Memories of the West Coast
No this isn't a blog about Huey Lewis and the News style 80s music. I was at my comic shop today - for the final issue of Transformers: Windblade limited series - and I got to talking about - initially about the new Transformers/GI Joe cross over. After the #0 on free comic book day I found the retro 80s, very retro 80s art off-putting. If anything it looked like doing 80s style art in digital made it look worse than if it was authentic for the period hand-drawn. Additionally the language style the Transformers use was borderline un-intelligible. Yes I get they are aliens, digital aliens even, but a mixture of 60s style Dalek comic language cross-bred with 80s cyberpunk was just too laborious to read comfortably. Style shouldn't get in the way of telling a story.
The conversation segued into personal likes. Avengers came up and it reminded of my comic tastes from the 80s. I remember strongly the Avengers amongst the many titles I read, specifically the West Coast Avengers. WCA, later Avengers West Coast (I guess so they were closer to the main title in book listings), were doing things a little differently at the time. This was in a part of mainstream comics history where the only high profile marriage in comics were Reed and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four. Clark Kent hadn't outed himself to Lois Lane yet and Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson were within a year or so of becoming engaged but Black Cat was still in the picture.
Over on the West Coast there were two marriages involved. Clint Barton (Hawkeye - Jeremy Renner of the modern movie franchise) and Bobbi Morse (Mockingbird) were the heart and soul of the team. Frequent guest stars were the robotic Vision and his mutant wife the Scarlet Witch who were raising their twin boys happily with Agatha Harkness a constant figure. Simon Williams the ionic Wonder Man was on the WCA team. Williams is sort-of the Vision's half-brother (half-twin or clone even - it's very complicated), along with Iron Man and the half-woman half-big cat bikini-loving Hellcat spin-off Tigra (Greer Nelson). The Mexican mutant Firebird and Benjamin Grimm, the ever-lovin' clobbering time Thing of the Fantastic Four were reserve members. At the time Avengers team were only allowed six members due to government funding. Firebird was very keen for the spot but Hawkeye wanted The Thing on board and who wouldn't? His experience was legend, greater than both Hawkeye and Iron Man. Ben though was vacillating. He was enjoying being an unlimited strength class wrestler in the superhero version of WWE and didn't want to commit. Tony Stark had only just reclaimed the Iron Man armour full-time from a time when he had been plunged into the worst of his alcoholism and James Rhodes was pretending to be Tony inside the armour. Stark had just built the silver centurion armour and concluded his long vendetta with Obadiah Stane which was captured in the original Iron Man movie. The issue #200 special of Iron Man is a classic. While Stark was rebuilding and rebranding Stane International back into Stark International in Los Angeles he was content to work underneath Hawkeye. Earlier when WCA was founded James Rhodes as Iron Man had not felt confident enough to rival Hawkeye's leadership of the team even though he was pretending to be Tony.
But back to the marriage element. A major plot line at the time was WCA's rivalry with a super-villian team lead by the Grim Reaper, Simon Williams' actual brother Eric, so therefore - by extension the Vision's sort of brother. On the Grim Reaper's team was Erik Josten, another ionic powered superhuman, another strong connection to Williams. Josten was also using Pym Particles - and the name Goliath - to supercharge his existing ionically powered superstrength. Pym Particles allow to to change size, up and down, a creation of Hank Pym, the scientist hero known originally as Ant-Man, then Giant Man, then Goliath and yellowjacket.
Hank Pym was also part of the West Coast team. One of the five original pre-Captain America Avengers (along with Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Pym's then girlfriend, later wife the Wasp) Pym looked after the Avengers Compound facility, a sprawling above and below ground villa with a house for Hawkeye and Mockingbird who lived there full-time and bungalows for Hank Pym, Tigra, Wonder Man and Iron Man, although Williams and Stark didn't use theirs much. Williams was at the height of his movie star career (his career focus also helped supress his crush on the Scarlet Witch - the Vision's brain had been created by the robot Ultron using Williams as a pattern - see? comlplicated) and Stark was of course busy being a technology tycoon. So Pym had a particular interest in shutting down Eric Josten's villianry, as did Williams. Another of the Grim Reaper's allies was Ultron-11, Pym's creation (son?) and the Vision's creator/father. Mixed in with this was Ultron-12, the Ultron who turned "good" and was trying to bond with Pym in a father/son manner and wanted to be called Mark (from Ultron Mk.12). Hawkeye had in the past been a user of the Pym particles too as the second Giant-Man during a phase where felt inadequate only contributing trick-shots with multi-purpose arrows and as he, Iron Man and Wonder Man were veteran Avengers they too had had plenty of confrontations with Ultron in the past. The Grim Reaper's lover Nekra also had a bit of a rivalry with Tigra. Did I mention that the Vision and Scarlet Witch's nanny, Agatha Harkness was the Scarlet Witch's personal mentor in the witchcraft arts and was a long-time associate of the Fantastic Four so she and Ben Grimm had known each other for a very long time.
