Warning: contains spoilers for Avengers #42
While the Batcave of DC Comics has cemented itself as the most widely recognized superhero lair in comics, the newest issue of The Avengers has allowed the titular team’s current headquarters to have a run at the title. As if Avengers Mountain could not become more of an astounding feat, writer Jason Aaron (The Mighty Thor, Punisher Max) and artist Luca Maresca (Asgardians of the Galaxy, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man) have established a fascinating new element to the Avengers’ godly base.
The Enter the Phoenix arc continues with The Avengers #42, which marks the grand debut of a new element to the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ Avengers Mountain. The Avengers remain at odds with the rampaging Phoenix Force, which has taken control of several mainstay heroes and threatens to destroy everything in its fiery wake. Fearing directly attacking the Phoenix Force would lead to more destruction than intended, The Avengers devise a plan utilizing the complex anatomy of their very own base. The nearly-indestructible structure of the Celestial would in effect contain the powerful onslaught of the Phoenix’s cosmic capabilities.
Housed within the interior of an ancient Celestial being known as the Progenitor, the Avengers Mountain has served as a primary base of operations for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes since 2018’s Avengers World Tour storyline. After foiling the plans of their earliest foe, Loki, and his allies, the immortal Celestials left The Avengers a parting gift as a sign of their gratitude… one of their own. Progenitor, the very first Celestial to visit the planet Earth, would become the basis for the team’s new base as well as a harbinger of doom for any hostile force seeking war. In order to accommodate the living conditions of the group, Black Panther’s home nation of Wakanda and the Alpha Flight space program collaborated to make the Celestial body much more comfortable.
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The crown jewel of the Avengers Mountain is the Celestial Teleporter capable of transporting members of the team to several locations across the planet. During Marvel’s massive War of the Realms crossover event in 2019, the transporter was out of commission while Doctor Strange would use his mastery of magic to evacuate half of New York City to the Avengers’ mountain headquarters, which would quickly find itself under siege by creatures from several corners of the Nine Realms. Currently, the Celestial Teleporter has proven to be an asset in The Avengers’ ongoing crusade against the Phoenix Force, tracing the entity’s radiation signature.
An even more questionable addition to the interior layout of Avengers Mountain is the mutant Devil Dinosaur, which shares similarities to the T-Rex depicted in select iterations of Batman’s Batcave, from comics to cartoons. While the Batcave’s T-Rex is simply an animatronic model, the Avengers have their very own, courtesy of Devil Dinosaur’s young companion Lunella Lafayette a.k.a. Moon Girl.
Along with personal living quarters for each member of the team, Avengers Mountain is filled to the brim with technological and architectural advances which make The Avengers‘ previous headquarters and the Batcave pale in comparison.