Travis Hedge Coke
The initial supervillain of Kelly Thompson and Stefano Caselli’s West Coast Avengers is BRODOK (Bio-Robotic Organism Designed Overwhelmingly for Kissing), a giant head with spindly limbs “Designed Only for Killing,” who gave himself an image revamp to combat what he perceives as an inherent shallowness in people, particularly women (who won’t date him). MODOK that Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing has been a consistent murdery control-freak giant head villain. Some forty years ago, MODOK used a “mindripper” to “rip” then-Ms/now-Captain Marvel’s mind and make her live out shame-filled sexual encounters with, you guessed it, MODOK. Now, he has a pout, good hair, a ripped and tanned bod, and expects women to lock step worship and obey him. BRODOK is the guy who thinks the Rock is a beta cuck and Donald Trump is what all the miladies live for. Incel gone mad(der).
This is also how we met West Coast Avenger, Quentin Quire. Less than twenty years ago (but not so less that oh my god Quentin Quire has been around almost twenty years!), young Quentin used his subtle, complex mental powers and his devious “see-through brain,” to ruin a perceived rival by stripping him of his cool persona and made up looks, coerced classmates into a violent gang, and coerced the girlfriend of that “rival” (who probably did not even know Quentin was there) to leave him and begin to shower Quentin with sexual attention. For what grand purpose? To impress a young woman who had told him to get lost, who was not interested, who… was immune to his powers more than their less fortunate classmates or non-psychic teachers.
That young woman died saving people from Quentin’s quest to impress her into sleeping with him.
See, Quentin was the baddie. No matter how close to the bone, or close to our lonely nerd hearts he may have hewn, Quentin Quire was a rapey supervillain.
MODOK, in the aforementioned Ms Marvel comic, was a rapey supervillain.
At his worst, Quentin was being influenced by an intelligent drug that heightened his desire for (pointless) conflict. MODOK is programmed to kill and to not care about people. MODOK has not broken that programming, and BRODOK’s pretense is only a pretense. Quentin, at his best, is still demeaning, sexist, a liar, and more than willing to cause property damage or get up in women’s personal space in a possessive and callous way. The best you can say of him at his best, is that, unlike MODOK, his best is not him at his worst.
One reinvention of character without much apology or change of tactics has worked, while the other is immediately recognized as an unworkable front.
All of the AWC team, so far, either cannot recognize reality or willfully deny part of it. It is the hinge and charm of the comic, and likely why this BRODOK is the villain and screw out screwdriver of a team can turn on.
Hawkeye is making a team with a name she has no right to, of folks who don’t need to be a team. She’s the classic superhero with no super powers, the wealthy badass in the line of Batman or Green Arrow.
America is from another world, a better, different reality.
Gwenpool cannot process reality. She also has no obvious super powers, none that can be detailed, but it seems as if by her inability to real, reality blurs over her a bit, as well.
Or, Gwenpool is mentally ill. Could be both.
The team rolls with her, anyway, and Quentin and she are currently all hate-kissing in cute scenes each new issue. But, again, she might be mentally ill. She’s definitely not mentally healthy. And, she’s liplocked with a rapist stalker narcissist who various superheroes have been tolerating or rolling their eyes at but allowing free rein for years.