So the relationships between heroes and villians wasn't just combatively intense, they were deeply layered in concepts of love, lust and family and the rivalries were very personal, even between team mates. Subsequent story arcs also included Master Pandemonium who was hunting and attacking both Firebird and the Thing in the belief they were parts of his own fragmented soul. They weren't but they did turn out to be the Vision and Scarlet Witches twin sons, William and Thomas. There are also clashes with Graviton and Immortus during a time travel arc which sorely tests Hawkeye and Mockingbirds marriage and puts to the sword one of Marvel Comics' old west heroes when he turns bad in a rapist kind of way. Toss in Moon Knight when he was only slightly nutty, semi-regular crossovers with the New York based Avengers and Tony Stark turning ruthless to the point of possible murder as he went on the Armour Wars vendetta in his own title, and Mockingbird actually killing someone causing a membership walkout and the end of her marriage to Hawkeye. Plus the deaths of a few characters, good and bad, along the way, some of them actually managing to stay dead too.
Super hero teams weren't being written with this level of emotional complexity at the time. There weren't many children of superheroes anywhere (that were not fully grown - DC had plenty of those) apart from Franklin Richards. Plus Hawkeye and Mockingbird's battle with fertility that ended with a stillbirth and the deaths of William and Thomas Maximoff. It was powerful stuff, plus for its primary audience of teens boys it gave an insight into adulthood, even if it was clothed in spandex and how life isn't often happily ever after even if you've found your partner in life. And it was filled with strongly written female characters. Hardly new, but not guaranteed even in the 80s. Although the Manhatten based Avengers had a pair of female leaders at this time, the Wasp then Captain Marvel. No not Carol Danvers, or her once upon a time lover the Kree soldier Mar-Vell but Monica Rambeau (she was also the first African-American Avengers Chairperson) who later changed her hero identity to Photon. Yes all of this had been done before, but not at the same time with the same group of characters.
Makes me want to get into some Trade Paperbacks.
The conversation segued into personal likes. Avengers came up and it reminded of my comic tastes from the 80s. I remember strongly the Avengers amongst the many titles I read, specifically the West Coast Avengers. WCA, later Avengers West Coast (I guess so they were closer to the main title in book listings), were doing things a little differently at the time. This was in a part of mainstream comics history where the only high profile marriage in comics were Reed and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four. Clark Kent hadn't outed himself to Lois Lane yet and Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson were within a year or so of becoming engaged but Black Cat was still in the picture.
Over on the West Coast there were two marriages involved. Clint Barton (Hawkeye - Jeremy Renner of the modern movie franchise) and Bobbi Morse (Mockingbird) were the heart and soul of the team. Frequent guest stars were the robotic Vision and his mutant wife the Scarlet Witch who were raising their twin boys happily with Agatha Harkness a constant figure. Simon Williams the ionic Wonder Man was on the WCA team. Williams is sort-of the Vision's half-brother (half-twin or clone even - it's very complicated), along with Iron Man and the half-woman half-big cat bikini-loving Hellcat spin-off Tigra (Greer Nelson). The Mexican mutant Firebird and Benjamin Grimm, the ever-lovin' clobbering time Thing of the Fantastic Four were reserve members. At the time Avengers team were only allowed six members due to government funding. Firebird was very keen for the spot but Hawkeye wanted The Thing on board and who wouldn't? His experience was legend, greater than both Hawkeye and Iron Man. Ben though was vacillating. He was enjoying being an unlimited strength class wrestler in the superhero version of WWE and didn't want to commit. Tony Stark had only just reclaimed the Iron Man armour full-time from a time when he had been plunged into the worst of his alcoholism and James Rhodes was pretending to be Tony inside the armour. Stark had just built the silver centurion armour and concluded his long vendetta with Obadiah Stane which was captured in the original Iron Man movie. The issue #200 special of Iron Man is a classic. While Stark was rebuilding and rebranding Stane International back into Stark International in Los Angeles he was content to work underneath Hawkeye. Earlier when WCA was founded James Rhodes as Iron Man had not felt confident enough to rival Hawkeye's leadership of the team even though he was pretending to be Tony.
