Force Works by Marvel or West Coast Avengers ALIEN SHIATSU STYLE!!!

FORCE WORKS

22 Issues Published by MARVEL COMICS

Scripts by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning

Various Pencilers and Inkers 

When I finished "West Coast Avengers" I was immediately ready to pick-up where it left off with the team that formed from it. The West Coast Avengers did not have a place in the new Avengers world after numerous devastations because they were basically looking for someone to hang all of their inabilities on. The West Coast team took the brunt of this and ultimately was forced to disband. This resulted in several characters feeling that they no longer belonged in the Avengers version of the superhero game, especially Scarlet Witch who felt that she had put her heart and soul to the Avengers only to feel them crush her down in this moment. Iron Man decides it is time to form a new team. A team that works on a global level and tries to divert a crisis before it begins. He decides that he will create the team "FORCE WORKS!"

I went in with high expectations for this series because two of my favorite characters, as I mentioned in the previous article (Scarlet Witch and Spider-Woman), were featured in it. I was disappointed in many realms because this book did not do what it could have done. It did not develop, in my opinion, any truly lasting story arcs involving the main characters. There are no standout moments for any particular character. The characters are interchangeable for the most part or just seem to follow a standard comic book team formula of heavy hitter, long range character, magic user, etc. Unlike West Coast Avenger that added depth and even angst to characters, such as Scarlet Witch, this turns such characters into what appears to be a clear objectification of the female character. The reason I feel this way is because Scarlet Witch, for example, went from a pretty overly conservative outfit to this:

The series must not have been doing that well overall because it did not last that long and reading it I truly understood the reasoning behind this. It seemed that every story involved some huge ALIEN encounter instead of really being about superheroes finding villains and thwarting their plans, which is what I liked about many of the stores in "West Coast Avengers". I recognize this was a different team, but there was nothing that made me invested in the stories that were being told.

Early on in the title an important character dies off and as a result another character named Century is brought into the folds of the team. This character seemed to have some potential as a character, but as you progress over the 22 issues you start to feel that potential starting to slip away as you get less and less invested in their story. You wonder why you should care about why he has no memories of his home world and the life that he had led before "Force Works" came into his life. During one part of the series this new character actually disappears and gets a one-shot about this part of his past. I did not read that title because I simply was not invested enough in the character to want to spend more time with him in this manner. 

There were a LOT and I mean a LOT of potential in other characters as well. There were two supporting role characters in a public relations specialist and a technician for the team, but they were not utilized properly to create any tension or anything extra into the team until near the end of the series. When the series gets into a story arc called "THE CROSSING", which if you are unfamiliar with this go look it up because it is one crappy story, it felt like it was finally doing the things that it SHOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN DOING. Spider-Woman has a love triangle, there is leadership tension between Iron Man and Scarlet Witch, Century comes back in enough time to realize something is screwy, Villains are trying to kill them, and the team has to band together to really try to thwart some evil. Ultimately, the team does not succeed though, but it would have been awesome to have this tension, this level of teamwork throughout the entire run. If this had been there the book would have achieved better overall success for what it was trying to do, but it seemed to forgo any character development for quick Alien plots. This was disappointing for a series that spun out of one that showed that you can mix both and create something all together magical. Also something else that was magical was that Scarlet Witch got to have one of my favorite costumes finally!

This was a redesign that bad homage to the original one, but also added more stylized and modern elements of the time. It felt like a natural and organic progression of the character, instead of the other style that was used throughout this run. I wish I could find more positive and happy things to say about this particular series, but it just didn't "work" for me!

My next post will be on Monday and will be the response to the newest

POP CULTURE LEAGUE CHALLENGE!

Videos will return NEXT WEEK!!! I am also working on retooling a few things, so you may notice differences in the schedule or changes in the way the blog looks. All these are part of the process of me discovering exactly what I want to do with my blog and creating a brand that I like! I hope you all understand and will stay coming to the library during this time!

You can find me on Goodreads at

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/59000535-cassandra-winters

You can also check out these great blogs:

Collectors' Universe- collectorsuniverse.blogspot.com

Green Plastic Squirt Gun- greenplasticsquirtgun.blogspot.com/

Thank you for coming to the library... I hope you check me out again soon!

West Coast Avengers - Published by Marvel or How Cassie Finally Read 102 Issues of a Series from Childhood...

Growing up my father had a rather large collection of comics. One of the series that he had several issues of was an "Avengers" spin-off titled "West Coast Avengers". I remember reading several of them growing up, but I never finished the entire series because it was not readily available to me. Now with the beauty of both the internet and purchasing as an adult I finally saying...

-

"I READ ALL OF WEST COAST AVENGERS."

The series started off as a limited run series of just four issues. It must have proved to be popular at Marvel though because it was picked up and ran for an additional 102 issues before its cancellation. 

The main founders of the team were Hawkeye and his wife, Mockingbird. Due to knowing some stories that happen later within the Marvel Universe it was interesting to see the beginning of the pairing here. This book took place shortly after their nuptials, as they were tasked to create a West Coast division of the superhero team "Avengers".

Line-Ups & Characters - 

The book has several line-ups during the 102 issues of the series. They are pretty much as followed in the pictures. I will be including after each line-up who was my favorite and least favorite character of that line-up. These images were found online through google search, so all rights belong to their original owner and used here for clarity and visual sake.

