Story: Steve Englehart
Layouts: Al Milgrom
Finishes: Mike Machlan
Letters: Bill Oakley
Colors: Paul Becton
Review: Will Dubbeld
Don’t answer.
EVERYONE wants to see that.
TWCA #33 grants that wish and so much more...
In the early days, the East Coast/West Coast feud ran deep in the Avengers camp, and I threw my lot in with the West side. I picked up most of the Pacific Overlords arc one summer and fell unapologetically in love with the WCA team, even USAgent! Even Living Lightning!
Despite counting several Founding Avengers amongst the roster, The West Coast Avengers were almost by design a B-team. For every Iron Man and Dr. Pym on the team you also had the likes of Moon Knight and Tigra, sure to elicit groans from certain elitist reader circles.
Not this guy. I love those characters.
I think I loved everything about the WCA roster until it got screwed sideways and turned into Force Works...
But that’s another gripe altogether.
This issue kicks off with the confirmation hearing of the aforementioned Moon Knight. He OF COURSE is granted membership because what superhero team doesn’t want a schizophrenic, Egyptian-themed Batman whose powers wax and wane with the phases of the moon?
Seems like a no brainer...
Cutting the celebration short, Dr. Pym bursts in and has learned something unsettling.
It seems as he was, to quote, “having fun-hacking on the computer!”, Hank discovered his first wife is still alive.
A couple things here:
Yes, evidently Dr. Henry Pym likes to unwind with a little recreational hacking into Eastern Bloc security networks.
Also, Hank’s first wife was Maria Trovaya, a Hungarian sweetie with a scientist father and a dark fate in store. This is serendipitous, as the hitherto unrevealed daughter of Hank and Maria has recently appeared and is making waves as the new Wasp.
Or maybe she isn’t; I’m not reading any of those books.
In any case, we get a several-page retelling of Pym’s origin and first outing as Ant-Man before the team agrees to fly overseas and get to the bottom of this. During said flight we are treated to a similar flashback for Wasp’s origin as both Janet and Hank are waxing poetic about their respective origin stories.
The best is yet to come, however, as the Quinjet wheels hit the ground in Central Europe and the proverbial monkey-poo hits the fan.
Attempting to cross the border, the Westies are intercepted by a horribly amazing conglomeration of old Ant-Man villains.
Not old Avengers villains that tangled with Ant-Man.
An actual rogues gallery of Cold War-themed baddies from Ant-Man’s solo adventures.
And they, by god, are glorious.
Madame X, your archetypal uniformed Communist spymaster! Not a femme fatale, by any means. Oh, no sir! This lady seems like she’s all business.
El Toro, a sort of big guy with a pointy bull-horned headdress! With knockout poison on the horns, so not only do you get gored, you pass out! He’s the former Communist dictator of the presumably fictional country of Santo Rico turned mercenary, deposed by Ant-Man.
Certainly not least, the WCAs must face the Beasts of Berlin! Gorillas who have gained intelligence due to Communist experiments!
Curse you, you filthy Reds! Is nothing sacred?!!!
As an interesting aside, there were human/ape hybridization attempts in the 1920s-1930s wherein a Soviet scientist had the goal to breed some sort of super-ape...human...creature.
These were all the brainchildren of Stan Lee, which just goes to show they can’t all be zingers, folks.
Obviously, a fracas ensues and glorious battle is fought.
The highlight for me had to be Hank Pym duel-wielding machine pistols, because I’m easy like that.
Indica places this issue in June of ‘88 and it feels like it, from stem to stern.
That sweet spot where the stories were still written for readers, not for trade paperbacks, where the art was simpler and the colors unburdened by modern digital perfectionism and charmingly marred by printing errors.
Despite showing my age and bias, these West Coast Avengers books are rock solid reads. Often goofy and never a heavy, cerebral read, WCA did deliver good ol’ superhero stories.
Every single time.
As ANOTHER interesting aside, the title here comes from the comic in which Ant-Man first appeared: Tales to Astonish.
The name of the story?
The Man in the Ant Hill.
Do yourself a service and pick up some issues of WCA.
Your local Dollar Boxes oughtta be lousy with ‘em...
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