Avengers West Coast / West Coast Avengers

Yes, that can be confusing when you are trying to collect the Avengers.

You might think they changed the title because of some big anniversary like issue 50 but no, it seems that after four years ( !!! ) of publication somebody realized that in the never ending battle for shelf space with DC Comics - and the rest of the competition - a title called WEST COAST AVENGERS is an also ran title while a book called AVENGERS WEST COAST goes right up to the top of the read pile. And that's how that happened.

And speaking about how things happen, why are we even talking about the West Coast Avengers ( which is what I will be calling them from now on because that is how they were called in the beginning ) ? Well, as I have often said, posts lead to other posts and in this case the genesis of this post can be traced back to our last post about the underdog team of the Great Lake Avengers. As any comicbook afficionado worth his salt knows the team first appeared during John Byrne's iconic run on WEST COAST AVENGERS and while looking for a cover with them to include in said post I realized that I had enough good material for more than one full blown WEST COAST AVENGERS post. And since I have never been one to leave for Tomorrow what I can do Today - and we are still in MARVEL COMICS MONTH after all - I decided to write at least the first one Today.

For those who have still no idea who the West Coast Avengers or even the Great Lakes Avengers are let's just say that it is like the Legion of Super - Heroes. Where you have the founding members and the members with cool powers like Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, Saturngirl, Superboy, Supergirl, Mon - El, Wildfire, Timber Wolf, Sunboy etc. Then you have like the second tier members whose super powers are not so flashy and cool or more specific like Bouncing Boy, Matter Eating Lad, Invisible Kid, Triplicate Girl, Shrinking Violet or the Karate Kid. And then you have the ones whose powers are so lame or weird they would not even let them into the Legion club which are the members of the Legion of Substitute Heroes like Polar Boy, Stone Boy or Arm Fall Off Boy. And I have to go to bat for Arm Fall Off Boy because for me that is the coolest super power ever and I would fast track him to proper Legion status immediately.

Anyway, like the Legion of Substitute Heroes the Great Lakes Avengers realized that while not everybody may have what it takes to become a member of the Avengers A - Team they also can't be everywhere at the same time. Especially when they are dealing with some cosmic menace since you can't expect crime to take the day off just because of that.

There also are those cases that are not important enough to involve the main Avengers and then there are also the emergencies where you need every hand on deck. And last but not least there have been dozen of times where all the Avengers simply vanished or were detained by their enemies and where they could have used a back up team. Plus they are in one specific area so if anything happens very far away form there it can take them a long time to get there even with their nifty quinjets. So there are plenty of reasons to assemble a local back up Avengers team.

Although that is not how it happened. The Great Lakes Avengers formed on their own being inspired by the formation of the West Coast Avengers and when Hawkeye got kicked off the West Coast Avengers by the US Agent he co - opted the Great Lakes Avengers to become his new team ( which he did again with the Thunderbolts ) and he even got his wish of pulling his ex teammates behinds out of the fire not too soon afterwards.

As for the formation of the West Coast Avengers, that involves the Vision going insane and to gain world domination tasking Hawkeye to establish a second active Avengers team to expand their reach. After the Vision returned to normal they decided that it was not such a bad idea to have two Avengers teams. It was also a way to have a second AVENGERS book where they could then spotlight their less popular Avengers members, a strategy that was put to much better use with the X - Men in the 1990s since the WEST COAST AVENGERS never did have the same success as the AVENGERS. At least until John Byrne took over WEST COAST AVENGERS.

To understand what a big deal John Byrne was back then you have to know that when I started to get a regular subscription for US comics ( which was not easy ) there were only two titles on my list : SHE HULK and THE WEST COAST AVENGERS. And both were written and drawn by John Byrne. Who not only was at the height of his powers as a writer and an artist but he also could do two titles a month and do them in good quality. He came onto WEST COAST AVENGERS and did VISON QUEST, a story that completely shook up the status quo of the Avengers forever.

Which is why it still has repercussions to this day and why it is one of the best stories of not only the West Coast Avengers but the Avengers period.

Currently you can only get it as an epic collection but I used to have not only the single issues but also the AVENGERS BY JOHN BYRNE omnibus which also included the AVENGERS issues written by John Byrne around the same time. It is out of print now and I don't know if Marvel Comics will ever reprint it so it's on my top ten wish list of omnibus hardcovers.

west coast baby