West Coast Avengers #4
Recap
B.R.O.D.O.K.’s giants are still laying waste to Venice Beach.
Kate joins the fray, but isn’t much help…
Clint finds B.R.O.D.O.K.’s evil-undoer ray (because of course he has one of those.) Quentin and Clint zap B.R.O.D.O.K. simultaneously.
B.R.O.D.O.K. is transformed back into M.O.D.O.K. by copying and pasting but changing the first two letters. Wait… B.R.O.D.O.K. was M.O.D.O.K. all along?! Why did no one tell me? I’m so raising this at the next Comic-Watch airing of grievances…
Big Bird tosses M.O.D.O.K. towards the sun. Clint and Quire set about transforming the giants back into regular sized women sans the mind control.
Johnny’s sister, Ramone, is trapped in a collapsing building while assisting civilians. America rescues her from being single, oh and the collapsing building, that too.
All but one of M.O.D.O.K.’s former patients have been transformed back to their old selves.
In the post-match interviews Quire-Pool deny being a thing, then make out all over the place. Gwen *ahem* pulls guard… I can only assume she’s working for an armlock or something. Johnny finds out about America and his sister, His Sister?! HIS SISTER?!?!
The New West Coast Avengers make their debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live and it goes… well it goes. An assortment of villains are watching.
Review
This series won me over in the last issue, and though this one isn’t quite as good, it’s a pretty by the numbers end to the arc really, it’s still charming, well paced and funny enough, so it gets away with it.
Given the premise the style of the issue is interesting, there’s only one full page panel and one double page spread, although really that is split into six. This speaks to the series being generally more interested in the dialogue than the action, despite all the huge monsters stomping around town. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and works fine in this instance. In fact it reminds me of several nice panels from the previous issue where characters continue to chat away despite the devastation occurring in the background.
This approach does mean that the artist doesn’t get as many obvious chances to shine but you can see Stefano Caselli’s talent in the expressions of the team.
The issue is focused on wrapping up the arc, so the plot is pretty straightforward and there’s not too much in terms of character development aside from America hooking up with Ramone (you broke my heart America, I mean I know you’re gay, not to mention fictional but I thought we could work past that… together…)
It’s interesting that B.R.O.D.O.K. attempts somewhat cack-handedly to win Quentin over to his side because, as my colleague Travis wrote recently, they do have an awful lot in common, awful being the operative word. Given Gwenpool’s relationships with M.O.D.O.K. and now Quire, it’ll be interesting to see if she plays into this subplot at all.
This is an area where this series seems to have taken a backward step. In the previous issue there was a genuinely touching moment where Quentin realizes that Gwen has no powers and as such, is incredibly vulnerable in this line of work. Not only is that kind of emotional impact lacking in this issue, but Quire-Pool’s quasi-relationship appears to have regressed to where it was in issue two, with them hating each other, but then making out. Now I’m not shipping this by any means but I do think that issue three wrong footed us with the suggestion that there would be some progression in their relationship.
Final Thoughts
A solid, entertaining, if somewhat unspectacular end to the series’ first arc.
West Coast Avengers #4: The Eye Of The Bow-Holder
- Writing - 8/108/10
- Storyline - 7/107/10
- Art - 8.75/108.8/10
- Color - 8.25/108.3/10
- Cover Art - 8.25/108.3/10