West Coast Avengers #2
Matthew David Clarke
Recap
We rejoin the Hawkeyes shooting putty arrows at giant Tigra (God forbid they use anything pointy) who is still running amok in Santa Monica Pier. B.R.O.D.O.K. eventually offers to help and is able to talk Tigra down, much to the suspicion of the entire West Coast Avengers team.
They bring B.R.O.D.O.K. (screw it I’m not typing that again, it’s copy and paste from now on) back to their headquarters to pump him for information and distract him while the Hawkeyes infiltrate his lab. They fail to find much of interest but take some coded patient files.
Back at headquarters Gwenpool and Quire resolve another spat by necking like teenagers, traumatizing America and Johnny. On their return, Kate sets Clint as first watch while B.R.O.D.O.K. stays the night. In the early morning, B.R.O.D.O.K. finds the files which were taken from his lab. He summons a shadowy cohort of giants led by Tigra.
Review
I wrote of the last issue that West Coast Avengers’ problems were mainly in one area and therefore it would hopefully be an easy fix. Unfortunately, this issue is more of the same. To quote Josh Lyman: “They forgot to bring the funny.” I have no issue with a scatter-shot approach to humor. Deadpool uses it all the time, hell, I use it all the time. You throw enough at a wall some of it will stick. But this is a book which is relentlessly trying and failing to be funny. At some point they need to go to plan B and either hire someone to make this series funny or focus significantly less on humor because currently, it’s not working.
The previous issue’s problems with action and drama also remain. America Chavez is still the only character who makes a literal impact. For me, she’s the strongest part of the book. I didn’t laugh reading this but I smiled three times, two of those were because of America, one was a nice line from Kate. This issue does a good job portraying the impotent rage of a powerful character.
On the few pages when the issue isn’t focused on dialogue, Stefano Caselli’s art is good. It’s nicely chaotic in the opening Tigra sequence. The character details are great from Kate’s indignant defensiveness to Gwenpool’s complete emotional transparency. Again though, America staring daggers into Kate is my personal favorite.
Triona Farrell’s coloring in the Tigra sequences is stunning and there are a few interesting paneling choices. The seemingly haphazard distribution of the panels is very appropriate to this story of a dysfunctional team.
Final Thoughts
A few positives, but not enough to justify buying it. Still trying too hard to be funny.
West Coast Avengers #2 Is The Definition Of Insanity
- Writing - 7.5/107.5/10
- Storyline - 7/107/10
- Art - 8.5/108.5/10
- Color - 8.5/108.5/10
- Cover Art - 7.5/107.5/10
Had high hopes for this title, now I’m not so sure. Sad, as the line up was an interesting one.
I know, right? The frustrating thing is they are trying to do something interesting here, so it’s an honourable failure, but a failure nonetheless.
And I just realised that’s a Mark Kermode reference as well.