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Avengers West Coast Epic Collection
Avengers West Coast Epic Collection, Vol. 3: Tales to Astonish
Zodiac attack! Scorpio's insidious android Zodiac have wiped out the original group, and now they're targeting the West Coast Avengers! The astrological androids plan an infiltration, but do the Avengers have a countermove up their sleeves? As Moon Knight hunts down the last surviving member of the original Zodiac, Scorpio's endgame is revealed - but there's a twist! Plus, ghosts from Mockingbird's past return to torment her! And when the Whackos investigate the fate of Hank Pym's deceased wife, it kicks off a tale to astonish that leads them through Latveria and behind the Iron Curtain! Plus, the Grandmaster has a deadly game for both teams of Avengers! And when Doctor Doom conquers the world, can Wonder Man stand alone?
COLLECTING: VOL. 3: WEST COAST AVENGERS (1985) 25-37, WEST COAST AVENGERS ANNUAL (1986) 2, AVENGERS ANNUAL (1967) 16, MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL (1982): EMPEROR DOOM
COLLECTING: VOL. 3: WEST COAST AVENGERS (1985) 25-37, WEST COAST AVENGERS ANNUAL (1986) 2, AVENGERS ANNUAL (1967) 16, MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL (1982): EMPEROR DOOM
456 pages, Paperback
First published September 23, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 18, 2026
2.3 stars
March 1, 2021
To start things off, this volume opens with the Emperor Doom graphic novel. Unfortunately, this is apparently included in the wrong place. As, chronologically speaking, it should be between the last issue of the West Coast Avengers mini-series and the first issue of their ongoing regular series (at least that’s where it claims it should be, I’m still going to need to research that to be sure as the Doctor Doom storyline from the Fantastic Four keeps Doom pretty well tied up during that period). In any case, that story itself is an ambitious attempt at taking a somewhat more mature stab at how some of the realities of people with superpowers might actually work. Unfortunately, it’s still inexorably tied to the superhero genre and too many of the cliches are too entrenched in the narrative to make it work as powerfully as it might have been. Still, the premise is an interesting one, and the author handles the concept adequately enough. Next up in this volume is the two-part Annual team-up crossover between the two Avengers teams. It continues the Grandmaster, Collector, Death storyline from Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions (in fact it’s even included in some of the reprinted editions of that miniseries, Avengers: The Contest). Nothing really spectacular there, just a typical attempt at making an “event” story that really isn’t very eventful. Then we get back to our regular programming with the West Coast Avengers and it’s more of the fun shenanigans from Steve Englehart and Al Milgrom. I’m not a huge fan of Milgrom’s art style, nothing really wrong with it, it’s just not my favorite. But the one thing I have to say in favor of the Englehart-Milgrom tenure on this title is: consistency. In an era when a long run for a writer-artist team might be eight issues, these guys kept going and delivered consistently entertaining stories that built on the character continuity that was established. I will admit that I wasn’t overly thrilled with Englehart’s take on Moon Knight, but I accepted it, in part, because I was (1) happy to see one of my favorite characters joining the team and (2) Moon Knight’s dissociative identity disorder was still in play and it worked for this religious fanatic Fist of Khonshu personality. All in all this is a fine addition to the annals of the west coast team, filled with lots of twists and, as I said, shenanigans.
June 8, 2022
This volume continues collecting the original West Coast Avengers regular series, continuing with the issues by Steve Englehart and Al Milgrom. It also includes the "Emperor Doom" graphic novel.
I read most of these issues when they were originally released during the eighties. Sadly, my opinion of them hasn't changed much over the course of time. Steve Englehart was responsible for notable stories in the seventies, primarily on the Avengers and Batman, but his writing seemed much different when he returned to Marvel in the eighties. The stories seemed more focused on soap opera, which, combined with less than epic plots, made for lackluster stories. This was unfortunate as some of my favorite characters were part of the series. Moon Knight, for instance, joined the team, but his street level heroics gave way to more explicit mysticism and a somewhat clunky approach to his multiple personalities.
