Avengers: West Coast Avengers Assemble

Reprints West Coast Avengers Vol.1 #1-4, Iron Man Annual #7 and Avengers #250, plus material from Avengers #239, 243-244, 236 and Avengers West Coast #100
Written by Roger Stern, Bob Harras and Roy Thomas.
Penciled by Bob Hall, Al Milgrom, Luke McDonnell.
Inked by Brett Breeding, Peter Berardi, Joe Sinnott, Ian Akin, Brian Garvey, Roy Richardson.


After an extended absence, Hawkeye returns to the Avengers' Mansion and introduces the team to his wife, Mockingbird.

A short time later, at a team meeting, the Vision is selected as the new chair of the Avengers. He has an important announcement to make: a new team of Avengers will be formed and are to be stationed in Los Angeles. Vision announces that Hawkeye will lead the West Coast branch and the West Coast Avengers are born!

Vision & Government Liasion Raymond Sikorski
announce the forming of a new team of Avengers.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird set up headquarters at an old Hollywood mansion and decide to call it the Avengers Compound. Wonder Man, Tigra and Iron Man are all contacted by the Vision and called to the compound. Unbeknownst to the others, the man in the Iron Man suit is James "Rhodey" Rhodes. He has taken over as Iron Man because Tony Stark has had a relapse of his alcoholism.

When Tigra is contacted by Vision, she has been working in San Francisco as a Private Investigator. She departs for Los Angeles in a hurry, prompting her business partner, Jessica Drew, to worry about her. Jessica calls someone in L.A. to shadow Tigra.

Hawkeye tells the heroes they've been invited to join a new team of Avengers. In the middle of their meeting, they realize someone has broken into the compound. It's the Shroud! After a brief battle, Tigra explains that he's a friend of hers and stops the battle. It turns out to be just a big misunderstanding.

Iron Man catches the Shroud snooping around the  compound.

The team has barely had a chance to settle into the compound when an old villain shows up in the City of Angels.

Erik Josten, formerly the Avengers foe known as Power Man, has been called into town by the mad scientist Dr. Karl Malus. In addition to restoring Josten's super strength, Malus injects him with growth serum. With only one dose, Josten becomes a giant and takes the name Goliath. 

Goliath is born!

Goliath wreacks havoc in downtown Los Angeles. Police try to shoot him but their bullets are ineffective. Iron Man arrives, but Goliath is furious to see him and the Golden Avenger is easily defeated. Goliath says he "deserves" a victory over an Avenger, after years of frustration. 

Goliath throws Iron Man out of L.A.

Iron Man's new teammates Hawkeye and Wonder Man are around to help against Goliath, but they're defeated just as easily. The three heroes regroup and realize that they can't match Goliath in power, but that their combined skills could be enough to defeat him.  

Following that battle, Wonder Man stumbles onto a bank robbery in progress. The thief has a "blank" appearance. It turns out that he's wearing a belt that generates a force field and obscures all of his recognizable features. Wonder Man calls the robber "The Blank", and the name sticks. The force field allows the Blank to escape with stolen money. 

Shortly after the robbery, the Blank sees a man made of energy and helps him. It turns out to be the Avengers' old adversary Graviton, who joins forces with the Blank and attacks the Avengers. Hawkeye and Wonder Man remind their teammates that Graviton almost beat the East Coast Team a few years earlier. The West Coast Avengers come up with a plan to stop Graviton that utilizes Tigra's private investigator skills plus Iron Man's technological genius.  

A tense moment between former Iron Man Tony Stark & new Iron Man James Rhodes.

Last but not least, the East Coast and West Coast Avengers team up to fight the Deviant-Inhuman madman known as Maelstrom, who has gained the ability to siphon off kinetic energy from the Earth itself. This alters the planet's rotation and could have catastrophic consequences if the combined Avengers from both coasts can't defeat Maelstrom. And if that's not enough trouble, Maelstrom's Minnions are also on hand to battle the good guys!  

