Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: ant man, avengers, captain america, comic book reviews, dani cage, doctor doom, green goblin, hulk, thor

Avengers of the Wastelands #4 Review: A Very Common Motif

Published Sat, 16 May 2020 16:30:52 -0500

by Hannibal Tabu

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In a dystopian future, the villains banded together under Doctor Doom and, for once and for all, won. Taking over the world, they split up the United States into territories and sniped at each other's heels. Now a group of would-be Avengers — the super-powered daughter of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, the son of Bruce Banner, a turncoat super-soldier who used to work for Doom and a random guy who rebooted the Ant-Man armor — ride the shattered plains to return justice to the country. That's it. That's the premise.

The cover of Avengers of the Wasteland #4 published by Marvel Comics with a creative team of Ed Brisson, Jonas Scharf, Neeraj Menon, and Cory Petit.

If you know who Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and so on are, this might intrigue you in the same way Descendants captured the juvenile imaginations of enough kids to spawn a franchise. It's a very common motif from the Mouse House of Ideas, the legacies of heroes carrying on. Definitely, nothing new in comics with Barry Allen and Hal Jordan running around after Jay Garrick and Alan Scott grew long in the tooth.

If you have no idea who these off-panel names are, then the brown-skinned girl with the magical Norse war hammer might not strike an immediate chord with you. Likewise, the pathos of a neophyte Ant-Man doesn't have a lot of room to get you acquainted, so it rings hollow as the worries of a stranger.

The visual efforts of Jonas Schard, Neeraj Menon, and Cory Petit are fine. Given the cast of villains — and honestly, why would this oddball combination of the Enchantress, MODOK, and Absorbing Man all band together under the banner of Norman Osborn? — one might expect the battle to be more of a tooth rattling, ground shaking spectacle. Nope. Its resolution is far more mundane and, honestly, a little facile.

If this sort of idea gets you hot and bothered, you'll likely go for this. There's nothing objectively wrong with this book from its conception, but there's nothing right about its execution. That kind of limitation is, alas, more than the price of admission can justify. RATING: MEH.

Avengers of the Wastelands #4
Writer: Ed Brisson
Penciler: Jonas Scharf
IN THE CLUTCHES OF THE GREEN GOBLIN! Welcome to Osborn City! THOR, ANT-MAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA and HULK JR. have fallen into the clutches of NORMAN OSBORN, A.K.A. the GREEN GOBLIN. Let's just say, the years have not been kind to the Goblin's psyche? A knockdown drag-out fight between the AVENGERS and the likes of ENCHANTRESS, WILD CHILD, ABSORBING MAN and more reveals the true nature of DOOM's mission, and the hidden betrayal that may crush all hope in the Wastelands!

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