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thebibliomancer · 7 months ago

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Essential Avengers: Avengers West Coast #66: TUNNEL VISION

January, 1991

Ultron 13 -- Avengers, 0.

Hah, that's pretty clever, comic text.

Also, Tigra is back to normal! Yessss! Can't wait to see that happen!

Previously in Avengers West Coast: Wonder Man's brother, the Grim Reaper, was brought back to life and now has to murder people to live.

Forever ago, Tigra went feral so Hank Pym shrank her and put her in a terrarium but then forgot about her and she got out and has been missing ever since.

Ultron is a jerk. Once, he tried to not be a jerk but another version of him came and killed him about it.

Over in Avengers West Coast Avenging West Coastishly... uh, the government asked them to relocate some protestors that are standing right in the path of a malathion pesticide aerial spraying.

US Agent is, characteristically, grumpy about it. He's probably muttering about the nanny state under his breath.

Iron Man uses his repulsors to blast the pesticide spray so it won't land on the crowd. Meanwhile, US Agent decides to yell at the crowd.

A man protests that the helicopters are spraying at night too and decides to take a swing at US Agent. Which the super-soldier easily dodges.

US Agent: "The authorities okayed this spraying. If malathion's good enough for them, it's sure good enough for -- Hey! What's that rash on your face? It looks like -- some kind of metal!" Guy: "That's what I've been trying to tell you, jerk... They've also been spraying in secret -- at night! I've heard 'em -- choppers, the works! I got this way eating fruit from my own garden -- in Pasadena! These other people got the same problem!"

So, I went down a small rabbit hole, trying to determine if having a story about malathion spraying was just one of those Very California Stories that Avengers West Coast sometimes does.

And apparently, in the 80s, California started spraying the pesticide to control an outbreak of Mediterranean fruit flies and continued the program for a while. But the program was discontinued when there was a bioterrorist attack that released massive numbers of the fruit flies in protest of the spraying. The culprits were never caught but it did result in the end of the malathion program (because it was ineffective) and also transporting Mediterranean fruit flies into California got bumped up from a misdemeanor to a felony.

Wild.

Anyway, in real life, malathion probably doesn't make people develop metal rashes, maybe.

Oh, brief tangent. Speaking of US Agent and how much he loves the government, you'd think that the Avengers losing their government charter would be a thing. Unless the government specifically stripped the charter from the East Coast team and kept on the West Coast team because they had their Agent on the inside.

The book has not said! And since they have different creative teams now, I do not expect them to try very hard to be on the same page! Granted, even when John Byrne was writing both books, they didn't really feel like two halves of the same whole.

Anyway.

Iron Man almost made the helicopter crash when he repulsored the pesticide. So after he saves the pilots, they decide to quit the pesticide business. They seem like they were on the fence already - sympathetic to the concerns about whether malathion is safe or not.

But US Agent has become a believer over one interaction and accuses the helicopter pilots of spraying at night.

Pilot: "You know that hothead, Iron Man?" Iron Man: "Who really knows anybody?"

Hah. What a way to dodge the question. He really doesn't want to associate with the guy.

The pilots deny having anything to do with nighttime spraying. All their flights were listed in the paper long before they did it.

US Agent is still being belligerent, though, so Iron Man picks him up and flies away with him. They weren't there to take sides on the malathion controversy.

US Agent: "Yeah? Well, we're Avengers, aren't we? If you'd got a close look at the skin on some of those people -- as metallic-looking in spots as your fancy-pants armor -- maybe you'd feel it was high time the Avengers West Coast finally started doing some real avenging!"

US Agent fills Iron Man in about the night sprays on the flight back to the Avengers West Coast Compound. And Iron Man agrees that it warrants the Avengers looking into.

Also, Tigra. She's back to normal. It happened off-panel! Agatha Harkness did it in Avengers Spotlight #38!

