Warning: SPOILERS for Avengers #29
It’s a time of evolution and upping one’s arsenal in Marvel’s top team, but Avengers #29 just introduced an upgrade that sees two Avengers joining up into basically the same unit. Which seems more like the Transformers’ style than the Avengers.
Recently, several of the Avengers have gotten some pretty incredible upgrades from She-Hulk’s Wakandan armor, to Black Widow’s transformation into War Widow. Even Thor has gotten something akin to a facelift! If there was ever a time for upgrades, this might be it: with the Avenger’s pursuit of the new Starbrand through a Shi’ar prison galaxy. After the Hell Charger’s crash, Black Widow, Blade, Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes), and Boy-Thing are separated from their team and surrounded on all sides by some of the Shi’ar’s worst criminals and the Heralds of Galactus. With Blade ready to make a final stand in the Red Sun’s killer rays, and Ghost Rider hooked into the Hell Charger for healing, Boy-Thing might be the only hero close enough to lend her a hand. Fortunately, he has a plan - even if he might have stolen it from another classic team-up.
It seems that Boy-Thing knows his Transformer combiners and recreated the superhero equivalent with Blade to form: Blade-Thing! Even though Boy-Thing is probably the furthest thing from a robotic life form, it does not mean that he is not able to adapt some of their tactics - though, given the inspiration, the Hell Charger would have perhaps been the most likely candidate for a Transformer-like transformation. While Boy-Thing has certainly acted as a useful accessory for Blade on occasion, this time Boy-Thing’s plan calls for an almost complete combination of the two and is more than a little reminiscent of the various Transformers combinations pulled off over the years.
At least more like the Transformers than the other Avengers. Unlike War Widow, both Blade and Boy-Thing are sentient, and unlike She-Hulk’s armor, Boy-Thing is not so much channeling Blade’s power as combining both of their powers into a single unit. That being said, while Blade-Thing (for lack of a better term) is the combination of two separate entities into one super-upgrade, they do not seem to share the mental cohesion that often accompanies the Transformers’ combiners. Additionally, and very interestingly, Boy-Thing is also able to create a weapon, still imbued with his fear-based fire, and transfer it to War Widow as well. Unfortunately, while Boy-Thing seemingly protects Blade from Red Sun poisoning, he cannot shield either War Widow or Blade from the pain of his own power.
Boy-Thing is often in the shadow of his progenitor, Man-Thing, but this may be the beginning of a new chapter for Blade’s sidekick. The implications of this team-up promise some interesting possibilities for future combinations as well. For instance, the shape of Blade-Thing’s “mask” arguably resembles the Charger-like lines incorporated into Robbie’s Ghost Rider identity. While the role of Robbie’s powers in this conglomeration, if there is any, is not touched upon there is enough to suggest at least that the Ghost Rider had a strong influence on the Boy-Thing’s thought process. Is there a future for this team in which Robbie could combine his ability to imbue objects with his power to make Blade-Thing a three-way combiner? Blade-Thing Rider, perhaps?
While the mechanics of this combination are for the moment unclear, Boy-Thing’s plan does reveal one thing for certain. Amidst all the bravado and upgrades, everyone in this fight is filled to the brim with fear. In the awful light of Starbrand’s power, it is easy to see why even a team-up of Transformer-like proportions might be terrified. Avengers #29 is on sale at your local comics shop and online.
More: Transformers vs. Terminator: The Battle of The Year?
