Completionism is a a crazy impulse. There are hundreds of Avengers issues unrepresented by oversized volumes, but omnibus collectors are super-focused on getting the relatively unheralded back third of Avengers West Coast into an oversize volume to complete their bookshelves.
The funny thing is, I’m not sure all of the voters realize just how strong and cohesive this Roy & Dann Thomas run on Avengers really is.
The Avengers West Coast by Thomas and Thomas Omnibus is the #40 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot. Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes and head to the Guide to Avengers West Coast to see how you can read this run right now.
Past Ranking: This volume leaps up five spots from #45 in the 2016 survey.
Probable Contents: Avengers West Coast (1989) #63-100, 102, & Annual 5-8, Avengers Annual 19, Darkhawk Annual 1, and Iron Man Annual 13,
That’s 43 issues, which means the book could also include the full Bloodties crossover: Avengers West Coast (1989) #101, The Avengers (1963) #368-369, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #307, & X-Men (1991) #26.
However, that would leave behind 20 issues of five related miniseries – U.S. Agent #1-4 (after #95 & Annual 8), Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4 (after #97), Spider-Woman #1-4 (after #101), Scarlet Witch #1-4 (after #101), and Hawkeye #1-4 (after #102).
What to do? More on how to reconcile that, below.
Creators: Written by Roy Thomas and Dann Thomas with pencils by Paul Ryan and Dave Ross with Tom Morgan, George Freeman, Herb Trimpe, and Andrew Currie.
Can you read it right now? Mostly. Issue #76-79 and #83-88 remain uncollected (as is the U.S. Agent mini-series), but everything else has been captured. Visit Guide to Avengers West Coast for the full details. Unfortunately, most of this run is not on Marvel Unlimited.
The Details:
Avengers West Coast had gone for years as a forgotten era of Avengers as far as reprints were concerned until Marvel’s Cinematic Universe began focusing strongly on its core cast of Iron Man and Hawkeye, and later Scarlet Witch and Vision.
Suddenly, West Coast reprints were abounding – a set of Marvel Premier Classic hardcovers, corresponding paperback reprints, two omnibuses, half of an Avengers by John Byrne volume, and a handful of trades covering the latter run of the series. The only remaining gaps are #76-79 and #83-88, two stories split by the massive “Galactic Storm” crossover.
Comic books fans are nothing if not obsessive completists, so that makes a final omnibus edition of Avenger West Coast sorely tempting – especially since it’s all co-written by comic book royalty Roy Thomas along with his wife Dann (who was the first woman to ever script an issue of Wonder Woman!) mostly to illustration by a pair of strong pencillers – Paul Ryan through #69 and Dave Ross from #71 through the end of the series.
The run includes a vibrant, fan-friendly team that could be generalized as Iron Man, Hawkeye, Vision, Scarlet Witch, War Machine, Wonder Man, Tigra, Spider-Woman (the second one), the original Human Torch (not the FF one), and U.S. Agent (a surly Cap knockoff from Gruenwald’s run) – with contributions from Hank Pym, Wasp, and Quicksilver.
What does this book have to say for itself, aside from filling out a bookshelf and featuring a lot of familiar characters? The Thomases get a clean start after Byrne turns over the reigns of the title, handily reintroducing the team as they attend to the convalescing Scarlet Witch.
Thomas’s penchant for digging up character connections and playing out long-forgotten story beats reads just as well for a neophyte today as it did back then, which was exactly his intent. Plus, it features one of the better Ultron stories and a magnificently twisted finale.
The potential contents already comprise more than 40 actual issues (saying nothing of their lengths – some issues were giant-size). That means if we got this all in one chunk we wouldn’t get much further material. However, there are a lot of mini-series that meaningfully intersect with the end of this run starting around #89 – including Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman, US Agent, Vision, and Terminatrix Objective.
These have all found their way to TPB in recent years, so it’s not critical to include them – but, they all tell stories that support the dissolution of the team.
Will we see this omnibus in 2018? I think there’s a strong chance.
I think Marvel will go all-in with at least three-omnibuses to support Avengers: Infinity War, and if Avengers, Vol. 3 and Infinity War are a guarantee and Galactic Storm is hitting Epic Collection instead of omnibus, I think this volume or Bendis’s second volume are strong choices for a third.
Would I recommend buying it? Yes.
I’ve stopped being surprised at how well all of Avengers West Coast has aged. I’m not sure if it was due to the caliber of the writers, the composition of the team, the strength of the art, or some other intangible factor. I’ve now skimmed, reviewed, and completely re-read hundreds of issues as part of this series of posts, and I found myself getting way more lost in revisiting this series than almost any other.
Potential Volume Mappings
There are three potential ways this volume could see eventual collection.
Option A is the book outlined above. The mini-series simply get left out, but it does include Blood Ties.
Avengers West Coast by Thomas & Thomas – Collects Avengers West Coast (1989) Annual 5 (and Avengers Annual 19), 63-75, Annual 6, 76-79, 83-86, Annual 7 (preceded by Darkhawk (1991) Annual 1 and followed by Iron Man Annual 13), 87-95, Annual 8, 96-100, Bloodties, and 102.
The Bloodties crossover is Avengers West Coast (1989) #101, The Avengers (1963) #368-369, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #307, & X-Men (1991) #26.
Option B splits the run into a pair of volumes at Galactic Storm, which yields a slim first volume and a super-fat second volume that includes all of the mini-series. A handful of additional Thomas-penned stories slightly fill out the first volume.
Avengers West Coast by Thomas & Thomas – Collects Avengers West Coast (1989) Annual 5 (and Avengers Annual 19), 63-75, Annual 6, 76-79, Black Knight #1-4, and Avengers Spotlight #37-38.
Avengers: West Coast Disassembled – Collects Avengers West Coast (1989) #83-86, Annual 7 (preceded by Darkhawk (1991) Annual 1 and followed by Iron Man Annual 13), 87-95, Annual 8, U.S. Agent #1-4, 96-97, Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4, #98-100, Bloodties, Spider-Woman #1-4, Scarlet Witch #1-4, 102, Hawkeye #1-4, and material from Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #159-161.
The Bloodties crossover is Avengers West Coast (1989) #101, The Avengers (1963) #368-369, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #307, & X-Men (1991) #26.
Neither of those volumes feels ideal to me. The first one has a lot of missed opportunities, and the second is super unbalanced without a strong sales motivation behind either edition.
That’s why I’ve come to favor Option C.
This projected mapping splits the run into a pair of volumes later, at #100 – the true end of the Thomases’ run.
That yields a massive first volume with both of its related mini-series restored. It also rightfully places the final pair of issues (plus two of the mini-series) with a following volume that is largely filled with Force Works issues up until that series is picked up by the existing Avengers: The Crossing omnibus.
This makes the oversize coverage of West Coast truly complete, save for a missing Galactic Storm omnibus that will eventually happen.
Avengers West Coast by Thomas & Thomas – Collects Avengers West Coast (1989) #83-86, Annual 7 (preceded by Darkhawk (1991) Annual 1 and followed by Iron Man Annual 13), 87-95, Annual 8, U.S. Agent #1-4, 96-97, Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4, & 98-100
Avengers: Force Works – Collects Bloodties, Spider-Woman #1-4, Scarlet Witch #1-4, Avengers West Coast #102, Force Works #1-15, Iron Man #311-312, War Machine #9-10, (optionally: Captain America #437), Century: Distant Sons, and material from Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #159, 166, & 169.
The Bloodties crossover is Avengers West Coast (1989) #101, The Avengers (1963) #368-369, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #307, & X-Men (1991) #26.
I think this configuration likely omits Hawkeye #1-4 and material from Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #159-161. Both are out of place as an epilogue to the Thomas run and unrelated to Force Works.
The 2017 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot Results
- #60 – What If? Classic Omnibus, Vol. 1
- #59 – House of M Omnibus
- #58 – Captain Marvel by Peter David, Vol. 1
- #57 – X-Force by Kyle & Yost
- #56 – Namor, The Sub-Mariner, Vol. 1
- #55 – X-Force, Vol. 3 AKA Cable & X-Force, Vol. 1
- #54 – Conan The Barbarian, Vol. 1
- #53 – Thor: God of Thunder by Jason Aaron
- #52 – Incredible Hercules by Pak & Van Lente
- #51 – Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Vol. 1
- #50 – Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch, Vol. 1
- #49 – Captain America (Silver Age), Vol. 3
- #48 – Doctor Strange by Roger Stern
- #47 – Marvel Horror of the 1970s
- #46 – Killraven
- #45 – Captain America by Mark Gruenwald, Vol. 1
- #44 – Runways by Brian K. Vaughan
- #43 – Superior Spider-Man
- #42 – The Punisher by Rucka & Checchetto
- #41 – Black Panther by Christopher Priest, Vol. 1
- #40 – Avengers West Coast by Roy Thomas
- #39 – Amazing Spider-Man by JMS
Slight nitpick. You mention that the USAgent has not been collected. It was included in the Captain America: Scourge of the Underworld collection.
True! And, I even checked that. I meant to say that it hasn’t been collected along with West Coast material. I’ll amend.