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Avengers West Coast Epic Collection
Avengers West Coast Epic Collection, Vol. 5: Darker than Scarlet
The Witch is back! After months of trauma, the Scarlet Witch suffers a nervous breakdown — and descends into madness. Manipulated by Magneto, Wanda has turned on her teammates! Can the West Coast Avengers save her sanity — and themselves? And what is Immortus’ interest in Wanda’s breakdown? The future is at stake in this pivotal tale in the saga of the Scarlet Witch! And, when Loki unleashes his Acts of Vengeance, the East and West Coast teams will be besieged by unfamiliar foes! Both squads of Avengers must come together to defeat Loki’s villainous Inner Circle of some of Marvel’s biggest and baddest! Plus, Hercules lends a hand in a clash of the titans, Terminus style!
COLLECTING: Vol. 5: Avengers West Coast (1989) 53-64, Avengers West Coast Annual (1989) 5, Avengers (1963) 311-313; material from Avengers Annual (1967) 19, What The--?! (1988) 6
COLLECTING: Vol. 5: Avengers West Coast (1989) 53-64, Avengers West Coast Annual (1989) 5, Avengers (1963) 311-313; material from Avengers Annual (1967) 19, What The--?! (1988) 6
456 pages, Paperback
First published January 11, 2022
10 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
John Byrne
2,954 books359 followersLibrarian 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 29, 2022
First of all: do not be fooled by the similarities in the title of this collection and that of Avengers West Coast: Darker than Scarlet, they are NOT the same critter. This volumes contains more material, taking care of, in part at least, some of the problems inherent in what that volume lacked. But unfortunately, not everything is accounted for.
This one opens with the issues from both Avengers and Avengers West Coast that deal with the crossover event Acts of Vengeance in which many of Marvel’s villains team-up and switch their usual opponents in an attempt to finally do away with all of earth’s heroes. Hopefully it’s not much of a spoiler to say that they very nearly succeeded. The earlier mentioned Darker Than Scarlet only offers the issues from Avengers West Coast so the reader is literally only getting about half of the story. John Byrne does a rather nice job, bringing together all the various threads and building to an interesting climax, all while teasing and building not just one, but two larger plots facing the West Coast team. These opening six issues, Avengers #311-313 & Avengers West Coast #53-55, are a pretty wild and entertaining ride. Then the next two issues, #56-57, give the reader a glimpse of the direction Byrne is taking this storyline (4/5), but … it all gets derailed by Byrne’s sudden and utterly unexpected departure from the title. The reasons for this should be left to historians, but suffice to say, the rest of this volume is a mess, and that’s nearly 60% of the pages left.
So the next issues, #58-62, are all about picking up the pieces, tying up loose threads and attempting to make some kind of sense of everything to which Byrne was leading. And, as I said, it’s a mess. I’ve no idea if this is anything along the direction that Byrne was going in, but what’s here becomes so deus-ex-machina that it just feels enormously disappointing. Although, I will offer this: it’s better than as it was presented in Avengers West Coast: Darker than Scarlet, that volume doesn’t include all the issues included here, and offers just a sloppy disjointed mess instead (although, to be fair, one of them is revealed at the end to be just an alternate reality what if kind of thing anyway). While the story here does resolve the biggest challenge facing the team, the Scarlet Witch, it does so by completely removing any sense of agency she has a character. Interestingly, a similar narrative was presented in Avengers #200, targeting Ms. Marvel and with Immortus as the antagonist as well. This makes both these storylines, further examples (at least to me) of how little respect many of the writers and editors at Marvel Comics, at that time, had for their female characters. There are so many examples of female characters being characterized as incapable of handling staggering power boosts as well as the responsibilities and agency that comes with them, it illustrates an enormous amount of misogyny on the part of much of Marvel’s production staff.