The art in these stories isn't much to speak of, either. Al Milgrom has always provided workmanlike effort, but I've generally found his art somewhat underwhelming and, in this series, often seemingly rushed. It's especially apparent when compared to the Bob Hall art on "Emperor Doom".
Really, the most notable aspect of this volume are the seeds planted which would grow under the care of John Byrne in subsequent issues, particularly in bring Vision and Scarlet Witch into the series, a move that would directly lead to Byrne's infamous "Vision Quest" storyline.
Ultimately, this volume is more for the hardcore completionists and a prime example of how this series never really found its footing despite a healthy run and several notable creators involved with it.
I read most of these issues when they were originally released during the eighties. Sadly, my opinion of them hasn't changed much over the course of time. Steve Englehart was responsible for notable stories in the seventies, primarily on the Avengers and Batman, but his writing seemed much different when he returned to Marvel in the eighties. The stories seemed more focused on soap opera, which, combined with less than epic plots, made for lackluster stories. This was unfortunate as some of my favorite characters were part of the series. Moon Knight, for instance, joined the team, but his street level heroics gave way to more explicit mysticism and a somewhat clunky approach to his multiple personalities.
The art in these stories isn't much to speak of, either. Al Milgrom has always provided workmanlike effort, but I've generally found his art somewhat underwhelming and, in this series, often seemingly rushed. It's especially apparent when compared to the Bob Hall art on "Emperor Doom".
Really, the most notable aspect of this volume are the seeds planted which would grow under the care of John Byrne in subsequent issues, particularly in bring Vision and Scarlet Witch into the series, a move that would directly lead to Byrne's infamous "Vision Quest" storyline.
Ultimately, this volume is more for the hardcore completionists and a prime example of how this series never really found its footing despite a healthy run and several notable creators involved with it.
March 28, 2022
Dreadful.
West Coast Avengers is such a dreadful series.
I keep reading because I'm a Wanda fan and I know some of her most formative stories are coming up. But...oof.
The characterizations are...yikes. Pym, Moon Knight, and Tigra are rough to read here.
The plots...oh man. Engleheart is a continuity guy, and he dredges up some very obscure early Ant-Man stuff here to attempt to develop the stale Pym character. Also, Quicksilver is in his maniacal super villain phase still and it's annoying. The drama between Hawkeye and Mockingbird's argument and dissolution of marriage is ridiculous here, too. Barton's moralizing is uncomfortable to read, and Engleheart's handling of Bobbi's trauma is terrible, too.
The artwork...is fine actually. Absolutely nothing special, definitely standard Marvel house style of the late 80s.
The Emperor Doom Graphic Novel reprinted here was pretty decent. And there was a fill-in issue not written by Engleheart that was fun and had some good comedic beats. So, this at least gets a 2. But...yeesh....
West Coast Avengers is such a dreadful series.
I keep reading because I'm a Wanda fan and I know some of her most formative stories are coming up. But...oof.
The characterizations are...yikes. Pym, Moon Knight, and Tigra are rough to read here.
The plots...oh man. Engleheart is a continuity guy, and he dredges up some very obscure early Ant-Man stuff here to attempt to develop the stale Pym character. Also, Quicksilver is in his maniacal super villain phase still and it's annoying. The drama between Hawkeye and Mockingbird's argument and dissolution of marriage is ridiculous here, too. Barton's moralizing is uncomfortable to read, and Engleheart's handling of Bobbi's trauma is terrible, too.
The artwork...is fine actually. Absolutely nothing special, definitely standard Marvel house style of the late 80s.
The Emperor Doom Graphic Novel reprinted here was pretty decent. And there was a fill-in issue not written by Engleheart that was fun and had some good comedic beats. So, this at least gets a 2. But...yeesh....
August 3, 2021
Not the most entertaining or memorable set of stories for the West Coast Avengers but the Emperor Doom story to start off the book was incredible. It might be one of the best comic stories I’ve ever read. Unfortunately the rest of the book doesn’t hold up to that level. Seeing members come and go was entertaining but the Zodiac and Ant Man rogues gallery weren’t much of a threat. Overall the book is only for West Coast Avengers completists but still highly recommend checking out the Emperor Doom story where ever you can.
