Retro Reviews: Solo Avengers #1-20, Avengers Spotlight #21-40 By DeFalco, Bright, Mackie, Milgrom & Tons More For Marvel Comics!

Solo Avengers #1-20, Avengers Spotlight #21-40 (December 1987 – January 1991)

Written by Tom DeFalco (#1-12, 14-16), Roger Stern (#2-4), Dennis Mallonee (#5), Dan Mishkin (#6), Bob Layton (#7, 11), Mike W. Barr (#8), JM DeMatteis (#9), DG Chichester (#10), Margaret Clark (#10), Howard Mackie (#12, 18-25, 27-29), Gregory Wright (#13), Dwayne McDuffie (#13, 26-29), Chris Claremont (#14), Fabian Nicieza (#15, 24, 31-34), Peter B. Gillis (#16, 18, 20-21), Danny Fingeroth (#17, 35), Sandy Plunkett (#19), Lour Mougin (#22), John Byrne (#23), Glenn Herdling (#25), Dwight Jon Zimmerman (#25), Steve Gerber (#30-34, 36), Roy Thomas (#37-39), Dann Thomas (#37-39), Len Kaminski (#40), Carrie Barre (#40)

Plot by Jackson Guice (#7), Tom DeFalco (#12-13, 17), Kieron Dwyer (#23), James Brock (#29)

Script by Ralph Macchio (#12-13, 17)

Penciled by Mark Bright (#1-3, 5-11), Jim Lee (#1), Kieron Dwyer (#2, 23), Bob Hall (#3, 37), Ron Lim (#4, 12-13), Paul Ryan (#4), John Ridgway (#5), Tom Grindberg (#6), Jackson Guice (#7, 13), Larry Alexander (#8), June Brigman (#9, 38), Lee Weeks (#10), Bob Layton (#11), Amanda Conner (#12), Al Milgrom (#14-17, 21-25, 27-28, 30-34, 36), Alan Davis (#14), Tom Morgan (#15), Don Perlin (#16), Dave Cockrum (#17), Ron Wilson (#18-20), James Brock (#18, 20, 29), Sandy Plunkett (#19), Tomasina Cawthorn Artis (aka Tom Artis; #21), Don Heck (#22), Gavin Curtis (#24, 40), Rod Ramos (#25), Dwayne Turner (#26-29), Dan Lawlis (#31-34), Jim Valentino (#35), Greg Capullo (#39)

Inked by Joe Rubinstein (#1-6, 14, 21), Al Williamson (#1), Bob McLeod (#2), Stan Drake (#3, 9, 12), Bob Layton (#4, 7), John Ridgway (#5), José Marzan Jr. (#7-16, 22), Lee Weeks (#10), Jackson Guice (#11, 13), Mark McKenna (#15), Jack Abel (#16), Don Heck (#17-25, 27-28, 30-31, 33-34, 36), Kim DeMulder (#17), Roy Richardson (#18, 20, 29), Scott Hampton (#19), Tom Morgan (#21, 25), The Dudes (#21), Karl Kesel (#23), Steve Buccellato (#24), Don Hudson (#25), Chris Ivy (#26-29), Keith Williams (#31-34), Hajek Satter Lee (#32), Jeff Albrecht (#35), Win Mortimer (#37), Doug Hazlewood (#38), Tim Dzon (#39), Dan Panosian (#40)

Colour by Ken Feduniewicz (#1, 3), Paul Becton (#2-5, 7-12, 14-15, 18-22, 25-26, 28, 30-31, 34, 38), Gregory Wright (#2, 13), Janet Jackson (#4-11, 13-16, 18), Steve Buccellato (#6, 24), Andy Yanchus (#12, 16-18), Marc Siry (#17, 20, 23), Sandy Plunkett (#19), The Dartboard (#21), George Roussos (#22, 27), Kieron Dwyer (#23), Evan Skolnick (#24), Sara Tuchinsky (#25), Mike Rockwitz (#27-29, 32), Brad Vancata (#31-34), Reneé Whitterstaetter (#33, 35, 37, 40), Joe Rosas (#36), Bob Sharen (#39)

Spoilers (from thirty to thirty-four years ago)

I recently read the entire run of the West Coast Avengers (aka Avengers West Coast), and as I was reading it, I started to think about Solo Avengers (aka Avengers Spotlight), the book that Hawkeye shared with a rotating cast of Avengers in solo or solo-ish stories. The idea was that half of each issue was Clint’s, telling his ongoing adventures outside of his role as WCA Chairman. The back half of the book spotlighted a different Avenger each month, usually in stand-alone stories.

I remember always being excited to see who made the backup, although in reality, I think it became a bit of a try-out space to test new talent. I don’t remember a single one of these backup stories, and have only vague memories of any of Clint’s comics.

After the WCA became the AWC, this book got retitled Avengers Spotlight, but kept its original format for the most part. Towards the end, it started giving different characters book length stories.

Is going back to this title going to turn up anything good? I somehow doubt it, but I’m always happy to revisit obscure characters. I’m also convinced that I’m going to come across some surprising artists or writers in here, but before I start reading, I absolutely have no idea who was involved in this book.

Let’s track who turned up in the title:

Avengers:

Hawkeye (Clint Barton; #1-34, 36)
Wonder Man (Simon Williams; #1, 8, 13, 21-23, 27- 30, 32)
Mockingbird (Bobbi Barton; #1-3, 8-9, 14-16, 22, 25, 27-28, 30-34, 36)
Swordsman (#2, 22)
Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau; #2, 27)
Moon Knight (Marc Spector; #3)
Dr. Druid (Anthony Druid; #4, 10, 37)
Black Knight (Dane Whitman; #4, 12, 39)
Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff; #5, 22-23, 30)
Vision (#5, 22-23, 29-30, 40)
Falcon (Sam Wilson; #6)
Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff; #7, 14-16, 27)
Doctor Hank Pym (#8, 16, 21, 23, 30)
Hellcat (Patsy Walker Hellstrom; #9, 27)
Hercules (#11)
Wasp (Janet Van Dyne; #12, 15, 23, 28-30)
She-Hulk (Jen Walters; #14)
Moondragon (Heather Douglas; #16, 18, 20, 27)
Sub-Mariner (Namor; #17, 27)
Black Panther (T’Challa; #19)
Starfox (Eros; #21)
Tigra (Greer Nelson; #23, 30, 38)
USAgent (John Walker; #23, 27, 30-34, 36)
Iron Man (Tony Stark; #26-27, 29-30)
Thor (#27, 29)
Captain America (Steve Rogers; #27, 29, 40)
Quasar (Wendell Vaughan; #27, 29)
Human Torch (Jim Hammond; #27, 30)
Gilgamesh (#35)
Sersi (#40)

Villains

Trickshot (#1-2, 4-5)
Dr. Picard (#2)
Batroc the Leaper (#3)
Zaran (#3)
Machete (#3)
The Brothers Grimm (The Night Shift; #3, 22, 24-25)
The Last Knight (#4)
John Kowalski (#5)
Red Skull II (#6)
Scatterbrain (#6)
Victor Meachum (#6)
Bartovian Liberation Front (#7)
Blind Justice (#8-9)
Dr. Nemesis (#8)
Speedo (#9)
Zipper (#9)
Mad-Dog (#9, 22-25)
Stonecutter (#10)
Bob-Cat (#11, 22-25)
Bob-Cat’s Claws (#11)
Winston J. Kranpuff (#11)
Dionysus (#11)
Sgt. Butcher T Washington (#11)
Abomination (Tyrannus; #12)
Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara; #12)
Fixer (#12)
The Bullet Biker (#13, 23-25)
Takumer (#13)
AIM (#14-16)
The Attackoid (#14-15)
Titania (#14, 26, 29)
SODAM (#16)
Madame Menace (#17)
Doctor Octopus (#17)
Goldbug (#17)
The Dance (#18)
The Orb (#19-21)
Plantman (#19-20)
Knicknack (Death Throws; #23-25)
Ringleader (Death Throws; #23-25)
Tenpin (Death Throws; #23-25)
Oddball (Death Throws; #23-25)
Bombshell (Death Throws; #23-25)
Smog Alert (#23)
Razor Fist (#24-25)
Crossfire (#24-25)
The Wizard (#26, 29)
Hydro-Man (#26)
Klaw (#26, 29)
Griffin (#26)
Angar the Screamer (#26, 28-29)
Armadillo (#26)
Loki (#26-28)
Mr. Hyde (#26)
Scarecrow (#26)
Electro (#26)
Orca (#26)
Whirlwind (#26)
Cactus (#26)
Yetrigar (#26)
Boomerang (#27)
Awesome Android (#27)
Juggernaut (#27)
The Wrecker (#27)
Absorbing Man (#27, 29)
Ironclad (U-Foes; #27)
Vector (U-Foes; #27)
X-Ray (U-Foes; #27)
Vapor (U-Foes; #27)
Screaming Mimi (#28-29)
The Mad Thinker (#28)
Gargantua (#28)
Pick Axe (#29)
Vice (#29)
Triphammer (#29)
Handsaw (#29)
Dr. Karl Malus (#29)
The Rhino (#29)
Nekra (#29)
The Eel (#29)
Flying Tiger (#29)
Quill (#29)
The Stone Perfs (#30-34)
Prince Charming (Stone Perf; #30-34, 36)
Lotus Newmark (#30-34, 36)
The Terminizer (Luis Guiterrez (#30-34, 36)
(#31-32)
The Xenophobic Man (Border Patrolman Bouting; #31-34)
Mode Blanks (#33, 36)
B’Gon the Sorcerer (#35)
Nebula (not Thanos’s daughter; #37)
Tabur (#38)
The Crusader (#39)

Guest Stars

Silver Sable (#3-7)
Shroud (#3, 9)
Jack Russell, Werewolf by Night (The Night Shift; #3)
Tick Tock (The Night Shift; #3)
Gypsy Moth (The Night Shift; #3)
Tatterdemalion (The Night Shift; #3)
Needle (The Night Shift; #3)
Digger (The Night Shift; #3)
Dansen Macabre (The Night Shift; #3)
The Wild Pack (#4)
Le Peregrine (#6)
The Sandman (#6-7, 17)
Seymour the All Seeing (#10)
Zeus (#11)
Red Ronin (#15)
Gargoyle (Isaac Christians; #16, 18, 20)
Texas Twister (#18)
Shooting Star (#18)
Isaac (Titanian computer; #18)
Mentor (#18)
Cloud (#20)
Heater Delite (#21)
Trickshot (#23-25)
Johnny Carson (#23)
Pee Wee Herman (#23)
Zsa Zsa Gabor (#23)
Firebird (Bonita Juarez; #24, 27)
Rick Jones (#25)
Guardsman Prime (Frank Ensign; #26, 29)
Stingray (#27)
Madcap (#29)
Human Torch (Johnny Storm, Fantastic Four; #29)
The Thing (Ben Grimm, Fantastic Four; #29)
Sprite (Eternals; #35)
The Ancient One (#37)
Agatha Harkness (#38)

Supporting Characters

Barney Barton (#2)
Professor LeClare (#2)
Thomas (Vision & Scarlet Witch’s child; #5)
William (Vision & Scarlet Witch’s child; #5)
Redwing (#6)
Ivan Petrovitch (Black Widow’s mentor; #7)
Oksana Bolishinko (Black Widow’s ballet teacher; #7)
Rover (Dr. Pym’s talking vehicle; #8)
Gayle Rogers (reporter; #9, 13)
Pamela Douglas, aka Sundragon (#16, 18, 20)
Demeityr (#18, 20)
Betty Ross (#25)
Peggy Carter (#26)
Officer Pete Zamora (#30-33)
Father Kevin Grass (Sanctuary Movement; #32-34)
Victoria Bentley (#39)
Edwin Jarvis (#40)
Miles Lipton (#40)

Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:

