All-New, Overworked Avengers #54 – ‘Burning Out [Her] Fuse Up Here Alone’

The Scarlet Witch sits silently in a park, staring off into space. Behind her, the Vision tentatively extends a hand towards her, but can’t bring himself to actually touch her. The effect is, hopefully, like a romance novel cover. The title of the comic strip, “All-New, Overworked Avengers Presents… ‘Burning Out [Her] Fuse Up Here Alone’,” is visible at the top of the page.

Scarlet Witch tells Vision that she can hear him; he explains that he was trying not to startle her.

Vision tries to tell Scarlet Witch how he still feels for her, but she does not respond in kind.

Wanda tells Vision that she can’t love him the way she loved the Vision she saw die, and tries to introduce him to somebody.

The Eternal Kingo skateboards through the park, using his finger blasters to propel himself forward, while he quotes the Elton John song, “Rocketman.”

Kingo lands next to Scarlet Witch and takes her in his arms. He pays no attention to Vision.

Kingo compliments Wanda, and she responds to what he says.

Scarlet Witch introduces Kingo to Vision, and Vision quickly uses his access to the internet to learn as much about Kingo as he can in two seconds (which is a lot).

Scarlet Witch explains to Vision that she has to move forward in her life, and can’t spend it wishing for someone who is dead to return to her.

On the top half of the image, Vision flies away, leaving Kingo and the Scarlet Witch alone together. On the bottom half of the image are the credits for the comic strip, citing the Unsplash users whose photographs were the background art, the ownership of Marvel by Disney, the creation of Marvel characters by actual human beings, and the figure photography/script/lettering by me, Phil Wrede.

This is, obviously, a real departure from the story of Spider-Man’s No Good, Very Bad Night that has been taking up the “main story” of the Phil Wrede Marvel Action Figure Comic Universe for a while, now (read Parts 1, and 2, and 3, and 4, if you’d like). I would like to say that this departure is all part of a great, grand narrative plan, that it’s like a monster-of-the-week episode in the middle of one of those great seasons of Buffy or Angel that breaks us away from the ever-ramping tension of the plot of the Big Bad guy, and reminds us of how good a single, self-contained story can be. So, that’s what I’m going to say, here! It’s definitely not because I recently found all of these figures at a good price, and inspiration struck as I was taking them all out of their respective boxes.

I will admit, here, that I’m not a particularly big fan of the Eternals movie; those characters have never resonated with me, no matter who’s telling their stories, so I wasn’t surprised to be left mostly cold by it. I did, however, love Kumail Nanjiani’s performance (I’m a big fan of his, generally), and I wanted to find a way to bring Kingo into the Phil Wrede Marvel Action Figure Comic Universe. So, I got to wondering, now that the Vision whom Wanda knew is dead… would she find another android to fall in love with? Kingo’s a charismatic fellow, and capable of giving her a lot that Vision struggled to offer. Maybe he’d be the perfect rebound guy!

I really like the posing in many of the panels in this comic; the figures took a lot of slight adjustments to get just right, and I hope it comes through, in the final product. I especially like the poses where Kingo’s holding Wanda, just after he’s landed near her. With the confidence in his expression, and the way her hair is sculpted, it makes me think that Kumail and Elizabeth Olsen could kill it in a great, big pirate romance/adventure movie. Come on, Hollywood! Make it happen!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply