During Secret Wars, Ewing wrote a two issue mini-series, Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders, which had similar characters and themes. Ewing has since brought Blue Marvel and Monica Rambeau over to the Ultimates series, while White Tiger and Power Man reappeared in New Avengers.
Tropes
- Amoral Attorney: Kenneth and Kevin Crask are this. The captions even call Kevin a 'slimeball'. Kenneth is perfectly willing to threaten a man he just saved from prison. And later, he kills him.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Max Brashear has become this to his father.
- Ascended Extra:
- Adam Brashear, the Blue Marvel, had previously appeared in one miniseries and two back-up stories before this series.
- The Bear, who previously appeared in a single issue of a flashback arc of Iron Man, turns out to be an important part of the Four Who Rule's plan.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Turns out this is what's become of Kevin Brashear, rendering saving him pointless.
- Asshole Victim: Jason Quantrell violently murders Gideon Mace. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Even when the entity taking his place is foiled, Mace remains dead.
- Author Powers: The way the Quantrell talks about the Beyond Corporation and other similar entities from the "beyond" implies that those entities are stand-ins for Marvel comic writers. He mentions that some of them, such as the Beyond Corporation merely like to toy with the heroes, and this is illustrated by Monica realising the events of Nextwave, which were previously considered out-of-continuity, did actually happen, instead of being something she just imagined. So just like the Beyond Corporation, Marvel writers were toying with her character by first putting her in a story, then saying it didn't happen, then revealing it was real after all. Quantrell also mentions that some other entities from the beyond are much less benevolent, which most likely refers to the Beyonders in The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman), who can also be seen as stand-ins for Marvel writers, working their way to set the stage for Secret Wars (2015).
- Badass Bystander: The little old lady in issue 1, who throws a brick at Proxima Midnight. Who has just beaten Luke Cage into the ground. Then she keeps throwing bricks, while yelling "no pasaran!"
- Bald of Authority: Luke Cage, though Monica functions as the field leader.
- Bash Brothers: Power Man (Victor Alvarez) and White Tiger (Ava Ayala) have become this and their powers compliment each others.
- Battle Cry: Power Man comes up with one for himself and White Tiger: "Tiger power!" (citing it as the only decent way their names can go together) Ava is less than impressed.
- Berserk Button:
- Don't point a giant robot at Jessica Jones' baby.
- W.A.S.P.E. goons don't like being compared to Hydra. Hydra are Nazis, whereas W.A.S.P.E are nihilists.
- The Beyond Corporation is this for Monica Rambeau, mostly because everyone thinks she's nuts when she brings them up. She gets vindicated when they do show up.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Of all the ridiculous creatures sent to capture Blade, the Were-Roosters are the ones that succeed. Blade lampshades this.
- Big Bad: For Ronin, it's the Deathwalkers, also known as the Four Who Rule.
- And now they're the entire team's Big Bad.
- For Captain America and the Mighty Avengers, it seems to be Jason Quantrell. Turns out it's an extradimensional being that's taken over him.
- Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head:
- Danielle Cage's opinion of Superior Spider-Man? "Poopy Man". Hey, she's a baby. And given her mom's salty language, could've been worse... but everyone agrees. He is a Poopy Man.
- W.A.S.P.E have bad words for Hydra.
- Bilingual Bonus: One issue has a one-page shot of Blue Marvel and Hauptman Deutschland fighting some W.A.S.P.E. goons, their dialogue in untranslated German.
- Body Horror: All over the place after Axis.
- Boss Subtitles
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Superior Spider Man has "Minions, robots, and minion-driven robots".
- Breaking Speech: White Tiger gives an epic one to the Tiger God in #8; When it threatens to devour her soul, she tells it to try, pointing out that her friends wouldn't allow anyone else to wield the Amulets after her. She then mocks it for talking about the days when humanity feared it, and how modern humans hunt, cage and pity its kind. She follows up by stating that the Tiger God is afraid of humanity, and that she is more feared then it is,and finishes by demanding the Tiger God give her all its power. And it does so.Ava: Your time is done. I'm the beast that hunts in the darkness now. I'm the monster who even monsters fear. I'm the White Tiger. You want a deal? This is your deal. Give me everything you have. Now. Or crawl away and die and I'll do it without you.Tiger God: ...Damn you.
- Brick Joke: A very quick one. In issue 4 Falcon complains that everyone assumes he goes everywhere with Captain America. A short conversation later and Power Man appears, and on seeing Falcon asks where Captain America is.
