Mighty Avengers #13 Review

MIGHTY AVENGERS #13
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Alex Maleev

To be honest, I don't feel like I got 22 pages of story here. It's basically four or five 2-3 page vignettes as Daisy, or, as I call her, Earthquake Girl, goes about recruiting Nick Fury's new Howling Commandos. We don't really get any idea who these people are, any reason to care about them, one way or the other, and very vague, if any, explanation of their power sets. In fact, after reading it, I couldn't honestly tell you the names of any of them other than one was Ares' son and Layla Miller rejected them. Basically, I care as little about them now as I did before reading this issue, which is to say, I don't care who they are. Not a good thing.

As I said, the story is Daisy recruiting people for Fury's new Commandos. We opened up with Daisy meeting up with Fury, who's in disguise as a black Nick Fury in a jumpsuit, eyepatch and all, which I found funny for the world's greatest super spy, but I digress. She's a little pissed at being left out to dry when he disappeared, which I found odd, as she disappeared in Secret War with him, or so I recall, and I thought she was always his second hand man with his new underground role. Anyways, she doesn't hold a grudge and goes on a trip to find everyone for him.

Turns out, Fury kept a secret file that no one else has ever seen about a bunch of humans with the potential to be powerhouses that he could use as tools if he ever needed to. That makes them perfect now that he doesn't know who to trust and this is why he's recruiting them.

The ragtag group consisted of, as I said, Ares', of Mighty Avengers' fame, son, who has never shown any signs of powers that I know of, who is now the God of Fear, Phobos. He can make anyone afraid by looking at them. Another is a Puerto Rican girl named Yo Yo Rodriguez. I'm not sure what her power is. She ran really fast after a theif, blew past him and then slingshotted back to her starting spot against her will. Some kind of time manipulation thing that causes her to snap back or actual Flash-like speed? Not sure why she slingshotted back. Next up was a guy named J.T., who is the grandson of the original Ghost Rider, Phantom Rider, and he can turn chains (or everything?) into flaming chains. Good stuff.

After that, we get the best part of the story with Layla Miller. She knows stuff, in case you didn't know. She acts like Layla, asking and answering Daisy's questions before she gets a chance to and tells her that if she joins, they will fail and that without her, they won't. She also has to deal with mutant stuff, which I assume was Messiah Complex, since this is set in the past.

Finally, we have a Dr Strange-seeking magic guy and some huge, freaking guy that specializes in serial crushing. Okay, I made that last one up, but there is a huge guy that's in jail who Daisy bails out and erases all his criminal records. Don't know his power either, but I suspect it's hitting stuff real good like. Issue ends with Fury telling them he owns them all now for the rest of their lives and they will always do what he says and they will make the world a better place to live in. But first, they have to train. He begins by asking if they know what a Skrull is.

Verdict - Check It. It was a pretty generic introduction to a bunch of generic people. I have no idea who they are, what their powers are and don't really care either. Just looks like they'll be knock off Avengers. However, they'll play an important role in Secret Invasion, so I guess it's worth checking out if you want some clue as to who they are, but it'll be just that, a clue. Nothing really revealed here.

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