West Coast Avengers

I’ve really been in the mood to read some new Avengers comics recently. Unfortunately, new Avengers comics don’t appeal to me and haven’t for some time. When John Buscema took over from Al Milgrom drawing Roger Stern’s Avengers back in the ‘80s, I was disappointed that Milgrom was moved over to the new West Coast Avengers title, and despite the fact that it was written by Stainless Steve Englehart and inked by Joe Sinnott, , I dropped it a few issues in and didn’t begin reading it regularly until John Byrne took over. Luckily (for me), Marvel has been reprinting the Englehart/Milgrom/Sinnott run in a series of “Premiere Classics” hardcovers: volume #64 reprints issue #1-9, #80 reprints issues #10-16, #86 reprints #17-24, and #96 (which shipped just yesterday) reprints #25-30.

Reading these comics (many for the first time) makes me wonder what my problem was.

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  • Lost in Space-Time is my favorite Avengers story ever. I also dug Master Pandemonium (pre-Byrne), the dance with Ben Grimm and Firebird, the struggle of Hank Pym, the ego of Simon Williams, and the Clint/Bobbi rift. SO GOOD

  • You can always depend on classic stories from Englehart. I actually enjoyed Hank Pym working to become a hero in his run (nice nod to Tom Baker in his "Dr. Pym" costume) ;). I can't say I ever enjoyed him in the past or since the WCA stories Englehart wrote. His run on FF was something I looked forward to as well as his year with DC on JLA. Sadly, I am too much capes & flights so I never really got in to Coyote but I am thinking about trying to get the novels he wrote.

  • That's good solid Bronze Age storytelling, right there. I haven't read any of that run in a long time, but I always think of it fondly.

  • I'm looking forward to reading "Lost in Space-Time." I've been aware of it (and know that it builds upon Fantastic Four #19 and Doctor Strange #53), but have never read it before.

    I have read the introductory four-parter (in WCA #1-2 and Vision & Scarlet Witch #1-2) before, but that was before I ever saw Dark Shadows. There's a mausoleum in that story that looks a lot like the Collins family's, and this time through I noticed some of the names on the tombstones in the surrounding cemetary: Rev. Gregory Trask, Millicent Collins, [and one other]. I don't know it it was Englehart or Milgrom or perhaps the letterer who was the fan, but I guess my observation wasn't far off the mark!

  • I recently bought a lot of Avengers with all the Stern-Buscems-Palmer issues. Beautiful art and woefully undercollected into trades. Most of it is really good (save for some Secret Wars distractions). I think after these I'll pull out my Byrne WCAs, since a lot of the Vision-Scarlet Witch stuff carries over.
  • Good point b_dog.  I'm kind of astounded that West Coast Avengers is getting collected in hardcovers, and yet Stern's run on the main Avengers title goes largely uncollected.  I would guess that one could get the first 30 issues of WCA off ebay for a dollar an issue, or less.

  • I enjoyed West Coast Avengers very much. Englehart had these basic ciphers (Mockingbird, Tigra, Firebird and Wonder Man) and turned them into actual characters. He transformed Wonder Man from an insecure and afriad to get hurt to insufferable and smug because he couldn't get hurt!

    He also brought back the Son of Satan as Hellstorm, Hellcat, Giant-Man II, Moon Knight, the Western heroes and did great things with the villains.

  • Englehart did a great job of rehabilitating Hank Pym.  It was one of my favorite depictions of the character and I'm glad that Dan Slott and Christos Gage drew from it for their recent runs on Mighty Avengers and Avengers Academy.  I also remember the arguments about Chuck Austen's run on Avengers when he took Pym back to his days as an abuser.  Austen defended his depiction by arguing that unless Hank Pym was shown in years of therapy, he wasn't rehabilitated.  That only showed me how little Austen knew of the character's history.  Pym had gone through therapy with a religious counselor in the pages of West Coast Avengers- Firebird.  He did all of the things that Austen said he needed to do- Austen simply know about them. 

    (ps. Kurt Busiek deserves a lot of credit for his handling of Hank Pym as well.  He took the steps forward that had been made under Steve Englehart and brought them to completion.)

  • I'm putting mine in 50 cent boxes. I like them and all, but space must be made!

    John Dunbar said:

    Good point b_dog.  I'm kind of astounded that West Coast Avengers is getting collected in hardcovers, and yet Stern's run on the main Avengers title goes largely uncollected.  I would guess that one could get the first 30 issues of WCA off ebay for a dollar an issue, or less.



  • Chris Fluit said:

    I also remember the arguments about Chuck Austen's run on Avengers when he took Pym back to his days as an abuser.  Austen defended his depiction by arguing that unless Hank Pym was shown in years of therapy, he wasn't rehabilitated. 

     

    That's the sort of claim that just reeks of contempt for the audience. Hands up, everyone who believes that Austen (a) was genuinely concerned about an alleged (decades-earlier) inaccurate depiction of rehabilitation and (b) thought that accuracy demanded (and the comics-buying audience wanted to see) a correction of that error. OK, hands up, everybody who believes that Austen just thought Wife-Beater Hank would be more fun to write. OK, now hands up everybody who believes that Austen really thought that (or cared whether) anyone would believe his explanation. Thought so.

    Sorry for the rant. That one just really rubbed me the wrong way.

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