West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #12
The Attraction Between Two Bodies!
At Avengers Compound, Wonder Man is showing off his new look. It includes a new red and green costume, back mounted jet-pack. He has also dyed his hair black and stopped wearing his sunglasses so the whole world can see his glowing red eyes. The other Avengers are impressed with this new look to compliment Simon’s current outlook on life. He isn’t the only one who has made alterations to their costumes. Hawkeye has designed a sleeveless costume and while Mockingbird has designed a costume that shows off her legs. This has become a necessity for the warmer California weather.
When discussing Tigra’s revealing outfit, Simon remembers that she has an amulet that allows her to change back into her human form and wonders why she hasn’t used it since she has been having trouble with her dual nature.[1] Tigra tells them that she has gotten more comfortable with her cat form and basks in the sun. Little do they know that Tigra is being observed from afar and vows to make her his property.
When Mockingbird presses the issue in private, Tigra loses her temper with her and heads back inside.[2] She tries hitting on Wonder Man, who turns her down, saying that he has started a relationship with Christy Carson, the production assistant for Arkon IV, the film he is shooting. Tigra gets jealous as she doesn’t like being second place with any man even though she herself is playing the field. When Simon also points out that she has a relationship going with Hank Pym, who is taking it serious, Tigra storms out of the room. She then goes to Tony Stark and tries to hit on him. However, when Tony discovers that Greer is being serious, Tony stops flirting and says he doesn’t want to hook up with yet another woman involved with Hank Pym after his ill advised romance with Janet Van Dyne, Hank’s ex-wife.[3] He tells her that Hank needs the emotional support after the death of his “son” Ultron-12.[4] Annoyed that everyone keeps bringing out the “seriousness” of her relationship with Hank Pym, she decides to go and set the record straight with him. At that moment, Hank is going over the chores that need to be done around the compound with Joachin Mendez, the head of the Avengers new support staff. However, when Hank asks for a kiss, Tigra finds herself being unable to resist and once again wonders what is wrong with her.
Meanwhile, a signal is sent out to a distant star causing a burst of energy shoots from it and heads to Earth. As it does so, the energy takes on the form of a costumed man. While at the Horsesham Nuclear Power Plant a reactor alarm begins going off. Suddenly, a strange green-skinned woman in tattered black clothing rips free from the reactor. As she makes her way out of the power plant, she kills the planet workers who get in her way. Outside the plant, some powerlines break loose and unleash the electricity monster known as Zzzax. Both he and the woman head up into the mountains of Los Angeles together.[5]
Back at Avengers Compound, Hawkeye is practicing his archery skills when Hank Pym arrives to report about his investigation into Master Pandemonium and how the records to Anvil Studios — the only connection they have to the sorcerer — were destroyed. He says the only other lead left to check out is an occult bookstore that their ally, Firebird, said had a connection to Pandemonium.[6] When Clint asks how things are going with Tigra, Hank says things are great. However, Tigra doesn’t share these sentiments. She has taken to leaping through the forest as she tries to figure out why she throws herself at every man who shows interest in her. However, she somehow miscalculates one of her jumps — something that never happens — and falls to the ground so hard she is knocked out.
Meanwhile, in downtown Los Angeles Zzzax and his two allies — Quantum and Half-Life — have caught up with one another and are now going on the rampage. Since this is a super-powered threat beyond their scope, the LAPD calls the West Coast Avengers for help. Answering the call his Hank Pym, who summons the team and tells them what’s going on. They race to the scene where they face off against the three villains. Wonder Man tries to battle Quantum who is able to create duplicates of himself that are just as powerful as the original. Mockingbird tries to fight Half-Life and discovers that she can cut a person’s life in half with a single touch. Hawkeye tries to deal with Zzzax since he faced the monster in the past, but struggles to find a source of water to short the monster out. Luckily, Wonder Man comes crashing into the street after being knocked out of the sky by Quantum. on Hawkeye’s orders, Simon pulls up a water main, allowing Hawkeye to use his grounding arrow to defeat Zzzax the same way he did last time.[7]
With Zzzax defeated, the Avengers try to separate Half-Life from Mockingbird. Iron Man steps in, but discovers that his armor can’t shield him from her ability to age people. However, Wonder Man — who is effectively immortal — is immune to her power. When Simon knocks Half-Life out, everyone returns to normal. Hawkeye then fires a smoke arrow around Quantum and his duplicates. As he suspected, his powers are drawn from sun light and, after cutting it off, Quantum is also quickly defeated. As they try to make sense of who was behind this attack, the Avengers are suddenly pinned to the ground by an increase of the gravity around them. This was caused by Graviton, who arrives on the scene with Tigra as his prisoner. He gloats that he has finally defeated his foes, the Avengers.
Recurring Characters
West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Iron Man, Wonder Man, Tigra), Hank Pym, Trouble (Graviton, Zzzax, Quantum, Halflife)
Continuity Notes
Greer Grant has had the amulet that allows her to assume the appearance of her human form ever since she was transformed into Tigra in Giant-Size Creatures #1. She revealed this ability to Simon in West Coast Avengers #3. She has been having trouble with her dual nature since West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #1. She arranged with the Cat People to have one of her souls removed in issue #6. What her teammates don’t know is that she promised to kill Master Pandemonium in exchange for this.
Tigra tries to justify her mission to kill Master Pandemonium here because he tried to kill the Avengers on two different occasions. This was in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #4 and 9.
Hank’s wife Janet Van Dyne — aka the Wasp — divorced him after he struck her in Avengers #213. No longer after this, Tony tried to pursue a relationship with Janet in issue #224. However, they ended the relationship when she discovered that he was also secretly Iron Man and found his courtship inappropriate.
Ultron-12 was the first version of Ultron that didn’t want to kill its creator. It formed a bond with Hank before getting killed by the previous model, Ultron-11. See West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #7.
A footnote here reminds readers that Zzzax was first seen in Incredible Hulk #166.
Hank looked into Anvil Studio’s records last issue. Firebird’s visit to the occult book store tied to Pandemonium was in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #5.
Hawkeye last fought Zzzax in Incredible Hulk #166. Although seemingly destroyed here, Zzzax will return in Incredible Hulk #325-327.
Topical References
In this story, the nuclear power plant is stated as being near Diablo Canyon. This nuclear power plant is slated to be decommissioned in 2025. However, in real life this reactor is called the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, while here it is called Horsesham Nuclear Plant. One could assume that in this instance that Horsesham is a nuclear plant unique to the Marvel Universe and not associated with the real-life Diablo Canyon Power Planet. Saves delegating this as a topical reference.
