West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #11
Pride of the Regiment
At Avengers Compound, Mockingbird angrily hangs up the phone in frustration. Seen by Hawkeye, Hank Pym, and Iron Man, they ask what’s wrong. Bobbi explains that she is concerned about what’s happening with SHIELD after the organization has suffered a lot of set backs recently. After the loss of their helicarrier, accusations of agent brutality, and pressure from the government and the media has her worried about the future of the agency that trained her.[1] They all decide that the best thing to do is pay a visit to Nick Fury directly.[2][3] As they leave, they check in on Wonder Man and Tigra who are out by the compound pool. Simon tells them that he is taking Tigra to the set of his new movie and will be busy for the day.
Changing into civilian clothes, Bobbie takes Clint and Tony to a hair salon on Rodeo Drive which is a front of SHIELD’s Los Angeles headquarters. The “owner” Josyan is an old friend from Bobbi’s secret agent days and takes her to the private salon they change into costume and take the secret elevator down down to the secret SHIELD base.[4] Once down below, they are swarmed by an army of SHIELD agents which they all easily defeat. Nick Fury then comes out and chastises his agents for failing to take down the intruders. He then asks what the three Avengers want.
They all express their concerns with what’s happening with the organization. To try and get Nick to open up, Bobbi reminds him how he took her under his wing back when she was a lab technician for SHIELD. She was trained to be a field agent and sent to the Savage Land where she assisted Ka-Zar in defending the prehistoric jungle from those who sought to exploit it.[5] When she returned home, she was enlisted by the government to ferret out a traitor operating within SHIELD. To this end, she took on the costumed identity of the Huntress.[6] However, when this identity was put on the most wanted list she changed her identity again, to Mockingbird, and exposed the mole with the help of Spider-Man.[7] Injured in that caper she left SHIELD after her recovery and met Hawkeye, who she subsequently married and has been by his side ever since.[8]
Hearing all this, Fury states that SHIELD’s primary goal is to protect the world, a job that has been made harder since Stark cut off their supply of weapons and still turns out a profit. Iron Man takes offense to this, pointing out that his “employer” Tony Stark is trying to advance space travel technology to benefit the world.[9] With the situation becoming heated, Hawkeye gets between Fury and Iron Man and suggest they leave since the SHIELD director doesn’t seem to want any help. As the Avengers leaves SHIELD headquarters they are unaware that a man in a phone booth is reporting their movements.
Meanwhile, at a nearby movie studio, the final battle scene in the film Arkon IV is being shot. In it, Wonder Man — who is playing the villain — pulls off his helmet revealing his glowing red ionically charged eyes as the big reveal. After the director calls cut, the crew commend Simon on his performance. Williams — at the advice of Christy Carson, a production assistant — has decided that he is not going to wear his sun glasses anymore as he is no longer ashamed of glowing eyes. Seeing Simon and Christy’s chemistry together makes Tigra jealous and so she decides to return the favor by convincing the director to take her out to lunch.
While at the hall of records, Hank Pym is continuing his investigation into Master Pandemonium and his connection to Anvil Pictures. However, when he goes through the city deeds he discovers that someone burned the pages pertaining to the abandoned movie studio. Surprisingly, none of the other pages in the book have been burned. Picking up a brief hint of sulfur, he deduces that this was the work of Master Pandemonium.[10][11]
As these developments are unfolding, the other three members of the Avengers are returning to base. Hawkeye consoles his wife, telling Mockingbird that she can always talk to him. Iron Man also brings up if Clint is going to try and recruit Firebird onto the team. Clint decides against it since Bonita returned to New Mexico and figures after the way he botched things earlier he should give her time alone before asking her to join again.[12] Their conversation is interrupted when they are suddenly ambushed by Shockwave, Zaran and Razorfist. As Shockwave uses his powers to short out Iron Man’s armor, Hawkeye faces off against Zaran, and Mockingbird against Razorfist.[13] In the ensuing battle, Hawkeye learns that the trio of villains were hired by an Asian crime boss named Monsieur Khruul, who wants to consolidate power on the California coast.[14] Despite the ambush, Hawkeye and the others force the villains into retreat, vowing that the Blood Tong will get their revenge.
