The Mighty Avengers #25

History

When Brian Michael Bendis departed Mighty Avengers to launch Dark Avengers at the start of 2009's Dark Reign event, Dan Slott inherited the title and immediately reconstituted the roster around Hank Pym — operating as 'the Wasp' in tribute to his recently deceased ex-wife — along with a deliberately 'second-string' cast that Slott has described as the best team he could assemble from what was available once the marquee characters were claimed by other titles. Tom Brevoort edited the run for Marvel, with Jeannie Schaeffer as associate editor. Issue #25 was penciled by Stephen Segovia (with inks by Noah Salonga and colors by Jean-François Beaulieu), who handled interior art duties at this stage of the run while Khoi Pham, the series' primary artist, provided the cover. The complete Slott run, including this issue, was eventually collected in Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott: The Complete Collection (2019), and issues #25–26 were also reprinted in the themed anthology Avengers vs. Fantastic Four (2019).

Trivia · 8 facts

• Issue details: Story titled 'Mighty / Fantastic, Part 1: The Baxter Job,' cover-dated July 2009 (released June 2009), written by Dan Slott, penciled by Stephen Segovia, inked by Noah Salonga, colored by Jean-François Beaulieu, lettered by Dave Lanphear, with a cover by Khoi Pham (inked by Danny Miki, colored by Jason Keith).
• First appearance: Ban-Luck, a GRAMPA (Global Reaction Agency for Mysterious Paranormal Activity) operative, makes her comic debut in this issue — she goes on to appear throughout the 'Unspoken' arc (issues #27–30).
• Dark Reign tie-in: The issue is explicitly part of Marvel's 2009 'Dark Reign' publishing initiative, set in a landscape where Norman Osborn controls the U.S. government's sanctioned Avengers, making Pym's internationally-recognized team the only legitimately heroic Avengers operating openly.
• Plot engine: The team's headquarters — Hank Pym's dimensional lab, the future Infinite Avengers Mansion — has been severed from Earth-616 by Jocasta to prevent H.A.M.M.E.R. from seizing it, leaving the Avengers stranded in a side dimension with a 48-hour countdown before all dimensional doorways collapse.
• Central conflict: Pym contacts Reed Richards to retrieve the dimensional wave inducer built by the late Bill Foster (Goliath), which Pym considers his by right; Richards, judging Pym emotionally unstable, refuses, igniting the heist premise of the two-part arc.
• Roster in this issue: Hank Pym (as the Wasp), Hercules, Amadeus Cho, Jocasta, Quicksilver, Stature (Cassie Lang), Vision (Jonas), and U.S. Agent — the full Pym-era Mighty Avengers lineup, with USAgent and Quicksilver departing mid-issue on a GRAMPA mission to Tibet.
• Supporting cast / Fantastic Four crossover: The Fantastic Four appear in guest roles — Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, the Invisible Woman, and the Human Torch — along with Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards, and Edwin Jarvis.
• Collected editions: Reprinted in Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott: The Complete Collection (Marvel, 2019) and in the themed anthology Avengers vs. Fantastic Four (Marvel, 2019, ISBN 978-1302920722).

Full credits

Key issues in The Mighty Avengers

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#27 1st appearance — the Unspoken

Variants (1)