The Avengers's space adventure gets the double-sized crescendo it deserves in today's comic. Space adventure, ray guns, shape-shifting aliens (but not for long!), and a run-in with some unexpected friends. The events of this issue play (or played) a fairly major role in the status quo of the Marvel U for many years, at least until the Skrulls figured out how to reverse the effects of the Hyperwave Bomb - thence the Secret Invasion.
But the Avengers really gel well as a team in this issue. It's been a bit of a membership rollercoaster over the last year or so of issues. I'm not sure why the rotation changed so much, though it's likely because individual members had things going on in their own books. Iron Man and Thor, specifically, are notable in their absence, though Rhodey does end up on the West Coast team eventually. But I suppose this makes a certain amount of sense. It's not like membership in the Avengers is what we might consider a full-time job - as circumstances change, so too must the roster. What is incumbent on the team is that it still live up to the moniker of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
But what exactly does that mean? How does, or should, one measure might? Obviously power is a factor, but Captain America doesn't quite measure up to someone like Captain Marvel (the one from this run), or Thor. Where does Cap's might lay? So instead I think the mightiest is more easily understood as those willing to go our of their way to deal with the MAJOR problems that require a super-powered touch. Of course, then we run up against the problem of what constitutes a major problem - in New Avengers, Luke Cage sets the Avengers to doing some community service-style work, dealing with what he sees as a major problem. Perhaps we need to leave it to the chairperson of the team? For the Vision, it was all about creating an orderly world. For Cage, about the presence of the Avengers as a deterrent for urban crime. For the Wasp....and, really, for Roger Stern's run on the book...it's about the problems that are, inevitably, too big for any one hero, problems that require individuals who are willing to skirt the edge of death in order to do the right thing.
To be continued.
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