Avengers West Coast #80

Picking up directly after part 1, AWC 80 is an incredibly packed issue a decade before 24 made the time-conscious narrative popular (but over a decade after the M*A*S*H episode "Life Time"). Rick Jones's assumption the Kree are kidnapping him is understandable, considering they are inquiring after the Kree Captain Mar-Vell and he just had the dream about the Kree's homeworld. The rapid backstory review might be confusing to readers who weren't around to read comics in the late '60s and '70s like I wasn't, but the mind of a youth reading it accepts it as a nice rapid summary of a story without even realizing it refers to earlier comics. The letters page at the close of the issue explains from where the stories came, which wasn't too helpful back in the day, but now with the benefits of various websites and the recent classic TPB productions, they are much-more easily attainable. After the backstory, we return to the Avengers West Coast, training and recovering from their recent run-in with the Night Shift. Their temperamental differences contrasted to the East Coast Avengers is displayed rather well, with the high tensions between exes Hawkeye and Mockingbird, Living Lightning's hesitation and acclimation, and Iron Man's perpetual antagonism with Captain America. The writing, especially in subtle ways such as the "yes" connections between both narrative foci, is quite high, even for an issue that is still preliminary to the main conflict and a second extended fight scene. Avengers West Coast always strikes me as a much better series than its recognition status, which is ironic considering it chronicled a team who felt the same way (since never were the New York-based Avengers called "East Coast," as Spider-Woman points out in this very issue). We still do not know why the Shi'ar are interested in Kree technology and information, especially since Oracle has such a hostile reaction to being called a Kree, but that only further piques our interest in what is really going on in this crossover. X-Men fans are quite familiar with the Shi'ar and may be surprised at the Avengers' ignorance, but it is an impressive point in favor of the realistic quality of the Marvel Universe (if such a consideration may be allowed) that not everyone has heard of everyone else, just because they all have the same publishing imprint. Cap's concern for rescuing Rick is rewarded with a brief but good panel, which is impressively balanced with the AWC's general discontent Cap is around giving them orders as if everyone is always automatically under his authority (as Living Lightning is quick to point out). The melee ends with mixed results: the Kree sentry and outpost are destroyed, but the Shi'ar get away with the psyche-magnetron (a matter-reshaping device), Rick Jones is still their prisoner, and no one knows what their plan is. To prevent their escape, Cap contacts Quasar in outer space and the narrative shifts to him at the close of the issue, demonstrating how well-plotted this crossover is. Quasar fails to capture the Shi'ar and recover Rick because a black solar flare interferes, tying in nicely to one of the "prologue interludes" from Avengers 344. The final panels bring the issue full-circle, as we return to the tomb of Captain Mar-Vell and the ominous revelation someone else is there, too. The storm is just getting started.