I'm slightly annoyed that the subplot dragged on so long in the book and it gets resolved in another book!

Tigra is also back to her old ways. She throws a flirt US Agent's way and he looks stricken by the attention. Slightly terrified, even.

Iron Man: "Yep. You're back to normal all right, Greer."

Everyone Avengers West Coast is in the meeting room, except for the Human Torch. Or as the ever-prickly US Agent calls him "the has-been Torch."

Do they have beef? US Agent and Human Torch both do so little that I don't remember them interacting very much.

Hank Pym called a meeting to tell everyone about the robot farmers he ran into.

And he reveals that in the most dramatic way possible.

Hawkeye isn't very impressed by some androids. The Avengers see a lot of androids.

But Hank Pym explains that these robots were being controlled remotely and disguised as perfectly normal wheat farmers. And that they blew up when he activated the Rover aircraft's engine.

Wasp speculates that if someone is replacing farmers with robots, it has something to do with tampering with the food supply.

US Agent connects some dots and wonders if this has anything to do with the metallic rash he saw on those protestors. He's not sure why these things would be connected but I think he could be onto something. Why are they in the same arc if not?

Hawkeye laughs this off.

Hawkeye: "Malathion spraying? Get serious, Agent. You think the Earth's being inaded by robot medflies?" US Agent: "You brainless -- ! Uncle Sam put me here to keep an eye on clowns like you -- not to take any of your bull!

The rest of the Avengers have to hold the two back so they don't start punching each other.

Hank Pym tries to get everyone on task, telling the Avengers to check out other farms in the area and asking US Agent to follow-up on the metallic rash. But Wonder Man interrupts to say he definitely will not be doing this.

He's got other priorities lately.

Wonder Man: "It's the rest of you that're crazy -- not me! Wanda and I told you how my dead brother's come back -- as the real Grim Reaper this time -- how he's drinking up people's lives like so much Miller Lite! And you want us all to charge off looking for robots down on the farm?"

Dr Pym acknowledges that he's not exactly the team chairman so he can only suggest what the team does.

Hey, the team hasn't had a leader since Hawkeye rage-quit. Why haven't they gotten around to resolving that? Like, the team doesn't need a leader. Some Avenger's iterations don't have one. In Jason Aaron's run, after Black Panther quit the leadership role to go deal with a bad solo book, the Avengers didn't replace him so made decisions as a group. It's perfectly valid.

Except, this book keeps going 'huh, weird how we don't have a leader, right?' and then not doing anything with that.

This is the era of Avengers where plot points drag on forever for no reason.

Anyway.

Dr Pym says they don't have any leads on Grim Reaper so they may as well focus on this robot farm threat while the whole L.A.P.D. focuses on tracking down the Reaper.

Wonder Man dismisses this reasoning.

Wonder Man: "Threat? What thrat? A tinker-toy version of Ma and Pa Kettle -- some bozo with zits whining about how somebody sprayed insecticide on his face -- and you jokers start worrying someone's going to cause rust on the food chain!" Iron Man: "We all hope you're right, Wonder Man, and it's just a false alarm. On the other hand -- don't you think you may have lost your objectivity?" Wonder Man: "I don't want to be objective, tin man. I want to find my brother -- "

Wow. You know that Tony is going to have to pay for that, right?

Wanda Witch runs after Wonder Man and tries to convince him not to fly off half-cocked, to wait for when the Avengers can back him up. Wonder Man says nuts to that. He asks Wanda to come and help him look for Grim Reaper but her powers are still gone so she's not sure what help she can be. So he says nuts to her and flies off half-cocked.

Later, the Avengers West Coast investigate various places for robots or weird pesticide spraying without finding much of anything.

Iron Man checks Riverside, US Agent checks Hollywood, Wasp checks Pomona, and Dr Pym and Wanda coordinate from the Compound.

But Hawkeye has gone rogue, going to investigate a closed down section of the metro rail tunnel without checking in with base.