The “third act” of this volume then encompasses material from Avengers West Coast Annual #5, Avengers Annual #19, featuring the concluding chapters of The Terminus Factor crossover event, and Avengers West Coast #63-64. While it’s been years (decades?) since I’ve read The Terminus Factor, this is my first time reading these last couple of included issues for the West Coast team. The Terminus Factor suffers from what many of these Annual Crossover storylines do, an interesting premise that gets chopped up and poorly executed because it’s divided up among different writers and/or art teams. But in this case it really just isn’t that strong of a story to begin with. Then we have issue #63 and it seems to initially want to pick up right after the Immortus battle, but mentions that the Terminus storyline has also occurred in the time between issues, so continuity was likely shoehorned in. This story is interesting as it introduces Living Lightning, a character who’ll get more spotlight time in future volumes, but otherwise unremarkable. And it’s as forgettable as that of #64. The concluding story is actually a ridiculous cliffhanger which features Captain America, the android Human Torch and the Great Lakes Avengers - and it’s nearly as much of a joke as the spoof, from What the?! #6, that finishes off the volume. So nothing really worth mentioning. This volume starts out strong, gets mired in abrupt creative team production changes that squash any progress of story or characterization to a dead halt and stumbles through some half-hearted attempts to find some footing, without success.
This one opens with the issues from both Avengers and Avengers West Coast that deal with the crossover event Acts of Vengeance in which many of Marvel’s villains team-up and switch their usual opponents in an attempt to finally do away with all of earth’s heroes. Hopefully it’s not much of a spoiler to say that they very nearly succeeded. The earlier mentioned Darker Than Scarlet only offers the issues from Avengers West Coast so the reader is literally only getting about half of the story. John Byrne does a rather nice job, bringing together all the various threads and building to an interesting climax, all while teasing and building not just one, but two larger plots facing the West Coast team. These opening six issues, Avengers #311-313 & Avengers West Coast #53-55, are a pretty wild and entertaining ride. Then the next two issues, #56-57, give the reader a glimpse of the direction Byrne is taking this storyline (4/5), but … it all gets derailed by Byrne’s sudden and utterly unexpected departure from the title. The reasons for this should be left to historians, but suffice to say, the rest of this volume is a mess, and that’s nearly 60% of the pages left.
So the next issues, #58-62, are all about picking up the pieces, tying up loose threads and attempting to make some kind of sense of everything to which Byrne was leading. And, as I said, it’s a mess. I’ve no idea if this is anything along the direction that Byrne was going in, but what’s here becomes so deus-ex-machina that it just feels enormously disappointing. Although, I will offer this: it’s better than as it was presented in Avengers West Coast: Darker than Scarlet, that volume doesn’t include all the issues included here, and offers just a sloppy disjointed mess instead (although, to be fair, one of them is revealed at the end to be just an alternate reality what if kind of thing anyway). While the story here does resolve the biggest challenge facing the team, the Scarlet Witch, it does so by completely removing any sense of agency she has a character. Interestingly, a similar narrative was presented in Avengers #200, targeting Ms. Marvel and with Immortus as the antagonist as well. This makes both these storylines, further examples (at least to me) of how little respect many of the writers and editors at Marvel Comics, at that time, had for their female characters. There are so many examples of female characters being characterized as incapable of handling staggering power boosts as well as the responsibilities and agency that comes with them, it illustrates an enormous amount of misogyny on the part of much of Marvel’s production staff.
The “third act” of this volume then encompasses material from Avengers West Coast Annual #5, Avengers Annual #19, featuring the concluding chapters of The Terminus Factor crossover event, and Avengers West Coast #63-64. While it’s been years (decades?) since I’ve read The Terminus Factor, this is my first time reading these last couple of included issues for the West Coast team. The Terminus Factor suffers from what many of these Annual Crossover storylines do, an interesting premise that gets chopped up and poorly executed because it’s divided up among different writers and/or art teams. But in this case it really just isn’t that strong of a story to begin with. Then we have issue #63 and it seems to initially want to pick up right after the Immortus battle, but mentions that the Terminus storyline has also occurred in the time between issues, so continuity was likely shoehorned in. This story is interesting as it introduces Living Lightning, a character who’ll get more spotlight time in future volumes, but otherwise unremarkable. And it’s as forgettable as that of #64. The concluding story is actually a ridiculous cliffhanger which features Captain America, the android Human Torch and the Great Lakes Avengers - and it’s nearly as much of a joke as the spoof, from What the?! #6, that finishes off the volume. So nothing really worth mentioning. This volume starts out strong, gets mired in abrupt creative team production changes that squash any progress of story or characterization to a dead halt and stumbles through some half-hearted attempts to find some footing, without success.
