![]() | |||||||||
West Coast Avengers #11Issue(s): West Coast Avengers #11 Review/plot: The team seems to have all but given up hunting Master Pandemonium, which is especially annoying considering Tigra's resolution last issue. She's seen here hanging out by the pool... ![]() ...and decides to go hang out with Wonder Man (to be fair, see the References. The hunt for Master P has been delegated to Hank Pym). After we see that the LA SHIELD headquarters is hidden under a hairdresser's salon instead of a barber shop.... ![]() ...Mockingbird and company get the cold shoulder at SHIELD. ![]() ![]() ![]() And on their way home, they are attacked by three villains from Master of Kung Fu. ![]() They actually seem tailor-made for these particular Avengers. Shockwave has a powered exo-skeleton like Iron Man, Zaran is a master of weapons and fights Hawkeye, who is at least the master of a weapon... ![]() ...and Mockingbird pits her bo-sticks against Razorfist's razor fists. We learn that Mockingbird got her name because her fighting style makes it seem like she is mocking her opponents by always being one step ahead of them. ![]() She tricks Razorfist into shanging his chi against her battle-staves while forgetting about her foot... ![]() ...and ultimately gets to beat him in the ass repeatedly while he lies on the ground and cries. ![]() Shockwave thinks that he has an advantage against Iron Man because he's willing to kill, but Iron Man finds a loophole against that restriction. ![]() The three villains eventually flee, loudly claiming that they work for Monsieur Khruul and the Blood Tong, but they fly off in a SHIELD flying car... ![]() ..and leave behind a clue for readers saying that they were actually hired by SHIELD. ![]() Again, this was meant as a tie-in or promo for the Nick Fury vs. SHIELD miniseries, but that series won't actually come out until 1988. This isn't the first time this happened; 1984's Hulk #297-300 had similar references that went nowhere. The delays on that book were apparently epic. Tigra, meanwhile, gets jealous at Wonder Man's set while he gets friendly with Christy Carson. Just because Tigra "play[s] the field" doesn't mean Wonder Man should be showing interest in other women. ![]() She consoles herself by hitting on Wonder Man's director. ![]() The Master of Kung Fu villains make nice opponents for these Avengers, as long as we allow that Shockwave can go a few rounds with Iron Man. Of course the group would have had less luck if Wonder Man was also with the team at the time, but they could have formed a nice foundation for a team of villains and i wouldn't have minded seeing them come back. But since they're tied to the delayed SHIELD plot, they don't reappear again in the same capacity. Quality Rating: C+ Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between Iron Man #208-209. Iron Man references the satellite research facility that he's been working on. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (2): showCharacters Appearing: Arnold Schwarzburger, Christina Carson, Hawkeye, Henry Pym, Iron Man, Mockingbird, Nick Fury, Razorfist III, Shockwave, Tigra, Wonder Man, Zaran CommentsI agree that the MoKF villains made a nice team. With Zaran in Batroc's Brigade, it would have been nice to see Shockwave and Razor Fist should up there. Posted by: Chris | December 22, 2013 8:50 PM Say what you will about Englehart, but I loved how he wrote Mockingbird--he was the one who made her one of my favourite Avengers. For a long time it seemed like he and Mark Gruenwald were the only ones who could write her well. After Englehart left WCA, no one really seemed to know what to do with her...until Jim McCann's HAWKEYE & MOCKINGBIRD series a few years ago. Her battle tactic of using constant chatter to distract her foes, and scathing sarcastic comments to mock them and make them sloppy, is something that is popular with some male heroes (noteably Deadpool and Spider-Man), but we don't see too many women that use it--at least not as directly as Bobbi did. That was something I really missed when later writers got ahold of her. Posted by: Dermie | December 23, 2013 12:51 AM More issues of WCA should have been like this. They needed teams of villains to face ala lethal legion,masters of evil, etc. MoKF had a lot of villains who could be integrated more into the MU proper as Zaran was. Especially, Shockwave (an armour wearing, electro-shock martial artist, how cool is that). However, this razor-fist should have only been missing one hand, not both. Posted by: kveto from prague | December 23, 2013 9:12 AM So they have some elaborate cover story, but they lose a note on which it says who really hired them? How incompetent are these guys? Posted by: Berend | March 11, 2014 7:32 PM To be fair, the note was in code. Posted by: Michael | March 11, 2014 7:49 PM How does Razorfist dress himself, go to the bathroom, brush his teeth, shower, blow his nose, wipe his tears after Bobbi beats him up? I wish that guy with the maces in his hair had shown up too. Posted by: PeterA | January 16, 2016 1:38 AM We saw 2 servants of Razorfist in an Elektra story. Presumably they do that stuff. Posted by: Michael | January 16, 2016 5:41 PM We also saw that with the "handmaidens" of a different weapons-for-hands guy in Master of Kung Fu: Bleeding Black. Posted by: fnord12 | January 18, 2016 1:48 PM They must have put Razorfist in charge of holding the note. Posted by: kveto | December 11, 2016 1:25 PM Comments are now closed. |
|||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||
SuperMegaMonkey home | Comics Chronology home |