West Coast Avengers #3
Taking Care of Business!
After the world was plunged in a freak winter blizzard, the West Coast Avengers have banded together to help Los Angeles dig itself out of the unseasonable snow.[1] While heavy hitters like Wonder Man and Iron Man clear the snow, the rest of the team is out preventing crooks from taking advantage of the situation, foiling a robbery of an electronics store.
The Avengers get a huge boost thanks to California’s warm climate and the snow clearing is done by noon that day. The team reconvenes near the Hollywood sign where Hawkeye suggests that the team deserves some time off and tells everyone to meet back at Avengers Compound that evening. Wonder Man, still sore over not being able to capture the Blank, grimly tells Clint that he’ll be there before flying off.
Tigra asks Iron Man to stick around so they can talk in private, as she wants to know the best way to get Wonder Man to talk about what’s bothering him, since Iron Man has known him for longer, or so she thinks. Iron Man — aka Jim Rhodes — quickly realizes that Tigra thinks that he his predecessor, Tony Stark. He explains to her that he is not Tony. Rather than reveal his true identity, Jim removes one of his gauntlets to show her that he’s a black man.[2] Iron Man then suggests that Tigra talk to Simon directly, figuring he might be more inclined to open up to a pretty face.
Meanwhile, at an estate on the Santa Monica Mountains, Graviton looks over the city and is pleased to see the freak weather conditions are finally over. He can now begin his plan to build his own criminal empire. He is happy to be finally free from another dimension after he was stranded there by Thor.[3] He thinks about the strange alien construct that passed through it during his imprisonment that allowed him to begin crossing back into his native reality, a process that was completed thanks to the power battery that fuels the Blank’s force field.[4] That’s when the Blank returns and informs him that he has delivered his message to all the local crime bosses. However, he is concerned that it won’t be enough to deal with the new team of Avengers that have set up in the city. Graviton believes he can deal with the Avengers and gives a display of his gravity powers when the Blank reminds him that the heroes defeated the last time he fought them.[5]
A few hours later, on the private beach on Avengers Compound, Tigra approaches Wonder Man and recommends that they talk to each other about their problems. Simon admits to her that he has his doubts about how effective he will be on the Avengers, telling her about how he originally got his powers from Baron Zemo to infiltrate the Avengers. However, the process that gave him his powers seemed to kill him, and he betrayed Zemo to help the heroes foil his scheme. However, Simon eventually returned to life and rejoined the Avengers. However, after his brush with oblivion, Simon has had a fear of death ever since that he hasn’t full shaken since. In fact, he came to Hollywood to focus on his acting career and found that he made the ideal stunt man and had a promising career until Hawkeye asked him to join this new team of Avengers.[6]
Tigra then shares her own misgivings, recounting her own disastrous time with the East Coast Avengers. She also talks about how she has never felt in full control of her life not even before she was turned into a cat-person. Tapping the cat pendant clipped to her top, Tigra activates a spell that disguises her in her former human form and tells Simon that she was saved by a race of Cat People who are now long gone.[7] Tigra figures that Simon won’t feel right until he catches the Blank and suggests that they work together to find him.
The pair decide to go to the Cat’s Jazz Club to see if their ally, the Shroud, has any information. They find his two assistants — Cat and Mouse — badly beaten by the Galeno crime family for refusing to join up with them. Since the Shroud has been pretending to be a criminal in order to dismantle organized crime from inside, he decides to go up to the Galeno mansion to find out what’s going on. Since he owes the Shroud when he accidentally injured the vigilante’s ribs, Wonder Man insists on tagging along and disguises himself as the Shroud’s bodyguard.[8]
When they arrive at the Galeno mansion, they discover a massive party going on. When Shroud and Wonder Man encounter the Blank, Simon blows his cover by attacking his foe. The commotion draws in Tigra as well as Graviton. Deciding that the Blank is no longer useful, Graviton uses his powers to throw him into the Pacific Ocean along with Tigra and the Shroud.
Later that evening, Hawkeye is preparing a barbeque for the team when Mockingbird comes and tells him that Wonder Man and Tigra are not answering their communicators and worries that they might be in trouble. Hawkeye dismisses her concern, saying that if there was any trouble they would have activated their emergency signals and tells her to relax as nothing could possibly threaten them. As Hawkeye saying all this, Graviton has used his powers to pin Wonder Man to the bottom of a swimming pool in an effort to drown him.
Recurring Characters
West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Iron Man, Wonder Man, Tigra), Graviton, The Blank, Shroud, Cat, Mouse
Continuity Notes
This snow fall was caused when Malekith the Dark Elf unleashed the power of the Cask of Ancient Winters. See Thor #346-353.
Tigra had learned that Tony Stark was Iron Man in Avengers #215-216. At the time of this story, Tony Stark has fallen off the wagon and is spiraling deeper and deeper into alcoholism following the events of Iron Man #167. Jim will fill the role of Iron Man from issue #169 to 195 of that series.
Thor banished Graviton to another dimension in Thor #324.
This construct was the device that he Beyonder used to kidnap Earth’s heroes in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1.
Graviton last fought the east coast team back in Avengers #158-159.
Wonder Man goes over a bit of his history here. The facts:
How he was given his powers by Baron Zemo and how these abilities eventually killed him. See Avengers #9.
His resurrection, which happened in Avengers #151. It was later revealed in issue #165 that he didn’t die but entered a death-like state while his body underwent a metamorphosis, transforming into a being of pure ionic energy.
Since his resurrection, Wonder Man was a mainstay on the team until he was forced into reserve status by Henry Gyrich — the Avengers government liaison at the time — in Avengers #181. Getting into acting, Simon turned down a permanent spot on the team in issue #211.
Tigra also opens up about her past:
Tigra reluctantly joined the West Coast Avengers in issue #1 of this series. Her concerns are due to the fact that she dropped out of the east coast team after feeling that she couldn’t keep up with its heavy hitters or the types of threats they faced. See Avengers #211 through 216.
Before becoming Tigra, Greer Grant was the heroin known as the Cat from The Cat #1-4. After being inflicted with radiation poisoning by Hydra, Greer was treated by Joanne Tumolo, secretly one of the Cat People. She used magic to transform Greer into Tigra, as seen in Giant-Size Creatures #1.
The footnote asks readers to remind them to tell this story sometime. I guess they meant what happened to the Cat-People. Anyway, the Cat People were created by a magician named Ebrok centuries ago, as detailed in Fear #22 and What If? #35. They didn’t go anywhere per-se, but always lived in another dimension. The only member of the group that Tigra interacted with was Tumolo, who later died during Tigra’s battle with the New Man known as Tabur in Marvel Premiere #42.
The Shroud’s injuries were due to a misunderstanding while he was making sure Tigra wasn’t in any trouble after being invited to join the West Coast Avengers. This happened in issue #1.
Topical References
The store that is being robbed by crooks is depicted as Radio Shack. This should be considered topical as this is a real world buisness.