- The Bus Came Back: Dave Griffen, Luke Cage's best friend from his solo series, returns after not showing up in a comic in years.
- The Cameo: Peter Corbeau, once a major supporting character in XMen back in the seventies, appears for one panel in Last Days, talking about the Incursions.
- Cerebus Call-Back: The previously denounced as canon events of Nextwave are canonized in the Captain America and the Mighty Avengers title as being a group of beyond multiversal beings toying with the cast in that title. They find humans, superhumans specifically, just so entertaining, and now they have an in to the Marvel universe.
- Cheap Costume: Ronin starts out using a "Spider Hero" costume, an eye-searing pink and green knock-off he grabbed for need of something to cover his face.
- Comic Book Death: The last time The Bear appeared, she was blown up and apparently killed. Since she's a Were-Bear created by The Four Who Rule, she got better.
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Despite the fact that he's supposed to be laying low, Ronin insists on wearing his foul-smelling trenchcoat everywhere.
- Continuity Nod:
- In issue 4, Falcon mentions that Spidey's been stealing food from the other Avengers and spitting in it, as seen over in the concurrent run of The Avengers.
- Power Man mentions the fight against Mother, and the fact that Monica doesn't know what he's talking about. Later on in the issue, we see him reading texts from Loki, who's in the middle of robbing a casino in his own series.
- When the Beyonder is first mentioned, Spider-Man's immediate reaction is to exclaim "I never should've taught that guy to poop!"
- Monica Rambeau's time in Nextwave is acknowledged, but apparently the Beyond Corporation never existed. And yet she still has nightmares about the baby M.O.D.O.K. She also uses the skull-mark expletive from that series. Then, they find out that the Beyond Corporation did exist.
- While Adam Brashear talks with Ulana, we see several alternate universes from What If?, along with Scot Lang yelling at Uatu.
- The reason Spitfire isn't with Blade is because she's keeping an eye on the Black Knight, who according to Avengers: World is having some issues,
- Watching Avenger Prime and Deathwalker Prime fighting, Luke angrily mutters if what's happening isn't some "Dark Phoenix $#!%."
- Continuity Porn: There is a lot of it, Al Ewing knows a lot about Marvel history. He has brought back several characters and locations that hadn't shown up in years. Like the Krask brothers.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Jason Quantrell, head of Cortex Incorporated, is this from the word 'go'.
- Darker and Edgier: "Captain America and the Mighty Avengers" compared to the previous volume, dealing with Body Horror, Mind Rape, and the end of absolutely all existence. That said, there's still moments of humour, and hope.
- Death Faked for You: Adam Brashear faked his death some time before 1972, for his own reasons.
- Determinator: Luke Cage. The Deathwalker Prime forces everyone on Earth to submit to its will, and sticks Luke inside an illusion. He still keeps fighting it. For the record, the only other person shown resisting is Captain America, and he's not shown resisting anywhere near as much as Cage.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Spidey's attempt to apologise for what SpOck did isn't helped by him bringing up threatening to send Danielle into child-care. He even admits he's got no idea why he said it.
- Due to the Dead: Averted, according to Ulana the Watcher, they don't bury their dead, because as far as they're concerned the corpse is another item inhabiting the universe, and to dispose of it would count as interference.
- Dynamic Entry: Adam Brashear used to be good at making these.
- Eldritch Abomination:
- The first Big Bad the team faces off against is Shuma-Gorath.
- The Beyond Corporation. All of them.
- Evil Cripple: After his encounter with Spider-Man (way back in The '80s), Gideon Mace is confined to a wheelchair.
- Foreshadowing:
- Several to who Ronin/"Spider Hero" actually is. A big one is when Monica mentions fighting vampires in New Orleans. In issue #4, Luke also tells Spider Hero that if he doesn't want anyone to know who he really is, he should probably stop wearing the same leather duster everywhere.
- Doctor Positron's attitude toward Adam makes it pretty clear just what their relationship is before the big reveal, if it can even be called a reveal.
- Freudian Excuse: The reason behind James Lucas' long-held dislike for superheroes is revealed during the Original Sin tie-in: He encountered the Four Who Rule in 1972, alongside Blade, Kaluu, and Dr. Brashear. The experience was so distressing that it soured James against the supernatural, and the superhero world in general, and his son becoming a superhero served as an unwelcome reminder of that time.
