West Coast Avengers
OFFICIAL NAME : Avengers West Coast, Team Aliases: West Coast Avengers, Wackos
PURPOSE: Western Branch of The Avengers, To Protect and Defend against Threats Foreign and Domestic
STATUS : Defunct
AFFILIATIONS: Avengers, Great Lakes Avengers
ENEMIES: Zodiac, Dominus's Minions, Pacific Overlords, Master Pandemonium, Night Shift, Ultron, Death Web
CURRENT MEMBERS: Defunct
FORMER MEMBERS : Hawkeye, Moira Brandon, Mockingbird, Tigra, Wonder Man,
War Machine, Iron Man, Doctor Pym, Moon Knight, Mantis, Scarlet Witch, Vision, The Thing,
Human Torch (Jim Hammond), Wasp, Phantom Rider (Hamilton Slade), Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter),
USAgent, Living Lightning, Darkhawk
UNIVERSE : Earth 616, Marvel Universe
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Avengers Compound, near Los Angeles, California
FIRST APPEARENCE : West Coast Avengers #1 (September, 1984)
LAST APPEARENCE : Avengers West Coast #102 (January, 1994)
HISTORY :
Shortly after the United States government began to take a more active supervisory role
towards the Avengers, then-chairman the Vision requested and was given permission to form
a second active team, based out of Avengers Compound near Los Angeles. Longtime team-member
Hawkeye, recently returned from a leave of absence, was appointed as chairman of this West
Coast roster. Selecting his team, the bowslinger set to the task.
The 1984 Core lineup of the team was leader Hawkeye, his wife Mockingbird, Tigra, Wonder Man
and Iron Man. Hawkeye and Mockingbird acted as the guiding force behind this team.
The second volume saw the West Coast Avengers battle the Zodiac Cartel, The Abomination,
Dominus's Minions, Nightshift and Ultron. This period saw the mental deterioration of
Hank Pym, who was helping the team as a scientific advisor. Pym suffered one of his nervous
breakdowns 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 each accepted
invitations to join the team.
The adventure in time left repercussions for the team to deal with. Mockingbird and Hawkeye
separated after he was told through Phantom Rider (Lincoln Slade)'s spirit she had allowed
the him to fall to his death because of personal reasons.
This rift was exacerbated when Bobbi proved instrumental in a plot by several world
governments to abduct and dismantle longtime Avenger the Vision for his near takeover of the
world. Bobbi, along with Tigra and Moon Knight, left the group and with Bill Foster briefly
had a team of their own. Tigra soon returned, and later Mockingbird, but the rift between
the team's leading couple was far from healed.
The Vision was reassembled, but his personality was largely a blank, emotionless slate.
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
(Jim Hammond) was also revived, leading to doubts as to what the Vision actually was. The
love triangle involving Simon, Wanda, and the Vision was important to the series as a whole.
Meanwhile Hammond was asked to join the team, an offer he gratefully accepted, though he
served only a brief amount of time before taking a leave of absence and relegating himself t
o reserve status. Fantastic Four founder The Thing (estranged from the team at the time)
participated in several missions as a probationary member, but left before accepting full
membership as he underwent further mutation.
The End of the decade saw the Great Lakes Avengers introduced who established themselves
in the Midwest United States. Hawkeye took it upon himself to guide this team for a short
period of time.
The new decade began with a title change from West Coast Avengers to Avengers West Coast.
This was in conjunction with Solo Avengers changing names to Avengers Spotlight, as part
of a marketing move to have all Avengers titles adjacent on the news-stand. Tony Stark
rejoined posing as a "new" Iron Man due to events in his own series.
Agatha Harkness visited her old student, the Scarlet Witch, revealing that the Witch 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 once
again became a villain for a time.
In the Scarlet Witch storyline, her brother Quicksilver rescued 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.
The other Maximoff twin, Quicksilver, also had encounters of various sorts with the team.
His mind whipped into a frenzy by the Inhuman named Maximus, Pietro, performed acts of
aggression against the East Coast team as well as the Fantastic Four. He led various
Soviet operatives against the West Coast team before ending his criminal ways. Unable to
reconcile with his wife, Quicksilver for a time unofficially joined the team before leaving
to join the new government-sanctioned X-Factor.
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 led by Havok.
The team gained new members in the form of Spider-Woman 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 Kree 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 allies 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
other-dimensional realm.
In the final issue, (Avengers West Coast #102), 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 (Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Wonder Man, and
USAgent) 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.
For More Info see Avengers
and Force Works
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES :
Hawkeye formed group (West Coast Avengers #1, 1984);
Lost in Space-Time (West Coast Avengers #17-23, 1987);
Vision Quest (West Coast Avengers #42-45, 1989);
Original Human Torch returns (Avengers West Coast #50, 1989);
Death of Mockingbird (Avengers West Coast #100, 1993);
Team disbands; most quit the Avengers, reform as Force Works (Avengers West Coast #102, 1994)
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