And Quicksilver and Tigra have also gone rogue so they could sneak up and give him shit about going rogue. Because he was so obviously going to sneak off and go rogue that they couldn't help but follow him.

Hawkeye confesses that he took the malathion nighttime spraying stuff US Agent brought to the Avengers very seriously for reasons he can't really explain.

So he looked at the reports of nighttime sprayings and found that they made a nice circle around a metro tunnel that had been closed after a fire. Which IS a very ripped from the headlines thing, as an editorial caption confirms that the fire was in all the papers.

Rather than tell anyone about this lead, Hawkeye did not tell anyone. So the Avengers are flying around everywhere, wasting their time, so that Hawkeye can be the big man who cracks the case wide open.

Not a very good team player for a guy who wants to lead the team again.

Anyway, he's stuck with Tigra and Quicksilver now.

Tigra bends the bars over the tunnel entrance so they can get in. And she spots a minute crack in the wall where a secret tunnel (SECRET TUNNEL) was covered up.

Hawkeye blasts a new entrance hole with one of his arrows and the three go through to find a hi-tech secret base.

A base with a helicopter, like the ones that have been spotted spraying at night! Also, robots! Like the ones Hank and Jan found!

Team Hawkeye assumes hostility and starts bashing the bots. And they take care of them fairly quickly. Pietro hits one bot with another and then cheekily suggests he's available to help the other two Avengers. But they're also already done.

Hawkeye: "Four up, four down. All our super hero free-for-alls should be that easy!"

But just as Tigra is vowing she won't leave this base until she finds out what's going on, Ultron backhands her from the shadows and tells the Avengers they're not even allowed to leave.

Hawkeye says don't make me shoot you with an exploding arrow after already firing one. But you know Ultron, always made of really strong metal.

He shrugs off Hawkeye's electro-net arrows and then ZAPTs him.

Quicksilver tries running around and around to buffet Ultron with hurricane force winds. Ultron is even less bothered by that.

Ultron: "In earlier incarnations I created the Vision, and survived his betrayal --- I faced Avengers and Fantastic Four together, in the Inhumans' Great Refuge -- ! I triumphed even in battle with Ultron-12, who tried to usurp my identity and my station --" casually clotheslines Pietro "-- and now they send a mere jogger against me? It is almost -- insulting."

Hey. Hey, Quicksilver? Maybe you should have used that superspeed to run and get help.

By the time the Avengers waked up, Ultron has tubed them.

Villains love tubes.

Hawkeye: "Tigra -- Quicksilver -- you two all right?" Tigra: "Well, I had a bit of a cold, and Pietro's been complaining about an ingrown toenail..." Quicksilver: "This is hardly the occasion, Tigra -- !"

This is a superhero comic, Hawkeye. You're fighting a robot that's the unrestrained id of your fellow hero. Maybe a few yuks aren't genre inappropriate.

Hawkeye admits belatedly that maybe he shouldn't have run off without telling the others where he was going. But he guesses that Ultron is behind the farmer robots AND the night spraying?

Ultron confirms. He's been placing robots amongst the wheat farms of California so that they can add a crystalline substance to the crop. The spraying is another way of getting that same substance into circulation.

Hawkeye assumes that Ultron is trying to poison humanity but Ultron says he's trying to evolve them. Into robots. That's evolution... probably.

And in the half hour that the heroes were unconscious and being tubed, Ultron sprayed them too.

Ultron: "You see -- in the past, I made the fundamental error of wishing to conquer the human race. What use could I possibly have for men, either free or slaves? At last, I see what should always have been my true goal: to replace every man, woman, and child on the planet -- with living ROBOTS who are nothing more nor less than four billion extensions of myself!"

Ah, assimilation plot.

Very evil robot supervillain of you, Ultron. Although, I assume that if you ever manage to accomplish this, you won't be satisfied with the result. You wouldn't dick around with making robot wives so often if you wanted to sit around talking to yourself all day.