- Fusion Dance:
- The Four Who Rule merge into one being, controlling the fifth element of the earth, Deathwalker Prime, who controls spirit.
- The Mighty Avengers do this as well to defeat them, becoming "Avenger Prime".
- Gone Horribly Right: Jason Quantrell got a bunch of mad scientists to build a gateway to another dimension. And they did. Everyone else was killed, and Quantrell... wasn't so lucky.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Something happened in 1972, involving the Blue Marvel and Luke Cage's father. The Original Sin tie-in investigates what it was that happened. The Four Who Rule were trying to bring about the end of the world. Blade, Kaluu, Dr. Brashear and Luke Cage's father wound up working together to foil it.
- Heel–Face Turn: Because of Axis, The Plunderer and his minions decide to become Robin Hood-esque thieves. It doesn't work out for them.
- Heroic Willpower: Deathwalker Prime traps every person in the world in a nightmarish illusion meant to break their wills. Luke Cage is the only person with the willpower to free himself (with the captions even pointing out that he is "unbreakable"). The only other person who was even able to resist was Steve Rogers, who is seen in a single panel, trying to stand up under the mental onslaught.
- Hero-Worshipper: As Luke explains to Rik, Ava looks up to Spidey, since he was the one who caught Gideon Mace way back when, so when what looks like Spidey starts giving a condescending lecture, she takes it very hard.
- Human Sacrifice: How the Four Who Rule got their immortality, by sacrificing everyone in their kingdoms.
- Hypocrite: A right-wing news-anchor criticises Sam Wilson for using potentially lethal force against a pair of hoodlums, then immediately starts an editorial about why the police should be allowed to use it more often. She even had the gall to call the Punisher a patriot for his actions.
- Hypocritical Humor: James Lucas scolds his son for swearing, and then when Luke confronts him about what he got up to in the seventies, he starts swearing himself.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: James Lucas admits that the world of monsters and superbeings isn't for him. It's why he avoided his son for so long.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How the Were-Roosters subdue Blade.
- "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: The team tries doing this with Ava when the Tiger God's taken over, but since Ava let it take over, and is now capable of beating up She-Hulk, it doesn't really work too well. Though it turns out she was actually Fighting from the Inside anyhow.
- Irony: In the last issue, Monica nearly destroys the Ultimate Earth, only to be captured by The Maker, who believes she must have hesitated because it was her first time killing.
- It's All About Me: Superior Spider Man doesn't want the Mighty Avengers around because they'd 'get in his way'. So he shows up at their door with an army of Mooks and demand they work for him.
- It's Personal:
- Gideon Mace killed Ava's family. She wants him dead.
- Kaluu was drawn into the conflict with the Four Who Rule because they stole his people's grave goods.
- I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: Blade's original bright yellow outfit returns in the Original Sin flashbacks.
- Jerkass:
- Superior Spider Man is this, through and through.
- Kaluu.
- Kick the Dog:
- Superior Spider-Man threatens to have Danielle Cage sent into childcare.
- While beating up Power Man, the Tiger God feels the need to tell him Aya doesn't love him.
- Knight Templar: Sam Wilson becomes one under the effect of the Inversion, crippling two criminals, violently assaulting the Plunderer and his goon, and acting like an utter dick to the Avengers. He does mercifully get over it, though.
- Lampshade Hanging: Proxima Midnight's spear supposedly generates anti-photons that devour light. Adam Brashear and Otto Octavius point out the impossibility of this, to no avail.
- Large Ham: The Plunderer.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Luke Cage's comment on destroying the Deathwalker's macguffin, about not having "saved the world" in a while can be taken on it's face, or as a comment on the nature of superhero comics focusing less on over-the-top heroics, and more on conflicts between superheroes.
- Lemony Narrator: The captions, pretty much all the time.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Drained of several pints of blood and surrounded by unfriendly were-scorpions, Blade admits he was holding back. Violence ensues
- Monica, when she learns that the Beyond Corporation is behind Quantrell.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: She-Hulk and Blue Marvel, when one of Blue Light's gang uses a strobe effect to escape them. Then Adam goes and tells Monica anyway, much to She-Hulk's displeasure.
- Light 'em Up: Adam Brashear is capable of generating light. Comes in handy against the undead.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Deathwalker Prime tries this on the Avengers. To its credit, it does at least try different illusions for each of them. It still doesn't work.
