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Title:
West Coast Avengers
Synopsis:
Avengers West Coast #65-68
Issue(s): Avengers West Coast #65, Avengers West Coast #66, Avengers West Coast #67, Avengers West Coast #68 Cover Date: Dec 90 - Mar 91 Title: The Reaper and the Robot: ”Whatsoever a man soweth...” / ”Tunnel vision / ...That shall he also reap!” / ”Converging trajectories” / ”California screaming!” Credits: Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas - Writer Paul Ryan / Rik Levins - Penciler Dan Bulandi / Keith Williams - Inker Howard Mackie - Editor
Review/plot: Rick Levins and Keith Williams provide art for a back-up story in issue #66 (written by Roy Thomas without Dann), that is really part of the main story here. There is also a back-up in issue #65 that i’ve placed in a separate entry.
As for the rest of these issues, i wish that they didn’t start with the silly ”He’s back from the grave - and ready to party!” blurb on the cover of issue #65, but it’s a decent story focusing on two very different villains with unique motivations. I used to have a quibble about the use of Ultron here. I felt like Ultron should only be a mega mega threat and should never just be a villain of the month like he is in this story. But Ultron (if we count the Mark Twelve version) has become one of the main villains of this series, so i think it’s fine for Roy Thomas to give us his current take on the character (and Thomas will use the character again, too).
This issue starts with the Grim Reaper rising from the grave (after Wonder Man, who was visiting, leaves). He’s greeted by Nekra, who is again responsible for his resurrection. This time, her methods have changed him so that he’s more conscious than he was when she made him a zombie, but he has to use his scythe to drain the life from a human, once every 24 hours.
Grim Reaper isn’t feeling grateful, however, so he makes Nekra his first victim.
Later, the Grim Reaper attracts the attention of Wonder Man and a still de-powered Scarlet Witch by massacring a group of Satanists. It turns out that Wonder Man is immune to the Grim Reaper’s new life draining ability.
Grim Reaper withdraws from the fight.
Meanwhile, the Wasp and Henry Pym are vacationing while trying to rekindle the flame of their relationship. They wind up lost and go to a random farmhouse, only to find that the people living there are robots.
The fact that they were robots is revealed when Henry Pym de-shrunk a Rover ship to fly home. That will have some minor importance later on.
The robots are the work of Ultron-13.
Meanwhile, Iron Man and USAgent are dealing with a group that is protesting the deployment of a malathion spray that is being used to kill medflys (Mediterranean Fruit Flies). Whatever the merits of protesting that in real life, these protesters think that the sprayers have also secretly been spraying at night, and it’s caused people’s skin to start turning metallic.
Iron Man and USAgent return to the West Coast compound. They find Tigra, who has been restored to human form. But that apparently hasn’t reduced her frisky nature, which at one point was explained by her cat side.
Iron Man and USAgent connect their experience with the Wasp and Pym’s, and everyone agrees to investigate the situation further except for Wonder Man who sees Grim Reaper to be the more immediate threat. The counterargument is that the Grim Reaper has gone underground and there’s no way to find him. But Wonder Man nonetheless leaves on his own to search for his brother (and considering how easily he’ll find the Grim Reaper, it seems he had a point).
The rest of the Avengers begin their investigation, with Hawkeye focusing on a sewer tunnel that is in the middle of the malathion spraying ring. It turns out there was a fire in that tunnel (a footnote says, ”it was in all the LA papers, honest!”). And when Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Tigra go to investigate, they find a secret passage that leads to a lab with computers, a helicopter, and robots.
And Ultron himself.
Ultron defeats all three Avengers...
...and puts them in holding cylinders, saying that his goal is to turn all of humanity into robots.
Meanwhile, the back-up story shows Wonder Man finding the Grim Reaper.
They fight again, and the Grim Reaper seemingly has Wonder Man on the ropes when suddenly the Mandrill shows up.
Note that Mandrill calls Nekra his ”sister”. That’s not literally true. I don’t know if Mandrill was speaking metaphorically or if Roy Thomas made a mistake, but we can assume the former.
Mandrill is seeking vengeance for the death of Nekra; it seems that the two of them were planning something that involved the Grim Reaper’s resurrection. But Grim Reaper kills him too.
The Reaper drops into the sewers when the police show up.
That leads directly back into the main story for issue #67, where the Grim Reaper is in the sewer and comes across Ultron’s lab. He enters, watching as Ultron rants and sprays the Avengers with his robot-transforming chemical. In true Roy Thomas fashion, the Avengers argue in giant word balloons about whether or not trying to hold their breath would help.
