Mighty Avengers 34

It would not surprise me if a few months ago Dan Slott was givena checklist of things to accomplish by the time Siege rolls around.

-Wrap up Loki's involvement with the series

-Tie the book into New Avengers, Captain America Reborn, Incredible Hercules, and Thor

-Lead into Siege and the end of the Mighty Avengers book

Perhaps many more things, too. The point, though, is that within a single issue out of a year of story telling and halfway into Marvel's Siege event, Dan Slott accomplishes this goal. Most importantly, he makes the most use of 22 pages that I have seen from anyone. Slott's writing is concise and conveys exactly the information he needs to tell the reader. It is a special talent that I have seen the man exhibit throughout his run on Mighty Avengers and is on full display here. For the rest of Marvel the Heroic Age may be approaching, but the fun and whimsy of a brighter, new age of Marvel Comics has been on display for a solid year in this book.

It may not be a flagship book. It may have to bow to the continuity concerns of several other books, too. However, it has a true master of the comic medium leading it to its end, and given the limitations placed on him with the direction of all of these characters, Slott has exercised and explored more than enough space. To use a different analogy, he's made a tiny home seem bigger than it is from the inside.