Avengers West Coast Epic Collection, Vol. 4: Vision Quest

Avengers West Coast Epic Collection

by John Byrne, Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom (Illustrator)

John Byrne transforms the West Coast Avengers! But fi rst, the team must survive showdowns with the Defi ler and the Night Shift - and Mockingbird is haunted by the terrible specter of the Phantom Rider! Then, Byrne takes charge - and the legendary writer/artist immediately leaves his mark on the Whackos with a startling transformation for the Vision! As the team grapples with what's happened to their old friend, Vision's wife the Scarlet Witch descends into darkness - and learns shocking revelations about her children! Amid the chaos, the U. S. Agent muscles his way onto the roster, the bizarre Great Lakes Avengers assemble, and a Golden Age legend blazes his way back from the grave! COLLECTING: VOL. 4: WEST COAST AVENGERS (1985) 38-46, AVENGERS WEST COAST (1989) 47-52, WEST COAST AVENGERS ANNUAL (1986) 3, AVENGERS WEST COAST ANNUAL (1989) 4, MATERIAL FROM AVENGERS SPOTLIGHT (1989) 23

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure

477 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 22, 2020

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.

Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really picks up once John Byrne takes over the book with issue #42 and Vision Quest begins.

The Evolutionary War (West Coast Avengers Annual #3) by Steve Englehart & Al Milgrom
Flip sides of the coin as the split West Coast Avengers team fight the High Evolutionary from different vantage points. The main team heads to Wakanda to help the Black Panther which leads to the Savage Land where the rest of the team takes over.

Redemption (West Coast Avengers #38) by D.G. Chichester, Margaret Clark & Tom Morgan
The team fights a rock star named the Defiler who lives off of people's energy after he throws them into another dimension. Decent enough fill-in issue.

Upset (West Coast Avengers #39) by Steve Englehart & Al Milgrom
Englehart returns to finish his Mantis story and clean up her continuity.

And Now the... Night Shift (West Coast Avengers #40) by Mark Gruenwald & Al Milgrom
The Night Shift are great. It's a team of macabre horror themed villains. Mockingbird and Hawkeye's breakup gets the team into trouble from a lack of communication.

When Ghosts Can Die, Even Gods Must Fear! (West Coast Avengers #41) by Tom DeFalco, Ralph Macchio & Tom Morgan
Closure for the Phantom Rider storyline. The Phantom Rider has been haunting Mockingbird for letting him fall to his death after he raped and abused her. This gets really complicated as their are two Phantom Rider ghosts, one good and one bad. It's made worse by the storyline in Thor crossing over into this book. Set is trying to recruit Khonshu who has taken over Moon Knight's body completely for the entirety of Moon Knight's time on the West Coast Avengers.

Vision Quest (West Coast Avengers #42-52) by John Byrne
John Byrne takes over the West Coast Avengers and immediately puts the Scarlet Witch and the Vision through the ringer. This along with the next volume Darker Than Scarlet constitute the stories WandaVision was based on. Byrne also brings U.S. Agent onto the team to stir the pot. I'm a big fan of John Byrne's and that continues with this terrific Avengers run.

Atlantis Attacks (West Coast Avengers Annual #4) by John Byrne
Byrne even finds the time to write and draw the annual. He was a real workhorse during the 80's. This is smack dab in the middle of the Atlantis Attacks story with most of the major women in the Marvel universe brainwashed as Brides of Set working on bringing Set back to Earth.

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A LOT happens in this collection...
First, we have the Evolutionary War. I liked how in this annual, we got a recap of the High Evolutionary's comic appearances as I hadn't read them before.

Then, the Phantom Rider story finally concludes with a new Rider—Hamilton, the great-great-nephew of the original! I had no interest in the Phantom Rider before this story, and I definitely don't have an interest after.
During that issue (#41), we also get a continuation of a Thor storyline—one that was already drawn out in Thor.

Finally, we get to the storyline this EC is named after...

