Today’s Comic> Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #2

"Why is my ant glowing purple?"

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #2

Marvel Comics (February 2011)

There are two stories in this issue, both by series writer Christopher Yost. I’ll review each story separately.

The first story is “Obsession”, and they have the right artist (Scott Wegener) and colorist (Jean-Francois Beaulieu), who invoke the design of the cartoon the comic is based on beautifully. The story focuses on Tony’s obsession (hence the title) with getting his technology out of the hands of bad guys. Since the cartoon is somewhat based on his Marvel Movieverse persona, this is in keeping with Stark’s character. The appearance of Crimson Dynamo (which explains his appearance in the cartoon as part of the Masters of Evil) and the Winterguard are in keeping with the style of the show and doesn’t seem to contradict anything I’ve seen thus far. It’s a good story.

Yost follows with a Hulk/Ant-Man team-up against the Mad Thinker in “Mutual Respect”. Patrick Scherberger on pencils and Sandu Florea on inks don’t even attempt to match the show’s art style and even having the same colorist does nothing to fix that since Beaulieu uses more shading and darker colors. Otherwise it’s a good story but that’s more because of the writer than the art. It’s not bad, just wrong.

Overall, you wouldn’t be blamed for ignoring this comic and just going with the cartoon and Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes for your Avenger fix (if you’ve ignored the main Marvel Universe as I have). If you do get it, however, it’s not a bad comic, but you would think a kids comic would be $2.99 like the MA and most Pet Avengers titles (not counting the specials or the current Avengers team-up) and not the $3.99 of this comic.

Tomorrow’s Comic> Mega Man Megamix volume 3