Hawkeye is on a horse, firing arrows through some circus clowns to hit three targets. Wonder Man and Mockingbird are in the stands watching, as we learn that Clint is doing this as a charity exhibition show, and this is their last rehearsal. Simon asks Bobbi why the Swordsman, a swordsman, taught Clint how to shoot with a bow and arrow. With the rehearsal over, Simon leaves, and Clint and Bobbi head off on a shared sky-cycle. Some guy watches them leave, and then goes to talk to his boss. A heavy man is firing arrows at a group of men wearing steel arm protectors and long curved pieces of steel on one hand, allowing them to toss around steel balls. The guy who was watching Clint reports in that Clint is definitely performing that night. The heavy guy is happy that he can get a blood debt paid. Later, we see the big guy fire a gas arrow into the dressing room where Clint’s clown friends are preparing for the night. When the show starts, the clowns that Clint is supposed to shoot arrows at fire a bazooka at his horse. They start to fight, and we realize these are the steel arm-gear guys. They fight, and one manages to break Clint’s bow. Bobbi turns up late, and finds the unconscious clowns. We see hands reach for her. Clint keeps fighting against the goons, managing to throw some arrows with enough force that they split some steel balls in half, and can pin some of the goons to a support pole. The crowd never realized this wasn’t the show, so they cheer for Clint. Bobbi arrives and shows him the gas arrow; he immediately recognizes it as belonging to the man who trained him. The big guy reveals that he’s called Trick Shot, and that he’s coming for Clint.
Mockingbird’s backup is drawn by Jim Lee, in one of his first Marvel comics (his Alpha Flight came out a couple months earlier). Bobbi is late for Clint’s show because of traffic, so she has arranged through her cab driver’s radio to get a traffic helicopter to meet with her and take her to the colosseum where Clint is performing. As she hangs off it, she recaps her origin as a scientist and SHIELD agent. When she finds the unconscious clowns, she is attacked by half a dozen of Trick Shot’s goons (more than are fighting Hawkeye?). They fight, and then take a hostage and try to escape (why?). Even though she’s worried about Clint, she goes after the van they are leaving in, jumping on its roof, busting through it, and jumping out with the hostage before it crashes. She takes out most of the goons, while Trick Shot watches from a nearby limousine. He fires a flaming arrow at the wrecked vehicles, which Bobbi catches with her feet, keeping the gas tanks from exploding. She rushes into the colosseum just as Clint wraps up his foes. She shows him the gas arrow (maybe it’s the flame arrow?), and when Clint reveals that it belongs to the guy who trained him, she makes Clint promise to not go after him alone. He agrees, but we see that he’s crossing his fingers. We are not off to a great start here people.
Clint is training in the WCA’s version of the Danger Room. Bobbi asks him why he’s been training so hard lately, and he decides to tell her his life story. He talks about growing up with his older brother Barney and having to deal with his father’s drinking and violence. After his parents were killed in a car crash, Barney and Clint ended up in an orphanage, before running off and joining a carnival. Clint ended up being an assistant to the Swordsman, who started to train him in throwing knives. A rival to Swordsman, the archer Trick Shot arrived and started to take over Swordsman’s spot as the main attraction. Swordsman got Trick Shot to train Clint in archery; not long after that, Clint discovered that Swordsman had robbed the carnival. Clint was going to turn him in, so Swordsman wanted to kill him. Trick Shot and Barney saved Clint, who ended up in the hospital with two broken legs (he fell from the trapeze). While recovering, Clint stayed with Trick Shot, who continued to train him, introducing him to trick arrows (Barney took off that night, angry that Clint didn’t just split the money with Swordsman). Eventually, after Clint had recovered, Trick Shot had him come with him on a late night job. Trick Shot went to kill a man named Marko, who was skimming money off the carnival. Trick Shot killed him and his wife, while Clint had to stop some of his guards. Clint shot one man with an arrow, and then discovered he was Barney. When Trick Shot tried to get Clint to leave his brother behind, he refused; Trick Shot vowed to wait until he became a better archer, and then kill him. Now Clint tells Bobbi that Trick Shot has sent him a plane ticket, wanting to face off against him in Paris.

Roger Stern and Kieron Dwyer contribute a story about Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau). She’s on her way to visit Professor LeClare, a scientist in France who was there when she received her powers (while trying to stop an evil scientist named Dr. Picard). Her visit is actually a trap, and as she flies at sub-light speed, at LeClare’s request, Picard fires a ray at her that makes her light powers go haywire. She causes a fire at a chalet, and then flies to space to keep everyone safe. She sends a radio signal to LeClare, who still wants her to come. He then warns her off, and we learn that Picard, in a ridiculous looking power suit, is holding him hostage. Monica flies to him, and learns that Picard’s suit is able to drain her power. She punches him and tries to fly off. He follows, continuing to drain her, until she finally stops. She sends all of her light power and self into his suit, overloading it and causing a massive explosion. Scientists check her out and declare she is safe to turn back to human – she absorbed back all of the power just before the explosion, and kept Picard safe. LeClare tells the others that he believes in her. This story did nothing for me.
Clint is in Paris, inside Notre Dame Cathedral, where he’s been attacked by Batroc the Leaper and his associates, Zaran and Machete. He almost falls from the top levels of the church, but manages to catch his fall with an arrow with a cable attached. He flashes back to lying to Mockingbird about not going to Paris, and then getting into a fight with her. He ended up gassing her and leaving for Paris. Once there, he noticed he was being followed, and upon checking in to his hotel, received an envelope calling him to Notre Dame. Clint tries to get away from Batroc and his associates, swinging to a nearby building. The villains follow. Clint takes out Machete, and engages in hand-to-hand with Zaran. He tries to get away from them again. We see two men watching the fight, preparing to interfere, but an unseen woman tells them not to. Zaran gets glued to a wall, but Batroc sends Clint falling through a skylight, dropping his bow on the rooftop. They fight in the restaurant they’ve fallen into, and end up in the alley outside. Clint punches Batroc out, and then has a gun pulled on him by Silver Sable, who tells him he’s under arrest for the murder of Trick Shot.
Roger Stern and Bob Hall give us a Moon Knight story that is set just after MK joined the WCA, and was hunting down Cornelius Van Lunt, the Zodiac’s Taurus. He got a tip from Jack Russell, the Werewolf by Night, that he should go to see a mysterious criminal who lives in a weird creepy castle. As MK moves through the castle, he has to avoid a number of death traps, including wall spikes, trap doors, and suits of armor that fire darts at him. After narrowly missing falling into a pit of fire, he realizes that the traps are being controlled by someone, and calls on his foe to face him. We learn he’s up against the Shroud, and they fight for a bit. MK is surprised that his magnesium flare (a gift from Hawkeye) doesn’t affect Shroud (because he’s blind). Marc worries that Shroud knew he was coming, and that Jack Russell set him up. Finally, after a few more pages, Marc knocks Shroud down, and that’s when the rest of the Night Shift shows up. Shroud tells them all to leave, and explains to Marc that Dansen Macabre is the reason why Jack Russell, who is with the team, is under control despite being in his werewolf form. Shroud explains that he is using his team of criminals to try to shut down the underworld. He also offers him a place on the team, suggesting that he could lead it so Shroud could step down. Marc feels that he needs to be with the Avengers, and he leaves, with Shroud promising to pass on any leads he receives about Van Lunt. This was a decent enough story.

Silver Sable and her Wild Pack place Hawkeye, shirt and tunic-less, into a cell. She claims that the French government authorized her to capture him. She leaves him and goes to spar with some of her men, while talking to a French Minister. We learn that she’s actually been hired to find Trick Shot, and she figured she could capture Clint, allow him to escape, and then follow him (which I guess is easier than just following him in the first place?). While they talk, we see that Clint is tearing up his mattress to retrieve two pieces of wood. When some guards bring him his lunch, he throws the wood at them and asks them where his bow and arrows are. Sable learns of his escape, and we see a few pages of Wild Pack guys chasing him around a big castle. It’s odd that Clint can hear some of the guards coming, given his poor hearing. Eventually, he manages to escape, stringing a cable across a moat and sliding down on his bow. Sable watches, and is impressed. Just as Clint touches ground, he’s hit in the chest by an arrow fired by Trick Shot.
Stern and Paul Ryan contribute a Black Knight story. Doctor Druid comes to see Dane as he runs tests on his ebony blade. He’s hoping to figure out a way to undo the curse on it that threatens to turn him mad if the blade ever touches human blood. Druid offers to try to use his psychic powers to understand the blade. He feels some kind of connection, and then is transformed into someone calling himself The Last Knight, a descendant of Dane from some 600 years into the future. He wants to kill Dane so that he can never be born, and therefore end the blade’s curse. They fight for pages until Dane is able to use his superior combat training to knock him out. Then he reverts to Druid’s form. Dane is left more determined than ever to get rid of the curse.
Clint finds himself on a tropical-looking island (apparently it’s in Greece) in just his underwear. He sees a bow and some arrows, and hears some coughing from the trees. Just as he grabs the bow, some arrows fly out of the trees at him; he manages to shoot each of them and runs off. In France, Silver Sable learns that Trick Shot has gone to Greece, and prepares her men. Clint keeps getting trapped and escaping, as Trick Shot leads him into a cave which has a door that closes behind him. He finds and opening, and falls into some water. He’s down to one trick arrow, and Trick Shot sits on the banks of the river or lagoon. There’s another quiver full of arrows, but Clint isn’t sure he can get to it in time. He throws his last arrow at Trick Shot, distracting him and making him fall into the water. They end up facing each other with arrows knocked, and they both fire at the same time, both missing. Trick Shot is angry that Clint missed, since he never misses, and insists that Clint kill him. They fight and Trick Shot reveals that he is dying from cancer, and was hoping Clint would kill him. Clint breaks his bow, and promises to help the older man who weeps in his arms.
The Scarlet Witch story is written by Dennis Mallonee and beautifully drawn by John Ridgway. Wanda is home alone (this is some time after her children were born) when her old friend Melinda turns up at her door, terrified. Apparently Melinda was saved from death by Wanda in an issue of Marvel Fanfare. After that adventure, she met and fell in love with a guy named John Kowalski, who was later killed by a drunk driver. Except, he didn’t die, and went around taking the lives of everyone else that was hurt in the accident. Melinda realized he was death himself, and fled from him, but he’s been following her from city to city. They think he’s outside the house, but when Wanda hears her children crying, she rushes and finds Kowalski in their bedroom. They talk about how he’s curious about her children, who were born of magic, and explains that he’s there because Wanda has been cheating death. He takes them to a WWII battlefield, where he tries to use Nazi soldiers to kill Wanda. Wanda recognizes these soldiers as phantoms, so he takes her and Melinda to Vietnam. Wanda takes the fight to him and not his phantoms. As she comes close to defeating him, Wanda begins to turn into death herself, and so Melinda steps in to stop Wanda, claiming she still loves the man. Melinda and Kowalski decide to stay together for the three years he has to prepare his successor as a spirit of death, and they decide to stay together. Just then Vision returns from watching a baseball game, and Wanda tells him that she learned that love can survive death.

Hawkeye is in Algeria, where he’s being attacked by some gunmen. We learn he’s not alone; Le Peregrine, the hero of France, is with him, and is not happy that Clint is not being very subtle as they try to infiltrate a criminal base. Clint and Peregrine are working for someone, looking to recover a missing agent. They enter a secret passage, and we see in flashback that Silver Sable basically extorted Clint into going on this mission for her in return for being allowed to go home. Their target is the second Red Skull, who has stolen a timing device for nuclear warheads. Clint and Peregrine find the Skull, and see that he’s talking to a large glass jar. The heroes are spotted, and there’s a fight. The big jar is smashed, and we learn that Silver Sable’s operative is The Sandman, who was trapped in it. While the heroes (I guess Sandman counts at this point as a hero) fight the Skull’s goons, he sets the timing device (is it attached to a warhead?) and tries to escape in an escape vehicle. Clint wrecks its motor while Peregrine grabs the Skull. They aren’t sure how to defuse the timer, so Sandman just blasts the insides of it with sand. After the Skull is taken away, Peregrine points out that Sable won’t be happy that the detonator was destroyed.
Dan Mishkin and Tom Grindberg contributed a story starring The Falcon. He’s surprised to learn that Avengers Mansion has been destroyed (wouldn’t something like that have made the news?). Next he heads to Harlem where he learns that the church his grandfather built is about to be sold to developers. Sam says he’s against gentrification (if only 1988 Sam knew what was coming to his neighbourhood), but he basically gives a sermon about the right way to protest. A man in the crowd, who others call Scatterbrain, makes some vague threats, and when a cop tries to take him away, he appears to affect the cop’s brain. The cop then wants to kick out the developer, and then a couple of people in the crowd are turned into monsters. Redwing and Falcon try to stop them, and he figures out that Scatterbrain, who is clearly suffering from schizophrenia, is responsible for these strange events. He turns some cars into flying saucers, which Sam spends a couple of pages avoiding. As more monsters try to grab Sam, Redwing distracts Scatterbrain until Sam is able to knock him out. Later, the owner of the church, Victor Meachum, turns up and says he will give the church to the congregation. Knowing he’s involved in organized crime, Sam says he’d rather build a new church than work with him, and walks away.
Clint, Silver Sable, and Sandman are in Orly International Airport, with Clint preparing to return to the US when a large number of gunmen from the Bartovian Liberation Front decide to take the entire terminal hostage. Sable forbids the others from doing anything, since there is no one paying her to do anything. The leader of the terrorists takes a woman hostage, insisting that other Bartovian patriots be freed. Clint offers Sable a dollar, so she has Sandman intervene. While he distracts a number of terrorists, Sable and Clint attack, taking out everyone in the main part of the terminal. Clint jumps into the baggage chute, looking for his luggage which has his bow, arrows, and costumes in it. He finds it, but decides he only has time to put on his tunic, over his street pants. Sable and Sandman keep working their way through the terrorists, while Clint climbs back through the baggage carousels to surprise some others. Eventually, the terrorists decide to retreat, where they find Clint waiting for them. He takes them down, and the leader is left with his original hostage. Sable and Sandman arrive for the standoff, and Sable explains that she doesn’t care if the man kills the hostage, since she’s going to get paid for catching him either way. The woman stomps on the guy’s foot, allowing the others to all take him down. Later, Clint asks Sable if she was kidding about letting the guy kill the girl, and she just walks away. Later still, while Clint is on his flight home, he discovers that Sable slipped an invoice for one dollar into his jacket pocket.

