Avengers: The Initiative

Following the events of the Civil War, Marvel’s Avengers: The Initiative (2008–2010) explored the government’s official program to train and register new super-powered recruits as part of the Fifty-State Initiative. Over its five-issue run, artists Jim Cheung, Mark Brooks, and Matteo De Longis brought to life this tense, bureaucratic side of the Marvel Universe, where young heroes navigated boot camp, public relations, and the shadow of the Superhuman Registration Act. It’s a compact, character-driven look at the cost of making heroism a government job.