March 16, 2024
Desde que John Byrne llegara a la serie de los Wacos (como se conocía a los Vengadores de la Costa Oeste), no había dejado de darle palos a la Bruja Escarlata, y así iba a continuar hasta su salida de la colección, que se produjo precisamente a mitad de esta trama... Y es que como ya he comentado en Vengadores, John Byrne se marchó de la franquicia de golpe y dejando sus historias a medias. Al parecer, la trama que estaba construyendo precisamente en esta colección a través de la Bruja Escarlata y con apariciones de Inmortus, tenía pretensiones de escalar fuera de ella y de convertirse en un evento Marvel, y cuando se lo impidieron, planteó ceñir los acontecimientos a las colecciones de Vengadores, pero a saber qué quería hacer que desde la editorial (no sé si el editor jefe era Bob Harras o Tom DeFalco) le dijeron que no, que tampoco, que eso que quería hacer no se iba a hacer... así que se fue, con lo que sin saber qué pretendía terminar haciendo... pues esta historia de la Bruja Escarlata Oscura se queda en una especie de versión descafeinada de la Saga de Fénix Oscura. Así, tal y como habíamos visto en Actos de Venganza, después de la transformación de la Visión, la desaparición de sus hijos, su posesión por una entidad supremacista genética y el ser una de las Novias de Set, se iba a unir a Magneto (al que Byrne había sacado de las series de mutantes para ignorar años de evolución y convertirlo de nuevo en villano de opereta que había sido en X-Men 1), y en este tomo, finalmente había llegado el momento del enfrentamiento... solo que Byrne no iba a desarrollarlo, de modo que la saga se queda con una estructura un poco rara, con Byrne haciendo dos números, dos números de relleno (guionizados por Fabián Nicieza), y luego el final de la saga, con guion de Roy y Dann Thomas, y dibujos de Paul Ryan... aunque con el entintado de Danny Bulanadi parece un dibujante totalmente distinto al de la serie de Vengadores.
Y poco que decir... Inmortus se convierte en el manipulador de la vida de la Bruja Escarlata... y no tiene mucho más, la saga se desinfla enseguida y se queda en nada.
Y poco que decir... Inmortus se convierte en el manipulador de la vida de la Bruja Escarlata... y no tiene mucho más, la saga se desinfla enseguida y se queda en nada.
Read
January 15, 2022I know I have some of the other Atlantis Attacks crossovers in their original comic book form, and maybe that would help me understand what was going on through the various Annuals that year. As it was, just seeing some sections of it was puzzling to me.
The "Epic Collection" I read that I thought was set just before this one was the one in which the Vision was kidnapped and disassembled, and then sort of restored, but sans emotions and color. This version is what becomes known as the "White Vision." Master Pandemonium was lurking at the end of that collection. I missed him doing his thing of thinking that Billy and Tommy were actually his demonic arms, and absorbing them. So there's still a gap I need to catch up on.
I liked some of the comics in this collection better than others, and understood some of what the backstory was with characters who were usually featured in other comic books. I was reading The Uncanny X-Men regularly then, so I remembered things with Magneto. I know I picked up West Coast Avengers comics here and there back when I was collecting a whole lot of Marvel comics, but that wasn't something I collected in a systematic way. I was reading Daredevil regularly then, so I knew who the Kingpin was.
