With all the hype surrounding Infinity and its tie-ins, features, preludes, origins, add-ons, expansion packs, upgrades, turbo charger kits, etc. The Mighty Avengers slipped under my radar. Al Ewing and Greg Land have put together Marvel’s, and I believe comics’, first all-black superhero team. Okay, all-brown. Okay, plus Spiderman and some weird fanboy of his with a Spidey costume. I dunno about the last one. He could be African American for all I know. I’ve seen lineups with She-Hulk in the team as well but I haven’t read all the issues. The one I read didn’t have her in it. All that plus Greg Land is drawing it.

Luke Cage leads Monica Rambeau aka Spectrum, Victor Alvarez aka Power Man, the Blue Marvel, The White Tiger, and the aforementioned Spider people. Peter Parker and Otto Octavius are the poster boys for white and nerdy but that’s ok. Marvel is really close to an all-black team of Avengers with this book and I think that’s pretty cool. Even if it is a little contrived, it’s still cool. It doesn’t feel 100% forced for publicity’s sake. Not yet anyway. All of these characters have been picking up steam in popularity and appeal for the past few years. White Tiger had her own series for a while and was featured prominently in Shadowland. Luke Cage is always New York’s golden boy and Power Man and Blue Marvel have been generating a lot of fanboy buzz lately. This team makes sense especially since they’re defending New York, where most of them are from and operate anyway. Even though a less optimistic person could easily claim it’s been done for political correctness or to cash in on the zeitgeist of race in America, it doesn’t feel like it right now. This team seems to be filling in the gap left by Cap and the rest of the Avengers who are off in space fighting God. But don’t get me wrong, they aren’t some B-listers fighting D-list villains. They’ve squaring off against one of Thanos’ highest lieutenants and Shuma-Gorath himself. This team has some potential.

                The line-up has Victor Alvarez, a Dominican and African American hero. I just recently found out that White Tiger isn’t the one I read a while back but her name is Ava Ayala and is Hispanic like the previous heroes/villains to don that amulet. Adam Brashear aka Blue Marvel and Spectrum are the team’s powerhouses and are both African American. Luke Cage is still Luke Cage. Spiderman is the only oddball but I think he’s just there because he needs help protecting New York against Thanos’ forces and this team happens to have a crapload of power at their disposal. The only street-level African American character they’re missing is Misty Knight, one of my favorite characters from that corner of the Marvel Universe. Falcon, Black Panther, or Storm could show up but I think that would push fanboys and critics much closer into the “contrived for publicity” mindset. I think it’s awesome because it hasn’t been done before and I actually do like most of those characters, especially Luke and the White Tiger. Her backstory is great and that mini-series a while back was awesome.

Also, keep in mind that ANYTHING Marvel does, garners them publicity. They can’t exist without publicizing their comic books. It’s impossible not to advertize yourself and gain publicity when your product is trillions upon trillions of printed serial magazines.

                All-in-all, some may call it contrived or drummed up and maybe it is. But that doesn’t matter. The team could hold its own against some pretty powerful threats. They’re a natural fit for the current goings-on in the Marvel Universe and SOMEBODY has to pick up the slack and defend the citizens of New York while the rest of the Avengers are off-world. The only street-level people missing, who would make for great cameos, have been or currently are partners of the Mighty Avengers team members. I’m officially predicting Iron Fist, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing and/or Daredevil cameos. Maybe this team can stick around and prove that it’s not a flash in the plan, hey look at me, sensationalized idea from Marvel to gain a foothold in the racially charged world we live in today. I’m optimistic but we’ll see.