Still, I wonder how the Avengers West Coast is going to get out of this one. They don't have the heavy hitters they usually rely on to deal with Ultrons.

Wonder Man flipped the Avengers the double birds and went off into a back-up story to cover his subplot. Scarlet Witch lost her powers. Thor and Vision are with the East Coast Avengers. I guess Dr Pym is around but his track record against Ultron is... bad.

Anyway, speaking of Wonder Man subplot...

Not sure why this needed to be a back-up story. Roy Thomas worked on both the main story and this. Other issues of Avengers have had subplots going on at the same time as the main story.

Anyway, Grim Reaper ate a guy.

And just when he's relishing the meal and making it oddly sexual

Grim Reaper: "Tell me, friend... Was it good for you, too?"

Wonder Man shows up and punches him through a wall.

And credit where it's due, Wonder Man remembers that there's other plot threads going on and asks if Grim Reaper is involved with the night spraying that is turning people into robots.

Grim Reaper: "I don't even know what you're talking about! Why would I want to do something like that -- when I need human life to exist?"

He raises a good point.

Wonder Man says that means they're on the same side on this one and suggests Grim Reaper surrender and let the Avengers help him with his horror hunger.

Grim Reaper tzzakks Wonder Man. The Avengers are just humans and humans are just food. Except Wonder Man, who is useless as a food because he would eat Grim Reaper instead.

Since Grim Reaper can't really hurt Wonder Man, he plans to drop a building on him. To keep him out of the way!

BUT OUT OF NOWHERE, MANDRILL!

Not entirely out of nowhere. He's Nekra's sister and he tracked down Grim Reaper because he's furious that he killed her.

If only he were better at not getting killed.

Luckily for him, he'll be saved from death by poor editorial oversight.

He'll pop up thirteen years later with no explanation in a She-Hulk comic because somebody either forgot or didn't care that he was dead.

Wonder Man is horrified and clearly Grim Reaper killing a monkey man was a line too far in the way that him killing a random man was not.

Wonder Man: "You better kill me, too, Eric -- before I get my second wind. Because if you don't -- after what I've just seen -- I won't rest -- till one of us is back in that grave of yours!" Grim Reaper: "You almost wish I'd bury you beneath a mountain of rubble, don't you, Simon? Then you could stop feeling responsible for all the lives I've taken -- the ones I'll go on taking. I'd almost prefer to let you live -- so you can suffer every time you hear I've killed someone -- Which should be at least once a day. Yes, I think I will leave you in torment for a while. Then, when I feel you've agonized enough -- I'll finally come back and finish the job!"

Grim Reaper jumps down a manhole but Wonder Man is stopped from following him when the police arrive. What with all the dead bodies around, seeming to flee would be a bad move so Wonder Man stays put.

Police: "Saw somebody duck down that manhole as we drove up, Wonder Man. Any idea who the killer was?" Wonder Man: "Afraid not, officer. It was someone... I never knew...!"

So that's about where Wonder Man is falling on the drama scale right now.

Next Avengers time, the East Coast branch changes up their roster. But next Avengers West Coast time,

Follow @essential-avengers for more Avengers at this Avengers channel at the usual Avengers time. Like, reblog, comment, subscribe and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.

#avengers #west coast avengers #essential avengers #ultron #grim reaper #dr pym #Mandrill #hank pym #iron man #US Agent #Tigra #the Wasp #Hawkeye #Wonder Man #Scarlet Witch #Quicksilver #robot farmers

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thebibliomancer · 2 months ago

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Essential Avengers: Avengers West Coast #73: Demonica Rising

August, 1991

Against the combined power of JAW BREAKER and CYBERTOOTH -- WILL AN AVENGER FALL?

Maybe in the sense of tripping on a banana peel and knocking herself out. Scarlet Witch isn't getting killed by someone named Cybertooth.