It doesn't seem fair to fault this collection for the gaps in my understanding, when there was so much crossing over going on through the Marvel universe then, or to fault it for the gaps in my comic collecting at that time. Still, the quality of the works seemed somewhat uneven to me.
Perhaps somewhere between three stars and four. The rating may change when I find some of the other crossovers in that year's annuals.
The "Epic Collection" I read that I thought was set just before this one was the one in which the Vision was kidnapped and disassembled, and then sort of restored, but sans emotions and color. This version is what becomes known as the "White Vision." Master Pandemonium was lurking at the end of that collection. I missed him doing his thing of thinking that Billy and Tommy were actually his demonic arms, and absorbing them. So there's still a gap I need to catch up on.
I liked some of the comics in this collection better than others, and understood some of what the backstory was with characters who were usually featured in other comic books. I was reading The Uncanny X-Men regularly then, so I remembered things with Magneto. I know I picked up West Coast Avengers comics here and there back when I was collecting a whole lot of Marvel comics, but that wasn't something I collected in a systematic way. I was reading Daredevil regularly then, so I knew who the Kingpin was.
It doesn't seem fair to fault this collection for the gaps in my understanding, when there was so much crossing over going on through the Marvel universe then, or to fault it for the gaps in my comic collecting at that time. Still, the quality of the works seemed somewhat uneven to me.
Perhaps somewhere between three stars and four. The rating may change when I find some of the other crossovers in that year's annuals.
September 1, 2024
Avengers West Coast Epic Collection Vol. 5 - Darker Than Scarlet (2021) por John Byrne, Paul Ryan, Roy y Dann Thomas, calificación 4/5 estrellas.
Colecciona: Vol. 5: Avengers West Coast #53-64, Avengers West Coast Annual #5, Avengers #311-313; material de Avengers Annual #19, What The--?! #6.
Acts of Vengeance destacan los números escritos por John Byrne donde Loki, Doctor Doom, Magneto, Kingpin, Red Skull, Mandarin y Wizard estaban conspirando en Secreto antes que los iluminatis o Kabal. Planean vengarse de los Avengers. Quasar defiende al personal de la hydrobase, Blob, Pyro y Avalanche atacan a los Avengers, luego lo hace en the Ultimate Villains Team-Up Up The Mandarin y The Wizard. Finalizando contra Loki.
The Darker Than Scarlet leí de niño y en total leído tres veces en los dos últimos años, te impresiona qué este Epic Collection tiene más de 450 páginas pero lo leí en dos días.
Traen a Roy Thomas tras la renuncia de John Byrne por el veto del editor en Jefe en darle su conclusión de lo planeado. Por ser vetado por editor en Jefe Tom De Falco. Nunca vimos la conclusión real de Immortus y Scarlet Witch donde Kang derrota a los Avengers y se crea un especie de Days of Future Past para los Avengers
Paul Ryan en sus tintas sobre John Byrne parece manchado el arte, pero en el material extra están las tintas perfectas así fue la impresiónes de Marvel Comics.
Los anuales esta de más después de la conclusión contra Immortus parece palidecer los siguientes issues.
De los recordadas o, trascendental en West Coast Avengers fue la carrera de John Byrne.
Colecciona: Vol. 5: Avengers West Coast #53-64, Avengers West Coast Annual #5, Avengers #311-313; material de Avengers Annual #19, What The--?! #6.
Acts of Vengeance destacan los números escritos por John Byrne donde Loki, Doctor Doom, Magneto, Kingpin, Red Skull, Mandarin y Wizard estaban conspirando en Secreto antes que los iluminatis o Kabal. Planean vengarse de los Avengers. Quasar defiende al personal de la hydrobase, Blob, Pyro y Avalanche atacan a los Avengers, luego lo hace en the Ultimate Villains Team-Up Up The Mandarin y The Wizard. Finalizando contra Loki.
The Darker Than Scarlet leí de niño y en total leído tres veces en los dos últimos años, te impresiona qué este Epic Collection tiene más de 450 páginas pero lo leí en dos días.