Ultron eventually reveals that he’s aware that the Grim Reaper is behind him. The Avengers call the Reaper an ”idiot” for not attacking sooner, but the Grim Reaper only tries to defend himself after Ultron attacks him. We see that Ultron has a new regenerative ability.
The Grim Reaper convinces Ultron that he’s not there to fight. Ultron fuses Grim Reaper’s scythe to his arm.
And the two villains form an alliance.
Some interesting changes for the Grim Reaper, and i think for the better. He’s truly a Grim Reaper now, not just a guy with a trick scythe.
Some of the other Avengers are busy dealing with outbreaks of roboticism...
...and then Ultron sends his newly roboticized Avengers to attack a computer lab at the UCLA where Henry Pym and the Scarlet Witch have gone to do research.
The rest of the Avengers show up to help out.
Iron Man finds that infrared light slows down the robotic Avengers.
And then Scarlet Witch makes an effort to bring back her powers and uses them to help Iron Man find the exact frequency that will turn the Avengers back to flesh.
However, it doesn’t completely restore Hawkeye. And all three former captives don’t remember that Ultron was responsible for their transformation. But they soon re-find his lab. However, it only contains robot drones (”andrones”). And also a bomb, which causes most of the Avengers to clear out. But Wonder Man stays behind, knowing that he can survive the bomb blast, and when he’s alone, the Grim Reaper comes out. He tells Wonder Man that he intends to betray Ultron since, after all, if everyone’s a robot he won’t have anyone to feed on.
He tells Wonder Man that the process Ultron has been using to turn people into robots has also accidentally caused Ultron to absorb human lifeforce, and that makes him vulnerable to the Grim Reaper’s scythe. Grim Reaper also says he’ll lead Wonder Man to Ultron, if Wonder Man will agree to let the Reaper go on killing one person a day.
Wonder Man reluctantly agrees.
Meanwhile, back at the Avengers compound, Hawkeye, since he’s still partially robotic, turns on the Avengers again. Scarlet Witch tries to use her hex powers to stop him but the power backfires and winds up causing something to fall on Henry Pym instead.
Poor Pym.
They are saved when the rest of the Avengers return on a Quinjet. It turns out that vibrations from the engine roar have an effect on the andrones, like we first saw with Rover.
The Grim Reaper leads Wonder Man to Ultron’s current location, which is in a blimp floating above a parade celebrating various robots in movie and TV history.
Ultron causes the robots to attack, bringing the rest of the Avengers onto the scene.
And, inside the blimp, Grim Reaper drains the life force from Ultron, but Wonder Man goes back on his promise.
But Ultron isn’t really finished. Luckily Hawkeye has recovered, and he arrives.
The two villains just kind of wind up bumping into each other and getting knocked out.
And that’s basically how it ends.
It was pretty solid until the dud of an ending. The Thomases take the time to give character moments to everyone. And i do enjoy the interactions between the villains (including Nekra and Mandrill), and the difficult situation that Wonder Man is put in regarding his brother (even though Simon does come across as a bit of a whiner). And i guess the ending is really more of a delayed effect, with Grim Reaper’s attack on Ultron being the critical thing that just comes a little early, requiring the fight to be extended. It’s still not great but it’s solidly average super-heroics at a time when that’s getting rarer. I’d still like Ultron to have a better showing, though.
Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 206,944. Single issue closest to filing date = 203,300.
Quality Rating: C Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Avengers Spotlight #38 takes place prior to this; it’s the first time that, Iron Man, at least, sees the restored Tigra.
References:
• The Grim Reaper first appeared in Avengers #52.
• He died in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #2.
• Nekra brought him back as a zombie in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #12.
• At the start of this story, Hawkeye is training on the gyroscope target range that he’s used before (when he almost shot the Scarlet Witch) and then he gets into a fight with USAgent. We saw the gyroscope in West Coast Avengers #42-45. Hawkeye and USAgent got into a fight that caused Hawkeye to quit the team during that arc as well.
• When Wonder Man first sees the Grim Reaper, he thinks that it couldn’t be his brother, and ”not even the version from that nutty Legion of the Unliving”. That’s a reference to Avengers West Coast #61.
