The West Coast Avengers #1

West Coast Avengers (1985-1994)

by Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom (Artist)

The adventures of one of the most beloved teams of Avengers start here! Wonder Man, Tigra and Iron Man investigate a robot attack, where they fall right into Ultron's trap! Can the heroes escape Ultron's clutches? And what is the mad A.I. REALLY after?

Genres: Comics, Comic Book

40 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 5, 2016

About the author

See also John Harkness.

Steve Englehart went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After a stint in the Army, he moved to New York and began to write for Marvel Comics. That led to long runs on Captain America, The Hulk, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, and a dozen other titles. Midway through that period he moved to California (where he remains), and met and married his wife Terry.

He was finally hired away from Marvel by DC Comics, to be their lead writer and revamp their core characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern). He did, but he also wrote a solo Batman series (immediately dubbed the "definitive" version) that later became Warner Brothers' first Batman film (the good one).

After that he left comics for a time, traveled in Europe for a year, wrote a novel (The Point Man™), and came back to design video games for Atari (E.T., Garfield). But he still liked comics, so he created Coyote™, which within its first year was rated one of America's ten best series. Other projects he owned (Scorpio Rose™, The Djinn™) were mixed with company series (Green Lantern [with Joe Staton], Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four). Meanwhile, he continued his game design for Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Brøderbund.

And once he and Terry had their two sons, Alex and Eric, he naturally told them stories. Rustle's Christmas Adventure was first devised for them. He went on to add a run of mid-grade books to his bibliography, including the DNAgers™ adventure series, and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright brothers selected by NASA as the basis for their school curriculum on the invention of the airplane.

In 1992 Steve was asked to co-create a comics pantheon called the Ultraverse. One of his contributions, The Night Man, became not only a successful comics series, but also a television show. That led to more Hollywood work, including animated series such as Street Fighter, GI Joe, and Team Atlantis for Disney.

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating 3.5 stars.
For someone who isn’t part of the team and doesn’t want to be anything more than a scientist, Hank Pym sure was featured quite a bit in this first issue.

I did like the brief look into Tigra’s history. I never read it but it sounds like quite an...interesting read.

It was also good to see how much Hawkeye wanted his team to succeed. No longer the cocky man he once was, he is living up to his title of chairperson.

The main villain in this comic was Ultron-12 however we learn he’s teamed-up with a few other villains.
Can’t wait to read the explanation for that!

The next issue to read is not actually issue #2 of this series but Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #1!

[Derek Neveu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing maiden roster. With the exception of Stark, they could totally pull this off in the new phase of the MCU.

[Richard Kenneth Conde · Rating 4 out of 5]

West Coast Avengers v2 #1

1.25 USD @ October 1985

"Teammates!"

Writer: Steve Englehart
Penciler: Al Milgrom
Inker: Joe Sinnott
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Petra Scoteze
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

Synopsis: At the West Coast Avengers headquarters, Hawkeye and Mockingbird's married couple's make out session was interrupted by Dr. Henry Pym who arrived unannounced at its doorstep. Hawkeye tried to convince the former superhero to join the team, but Pym declined and told him he was there to examine the super-villain in their holding cell, Goliath. Outside at the beach a speeding Iron Man in his new red and silver armor was speeding towards Tigra and Wonder Man who was unaware that they were about to be attacked by robots. A melee ensued and after taking down the robots, and they overpowered the robots that attacked. Back at WCA HQ Hank Pym questioned Goliath in regards to his powers, while Mockingbird and Hawkeye spoke about convincing Pym to join the team. They were soon joined by Iron Man-Tony Stark, Wonder Man, and an excited Tigra who was more than happy to see Hank Pym again. Hawkeye is trying to make sense of the attack earlier. They tracked the robots to a docked ship at the local pier and the West Coast Avengers soon headed that way in a quinjet, leaving Hank Pym to mind the fort.

The West Coast Avengers arrived and entered the docked ship and no sooner, the bulkheads of the ship started popping up steel I-beams all over place as if creating a maze of lifelike puzzle. And Ultron-12 made its presence known gloating that the Avengers have fallen for its trap. And the trapped Avengers are left by Ultron-12 as they tried to escape the steel maze trap.

Back at WCA HQ, The Wasp was trying to reach Hawkeye and was surprised by Hank answering the monitor. They were soon joined by the WCA team who escaped Ultron-12's trap. And as the team gathered they were suddenly attacked by Man-Ape and Ultron-12. Tigra was subdued and Goliath was freed and the three super-villains did battle with the WCA team. Ultron-12 went toe-to-toe with Iron Man, while Goliath and Man-Ape pummelled Wonder Man to unconsciousness. And Ultron-12 escaped from his battle with Iron Man and took Hank Pym and and unconscious Wonder Man and the super-villains left the battle. Hawkeye regained his senses and put it all together that it was Simon Williams' brother, Eric, The Grim Reaper, was behind all this.

Comments: Besides the action, we see the team interact and a lot of subplots came into play. Besides the budding romance between Tigra and Wonder Man, we see an open attraction from Tigra towards Hank Pym. And the new WCA team has growing pains as well. We see that Hawkeye as team leader wanted to show The Avengers team that his team was no second-fiddle team when he refused The Wasp's suggestion to help them. At the same time, it seemed even with powerhouses Wonder Man and Iron Man on the team, it seemed they were unprepared and not strong enough to take on a trio of super-villains on more than equal footing. Looks like the future doesn't look bright for this team at this early stages. But I am sure the kinks will be worked out as the team gets more experience together.

[Alexandria (DaysPass) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an en enjoyable, short read. I particularly liked all the clear links with previous story lines. The fact they were small made me feel like a die-hard fan with full comprehension of the universe could skip over them quite easily, but others who don't necessarily have that knowledge had that leg-up. I also really liked the the use of colour through the comic. It's vastly different than what I'm used to from this genre. The colours were varied, bright and fell into the stereotypical pop-art style. I'd say because of this, the comic takes on an animated-feel and themes almost took on a lighter tone.

I wouldn't consider myself an avid comic reader, and having only really watched the Marvel Cinematic Universe before starting this series, it was definitely odd to see such different personalities and dynamics within the group. One being the the relationship between Clint and Tony. I just wouldn't expect Tony to just accept Clint's orders without any sass or argument. That said it was nice to see early variations of the characters.

The issue had a few little niggles for me, mainly just small annoyances but the really didn't take away from the story and it was a really nice reading experience.

[Ramón S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, Al Milgrom and Steve Englehart. I love it

[Drew Ames · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I read this comic as a kid — I turned 12 in 1985 — I thought this was an awesome series. I loved that the action picks up in the middle of a story and filled in the back story as needed (with Marvel's customary cross-reference footnotes). I thought the characters were neat and I enjoyed the dialog and soap-opera-like relationships.

As an adult, rereading this book for the first time in 33 years, I find that the times and my tastes have changed. The pacing, structure, and dialog seem specifically geared toward 10-12 year-olds. There's a lot of exposition, and the events in the story seem disjointed. The second half of the book really picks up, though, as the action takes off. I was on the fence about whether to give this two or three stars, but it was a bit of a slog at the beginning.

Despite my complaints, this issue shows some of the best of '80s Marvel Comics. The artwork is very good. It doesn't have the polish of today's artwork, but it is clear, well-drawn, and there's none of the exaggerated proportions (especially on women) and similar silliness that characterized artwork in the '90s.

[John Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the story a bit cliched, but there waa a fun quality to it that would translate well to a Netflix series