Bob Layton and Jackson Guice collaborated on a Black Widow story. Natasha is exercising at home when she learns that her former ballet teacher, Oksana Bolishinko, has come to the US for surgery. Natasha remembers how she was close with Oksana, so much so that her teacher gave her a special necklace, and she decides she wants to go see her. Ivan, her friend and mentor has let himself into Natasha’s apartment, guessing that she’s on her way to the Russian embassy. He’s worried that she’s going to get captured and killed, but she lies and leaves anyway. She manages to sneak into the compound, disabling a camera and taking out the guards that come to investigate it. She makes her way to the security control room, where she takes out another guy, and learns that Oksana is in the dance studio. She disables the monitoring system, and then heads to the studio, fighting a martial arts-trained janitor along the way. When she reaches Oksana, she learns she’s blind. She wants to give Oksana her medallion back, because she feels she betrayed her by quitting ballet to work for the KGB. Oksana explains that it was more a token of love, and encourages her to leave before she is caught. A guy with a gun approaches, but he tells Natasha to leave. After she’s gone, Oksana says that he might get in trouble for not capturing her, but he touches an identical medallion around his neck, and says he understands how Natasha feels.
Issue eight opens with Mockingbird punching Clint in the face so hard she breaks his sunglasses. She’s furious that he drugged her so he could leave town (remember, this is just before he gets so angry with her for letting her rapist die in the past), and she storms off, while Wonder Man mocks him. Clint heads to a flower shop owned by some guy named Francesi. While he’s picking out a huge bouquet, some tough guys come in wearing ski masks, threatening him for not having closed the shop when they told him to. They say they don’t want his “kind” in the neighbourhood, and I’m left wondering if that means Italians, gays (nothing suggests he’s gay beyond owning a flower shop), or what. Clint intervenes, and ends up unmasking one of the guys, a teenager that Francesi identifies as “the Puentes kid.” The tough guys flee, and Francesi says he doesn’t want to involve the police. Back at the WCA Compound, Bobbi helps stitch up the cut on Clint’s head (someone smashed a pot on him), and they decide to go look around the neighbourhood for these kids. As they stake out the flower shop, they see some limousines arrive. Some goons bring the Puentes kid into a greenhouse, and we learn that Francesi is actually a crime boss. He’s preparing to kill the kid when a masked and caped adventurer calling himself Blind Justice busts through the window and starts fighting Francesi’s goons. He fires electrified bullets at them, or something. Clint and Bobbi enter the fight, but Clint doesn’t like it when Blind Justice says he wants Francesi to die for his crimes (which haven’t been identified yet). Francesi runs, Blind Justice goes after him, and Clint goes after him, arriving in time to keep BJ from killing the older man. Francesi has a heart attack and collapses, and Blind Justice takes off. Later, Clint, Bobbi, a cop, and the Puentes kid sit outside the ER, and are told that Francesi died. Clint feels bad, but Bobbi tries to cheer him up. As they leave, they don’t notice that a wreath of flowers has already arrived for Francesi with an RIP banner and a card that says “In the service of justice.”
Mike W. Barr never really wrote for Marvel, but wrote a very DC-feeling Doctor Pym story, drawn by Larry Alexander (who also drew the famous CapWolf issues of Captain America). Pym arrives at an LAPD station because a Lt. Ishmael has asked to see him. He explains that there have been three strange robberies that could only have been carried out by someone who can change size. At first, Hank is annoyed that he would be questioned about this, but realizes that it’s connected to his history of mental illness. He tells the cop that he will solve the case, and flies home in his ever-annoying Rover talking vehicle. He puts together some tracking devices, and then plants them in a few places. He flies around until he gets a signal as to where his foe is striking next, and they fly there. He explains to his vehicle that he felt that his foe has been spelling out his name (a very Batman villain thing to do) with his targets, and therefore knew he’d strike at a place that starts with the letter E. Sure enough, Hank discovers Dr. Nemesis prowling around. Nemesis hates Pym, and we learn that he spent some time in the Microverse (how I wish I could get to my Micronauts comics). Nemesis and Pym fight, with Hank relying on his miniaturized gadgets, while Nemesis keeps changing size. He gets really big, so while Rover distracts him, Hank gets on his back and cuts open some of Nemesis’s costume, so he can touch his bare skin and use his powers to shrink him out of his size-changing helmet. The cops arrive as Hank ties him up, and then Hank leaves.

Hawkeye has shown up at the office of a gangster called Speedo (seriously – that’s what everyone calls this guy). He wants to know about Blind Justice (I’m not sure why this particular gangster would know anything), but Speedo doesn’t know anything. Clint leaves. Speedo calls his boss, a woman we don’t get a good view of, and she tells him that he should arrange some way to get Clint and Blind Justice in the same place. Back at the WCA compound, Clint talks to a reporter while he goes through a workout. They talk about Blind Justice, while at the same time, Speedo and his #2, a guy called Zipper (seriously) meet some other criminals at some docks to plan their move against Clint and Blind Justice. They don’t know that someone is watching them. Clint gets a phone call, which Bobbi can tell is Speedo disguising his voice (just how do they know this guy so well?). Speedo tells Clint to come to the docks. Later, Clint scouts out the docks, but doesn’t know that many of the goons keeping tabs on him are being taken out under cover of darkness. When Clint is finally spotted, the goons start shooting at him, but the Shroud turns up and makes him feel inadequate by stopping all the criminals. After Clint complains to him, Shroud points out where Speedo and Zipper are. Speedo turns and finds Blind Justice on the roof with him, and Zipper is gone. The two men pull guns on each other, but Clint fires some arrows from the street, distracting Blind Justice; Speedo shoots him in the chest, but as Blind Justice falls off the roof and into the water, he shoots Speedo with his electricity gun. Clint and Shroud assume that BJ is dead, and walk away, although we see his hand on the rung of a ladder. Weirdly, that’s it for this character.
JM DeMatteis and June Brigman contributed a Hellcat story. As Patsy Walker is interviewed on TV about her new book, we see a figure running through the city, attracting the attention of dogs in alleyways, and into the TV studio. Bill Montague, the interviewer, is hard on Patsy about her husband’s connection to Satan, and tries to make her sound as if she’s anti-mutant. Just as Patsy is asked about her first husband, Mad-Dog comes rushing into the studio, and bites Patsy on the neck, poisoning her. When she wakes up, she’s in a warehouse, and is wearing her Hellcat outfit. Mad-Dog is unhappy that Patsy wrote in her book that she never loved him, and twists her arm. He rants and kicks her, and claims he became Mad-Dog to make her happy. She starts to fight back, but he insists that she loves him, and decides that he has to kill her. Patsy continues to insist that she never loved him, but even as he loses consciousness, he claims she did. Patsy realizes that she did love him once, and this is a whole profile of manipulative toxic masculinity that could not be written today.
I think that by this point, DeFalco was starting to run out of ideas. A man who calls himself Seymour the All Seeing, an astrologer, determines that Los Angeles is going to sink into the sea at noon, but his call to the newspaper is ignored. Hawkeye is at the LA Manufacturers Expo, where he’s been asked to guard a priceless diamond, displayed over a large model of the city, which is next to a tank full of water (you already know how this is going to end). Some tough guys with armored gloves enter the expo, and start roughing people up so their leader can get to the diamond. They sneak up on Clint and blast his quiver with a concussion blast, breaking his arrows (that is a vulnerability that no one ever thinks of). Clint lures them into a giant speaker so he can set off a sonic arrow head (his hearing loss is acknowledged in this issue). Seymour worries that he’s running out of time, but enters the Expo to let the people there know what’s going to happen (although why, since they can’t get out of the city in the remaining nine minutes?). Clint uses a giant prop camera’s flash to blind some of his attackers, inadvertently blinding their leader just as he gets a hold of the diamond (because Seymour is trying to talk to the guy in charge of the Expo, and distracts him). Clint keeps fighting, while the leader searches for the diamond. As Clint finishes up the last of the goons, he sees that the leader is aiming a gun at him. He fires his last arrow, knocking the guy into the model of the city, and tipping it into the tank of water. Seymour feels vindicated, and later, tells the press that he was right, and that he expects the guy in charge of the Expo will be President of the US one day. The guy tells Clint that maybe that means he’ll be president of a small company.

DG Chichester, Margaret Clark, and Lee Weeks help prove one thing I’ve always suspected – that Doctor Druid is one of the most boring characters in Marvel history. Druid is on his way to an appearance on David Letterman to promote his new book (this is apparently a theme in this series now), when a disturbance happens in the subway station. A train arrives covered in runes, and when Druid tries to decipher them, he sees a man asking for help. A woman grabs the guy, and in a flash, they disappear. Druid decides he needs to suit up and investigate. He heads into the tunnel, and gets attacked by some odd looking creatures (not Morlocks). He learns that the woman he’s pursuing is named Stonecutter, and he eventually discovers a Stonehenge-like arrangement of trains at a train yard. The woman is about to sacrifice the guy she grabbed, while her troll-like followers watch. Druid tries to cause an earthquake, but only manages a tremor. He fights the troll guys. Stonecutter tries to kill him, the trains collapse, and Stonecutter turns really old. Druid saves the captive and talks a lot. I got bored.
Hawkeye is chasing some costumed acrobat jewelry store thieves who call themselves Bob-Cat and his Claws. They try to escape by running and jumping through traffic, figuring Clint won’t risk firing arrows at bystanders. The gridlock caused by this upsets an old man named Kranpuff, who is trying to get somewhere in his limo. It turns out he has the ability to transfer his mind into other people’s bodies, so he takes control of a police officer so he can order his chauffeur to drive on the sidewalk (I’m not sure why he didn’t just take control of the chauffeur). Kranpuff is approaching ninety, and while his powers have made him rich, he’s not prepared to die yet, and is looking for an appropriate replacement body. Just then, Clint flies by on his sky-cycle, and Kranpuff gets an idea. Clint continues to fight the Claws, and ends up on the roof battling them. As Clint jumps from one roof to another, Kranpuff takes his body. He’s not able to properly fire his bow, and the half-dozen crooks gang up on him, giving him a beating. Fearing for his life, Kranpuff jumps out of Clint’s body, and Clint quickly takes down all the criminals. He’s a bit worried he might have had a seizure. Meanwhile, Kranpuff returns to his body just as it dies.
Hercules is in Olympus to speak to Dionysus on his father’s behalf. The god of wine is sitting on a nuclear missile, which he intends to detonate because he feels that the Olympian gods are dying out anyway. Hercules tries to reason with him, but fails. He’s about to just take the missile, so Dionysus summons Sgt. Butcher T. Washington, a Mr. T-like character, who is piloting a massive battle tank. Hercules fights the tank, eventually destroying it, which causes Washington to fight him one-on-one. Washington gets behind Herc and starts choking him with an adamantium garrote (the word is misspelled in the comic). Seeing this, Dionysus gets concerned, and sends Washington, the tank, and the missile away. He says that he feels better knowing that Herc cared about him. We see that he sent Washington and the missile to Fort Knox, which is kind of strange. Zeus stands in judgement of Dionysus, deciding he needs to be banished. Zeus and Herc talk, and we learn that Herc allowed Washington to choke him, knowing that Dionysus wouldn’t let him be hurt. We also see that Dionysus now runs a bar in New York, and is happy.
With issue twelve, Tom DeFalco started just plotting this book, and it acknowledged things happening to Clint in WCA. It opens with the Abomination escaping from the authorities while taking him to the Vault. Abomination, whose body is under the control of Tyrannus, wants revenge on Wonder Man for stopping his earlier plans. Two of the staff at the WCA compound worry about Clint since his breakup with Mockingbird. He’s inside his room, in full costume, feeling sorry for himself, and justifying his stand on her involvement in the Phantom Rider’s death. Abomination enters the compound and starts smashing its defenses. Clint rushes out, and quickly realizes he’s outclassed. He figures he needs to get Abomination into his workroom if he has any hope of stopping him. He leads him through the building, trying one trick arrow after another with little result, until he is able to grab an adamantium tipped arrow he’s developed for a fight with Ultron. He threatens to shoot Abomination through the heart if he doesn’t stop, but Tyrannus has telepathic abilities, and can tell that Clint won’t kill. As he probes further, though, he realizes that Clint is capable of killing him. Clint considers that maybe Bobbi was right, and that there might be a time when he has to kill. He decides to fire the arrow into the floor at Abomination’s feet. When Abomination goes to retrieve it, he is jolted with a massive electrical shock, a feature of the arrow that Clint didn’t mention. He goes to call the Vault, and reflects that the Avengers’ prohibition against killing is right.

