1985 - West Coast Avengers

West Coast Avengers

Writer: Steve Englehart

Artists: Al Milgrom/Joe Sinnott

The idea for the West Coast Avengers arose from Roger Stern’s story line in Avengers called “Ultimate Vision” (Avengers #251-254), where the Vision made an attempt to seize control of the world’s computer systems and run them more “efficiently”.

Avengers writer Roger Stern couldn’t handle the load of two team books and former Avengers writer Steve Englehart made his return to Marvel Comics. He would be joined by the Avengers’ former regular art team of Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott since Bob Hall, who had drawn the limited series had moved over to do Squadron Supreme which didn’t work out for him in the end.

This series also featured the return of Tony Stark as Iron Man having recovered from his bout of alcoholism and retaken the mantle from James Rhodes.

The first two-issues of the West Coast Avengers were crossovers with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch limited series as both series were launching the same month. Englehart wrote both series and managed to pull off one of the most underrated Avengers stories.

For more on that crossover, see http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2009/08/1985-west-coast-avengersvision-and.html

The early issues were filled by a membership search since the team only had 5 active members (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Tigra, Wonderman, and Iron Man). Issue #3 featured a great character piece on Tigra as she has to take on Kraven the Hunter on her own. The Thing actually became a member for a few issues (#4-10) until deciding it wasn’t a good fit for him.

Interestingly, the title was such a success that it was actually outsold the core Avengers book.

Happy 143rd Birthday Canada!

Vacation!

And with that last post, I'm on vacation... I'll be away until early July and probably won't be posting anything over the next couple of weeks.

Take care,
Jason

1986 - Alpha Flight

Alpha Flight #30-41

Writer: Bill Mantlo

Artists: Mike Mignola/Dave Ross/Gerry Talaoc

On Alpha Flight, Bill Mantlo had this to say (taken from Mantlo – A Life in Comics):

“The team was never a team … What you had was a series of incredibly well-executed vignettes that did tie together into a total package, but you had to read all 28 issues to get it. Alpha Flight is a team book, it should be written as a team book … I [felt] that John laid the foundation; I [tried] to build the house.”

 And from Mike Mignola’s point-of view: 

“I didn’t want to do Alpha Flight at all. I think I said ‘no’ three or four times, but Bill talked me into it. I did three issues and hated almost every second of it. I wasn’t cut out to do superheroes. For a while there, I jauted hated to get out of bed in the morning. It was really awful."

Apparently while he did quit the title after drawing a handful of issues, Mignola had planned a Sub-Mariner graphic novel with Mantlo, but it never went beyond the planning stages.

“We were working on some ideas – a Sub-Mariner graphic novel (that turned into an Alpha Flight graphic novel) based on a story idea of mine. Editor Carl Potts turned that into a Death of the Sub-Mariner graphical novel so that, of course, didn’t get done.”

Canadian artist David Ross came aboard as the new regular penciller with issue #35.

Some of that year’s highlights included:

- a new headquarters on the West Coast of Canada

- the origin of Puck

- insights into the origin of Wolverine

- Heather Hudson donning a version of her husband’s Guardian armor and dubbing herself Vindicator (the original name Mac Hudson had taken)

- a couple of crossovers with the Avengers

- a few early inking assignments by Whilce Portacio

Mavel Advanced Solicitations for September 2010

Here's a rundown of the 1980s goodness:

CAPTAIN AMERICA: WAR & REMEMBRANCE PREMIERE HC
Written by ROGER STERN
Penciled by JOHN BYRNE
Covers by FRANK MILLER & JOHN BYRNE
The people’s choice?! Captain America's endless war on crime and tyranny sets him against new enemies and old, from an army of robot replicas to the black deeds of Baron Blood! Plus: Captain America for president! Guest-starring the Avengers; S.H.I.E.L.D.; and the late, great Union Jack! Featuring Cobra, Mister Hyde and Batroc the Leaper! The complete Stern/Byrne run, culminating with the standard-setting version of Cap's awe-inspiring origin! Collecting CAPTAIN AMERICA #247-255.
224 PGS./Rated A …$29.99

THE 'NAM VOL. 2 TPB
Written by DOUG MURRAY
Penciled by MIKE GOLDEN, JOHN SEVERIN & WAYNE VANSANT
Cover by BOB CAMP
It’s 1967, and you are there—but how long will the men of the 23rd Infantry Division be able to say the same? Marvel’s groundbreaking saga of the Vietnam War continues with flashbacks on the front, worries in the world (a.k.a. back home) and murder in the ranks. Plus: the first appearance of Mike “Ice” Phillips, one of the few soldiers who stayed with the series until nearly its end. Collecting THE 'NAM #11-20.
240 PGS./Rated T+ …$29.99

