Yeah, this is still really confusing to me. I recently reread the issue of the comic when Matt found out Will’s a Guardian. Leading up to this moment, we’re led to believe he’s just a regular guy who suddenly discovers her big secret. And you know what? I really liked that plotline; it was interesting to see how Matt, a normal person, would react to finding out his almost-girlfriend is a magical being.
But then the New Power arc came.
And while I really like that arc (and all the cool upgrades for their powers and outfits), it revealed that Matt was actually from Kandrakar and he’s known about the Guardians this entire time, which… I just don’t buy.
Okay, this is a comic series, right? And like other comics, the characters of this series have thought bubbles/boxes, which exist to let the reader in on what that character is currently thinking. During the discovery arc, there was a scene where Matt wants to ask Will out, and he tries to get her attention, but since she’s talking with the other girls about the Oracle’s trial, she doesn’t see or hear him; it’s here where Matt’s thought bubble shows us that he’s wondering what they’re talking about that’s so important. (If at this point he already knew the girls were Guardians, why would he wonder about the importance of their secret conversations? Surely he had to know about the Oracle’s trial somehow, and if not, he should’ve been able to guess it was something Guardian-related given how seriously they were treating the conversation.)
Then, he sees the glow of girls disappearing behind a building. Since they weren’t where he thought they’d be, he wonders if he even saw the girls at all, and blames his “hallucination” on fatigue. Later on, during his and Will’s date at the fair, when he sees the Heart, he thinks about how he remembers seeing it once, calling it a “gleaming globe” (which is an appropriate thought for someone ignorant to magic and Kandrakar). His thoughts and actions during this arc were those of a regular guy who eventually has to make sense of the fact the girl he likes is essentially a part-time superhero.
Nowhere is there evidence he’s actually a secret protector from Kandrakar tasked with giving the Guardians the opportunity to gain new abilities later on in their careers. Having Matt express in his own mind how he has no idea about what was going on with Will and the other Guardians only works if he’s genuinely out of the loop. Why would he describe the Heart as a “gleaming globe” in his own head if he’s from Kandrakar, or say he “doesn’t get much of what happened” (regarding Cedric’s ambush) while Will’s unconscious? I get lying to keep up a front, but why would he say that out loud when Will, the person he’s lying to, wasn’t awake to hear him?
If we were supposed to believe he’s always been aware of the girls’ secret, we should have been given hints throughout the series that points to Matt being from Kandrakar. They could’ve been as subtle as adding him in the background/foreground of a scene every time the girls discuss something magic related in school. The discovery arc could’ve been the best time to hint at him already knowing about Will! But instead, Matt is portrayed as the ordinary guy who’s been let in on the big secret, and his naïveté is expressed both out loud and in his own thoughts… up until he shows up out of nowhere to remove the girls’ old powers; suddenly, after 75 issues of just being the guitarist from Cobalt Blue that Will likes, Matt is now an agent from Kandrakar sent by the Oracle to coach the girls through their new abilities.
Like, this whole plot twist was just done so poorly; there wasn’t anything that hinted at his true identity throughout the entire series, so the payoff for the “big reveal” was nonexistent, and the reveal itself was overshadowed by the comedic way the girls were introduced to their new powers, so Matt’s revelation is completely diminished. It just… feels so half assed, y’know? Like, if they wanted Matt to be an agent from Kandrakar from the beginning, then they should’ve hinted at it early on so the reveal would make sense and it would actually mean something to us when the moment came (unless it was a decision that was made when they got close to the NP arc, which in that case they could’ve at least given the reveal its own moment to shine, rather than just jamming it into another scene as random exposition).
Sorry for the long rant that no one asked for. I’m just eternally frustrated by this plot twist.
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