But back to the marriage element. A major plot line at the time was WCA's rivalry with a super-villian team lead by the Grim Reaper, Simon Williams' actual brother Eric, so therefore - by extension the Vision's sort of brother. On the Grim Reaper's team was Erik Josten, another ionic powered superhuman, another strong connection to Williams. Josten was also using Pym Particles - and the name Goliath - to supercharge his existing ionically powered superstrength. Pym Particles allow to to change size, up and down, a creation of Hank Pym, the scientist hero known originally as Ant-Man, then Giant Man, then Goliath and yellowjacket.
Hank Pym was also part of the West Coast team. One of the five original pre-Captain America Avengers (along with Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Pym's then girlfriend, later wife the Wasp) Pym looked after the Avengers Compound facility, a sprawling above and below ground villa with a house for Hawkeye and Mockingbird who lived there full-time and bungalows for Hank Pym, Tigra, Wonder Man and Iron Man, although Williams and Stark didn't use theirs much. Williams was at the height of his movie star career (his career focus also helped supress his crush on the Scarlet Witch - the Vision's brain had been created by the robot Ultron using Williams as a pattern - see? comlplicated) and Stark was of course busy being a technology tycoon. So Pym had a particular interest in shutting down Eric Josten's villianry, as did Williams. Another of the Grim Reaper's allies was Ultron-11, Pym's creation (son?) and the Vision's creator/father. Mixed in with this was Ultron-12, the Ultron who turned "good" and was trying to bond with Pym in a father/son manner and wanted to be called Mark (from Ultron Mk.12). Hawkeye had in the past been a user of the Pym particles too as the second Giant-Man during a phase where felt inadequate only contributing trick-shots with multi-purpose arrows and as he, Iron Man and Wonder Man were veteran Avengers they too had had plenty of confrontations with Ultron in the past. The Grim Reaper's lover Nekra also had a bit of a rivalry with Tigra. Did I mention that the Vision and Scarlet Witch's nanny, Agatha Harkness was the Scarlet Witch's personal mentor in the witchcraft arts and was a long-time associate of the Fantastic Four so she and Ben Grimm had known each other for a very long time.
So the relationships between heroes and villians wasn't just combatively intense, they were deeply layered in concepts of love, lust and family and the rivalries were very personal, even between team mates. Subsequent story arcs also included Master Pandemonium who was hunting and attacking both Firebird and the Thing in the belief they were parts of his own fragmented soul. They weren't but they did turn out to be the Vision and Scarlet Witches twin sons, William and Thomas. There are also clashes with Graviton and Immortus during a time travel arc which sorely tests Hawkeye and Mockingbirds marriage and puts to the sword one of Marvel Comics' old west heroes when he turns bad in a rapist kind of way. Toss in Moon Knight when he was only slightly nutty, semi-regular crossovers with the New York based Avengers and Tony Stark turning ruthless to the point of possible murder as he went on the Armour Wars vendetta in his own title, and Mockingbird actually killing someone causing a membership walkout and the end of her marriage to Hawkeye. Plus the deaths of a few characters, good and bad, along the way, some of them actually managing to stay dead too.
Super hero teams weren't being written with this level of emotional complexity at the time. There weren't many children of superheroes anywhere (that were not fully grown - DC had plenty of those) apart from Franklin Richards. Plus Hawkeye and Mockingbird's battle with fertility that ended with a stillbirth and the deaths of William and Thomas Maximoff. It was powerful stuff, plus for its primary audience of teens boys it gave an insight into adulthood, even if it was clothed in spandex and how life isn't often happily ever after even if you've found your partner in life. And it was filled with strongly written female characters. Hardly new, but not guaranteed even in the 80s. Although the Manhatten based Avengers had a pair of female leaders at this time, the Wasp then Captain Marvel. No not Carol Danvers, or her once upon a time lover the Kree soldier Mar-Vell but Monica Rambeau (she was also the first African-American Avengers Chairperson) who later changed her hero identity to Photon. Yes all of this had been done before, but not at the same time with the same group of characters.
Makes me want to get into some Trade Paperbacks.