Anyway.

Last times in Avengers West Coast: Spider-Woman randomly ran into two of Doctor Demonicus' Pacific Overlords while they were smuggling a Lifestone fragment into California. She got the Avengers involved. And now the Avengers are involved.

After raiding Doctor Demonicus' secret base in a wax museum and fighting a giant baby, the Avengers found evidence that Doctor Demonicus had something going on in Kyoto, Japan, Sydney, Australia, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

With the help of Namor, Hawkeye and Spider-Woman fended off an attack by a mind-controlled Sunfire and a woman called Pele during a Pearl Harbor memorial thing.

But the team of Iron Man, Tigra, and Wasp that went to Japan got ambushed by a man with tattoo powers. Iron Man and Wasp got knocked the hell out and captured. Tigra got stabbed but managed to get away, intending to go and warn the Australia team that they were headed into a trap.

And that's where things pick up.

Tigra is flying over Australia while the Quinjet starts losing power due to damage taken when she peaced out of the Kyoto ambush.

In addition to the Quinjet being damaged, Tigra keeps passing out from blood loss and waking up just in time to not horribly crash.

She decides that no matter where she is (somewhere in Kakadu National Park) she should land the Quinjet while she's conscious and while the thing is still able.

Then she passes out again midway through the landing procedure and drops the Quinjet in a river.

Don't fly while bleeding out is the takeaway.

She's pitched out of the Quinjet, almost drowns in the river, but then is saved by someone.

Back at Dr Demonicus' secret lair, he tells Living Lightning that Miguel's father and the Legion of the Living Lightning dreamed small, scheming to conquer one nation. While Dr Demonicus, the big brain genius man that he is, plans to conquer the entire Pacific Rim! And, then, the world!

Living Lightning asks him just what is his big plan. If they're going to be working together-

Well, point of order. Living Lightning is working for Dr Demonicus. Not with. If he plays his cards right, benefits. Like a high-tech suit that allows Miguel to keep his human form instead of being a man-shaped electrical being.

Lightning still tries to wheedle details out of Dr Demonicus but the supervillain tells him all in good time and wanders off to go take care of some stuff.

Kuroko sneaks up on Living Lightning to warn him that Dr Demonicus doesn't trust him at all. He's given him a long leash but only because the suit that lets Lightning stay human could be turned off remotely if he gives Dr Demonicus a reason to.

So. You know. Stay in line.

Meanwhile, Sydney, Australia.

When Team Scarlet Witch, Dr Pym, and Wonder Man land at the factory where some of Dr Demonicus wax museum secret base equipment was created, they're confronted by a seemingly deserted factory and also a whole bunch of security personnel.

Tony Stark was supposed to call ahead to get permission for the Avengers to investigate the factory but the security dudes claim they don't know anything about that.

The security guy tells Wonder Man to put his hands up so Wonder Man puts his hands up, while grabbing the car the guards rode in on, tipping them all out.

Wonder Man: "If that's the way you want it!" -throws car- "Okay if I put my hands down now?"

Oh, Simon, you scamp.

Scarlet Witch: "That's just great! We come here to ask their C.E.O. about some equipment they sold Demonicus -- and you turn it into World War III!" Wonder Man, having the time of his life: "Hey, they started it!" Scarlet Witch: "There's a mature response, if ever I heard one!"

Thankfully, Hank is here with his quick thinking and ability to spritz Pym Particles out of his hands.

He just shrinks Wanda and Wonder Man so they can sneak out of this ridiculous situation and go investigate the factory.

With Simon taking just the briefest moment to hurl a metal washer like a discus at one of the guards out of spite.

Wanda calls him out on his behavior and says he's acting out because she didn't want to date him. Simon denies that's the reason and says he just didn't like this Australian security guard's dumb stupid face.

Sure, Simon.