• Tigra was restored to humanoid form in Avengers Spotlight #38.
https://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/avengers_west_coast_65-6
Issue(s): Avengers West Coast #65, Avengers West Coast #66, Avengers West Coast #67, Avengers West Coast #68 Cover Date: Dec 90 - Mar 91 Title: The Reaper and the Robot: ”Whatsoever a man soweth...” / ”Tunnel vision / ...That shall he also reap!” / ”Converging trajectories” / ”California screaming!” Credits: Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas - Writer Paul Ryan / Rik Levins - Penciler Dan Bulandi / Keith Williams - Inker Howard Mackie - Editor
Review/plot: Rick Levins and Keith Williams provide art for a back-up story in issue #66 (written by Roy Thomas without Dann), that is really part of the main story here. There is also a back-up in issue #65 that i’ve placed in a separate entry.
As for the rest of these issues, i wish that they didn’t start with the silly ”He’s back from the grave - and ready to party!” blurb on the cover of issue #65, but it’s a decent story focusing on two very different villains with unique motivations. I used to have a quibble about the use of Ultron here. I felt like Ultron should only be a mega mega threat and should never just be a villain of the month like he is in this story. But Ultron (if we count the Mark Twelve version) has become one of the main villains of this series, so i think it’s fine for Roy Thomas to give us his current take on the character (and Thomas will use the character again, too).
This issue starts with the Grim Reaper rising from the grave (after Wonder Man, who was visiting, leaves). He’s greeted by Nekra, who is again responsible for his resurrection. This time, her methods have changed him so that he’s more conscious than he was when she made him a zombie, but he has to use his scythe to drain the life from a human, once every 24 hours.
Grim Reaper isn’t feeling grateful, however, so he makes Nekra his first victim.
Later, the Grim Reaper attracts the attention of Wonder Man and a still de-powered Scarlet Witch by massacring a group of Satanists. It turns out that Wonder Man is immune to the Grim Reaper’s new life draining ability.
Grim Reaper withdraws from the fight.
Meanwhile, the Wasp and Henry Pym are vacationing while trying to rekindle the flame of their relationship. They wind up lost and go to a random farmhouse, only to find that the people living there are robots.
The fact that they were robots is revealed when Henry Pym de-shrunk a Rover ship to fly home. That will have some minor importance later on.
The robots are the work of Ultron-13.
Meanwhile, Iron Man and USAgent are dealing with a group that is protesting the deployment of a malathion spray that is being used to kill medflys (Mediterranean Fruit Flies). Whatever the merits of protesting that in real life, these protesters think that the sprayers have also secretly been spraying at night, and it’s caused people’s skin to start turning metallic.
Iron Man and USAgent return to the West Coast compound. They find Tigra, who has been restored to human form. But that apparently hasn’t reduced her frisky nature, which at one point was explained by her cat side.
Iron Man and USAgent connect their experience with the Wasp and Pym’s, and everyone agrees to investigate the situation further except for Wonder Man who sees Grim Reaper to be the more immediate threat. The counterargument is that the Grim Reaper has gone underground and there’s no way to find him. But Wonder Man nonetheless leaves on his own to search for his brother (and considering how easily he’ll find the Grim Reaper, it seems he had a point).
The rest of the Avengers begin their investigation, with Hawkeye focusing on a sewer tunnel that is in the middle of the malathion spraying ring. It turns out there was a fire in that tunnel (a footnote says, ”it was in all the LA papers, honest!”). And when Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Tigra go to investigate, they find a secret passage that leads to a lab with computers, a helicopter, and robots.
And Ultron himself.
Ultron defeats all three Avengers...
...and puts them in holding cylinders, saying that his goal is to turn all of humanity into robots.
Meanwhile, the back-up story shows Wonder Man finding the Grim Reaper.
They fight again, and the Grim Reaper seemingly has Wonder Man on the ropes when suddenly the Mandrill shows up.
Note that Mandrill calls Nekra his ”sister”. That’s not literally true. I don’t know if Mandrill was speaking metaphorically or if Roy Thomas made a mistake, but we can assume the former.
Mandrill is seeking vengeance for the death of Nekra; it seems that the two of them were planning something that involved the Grim Reaper’s resurrection. But Grim Reaper kills him too.
The Reaper drops into the sewers when the police show up.
That leads directly back into the main story for issue #67, where the Grim Reaper is in the sewer and comes across Ultron’s lab. He enters, watching as Ultron rants and sprays the Avengers with his robot-transforming chemical. In true Roy Thomas fashion, the Avengers argue in giant word balloons about whether or not trying to hold their breath would help.
Ultron eventually reveals that he’s aware that the Grim Reaper is behind him. The Avengers call the Reaper an ”idiot” for not attacking sooner, but the Grim Reaper only tries to defend himself after Ultron attacks him. We see that Ultron has a new regenerative ability.
The Grim Reaper convinces Ultron that he’s not there to fight. Ultron fuses Grim Reaper’s scythe to his arm.
