If you know me well enough, you'll know I love super-teams. Once in a while a super-team will be formed that really captures my attention entirely. New Mutants, Circle of Four, X-Treme X-men and most recently - U.S.Avengers. Its camp, its ludicrous and there isn't a single weak link in the team. Officially sanctioned by the US government to handle every next-level shenanigans you can think of. Formed after the events of Civil War 2 and the brainchild of former New Mutant/X-man Sunspot, this patchwork of heroes shows a cohesion of complete nonsense. I love it. Lets get into it!
Star-spangled banners flying and complete creative control given to him by the government, Sunspot A.K.A. Citizen V A.K.A. Roberto Da Costa sets about using his re-purposed A.I.M. to protect the US and Earth itself from dangers rooted in super science and the completely unfathomable. You may recognise the A.I.M. name as Advanced Idea Mechanics which is a long-running evil super-science organisation in the Marvel Universe. However, Sunspot has a lot of money. So, rather than have to deal with them - he simply acquired them by buying the lion's share of their stocks. After doing this for the Avengers shortly after being recruited by Captain America back during the events of The Avengers Machine, he has been using A.I.M. and its resources to assist the Avengers since.
The theme of U.S.Avengers at it's core is heroes coming together to protect the country they love first and foremost. A good portion of the team, including Roberto himself, are immigrants who are now U.S. Citizens and credit the country for bringing them together with friends, helping them find purpose and showing them how to achieve their dreams. It gives the team heart from the go and displays a patriotism that's built on unity, acceptance and malleable cultural environments. The team and their countries of origin are as follows:
Sunspot/Citizen V: Brazil
Cannonball: United States
Dr. Toni Ho/Iron Patriot: China
Aikku Jokinen/Enigma: Norway
Squirrel Girl: Canada
General Maverick/Red Hulk: United States
I wont go too into the plot of this 12 issue spectacular as I honestly would like you to read it for yourself, should you want to. Its thematically a light-hearted affair with some good narrative values and team bonds to anchor it in. U.S.Avengers puts you in a world parallel to our own with all the fantastic and wonderful dangers you never really think about anymore in comics. Where comics nowadays often skirt the line between realism and superhero elements, this comic pulls out some of the more traditional wacky villains and schemes. While doing the aforementioned it does an excellent job of staying relevant and ties into the Marvel Universe as a whole organically and without being out of place. Although I really didn't like Marvel's Secret Empire crossover event, the U.S.Avengers contributions are still thoroughly enjoyable. Which is a testament to the likability of the characters and their adventures.
Here's a little preview of some of the wild stuff you'll be enjoying if you check out U.S.Avengers:
- A Super-Capitalist Villain in an entirely Gold suit from the future. (The suit has a light-up dollar sign on the chest in case you thought the gold wasn't tacky enough!)
- A Kaiju created by the US government that goes AWOL
- Evil Floating Volcano Lairs
- A planet of aliens violently committed to making their planet act like they're living out a simulation of Happy Days.
- A planet of aliens who dress and speak like 1920s gangsters who are at war with the Happy Days planet.
- Everything Squirrel Girl does.
So if you love to have fun like me, give U.S.Avengers a go! Its been the most enjoyable comic of 2017 in my opinion and I'm sad that its over.
Big thank you to the creative team behind the comic including: Al Ewing, Paco Medina, Juan Viasco and Jesús Aburlov. They really had me hyped all year long for this title.
- Gary
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