We learn that a cooperation between international governments used Mockingbird's plan to kidnap Vision and erase all traces of him from every computer!
Not only that, they completely disassembled the poor android!

Which leads to an all-white Vision and the mystery of how the android came to be - solved(?) by convoluted logic.

More team changes as U.S. Agent is appointed by the government, Iron Man reinstates himself, Hawkeye throws (another) tantrum and quits the team—all before the original Human Torch returns from the 'dead' - tying into the rewritten origins for Vision.

One story rolls into another when Master Pandemonium kidnaps the twins and turns them into infamous body horror examples.

But I guess all that doesn't really matter as Mephisto absorbs Pandemonium, and Agatha Harkness (also back from the dead) erases the children (who never really existed) from Wanda's mind.
Who already had her mind altered by a evolutionary blob thing a few issues prior.

See, I told you a lot happened in this one!

All of that to say, I actually had fun with some of the later stories. There are so many characters and they all have their own personalities which is great to see.

[Zack! Empire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really glad to finally be reading the Byrne era of the West Coast Avengers. He really has me wanting to keep reading these comics. A lot of the time, I'll read about 200 pages of one of these books, then have to take a break from it for a while. With this one, I just read it and read it. It was so fun. I loved the way the characters interacted. There is a ton going on here, and I can't wait to see what happens. Really, the only things I didn't care for were the crossover issue's.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun book that picks up when John Byrne takes over. The Vision stuff is great, US Agent joining the team is super intriguing, and excited to see Hawkeyes adventures with the Great Lake Adventures. This is probably the peak of the West Coast Avengers run and if you enjoyed WandaVision you may enjoy this book as well.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7 stars

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kind of hate giving this collection only 3-stars, but I can’t really rationalize more than that. Why? Roughly the first third of the volume is ... well, terrible. It opens with a chapter from a big crossover event, The Evolutionary War, that is left unresolved as it only features the chapter that the West Coast Avengers appear in. Next up we have four issues that are really just trying to fill time and wrap-up some loose storylines from the material included in the preceding 3 volumes. These range from silly, to disappointing, to strange, to downright awful. Then John Byrne comes aboard and everything changes. Everything. Starting with the Avengers Roster, but Byrne’s shake up is far from ending there. Over the next nearly 300 pages Byrne proceeds to dismantle, first, the Vision (both figuratively AND literally) and then he does the same to the Scarlet Witch (although for her it’s really more figuratively and less literally). Then the volume ends with yet another chapter from a larger crossover (see Atlantis Attacks Omnibus). Which, also, doesn’t end with anything like a resolution. Instead it ends on a cliffhanger. So, more frustration.
What does work, and I’d give it a solid 4-stars on its own, is the Avengers West Coast: Vision Quest arc. While there is a lot of frustrating retroactive continuity, the story itself is pure Byrne. This means it’s fun, rather light-hearted and packed with just about unrelenting action. Read this for the Byrne issues, the Vision Quest story, which also leads right into Avengers West Coast: Darker than Scarlet.

[Fez Vaccaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 150 pages of this collection are the weakest as we get things tidied up before Byrne begins his run at #142. There's an Evolutionary War Annual to start. This is followed by as through away a fill-in issue as you'll get by DG Chichester. Englehart returns to tidy up some Mantis and Cotati continuity and his never-ending Celestial Madonna storyline, before Gruenwald does his best to clean up the Phantom Rider story that has really gone on too long by this stage - and hurt both Mockingbird and Hawkeye in the process.

Then it's onto Byrne. Art is great obviously, the best the book has had to date. As far as the story goes, the story feels darker from the get go, which is different in tone from the light-hearted feel of Englehart's run. We have a Tigra that's devolving into a cat and it feels decidedly more feral and dangerous than previously. There's shady government operatives who have kidnapped and disassembled the Vision. Byrne puts Wanda through the wringer, turning her husband as colourless as his emotional state, before having her also kidnapped and controlled by more Government operatives. But these aren't anything compared to what he has in mind for her children. The villain Mister Pandemonium was rather hokey under Englehart but is actually kind of terrifying here. The collection ends with another Annual crossover, this time Atlantis Attacks. There's a good interview with Byrne in the extras, as it helps explain Byrne's reasoning for taking the directions he did.