Howard Mackie and Amanda Conner deliver an unconventional backup story, in that it focuses on the villain Yellowjacket. The Fixer has busted her out of a federal prison, and takes her to a converted warehouse where he does his work. He tells her that he’s in love with her, and she rejects him and flies away. Later, she turns up at the home of the Wasp, wanting to get revenge on her. As she watches the house, a car pulls up and Dane Whitman (the Black Knight) gets out. He’s there to profess his love for Wanda, and also, to give her a fencing lesson, which is why he’s carrying a violin case that is much shorter than the sword he has hidden in it). Jan lets him down easy, claiming that he reminds her too much of her ex-husband to date him. Yellowjacket has decided she’s into Dane, so she follows him. A little later, Dane stands outside the ruins of Avengers Mansion, and thinks about how he’s never going to find a woman and is going to have to figure out how “to be content with polishing the old ebony blade,” which is one of the funniest euphemisms I’ve ever heard. Yellowjacket watches him, nursing her crush, when the Fixer attacks her. He decides to kill Dane, seeing him as competition, but doesn’t know he’s the Black Knight. Fixer and Yellowjacket fight, and Dane watches as Yellowjacket protects a small child from being injured. The Fixer knocks her down and is about to put a mind control pod on her, but then Dane draws his attention. Yellowjacket comes to and punches Fixer out. His costume flies him away. Dane offers to take Yellowjacket out, and she kisses him, before taking off so she doesn’t get arrested.
A guy on a motorcycle, calling himself the Bullet Biker, busts into an art gallery, and using his Deadshot-style wrist guns, shoots up the art. Cops chase him, but he’s able to duck into an alleyway and disappear (we see a red van driving off). Later, Hawkeye comes by the gallery to investigate, and recognizes Gayle Rogers, the reporter that interviewed him a few issues back. She tells him how this is the fifth time the Biker’s struck, and that he seems to be targeting a millionaire named J. Marcus Waldner, so they head to see him together on Clint’s skycycle. As they approach the guy’s estate, we see a red van driving off. The Biker has already struck, and Waldner explains that he refused to pay any extortion money to him. Clint figures he’s going after the guy’s warehouse next, so he gets directions. Gayle insists on coming with him. They arrive just as the Biker starts shooting up the art. Clint tries to stop him, and the Biker takes off, leaving a smokescreen behind him for cover. Clint stays on him, but ends up flying into an office building momentarily. Clint feels like he recognizes the guy’s driving, and catches up to him just as he’s about to enter his van again. The Biker ends up launching his bike into the air off a parking garage roof, figuring Clint will have to stop it from falling on the crowd below. Clint manages, and the Biker tries to leave in his van, reflecting on the way that Clint’s shooting reminds him of a kid from his carnaval days. Clint appears in front of the van, and recognizes the Biker as Dillon Zarro, from the carnaval. After Zarro is taken away by the cops, Gayle flirts with Clint, and he considers that he might know how to get over Mockingbird.
Gregory Wright, Dwayne McDuffie, and Jackson Guice give us a Wonder Man backup that’s pretty dumb. Simon is doing stunts on a movie where the main actor is a bit of a jerk. Simon decides to quit, and just after he flies off, the actor is taken over by some alien beam of light. Simon’s jets were damaged during the shoot. He fails to notice a drone following him and recording. He goes to a nearby demolition sight and offers to destroy the building as a way of letting off steam. The alien presence animates the wrecking ball though, and attacks Simon with it, followed by a pile of bricks. On the set, things aren’t going well, and then Simon comes flying through a wall. The actor, possessed by Takumer, is almost crushed by a prop helicopter, but Simon saves him. The being, Takumer, realizes it’s in the wrong body and tries to enter Simon’s, but his ionic energy rejects him. Takumer appears in his real form, a monstrous bunny (seriously), and fights Simon and an animated camera crane. Eventually, Simon defeats the bunny, and the drone explains that they are a film crew from another dimension. Simon walks away.

DeFalco is back to writing on his own with issue fourteen, and is joined by Al Milgrom (just as he leaves the WCA title). The Black Widow is fighting a bunch of AIM guys in one of their complexes. She manages to take them all down, but recognizing that she’s going to need help, uses their radio to send out a message. This allows three of them to sneak up on her and zap her unconscious. Clint is at the WCA compound, getting ready for a date with Bobbi to try to smooth out their differences when an alarm goes off. Bobbi arrives for their date just as Clint departs on his skycycle. Carlos, the sometime butler, tells Bobbi that he had to leave because Black Widow called for help, and Bobbi assumes that it’s because they used to date. Clint arrives at the coordinates Natasha sent him, and is attacked by AIM. Inside the AIM complex, one of their higher level scientists is hooking Natasha up to a large robot thing, so he can give it her speed and reflexes. Clint makes his way into the complex, never knowing that Mockingbird is shadowing him, and taking out some threats from behind. The transfer process Natasha is going through is painful. Clint enters the room where she’s being held and takes out the AIM guys there. He frees Natasha, who explains that she was looking into a shipment of containers that AIM received, that happen to be in the same room. Clint opens one and throws up – they contain human brains. Just then, the giant robot, which had disappeared from the background for a page or two, comes alive and attacks them (apparently it’s called the Attackoid). Some other higher level AIM scientists watch on a screen, and debate whether or not the robot is ready for this. Their leader decides it doesn’t matter, because Clint and Natasha have to die since they know about the brains.
Chris Claremont and Alan Davis collaborated on a She-Hulk story. Jen is in Washington, about to argue her first case in front of the Supreme Court, challenging the Mutant Registration Act. She’s nervous, and barely into her opening statement when she’s called out because of an emergency. She changes into her She-Hulk uniform in a phone booth and goes outside to find Titania rampaging. She punches her across the Potomac and heads back into the court, although it’s not long before she has to head back out to deal with Titania again. This time, she punches her into the ground. She returns to the court, looking more dishevelled than before, and has trouble figuring out where she was in her argument before she’s called out again. When she returns to the court again, she finds it in recess, with the justices gone. As she leaves, Titania is waiting for her again, wanting to beat her like she did in the Secret Wars. Now really angry, Jen gives Titania a real beating, and hands her over to some police. As she tries to calm down, the functionary that kept interrupting her argument gives her a candy and they walk away together.
That Attackoid attacks Hawkeye and Black Widow. When Clint tries to ground its electricity, the containers on its chest heat up to melt it, which apparently is the kind of thing Natasha has heard of before. They fight it for a couple of pages, while Mockingbird takes out a ton of AIM goons in the hallway, working to keep herself hidden. Finally, by working together, Clint and Natasha take the Attackoid down, and chase after the scientist that tried to program it with Natasha’s skills. They notice the knocked out goons in the hall, and Clint wonders how there are more than he remembers taking down. The science guy prepares to board a rocket sled, and the two heroes manage to get on the side of it, but Bobbi, following behind, doesn’t get there in time. The Imperial Council of AIM watches and worries about the state of the Project Brain Drain. They send “Enforcer Fourteen” to stop the heroes. He leads a large group to the place where the sled stops, and they hold Clint and Natasha at gunpoint. Clint recognizes Fourteen; somehow, it’s Hank Pym!

So how do you know the 90s are upon us? Fabian Nicieza and Tom Morgan have a Wasp story, that’s one way. Janet is at a big electronics expo in Michigan as head of Van Dyne Industries (how often does she even work for that company?). She sees a man falling into the mouth of a giant robot at the Stane International booth, and flies over to help out. She learns that Karaguchi Inoyawa, representing Stane, was just playing around with his massive Red Ronin robot (which is missing its legs). He explains to Jan how Stane acquired it after its fight with the Avengers. Some disgruntled employee watches as Inoyawa flirts with Jan. This guy gets on one of Stane’s computers and reprograms Red Ronin so it starts moving around. Jan does some weird thing with her blast to keep a bunch of scaffolding from falling on the crowd, and sees the robot push itself backwards through a wall on its knuckles. She notices the disgruntled guy has been hurt, and sees that he did something with RR on the computer. She talks to Inoyawa, and he explains that the robot is on assembly mode, and will be searching for its missing legs, which are in Chicago. She takes a beeper and headset (because clearly they don’t know how beepers work) and she flies after it, entering the robot while listening to Inoyawa’s directions. She has to fight her way through some automated defenses to the robot’s brain, where she pulls some wires and shuts it down. After, Inoyawa flirts with her some more.
Mockingbird watches as two AIM agents load containers filled with the brains of dead AIM guys onto a mass teleporter. She jumps on the platform as it teleports, and is immediately surrounded by a ton of AIM guys who attack her. Clint and Natasha are stuck in immobilizers, while “Hank Pym” talks. Clint’s figured out that he’s a robot, since he’s turned his hearing aid way up and can hear his gears. “Hank” reveals that AIM has the real Hank Pym prisoner. He explains that he was working on helping his first wife, Maria Pym, who has a massive brain, but was tricked by her and knocked unconscious. The fake Maria is really SODAM, the Specialized Organism Designed for Aggressive Maneuvers (aka So Damn stupid). She gloats. Bobbi’s fight elsewhere in the complex leads to a computer being shorted out, which in turn frees Clint and Natasha. They start fighting all the AIM folk, and Clint is even able to retrieve his bow and arrows. The fight destroys the robot Hank, and worries the Imperial Council, who are watching in secret. They order SODAM to initiate the base’s self-destruct, at which point, most of the AIM guys take off. Our three heroes make it to the rocket sled, which Bobbi sees on a monitor. She jumps on the teleporter, just as the base explodes. Later, Hank, Natasha, and Clint stand around talking about how SODAM wasn’t really Hank’s first wife. This makes Clint think about Bobbi, who he misses, but he doesn’t know she’s just walking away down an alley.
Pamela Douglas, an editor for a business journal in Manhattan is starting to hear voices and question her sanity. Things get steadily worse, and while her husband is supportive, he’s not much help. Pamela even shaves her head. On her doctor’s advice, she takes a trip, but makes it a business trip. She has a panic attack when she sees an anti-abortion billboard. She and her husband argue about whether or not she might be pregnant, when a giant hand smashes through her skylight. She flees into the street, where the voice starts to speak to her. Heather Douglas, Moondragon, has been hiding in her mind ever since the Dragon of the Moon killed her body on Titan. She says that Isaac, the living computer, is growing a clone body for her to inhabit, but she needs Pamela to take her there. She has a spaceship, which has been in orbit for some time, but also admits that she had nothing to do with the giant hand. A man approaches, and attacks with giant spirit hands. Heather has Pamela move towards the man – it’s Isaac Christians, the Gargoyle, inhabiting a crystal ever since Moondragon killed him while under the influence of the Dragon. The crystal has since taken over the body of a soldier who came to check out the damage the Defenders caused in their last fight with Heather. She asks Isaac to come with her, and they board the ship and head off for Titan.

Hawkeye is in the rafters of a warehouse in LA, watching as some uniformed men show off weird weapons to guys in suits. He’s there because of an anonymous tip, which, it turns out, was sent by Sandman. Sandman’s there working for Silver Sable, and he decided to bring Clint in on the job, since he considers him one of her employees too. Clint disputes that, but agrees to help out when he sees some of the exotic weapons, like a flying robot hand thing. The underlings call in their respective bosses, and we learn the sale is being brokered by Madame Menace, although her customer remains disguised in a trench coat. Sandman wants to wait, because he’s only there for Menace, but Clint jumps the gun, hoping to take in all the criminals. It’s revealed that the buyer is Doctor Octopus, and there’s some general fighting and chaos for a bit. When Madame Menace uses a sonic weapon, Clint turns off his hearing aid, but gets grabbed by Doc Ock. Sandman has to help him get free, but both Madame Menace and Doc Ock get away. Sandman’s not happy, and the story ends with him and Clint arguing.
Danny Fingeroth and Dave Cockrum provide a Sub-Mariner story. Namor is searching for Marrina’s offspring – alien beings that have hidden somewhere in the world’s oceans. As he swims around, he finds a small family whose boat is sinking, and brings them safely back to shore. They are very poor and so he decides to give them a pouch of gold he happens to have attached to his swimsuit. In thanks, the young boy in the family gives him a wooden fish necklace. Namor continues swimming around, and in a deep trench of Puerto Rico, discovers massive piles of gold that look like buildings. A submarine orders him aboard; it’s a US government ship run by someone named Charles Anderson, a “special Presidential agent.” He explains that he’s there to guard the gold, which is from the Secret Wars II event, when the Beyonder turned a building to gold in some of Spider-Man’s comics. The government put the gold there so it won’t destabilize the economy, and this Anderson guy is not happy that Namor’s found it. As Namor leaves, he sees another sub moving in and taking some of the gold in a net. He decides he doesn’t care, and we learn that this sub belongs to Goldbug, a man who is dying because he handled radioactive gold. Namor decides he should do something after thinking about the poor people he just helped, so he attacks Goldbug’s sub. It is uniquely equipped to fight someone like him, with lasers and grappling arms, but Namor is victorious, and sends the sub away with a powerful swing. Anderson’s sub returns, and he blames Namor for what just happened. Namor gets mad and leaves, and Anderson decides they need to move the gold.
Howard Mackie and Ron Wilson take the lead spot, as the Texas Twister comes to see Hawkeye at the WCA compound. He’s been out of sorts ever since discovering that his girlfriend, Shooting Star, was really a demon in the pages of West Coast Avengers, and he insists on seeing the demon right away. When Clint questions the point of that, he basically attacks him, so Clint decides to go along with things. Apparently the Avengers have been keeping this demon in their basement, in an iron cage. When they go to see the demon, which is male apparently, the Twister insists he be allowed in the cage. Again, going along with his acquaintance’s bizarre commands, Clint lets him, while he keeps an arrow drawn and trained on the creature. The Twister kisses the demon, declaring his love for him, and strangely, the demon turns back into Shooting Star. The Twister is happy, and explains that he and Star had been performing on the rodeo circuit, but his powers were slowing down. He was worried that Shooting Star wouldn’t love him anymore if he couldn’t create twisters (sounds like a solid relationship) so he made a deal with the demon to get his powers back. In return, the demon took Shooting Star’s soul, and made him forget all about it until their run-in with the WCA and Firebird. Clint asks where the demon went when he left Shooting Star, and then the Twister turns green and attacks them. Clint goes to a locker to find Star’s costume and pistols, and they struggle to contain the demonic Texas Twister. Clint figures out how to trap him by firing a bolo arrowhead attached to a rocket shaft through the creature’s wind, and ties him to a tree. Turning fully into the demon, it breaks free, but Shooting Star threatens to kill him, unless he puts his consciousness into a convenient lawn statue. He does so, and the Twister is free once more.
Peter B. Gillis returns, joined by James Brock, to tell the next chapter of Moondragon’s rebirth saga. Pamela Douglas has been living on Titan for a little while now, housing Heather Douglas’s mind while a new body is grown for her, and still wearing Isaac Christian’s soul in a gem around her neck. She’s been playing trivia games with Isaac, the computer, and playing a Titanian version of chess with Mentor. She’s also been flirting with a pretty boy named Demeityr. It’s finally time for the infant Heather’s to inhabit to be born, so Pamela pulls it from the machine that has been growing it. The priests of Shao-Lom want to train the child, but Heather, still in Pamela, refuses. Mentor points out this is the same pride that led to her being taken over by the Dragon of the Moon, but when Isaac (Christians, not the computer) agrees, Mentor decides to let her go. They transfer Heather’s mind into the baby, and Pamela prepares to leave with her (I thought they were going to get a body for Gargoyle too, but I guess not). Demeityr says goodbye, and almost makes Pamela stay, but the strange new family departs. Not long afterwards, their ship is picked up by a giant flying world which belongs to The Dance, a mysterious alien race known for doing strange things all over the galaxy. They move the trio towards their ship’s fusion plasma thingy. Since Heather is now powerless (aside, apparently from telepathic communication) and Isaac is a jewel, it’s up to Pamela to fly them out of the way with new powers she didn’t know she had. Demeityr turns up, having followed them, and embraces her. The Dance seem fine with whatever just happened, so the four get ready to leave. Pamela asks if the universe is ready for two Moondragons.

