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West Coast Avengers #9: Review

Mar 2019
Kelly Thompson, Gang-Hyuk Lim

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

West Coast Avengers #9 Review by (April 5, 2019)
Johnny Watts' power has always seemed like that of Absorbing Man. Now sister Ramone demonstrates a power that is similar but different. We learn here that their mother was a Dora Milaje. Could their father be Carl Creel? (And what did Titania have to say about that?)

If they inherit their powers from Crusher Creel then maybe the vibranium rings were just an expensive gift from their mother and have nothing to do with it, except by being vibranium.

Mrs Bishop being a vampire could explain the whole supposedly dead but still alive thing.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

West Coast Avengers #9 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
We begin with a Reality TV interview that actually isn't a flashforward or flashback. Quentin Quire is waiting for Gwen Poole who is doing something with Ramone Watts. Gwen's pet baby land shark Jeff jumps on his lap. And all this waiting around is happening while they're supposed to be going to the aid of the rest of the team in the Temple Of The Shifting Sun.

In the Temple the suspected Skrulls have turned out to be vampires. They've thrown Fuse (Johnny Watts) and the Kree Noh-Varr into a pit. Noh makes use of his cockroach DNA stick-to-walls ability to climb the side of the pit, but he falls back down when he reaches the electrified top.

The Hawkeye's (Clint Barton and Kate Bishop) are chained to a wall upside down by their ankles alongside other victims. Kate was captured with boyfriend Johnny and ex-boyfriend Noh-Varr when they tried to infiltrate the Cult Of The Shifting Sun as prospective members. Clint explains that his image-inducer cover as Wonder Man was blown when the real deal appeared on live TV elsewhere.

Kate says she has some bomb-y pins (little bombs that look like bobby pins) in her boot. As they formulate an escape plan the team's strongest member America Chavez is brought in. She's out of it and gets chained (the right way up by the wrists) to the Cult's altar.

Meanwhile Gwenpool has gone to see Ramone in her surf shop, and is surprised to see her holding a spear. Ramone says she's coming with Gwen and Quentin on the mission to rescue her brother Johnny and her girlfriend America. She tells Gwen that her mother Zobae was 1 of the Dora Milaje, female Wakandan warriors dedicated to protect their King. But she left in undisclosed circumstances and came with the spear to California and bore her 2 children. She died some years later but left them some vibranium rings. I don't know that the vibranium gave Johnny his power to change into any substance he touches, but the rings he wears allow him to use that ability to become vibranium whenever he wants to.

But when Ramone touched a ring it started to painfully turn her to vibranium against her will. She dropped the ring and returned to flesh apart from a small patch on her chest. Now she intends to let the ring transform her completely, because whatever could capture people like America, Clint, Kate and Noh-Varr means they're going to need all the help they can get to beat them.

Before she puts the ring on she gets Gwen to promise to kill her if it goes badly. Then the ring transforms her into seemingly herself in white body armour. But the ring has gone so she won't be able to change back. They go to join Quentin (and Jeff) who is impressed with the transformation.

An hour later Kate's mom Eleanor Bishop is leading them through an underground tunnel to the Cult's HQ. She knows the way because she was liaison between the Cult and Madame Masque's gang. Our friends still think the villains are Skrulls, and are mighty shocked when Eleanor tells them they're vampires. She explains that they are awaiting a prophesied being whose blood will allow them to become Daywalkers, vamps who can survive in sunlight - hence the Shifting Sun.

In the pit Fuse has an idea. He transforms himself to vibranium, and super-strong Noh hurls him up to the ceiling where he causes the electrical trap to explode. Outside the pit he starts to look for a rope to lower down to Noh. But then Kid Omega and friends arrive, and Quentin uses his TK to float Noh-Varr up to the surface. Johnny is unhappy about what his sister has done, but Ramone says it doesn't hurt - much. Eleanor Bishop leads them to the sound of fighting ahead ...

... where the Hawkeye's are punching vampires. (They have their bows but have run out of arrows.) The new arrivals join in the punching, and Kid Omega does TK stuff while Gwenpool uses her swords and Jeff adds his bite. Mrs Bishop goes to unchain America. But as Kate moves to help her she sees her mother reveal fangs and sink them into America's neck.



Gang-Hyuk Lim
Gang-Hyuk Lim
Triona Farrell
Gang-Hyuk Lim (Cover Penciler)
Gang-Hyuk Lim (Cover Inker)
Gang-Hyuk Lim (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Joe Caramagna.
Editor: Alanna Smith. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Kate Bishop)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Clint Barton)
Ms. America
Ms. America

(America Chavez)

Plus: Eleanor Bishop, Fuse (Johnny Watts), Gwenpool (Gwen Poole), Kid Omega (Quentin Quire), Protector (Noh-Varr), Ramone Watts.

> West Coast Avengers: Book info and issue index

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