As for his choices, you can argue he has done long-term damage to Vision and Wanda. Bendis obviously took the deranged Scarlet Witch from here and ran with in possibly the worst Avengers story I've ever read in Avengers: Disassembled. We'll see if the WandaVision show can in some way bring these different and shocking story elements to make it a cohesive whole for the MCU, but as far as comics go, it destroyed a stable relationship that's really never recovered and has led to a Vision that didn't get fixed until his miniseries in 1994. As far was Wanda goes, Busiek did good work in Heroes Return to fix her character but Bendis obviously swept that all away at the start of Disassembled in Avengers #500. Byrne also messes up Vision's continuity as to his android body and again it isn't fixed until Busiek's clean up story that was Avengers Forever.

So look, I have mixed feelings here. Byrne's strongest part was the introduction of the Great Lakes Avengers. There's a good balance of humour here and some good characterisation of both Hawkeye and Mockingbird.

[Tom Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume of the Avengers West Coast Epic line features the transition from the creative team of Steve Englehart and Al Milgrom to writer/artist John Byrne.

As with prior volumes in this series, I'd encountered these issues before, having collected the series for a time back in the eighties. I enjoyed the characters that were part of the team, but the Englehart/Milgrom run didn't do much for me. The writing focused on what I felt was subpar soap opera, while the art seemed uninspired. John Byrne's arrival was a welcome change.

In his issues, Byrne introduced new members while sidelining others, creating a different dynamic to the team. His "Vision Quest" storyline would prove to be significant for the Scarlet Witch, setting up instabilities in her character that would redefine her in the comics, also providing fodder for the cinematic Marvel universe, particularly in the WandaVision television series.

There were downsides to the Byrne issues, as well. At times, his interpretations of characters could seem hollow and mechanical. In many ways, he brought issues opposite those of the prior creative team, though Byrne's general storytelling and artwork could somewhat make up for those limitations.

As a collection, this volume feels somewhat rushed. It collects the relevant issues of the title series, but some stories from other series involving characters here are excluded, leading to some confusion at one point about a dramatic turn in the relationship between a couple of characters. While expected for characters who had their own titles outside the team books, characters whose primary character development occurs in the team book should probably have external stories affecting their status quo reprinted here, as well.

Overall, this volume is probably the strongest to date in the AWC line.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best finale of a run because they tried changing the name to Marvel Age at the end I believe but still a fun run. Had some classic story lines, I.E the vision quest where you get the first example of white Vision. as well as the first introduction of one of my favorite teams of all times, the Great Lakes Avengers! Who would eventually introduce Squirrel Girl to the world though not in this instance.

I enjoyed my fall down memory lane with this series and I'm glad I did it.

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad collection, though a little too much explanation around Vision’s origins.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 3 out of 5]

Desde su arranque, la segunda colección de los Vengadores, los Costa Oeste, habían estado en manos de Englehart y Milgrom, pero de cara a las cercanías de su número cincuenta, llegaba el momento de cambiar que la serie cambiara de manos, y Marvel estaba dispuesta a hacer un llamativo movimiento en la mesa de juego. Con el regreso de Byrne a la Casa de las Ideas después de su paso por DC, el guionista y dibujante canadiense se ponía al frente de las dos colecciones de los Vengadores, aunque solo dibujaría una de ellas, y sería precisamente esta. Así, en un pequeño entreacto, Tom DeFalco, Ralph Macchio y Tom Morgan cerraban la anterior etapa, solucionando la cuestión pendiente de la muerte del Jinete Fantasma en manos de Pájaro Burlón, que se separaba del equipo y de Ojo de Halcón; y salía también de la colección el Caballero Luna.