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February 4, 2025We can sometimes think of comics' shift to long-running storylines as an artefact of an age when most series can expect collected editions, but Marvel at least were already well into their superhero soap operas before trade paperbacks became the default – even if the format means they're lumbered with an awful lot of expository captions and thought balloons. Case in point: there are more issues here than in the entire runs of many current Marvel books, and one storyline running through them all, itself rooted in events collected in the previous volume, when Mockingbird let the Phantom Rider die. He'd drugged her, kidnapped her, maybe more (at least twice we get 'kidnaped', which is hardly the only typo in the volume, but also feels as if it could be a Freudian portmanteau), so the reader and several of the other characters can easily sympathise with her actions – but her husband Hawkeye can't, not least because she didn't tell him. Except, of course, that more than once she tried, only to be interrupted by other strands of the plot, as when she did get it out, only to realise she'd bared her heart to an evil android duplicate. I'm making it sound silly, and yes, it partly is, but also quite convincingly handled for a comic coming at a tentative stage in the realisation that superheroes could be aimed at a more adult readership.
Which is not to say there isn't some incredibly stupid stuff here too. The robot double comes during a story where the team get caught in a struggle between two versions of astrologically themed crime cartel Zodiac who, as the name suggests, have a dozen members. Each. And yes, most of one version get eliminated early on, but that plus a team of Avengers still makes for an absurdly crowded 'there's too many of them...some of them are fighting' stretch. At least once, with the real Hawkeye wandering down the road wondering what's become of his 12 foes, while they somehow all lurk unseen in the cityscape behind him, it's outright hilarious. But then that same storyline also gives us an epilogue that's pretty much a solo Moon Knight issue, and a damn good one, with him implacably stalking the last of the human Zodiac to his death – mostly for being a fake astrology fan. And if you're into Moon Knight, as I very much am, this volume is an absolute treat; yes, the 'Random bullshit go!' panel was earlier in the run, but twice here we get images which are like that, only more so. It's also where he gets together with Tigra – or, to describe it in meme terms, is a catgirl early adopter. Alas, an opportunity to complete the set is missed when, during the crossover with the East Coast team, he and Dracula are in the same story but never really interact, Marc having a fairly generic scrap with the Green Goblin while Dracula is reduced to bitchslapping Doctor Druid. This is all taking place in Death's realm, by the way, not that you'd know it from the way everything there behaves in exactly the same way as in the land of the living. And how did the heroes get there? By the simple expedient of necking some poison, in a scene obliging Wonder Man to add a 'Don't try this at home!' disclaimer that's somehow even more cringe for its attempt at self-awareness.
That story, an avowed sequel to the original 'let's you and him fight' event Contest Of Champions, comes early on in the volume, though it is preceded by the odd graphic novel attempt Emperor Doom, in which everyone's favourite Latverian megalomaniac finally succeeds in taking over the world. I'll be interested to see how this year's big Marvel event, working from much the same theme, compares with the surprisingly wise and wry treatment here, where – apart from the whole free will business – the world under Doom's rule is borderline utopian, and the heroes only depose him because he's getting increasingly fed up of the administrative arseache of it all and basically gives up. Would that our own world's supervillains could share his competence or his self-knowledge, never mind both.
And at the other end of the collection, the whole Mockingbird/Hawkeye tension finally comes to a head, though not before a spectacularly absurd story which, like so many others, can be filed in the 'Oh no, Hank Pym has had a bright idea' folder. Seriously, when the rest of the team are mind-controlled and told to hunt and kill him, you wonder why the villain couldn't have stretched himself – surely anyone who's spent five minutes with Pym would be chomping at the bit for that opportunity, mind control or no? Still, we do get Communist gorillas (yes, I do want that spelling), a story which seems unsure what country Bratislava is in, a bullfighting-themed villain with a Spanish name in Eastern Europe, and a climactic scene which overturns all sane norms of page design by squeezing in 25 word balloons. Which I'm not sure is what people normally mean by describing a comic as 'ambitious', yet somehow that still fits.
