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Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #2: SONS!/the Vision and the Scarlet Witch #2: BROTHERS!

November, 1985

Floating disembodied Tigra head is PISSED!

Also, look at this Lethal Legion. Surely a tough lot of dorks but do they stand a chance against pissed off floating disembodied Avengers heads? Probably not. Hawkeye looks like he’s going to eat one of them.

Anyway.

Last time on West Coast Avengers AND the Vision and the Scarlet Witch numbers 1s: the West Coast Avengers found themselves under attack by Ultron and Man-Ape who kidnapped Wonder Man and as added special surprise bonus Hank Pym who was hanging out at the time.

More happens because it was forty pages long but that’s the gist.

And here’s the gist of Vision and Scarlet Witch. Vision and also Scarlet Witch quit the Avengers because the government as represented by Peter Henry Gyrich won’t get off Vision’s ass about him trying to take over the world. Geez. So the two decide to make another go at being a normal civilian married couple in Leonia, New Jersey. Their old house got burned down so they decide to buy a new one but find that the backyard is infested with zombies that try to capture Vision.

The zombies capture Scarlet Witch instead and Vision comes to rescue her and the two discover that Grim Reaper is up to his old shit again. The two manage to get Grim Reaper and co to withdraw by threatening a weird catatonic non-Wonder Man version of Simon Williams.

After all of that happened, Hawkeye finally managed to get in touch with Vision and Wanda to tell them that Grim Reaper is up to his old shit again.

Which leads to three-fifths of the West Coast Avengers going to meet Wanda and Vision at the Motel 6 or wherever they’re staying while they’re between houses.

I hope Tom Bodett left a light on for them.

Geez, Silver Centurion Iron Man looks a bit chonky here.

Vision even makes a comment that the new armor is going to take some getting used to. And Tony replies that it’ll take awhile to get used to Vision’s more humany sounding voice.

Anyway, Wanda questions if the West Coast Avengers will get in trouble for being on the East Coast which completely baffles me.

Are there actual jurisdiction issues?

Hawkeye cracks a joke that New Yorkers think the world ends at the Hudson River so its completely fine for him to be in New Jersey but Iron Man worriedly comments that then Hawkeye gets to explain that to the Wasp so.

Will the West Coast Avengers actually get in trouble for being on the East Coast??

That’s a ludicrous way for this two team thing to work.

And if nothing else, wouldn’t hot pursuit apply since they’re chasing an Ultron?

The three West Coast Avengers here are Hawkeye, Iron Man, and Tigra.

Because Hawkeye tried to leave Tigra behind to watch the base and she flipped out on him as she’s done every time in the previous issue when he suggested she do something that wasn’t going right to the thick of the action.

Mockingbird resolved the conflict by volunteering to stay behind instead but Tigra from earlier actually is correct in being paranoid about Hawkeye trying to sideline her.

He is.

Hawkeye thoughts: “I’m told Tigra walked out on the Avengers once, sayin’ she wasn’t good enough! So why shouldn’t I be leery of her in a situation like this? We’re just getting started! I don’t wanna lose anybody -- !”

Oh Hawkeye, you are taking the very wrong leadership strategy here.

For one thing, she handled herself just fine against Graviton. For two, she’s more likely to quit out of aggravation if you keep trying to sideline her.

So for the sake of Vision and Wanda and the audience if they’ve forgotten what’s happened or missed last month, Hawkeye recaps the ENTIRE PREVIOUS ISSUE.

As does Vision, for the benefit of the West Coast Avengers and the audience.

But I’ve covered the previous issues and linked to the previous issues post so if you need a reminder or missed the last post (there was an Avengers Annual between then and now) go ahead and reread and maybe like and reblog.

But the takeaway is that Grim Reaper is up to his old shit again.

Speaking of, Grim Reaper has Wonder Man and Hank Pym in an energy cage of some kind.

See?

So, Grim Reaper is up to his old shit again.

And his old shit is being angry that his absolute saint of a younger brother Simon Williams is totally dead and was totally killed by the Avengers.

And whenever Wonder Man goes ‘stop telling people I’m dead,’ Grim Reaper goes ‘on some nights is like I can still hear him.’

Grim Reaper: “My brother was a saint -- an absolute saint! I’ll never rest until I destroy you and the Vision for desecrating his memory!”

Wonder Man: “Listen to me, Eric! Nothing can reverse the process that made me Wonder Man! I’m the only Simon Williams there ever was, or ever will be!”

Grim Reaper: “Do you really think I’ll accept that, freak? When I have the power to change it?!!”

Its clearly not but is it healthy for a guy to be so obsessed with his brother that he wants to put his brother in a blender?

Oh, yeah. That’s Grim Reaper’s thing this time.

He’s going to have Ultron scan the brains of Wonder Man and the Vision and pick out common denominator thoughts between the two of them to form a “pure Simon Williams consciousness, untouched by later corruptions” which Black Talon will shove into that scrawny Simon Williams body he made out of a zombie.

