When did Mockingbird lead the team? Thanks in advance.Cebr1979 (talk) 22:13, August 30, 2016 (UTC)
For future reference. --Stature 06:45, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
1984 saw the first volume of the West Coast Avengers, written by Roger Stern, with art by Bob Hall and Brett Breeding. It was notable mainly for establishing the core lineup: team leader Hawkeye, his wife Mockingbird, Tigra, Wonder Man and Iron Man. Hawkeye and Mockingbird acted as the guiding force behind this team.
The second volume launched soon after, with story by Steve Englehart and art by Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott. The early issues established the West Coast team as slightly more irreverent than their East Coast counterparts, taking upon themselves the nickname 'Wackos'. This period saw the mental deterioration of Hank Pym, who was helping the team as a scientific advisor. Pym suffered one of his nervous breakdowns and became suicidal.
The team became stranded in the past, its members separated in various historic eras within the Marvel universe. While most of the team was caught in ancient Egypt, Mockingbird was held captive in the Wild West by the Phantom Rider, who used amnesiac drugs to convince her that she was his lover. Parallel to this adventure ran the salvation of Hank Pym, and his return to heroics. Moon Knight helped rescue the team, and he and Pym each accepted invitations to join the team.
The adventure in time left repercussions for the team to deal with. Mockingbird and Hawkeye separated after he was told through Phantom Rider (Lincoln Slade)'s spirit she had allowed the him to fall to his death because of personal reasons. This rift was exacerbated when Bobbi proved instrumental in a plot by several world governments to abduct and dismantle longtime Avenger the Vision for his near takeover of the world. Bobbi, along with Tigra and Moon Knight, left the group and with Bill Foster briefly had a team of their own. Tigra soon returned, and later Mockingbird, but the rift between the team's leading couple was far from healed.
The Vision was reassembled, but his personality was largely a blank, emotionless slate. Wonder Man, who as the Vision's "twin" also harbored feelings for the Scarlet Witch, refused to serve as a template for his brother's thoughts again. The original Human Torch (Jim Hammond) was also revived, leading to doubts as to what the Vision actually was. The love triangle involving Simon, Wanda, and the Vision was important to the series as a whole. Meanwhile Hammond was asked to join the team, an offer he gratefully accepted, though he served only a brief amount of time before taking a leave of absence and relegating himself to reserve status. Fantastic Four founder The Thing (estranged from the team at the time) participated in several missions as a probationary member, but left before accepting full membership as he underwent further mutation. It was at the end of this decade that John Byrne introduced the Great Lakes Avengers, a somewhat humorous attempt to give the Midwest United States its own team.
Agatha Harkness visited her old student, the Scarlet Witch, revealing that the Witch and the Vision's twins were not real, but magical constructs created from fragments of the demon Mephisto's soul. The Scarlet Witch, already under strain from the Vision's dismemberment, went insane. Her mental state was taken advantage of by her father, Magneto, and she once again became a villain for a time.
The writing chores next fell to Roy Thomas and his wife Dann Thomas (who wrote the majority of the series until its end) beginning with #60. Their debut resolved the Scarlet Witch storyline, with her brother Quicksilver rescuing her from Magneto's Asteroid M headquarters only to have her kidnapped by the time travelling Immortus. Immortus' entire plan was to use Wanda, as a "nexus being" capable of safeguarding the future of humanity, from the wrath of the Time Keepers. With the help of Agatha Harkness, the Avengers were able to travel to Limbo to rescue the Scarlet Witch. The Avengers fought Immortus' Legion of the Unliving, doppelgangers created out of Space Phantoms, and were successful in helping Wanda regain her sanity.
The other Maximoff twin, Quicksilver, also had encounters of various sorts with the team. His mind whipped into a frenzy by the Inhuman named Maximus, Pietro, among acts of aggression against the East Coast team as well as the Fantastic Four, led various Soviet operatives against the West Coast team before ending his criminal ways. Unable to reconcile with his wife, Quicksilver for a time unofficially joined the team before leaving to join the new government-sanctioned X-Factor.
Two gigantic Terminus creatures attacked the United States in "The Terminus Factor", and were repulsed with the combined efforts of the East and West Coast teams as well as the Great Lakes Avengers. During this storyline, Machine Man joined the team as a reservist. The team was reorganized in the wake of the Avengers obtaining a United Nations charter, with USAgent not making the final cut, and Quicksilver leaving to join the government sponsored X-Factor team led by Havok.
Artist Dave Ross came on the title, and would remain the book's primary artist until its final issue. The team gained new members in the form of Spider-Woman and the Living Lightning. USAgent also rejoined the ranks. The team also got swept up in the events of "Operation: Galactic Storm", the aftermath of which created tensions in both teams when Iron Man led a group of Avengers to execute the Kree Supreme Intelligence.
Following the Avengers' return to Earth, the West Coast team encountered Ultron again, this time accompanied by his newest created mate, Alkhema, based on the brain waves of Mockingbird. However, Alkhema betrayed Ultron to the team, who were assisted by the Vision.
Hawkeye reassumed his Goliath identity temporarily, during which time he and Mockingbird managed to reconcile. Iron Man and Wonder Man left the team, and allies War Machine and Darkhawk joined, the latter as a reservist. Some members of the team were also directly involved in the events of the Infinity Crusade.
During the team's last adventure, Satannish and his Legion captured Mockingbird and took her to his realm. To retrieve her, the West Coast Avengers followed and fought the combined forces of Mephisto and Satannish. In #100, the penultimate issue written by the Thomases, Mockingbird was tragically killed by Mephisto while the team was trying to escape from his other-dimensional realm.
The final issue, Avengers West Coast #102 was written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. After events in Genosha, the East Coast team convened a meeting with the West Coast branch to discuss the future of the team. It was voted on and decided that due to an ever-changing membership, in-fighting among the members and attacks on the Compound it had proven too costly to maintain a separate branch of Avengers and the team was to be folded back into the East Coast branch. However, several members of the West Coast team (Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Wonder Man, and USAgent) were unhappy with this decision, and resigned from the Avengers entirely. They went on to form the new Force Works team in its own title.