West Coast Avengers No. 9 review: Fighting vampires with vibranium
By Alex Widen
It’s Avengers vs. Vampires…and that’s not even the craziest thing that happens here!
West Coast Avengers No. 9
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Gang Hyuk Lim
Colorist: Triona Farrell
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There is something a little different that West Coast Avengers offers compared to writer Kelly Thompson’s other books for Marvel. Captain Marvel is her big budget blockbuster, especially after this month. Mr. & Mrs. X is both a part of the grander X-Men line but also stars two characters who led their own books. West Coast Avengers, in contrast, mostly stars B, C, and even D list characters who either rarely have led their own books, or never could. This gives it a bit of a more “underground” flair, like comparing an indie cult film to a mainstream studio project. Things always get fun and crazy!
Image by Marvel Comics
One part sequel to Hawkeye, and one part fringe Avengers title, this is a team in which a mutant land-shark being their pet is barely the weirdest thing about them! After recreating California’s team of Avengers with her pals and some random space fillers, Kate Bishop is trying to solve two mysteries. One is the fate of her mother, who is working with Madame Masque. The other is a mission dumped on them by her ex Marvel Boy, which has led them into a pit full of vampires!
Image by Marvel Comics
This Whole Adventure Really Bites!
If Kate Bishop is less than thrilled to see Noh-Varr again, then her current boyfriend (and rookie superhero) Johnny Watts/Fuse avidly hates him! Just at a time when he is feeling the most overwhelmed by the superhero life, Fuse has to face Kate’s overconfident and almost overpowering ex. Both of them have been thrown into a deep pit by the vampires of “the Cult of the Shifting Sun” and have to team up to escape. But how can they when they hate each other?
Image by Marvel Comics
Meanwhile, Kate and Clint Barton have found themselves in a familiar situation — hanging upside down after being captured. Their fight against the vampires last issue went poorly. For one, thanks to Noh-Varr’s Kree bias, they were expecting Skrulls, not super-strong undead. Secondly, the vampires managed to bite America Chavez, their heaviest hitter. Clint is blaming Kate’s plan, while Kate is just trying to forget about “science monkeys” and her headache long enough to escape!
Image by Marvel Comics
While Kate is angry to see her best superhero friend bitten and helpless, the private eye in her smells a mystery. Just how could the vampires so easily bring Chavez under their thrall? And why have they obsessed over her? Their cult is focused on a prophecy in which a specific woman — who in their art, looks a lot like America — will arrive whose blood will allow them to walk in daylight. That’s standard stuff from evil vampires, and it looks like the WCA walked right into it!
Image by Marvel Comics
Fangs for the Memories!
Fortunately, the best part of Kate’s plan was splitting up the team. Kid Omega and Gwenpool ran into Kate’s presumably dead mother at Madame Masque’s compound. The seemingly dead Mrs. Bishop has been operating as Masque’s partner for some time; quite why is unknown. What is known is that Masque has ties with the vampires, and only Mrs. Bishop can help! Yet while they stop at the office to regroup, Johnny’s elder sister Ramone makes a very difficult decision!
Image by Marvel Comics
Ramone has been Kate’s neighbor and friend longer than Johnny has, and also happens to be dating America these days. Having been utilized as bait in their previous adventure, Ramone isn’t about to helplessly sit as everyone she loves is endangered again. And so with only the unstable Gwenpool as a witness, Ramone reveals some truths about the Watts siblings. Their mother was one of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje, the honor guard who protect and serve alongside Black Panther!
Image by Marvel Comics
For reasons unknown, Zobae left Wakanda for California, and found love somewhere along its coast. Having died when the Watts siblings were younger, the pair had to rely on each other ever since. Johnny ultimately gained super powers, and began using Vibranium jewelry that Zobae had gifted them to aid his powers. Yet Ramone had a far more dangerous reaction to the mysterious alien metal — a Vibranium ring wanted to merge itself to her body, permanently!
Image by Marvel Comics
There Certainly Are High Stakes Ahead!
It was a risk not worth taking, at least until now. As Gwenpool frets about being cut from the team for her lack of superpowers, and Kid Omega is bored to death in front of the reality TV crew, Ramone realizes that she just needed to be inspired to take a risk. In a flash of light, the ring has merged with her, and now Ramone is clad in a suit of Vibranium armor — which she seemingly can’t remove! There’s no time to worry about bathroom breaks when danger is afoot!
Image by Marvel Comics
Ironically, the West Coast Avengers seem to have better coordination by accident than on a mission together. Mrs. Bishop leads the cavalry through an underground tunnel just as Fuse figures out what the old “Fastball Special” that Wolverine always talked about was. Just when Kate and Clint were feeling overwhelmed by vampires, the entire team assembles for a living dead beat-down! Yet Chavez is still helpless, and Mrs. Bishop reveals that she’s got a worse secret than being a clone!
Image by Marvel Comics
A Wing and a Prayer!
There’s always a lot of sassy dialogue, imaginative sequences, and a full embracing of a wacky superhero world from just about everything Kelly Thompson writes for Marvel. Just while Captain Marvel and Mr & Mrs. X revolve around their own franchises of influence, West Coast Avengers feels more loose, as if anything can happen. It’s a book where alien exes, vampires, resurrected moms, dragons and land-shark pets can all co-exist and it doesn’t even phase anyone.
Image by Marvel Comics
Considering that this series spawned forth from the end of Hawkeye, it is interesting to wonder how long some of these “reveals” may have been planned by Thompson. Were Ramone and Johnny always intended to hail from Wakanda? Was Kate’s lineage always intended to cross the path of vampires? Or were these things which sprang forth once the premise leaped to being a team book, and therefore required some higher “power levels” from the supporting cast?
Image by Marvel Comics
Plot points such as a den of vampires and Ramone’s Wakandan origins could only make sense within the Marvel Universe, and it is great to see how skillfully Thompson explores the limits (or lack thereof) of any universe she writes in. Whether it is this, or Jem & the Holograms, she always knows how far to reach for an imaginative plot point. Plus, there are tons of trademark smaller, yet memorable moments. Noh-Varr’s cluelessness when talking with Fuse or Quentin’s change of ironic tees are classic!
Image by Marvel Comics
Bat’s All Folks!?
Gang Hyuk Lim puts together another spectacular issue in terms of art. He hasn’t done a ton of work but is clearly ready for more mainstream superhero projects. He juggles all of the designs well and even manages to evoke a little hint of Fiona Staples with his sequences with Ramone — which is great company to keep. The Avengers vs. vampires beat-down montage is a visual highlight, along with a lot of fun sound effects (“DOUBLE-PUNCH!”). There is a lot to like here!
Image by Marvel Comics
Next. Everyone Learns Never to Trust Marvel Boy in No. 8!. dark
Which is a shame that it may be coming to an end all too quickly. Sales for the 8th issue were not healthy, and both Bleeding Cool and the AV Club have read the tea leaves and believe the series is cancelled with the next issue. Yet maybe Quentin’s tee-shirt has the right idea; it may be time for a reboot. Call them West Coast X-Men? Regardless, between the wild twists and turns, the clever embraces of the genre, the cracking dialogue and the sassy passion, West Coast Avengers is one of the best superhero books out there. It certainly deserves more than a stake in the heart, but if it has to go, at least it aims to do so with it’s biggest issue yet!