Traen a Roy Thomas tras la renuncia de John Byrne por el veto del editor en Jefe en darle su conclusión de lo planeado. Por ser vetado por editor en Jefe Tom De Falco. Nunca vimos la conclusión real de Immortus y Scarlet Witch donde Kang derrota a los Avengers y se crea un especie de Days of Future Past para los Avengers
Paul Ryan en sus tintas sobre John Byrne parece manchado el arte, pero en el material extra están las tintas perfectas así fue la impresiónes de Marvel Comics.
Los anuales esta de más después de la conclusión contra Immortus parece palidecer los siguientes issues.
De los recordadas o, trascendental en West Coast Avengers fue la carrera de John Byrne.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 7, 2022
This volume contains the conclusion to John Byrne's run on the series, as well as the conclusion to the "dark Scarlet Witch" story that Byrne had been playing out.
Overall, this was a solid volume, but marred a bit by fill-in issues, presumably due to Byrne's abrupt departure from the series. It did feel like Byrne was playing a long game here, reshaping the book and the team, but editorial interference apparently drove him to leave mid-storyline. Classic Avengers writer Roy Thomas ultimately came in and resolved the Scarlet Witch story, but it would have been interesting to see how Byrne would have done it and how the book would ultimately have been shaped under his guidance.
This volume also contains a couple chapters from that year's annual crossover event, though it really doesn't add much to the lore, plus a Byrne written and drawn parody from Marvel's What the...? humor comic.
Overall, this was a solid volume, but marred a bit by fill-in issues, presumably due to Byrne's abrupt departure from the series. It did feel like Byrne was playing a long game here, reshaping the book and the team, but editorial interference apparently drove him to leave mid-storyline. Classic Avengers writer Roy Thomas ultimately came in and resolved the Scarlet Witch story, but it would have been interesting to see how Byrne would have done it and how the book would ultimately have been shaped under his guidance.
This volume also contains a couple chapters from that year's annual crossover event, though it really doesn't add much to the lore, plus a Byrne written and drawn parody from Marvel's What the...? humor comic.
April 26, 2023
Darker Than Scarlet will always hold a special place in my heart as one of the first superhero stories I ever read. Few do cliffhangers as well as Byrne and every chapter ends at least one jaw-dropping revelation or situation. This is the only story that resonates with me, primarily because of . Darker Than Scarlet would have easily been a five-star story, had it not been for Byrne's departure before its end. Those who concluded his tale did an admirable job, but the changes he'd made to so many major characters would've needed years to play out as Byrne seemed to intend, and you can't blame the new creative team for wanting to wrap up his plots and start fresh.
June 25, 2025
Fun book! Really wonder why John Byrne left in the middle of a story and what exactly his plan was going forward, but oh well. Acts of Vengeance, Scarlet Witch heel turn, and Terminus storylines were fun. Did miss some of the team interaction stuff from the last volume, though. The art quality drops a bit too after Byrne leaves. This is a fun era in comics and neat seeing such a plethora of ideas that Marvel will go to again in the future.
January 19, 2022
This was truly bonkers to read (and not in a great, Alan Davis way). A mess almost the entire way through with strange pivots and even an apology written by Byrne to explain continuity errors. I enjoy Byrne’s pencils (that high collared cape!); everything else is deeply forgettable. I even enjoyed the concept of Acts of Vengeance, though its execution is real shoddy.
January 20, 2022
Want to know why everyone fears Scarlet Witch? Set before M-Day, this saga of Darker than Scarlet shows the first time Scarlet Witch becomes unhinged, and uses her power to make everyone around her... well... powerless.
March 11, 2022
Great John Byrne art. Good stuff with Immortus and the Time Keepers. This ties in with both Wandavision and Loki tv series.
July 25, 2025
Good. Funny. Amazing Byrne art. Yes it was a mess, especially with the writers changing. But it was a fun mess.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews