Writer: Ed Brisson
Artist: Jonas Scharf, Neeraj Menon, and VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 13, 2020

It’s back to comics and back to the Wasteland with Dani, Bruce Jr., and the crew. While I would be the first to admit that Marvel may be dipping into the Old Man Logan/Wasteland well a bit too much, this book has received more negative attention than it deserves. It’s an alt-universe where anything can happen, and everything that has happened has been set up by Brisson in the past Dead Man Logan issues leading into it. Enough about that, though, because I am here to talk about this issue. Is it any good? Let’s find out…

The issue opens with Baron Strucker rallying the Hydra faithful to make the Wasteland great again, but Doom has a little something to say about that. I know what happens when you cut off one head of Hydra, but what happens when you blow the head and the body attached to it to bits?!? I am not so sure that San Antonio is contested territory anymore! It’s a rough cold opening that reminds readers that Doom is a significant threat, whether we’ve seen him much or not.

We then catch up with the Avengers as they enter Osborne City and immediately are attacked by some badass villains. We get Enchantress versus Dani, Wild Child versus Bruce Jr., Absorbing Man versus Viv and Shocker versus…well, he attacks Viv as well. While this is going on, Green Goblin is making it rain pumpkin bombs, and it looks like the Avengers did have a traitor in their midst. It’s a kickass setup, but the battle itself ends before you can get into what was going on.

I guess Ed Brisson wanted to get right to the traitor thing, and even though we see that Doom offered them a Sophie’s Choice type of deal, I was a bit upset that the Avengers moved on without much of a thought. Yea, it leads to a ‘heroes marching in slow-mo like badasses” kind of cliffhanger page, but it brought the stakes down for me a bit and felt a bit goofy overall.

There wasn’t a whole lot to this issue. A fight that ended too quickly, a traitor forgiven too quickly and an issue…that went by too quickly. I love the look of this book and have been enjoying reading it so far, but this issue didn’t do it for me. Ed Brisson gives us some big moments, but since he doesn’t want to spend time with them, they don’t have the impact they should.

Final Thoughts:

Avengers of the Wastelands #4 is an issue that doesn’t feel as big as it should. Ed Brisson gives us some formidable villains to fight the Avengers and reveals there is indeed a traitor on the team, but seems to be in a race to the cliffhanger page instead of letting it all sink in. I still am interested to see where this book goes, but ended up less interested in the journey this issue.

6.5/10