Which is not to say there isn't some incredibly stupid stuff here too. The robot double comes during a story where the team get caught in a struggle between two versions of astrologically themed crime cartel Zodiac who, as the name suggests, have a dozen members. Each. And yes, most of one version get eliminated early on, but that plus a team of Avengers still makes for an absurdly crowded 'there's too many of them...some of them are fighting' stretch. At least once, with the real Hawkeye wandering down the road wondering what's become of his 12 foes, while they somehow all lurk unseen in the cityscape behind him, it's outright hilarious. But then that same storyline also gives us an epilogue that's pretty much a solo Moon Knight issue, and a damn good one, with him implacably stalking the last of the human Zodiac to his death – mostly for being a fake astrology fan. And if you're into Moon Knight, as I very much am, this volume is an absolute treat; yes, the 'Random bullshit go!' panel was earlier in the run, but twice here we get images which are like that, only more so. It's also where he gets together with Tigra – or, to describe it in meme terms, is a catgirl early adopter. Alas, an opportunity to complete the set is missed when, during the crossover with the East Coast team, he and Dracula are in the same story but never really interact, Marc having a fairly generic scrap with the Green Goblin while Dracula is reduced to bitchslapping Doctor Druid. This is all taking place in Death's realm, by the way, not that you'd know it from the way everything there behaves in exactly the same way as in the land of the living. And how did the heroes get there? By the simple expedient of necking some poison, in a scene obliging Wonder Man to add a 'Don't try this at home!' disclaimer that's somehow even more cringe for its attempt at self-awareness.
That story, an avowed sequel to the original 'let's you and him fight' event Contest Of Champions, comes early on in the volume, though it is preceded by the odd graphic novel attempt Emperor Doom, in which everyone's favourite Latverian megalomaniac finally succeeds in taking over the world. I'll be interested to see how this year's big Marvel event, working from much the same theme, compares with the surprisingly wise and wry treatment here, where – apart from the whole free will business – the world under Doom's rule is borderline utopian, and the heroes only depose him because he's getting increasingly fed up of the administrative arseache of it all and basically gives up. Would that our own world's supervillains could share his competence or his self-knowledge, never mind both.
And at the other end of the collection, the whole Mockingbird/Hawkeye tension finally comes to a head, though not before a spectacularly absurd story which, like so many others, can be filed in the 'Oh no, Hank Pym has had a bright idea' folder. Seriously, when the rest of the team are mind-controlled and told to hunt and kill him, you wonder why the villain couldn't have stretched himself – surely anyone who's spent five minutes with Pym would be chomping at the bit for that opportunity, mind control or no? Still, we do get Communist gorillas (yes, I do want that spelling), a story which seems unsure what country Bratislava is in, a bullfighting-themed villain with a Spanish name in Eastern Europe, and a climactic scene which overturns all sane norms of page design by squeezing in 25 word balloons. Which I'm not sure is what people normally mean by describing a comic as 'ambitious', yet somehow that still fits.
January 10, 2021
For those working their way through the Marvel Epic Collections, unfortunately this collection double dips with Avengers Epic Collection Vol. 17: Judgment Day for the first 150 pages, as the Emperor Doom graphic novel (which is actually more WCA than adjectiveless-centric) and the crossover from the 1987 annuals.
As far as the stories go, I'm not crazy about Englehart's plotting but he has a good knowledge of Avengers history and he has a good handle on the soap opera elements when it comes to the characterisations, which I enjoy. This works for the cast but stops at Mockingbird, as he doubles down on the Phantom Rider plot from the last collection - and basically it ruins both her and Hawkeye in this story. It's heavily implied that she was drugged and sexual abuse occurred in Avengers West Coast Epic Collection Vol. 2: Lost in Space-Time. Hawkeye handles it pretty terribly as both a teammate and specifically as a husband. Hawkeye is my favourite character in comics and it is just really hard for me to overlook this. It's not until Jim McCann writes Mockingbird in her return post-Secret Invasion in 2009 through the various Hawkeye minis, collected under Hawkeye: Avenging Archer, that he goes some way to fixing this problematic storyline.