Así que Byrne se hacía con una colección y un equipo conformado por Ojo de Halcón, el Hombre Maravilla, Tigra, la Visión, la Bruja Escarlata, la Avispa y Hank Pym, a quien pronto se unirían el USAgente y Iron Man. Y parece que Byrne venía decidido a repetir la historia que en su día ya había contado junto a Claremont en X-Men, la saga de Fénix Oscura, y la iba a repetir con la Bruja Escarlata. Ojo, aviso a navegantes, me es muy difícil ser objetivo con esta trama, y es que era muy fan del estado de la Visión y la Bruja Escarlata previos a esta etapa, con sus dos hijos, Thomas y William, y todo esto. Y esto es lo que Byrne vino a hacer saltar por los aires. Así, su etapa va a arrancar con la saga La Búsqueda de la Visión, en la que una conspiración internacional va a asaltar el Rancho de los Vengadores y va a secuestrar a la Visión, obligando al equipo a intentar encontrar a su compañero, ayudados por Pájaro Burlón, que vuelve después de haber sido engañada y haber participado en los planes para secuestrar a la Visión. Y es que al parecer varios gobiernos estaban incómodos con los secretos que la Visión podía conservar de aquel momento en el que había invadido los ordenadores de todo el mundo. Además, Byrne va a comenzar a lanzar pistas sobre que la Visión haber sido engañado sobre su origen por Inmortus y quizá su relación con la Antorcha Humana original no es la que habían supuesto.

La Visión volverá al equipo, pero será una nueva Visión, por dentro y por fuera, con un exterior totalmente blanco, y un interior más robótico y menos humano, que poco a poco irá haciendo mella en la Bruja Escarlata, que además, mientras el resto del equipo trata de descubrir qué pasó con la Antorcha Humana original, será secuestrada por una organización que intenta adaptar a la mutante como portadora de algo llamado "Lo que permanece", y que obligará a intervenir al Capitán América y Hulka desde la Costa Este... pero también al nuevo equipo de Ojo de Halcón y Pájaro Burlón. Y es que tras la llegada del USAgente como imposición del gobierno, ambos dejarán el equipo, y se convertirán en los líderes de un nuevo y extraño equipo, los Vengadores de los Grandes Lagos, establecidos en Milwaukee, y que cuentan con una extraña alineación: Puerta, Gran Berta, Dinah Soar, el Hombre Plano y Míster Inmortal.

Pero esto será solo el principio, y la cosa irá a peor después de Actos de Venganza...

[Justin Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to believe that this volume contains two stories that would become huge influences on modern marvel: Vision Quest and the saga of Wanda's children. Because, these are stories in the second, weird Avengers main title of the 80s. The title where unused characters went. And, boy do these continue to be strange tales.
First, Englehart wraps up his run (thank God), and I will give credit that Marvel let him wrap up the stories pretty solidly before a new writer took over. Then, we get writer-artist John Byrne. Oh, John Byrne. A problematic creator at best, inappropriate weirdo at worst, his character work is always...a choice.
Vision Quest (which would go on to form the core of the excellent WandaVision series!) is okay. The female characters seem shockingly regressive to me for a 1989 comic...like, still very reactive and "faint"y and horrible decision makers. The work done, though, to make Vision into a creepy, emotionless synthoid who is still a hero to cheer for is handled much better.
The Wanda's kids story...which would have ramifications in Avengers Disassembled and House of M, transforming the modern Marvel comics, is a simple two-part story here. And definitely written as a way to clear the board of kids for Wanda stories and to contribute to the mental breakdown of Wanda that will lead to her Nightmare in Scarlet story arc (an inspiration for Multiverse of Madness). It involves that stupid villain Master Pandemonium. But, Byrne seems to understand who stupid it all is and uses some meta humor to poke a bit of fun at it all. Also, I really enjoyed Byrne's artwork in it (baby arms! IYKYK).
Overall, better than those Enlgehart volumes, but still such a strange, strange book.

[Omar Gómez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avengers West Coast Epic Collection Vol. 4 – Vision Quest (2020) por John Byrne, calificación 4/5 estrellas.

