three Words'), after which Iron Man and the Hulk depart the roster.
- Issues #25–26 ('Mighty/Fantastic') pit the team against the Fantastic Four in a heist storyline involving the late Bill Foster's dimensional wave inducer, a device Pym needs to prevent the team's lab—shunted into a Pym Pocket dimension—from drifting permanently out of reach.
- The arc firmly re-establishes Jocasta as an active Avengers member and develops her as Pym's android colleague and romantic interest, laying groundwork for her later pivotal role as the AI core of the Infinite Avengers Mansion (formally introduced in #27).
- The team is granted international authorization by G.R.A.M.P.A. (Global Reaction Agency for Mysterious Paranormal Activity), allowing it to operate outside the United States and beyond Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R. jurisdiction.
- The 'Earth's Mightiest' trade paperback (ISBN 978-0785137467, written by Slott, art by Pham) collects issues #21–26 plus the Requiem framing sequence; the full 16-issue run through the Siege finale is available in the hardcover Mighty Avengers: Dark Reign and a complete-collection paperback.
Cast · 40 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Pym's laboratory is self-destructing and he needs the Dimensional Wave Inducer built by the late Bill Foster to fix it. However, Reed Richards has the invention and refuses to give it up, so the Avengers plan an attack on the Baxter Building.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).