Favorite Character - Firebird/Tigra
Least Fave Character - Wonder Man

Favorite Character - Moon Knight

Least Favorite Character - Wonder Man

Favorite Character - Scarlet Witch

Least Favorite Character - Human Torch 

Favorite Character - Spider-Woman
Least Favorite Character - Mockingbird/Living Lightening

It may seem like four team changes during the tenure of 102 is not a lot, but when many of these line-up changes do not take place in a singular issue but are spread out through numerous arcs and sometimes these characters only stay for a few issues (i.e. Living Lighening) before vanishing into obscurity, it all becomes a bit too much as a reader. This was one of the biggest issues I personally had with the book. It felt like it was constantly try to find its place within the Marvel Universe instead of just allowing itself to be a second group of the "Avengers", which would have made the group stronger and by far more interesting to read.

My favorite character of the entire run is a toss-up between Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) and Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff). The reason that I feel that these are my favorite characters are because those are the ones I am always drawn to when I want to read something from Marvel. I am instantly interested if either are mentioned. When Wanda was given her own series I was invested from the first issue. She is a strong female character that has had a lot happen to her, but she has survived it and comes back stronger. She becomes more ready to champion those around her. I feel that my love of Spider-Woman comes from seeing many of her issues growing up. Also having numerous action figures of her in my own collection of toys. I find her aesthetically appealing and I would like to model my own transition slightly after her, if possible. I also love the fact that she wants to be the best mother she can to her child, Rachel. I always have a deep amount of respect for someone that wants to take care of their children and Julia always is considering the effect of her life on her child.

Story Arcs - 

Favorite: 

My favorite overall story arc within the series was the "Darker Than Scarlet" story where Wanda Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch) loses her sanity (umm doesn't this happen to her a lot) and she is manipulated by her "father" Magneto. This was interesting having just recently came off the arc where she loses her children, which is another great arc in the 102 issues. I don't want to go into further details about these story arcs because I want you to read them because they are readily available online and in collected editions because even though West Coast Avengers appears to be critically panned in this day and age by fans, it produced two of the best Scarlet Witch stories. 

These are just two of the covers from the "Darker than Scarlet" story arc! Classic COVERS!

Least Favorite Story Arc - 

My least favorite story arc involved the Vision and I believe was started in the arc called "Vision Quest", which is considered a classic by many people. This is the story that sees Vision lose his "humanity" and turn into the white-colored Vision. I did not enjoy seeing the character have this part of himself stripped away because it was what made him a likable character. There was something about him after this particular arc that made me want to stay away from reading about him, so I am glad that he did not feature so prominently in the rest of the series. 

Villains - 

There were numerous villains that could be seen as "iconic" during the tenure, but perhaps the most well-known and to me the "best villain" was the classic "ULTRON" character. Here we get to see him getting rebuilt over a few of the times (since there have been numerous) and we even get to see a nicer, more gentler version during the run. The few stories with him as the "villain of the week" felt the strongest. The second best villain from WCA was the character "The Hangman", which was attached to Wonder Man. This was unfortunate for him because I despise the character. The only villain in the series that I detested was the original villain named "Graviton". He just seemed like a weak character to me, but for a first villain they did the story correctly. If the story had not been done correctly I would have probably hated reading this entire run, since it was the entire set-up to the series. I also found that a hero/villain featured I did not enjoy much was the character Ghost Rider (original) because they took an iconic character and made him evil. The torture and abuse that he puts Mockingbird through in the story involving him was a bit much, even for comic books. It made him one of the worst villains in the sense of I HATE YOU! VILLAIN! senses. 

                     Ultron                                                             Ghost Rider (Original)

Final Thoughts - 

As I progressed through the series I started to understand something about my previous comic book reading habits as well. I noticed that a lot of the comics that I was drawn to at Marvel largely contained someone from WCA, such as Moon Knight's solo series or Tigra in Avengers: The Initiative. I did not know either that this is where I started my love for the slapstick team of "Great Lake Avengers"! I enjoy seeing these characters, even in the more series stuff that was produced by Marvel containing them. These are some of my favorite Marvel characters and it is all because I was exposed to them early on in childhood through this comic book series. I fell in love with Tigra, a woman that also a cat. I fell in love with a deeply flawed woman named Wanda that had to deal with so many pains that I could identify with. I saw a woman that simply wanted to take care of her child, even though now she was a superhero. I saw strong females in this series and I wished to be like them. I wished to know their adventures and see them succeed in the face of evil and atrocities. This is why I believe I will always have a soft spot in my heart for this team. They will always be "my superhero team". I will always be an honorary West Coast Avenger!

The final issue of "West Coast Avengers" saw the team TERMINATED by the other branch of the AVENGERS! Due to this injustice some of the WCA decided to form a new team, which resulted in the team "FORCE WORKS". As a result...

My next post will be on Friday and is a TEXT REVIEW of 

"FORCE WORKS"!!!

You can find me on Goodreads at

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/59000535-cassandra-winters

You can also check out these great blogs:

Collectors' Universe- collectorsuniverse.blogspot.com

Green Plastic Squirt Gun- greenplasticsquirtgun.blogspot.com/

Thank you for coming to the library... I hope you check me out again soon!