A pesar de que son más de 477 páginas lo leés en dos o tres dias en su totalidad.

He leído varias veces ese arco de John Byrne The Vision Quest, la primera desde niño, antes de llegar a la trama principal del Epic Collection se cerarron las tramas con Moon Knight al cual odiaba, de niño deje de leer West Coast Avengers y volví poco despues.

Me agrada el arte de John Byrne desde niño por eso compraba X-Men y Avengers West Coast, trascendió su trabajo al cine con la versión Dark Wanda en la película de Doctor Strange.

Es bueno el arco The Vision Quest, The Great Lakes Avengers, me gusta la alineación de The Avengers son mis favoritos pueden usarlos bien y tendrás drama, acción, romance y de más tramas con The Scarlet Witch, The Wasp, Doctor Hank Pym, Wonder Man, Iron Man. En un escalón abajo están U. S Agent, Human Torch, Tygra, Hawkeye y Mockingbird.

Con esa alineación de Avengers haría Fanfictions continuando donde John Byrne renunció al libro cuando vetaron sus Trama de Immortus y Scarlet Witch.

Tal vez esta de sobra algunas historias de el annual.

[Benny Morduchowitz]

John Byrne is a good penciller. His figures and faces are distinct and dynamic. That said, he is an atrocious writer.

The fact that anyone thinks his storytelling improved on Engleheart's reminds why I mostly stopped reading Cape books years ago. I took a bunch of these Avengers West Coast Epic Collections out of the library (they only had the evens) because I wanted goofy superhero hijinks in California. Vol 2 delivered, and despite the fluctuating quality of the art, the characters were distinct, the Cali jokes and scenarios were abundant, and the dated gender dynamics felt more naive than malicious. The writing was also not reminiscent of the old style overwritten block texts that alienate me from pre-70s mainstream comics.

This volume was gratuitously overwritten with humorless, aspirationally edgy clichés, has little to no acknowledgement of its California setting, and not only views its women as nothing but shrill or treacherous or beautiful, but even its men are nothing but varying levels of horniness or aggression.

The Engleheart wrap-up stuff at the beginning was my favorite part of this collection. I also appreciate Byrne's introduction of the Great Lake Avengers, I'm just glad my introduction to them was in their solo series from the 2000s (which I remember from my youth as pretty funny), because if I had been introduced to them here, I would've just written them off as lame idiocy that's barely funny beyond their concept. I'll confess that Byrne's Master Pandemonium climax was pretty fun comic book imagery, but even that character made alot less sense and was alot less interestingly silly than I found him in the previous volume I read.

Makes sense that Marvel chose to use this drivel as the DNA for their blase WandaVision show. Now I understand why a talented actress like Elizabeth Olsen went from being a blank slate they couldn't figure out a use for to a parade of archetypes that eventually erupted into one note hysterics: they were copying John Byrne.

P.s.- The only thing that made me laugh was Vision crashing the Tonight Show with Paul Reubens and Chiquita as guests.

[Joel Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The portions written and drawn by Byrne are quite good besides the occasional long-winded diversion into sorting out alternate histories regarding the original Torch, Toro, and the Vision. An extensive knowledge of comic book history can be both a blessing and a curse. This book also contains material by other authors and artists that I didn't find quite as compelling.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's safe to say that John Byrne saved the West Coast Avengers. Both his stories and his art are like a breath of fresh air compared to what came before.

Sure, he happened to destroy one of my favourite Marvel power-couples, but this book is so incredibly readable that I forgive him.

[Martin Maenza · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Byrne’s arrival heralded a lot of interesting changes to the title. I really enjoyed this start of his run.

[Barry Bridges · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Byrne is such a talent. The WCA come alive once he starts writing for them. Think it’s because he’s more relationship focused than fight based!

[Raime · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some absolutely crazy stories from Byrne.

[Nathaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic Byrne Byrneing. Here is more of the source material for WandaVision. Worth reading.