Hawkeye, on his skycycle, is chasing The Orb, who is riding a motorcycle, through the desert. Clint has a terrible time catching him, but eventually gets a suction cup arrow to stick to the back of the Orb’s giant eyeball helmet, pulling him off his bike. As Clint comes in to capture him, the Orb blasts his skycycle, but when it crashes, it kicks up some debris that knocks the Orb out. Clint sees that inside his helmet, the Orb is badly disfigured, and realizes that he is possibly concussed. He puts together a stretcher with some arrows (like, a lot of arrows, I would think, and since the Orb’s bike is trashed too, starts heading off in the direction he thinks LA is in. He attempts to get water from a cactus, but that doesn’t work, so he keeps walking, eventually finding a large dome. Inside is an oasis, with a waterfall. Clint and the Orb, who has started to recover, drink. As the Orb rests, he doesn’t notice faces appearing on the tree he’s resting on. He considers shooting Clint with the gun he’s had hidden in his boot, but is attacked by the tree, which grabs him. Clint fires an arrow into the tree, which is enough to free him (it was acid tipped), and reveals that he took the bullets from the Orb’s gun. They are grabbed by plant-beings, and then the villain Plantman reveals himself, saying they will have to die because they hurt his tree.
Sandy Plunkett, inked by Scott Hampton, gives us a Black Panther story that was kind of disappointing. T’Challa has held a gala weekend on a ritzy island nation as a way of raising funds for Wakanda’s neighbour Zambia, and he’s invited Philip Whitehead, an author and friend from his university days. Philip is an introvert, and much of this story is narrated through his journal. As they all fly back to Wakanda, the engines on T’Challa’s jet explode. The pilot, named Stogie (he chews a cigar as he flies) manages to land the plane in the water, and everyone makes their way to an island. T’Challa forages some herbs, and explains to Philip that this happened because he didn’t prepare properly for a once every ten years event wherein a supernatural beast comes to fight the king of Wakanda. T’Challa’s been busy, so he let it slide. He drinks the potion he made from his herbs, and heads out to hunt, but Philip decides to drink what’s left of the potion. T’Challa finds the beast and starts to fight it, but it proves to be too much for him, and it swipes him with its poisoned talons. At this point, Philip jumps on the creature, distracting it long enough for T’Challa to stab it with a branch, killing it. T’Challa is weak from the poison, but Philip explains that he learned about snake venom in the Scouts, and that he carries a key chain around just in case someone gets poisoned by a snake (yeah, this part lost me). Later, we learn that Philip sucked out the venom, but that it killed him. T’Challa goes to see his widow, who looks down on her husband for dying this way.
A large carnivorous plant is about to chew up Hawkeye and The Orb, while Plantman rants. They aren’t able to struggle their way out, but after they are swallowed, one of Clint’s flare arrowheads is able to get them free. Plantman decides they aren’t worth his time, and walks away with a female plantbeing, leaving the rest of his plants to kill them. The Orb ditches Clint, so he fights he way free, using a flame arrow to keep the plantbeings away from him. Remembering he’s in a giant dome in the desert, he launches a suction cup arrowhead, attached to a cable, towards the roof of the doom, and uses it to get a bird’s eye view. He spots some equipment. In that ring of tech, Plantman explains to the captive Orb how he’s going to open his dome to turn the whole desert into a jungle that will follow his orders. Clint comes swinging in and shoots an arrow at the machinery, causing a small explosion. He frees The Orb, and blows a hole in the side of the dome. As they run from it, the dome lifts into the air and flies off.
It’s time for the last story in the Moondragon trilogy, again by Peter B. Gillis and James Brock. Heather, Pamela, Isaac, and Demeityr have gone to visit the former Defender Cloud, who is now part of a massive nebula. She is happy to see her old friends, but Heather, now a toddler, is grumpy and short tempered. She’s annoyed that she’s still so young, and storms off. The group leaves Cloud, who has to stay with the nebula. Later, Pamela and Demeityr are making out when they get hit by a mental blast from Heather. She’s angry that Demeityr likes Pameal more than her, and makes an illusion of her old body so she can come on to him. Isaac, still in a jewel around Pamela’s neck, tries to explain things to Heather, but she gets even more angry, trying to mindblast them, and kicking Demeityr. She sends Pamela and Isaac into space, where they almost die, but Isaac senses something in a nearby star. Some energy flies from the star, engulfing them, changing colour, and then flying back towards Heather’s vessel. Three figures stand on a green dragon outside her ship. Cloud returns, and talks to Heather. Heather explains that she was jealous of Pamela, and then Cloud explains that she’s turned Heather into Sundragon (who has a terrible look), and restored Isaac to both his original body and his Gargoyle body. Demeityr tells Heather he loves her, but that she’s too much for him. Heather apologizes to everyone. Pamela explains that the rest of them are leaving her, and fly off on the green dragon that I guess Pamela is making, while Heather tells her computer to take her home.

The Orb tries to choke Clint in the desert, but loses their brief fight, after which Clint gives him water and continues to lead him through the desert. After hours, they find a seemingly deserted town, and after drinking, split up. Clint tries to call the Avengers, but just leaves a message. This is the first that he acknowledges having left the team, which I guess is why he never had a communicator through this whole story arc. He sees the Orb, who is gesturing to his “gang” of bikers. They shoot the Orb in the back, and then open fire on Clint, who is in a building. He tries to sneak out the back of the building, and discovers one biker standing guard. When he hits him with his bow, the guy’s head comes right off, and Clint realizes that the bikers are more of Plantman’s creations. As the whole gang comes at him, he catches them in his net, and tries to burn them using a flame arrow, but some other bikers come at him through the flames. Clint knows he’s in trouble, as he’s out of arrows, but just as he prepares to go down fighting, Wonder Man swoops in and stops the last two bikers. Hank Pym lands a quinjet and grabs Clint.
Peter Gillis sticks around for another issue, joined by artist Tom Artis (who is credited as Tomasina Cawthorn Artis for some reason) to give us a Starfox story. Starfox has gone to the planet Rescorla, a very uptight planet, where he is not exactly welcome. He’s there to buy something from their extensive market of things they’ve forbidden. He leads his guide towards the “companions”, beings from a variety of worlds, before appearing to be interested in a particular woman who almost reveals that they know each other. She’s Heater Delite, a supporting character from the original Warlock comics. They chat while the guide busy, and we learn that Heater sold herself into slavery to avoid the attentions of some guy who was after her. Eros haggles with the Rescorlan, but then uses his pleasure center powers, which draws the attention of other Rescorlans, and they have to flee. They escape, and the story just ends.
Clint is heading to marriage counselling with Bobbi, in costume, and is running late. When he arrives, they start arguing in the waiting room about him being late. The counsellor brings them into his office, but before they can begin their session, an egg comes flying through the window. Clint pulls everyone down before it blows up. The Brothers Grimm come through the window and attack. Clint shoves the counsellor into a closet, and he and Bobbi try to fight the Brothers. Clint finds the office cramped, so he heads out the window and to a neighbouring roof. He almost fires an arrow at Bobbi when she joins him. The Brothers follow them, and one uses “fairy dust” to freeze Bobbi like a statue. They turn their attention to Clint, and reveal that they are out to collect some kind of payment for getting him. They push their attack, and eventually, Clint makes them think he’s fallen off the roof. He catches them both with a single cable arrow, but is then attacked by Mad-Dog, who he’s never even fought before. Mad-Dog manages to bite Clint’s arm, which is when he remembers that he has poisoned fangs. They both fall off the roof, landing on a convertible car’s soft-top. Clint and Mad-Dog roll around fighting, but Mad-Dog is kicked off him by Bobcat, and the two villains look ready to fight over him.

Lou Mougin and Don Heck provided a Swordsman story that starts in the WCA (not AWC yet) compound, with Clint asking Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Wonder Man to watch a videotape he got from the government that contains The Swordsman’s debriefing tape from when he first joined the team (this is after his spirit made an appearance in West Coast Avengers #39). We learn that Jacques Duquesne grew up in Sin-Cong, a French colony in Southeast Asia. His father gave him a sword that once belonged to the Crimson Cavalier, a WWI era hero, and then was verbally abusive to a household servant. Jacques was nice to the guy, who took him to a meeting of people wanting self-rule. Jacques decided to join this group, and created the Swordsman identity to help with that. He helped the rebels take a power station, and eventually to drive out the French all together. He learned that the rebels killed his father, and had been lying to him about it, and then they turned on him. He fought his way free, but still felt betrayed by the Communists, and then became a mercenary, thief, carnival performer (that part doesn’t get mentioned), and eventually an Avenger.

Bobcat and Mad-Dog fight over who gets to kill Hawkeye, giving him the chance to escape them. He tries to call his sky-cycle, but it won’t come. We learn that the marriage counsellor he and Bobbi went to last issue is involved in all this, reporting his observations to his employer. Clint thinks he’s in the clear, but gets attacked by the Bullet Biker, who has a score to settle with him. He dives under a parked car, but ends up getting his bow caught on the muffler and has to abandon it when the Biker tosses a grenade his way. Clint falls into some garbage cans, but despite still suffering the effects of Mad-Dog’s poison, manages to toss a garbage can lid, knocking the Biker off his bike. As he makes his way down the street, he comes across his old foes, the Death Throws (Knicknack, Ringleader, Tenpin, Oddball, and Bombshell). They surround him and start juggling weapons all over the place, leaving him no choice but to try climbing a utility pole to escape them. He throws an arrow at one of Bombshell’s bombs, setting it off, and then tosses a cable arrow to a nearby roof. He reaches the roof, only to find that Trickshot is standing there, ready to shoot him with an arrow.
The Vision (the all-white, barefoot version) flies around Los Angeles, looking for a stolen bus, in a story by John Byrne and Kieron Dwyer. The bus is used by a trio of armored villains called Smog Alert to disable an armored car. Vision intervenes, taking out two of Smog Alert easily, and then rescuing a hostage from the leader. The hostage tries to throw herself at him, but he doesn’t respond. The guy in charge of the police response to this event doesn’t recognize Vision, and their conversation makes Vision realize he should do a better job of explaining the changes he’s undergone. He heads to the recording studio where the Late Show is being filmed, and interrupts the taping to be an impromptu guest on the show. He has a brief conversation with Johnny Carson, Pee Wee Herman, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. It’s all very awkward; later, the AWC (USAgent, Tigra, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, and Hank Pym) laugh at him.
Trickshot has an arrow notched and aimed at Hawkeye, who recaps the last couple of issues. Trickshot fires, but misses Clint, instead hitting an axe that Knicknack has thrown at him from the edge of the roof. Knicknack calls to the other Death Throws, and Trickshot pins him to the edge of the roof and helps Clint, who is suffering from poison and exhaustion, to get away. As they hide in an alley, Trickshot bandages Clint up and tells him that there’s a price on his arm. Someone actually is paying all these criminals to cut his arm off, so he can’t use his bow anymore. Trickshot walks to the end of the alley to see if the coast is clear, but Clint still doesn’t trust him. As Trickshot suggests that there must be a tracking device on Clint (I mean, how else did he find him?), Clint slips away into sewer tunnels. As Clint tries to get away, we see that the person behind all of this is getting updates on a very large cordless phone. Clint stops to rest, but hears that someone is approaching. It’s Razorfist, one of the most ridiculous villains ever (moreso for his thigh-high boots and women’s bathing suit outfit than for the long razors where his hand should be). They fight, and Clint manages to stick his razor fists together with a putty arrowhead. Clint takes him out, and heads for the tunnel he came from. The Brothers Grimm approach, so Clint turns towards another drain pipe, but Mad-Dog is in that one. Soon, Clint is surrounded by those three, the Death Throws, Bullet biker, and Crossfire, the man behind all of this.
Firebird, aka Espirita, was never actually an Avengers, but she still managed to get a story in this book, by Fabian Nicieza and Gavin Curtis. In it, she gets abducted by aliens, and learns that the meteor she found in the desert (after getting out of a car after the driver, the priest she worked for, told her that her social work programs were having their budgets cut). That gave her her powers was not sent by God, as she believed, but was actually a failed science experiment of an alien child. She’s upset to learn that she’s lived a lie, having believed herself to be chosen by God. She’s sad, but learns the extent of her powers, and decides it’s time to be a better hero. I’m not sure why this story had to be written. One thing that made Bonita a unique character was the depth of her faith, and I don’t know why that had to be taken away from her.

