Avengers West Coast #91
War Toy
Ultron has kidnapped Mockingbird prompting the Avengers West Coast to stage a rescue mission at Hank Pym’s Death Valley estate. There they are shocked to discover that Ultron has created a new female robot companion named Alkhema, aka War Toy. The homicidal robot then claims that he made this new creation from the body of Mockingbird, much to the shock and horror of her husband, Goliath.[1]
Given the order to kill the Avengers, War Toy unleashes her various weapons in an effort to kill them. The Scarlet Witch is forced to sidelines because her hex powers are currently not working.[2] The US Agent and Vision try to attack War Toy directly only to discover her outer skin is electrified and her energy weapons can counteract the Vision’s phasing powers. Not far away, Wonder Man and Spider-Woman focus on attacking Ultron, but the monstrosity is able to shrug off their attacks thanks to his Adamantium construction.
In the middle of all of this, Goliath has shrunk down to ant size to sneak past Ultron and War Toy in order to search Hank Pym’s lab for confirmation that Bobbi has been turned into a robot, and a way to save her. Hearing somebody moaning from under a pile of rubble, Goliath resumes a stature of 15 feet and tries to dig them out. However, the sudden size changes are taxing to his system. Although he uncovers an Adamantium plate shielding the people inside from the falling rubble, he grows dizzy and passes out.
Outside, Ultron and War Toy have defeated the other Avengers when they notice that the Scarlet Witch has gone missing. She arrives moments later, flying the Avengers Quinjet toward her enemies at full speed. Crashing the Quinjet into the two robots does little more than injure Wanda thanks again to Ultron and War Toy’s Adamantium construction. However, this distracts them long enough for Goliath to return. Armed with the Adamantium plate he found in the ruined lab he is able to knock the two robots around. However, he is still dizzy from his successive size-changes that he soon loses steam and begins returning to his original size. By this point, Ultron has had enough playing around and orders Alkhema to retreat with him as they have to carry out his mission to exterminate all organic life on the planet. The Vision tries to fly after them, but their jet boots are faster than he is and they get away. When the Vision returns, Wonder Man chastises the Vision for taking off without checking if Wanda was still alive.[3][4]
When Goliath wakes up he is greeted by his wife, Mockingbird, who is alive and well.[5][6] She along with Hank Pym and Myron MacLean were still inside the lab and were hiding under the Adamantium shield when the building collapsed. Bobbi explains that Ultron didn’t transform her into a robot like he led on, but used her mind as a template for War Toy.[7] Happily reunited with his wife, Clint and Bobbi decide to cancel their pending divorce and kiss.[8]
Meanwhile, the Vision finally is showing some sort of concern for the Scarlet Witch’s well being and offers to help her back onto her feet. Considering it for a moment, Wanda refuses his aid telling him that its high time for her to stand by herself again. By this time, Hank Pym and Myron MacLean explain how Ultron hypnotized him into helping with the construction of War Toy. When they contemplate what Ultron’s next step is, Hank suddenly realizes that the robot is going to the Sun Lake Weapons Center a black ops weapons testing facility in the Sierra Nevada Desert. With the Quinjet wrecked, Hank digs out a miniaturized hover craft from his lab and uses his Pym Particles to enlarge it to full size.
Soon, Ultron and War Toy arrive at Sun Lake and by this time, War Toy’s personality is starting to grate on Ultron. As they are fighting off the facility’s defenses, Ultron explains how he wants to gain access to a nuclear missile in the hopes of using it to wipe out all humanity. This leads to protests from War Toy. While she shares Ultron’s desire to kill humanity, she wants to enjoy doing it one person at a time instead of all at once. When Ultron dismisses this desire as ineffective to his goals, War Toy turns on him.
As the two robots fight each other over the base, the Avengers West Coast arrive and head inside the facility to set up a trap for Ultron. They hook the Vision up to the missile that Ultron is seeking to use as bait while the other Avengers attack the two robots outside. Annoyed by the Avengers return, both Ultron and War Toy put aside their differences and defeat the heroes before heading into the missile silo. There, they find the Vision waiting for him and are drawn in close.[9] Thanks when Hank Pym activates the trap: which turns the Vision’s body into a powerful electromagnet that pins Ultron and War Toy to the hull of the missile. With the two robots trapped, the missile is launched into space where it safely explodes. However, Hank cannot be sure that the blast was enough to destroy Ultron and War Toy.[10] The Vision survived the blast by becoming intangible at the last moment and phasing through the missile before it detonated.
