Issue(s): West Coast Avengers #32
Cover Date: May 88
Title: "Buried monsters!"
Credits:
Steve Englehart - Writer
Al Milgrom - Breakdowns
Tony DeZuniga - Finishes
Gregory Wright - Assistant Editor
Mark Gruenwald - Editor

Review/plot:
The Wasp knows that the West Coast Avengers will be upset after they had to kick out Iron Man recently, so she heads over there to see them. And they are indeed down in the dumps.

Actually Moon Knight isn't so upset about Iron Man leaving, since his "sun-colored armor" clashed with his nighttime theme. And Iron Man wasn't even wearing his red and gold suit when he was kicked off the Avengers.

Before the Wasp can cheer them up much, though, the inevitable reunion with her ex-husband Henry Pym occurs, with Hank telling her that he's "not entirely sorry that he had to beat her" (in their competition during the Grandmaster's contest!).

Tigra gets a bit catty although i'm not quite sure what about. But even Hawkeye isn't too sure when the Wasp offers to join the West Coast team to replace Iron Man. Hawkeye lists Moon Knight's probationary status plus Espirita, Hellcat, and Hellstorm (yes, that spelling) "if we need more bodies". Even if Hawkeye doesn't want Jan on the team, not the most tactful way of saying so. But before that's settled, Mockingbird enters the room and announces that they're all going on a vacation to the Grand Canyon. She's secretly been hunting down the descendant of Carter Slade, aka the Phantom Rider that raped her during their time travel visit to the past, and whose ghost she saw recently, and she found out that Hamilton Slade is currently at the Canyon.

A little fighting over Tigra on the plane ride over...

...and not just between Wonder Man and Moon Knight. Moon Knight's god and/or voice-in-his-head Khonshu gets involved too.

While on the trail at the Grand Canyon, Mockingbird secretly releases the long buried Yetrigrar (!)...

...and uses the distraction to sneak away from the group. But Moon Knight notices and follows her.

The Avengers fight Yetrigrar...

...but their powerhouse Wonder Man has to turn his attention to rescuing other hikers threatened by the fallout.

Meanwhile, Mockingbird beats the holy hell out of Hamilton while Moon Knight watches...

...but he eventually steps in and stops her. Hamilton swears he knows nothing about his great-grandfather beyond the fact that he was the Phantom Rider.

Henry Pym eventually comes up with a pretty mean way to defeat the poor dumb Yetrigar.

When Mockingbird and Moon Knight return to the group, Moon Knight covers for her. But the Wasp notices the signs of a strained marriage, although it's only coming from Mockingbird; Hawkeye is blissfully unaware.

Having just come off a Godzilla movie marathon, i don't have any complaints about a comic that uses Yetrigar. Except that Al Milgrom's art is pretty stiff.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is the first West Coast Avengers issue after a series of Hawkeye appearances in Solo Avengers and Marvel Fanfare, although that means that the Whackos' depression about kicking out Iron Man isn't an immediate reaction. West Coast Avengers #35 happens concurrently with Fantastic Four #317, so i've pushed this back in publication time a bit to help line things up.

References:

• The West Coast Avengers kicked out Iron Man in Iron Man #229.
  
• Hawkeye asks the Wasp if "this is what it means to be the boss", having to kick out the guy who helped turn his life around in Avengers #16.
  
• Hank last beat Janet in West Coast Avengers annual #2.
  
• The Wasp gave up her east coast chairperson role in Avengers #278.
  
• Jan mentions Hank's suicidal sounding phone call from West Coast Avengers #17.
  
• Wonder Man thinks to himself that Hank and Jan's romance was so perfect when he first met them in Avengers #9 (if he says so!) but recalls their "messy", "nasty" breakup from Avengers #230.
  
• Mockingbird says that the battle between Red Ronin and Yetrigar from Godzilla #10-11 at "Budiansky Point" is pretty famous in the annals of SHIELD.
  