Review:
Not a classic, but certainly a lot of fun. I always liked the West Coast Avengers and I bought these issues off the racks when they were brand new. Arriving late in the Bronze Age (1984), the main story (from West Coast Avengers 1-4) today almost feels like the last gasp of an era. It's a just a fun story with little of the grim, angst-ridden stuff that came along in the mid-80s. Plus, I've always gravitated towards "B-Grade" super- teams. I was an avid fan of the Champions and Defenders, so the West Coast Avengers were right up my alley.  

Story:
Roger Stern does a great job here transforming Hawkeye. Throughout his career as an Avenger, he was always cast as something of a malcontent, clashing with his teammates and Avengers chairpersons. To make him a leader of a superhero team overnight probably seemed like a stretch when it was pitched, but it's nice to see Hawkeye mature as a character.

There's a great scene where Hawkeye calls Iron Man an "amateur" when he learns it's Rhodey and not Tony Stark in the armor. When Rhodey reminds him of all he's done since taking over the title of Iron Man, Hawkeye flashes back to his early days as an Avenger, when Captain America called him an amateur. Hawkeye apologizes and fully accepts the new Iron Man as a teammate.       

Tigra and Wonder Man are also well-written by Stern. Tigra felt like a weak link in her earlier stint as an Avenger, and she deals with that here as well. Wonder Man is believable as a reluctant superhero who would rather be a movie actor. Stern really gets these characters.

Bob Harras also does a nice job scripting the portion of the book taken from Iron Man Annual #7. The new Iron Man wrestles with self-doubt while trying to establish an identity beyond Tony Stark.

The high point of the story is the battle with Goliath. It's an epic battle that has an almost cinematic quality. Despite his villainy, Erik Josten has always been a sympathetic character to me. Sure, he's a villain, but I think he was also victimized by people like Zemo and the Enchantress early in his career,  and even Iron Man has sympathy for him at the end of their battle. This story is Josten's first appearance as Goliath and he would go on to be a major foe of the Avengers throughout the 1980s (and beyond).

Erik Josten recalls his origins as a supervillain.

The bulk of the book comes from the West Coast Avengers mini-series. It's a simple story, featuring the formation of a new team, a bank robber (the Blank) and an old foe seeking revenge (Graviton). It's an exciting saga, but you never get the feeling that Graviton has plans to destroy the world. And that's a good thing.

The story that features Maelstrom (from Avengers #250) is more of your standard "uber-villain threatens life as we know it!" tale. It's included because it features the first-ever team-up of the East and West Coast Avengers. It doesn't detract from the "lighter" fare.

Art:
We get good-but-not-great art here from various art teams.

Bob Hall was never very flashy, but his pencils are very good here. Brett Breeding's inks are a nice compliment to Hall's work. The portion from Iron Man Annual #7 features nice art by Luke McDonnell, inked by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey.

The weakest art is found in the story reprinted from Avengers #250. Al Milgrom handles penciling duties, inked by Joe Sinnott, plus the aforementioned Akin and Garvey. Three different inkers in one issue is distracting and it gives me the impression that this art job was a bit rushed.  

How Does It Look?:
This two-page spread shows how great it looks:

Extras:
We get a post-Bronze Age story that flashes back to the day Hawkeye and Mockingbird bought the compound. It's okay, but hardly essential.

There are also entries from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe for Hawkeye and Mockingbird. These are fine, but they've already been reprinted in the Avengers: Hawkeye tpb, reviewed here last year.

Avengers: West Coast Avengers Assemble is a highly recommended tpb. It contains stories originally published in the Summer of 1984 and it will provide nice Summer reading today in 2013.

.5


3 and a half Sals.

Avengers: Hawkeye (Marvel Premiere Classic)

Reprints Hawkeye (1983) 1-4, Tales Of Suspense #57, Marvel Super Action #1, Avengers #189 and Marvel Team-Up #95.

Written by Mark Gruenwald, Stan Lee, Mike Friedrich, Steven Grant & David Michelinie & Roger Stern.
Penciled by Mark Gruenwald, Don Heck, George Evans, John Byrne & Jimmy Janes.
Inked by Brett Breeding, Danny Bulanadi, Don Heck, Frank Springer, Dan Green & Bruce Patterson.

