West Coast Avengers
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The West Coast Avengers was a Marvel Comics superhero team that first appeared in The West Coast Avengers #1 (October 1984). As its name indicates the group was a branch of the Avengers that operated on the West Coast of the United States.
The group included many prominent Avengers, including Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Iron Man. The team was first featured in a 1984 mini-series but Marvel launched an unlimited series in 1985, which lasted until 1994 (with the title changing to Avengers West Coast in 1989). The Avengers voted to shut down the team, leading many of its members to leave to form the short-lived group Force Works.
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[edit] History
[edit] 1980s
1984 saw the first volume of the West Coast Avengers, written by Roger Stern, with art by Bob Hall and Brett Breeding. It was notable mainly for establishing the core lineup: team leader Hawkeye, his wife Mockingbird, Tigra, Wonder Man and Iron Man.
The second volume launched soon after, with story by Steve Englehart and art by Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott. The early issues established the West Coast team as slightly more irreverent than their East Coast counterparts, taking upon themselves the nickname 'Wackos'. This period saw the mental deterioration of Hank Pym, who was helping the team as a scientific advisor. Pym suffered a nervous breakdown and became suicidal.
The team became stranded in the past, its members separated in various historic eras within the Marvel universe. While most of the team was caught in ancient Egypt, Mockingbird was held captive in the Wild West by the Phantom Rider, who used amnesiac drugs to convince her that she was his lover. Parallel to this adventure ran the salvation of Hank Pym, and his return to heroics. Moon Knight helped rescue the team, and he and Pym accepted invitations to join the team.
The adventure in time left repercussions for the team to deal with. Mockingbird and Hawkeye separated after he discovered she had allowed the Phantom Rider to fall to his death because of personal reasons, Moon Knight and Tigra left with her, the rift between Mockingbird and Hawkeye was exacerbated when she proved instrumental in a plot by several world governments to abduct and dismantle the Vision for his near takeover of the world. The Vision was reassembled, but his personality was largely a blank, emotionless state. Wonder Man, who as the Vision's "twin" also harbored feelings for the Scarlet Witch, refused to serve as a template for his "brother's" thoughts again. The original Human Torch was also revived, leading to doubts as to what the Vision actually was. It was at the end of this decade that John Byrne introduced the Great Lakes Avengers, a somewhat humorous attempt to give the Midwestern United States its own team.
[edit] 1990s
The new decade began with a title change from West Coast Avengers to Avengers West Coast (which placed this book right next to its parent title in alphabetical order on comic store shelves). Byrne also intended the two titles to in effect be biweekly editions of the same title; neither Avengers team would have a set roster, and Avengers members would appear in either title. For example, in his second story arc, Byrne used East Coast Avengers Captain America and She-Hulk. The original Human Torch joined the team and Iron Man rejoined posing as a "new" Iron Man due to events in his own comic book.
Agatha Harkness visited her old student, the Scarlet Witch, revealing that Wanda's and the Vision's twins were not real, but magical constructs created from fragments of the demon Mephisto's soul. The Scarlet Witch, already under strain from the Vision's dismemberment, went insane. Her mental state was taken advantage of by her father, Magneto, and she became a villain for a time. Byrne, however, left the title just as this storyline was beginning, when he felt that Marvel editor-in-chief reneged on his previous approval of the storyline, which was to feature Immortus using the Scarlet Witch to erase certain timelines that he found unpalatable.
The writing chores next fell to Roy Thomas and his wife Dann Thomas (who wrote the majority of the series until its end) beginning with #60. Their debut resolved the Scarlet Witch storyline, with her brother Quicksilver rescuing her from Magneto's Asteroid M headquarters only to have her kidnapped by the time-travelling Immortus. Immortus' entire plan was to use Wanda, as a nexus being capable of safeguarding the future of humanity, from the wrath of the Time Keepers. With the help of Agatha Harkness, the Avengers were able to travel to Limbo, to rescue the Scarlet Witch. The Avengers fought Immortus' Legion of the Unliving, doppelgangers created out of Space Phantoms, and were successful in helping Wanda regain her sanity.
Two gigantic Terminus creatures attacked the United States in "The Terminus Factor", and were repulsed with the combined efforts of the East and West Coast teams as well as the Great Lakes Avengers. During this storyline, Machine Man joined the team as a reservist. The team was reorganized in the wake of the Avengers obtaining a United Nations charter, with USAgent not making the final cut and Quicksilver leaving to join the government sponsored X-Factor team.
Artist Dave Ross came on the title, and would remain the book's primary artist until its final issue. The team gained new members in the form of Spider-Woman II and the Living Lightning. USAgent also rejoined the ranks. The team also got swept up in the events of "Operation: Galactic Storm", the aftermath of which created tensions in both teams when Iron Man led a group of Avengers to execute the Supreme Intelligence.
Following the Avengers' return to Earth, the West Coast team encountered Ultron again, this time accompanied by his newest created mate, Alkhema, based on the brain waves of Mockingbird. However, Alkhema betrayed Ultron to the team, who were assisted by the Vision.
Hawkeye reassumed his Goliath identity temporarily, during which time he and Mockingbird managed to reconcile. Iron Man and Wonder Man left the team, and War Machine and Darkhawk joined, the latter as a reservist. Some members of the team were also directly involved in the events of the Infinity Crusade.
During the team's last adventure, Satannish and his Legion captured Mockingbird and took her to his realm. To retrieve her, the West Coast Avengers followed and fought the combined forces of Mephisto and Satannish. In #100, the penultimate issue written by the Thomases, Mockingbird was tragically killed by Mephisto while the team was trying to escape from his otherdimensional realm.
The final issue of Avengers West Coast #102 was written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. After events in Genosha, the East Coast team convened a meeting with the West Coast branch to discuss the future of the team. It was voted on and decided that due to an ever-changing membership, in-fighting among the members and attacks on the Compound it had proven too costly to maintain a separate branch of Avengers and the team was to be folded back into the East Coast branch. However, several members of the West Coast team, including Iron Man, were unhappy with this decision, and resigned from the Avengers entirely. They went on to form the new Force Works team in its own title.
[edit] Bibliography
- West Coast Avengers Vol. 1 #1-4 (September 1984 - December 1984)
- West Coast Avengers Vol. 2 #1-46 (October 1985 - July 1989)
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- West Coast Avengers Annual #1-3 (1986 - 1988)
- Avengers West Coast #47-102 (August 1989 - January 1994)
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- Avengers West Coast Annual #4-8 (1989 - 1993)
[edit] External links
- Steve Englehart's website
- An article at PrettyFakes.com discusses the classic "Lost in Space-Time" storyline.
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