The West Coast Avengers Captured! In West Coast Avengers #6
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
A cabal of supervillains have trapped the West Coast Avengers in an abandoned theme park. This gathering of villainy is made up by Satana Hellstrom, M.O.D.O.K., Madame Masque, the Eel, and Lady Bullseye. All of the West Coast Avengers except Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye, have already been captured. Kate is wandering the catacombs beneath the park with her mother, who is mysteriously not dead. However, Lady Bullseye and another unknown actor are currently hunting Kate, and her mother wants her to abandon her team. Meanwhile, the rest of the WCA are trying to escape the trap.
West Coast Avengers #6 finds the team already dealing with another crisis, as every rogue hiding out in California wants the Avengers far away from their operations.
The humor is surprisingly light in this one considering the previous issues. There are still one-liners and a couple of odd jokes, but this issue is far more traditional superhero comic than superhero comedy.
That does make some sense. The team is in a dire situation due to powers of which they weren’t yet even aware existed. Plus, Kate is dealing with the apparent return of her mother, and Kate thought she was dead.
Fair warning: fans of Lady Bullseye should prepare to see the assassin go down like a punk.
Gwenpool and Quentin Quire get another good moment in this issue, and I’m finding myself oddly charmed by the pairing.
Daniele di Nicuolo is the artist in this story, and she brings a sleek and anime/manga-inspired style that fits the energy and youthful spirit of the West Coast Avengers quite well. She makes the action scenes look good, and the stylism just looks nice on the whole. Triona Farrell gives the book another round of vibrant color work to keep your eyes trained on the page.
West Coast Avengers #6 is a more serious yet still enjoyable installment for the struggling superhero team. Our heroes are in dire straits, but their leader isn’t going to abandon them. However, they have quite a cadre of rogues to fight. In any case, this book is easily worth another recommendation. Feel free to give it a read.
West Coast Avengers #6 comes to us from writer Kelly Thompson, artist Daniele di Nicuolo, color artist Triona Farrell, letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna, and cover artist Stefano Caselli with Nolan Woodard.