Hawkeye is at the mercy of a big group of his former villains, and has learned that Crossfire is behind this whole scheme. His goal is to cut off Clint’s arm so he can’t use his bow anymore, and has even brought a doctor (the one that posed as a marriage counsellor before) to keep Clint alive. Clint prepares to make his last stand, and isn’t happy when he sees the sewer manhole above him opens as well, expecting even more villains. Instead, his bow is tossed down to him, followed by Mockingbird and Trickshot, who was there to help before when Clint ran from him. They all start to fight against the assembled villains, while the newcomers explain they used the same tracking device that Crossfire was using to follow Clint. Knicknack tosses a knife into Trickshot’s chest, just below his neck, and he collapses. He tells Clint to go after Crossfire, who is running away. Clint chases him to a part of the sewer system where the stream drops in a kind of waterfall. Clint’s out of arrows, so he throws his bow at Crossfire, knocking him over the side. As Crossfire holds on, and asks for help, he also admits that he can’t promise he won’t come after Clint again. Clint considers letting him drop, but helps him up. Later, as the authorities take all the villains into custody, and as paramedics tend to Trickshot and Clint, we learn that the older man’s cancer is in remission, and that he’s trying to be a better person. He tells Clint to go talk to Bobbi. He explains to her that he now better understands why she let the Phantom Rider die (which is what led to their divorce), and he tells her he loves her.
As the second story quality continues to drop, we get to this Rick Jones story by Glenn Herdling, Dwight Jon Zimmerman, and Rod Ramos. Rick is shopping around his memoir, and is staying (along with Betty Ross, who is with him at this point?) at the home of a publisher. Some guy comes to the door, trying to buy the intergalactic rights to the book. He claims to be a Skrull, and when he pulls a gun, Rick kicks him out. After that, a few other aliens show up (at the window, in the toilet), trying to get the rights as well. Some Znarks bust through a wall, but Veronica, the publisher, helps fight them off. They all get sucked up into a spaceship where a lot of aliens are there to bid on the book rights. An alien scans and translates the manuscript, and everyone learns that Rick ended the Kree-Skrull War through an accident, and decides he has no knowledge they want. He and Betty are returned to Earth (the other agent turned out to be Kree), where his former music agent offers to buy the book. This story was dumb.
With the start of the Acts of Vengeance event, Dwayne McDuffie and Dwayne Turner provided two connected stories. The Wizard and the new Frightful Four (Hydro-Man, Klaw, and Titania) are delivered to The Vault. Guardsman Prime escorts the Wizard to his cell, and tries to intimidate him. After he leaves him, some other guy shows up and starts asking Wizard if he’d like to leave. Back in a control room, the Guardsman notices that Wizard is talking to someone, and flies over to see what’s happening. He finds that the Wizard is back in his costume and has his weapons. They fight, and Mr. Hyde helps hold the guard down while Wizard beats on him. Across the Vault, cells begin to open and the rest of the Guardsmen, wearing the inferior Stane Industries versions of their armor, get into it with the various criminals. The civilians in the control room try to get help, but their phone lines go down. One guy claims to have called the Avengers on auto-dial (do they mean speed dial?), but we learn he called Damage Control by mistake. Guardsman Prime rewires his helmet and does call the Avengers, speaking to Peggy Carter (this is the era that the Avengers had a large staff, which always made more sense to me).

The second story, by the same creators, opens with Iron Man (Tony Stark) finding Guardsman Prime in the Vault, and getting attacked by Orca. Stark puts him down, and finds other injured Guardsmen. At the same time, Hawkeye gets to the control room and checks on the three people there. Clint learns that are about 200 villains who have been freed, but doesn’t seem too concerned. Tony knocks out Whirlwind, and then is found by Hawkeye. They aren’t there together, and in fact, Clint thinks that Tony might be behind all of this, since the last time he was at the Vault, it was during the Armor Wars. They fight briefly, but then realize they need to work together. They pile a bunch of injured Guardsmen on a large piece of concrete, but before they can start carrying them out, Scarecrow grabs Clint and holds a knife to his throat. Clint manages to take him down on his own and get him back in a cell while Tony starts carrying all the Guardsmen out. Apparently the Vault is a bit of a maze, so when they think they are blowing a hole in an outside wall, they end up almost letting the giant Yetrigar out. Finally, they make their way out of the Vault, and Tony trips an emergency shutdown, closing all the cells and doors. To keep things closed, Clint fires an EMP arrow at the door, but it shuts off both his hearing aid, and Tony’s armor.
Mackie and Milgrom are back! Boomerang enters a Stark Enterprises facility that’s already been attacked by the Ghost. Boomerang wants the video evidence of the Ghost’s attack, for his boss, Justin Hammer, but when a guard tries to set off an alarm, he attacks. A wall starts to glow, and a man dressed all in white emerges to talk to Boomerang about his inability to defeat Iron Man, and suggests instead that he go after another hero. Boomerang agrees. Hawkeye and Mockingbird are at a doctor’s office, where Clint needs to be convinced to take a simple test. After we leave, we learn he has a simple bladder infection, leaving us to wonder just what the test he had to undergo was (he does mention not being able to walk properly). Bobbi leaves in a cab, and just after that, Clint is attacked by Boomerang. They fight, and Boomerang sets fire to a building. Their fight causes more damage, until Clint clogs up Boomerang’s boot-jets, bringing him to the ground. At that point, Clint realizes a woman is trapped in the burning building, and uses a cable arrow to climb to her and rescue her. Boomerang cuts his line as they come down, but firefighters have placed a large cushion beneath them. Clint catches Boomerang, and the woman he just rescued slaps him, pointing out he’s responsible for her building burning.
The Dwaynes (McDuffie and Turner) have another Acts of Vengeance story. Hydrobase, where the Avengers kept their base in this era, has been sunk. Stingray, who is a friend to the Avengers and who lived on the island, dives down to the wreckage looking for salvage. He realizes that the robots that made up the Heavy Metal team are missing, and sets off a signal to the rest of the Avengers. He gets hit from behind. Firebird is helping deal with wreckage on the surface, as are Hellcat, Moondragon, and Black Widow (really, this is such a weird assemblage of mostly people who were barely ever Avengers). Bonita flies into the water to check on Stingray when they receive his alert. She comes flying back out, having been hit hard. The Awesome Android flies out of the water, holding Stingray. Natasha tries to attack it, but it adapts to her widow’s sting, and starts firing it back at her. While Patsy attacks it, Natasha puts out a call for more Avengers, but we see that most of the heavy hitters are busy fighting villains in their own books. The only person who responds to the call is Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), but she’s in New Orleans, and doesn’t fly as fast as she used to. The Android knocks down Patsy, and Moondragon has no luck with a psychic attack. Bonita recovers and hits the Android, but that gives it flame powers too. Bonita is able to hold off its flame attack with her powers, protecting the others. Captain Marvel zips past and dives into the water. She retrieves a stasis field projector from the sunken base. Returning to the surface, she lets Heather know her plans telepathically. Bonita fires up the projector with her powers, and the Android is shut down by it. Monica is worried that the other robots aren’t accounted for, while Nathasha is wondering how bad things must be that only one Avenger responded to her alert. I guess no one cares how Stingray is doing…

Hawkeye and Mockingbird are seen robbing a string of banks and jewelry stores in Denver, which is reported across the country. I’m not sure where Clint and Bobbi are when they get the news – they have a copy of the New York Post – but this sets Clint off, and they hop in a quinjet and head to Denver (isn’t Hawkeye on the outs with the team around now?). Once they land, a large contingent of police are there to arrest them. The only thing that keeps this from happening is that a radio call comes through, alerting the cops to the fact that “Hawkeye” and “Mockingbird are currently robbing a bank. Our heroes go to respond, and Bobbi is surprised to see perfect doubles of them. Clint, however, sees the villains Angar the Screamer and Screaming Mimi. Clint fires a tear gas arrow at them, which causes Angar to close his mouth, revealing to everyone else who he and Mimi really are. Angar uses his powers to confuse some guards, while Mimi uses hers to try to take down Bobbi. Clint wraps them both up with a cable arrow. Later, he talks to the cops about how they broke out of the Vault, and we learn that their combined powers were causing the illusions, and Clint’s hearing aid made him immune. What we never learned is why these two villains would choose to disguise themselves as these two heroes instead of making themselves nondescript…
In another Acts of Vengeance backup by the Dwaynes, the man in the trenchcoat who has been going around recruiting villains has come to see The Mad Thinker in his prison cell. The Thinker rejects his plan, and reveals that he knows he’s really Loki. After he leaves, the Thinker decides to work on one of his own plans, and escapes. Weeks later, Wonder Man and the Wasp are in Washington DC to attend a rally against the upcoming Super-Powers Registration Act. Just before they can give their speeches, the rally is attacked by the massive, and massively stupid, Gargantua. For some reason, Simon hasn’t brought his “jet pack”, even though we can clearly see him wearing the jets on his waist, so he can’t fly up to punch Gargantua out. Gargantua rampages a bit, and it becomes clear he’s following someone’s orders. Jan flies into his ear to disorient him, and discovers a device sending him instructions. She tells him to lean forward so Simon, who has climbed a utility pole, can punch him out. Later, they give their joint speeches at the rally (which I guess continued?), and we see that the Mad Thinker is watching on his monitors. He’d planned on helping turn public opinion on the side of Simon and Jan.
Some guy is in a hospital in New York, asking for Daredevil’s help, but the doctor has only been able to find Hawkeye. The man, who has been beaten, tosses Clint a VHS tape from Madcap’s TV show. It shows him emerging from fire (remember, Madcap is indestructible, or has a healing factor, or something). He’s interrupted by two men who can turn their hands into large tools. They grab him and smash the camera. The guy in the hospital was the cameraman, and he tells Clint that he wants him to find and rescue Madcap. Clint is able to track the van the men drove to a very weird nightclub (weird in that it’s Mackie and artist James Brock’s idea of an edgy punk club in 1990). Clint enters, in full costume, and tries to ask the bartender some questions. She pulls on the beer tap, releasing a trap door Clint is conveniently sitting over, dropping him into the basement, where he finds Madcap hanging from the ceiling. Four villains, who all have hand-morphing abilities, introduce themselves as Pick Axe, Vice, Triphammer, and Handsaw (you can now guess what their hands turn into). They attack Clint, he fights back, and frees Madcap, although Handsaw cuts off the colourful guest star’s arm. Clint realizes that there is someone behind a window directing the fight, and reveals him to be Dr. Karl Malus, who used to work for the Power Broker. He intends to steal Madcap’s abilities. The fight continues, and Madcap uses his mesmerizing powers on Handsaw, which makes her attack her companions. Malus has set off the self-destruct in the basement (who rigs their basement to self-destruct?), so Clint and Madcap leave. They make it to the street, but Madcap decides to head back for his arm. The explosion catches Madcap, but he comes out burnt to a crisp but otherwise fine.
The Dwaynes provide an epilogue to the Acts of Vengeance. Iron Man is at the Vault, having just provided the Guardsmen with the new Mark II version of their armor, built by Stark Industries. Tony’s rigged these suits to run on power broadcast throughout the Vault, basically rendering them useless outside of it (which would make it hard to capture anyone who escapes, but okay). Just then, some Avengers (Cap, Wasp, Wonder Man, Thor, Quasar, and Vision), and some of the Fantastic Four (Human Torch, Thing) arrive to drop off a bunch of prisoners. Later, everyone except Tony leaves, and he continues to train the Guardsmen. Another prisoner arrives – The Wizard. It appears that Loki teleported him right into a prison transport vehicle. When Tony takes the Wizard’s case, he’s shocked and attacked by Klaw. As Klaw fights Iron Man, the Wizard tries to open his case to get his costume. Tony figures out how to disperse Klaw’s sound forms, and eventually takes him down. By then, the Wizard is in his costume, but Guardsman Prime arrives (how long did that take?) and wants another swing at him after what happened a few issues ago. The Guardsman, who is very happy with his new armor, knocks the Wizard out. Later, Wizard, who is just in his underwear, challenges Frank to a fight, and taking off his armor, he takes the skinny villain down with one punch. The story ends with an image of the Wizard behind bars.

