Warning: contains spoilers for Avengers: Mech Strike and Avengers: Tech-On!
The Avengers recently received two brand-new sets of high-tech armor: the bulky giant robots of Avengers: Mech Strike, and the sleek, anime-inspired suits of Avengers: Tech-On. Both are given to the team in a crucial time of need, but which armor is the coolest? The radically different armors are compared below...and ultimately only one will emerge victorious.
In quick secession, Marvel Comics has released two brand-new series that focuses on the Avengers receiving new armor to help them overcome a significant villain. In Avengers: Mech Strike, written by Jed Mackay with art by Carlos Magno, Kang the Conqueror's machinations are too much for the Avengers to handle alone, and Tony Stark makes armored suits for the entire team. In Avengers: Tech-On, written by Jim Zub with art by Jeffrey "Chamba" Cruz, the Red Skull wields the shards of the Infinity Stones...and Tony Stark once again makes suits for his team.
The Mech Strike mechs are a sight to behold. Each suit is at least three times as tall as its pilot, and the armor's boxy design conveys power and bulk, perhaps at the expense of speed and maneuverability. Every mech has a signature design element of the pilot: Captain America's suit has a massive shield, Thor's armor has a gigantic hammer built in to the right wrist, etc. All of them can fly (and Spider-Man's mech can even shoot webs). If the Mech Strike suits are built around an American ideal of large robots, the Tech-On suits have more of a Japanese-inspired design aesthetic: they're incredibly sleek and have a shiny, shimmering metallic texture, owing much to Cruz's art style.
Aesthetics are subjective, but although Tech-On has just begun, the suits of the series have already trumped the Mech Strike suits in one area: importance to the plot. In Mech Strike, Tony builds the suits out of a desire to simply hit the enemy harder; one wonders why the Hulk is in a suit when he's already demonstrated his incredible strength on numerous occasions. In Tech-On, the Red Skull striped the Avengers' powers away; Captain Marvel can no longer fly, Spider-Man no longer has his enhanced senses, and Steve Rogers is back to his pre-Super Soldier Serum skinny self. Thus, the Tech-On suits do more than allow the Avengers to amplify their force: they protect the team and act as a substitute for their powers. The suits are now 100% necessary for them to survive Red Skull and his army.
Avengers: Mech Strike and Avengers: Tech-On are two very "toyetic" series that push the armored suits as much as possible (and indeed, toys exist of both sets of armor). However, one armor clearly serves the plot more than the other: the Tech-On suits - which, until the Avengers can reacquire their powers, will have to rely upon for the duration of the series. Tony Stark has always had a sense of style - but in Avengers: Tech-On, his sense of style has truly saved the team.