Well, to get this blog properly started, I'm writing what will hopefully be the first in a series. The back-up story from Solo Avengers # 15: Ronin on Empty, written by Fabian Nicieza and art by Tom Morgan (penciller) and Mark McKenna (inker), is an 11 page mini-epic that pits one of the smallest heroes in the Marvel universe against a giant robot (or more preciously, the top half of a giant robot). I may cover the lead story featuring the Awesome Android in a later blog entry, but it's part of a longer story and I don't at the moment own the issues before or after this one.Frooooom the weeest! The Wasp!
A superheroine with the powers to shrink, fly, shoot small blasts of energy and have more different uniforms than any other hero. She's a founding member of the Avengers and has even led the team on occasion, but she's generally not considered to be a big threat on her own.
Froooom the eaaaast! Red Ronin!
Okay, Ronin's actually a Western creation too. It was created to fight Godzilla in Marvel's Godzilla comics. It's a giant robot: big, strong, has all sorts of powerful weaponry. It even has internal defenses in case somebody sneaks inside. An entire team of Avengers struggled to beat it earlier.
Now, the story itself isn't bad: Nicieza is a decent writer, the artists do a reliable job and the story does showcase the Wasp's abilities and personality well. The reason why I picked this for the first entry is simply how badly Red Ronin jobs in it. And like the Wasp so eloquently articulates her anger in the story: "This really steams my buns!" Even if we count the fact that it only has its upper body as a handicap, the only time it even comes close to defeating the Wasp is with flame retardant foam. Despite having internal defenses, once the Wasp reaches Ronin's central wiring outlet, it makes no attempt to stop her from pulling off the wires that allow it to function. She even points out that it was a lot easier to beat this time with the scientist in charge of rebuilding Ronin putting in a half-hearted attempt to explain it away by saying the robot took after him and that he's a lover, not a fighter (this is also part of the constant flirting between him and the Wasp).