In terms of art, Milgrom is solid and workmanlike but it just doesn't compare to John Buscema who was on the main Avengers book at this time
As far as the stories go, I'm not crazy about Englehart's plotting but he has a good knowledge of Avengers history and he has a good handle on the soap opera elements when it comes to the characterisations, which I enjoy. This works for the cast but stops at Mockingbird, as he doubles down on the Phantom Rider plot from the last collection - and basically it ruins both her and Hawkeye in this story. It's heavily implied that she was drugged and sexual abuse occurred in Avengers West Coast Epic Collection Vol. 2: Lost in Space-Time. Hawkeye handles it pretty terribly as both a teammate and specifically as a husband. Hawkeye is my favourite character in comics and it is just really hard for me to overlook this. It's not until Jim McCann writes Mockingbird in her return post-Secret Invasion in 2009 through the various Hawkeye minis, collected under Hawkeye: Avenging Archer, that he goes some way to fixing this problematic storyline.
In terms of art, Milgrom is solid and workmanlike but it just doesn't compare to John Buscema who was on the main Avengers book at this time
August 7, 2022
This is the West Coast Avengers I remember! Is it still a bit bombastic? Yep, but its getting better. Do the heroes still talk about themselves as their alter ego as opposed to what is now done which is them realizing they are people in suits? Yes. Are the heroes still somewhat different than their current forms? Also Yes but they are getting closer. And that is why I like it. This is a transitional period and it shows and I love seeing the glimpses of things to come. This also has the West Coast Avengers most Iconic story line, which is the Phantom Rider one. That with one of my all time favorite one off comics, the old men and the elephant (WCA #30) and you have probably my favorite WCA omnibus. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is that well its age definitely shows and if you were not exposed to it before it might not hold up as well as modern stories.
You might like it or you might not, but I loved it.
You might like it or you might not, but I loved it.
January 14, 2021
Another fun additon to my growing Marvel Epic Collection. I've found that I really like the Avengers. I always thought of myself as more of an X-Men guy, but maybe I was really always an Avengers fan and I didn't know it?
I like where things are going with the characters. That's what makes for a good story, you care about what happens to the characters because you care about them. Even Wonder Man has grown on me! I actually thought he was kind of a douche before, but he is turning in to one of my favorites. I'm really curious to keep reading and see if he moves over to the regular Avengers team at some point? I'd love to see him working a long side Thor more.
Really looking forward to the next volume when John Byrne takes over the title.
I like where things are going with the characters. That's what makes for a good story, you care about what happens to the characters because you care about them. Even Wonder Man has grown on me! I actually thought he was kind of a douche before, but he is turning in to one of my favorites. I'm really curious to keep reading and see if he moves over to the regular Avengers team at some point? I'd love to see him working a long side Thor more.
Really looking forward to the next volume when John Byrne takes over the title.
March 14, 2024
After the decent Lost in Space-Time storyline, Steve Englehart's West Coast Avengers run sadly takes a bit of a dip again. I couldn't care less about the group of LMD Zodiac characters and the story with the return of all of Henry Pym's "Tales to Astonish"-era enemies isn't that interesting either.
Al Milgrom's art isn't anything to shout about either, especially now that Joe Sinnott isn't inking for him anymore.
Overall, very uninspired. Completely average.
Al Milgrom's art isn't anything to shout about either, especially now that Joe Sinnott isn't inking for him anymore.
Overall, very uninspired. Completely average.
November 13, 2020
A decent collection with some good continuity.
November 19, 2021
I really love the crossovers with the East Coast team. The book starts to lose me here.
June 22, 2022
I didn't buy these in real time and after reading them remember why.
November 19, 2022
3.5...enjoyable and quite different from the East Coast counterparts...
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews