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Avengers West Coast # 53 (Acts of Vengeance)

By Mark Rodriguez

The Scarlet Witch learned that her children were never really real and were manifestations created by Mephisto. The Avengers dealt with Mephisto and Pandemonium, and Agatha wiped Wanda's memories of these children that never really existed, but other villains are plotting.

The story continues during the Acts of Vengeance crossover. It was basically about the Marvel villains basically switching places with each other, forcing the heroes to fight against villains they're not used to. Let's see how it goes.


The issue opens with Magneto and another person seeing how the Acts of Vengeance has begun. Magneto says he is using this plan to help his plans for mutantkind and has bigger goals than just defeating superheroes. As Magneto leaves, this man says the plan has just begun and he leaves to look in on what inspired his plan, the Avengers.

The Avengers are concerned about Wanda who has become unresponsive since she collapsed in California. The heroes discuss all the things Wanda has been through in the last year, including finding out that her children were never real. Hank doesn't know what to do, but Wonder Man says he does.

Wonder Man tells Vision that his personality was based on tracing his brain patterns, and until now he has never let Hank recopy those brain patterns to restore Vision to normal. Wonder Man accepts that Wanda needs Vision to be the way he was, and will now let Hank recopy his brain patterns onto him. Wasp asks if Simon is sure since he loves Wanda, but Simon says Vision and Wanda are married and he should not stand in their way. Vision declines saying he would feel like a copy and not the real version. He also says that he should return to their East Coast quarters.


Elsewhere in 16th century London England, the princess of England is at the end of her reign and faces her execution as Lord Immortus witnesses this. He goes to see the upcoming queen and decides to leave this timeline. He considers this another step in becoming the true Master of Time. He observes the Scarlet Witch still in her frozen state.

Vision tells the group that when comparing the super powers of the East Coast and West Coast Avengers, he would be of greater use in New York. Wonder Man says Wanda needs him. Just then a woman made out of gas appears in the room and covers Wanda in cyanide gas. Everyone is caught off guard but Iron Man is quick to suck up her gaseous form into one of his built in holding tanks. However, the woman turns into another kind of gas and is about to blast out of the Iron Man armor.

Just then metal hands grab Iron Man's legs and pull him down through the floor. Iron Man soon socks a big metal man through the roof. The Original Human Torch sees this and flies out to investigate. He gets attacked by another flying person covered in shimmering light. This person gives off radiation but since Torch is an android he can withstand it and shoots fire back at his opponent.


Torch's friend Ann runs off to see if the Avengers are OK and sees Wonder Man, Hank Pym and Wasp bust out of the building with Scarlet Witch in tow. Wasp tells Ann to stay back since the woman they are facing is Vapor and can turn into any sort of dangerous gas. Wasp says she is member of the U-Foes who have faced the East Coast Avengers before. Iron Man is still inside trying to contain her. Just then the building ignites and explodes.

The metal man, Ironclad, lands miles away from the Avengers' mansion. It would take hours to get back to the mansion and he is too large to fit into any vehicles. He decides to cause destruction where he's at to bring the heroes to him. He starts by tossing buses at people.

Torch sees that Ironclad is starting a ruckus, but also sees the Avenger's mansion is on fire, but he is still stuck with his own opponent. The villain grabs onto Torch and says he's not going to let him kill him 'like he killed Vector', which confuses the hero.

Vision can't put out the flames while Vapor continues to feed them. Hank says they need Wanda and even though she's been unresponsive, the current events might make her snap out of it. Hank tells Wanda that Vision needs her and she responds, calling out for her husband. She says Vision has gone back to his regular self, which confuses him, and prepares to save the mansion. Wanda uses her powers to turn Vapor back into human form. Suddenly Vector arrives and while this confuses Vapor, they decide to make a break for it.


Vapor explains that when she escaped from The Vault alongside X-Ray and Ironclad they returned to their base where they saw video on their monitor cameras of Iron Man blasting Vector to bits. X-Ray says he has captured Johnny Storm, but Vapor assures him that the man he captured is not him. Vector says he found out that this is an android superhero from the 40's that Johnny took the name from.


The U-Foes realized that they've been tricked and decide to leave for now. They will face the Avengers someday but they want to do so for their own reasons and not as part of someone else's game. As the villains escape, Hank tells Wasp that he doesn't want all of the to follow them. He wants Vision, Wonder Man and Iron Man to follow them and rescue Torch, while he goes with Wasp and Wanda to meet up with the East Coast Avengers. Hank is concerned because he has tried to contact them but has received no answer.


Wanda says she will go where Vision goes and Vision says he wishes to visit the East Coast Avengers anyway, while the rest go after the U-Foes. As Hank and Wasp pilot the jet, Hank is worried about how he lost communication with the East Coast Avengers at the same time they were attacked. He is concerned that something bigger is going on than the usual bad guys plot.

My Opinions-

Well... this comic brought in some personal drama that I was not aware of between the Avengers in the 90's. I knew about the Vision and Scarlet Witch being married (even the movies drop hints of their romance), but I didn't know about Wonder Man being in love with Wanda too. I like how Wonder Man wants to do the right thing and stay out of Vision and Wanda's relationship and Wasp is all like "Are you sure??". Butt out Janet.

The U-Foes, lame name aside, were kinda interesting but they were barely in the issue. Iron Man punched (or blasted) Ironclad off panel, and while the guy started to wreak havoc in the streets, the comic didn't have time to have the heroes fight him. Iron Man mostly tried to contain Vapor off panel. The most we saw was OG Torch and X-Ray fight in the sky. Not only that but what about Lord Immortus? He didn't seem involved in anything, so I guess it's just an intro for him before he starts doing stuff.

The comic was pretty interesting, but a bit jarring if you were not also collecting all the other Avengers comics at the time to get the full story on what was going on. The issue also mentioned the stuff Wanda has gone through in Avengers annuals and other things, including villains taking Vision apart.

I'm also confused by Vision, who has had two main designs that I know of. The red and green design, and the all-white design. When Wanda recovered from her vegetative state, she saw Vision and the panel showed both versions of him. Since Vision remained in his all-white form anywhere else I assume this only what Wanda saw as a delusion of sorts. Anyone that's a big fan of Vision and knows his comicbook history can possibly fill me in here.


The comic was alright I guess. I mean, the U-Foes were barely in it and there wasn't much action other than X-Ray VS Torch and the gang trying to escape before accidentally breathing Vapor in. I guess this is just further hints of what's to come as Wanda draws closer to her big breakdown. Seeing how the comic described all the stuff she's been throughout the year, bad enough to leave her catatonic... it looks like her heel turn was a long time coming.

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