Issue 30 marks the beginning of a run written by Steve Gerber, and features Hawkeye in a whole-issue story. Clint and Bobbi leave a movie in downtown LA, and barely get missed when a drive-by shooting happens that leaves a dozen people dead or injured. Clint summons his sky-cycle, while Bobbi grabs their masks out of her bag. They follow the shooters, who are in a large convertible. Clint fires a flare arrow at the car, and the gangsters all start shooting at him. Bobbi gets grazed by a bullet, and Clint fires an incendiary arrow into the trunk of their car. The men all jump out just before the car explodes, and Clint catches all but one of them, who makes his way into the bushes nearby. Later, at the Avengers compound, Clint keeps thinking about what happened, and decides to get involved. He interrogates one of the gangsters at the police station the next day, but can’t intimidate the guy. He chats with a cop named Zamora, and learns about drive-by culture, and how this gang might be more dangerous to Clint than a super-villain. The gangster that escaped is in a nice office in Beverly Hills, where we learn that a woman named Lotus is really in charge of the gang. She is worried that the Avengers will pay attention to her operation, and wants the guy, named Slice, to kill Hawkeye (which, I would assume, would draw more attention from the Avengers). That night, a body is dropped off outside the Avengers’ compound, with a note telling Hawkeye to stay out of their business. We learn that the gang is called the Stone Perfs, at which point I don’t think anyone would be afraid of them, but we are getting into the 90s here. Clint flies off on his own to avenge the dead man, a member of a rival gang. He wanders around downtown, asking people for information on the gang, until he spots a guy sporting their colours. He chases the kid into an alley, where he discovers that he’s been trapped. A dozen gangsters surround him from the roof above, and open fire, hitting him multiple times. Clint collapses, and the gang takes off. A kid named Luis sees him, and calls 911. Later, all of the AWC hang out in the hospital waiting for word. The doctor tells Bobbi that Clint is in a lot of pain and will spend a few days sedated, but will probably survive. Later, Bobbi talks to Clint after he wakes up. Clint is feeling down on himself, and wants to talk to Tony Stark about an idea he’s had. He falls back asleep. Three weeks later, Clint is still in the hospital, and reviewing some design ideas he’s had with Tony. Basically, he wants a lightweight, flexible suit of armor, and Tony agrees to work on it. After Tony leaves, Clint tells Bobbi that he is going to go after the gang. Three weeks after that, one of the Perfs is standing around smoking. He gets hit in the head with a suction cup arrow, and soon finds himself strapped to Clint’s sky-cycle, which is being piloted remotely. Afraid of being dropped off, he gives up the Stone Perf’s headquarter’s address. Clint brings him down safely, and Zamora arrests him, but the guy is not very afraid of that. At the address he gave, a bunch of Perfs are partying and playing with weapons. The window explodes, and then a gas arrow comes in. As they run out the door, they get caught by a net arrow. Hawkeye stands over them wearing his new, hideous armor and holding a yellow compound bow.
The USAgent comes across someone inspecting Clint’s sky-cycle in the garage of the AWC compound and attacks the guy, who is actually Clint in a fake moustache and wig. He’s working on a disguise that will help him go undercover in gang neighbourhoods. We learn Clint’s gone so far as to rent an apartment in the neighbourhood, and Walker worries that he is using Avengers funds. He walks off, just as Bobbi joins Clint, and he prepares to tell her his plan. Luis, the kid who called 911 to get help for Clint last issue, is sitting at home with his mom and sister. There’s a knock on the door, and Mrs. Guiterrez finds a note warning Luis to mind his own business. A volley of bullets flies through the front window, and Mrs. G is hit. Not long after, Zamora calls Clint to tell him what happened. Clint wants to get involved, but Bobbi thinks that gang warfare is too big a problem, and wants him to stay out of it. The next day, the guy that Clint captured is released from detention. His lawyer wants him to follow Ms. Newmark’s orders (I’m guessing that’s that Lotus woman), and the guy agrees. Clint, in his dumb armor, goes to visit Mrs. Guiterrez, who is furious with him, and kicks him out of her hospital room. Luis tells Clint that he can look after himself. Zamora tells Clint that this shooting is not a top priority. Lotus meets with the Perf, who calls himself Prince, in her house in the Hollywood Hills. She has brought in a Colombian named Reynaldo Cortizar to help kill Hawkeye, and she wants Prince to take him around. Later, we see that Luis buys a gun from some guy. Clint patrols on his sky-cycle and spots a curious van. It’s another trap, and when he swoops down to inspect it, he is clipped by a car coming the opposite way (this would have been a difficult trap to plan). Clint falls off his cycle, and sees Cortizar aiming a rocket launcher at him. He misses, and Clint fires an arrow into the launcher. The guy throws it just as it explodes. Prince drives off, and when Clint approaches the fallen Cortizar, he rolls over and pulls a gun on him. Before he can fire, an unseen figure on a rooftop shoots Cortizar in the head and runs.

Fabian Nicieza and Dan Lawlis start a multi-part USAgent story in issue thirty-one. A group of migrants attempt to cross into America through the Rio Grande, but some man on a clifftop starts shooting at them. The USAgent shows up and manages to shield a few kids. He scales the cliff to grab the guy, who speeds off in a truck; Walker realizes he has to go back for the kids. The man returns to his home, takes off his helmet and jacket, and pulls a deputy’s uniform from his closet. Later, Walker talks to the Border Patrol Captain, Hitchuck, about why he’s been sent there to help, after this shooter has killed fourteen people in three months. The cop is dismissive of Walker. Two deputies arrive, and we learn that the one named Fred overslept, making them late. The Captain has them guarding an old woman who survived the previous night. The Captain still won’t help Walker, but a nurse suggests he go to the Sanctuary Movement for help and information. Walker heads to a church, where he finds himself surrounded by gunmen, and confronted by a priest.
Officer Zamora, who wears plainclothes but drives a marked police car, comes to tell Hawkeye and Mockingbird about the Colombian assassin that was murdered, and the strange circled ‘t’ sign that was left at the crime scene. Zamora explains to Clint and Bobbi that gangs like the Stone Perfs usually work for someone higher up who supplies them with drugs and direction (I guess no one would have seen The Wire yet, so Clint wouldn’t know this). Zamora thinks Clint should stoph is anti-gang crusade, but Bobbi knows he’s not going to. She is at least able to convince him to come up with some kind of plan before he proceeds. Later, some members of the Stone Perfs (who, I think it needs to be noted, sport pink and white striped bandannas as their colours) are upset to see a large spray-painted ‘T’ on a wall in their turf. A gunman calling himself the Terminizer shoots them all. Prince, the Perf from before, dumps the car he drove when attacking Clint in a scrap yard and blows it up before going to see Lotus Newmark, who is pleased he followed directions. She tells him how she expects him to act, then throws a potted tree at him for checking out her body. He tries to hit her with the tree, and while she admires his spirit, she also stabs him in the stomach with her fingernails, making him bleed. She tells him he’s lucky she didn’t cut him through his heart (which I doubt would be possible, really). That night, Clint continues to patrol DTLA, not noticing that the Terminizer (who we only ever see from behind) is watching him. Clint is questioning if there is any solution to gang crime when he sees two Perfs robbing and harassing a woman. He stops them, and then leaves. Almost immediately, the Terminizer comes and shoots the two men. Later, Clint stops a drug deal, and after he leaves the dealing Perf lying on the ground, the Terminizer comes and shoots him. Later still, he stops two Perfs from robbing a tobacco shop (for drug dealers, they really do seem to engage in a lot of other crimes), and leaves them glued to the shop’s outer wall. After he leaves, the Terminizer shoots them. Later still, he finds a Perf about to rob a car, and after he deals with him, the Terminizer shoots the guy. The next morning, over breakfast, Clint tells Bobbi about what he accomplished, but then Wonder Man alerts them to the news, and Clint learns that everyone he stopped is now dead.
Surrounded by men with guns in the church, the USAgent attacks them, and then makes it clear to the priest in charge that he’s not there for a fight. He returns all their weapons, and the priest introduces himself as Father Kevin Grass. He explains what the Sanctuary Movement is all about, and shows him the safe house in the church’s hidden basement, which does not have too many residents at the moment. Walker is, of course, opposed to illegal immigration, but is more opposed to the slaughter of migrants, so he agrees to help the priest. He learns that the group that crossed the river the night before was not working with the Movement, and that the priest did warn Border Patrol that the group was coming over. The priest believes that the Border Patrol might be responsible for the killings. Furious, Walker goes to see Captain Hitchuck, busting into his office, but the Captain didn’t know about the tip from the priest. They establish that an Officer Bouting was on the switchboard the night before, and that he was now guarding the survivors in the hospital. We see that Bouting is back in his helmet, and is threatening to kill a small boy if the nurse doesn’t tell him where the Sanctuary Movement is housed. The nurse tells him where the church is, and he shoots them both.
Surprisingly, after thirty-two issues, this is the first to have a Statement of Ownership, for 1989. It reports an average press run of 221 000 and average newsstand returns of 107 000.

Hawkeye is upset after reading in the paper about the Terminizer’s killings. Bobbi helps him figure out that the Terminizer is probably someone who has a vendetta against the Perfs. A joint funeral is held for the Perfs who were killed, and a rival gang, the Mode Blanks, drive into the cemetery and attempt a drive-by shooting. Hawkeye and Mockingbird swoop down on Clint’s sky-cycle and tear gas them, leading them to drive through a bunch of gravestones. Bobbi jumps down and fights all the Blanks, although Clint takes down the last one. The Stone Perfs are upset that Clint is at the funeral – they blame him for their friends’ deaths, but before things get too heated, Officer Zamora fires a shot in the air and tells the Perfs that everything that’s happening is their fault, for preying on their community for so long. After the Perfs return to the funeral, Zamora tells Clint they have no leads. Clint is surprised that the Terminizer didn’t attack the funeral, and he and Bobbi speculate that he might be a cop. Prince is being treated by Lotus Newmark’s personal doctor, an unlicensed former gambler who owed her money. When he’s done with the doctor, Lotus’s lawyer explains to Prince that he has a good chance to rise in the organization if he’s smart. Mrs. Guiterrez is recovering at the hospital, and she tells Luis that she spoke to Clint. If Luis learns anything about the Terminizer, he’s to pass it on through her. Lotus meets with Prince, who she’s had cleaned up and properly dressed. She wants him to lay a trap for the Terminizer by calling all the Perfs together in one place. She wants the gang, the Terminizer, and Hawkeye all dead, and Prince seems okay with that. Later, Luis overhears the Perfs talking about a meeting at a quarry, and has his mother relay that information to Clint. Clint and Bobbi go to stake out the gang’s meeting, which is at the bottom of the quarry, which, to Clint, doesn’t seem like a safe place for this kind of thing.
USAgent and the Border Patrol are too late to stop a massacre at the hospital. Walker figures that Bouting will have headed to the Sanctuary Movement church, and storms off, but since it’s 60 miles away, Captain Hitchuck offers to take him by helicopter. As they arrive, Walker jumps out and sees some men running from the sound of gunfire. He enters the barn behind the church, and finds an entrance to the underground complex. Entering, he sees Bouting about to shoot Father Grass. Bouting fires on Walker, who disarms him. Bouting slashes his leg and goes after the priest. He shoots the priest in the leg, and Walker comes up the stairs holding Bouting’s assault rifle. He tells Bouting that if he shoots the priest, he won’t get out alive.
Hawkeye and Mockingbird watch the Stone Perfs gather in the quarry, and decide to harass them with sonic and smoke arrows. They start shooting at Clint’s sky-cycle, and when he pulls out of the quarry, he’s almost hit by a helicopter. The people in the helicopter start dropping incendiary bombs into the quarry, killing everyone in it. Clint flies next to the copter, and Bobbi jumps in, where she fights the men inside. When one tries to shoot her, she holds his arm so he ends up killing the pilot, who sends the chopper downwards. Bobbi jumps out and onto the sky-cycle, but the chopper crashes. You would think, especially after the Phantom Rider stuff, Clint would be more upset at all the death, but they both seem kind of chill. On the other side of the quarry, Prince paints a big circle-t, and glances down at the charred bodies of his former friends. Back at the AWC compound, Clint has a beer before bed (apparently he doesn’t normally drink), and he and Bobbi wonder why the Terminizer didn’t come to the quarry. In Hollywood, Lotus Newmark congratulates Prince on doing the job so well, and they start making out. The next morning, Clint is still thinking about the night before, so Bobbi suggests he focus on something positive out of all this mess. Prince is taken by his lawyer to a drug lab that Lotus runs, where synthetic drugs are made. She wants Prince to start working there. Clint goes to visit Mrs. Guiterrez, as she gets ready to leave the hospital. He takes Luis to ride on his sky-cycle. When Clint tells Luis he’s going to be going after the Terminizer, the kid looks nervous.

Patrolman Bouting, who is now being called the Xenophobic Man, shoots not at USAgent, but the cross behind him, which falls towards Father Grass and the woman he was helping. Bouting shoots at Walker, who tosses his shield and shatters the man’s football helmet. Walker and him fight some more, and Bouting pulls a knife. Walker punches him a lot, and is about to bring his shield down on the man’s head when Grass pulls himself out from under debris, and tells Walker that the woman is still alive under the cross. As Walker lifts the cross off of her (without a single “cross to bear” joke), Bouting aims his rifle at him. Bouting tells Grass that he loves his country, but before he could shoot Walker, Captain Hitchuck arrives and shoots Bouting in the head. The story ends with Hitchuck promising to take the woman to the hospital, and Grass asking what happens after that.
For some reason, issue thirty-five didn’t include the continuation of Hawkeye’s story, or have a Hawkeye story at all. Instead, we got a pretty crappy full-issue Gilgamesh story by Danny Fingeroth and Jim Valentino. Gil, the “forgotten” Eternal, works to fix up Olympia after something that happened in an issue of Avengers. Sprite teases him, and Gil complains about how his exploits are always credited to someone else. Sprite takes him to Paris, and dresses him in weird clothes. Gilgamesh stops some bank robbers, but is upset when the press credits a movie star who just happened to be around. Sprite gets angry on Gil’s behalf, but Gil talks about how he wishes he could find a worthy foe to defeat. Just then, some guy calling himself B’Gon the Sorcerer shows up with more than a dozen dragons to attack the Eiffel Tower. Gil fights him and the dragons, as does Sprite at first, but then he kind of disappears, leaving me to wonder if he is behind conjuring this threat, or if 90s editing struck again. B’Gon apparently has had beef with Gilgamesh for a millennium, and has been in suspended animation waiting for his chance for revenge or something. As the fight drags out over many uninspired pages, Gil takes down some of the dragons, gets slapped by B’Gon, who can turn into a half dragon, then knocks him out and takes over the lead dragon to herd the others away. B’Gon recovers, and he and all the dragons disappear. As Gil falls, he is caught by a flying Captain America, who is obviously Sprite in disguise. The French press interviews “Cap”, who gives all the credit to Gil. Later, reading the Daily Bugle, they see that Gil is being blamed for the attack on the Tower. He’s angry for a panel or two, but then Gil decides he wants to go have more adventures. Luckily, we don’t have to read them.