When the Vision returns to Earth, Goliath is glad to see that he is still alive and suggests that they all celebrate. As everyone leaves, Wonder Man notices that the Scarlet Witch is deeply upset because of the return of her estranged husband and wishes he could comfort her, but knows he can’t because he knows he’s not anymore human than the Vision himself.[11]
Recurring Characters
Avengers West Coast (Goliath, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, “Mockingbird”, US Agent, Spider-Woman), Vision, Hank Pym, Ultron, Alkhema, Myron MacLean
Continuity Notes
Mockingbird was kidnapped last issue. As we’ll learn this issue she wasn’t turned into a robot but used as a template for War Toy’s personality. There’s more to it than that, but we’ll get into that a little later.
Wanda’s malfunctioning powers are due to the return of the Book of Darkhold, as we’ll learn in Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sin #1-7.
Wonder Man’s harsh criticism toward the Vision is due to the fact that, once upon a time, the Vision and Scarlet Witch were married. That happened in Giant-Size Avengers #4. Since then, the Vision was deconstructed and put back together again in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45, this left him bereft of any emotion. Deciding his presence around his former wife would be painful to her, the Vision left to join the eastern team in Avengers #312. Vision only returned in Avengers West Coast #89 to help defeat Ultron. What nobody here knows is that the Vision actually got his capacity for emotion back in Avengers #348, but he is keeping them in check so as not to hurt anyone.
Wonder Man also questions if he is even human anymore. This is because his powers have been affected by a nega-bomb explosion in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9 which has linked his powers to his emotional state. This has made him prone to fits of uncontrollable rage. He will eventually be cured of this condition in issue #25 of that series.
Here, Mockingbird notes that her husband went and changed his costume. When Bobbi was kidnapped last issue, Hawkeye decided he needed extra power to rescue her and revive his old Goliath persona. Clint was Goliath on two past occasions from Avengers #63-98 and Avengers #345-347/Iron Man #278-279/Captain America #399-400.
However, this isn’t actually Mockingbird but a Skrull spy named H'rpra. She took Bobbi’s place between last issue and this one as part of the early stages of a Skrull invasion of Earth that will be years in the making. This is explained in New Avengers: The Reunion #2. The real Mockingbird will remain a prisoner of the Skrulls until she is rescued in Secret Invasion #8.
The Avengers can be forgiven for fearing that Ultron turned Bobbi into a robot since turning people into robots was his previous scheme in Avengers West Coast #66-68. Instead, he used the same technique to create a personality for Jocasta in Avengers #162, which required a human mind as a template.
How Hawkeye and Mockingbird’s marriage came to be on the brink of divorce is a long and complicated set of circumstances. The details:
Clint and Bobbi got married back in Hawkeye #4. It was all marital bliss until the time when the West Coast Avengers were struck going backward in time circa West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #17-24. As seen in issue #18, while in the 1800s, Bobbi was kidnapped by the Phantom Rider just as the rest of the Avengers were going backward in time.
Bobbi was forced to drink a love potion that made her loyal to the Rider. Eventually, she shook off the effects of the potion and, in a battle with her captor, did nothing to prevent him from falling off a cliff to his death, as seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #23. Because of Clint’s staunch belief in the Avengers rule about killing, Bobbi kept the truth of what happened a secret for months.
Things went south when the the spirit of the Phantom Rider possessed his modern day descendant and revealed the truth to the rest of the Avengers. As seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #34-35, Hawkeye didn’t take it very well either and this put a strain on their marriage.
From issue #37 on, Clint and Bobbi split up. However, Mockingbird came back in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #46 and convinced Clint to help her train the Great Lakes Avengers and work on their marriage. Although Clint agreed, the two could not reconcile and Clint returned to the west coast team in Avengers West Coast #60.
Bobbi revealed issue #88 that she filed divorce paperwork and that they have two weeks before it becomes final. Clint finally realized how much Bobbi still meant to him after she was abducted by Ultron last issue.
Here, the Vision refers to Ultron as his father. This is because Ultron created the Vision many years earlier as seen in Avengers #57-58 and 134-135.
It wasn’t and the pair will be back to cause the team grief in Avengers West Coast Annual #8.
Wonder Man has had unrequited feelings for the Scarlet Witch since Avengers West Coast (vol. 2) #44. While the two started briefly dating in Avengers West Coast #63, Wanda didn’t feel comfortable with it and ended their romance in issue #69.
Topical References
The narration in this story states that the Quinjet is powered by four Pratt & Whitney J48-P-8A turbo jets. The J48 engine was installed in a number of military aircraft in the 1950s. This should be considered a topical reference as Pratt & Whitney is a real world company and the J48 is no longer in production and has been succeeded by more advanced models.