West Coast Avengers vol. 1: Best Coast

Kelly Thompson writing both Hawkeyes again with Gwenpool, Quentin Quire, and America Chavez in tow, and Stefano Caselli providing the art!  SOLD!

…aaand it’s gone.  That’s right, this latest incarnation of “West Coast Avengers” is a lame duck with its first volume after having been given the axe with issue #10.  Which is TERRIBLE since this first volume was so much fun. Thompson has such a great handle on the core cast and writes such good banter between them that it’s fun to see a complete newbie like Fuse, Kate Bishop’s boyfriend who can change his body mass to whatever substance he touches, mix it up along with them.  There are also plenty of fun, irreverent touches throughout the volume, starting with the recurring documentary crew interviews, the landshark attack, the appearance of angry mind-controlled 50-foot Tigra, and of course B.R.O.D.O.K.

That would be Bio-Robotic Organism Designed Overwhelmingly for Kissing and yes, he is a drastically and ridiculously revamped version of the M.O.D.O.K. that we all know and love.  There’s a message in his arc about how outer change is no substitute for inner change, but it takes second banana to the absurdity of the main plot which culminates in Kate going big *rimshot* in order to stop the 50-foot Tigra and the other similarly-sized monsters which have joined her.  Between Thompson’s winning dialogue and Caselli’s detailed artwork “Best Coast” is so much fun that its “cancelled” status doesn’t feel warranted at all.

Marvel has shown a willingness to give certain titles that sell well in collected form a miniseries reprieve — looking in your direction “Iceman” and “Domino” — so everyone should go out and buy this right away so “West Coast Avengers” can joint their ranks.  Yes, this volume is padded out with the first issue of “The Unbelievable Gwenpool” and the Kate Bishop issue of “Young Avengers Presents.” They’re good issues in their own right, but they do feel a little out of place with the style and tone of what precedes them.