- Macguffin: The Lost Talisman of Kamar-Taj. The Deathwalkers want it, and Blade has it.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Sam Wilson, after the Inversion.
- My Greatest Failure: Adam Brashear, the Blue Marvel, is unable to save his son from the Neutral Zone
- Naked People Are Funny: Kaluu uses his magic to transport Redline into another dimension, absent all his clothes, save his underwear.
- The Needless: Adam Brashear doesn't really need to eat or sleep anymore, not that he's been doing much of the later anyway after his wife's death.
- Non-Human Undead: Ninja Were-Snakes.Caption: Yes. Ninja Were-Snakes.
- Followed by Were-Slugs, Bugs, Rhinos, Octopi, Honey-Badgers, and Roosters, all to capture Blade.
Caption: "Don't say we never give you anything."- Oh, and the Were-Lampreys.
- The Bear turns out to be... a Were-Bear.
- Oh, Crap!: Adam has one during Infinity, when his disaster warning system sounds off a level 8 alert, since he designed it and had no idea it could go that high.
- Older Than They Look: Adam Brashear is pushing somewhere over eighty. He looks to be in his mid-fifties at the most.
- Confirmed in The Ultimates (2015), he's 87 years old.
- Omni Disciplinary Scientist: Adam Brashear, the Blue Marvel. Admittedly, he's had several decades to study.
- Perpetual Smiler: Jason Quantrell never stops smiling. It gets seriously creepy after Axis.
- Pokémon Speak: For whatever reason, the criminal Redline is incapable of doing anything but shouting his name out. Repeatedly.
- Poor Communication Kills: Max Brashear appears in his father's undersea lairs without warning. Spider-Man assumes he's attacking, and the two fight until Monica intervenes.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Hello, boys. Let the mediation begin."
- The Promise: Blade promised to return to Spitfire, and England, alive. It's what motivates his escape attempt from the Deathwalkers.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Jason Quantrell gives Gideon Mace a short but effective one in #3 of the relaunch, pointing out that Mace lacks subtlety, and that the world is leaving him behind, despite his efforts to keep up.
- Blue Marvel gives a great one to the Illuminati on how completely full of themselves they were to assume only they could find out a solution to the Incursions when Blue Marvel is a genius in his own right whose research could have cracked the solution.
- The Reveal: Ronin is Blade.
- Doctor Positron is Adam's other son. Though it's not as if he's going to any lengths to hide it.
- Retcon: The events of Nextwave were ultimately revealed to be in-canon, with Monica revealing that the only ones who knew that it actually happened where those involved. And it particularly hurt Monica. Or at least it's canon in the sense the Beyond Corporation was messing with their minds.
- Rousing Speech: Spidey manages to give a good one when he takes an inverted Captain America's shield from him. He claims it was like the shield bringing something out of him. An issue later, Same makes his own speech, on all the things Captain America has to stand for. He agrees with Peter.
- Russian Bear: The Bear is a Russian were-bear. She was created in Tunguska by a group of sorcerers called the Deathwalkers using a ritual that would birth a creature that was part human and part animal.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Kaluu, in his own words, spent most of Infinity trying to flee to a 'less doomed plane of existence'.
- Seen It All:
- When exploring Doctor Positron's secret volcano lair, Blue Marvel just says it's the third volcano lair he's seen that week.
- A very dark variant, where a woman being interviewed by the news lists off all the normal fears and anxieties a normal person in the Marvel Universe has, before noting that the end of all existence is just another thing on the list.
- A Shared Suffering: Utilised by the team during their Fusion Dance, listing all the members who've lost a family member, and how it unites them.
- Shout-Out:
- This line from Monica in the first arc:
- Spider-Man has an army. Luke Cage has a lawyer.
- Doctor Positron welcomes the superheroes to his underground lair, despite the fact that they aren't underground. He explicitly labels the Austin Powers movies as his favourite films.
- In issue 10, a caption has this to say of New York: "It's a helluva town." A reference to On the Town.
- Kevin Brashear, on his return from the Neutral Zone, looks amazingly like Doctor Manhattan And by "amazingly", we mean exactly.
- Power Man's caption for Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #3 reads "Strong to the finish, 'cause New York is his spinach."
- Shooting Superman: Monica shrugs off Barbara McDevitt's time-manipulating abilities, so the lady tries to shoot her. Monica can turn intangible.
