Luke Cage’s new Mighty Avengers initiative might get derailed before it even really gets going, if the return of Gideon Mace does what it threatens to do. See, Mace is the man who killed Ava Ayala’s parents just to mess with her brother Hector, who was The White Tiger at the time. Now, Ava herself is wearing the mystic Jade Tiger amulet that allows her to channel the powers of a nasty tiger deity. While it’s not clear why she isn’t Jade Tiger instead of White Tiger, the fact remains that she’s furious and unhinged at Mace’s release from prison, and the tiger god uses that anger to get himself free reign to hunt Mace down through his avatar without the chains of her morality. What happens then promises to be damn unpretty.
Mighty Avengers #7 shows us the true potential of White Tiger as she battles her way through her own teammates, who are attempting to talk her down and make sure she doesn’t kill anyone, because Ava’s always been kind of a stickler for law and order. Why is Mace out on the streets in the first place, when he was locked up for being a crazy jerk? It seems that he made a name for himself during Civil War by being loudly “anti-cape.” Man, is there anything Civil War didn’t screw up? And shouldn’t people in the Marvel universe refer to it as Civil War II or the Super Civil War or the Unskinny Bop? Anyway, Mace now has a militia of psychos, and a savage tiger god coming to rip his throat out, and a gang of reluctant Avengers trying to save his life from their teammate.
Al Ewing keeps things crackling with dialogue and well-thought-out storytelling, while Valerio Schiti gives us a very impressive look at just how capable White Tiger is as she tears through Power Man, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and She-Hulk with an almost stunning ease and a certainly kinetic look. Mighty Avengers continues to be the place to go for the more traditional, banter-filled, character-based superhero team action while Jonathan Hickman’s main Avengers book deal with really heavy world-ending plots. It’s a great, fun book and it’s worth your time.