Anyway, while Hank was shrinking the two, he apparently also passed Wanda the tracer the Avengers have been using to track Demonicus' tech. So the two follow the signal to a vent in the factory wall and the two teeny-sized Avengers slip in through the bars on the vent grill.

Inside the factory, the signal leads them to the CEO's office. The Pym Particles wear off just in time for Wanda and Wonder Man to confront the guy in the office.

But he's not the CEO. He's CYBERTOOTH! Another member of the Pacific Overlords!

What gets me is that to prove his (cyber)teeth can bite through nearly anything, he takes a metal lion statue and chews it up into a ball.

What also gets me is that Dr Demonicus also made a baby huge and gave him seismic powers, gave a woman fire powers, and gave her husband wind powers. And then you have a guy with metal teeth.

I guess Dr Demonicus really liked The Spy Who Loved Me.

Wonder Man isn't intimidated by the statue chewing. As an actor, he already knows a lot of people who chew scenery. So he grabs Cybertooth and tells him that if this is an ambush, then he's about to lose all his teeth.

That's when it turns out that Jawbreaker, another one of the Pacific Overlords, is here.

Wonder Man easily dodges Jawbreaker's first telegraphed punch but then he notices that Jawbreaker has knocked out Wanda. That's how the guy snuck up on him without Wanda saying anything. And Wonder Man is so distracted by seeing Wanda sprawled unconscious that Jawbreaker gets him with the second punch.

Wonder Man is sent flying across the room and leaving a massive dent in the wall.

Jawbreaker gloats that Wonder Man ain't so tough after all. But Wonder Man springs up and rips off Jawbreaker's jaw brace and then punches him through another wall.

Wonder Man: "A name like Jawbreaker -- and a brace over your chin! Why does that make me think you might just have -- a glass jaw?!"

By the by, the wall that Jawbreaker flew through was the outside wall. So there's a quick scene cut to outside where Jawbreaker lands on the security guy that Wonder Man earlier nailed with that washer.

This just isn't that guy's day.

Back inside the factory, Wonder Man demands again from Cybertooth what the Pacific Overlords are up to.

Cybertooth responds by trying to bite him.

Cybertooth: "These cyberteeth have turned steel into mangled shards -- glass into crystal splinters! Surely you can picture what they will do to -- human flesh!" Wonder Man: "Who said my flesh was human?"

And, yup, Cybertooth's cyberteeth bounce harmlessly off Wonder Man's 'ionized organic matter.' Man is made of energy.

Wonder Man responds by slamming Cybertooth into the wall and then shoving him across the room.

Unforrrrrtunately... he shoved Cybertooth right towards where Scarlet Witch was lying unconscious. And right where Dr Pym was checking on Wanda after sneaking away from the guards.

Cybertooth wastes no time taking Wanda Witch hostage by putting her entire head in his mouth.

Gross yet effective.

Wonder Man surrenders rather than risk Wanda's safety and then a returning Jawbreaker nails him in the back of the head with a big I-beam, seemingly knocking out Simon for reals this time.

Jawbreaker and Cybertooth steal the Avengers' own Quinjet to return to the Pacific Overlords HQ.

Appropriately enough, given their group name, the base is unda da sea. Although, Jawbreaker didn't know that, considering he freaks out when Cybertooth dives the Quinjet right at the ocean.

But Dr Demonicus has a whirlpool tractor beam dealie going on so instead of smashing into the water and breaking, the aircraft is gently swirled into the base.

When Wanda comes to - the last to do so- she discovers that the Avengers have been stuck inside tubes.

Because when villains capture heroes, they love to stick them in tubes.

And these aren't just any tubes. They're power negating tubes. So Wonder Man can't punch free, Iron Man can't repulsor loose, and Wasp can't sting.

Dr Demonicus introduces the Avengers to his Pacific Overlords, since Wanda only briefly met two of them.

