Avengers Inc. #1-5

Avengers Inc. #1-5

Originally released in 2023

Written by Al Ewing

Art by Leonard Kirk

When Avengers Inc. was announced, I was really looking forward to it. It starred the Wasp, Janet van Dyne, in the closest thing that she ever had to a solo series, when she seems like a character who gets unjustly ignored due to largely being left out of the MCU. It's a series of superhero-themed mysteries written by Al Ewing, and it seemed like it was going to be a lot of fun. I don't buy individual issues, but I was looking forward to getting the trade paperback so I could support this series.

So, of course, it winds up getting cancelled five issues into the run, before a trade paperback even gets released.  I really wish that companies would have more faith with experimental series like this, or at least let them run for a full year before cancelling a series so writers have time to naturally wrap up story arcs.

What we do get is a lot of fun, even if the final issue winds up being rushed due to the sudden cancellation. While investigating the apparent death of half a dozen supervillains (including her most persistent foe Whirlwind), the Wasp winds up stuck in a morgue when the villains come back from apparently being dead.

Whirlwind comes back as well, but as an entirely different person - the wound in his forehead is glowing red, he has no idea who he (or anyone) is, and he goes by the name of Victor Shade. In order to find out who Victor is, and to solve any other superhero-themed mysteries that come up, Janet serves as a consulting detective for the newly-elected mayor of New York City, Luke Cage.

However, due to a law passed by the previous mayor, Wilson Fisk (a.k.a. the Kingpin), superheroes can't legally operate in the city, so Janet is stuck working in a legal gray area where she doesn't get a ton of resources. (And, in a bigger problem, she can't wear any of her numerous costumes)

Due to the series' brief run, we only get a handful of mysteries, though the one that we do get are well-written, with enough hints beforehand that you can figure it out. (For the most part - the ultimate mystery of the series, the identity of Victor Shade, requires some background knowledge of comics that only gets brought up after the reveal; there are still hints, but they're likely going to be misleading)

The end of the first issue reveals that Hank Pym (Ant-Man #1) and Eric O'Grady (Ant-Man #3 - I don't know much about him, but from what I've seen, he's a perverted jerk) are behind the apparent deaths of the C-list supervillains, with Hank gathering them for a mysterious purpose.  Hank has been dead/fused with Ultron since 2015's "Rage of Ultron" graphic novel, and came back as a result of the events of an earlier Ant-Man miniseries by Al Ewing. (though the fact that he came back was only revealed here)

To my mild annoyance, Hank's been aged up to an old man to match the Marvel Cinematic Universe; I'm hoping that's undone at some point.  Hank's daughter, Nadia (she was the child of Hank's first wife), makes a brief appearance here - she was introduced shortly after Rage of Ultron, and she never got to meet Hank, but the final issue gives her a long-awaited opportunity to do so.  It's rushed, but it's a heartfelt meeting that Nadia has clearly wanted to have for a while.

I've said it before, but I really wanted this series to last longer.  This handful of issues introduced me to the Death Throws, a group of supervillains that exclusively sticks to a juggling theme, and I would have loved to see the sort of mysteries that Ewing could come up with, especially if the series progressed and did well enough that the mysteries could span more than one issue and be allowed time to breathe. (though given the nature of mysteries, maybe it's for the best that most storylines were limited to one issue; it makes things easier to keep track of)

Janet van Dyne is a character who was long overdue for a solo series (she's been around for sixty years and was one of the founding Avengers), and this was fun while it lasted.  I understand the reality of the situation (the main goal of a company is to make money, with artistic endeavours being secondary at best), but I wish that businesses would let series get time to breathe and develop an audience, rather than cancelling them based on the sales of (as far as I can tell) the first issue. (Avengers Inc. was cancelled really quickly)  Still, it was a creative direction to take the character in, and an entertaining break in the formula for superhero comics; I hope that Al Ewing continues plot points from this in other comics.