• Hamilton Slade wonders if he's been doing things he doesn't know about, with a reference to his blackout spell from Ghost Rider #56.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Love this goofy crap so much! I don't know where to begin. First, I can't get enough of the way Englehart writes Moon Knight. Yeah I know fans of the character hate it but I was only ever interested in the character due to his look. Outside of that I found him rather boring. But what Englehart does with him in this title...well, I won't say it's good writing but it's entertaining to me. "I approve!"

Does anybody doubt Englehart has Tigra act that way just so he could use the catty pun?

Yetrigar! How can you be so lame and so awesome at the same time?

Sometimes I feel like Wonder Man in the panel saying "Wow! This is fun!" while everybody else is Hawkeye telling me I'm weird.

I still can't believe how Hank couldn't see how wrong it was for him to use the words "beat you" in any context.

Note that the dialogue makes it clear that Hamilton is descended from Lincoln's line, not Carter's. That raises the question of where Lincoln's girlfriend/wife and son were when he was raping Mockingbird. This will be addressed in issue 41.
Bobbi's behavior this issue is horrible- she endangers Clint, her teammates, and any hikers that were in the area. Hank's behavior in Avengers 213 was hardly worse. The truly disturbing part of Englehart's depiction of rape victims is that he depicts them as a danger to everyone around them- Sharon almost let Johnny die and Bobbi, who had previously been a loyal wife and friend, now has no qualms about endangering her husband and friends because she was raped.
Bizarrely, in future issues, Hawkeye gets angry at Bobbi for letting the Phantom Rider die and not because of her actions in this issue. In fact, the writers seemed to want to forget about Bobbi's behavior this issue since it was so out of character.

Clyde, I wonder if Englehart was fully aware of the context and was having a little chuckle to himself?

Are you sure it's the ANCESTOR of Carter Slade that she's been hunting down, rather than his descendant?

Thanks, Stephen. Sad how often i get those words mixed up.

At least it's an amusing mix-up. In this case, conjuring up the idea of a far grander time-travel story.

Godzilla's name can appear in a footnote, but Hawkeye can't mention him?

Do the Wasp's word balloons look a little off to anyone else?

Alex, i think the idea is that she's small so her voice should be quieter, so they wrote the text smaller. They did the opposite with Bill Foster in West Coast Avengers annual #3 and West Coast Avengers #39. Bill Oakley was the letterer for all of these.

I must admit, I have stolen the scene from the end of the book where Jan notices the strain on the marriage only coming from one person. It's a great dramatic notion - the idea that one person is in pain and the other is blissfully unaware.

Interesting to see Hellstorm lumped in with Hellcat and Espirita/Firebird. They do (well, Mockingbird and co. do) call on his aid in 9 issues time.

It's weird how arbitrary the whole honorary Avengers thing is. There's plenty of characters, like Hellstorm here, you could probably make a legitimate argument for as being worthy of the status.

So creeped out when Moon Knight tells Ham Slade not to report Bobbi's assault on him and adds "Few would believe you, anyway." Oh, the things the "heroes" could get away with, were they inclined.

Of course, in-story, it's an analogue for how Bobbi has (thus far) gotten away with murder…

Letting someone die isn't murder, in fact, the law recognizes no duty to help people in danger. What Bobbi did might be considered wrong but it's not murder.

Well, using a magic potion to make someone love you probably doesn't legally count as rape, so they're even...

Ya, the meaning of rape has been significantly changed. Might be the legal definition has as well, not sure about that one.

The nearest we get in the real world is spiking drinks with strong alcohol, Rohypnol, "rufies" etc. to have sex with them which is rape in most peoples' books.

Bizarrely, in future issues, Hawkeye gets angry at Bobbi for letting the Phantom Rider die and not because of her actions in this issue.

Well, that's because she doesn't tell him about it. She says something like she was knocked off into a canyon or whatever, gets her sympathy, and keeps mum about what she was really up to.

In fact, as far as I know, she never tells Clint about her actions here. You can take the spy out of S.H.I.E.L.D., but you can't, etc.