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You are here: Home / Featured / S.H.I.E.L.D #10 Review: “Agents of Waaaugh!”

S.H.I.E.L.D #10 Review: “Agents of Waaaugh!”

October 4, 2015 by Matt Lehn Leave a Comment

The latest offering of writer Mark Waid’s rotating super-spy cavalcade takes a maximum effect “What If?” slant to the tail-wagging-the-dog edicts of comic/movie synergy. For an offbeat story as cartoonishly outlandish as it is meta-steeped, the formula still delightfully reduces to elemental simplicity.

When you absolutely, positively have to send a duck to clean up after a spider.
When you absolutely, positively have to send a duck to clean up after a spider.

Basically, ask the questions: Do you like the “Agents of SHIELD” TV show? Do you like Howard the Duck? And even if you don’t enter completely convinced of a “yes”, by the time you’ve made it across the twenty pages, you will be hard-pressed not to be entertained.

Who among us hasn't been in this exact same position?
Who among us hasn’t been in this exact same situation?

It’s not like Waid’s script gives anyone much of a choice, though. Much like Howard being conscripted into doing the job, the audience is thrust into the thick of it- picking up mid-crisis, whether we like it or not. Seriously, there’s no apologizing for the “big and bold”, so just go with it when you see Agent Fitz and a dude with an owl head running around with a leftover from Wile E. Coyote’s Acme catalog.

Zut Alors!
Zut Alors!

For all that the story is a glowing love-letter intersection to Steve Gerber, Carl Barks and Monty Python, it still executes with minor hiccups. In the mad dash to get through the zany, details almost immediately slip through the cracks. The exo-suited goons chasing Agents Fitz and Warrick on the first page exist more as a plot device than specific characters, bereft of affiliation much less motivation. The flip-flop nature of the fast-food/dry cleaner SHIELD front is also confusing and flatly expressed. Perhaps best to chalk it up to the core issue of reality’s unstable mutability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-2Cn42J4o0

Additionally, looking for insight into Howard’s constant out-of-the-blue “piano” refrain yields a Google search that throws the 1980s George Lucas disasterpiece front-and-center into the mix. So… thanks for that?

"Goonies never say die, Fitz!"
“Goonies never say die, Fitz!”

Supplying the art is Evan “Doc” Shaner. Bouncing back from a last-minute scheduling conflict keeping him from the gritty 1872, Shaner’s layouts keep the pacing comedically light and breezy. Sight gags abound but the crowner has to be the climactic framing nods to Drew Struzan’s iconic “Goonies” movie poster.

Spin-off showcase.
Spin-off showcase.

From cover to cover, “The Duck Called H.O.W.A.R.D.” is amusingly solid and even features an educational component. You might not become fluent but you sure do get a crash-course in belligerently gastronomic French. More than anything, the unlikely team-up of a curmudgeonly talking fowl and a secret agent organization could easily work as an ongoing (in any medium). Consider this the “pilot episode” if the whole Inhumans angle doesn’t pan out…

Filed Under: Featured, Marvel Reviews

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About Matt Lehn

Musician and freelance web denizen Matt Lehn has been living and breathing the Marvel Universe since 1985. Always a die-hard New Yorker at heart, he now lives with his wife, three boys and two cats in Portland, Oregon. Check out his Avengers-specific blog at: avengersaccessible.wordpress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @fierykillrock

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