Irezumi the tattooed man whose name means tattoo, Pele the fire goddess, Kuroko the dark one, Living Lightning, Cybertooth, and Jawbreaker.

Iron Man asks why Dr Demonicus is the only Pacific Overlord who is masked. Since the Avengers already know that he's Dr Douglas Birely.

So Dr Demonicus removes his mask to reveal that his face has been mutated to be like his mask. Horns on his head and strips of flesh across his mouth like the grill of a mask.

The Pacific Overlords are shocked by his appearance and Dr Demonicus yells that he didn't want to be spurned or pitied. BUT SOON NONE WILL DARE TO DO EITHER TO HIM!

Because of his master plan. That thing he's been working on? He's not just ambushing Avengers for shits and giggles. If Spider-Woman hadn't gotten the Avengers involved, they wouldn't even be in tubes right now.

(Thanks, Spider-Woman.)

The undersea base starts shaking so Dr Demonicus explains his plan. Or the vague science behind his plan.

The Hawaiian islands were formed when volcanic magma burst through a 'hot spot', a thin place in a tectonic plate. So Dr Demonicus has used his equipment to create a hot spot artificially with ultra-sonics, to create his own island. And he's going to claim it before anyone else can and call it the nation of Demonica!

Yes, his evil plan is to create an island so he can have his own country.

I don't know that that's an evil plan. Scientifically immoral, probably, because messing with tectonics on purpose can't be ethical. But is there a law against it? Is he hurting anyone?

I mean, besides the superheroes he's kidnapped and also that happy family he kidnapped and mutated.

By the way, Pele has come to her senses and is now big mad that Dr Demonicus turned her baby son into a giant.

So Jawbreaker just punches her in the back of the head.

So much for Pele's revolt.

Living Lightning gets upset at this. I guess chivalry or spotsmanship are one of his good qualities. But Dr Demonicus says he deals with his enemies as he pleases and Living Lightning better watch his mouth or else find that out personally.

So Living Lightning glares but shuts up.

Demonicus' island starts rising up from the depths as magma gushes forth from the holes the Pacific Overlord base has been drilling through the tectonic plates. And since the island is forming right under the base, things are shaking around and everyone is getting knocked off their feet.

Dr Demonicus assures everyone that the base was designed to withstand an earthquake but the tubes holding the Avengers weren't. Scarlet Witch's tube breaks, setting her free.

She assesses the situation but quickly determines that instead of trying to fight the Pacific Overlords on her own, there's a bigger issue in that all the shaking has caused the walls of the base to rupture and seawater is pouring in.

Scarlet Witch focuses her powers to try to seal the breach but then Kuroko hits her in the back of the head with a pipe.

Wonder Man yells that Wanda was just trying to save everyone but Kuroko scoffs that Dr Demonicus clearly didn't need help. He's got this. Definitely considered all the variables.

And I guess he did. Because water stops pouring in because the Pacific Overlord based has been raised to above sea-level. The island/nation of Demonica has been created.

Dr Demonicus: "... Our new island-continent of Demonica -- which will soon by the most powerful nation-state in the entire Pacific!" Jawbreaker, whispering: "Uh, Kuroko -- you think Doc's already got his secretary of state picked out?"

-laugh track-

History will remember Jawbreaker as the funny Pacific Overlord.

I have no idea where this story is going from this point. Because, again, I'm not sure if Dr Demonicus is doing anything illegal, except for all the kidnapping.

But, also, Demonica isn't one of the fake Marvel countries I've heard of.

So who knows where things are going! Except you of next week, when the post on the next issue posts! Future you is so lucky.

Follow @essential-avengers. Like and reblog. And hail, hail Demonica, a country I didn't make up!

#avengers #essential avengers #west coast avengers #pacific overlords #dr demonicus #tigra #wonder man #scarlet witch #dr pym #hank pym #the wasp #iron man #living lightning #i don't want to tag the overlords individually and risk having a Cybertooth tag on my blog forever after

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