And the two villains form an alliance.
Some interesting changes for the Grim Reaper, and i think for the better. He’s truly a Grim Reaper now, not just a guy with a trick scythe.
Some of the other Avengers are busy dealing with outbreaks of roboticism...
...and then Ultron sends his newly roboticized Avengers to attack a computer lab at the UCLA where Henry Pym and the Scarlet Witch have gone to do research.
The rest of the Avengers show up to help out.
Iron Man finds that infrared light slows down the robotic Avengers.
And then Scarlet Witch makes an effort to bring back her powers and uses them to help Iron Man find the exact frequency that will turn the Avengers back to flesh.
However, it doesn’t completely restore Hawkeye. And all three former captives don’t remember that Ultron was responsible for their transformation. But they soon re-find his lab. However, it only contains robot drones (”andrones”). And also a bomb, which causes most of the Avengers to clear out. But Wonder Man stays behind, knowing that he can survive the bomb blast, and when he’s alone, the Grim Reaper comes out. He tells Wonder Man that he intends to betray Ultron since, after all, if everyone’s a robot he won’t have anyone to feed on.
He tells Wonder Man that the process Ultron has been using to turn people into robots has also accidentally caused Ultron to absorb human lifeforce, and that makes him vulnerable to the Grim Reaper’s scythe. Grim Reaper also says he’ll lead Wonder Man to Ultron, if Wonder Man will agree to let the Reaper go on killing one person a day.
Wonder Man reluctantly agrees.
Meanwhile, back at the Avengers compound, Hawkeye, since he’s still partially robotic, turns on the Avengers again. Scarlet Witch tries to use her hex powers to stop him but the power backfires and winds up causing something to fall on Henry Pym instead.
Poor Pym.
They are saved when the rest of the Avengers return on a Quinjet. It turns out that vibrations from the engine roar have an effect on the andrones, like we first saw with Rover.
The Grim Reaper leads Wonder Man to Ultron’s current location, which is in a blimp floating above a parade celebrating various robots in movie and TV history.
Ultron causes the robots to attack, bringing the rest of the Avengers onto the scene.
And, inside the blimp, Grim Reaper drains the life force from Ultron, but Wonder Man goes back on his promise.
But Ultron isn’t really finished. Luckily Hawkeye has recovered, and he arrives.
The two villains just kind of wind up bumping into each other and getting knocked out.
And that’s basically how it ends.
It was pretty solid until the dud of an ending. The Thomases take the time to give character moments to everyone. And i do enjoy the interactions between the villains (including Nekra and Mandrill), and the difficult situation that Wonder Man is put in regarding his brother (even though Simon does come across as a bit of a whiner). And i guess the ending is really more of a delayed effect, with Grim Reaper’s attack on Ultron being the critical thing that just comes a little early, requiring the fight to be extended. It’s still not great but it’s solidly average super-heroics at a time when that’s getting rarer. I’d still like Ultron to have a better showing, though.
Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 206,944. Single issue closest to filing date = 203,300.
Quality Rating: C Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Avengers Spotlight #38 takes place prior to this; it’s the first time that, Iron Man, at least, sees the restored Tigra.
References:
• The Grim Reaper first appeared in Avengers #52.
• He died in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #2.
• Nekra brought him back as a zombie in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #12.
• At the start of this story, Hawkeye is training on the gyroscope target range that he’s used before (when he almost shot the Scarlet Witch) and then he gets into a fight with USAgent. We saw the gyroscope in West Coast Avengers #42-45. Hawkeye and USAgent got into a fight that caused Hawkeye to quit the team during that arc as well.
• When Wonder Man first sees the Grim Reaper, he thinks that it couldn’t be his brother, and ”not even the version from that nutty Legion of the Unliving”. That’s a reference to Avengers West Coast #61.
• Tigra was restored to humanoid form in Avengers Spotlight #38.
https://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/avengers_west_coast_65-6
Cover Date:
Feb 1991
Publisher:
Marvel Comics
Barcode:
071486025375
Issue Number:
67
Month:
February
Year:
1991
Variant Number:
A
Purchase Type:
Direct
Printing:
1
Country:
United States
Cover Price:
$1.00
Era:
Copper Age
Genre:
Superhero
Show More
Language:
English
Type of Comic:
Magazine
Date Added:
2018-07-02 22:09:58
Series:
West Coast Avengers Vol 2 (1985-1994)
Story Arc:
The Reaper and the Robot part 3
Automatic Estimated Value:
~$4.95
Automatic Estimated Date:
2026-02-28
Date Added:
2018-07-02 22:09:58