ACTS OF VENGEANCE OMNIBUS HC DAVIS COVER
Written by MARK GRUENWALD, JOHN BYRNE, DWAYNE MCDUFFIE, HOWARD MACKIE, RON FRENZ, TOM DEFALCO, TERRY AUSTIN, DAVID MICHELINIE & GERRY CONWAY
Penciled by PAUL RYAN, JOHN BYRNE, VINCE MIELCAREK, DWAYNE TURNER, AL MILGROM, KIERON DWYER, RON LIM, HERB TRIMPE, RON FRENZ, MIKE VOSBURG, COLLEEN DORAN, ERIK LARSEN,
TODD MCFARLANE, SAL BUSCEMA, MIKE ESPOSITO & ALEX SAVIUK
Covers by ALAN DAVIS & JOHN BYRNE
Two dozen of Marvel’s top talents set more than 40 super heroes against at least as many super villains in the premier crossover event of the 1990s! Plus: the debut of the New Warriors! The destruction of Avengers Island! Spider-Man’s cosmic power and the madness of the Scarlet Witch! A three-headed monster, a three-faced robot, a trip through the worlds of What If? and more! Special guest-appearance by Abraham Lincoln! Collecting AVENGERS #311-313, AVENGERS ANNUAL #19; AVENGERS SPOTLIGHT #26-29; AVENGERS WEST COAST #53-55; CAPTAIN AMERICA #365-367; IRON MAN #251-252; QUASAR #5-7; Thor #411-413; CLOAK & DAGGER #9; AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #326-329; SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #158-160; WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #59-61.
744 PGS./Rated A …$99.99

1985 - Alpha Flight

Alpha Flight #18-29 (1985)

John Byrne, writer and artist

Unfortunately, the series declined from issue #17 as it seemed Byrne couldn’t keep his interest in the title. However, he did persevere up until issue #28 and moved over to The Incredible Hulk. Interestingly, the creative team on The Incredible Hulk, writer Bill Mantlo and artist Mike Mignola, had swapped places with Byrne. Byrne told Jim Salicrup (Comics Interview #25, 1985) why he left the title:

“There has not been half the fun doing Alpha Flight that there has been doing the Fantastic Four. Number two has been the fact that the general response from the fans and the readers is that I set out to do something different with Alpha Flight and they don’t like it . . .  When Alpha Flight was announced the reaction was,  ‘Oh, Gawd, another group book.’ And I said ‘Okay, we’ll give you something different. This is not going to be a group book, this is going to be individual issues of their own titles.’ And they didn’t want it. The readers didn’t want it. Because of my particular frame of mind on the book, I couldn’t turn it into what they wanted.”

Also, being a Canadian myself, it was nice to see that Byrne was genuinely convincing in his representation of Canada and Canadian culture. He used just enough Canadiana in his stories to be realistic, and I don’t just mean adding an “eh” to the end of each sentence. He provided accurate depictions of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, touched on the French-English language tensions, and used a broad variety of settings like the Parisian streets of Montreal, Toronto’s Ontario Place, and the West Edmonton Mall.

Alpha Flight #19 introduced Elizabeth Twoyoungmen (Shaman’s daughter) as Talisman.

Alpha Flight #24 featured the death of Langowski/Sasquatch, and brought in Box as a legitimate member of the team.

Alpha Flight #25 featured the return of Vindicator. And before you sigh and think: “another dead hero back to life…” you have to remember that heroes returning from the dead wasn’t the revolving door that it is now.

1985 – Longshot miniseries

Longshot #1-6 

September 1985 - February 1986

Writer: Ann Nocenti

Artist(s): Art Adams/While Portacio

An alien, with no memories of who he is, escapes from a group of mysterious captors and finds himself on Earth. He can't escape his past and learns that he's actually a synthetic human created as part of a slave race for an evil tyrant, Mojo. He recalls memories of his creator and how he was meant to help his fellow slaves rebel against Mojo. With the help of his human allies, Longshot drives Mojo from Earth and then returns to the Mojoverse to continue the struggle against Mojo.

Ann Nocenti juggles a few well-worn story ideas and manages to pull it all off in a refreshing fashion. Issues #1 through 4 seem abruptly different from issues 5 and 6. The early issues are written in a less traditional fashion and focuses on Longshot's exposure to a variety of different examples of humanity. He meets and learns from a paranoid survivalist, a glamorous movie stunt woman, and from a down and out husband who is ready to commit suicide. In the last couple of issues, the story line takes on a more traditional comic book form featuring a climatic battle between Longshot and his nemesis Mojo.

If you enjoy Nocenti's writing in this series, check out her run on Daredevil where her writing is better developed and she takes a more serious look at a variety of social issues.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot the art. :)

There's no much to say about the art except for wow! This series was Art Adams' first mainstream work and his art just got better and better with each issue. His intricate pencilled art really shined through in this series and set him up for work on a couple of the X-Men annuals as well as the New Mutants Special. Unfortunately, since Adams' style is so labour intensive, he could never keep up with the schedule that a monthly book would require.

Longshot's storyline would become intertwined with the X-Men as he would join the mutant team for awhile before returning to the Mojoverse and renewing his struggle against Mojo.

The group of kids Longshot befriended in issue #4 returned in the pages of Nocent’s Daredevil run.