Issue(s): Avengers West Coast #81
Cover Date: Apr 92
Title: "They also serve..."
Credits:
Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas - Writer
Davis Ross - Penciler
Tim Dzon - Inker
Richard Ashford - Assistant Editor
Nel Yomtov - Editor

Review/plot:
As the title indicates, this chapter focuses on the group of Avengers that remained behind on Earth. Mockingbird apparently took advantage of the free time to go get a Brazilian.

Then we've got the Wasp, who seems to have lost a button.

C'mon, David Ross. Are these superheroes or underwear models?

It turns out that USAgent and Mockingbird are late for their guard duty shift, looking over the Shi'ar and Kree agents that were captured before the other Avengers left for space.

What's funny about this is that everyone is at Project Pegasus. The people that aren't on guard duty are in one room hanging out. The people not on guard duty are standing in the other room. Why doesn't everyone just hang out in the prison area. The place where everyone else is standing around doesn't look particularly comfortable. And the prisoners are held in canisters, having been shrunk down by Henry Pym. So presumably they could be stored anywhere.

More vamping from Mockingbird as we learn that it was USAgent that cast the vote to keep her on the team.

The reason for the isolated guard duty seems to be only so that the guards can easily be taken down by more Imperial Guards coming to rescue their allies.

She-Hulk, returning to the guard area to try to bury the hatchet with USAgent, is attacked next.

I would have thought She-Hulk could handle a little electricity.

Speaking of weak lady superheroes, i think the Wasp forgot that she has super-strength when she shrinks.

Despite these setbacks, the Avengers manage to stop the Shi'ar. But the Kree prisoners, Atlas and Minerva, get away. USAgent makes a last ditch attempt to jump onto their ship, but winds up falling. He's saved by Spider-Woman and an extremely verbose She-Hulk.

It turns out that it wasn't really Minerva with Atlas, though. It was the shape-shifting Hobgoblin.

So now the Shi'ar Imperial Guard have Captain Marvel's Nega-Bands.

The real Minerva agrees to help the Avengers, and uses her seventh sense to locate the Shi'ar ship. The Avengers contact Quasar to try to get him (and Her) to stop the ship.

There's She-Hulk running at the mouth with jokes again. Did she have a triple espresso or something? Is this Roy Thomas' attempt at matching the humor of Byrne's She-Hulk series?

Quasar fails to stop the ship. He's left fighting some of the Imperial Guard while the ship gets through the worm hole.

I find Roy Thomas' scripting to be vaguely annoying. A lot of too clever by half joking, similar to his early issues on his return to Dr. Strange. And i find Davis Ross' depiction of the women to be alarming (i didn't even show you She-Hulk's wedgie). It's not proto-Image worthy, but it's off putting from a guy that generally does decent old school house style stuff.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part nine of Operation: Galactic Storm. It continues in Quasar #33.

References:

• USAgent has apparently been griping nonstop since Avengers #345 about getting replaced by Hawkeye on the space mission.
  
• USAgent voted for Mockingbird in Avengers West Coast #69.
  
• The last thing Captain Atlas remembers is getting knocked out by Wonder Man in Wonder Man #7.

Crossover: Operation Galactic Storm

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Best part is Mockingbird tossing USAjerk across the room for sexual harassment (hey its a work environment).

I remember thinking "Oh, that's nice, they've given John a nice character mo... oh no, he was being sexist."

It looks like they're trying to give Hobgoblin a name change in this issue, to make him distinct from the more famous Spidey-related villain. Does "Shapeshifter" or "Shifter" stick? Does the tag need to be changed?

He doesn't really appear much more (or at least in any capacities where his name is used). And then DnA got him in their sights and quickly killed him.

"If I had the belly under my belt, I'd keep my mouth shut too!"

That obviously-toned belly? Even for an infamous dick like US Agent, this insult's just too dumb.

Yeah, having only just dropped AWC a couple of issues before, the characterization in this issue is strange. Agent calling Mockingbird Bobbi? Having voted for her because she's a hot blonde? There's been nothing in the previous issues to suggest either a closeness or an attraction on his part. I'm surprised he even knows her name. I had to look back at the top to confirm that the Thomas couple were still writing this. Just terrible.

Erik, it was probably just thrown in there as another "wedge" between Hawkeye and USAgent, since they already had previously established friction.

Maybe USAgent just said that to miss Bobbi off, or....MAYBE HE KNEW SHE WAS A SKRULL!?!

It's understandable that Hobgoblin's name change (as did many Imperial Guardsmen over the years) - some of the names are wanted for more important characters (or so generic as to be just bad). But to change it to Shapeshifter? Really? How boring. Why not change it to something like Boggart, Pooka, or Kobold or some other similar malevolent fairy like hobgoblin was? That way, there is continuity with the name, and it can even be explained as a result of different translation of the original alien term.

Roy Thomas is certainly an important figure in Marvel and comics as an industry, and some of his creations have had real lasting power, but he is really limited as a writer.

Thomas' dialog has always been prolix and banal -- all the more infuriating when you remember he's a fan of both English literature and classic Hollywood movies.