A note to readers:
I started this blog last September, shortly before some craziness entered my "offline" life. I've intended to restart this blog (that was barely started!) for a while. But the new Avengers movie will be released this May, so I thought this would be a great time to post reviews of Bronze Age Avengers stories (and "solo" stories that feature heroes who appear in the film) that have been reprinted as hardcovers or trade paperbacks. Hawkeye leads off!:

Hawkeye, the World's Greatest Archer (AKA Clint Barton) is enjoying life. He has a well-paid job as head of security at Cross Technological Enterprises (CTE) and is in a relationship with Sheila Danning, head of Public Relations for CTE. Clint has made peace with the fact that he's no longer an Avenger.

Alternate cover

One night, Hawkeye is called to investigate a burglary at a warehouse owned by CTE. When he gets there, Barton finds the Mockingbird, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned costumed crime fighter. He attacks her, only to learn that she isn't a criminal. Mockingbird's break-in was part of an investigation into CTE's criminal activities! Hawkeye joins Mockingbird in battling CTE, but it costs him his job and his apartment (which gets blown up!). Clint Barton's life has been turned upside down!

Hawkeye and Mockingbird's investigation of CTE leads them into conflict with Oddball and Bombshell, a duo of evil jugglers, as well as the criminal mastermind known as Crossfire. If Hawkeye and Mockingbird fail to thwart the plans of CTE, all superheroes on Earth could be killed! In the meantime, Hawkeye and Mockingbird turn out to be a pretty good crime-fighting team.

Plus:

We get earlier adventures of Hawkeye and Mockingbird!

Before she became Mockingbird, Bobbi Morse briefly fought crime as the Huntress. She tries to take down a drug kingpin in her only adventure in her Huntress costume.

We see how Hawkeye got the job as Chief Of Security for CTE and his battle with a "mystery" villain, one who normally battles the X-men.

Hawkeye is hired by CTE in Avengers #189

Last but not least, Spider-Man teams with Mockingbird (in her first appearance in the 'bird suit). The heroes battle with agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

Review:

I'll mention up front that the content of this hardcover is pretty good, but I'm not crazy about the presentation of the stories. It opens with the reprint of Hawkeye's limited series, then jumps back in time 19 years (before the Bronze Age of Comics) to Hawkeye's first ever appearance where he served as an adversary of Iron Man. The stories that follow are in order of publication. But wouldn't it have made more sense to start with the first Hawkeye story, so we could see some maturation of Clint Barton? A minor quibble. Otherwise, I like the book.

Story:

The limited series is a good introduction to Hawkeye.  It's not a great story, as villains like Oddball and Bombshell aren't the most interesting characters. But Mark Gruenwald's script keeps things entertaining. The development of Hawkeye & Mockingbird's relationship feels natural, not at all forced.

The other stories are good supplements to the limited series, especially the reprint of Avengers #189 (where Hawkeye first goes to work for CTE) and Marvel Team-Up #95 (the first Mockingbird story).

Art:
The bulk of the art is handled by Gruenwald, best known as a writer and editor.  His pencils look good, with decent inking by Brett Breeding and Danny Bulanadi. The black and white piece that features the Huntress has some good art from old-schoolers George Evans and Frank Springer. John Byrne (at the height of his powers) provides the best art in the book (in the story from Avengers #189) and Dan Green's inks always worked well with Byrne's pencils.

Extras:
Hawkeye's aformentioned first appearance, in Tales Of Suspense #57 is reprinted (this story also features an early appearance of the Black Widow, when she was a Soviet spy). It's not a bad addition to the Bronze Age stories, but I wonder why we didn't get the Hawkeye story from Marvel Fanfare #3 (which was reprinted here) instead. That story actually takes place at CTE, and is even referenced in the limited series.

On a positive note, the book also reprints Hawkeye and Mockingbird's entries from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. In addition to the characters' histories, it provides a nice technical rundown of the different types of arrows Hawkeye uses and the mechanics of Mockingbird's Battle Staves .

How does it look?
The reprinted pages look great. There's a scan above and here's another one:

Hawkeye pursues Oddball

Avengers: Hawkeye is a collection of good stories put together in a nice hardcover book. None of the stories are classics by themselves, but when you add them all together, they make the book a worthy addition to the library of any Bronze Age fan.

My rating:



.5

3 and a half Sals!