- Standard '50s Father: Blue Marvel's reaction to aforementioned Austin Powers reference? Remarking that he finds those movies vulgar, followed by annoyed muttering from Doctor Positron, who happens to be his son.
- Super-Speed: Monica can move at the speed of light. It comes in handy against a foe who can slow down time.
- Swiss-Army Superpower: Monica can turn her body into all kinds of energy, except the kind they make up on Star Trek.
- Take That!: A few in the Last Days tie-ins to Secret Wars (2015) towards the characters in the Hickman series (though not towards the series themselves).
- Issue #8 of Captain America and the Mighty Avengers has most of the cast point out that The Illuminati should have asked for help to deal with the incursion crisis rather than hiding it from the world until it was too late to stop it.
- Issue #9 takes one of the Arc Words from The Avengers and twists it. "We were Avengers" in the main series is used in a melancholy, nostalgic sense to show that despite their best efforts the Avengers were slowly falling apart at the seams. In Mighty Avengers it's the opposite, showing heroes and regular people alike banding together to help others even in the face of the end of the world, and stating to each other that this was what made them real heroes.
- Targeted Human Sacrifice: Blade, by the Four Who Rule.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Four Who Rule each seek to claim the world as their own, meaning they would eventually turn on each other for control. Merging into Deathwalker Prime was their idea of solving the problem. But even then, they are unable to work together effectively, and are destroyed by Avenger Prime.
- Tempting Fate: Monica claims that nothing W.A.S.P.E have can hurt her. Seconds later, they do just that. Lampshaded by the captions.Caption: "Just jinxed it."
- There Can Only Be One: The Four Who Rule acknowledge this, that ultimately only one of them could rule. They've got a solution for that. It still doesn't work.
- Token Evil Team Mate: The Superior Spider Man, seeing as how he is really Otto Octavius. He's not actually part of the team, but he wants to be in charge.
- Also when the Tiger God takes over Ava.
- Kaluu also counts, though he's more a Jerkass at most. It still gets some angry comments from Steven Rogers during Last Days.
- Took a Level in Badass: Not that she was a slouch before, but Monica gets a free power-up during Infinity.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Sam Wilson and Luke Cage, after AXIS causes their personalities to be inverted. It wears off after the event, but they have to live with the consequences.
- Tranquil Fury: Jessica Jones is furious about Luke setting up another Avengers franchise, and potentially putting their baby in danger. She says this while chatting amicably with Adam Brashear, and moving furniture about.
- The Tunguska Event: An act of magic gone very wrong. It also happened to create The Bear in the process.
- Violent Glaswegian: Cairn of the Four Who Rule has a strong Scottish accent, and is also the biggest and most physically violent of the lot.
- Weakened by the Light: The Deathwalkers are vulnerable to light as a consequence of the methods they used to gain power, almost like vampires but to the point they're even vulnerable to moonlight.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Adam and Monica are anything but impressed by Reed Richards and T'Challa's actions over in New Avengers.
- What You Are in the Dark: Everywhere in the final issue before Secret Wars. Jen feels bad about the possibility of having to kill, Monica hesitates to destroy an entire universe, because her impact site was a children's playground, Dave and Soraya the tech support stay in The Gem to man the hotlines, Adam and Max are still trying to fix things (with Adam turning down a phone call from his daughter to focus on work), Danny, Luke and Ava try and save who they can, and Jessica helps out in an emergency center.
- Brought home by the doctor in the last segment, as he addresses the reader.
You were struck by falling masonry while assisting in the evacuation of the school, according to the Samaritan who brought you in. By their reckoning, at least three of the younger children owe their lives to you. That might not seem like much, half an hour or so before the end comes - it's a small blessing. But the small things matter. The effort matters. If we give in... if we don't at least try... then the world has already ended. - With Us or Against Us: Steve Rogers says this to the team during the Last Days tie-in, even though the team's not done or doing anything to him.
- You Are Too Late: Blade escapes his shackles and confronts the Four, the Mighty Avengers arrive on the scene... and the Four reveal they already drank Blade's blood, and don't need him. They're moving on to the next stage of their plan.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After using Gideon Mace to "stir the pot" with his bigotry, Jason Quantrell has him killed, as he needs things to move faster than Mace can accommodate for.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Ava tries going back to her family during Last Days, but since she's the White Tiger, they're terrified by her (Because of what happened to Hector Ayala and Angela Del Toro) and drive her away.