Gerber and Milgrom returned to finish the Hawkeye/Stone Perfs/Terminizer story in a full-length issue. Clint has been investigating who killed the Perfs, and that’s taken him back to the gang’s house, where he’s found the Mode Blanks torching the place. He beats up a bunch of them, and then after slapping around the last conscious guy, gets him to help drag the rest of the gang out before the building explodes. This guy admits that they don’t know who killed the Perfs. Lotus takes Prince to her big mansion, where she shows off her possessions, including what looks like two fingers. This leads to her telling the long story of her childhood, and how her American father fell apart after her Asian mother died in an accident in Hong Kong, and then he sold her to someone he owed money. That guy raised her, taught her to fight, and also had sex with her. Eventually, he let her go when she became an adult, and she tracked her father down, cut off two of his fingers (that was originally what he traded Lotus away to keep), and then stabbed him through the heart with her fingers. It’s not clear why she told Prince all this, or why Gerber devoted so much space to a character that never really factored into the story (although I see she later appeared in Wonder Man’s series). The next day, Clint and Bobbi are on a patio celebrating Luis’s birthday with his mother and sister when Luis spots Prince walking by. He tells Clint who he is, so Clint confronts Prince, out of uniform, and they start to fight. Prince pulls out his gun, which gets fired by mistake, and kills Luis’s little sister. Prince coldcocks Clint, shoots a cop, and then steals Clint’s sky-cycle. Lotus is furious with him for bringing the sky-cycle to her place, and tells him to get rid of it. USAgent brings Clint his bow and quiver and a spare cycle. Clint tells him and Bobbi to stay with the Guiterrez’s (Luis has run off), and he goes after Prince. He quickly finds him, and forces his cycle down onto a roof. They fight, with Clint acting utterly enraged (he’s still not even in uniform). Prince, who is lying on the rooftop, pulls out a gun, but before he can use it, machine gun fire rips into him. The Terminizer is there (how????), and it’s clearly Luis with a stocking over his head, although Clint maintains deniability by telling him to leave his mask on. Later that night, Clint talks to Bobbi and Walker at the AWC compound. Now that they are out of the public eye, they sit around and drink coffee in full uniform, and Walker offers to listen if Clint ever needs to talk (this is the same time that they were always at each other’s throats in AWC, so that’s weird. Clint is refusing to tell Bobbi the whole truth about the Terminizer, and worries that Luis is not going to live long. This was all kinds of dumb.
The last four issues of this series are labelled Avengers Reborn. The first chapter of that loose arc features Doctor Druid, and is written by Roy and Dann Thomas (who were starting their long and dull run on Avengers West Coast at the same time), and drawn by Bob Hall. Since we last saw him, Druid and Nebula (of the Council of Kangs) have been living in amnesiac bliss in a paradise where they see lions and lambs literally lying down together. They’ve been having weird dreams though, and when they link hands and try to remember, Nebula is able to see Druid’s past, and how he, as a psychologist, travelled to the Himalayas to treat an old lama who ended up adding his powers to that of Druid’s “ancient Briton” ancestors, which is what made him a hero. They remember how Druid influenced the Avengers into making him their leader, and then fell sway to Nebula’s machinations. She figures out that they are still in some kind of cosmic maelstrom thing, and even though her Kang outfit is wrecked, is able to use it to take them to Lincoln Nebraska, where she creates an anti-time bubble that reverts things to 1961, before there are any superheroes. Druid tries to fight her, but she sends him flying away. He finds himself in the Himalayas again, and is taken to the same lama, only to learn that he’s actually the Ancient One, and that he empowered Druid as a dry run for the day he could empower Stephen Strange. Charged up with power, Druid goes looking for Nebula again, and sees that she’s rampaging around town, talking about how outside her bubble, it’s not 1961 (although that doesn’t explain how it was 1961 in the Ancient One’s monastery). Druid decides to visit a local museum, which like all mid-west museums, has Ancient British artifacts, including a three-headed god urn thing. While Nebula plays around with aging and de-aging the locals, Druid taps into his druidic roots. When he confronts Nebula, it’s in three forms – his usual one, that of an old man, and a younger, strapping Druid. By grimacing, he is able to defeat her, making her go through a series of different ages, until he tosses her somewhere in time. Lincoln returns to 1990, and Druid remains in his younger form. He flies off, hoping he’ll keep his hair now. This was not a good comic.

Towards the end of John Byrne’s run, he had Tigra regress into a catlike state. Hank Pym shrank her to a size smaller than a cat, and then she got away. Later, when the Thomases took over, she just came back. Issue thirty-eight, with art by June Brigman, explains what happened. Some old lady is feeding stray cats, and meets Tigra. Since her eyes aren’t good, she’s not able to notice that Tigra looks nothing like a cat. Just then, some guy lets his pitbull attack the cats. It kills one, and then goes after Tigra. It chomps its jaws on her, but she scratches its forehead, killing it (I don’t know how either). The jerk is chased off by the old lady, who picks up the injured Tigra and takes her home. A black cat watches as the lady gets in a cab to go to an animal clinic. She asks the veterinarian to put Tigra down, since she’s hurt, and the vet is in such a rush to go golfing, he doesn’t bother to look at her. He’s stopped just in time by the arrival of Agatha Harkness (and her familiar Ebony), who claims Tigra as hers and leaves with her. She takes her back to the AWC compound, and puts her on a table attached to one of Pym’s machines. She restores Tigra to her proper size, and she looks more human. There’s a lengthy recap of Tigra’s history, and then Harkness tries to contact the Cat People (who we learned were actually demons, but whatever). She thinks she has brought the Balkatar forward, but it’s actually Tabur, some other cat-man who has history with Tigra. He slashes Agatha across the face, which knocks her out. Later, Tigra wakes up, back in her proper body and mind. Tabur talks a lot about how he got restored to his proper body, and tells Tigra he wants to mate with her. That’s when Ebony chooses to attack him, and he hurts the cat. Agatha staggers into the room, causing Tigra to reject Tabur. They fight, and she makes him sit on a cactus. Tigra’s not fully recovered though, so she passes out from all the exertion, but Agatha, holding the totem that Tabur gave Tigra, turns him into a cat. Tigra turns into Greer, and realizes that she’s got full control of herself once again.
Future superstar Greg Capullo joined the Thomases for a Black Knight story that did nothing to “rebirth” the character. A powerful couple is being driven home in DC when some street toughs pull their driver out of the car and threaten them. The Black Knight just happens to be flying by on his winged horse, and he melts the gun out of one of the guy’s hands with his lance. He scares them off, but catches them with a bolo fired from his lance. The cops that arrive decide that they want to also arrest Dane. It’s not until he’s at the station that he learns that someone in armor cut up a pair of thieves while they were robbing a church. He stands in a lineup in front of an elderly priest, who is not sure if it was him that he saw killing those two. Victoria Bentley arrives with a kid named Sean, and threatens to call in the Avengers, so the cops let Dane leave. Apparently Victoria and Sean live with Dane at his estate, a large old castle somewhere not far from DC. Dane is bothered by the murders, and wants to know who was responsible for it. He talks about how his ancestor’s spirit now lives in his ebony blade (this is after the time when he was slowly turning into metal). There’s a lot of talking, until Dane’s butler interrupts to let him know there’s a woman and her daughter there to see him. She’s worried that it was her husband that killed those people (it’s not clear how she would know to come to him there). The husband was known as the Crusader, and he’s fought Thor before. It sounds like his mental health issues are popping up again. Dane and Sean ride the flying horse, while Victoria drives the woman and her daughter to the airport, where a prominent Emir of Ghulistan is visiting. The Crusader attacks there, and is about to kill the Emir (for not being Christian, of all things), when Dane arrives. They fight, until the Crusader gets Dane on the ground. He asks him to join him, but when Dane refuses, he prepares to kill him. His daughter comes running out, and reaches him. Dane gives a speech, and the Crusader throws his sword at his shield, shattering both (it’s a magic thing). His wife embraces him, he says goodbye to his daughter, and is arrested. Capullo’s art is kind of interesting here, but that’s the only thing that’s interesting.

The Vision (white, robotic era Vision) gets the final chapter, in a story by Len Kaminski, Carrie Barre (who?), and Gavin Curtis. Vision performs a self-diagnostic, and finds that all his systems are working properly, although he can’t identify a purpose for himself. He wishes to talk to Captain America about this, but he and Sersi are leaving for the evening. When he tries to talk to Jarvis, he gets blown off because he’s on his way home. In the newspaper, he sees an Ann Landers column about a man who also questions his purpose. He goes to visit the man, Miles Lipton, who is in a wheelchair, and happens to be an expert in artificial intelligence. They talk, and he suggests that Vision go experience human life. He makes an image inducer for him, so Vision can appear human (although, in a white suit, he still kind of stands out). While they were talking, Vision went into a brief phase of repeating himself. A week later, Vision returns to talk to Lipton, who is in the park with his daughter-in-law (his son was recently killed). Vision explains his observations on humans. When he goes into a fugue state similar to the one before, Lipton scans him. Later, Lipton figures out what’s wrong with Vision – without a human template, his systems are starting to decay. Luckily, Lipton has the brain patterns of his son at hand. Vision comes to see him and suffers a systems collapse. Lipton gets him on a table and puts him to sleep. Just then, a half dozen gangster types come to see him, and we learn that it was them that killed his son. They kidnap Lipton and take Vision with them. These guys aren’t gangsters, they work for Roxxon. They want Lipton to reprogram Vision to work for them. Lipton gets to work, and uploads his son’s brain patterns into the Avenger. His systems start working properly again, and Vision wakes up. Lipton shares his plan with him, and Vision phases into the body of the sole man guarding them, who is sound asleep. The other guys come in and realize Vision is missing. The sleeping guard attacks them, and Vision jumps from body to body (this is a new thing for him), until only one is left conscious. He admits that they killed Lipton’s son. Later, Vision meets with Lipton and the daughter-in-law again. They give him tickets to see the Mets with them, and a copy of a Desmond Morris book. The next day, Jarvis apologizes to Vision for blowing him off days before, but Vision is fine with it. Jarvis is surprised to learn that Vision is going to a ball game. (It’s weird that he absorbed the younger Lipton’s brain patterns, but none of his personality, and that this never got mentioned again).

Obviously, with an anthology series like this, it’s hard to talk about many of the things that I usually discuss in these columns. There is, however, a lot to say about Hawkeye and his portrayal through this run, across three different writers. Tom DeFalco started things off well, revealing new aspects to Clint’s origin, but he weirdly had him promise to help Trick Shot through his terminal illness, only to not show him again, until Howard Mackie took over, and had him play a cameo.

During the time that this series was running, Clint was the leader of the West Coast Avengers, but his experiences were not exactly tied to what was happening in that book. Sure, they acknowledged his breakup with Mockingbird, but she showed up a lot in this book, and things seemed much less rocky between them than in the parent book. After John Byrne took over AWC, he shuffled Clint and Bobbi out, sending them to Detroit to work with the Great Lakes Avengers, but that was never addressed here either, aside from one vague reference. They appeared to make up and work together again long before we saw that happen in AWC, and Bobbi was around the compound a lot for someone who left the team. Also puzzling was the way in which Clint appeared to be friendly towards USAgent, while in the parent book, they were constantly at one another’s throats.

This series really gave a lot of room to develop and work on Hawkeye’s character, but instead, he just stood around making terrible attempts at observational humour, and got attacked by random villains wherever he went. Even the early attempt to do something with his past never really stuck, and Clint ended up being a standby for stories that could just as easily have featured Spider-Man.

The backups were usually disappointing as well, and often felt like exercise in keeping a copyright current, as opposed to opportunities to deepen and enrich established characters. I think many of these stories could qualify as ‘try-outs’ for new creators, but for the most part, it seemed that established creators were contributing to the series.

I would have liked to have seen more serials, like the Moondragon one, which helped restore the character to life and use in the Marvel Universe. I did like that the book tied in with the Acts of Vengeance event, although there were some questionable choices made there as well, such as having Moondragon, Stingray, and Firebird team up. That made no sense.

As the title moved into the 90s, the quality of it continued to dip at a steady pace, and to be honest, I’m surprised that I was still reading it by the time it ended. I think that the Steve Lightle covers on the final issues are what got me to stick around when the book shifted to full-length format, and featured characters that I liked a lot, like Black Knight and Vision, although their stories were dull.

Very few of the artists stood out either, mostly working in the late 80s Marvel house style. How cool would it have been if this series had branched out and experimented more with new types of stories, instead of more of the same old.

Anyway, with the exception of one miniseries I want to revisit soon, that should be the end of my coverage of the Avengers. Next time around, I’m going to revisit my other all-time favourite DC team book, by one of my favourite writers (who is not Christopher Priest). I’m also going to dive into its related side books, so my columns about them might come out first…

If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click here.

If you’d like to read any of the stories I talk about here, you can follow this links for a trade paperback that contain some of these issues:

Avengers: Solo Avengers Classic – Volume 1

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Retro Reviews: Solo Avengers #1-20, Avengers Spotlight #21-40 By DeFalco, Bright, Mackie, Milgrom & Tons More For Marvel Comics!

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