In the aftermath of the battle, Mockingbird suggests that they warn Nick Fury about this situation. Hawkeye convinces his wife that Nick is a big boy who can look out for himself. As they leave, they fail to see a slip of paper that slipped out of Shockwave’s costume during the fight. It their orders from their employer, which turns out to be none of than SHIELD who had them use the Blood Tong story as a cover.[15]
Recurring Characters
West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Iron Man, Wonder Man, Tigra), Hank Pym, Shockwave, Zaran, Razorfist, SHIELD (Nick Fury)
Continuity Notes
The destruction of the SHIELD helicarrier happened in Rom #53. However, SHIELD has a spare as we saw in Marvel Graphic Novel #18.
Here, Iron Man states that Tony Stark help found SHIELD. Per History of the Marvel Universe #2-3, SHIELD pre-existed the Modern Age. Tony Stark help found the modern incarnation of SHIELD in Strange Tales #135.
He also states that Stark had a falling out with SHIELD after they failed to take over his company. When Stark International got out of the munitions game in Iron Man #129, it left SHIELD without a reliable weapons manufacturer. Fury then enacted a scheme to buy up controlling stock in the company from Iron Man #119 to 129. Although they succeeded, they were forced to sell back to the original owners or risk everyone walking off the job, leaving them with nobody to build weapons for them.
Here, Mockingbird comments that she cut her hair short after it got in her way in the Avengers battle with the Werewolf by Night. This was in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #5.
Bobbi’s time in the Savage Land was chronicled in Astonishing Tales #8-20 and Ka-Zar (vol. 2) #3-5. In the flashback we see the time that Bobbie helped Ka-Zar battle the Plunderer and Gemini who had revived the alien monster known as Gog. This took place in Astonishing Tales #17-18.
Bobbi became the Huntress in Marvel Super Action #1.
She became Mockingbird and shut down the mole in Marvel Team-Up #95.
Hawkeye and Mockingbird’s early relationship and marriage happened in Hawkeye #1-4.
Tony Stark started building his space station in Iron Man #205. It will be completed in issue #215 of that series but have to be abandoned after it was infected with a AIM bio-weapon.
The Avengers learned of a connection between Master Pandemonium and Anvil Pictures last issue. They will learn in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #15 that M.P. is Martin Preston, the owner of the studio.
Hank states here that he is losing himself in the Master Pandemonium investigation to keep his mind off the destruction of Ultron-12, a version of Ultron that wasn’t out to kill him. See West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #7.
Since the groups inception West Coast Avengers #1, Hawkeye thought the team was mandated to have only six members since Captain America set this number cap on the east coast team in Avengers #211. Since West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #4 he had been trying to recruit the Thing who had no interest in joining, while snubbing Firebird who did. He convinced the Thing to join in issue #9. However, when this didn’t pan out in the following issue, Clint learned — much too late — that memberships caps had been dumped after the Avengers organization lost government backing in Avengers #258.
Here, Zaran mentions his recent clash with Captain America. That happened in Captain America #302.
Hawkeye recalls Khruul as being a crime boss operating out of Vietnam some years ago. He first heard of Khruul in Avengers #123.
The end of this story tells readers to watch out for an upcoming SHIELD mini-series. This would be Nick Fury vs. SHIELD #1-6, which reveals that the spy agency had been infiltrated by rogue Life Model Decoys called Deltites.
Topical References
Christy Carson compares Simon’s scene to something in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think that’s a bit of a stretch, but whatever, you could consider this a topical reference since other films have come out that have put on a much bigger spectacle than the classic 1968 Stanley Kubrick film.