West Coast Avengers #10: the member who almost joined
Published by Avi Green on Sunday, January 14, 2007 at 9:01 AM.
Here's another gem from my collection that I'll write about, that being the tenth issue of the fondly remembered West Coast Avengers, spinoff of the Mighty A's series over on the east coast, when Ben Grimm, aka the ever lovin' blue eyed Thing, almost joined the team in California during the time he was estranged from the rest of the Fantastic Four in the mid-80s.
So, we begin with the scene where Ben is taking pictures with Hawkeye and a few of the others who made up the WCA roster at the time, as Clint Barton and his then wife Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird, were looking for at least one more member to fill the space within a limit that had been imposed by the government at the time, where only as many as six superheroes could be part of the Avengers teams at the time (Firebird, who'd been with them a short time, had to depart). With Ben Grimm hanging out in Los Angeles at the time as part of a wrestling arena that the second Ms. Marvel, Sharon Ventura, was also involved with, Hawkeye offered him the sixth slot in his team.
Ben was delighted at that point to accept, but the day he was to offically head over and join, he didn't show up. The puzzled and distressed members, who also included Iron Man, Tigra, and Wonder Man, tried to figure out what was going on and contacted both Avengers HQ over in New York and Fantastic Four, but as told, Ben wasn't available. But what really comes as a surprise to Hawkeye is when he discovers that the Avengers' government security clearance has been suspended (due to some meddling by the Vision in a concurrent issue of the Avengers at the time). Whoa man, all that searching to fill the empty 6th slot when it really wasn't all that neccesary!
They continue their search for the Thing, with Tigra looking at the city's bus/train stations, and she runs past him without noticing him under his fedora and trenchcoat!
And then, the team is tricked by a mind-controlling villain called Headlok to come down to the beach at Malibu, where he's got a creature called the Griffin under his influence and launches an attack on the team. Mockingbird, who's got a talent for figuring out the positions of crooks like Headlok, who can all but camouflage their exact whereabouts to people who aren't experts on these kind of powers, figures out the crook's position, but it's Ben Grimm himself who saves the day, as he comes to beach to confirm his own whereabouts and ask them to stop looking for him. They understand, and wish him good luck as he heads off.
A good issue this was, in which Ben Grimm came close to being part of a team other than the FF, but, since the FF is his true mainstay, that's why, as was worked out, he'd be heading back there soon. His reasons for backing out of the WCA, while he didn't tell them why at the time, as explained in The Thing #36, were because he'd transformed into a shape more hideous than what he usually looked like. And, he was also going to reconcile with Reed Richards for misleading him some time earlier, when he'd gone to the Secret Wars planet. The clash Wonder Man had with the Griffin here was cool too.
The issue was written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Al Milgrom, and if there's something else this brings to mind, it's that, in contrast to the writers dominating Marvel today, they didn't obsess themselves with political biases back then, like the ones involved in the Civil War crossover are. I think that's why, with this post, I'd like to make a call for assigning writers and artists of Englehart and Milgrom's caliber to write books like these, because they're the ones who know how to make series like this one entertaining.
So, we begin with the scene where Ben is taking pictures with Hawkeye and a few of the others who made up the WCA roster at the time, as Clint Barton and his then wife Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird, were looking for at least one more member to fill the space within a limit that had been imposed by the government at the time, where only as many as six superheroes could be part of the Avengers teams at the time (Firebird, who'd been with them a short time, had to depart). With Ben Grimm hanging out in Los Angeles at the time as part of a wrestling arena that the second Ms. Marvel, Sharon Ventura, was also involved with, Hawkeye offered him the sixth slot in his team.
Ben was delighted at that point to accept, but the day he was to offically head over and join, he didn't show up. The puzzled and distressed members, who also included Iron Man, Tigra, and Wonder Man, tried to figure out what was going on and contacted both Avengers HQ over in New York and Fantastic Four, but as told, Ben wasn't available. But what really comes as a surprise to Hawkeye is when he discovers that the Avengers' government security clearance has been suspended (due to some meddling by the Vision in a concurrent issue of the Avengers at the time). Whoa man, all that searching to fill the empty 6th slot when it really wasn't all that neccesary!They continue their search for the Thing, with Tigra looking at the city's bus/train stations, and she runs past him without noticing him under his fedora and trenchcoat!
And then, the team is tricked by a mind-controlling villain called Headlok to come down to the beach at Malibu, where he's got a creature called the Griffin under his influence and launches an attack on the team. Mockingbird, who's got a talent for figuring out the positions of crooks like Headlok, who can all but camouflage their exact whereabouts to people who aren't experts on these kind of powers, figures out the crook's position, but it's Ben Grimm himself who saves the day, as he comes to beach to confirm his own whereabouts and ask them to stop looking for him. They understand, and wish him good luck as he heads off.A good issue this was, in which Ben Grimm came close to being part of a team other than the FF, but, since the FF is his true mainstay, that's why, as was worked out, he'd be heading back there soon. His reasons for backing out of the WCA, while he didn't tell them why at the time, as explained in The Thing #36, were because he'd transformed into a shape more hideous than what he usually looked like. And, he was also going to reconcile with Reed Richards for misleading him some time earlier, when he'd gone to the Secret Wars planet. The clash Wonder Man had with the Griffin here was cool too.
The issue was written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Al Milgrom, and if there's something else this brings to mind, it's that, in contrast to the writers dominating Marvel today, they didn't obsess themselves with political biases back then, like the ones involved in the Civil War crossover are. I think that's why, with this post, I'd like to make a call for assigning writers and artists of Englehart and Milgrom's caliber to write books like these, because they're the ones who know how to make series like this one entertaining.
Labels: Avengers, marvel comics