I’ll give him this much.

It’s at least a more interesting variation of his usual nonsense. If only in that it involves putting Vision and Simon in a blender and shoving the result into a zombie.

How exceptionally comic book.

Wonder Man gets pissed that his brother prefers an idealized version of him to the real thing and pounds on the energy cage and gets blasted back.

When Hank checks on Wonder Man, Ultron takes the opportunity to tell him that as soon as Grim Reaper is done with Vision, he (Ultron) is going to kill his son Vision and dad Hank at the same time with the same power blast.

Because. Fuck you is why.

Hank Pym: “Fathers -- sons -- brothers -- ! You all sound like a soap opera! Are you sure you don’t want Blake Carrington too, robot?”

Geez, Hank. Don’t lampshade the theme titling of these issues too hard.

Steve Englehart can make your life absolute hell.

Anyway, Ultron actually praises Hank for getting some pepper in him since last times, saying that he was too weak in his costumed identities to be any challenge.

Yeah, all those times he beat you.

And Hank in return mocks Ultron for working for others leading Ultron to sulk off saying “Just watch me, dad! Just watch!”

You know, this does go some way toward explaining Ultron’s later turn as Mark the Ultron if he’s secretly looking for some acknowledgement from Hank. And just doesn’t get it as a supervillian and goes ‘maybe the problem is me?’

Ultron also storms off thinking that Grim Reaper is a “madman! Truly a mad man -- !”

Think how bad you have to be for Ultron to think that.

Meanwhile, for lack of any better leads, the West Coast Avengers and crossover guests Scarlet Witch and Vision have started just investigating Simon Williams Wonder Man’s entire life to try to find some sort of lead on Grim Reaper.

Starting with Williams Manufacturing, that company Simon used to run.

Since Tigra wasn’t around for that and nobody has recapped Wonder Man’s ENTIRE BACKSTORY for her, Iron Man decides to get everyone up to speed.

Back in the Original Roster Days Except Minus Hulk and Plus Captain America, Simon Williams was a perfectly normal businessman and a competitor to Tony Stark.

In terms of inventing things. He was a much better inventor than a businessman. And not as good an inventor either as several inventions of Stark’s made all of Simon’s patents obsolete and sent the company into a tailspin.

Then you know the rest or should know the rest, from Avengers #9.

Simon Williams was arrested on embezzlement charges, had his bail paid by the Enchantress, then Zemo shot ionic rays at Simon until he became a big buff boy.

The new Wonder Man was to be Zemo’s stab at a Judas Contract like situation before Judas Contract and with a lot less patience. Wonder Man joined the team and then betrayed them.

But then double crossed Zemo instead, turning on him to save the Avengers.

Zemo: “What are you doing? Obey me, or you will never have the antidote to your disease!”

Wonder Man: “I know that -- and I don’t care! These people tried to help me! They treated me as an equal! Is life so dear that I’d lose all honor for it!”

Anyway, right after the fight, Wonder Man dropped dead.

Except he wasn’t dead, he went into a deadlike coma as his body reconfigured itself to become made of ionic energy.

Looking back all the way to Avengers #9 makes me realize how bad Wonder Man’s first costume was. I’m glad he changed it.

Anyway, Tigra objects that she doesn’t believe Simon would do an embezzlement.

Iron Man: “You’d buy beating us all up, but not theft?”

Hah.

She argues that Simon Williams is basically good (hence him turning on Zemo to save the Avengers after betraying the Avengers). Iron Man is annoyed at being questioned but concedes that if, while investigating Simon and Eric Williams, they happen to clear his name after mmmblemmble years then he’d be just as happy as Tigra.

Hawkeye wonders if the Avengers are just naturally argumentative.

Hawkeye: I’ve seen all the other teams -- even hooked up with some of ‘em now and again -- and none of them’s any tighter than we are, down deep! But we always start to argue, sooner or later! It’s just pride, I guess! We’re the best group, so we gotta be the best individuals -- somethin’ like that! That sounds about right -- and who’d know better, since I used to be the proudest one of all?

Hawkeye, you have not SEEN the arguing the X-Men can get up to.

Granted, until the Schism, they mostly kept it private.

The West Coast Avengers plus guests don’t find much at Williams Manufacturing so next head to the house where Simon and Eric grew up.

And Iron Man knows where the house is because when Simon was ‘dead’, Tony Stark was secretly sending his mom money every year to help her support herself.

Aw, that Tony. A big ol’ softie whose response to any problem or guilt is to throw money at it.

Seriously though, there is a valid argument that Iron Man glorifies billionaires and warmongers. And part of the initial premise was to trick hippies into rooting for a character they should hate.

But I’d argue that another part of the appeal of Iron Man is ‘what if I had enough money to just throw at everyone in my life that needs it?’

He pays the Avengers to Avenge.

Apparently he’s so willing to throw money around that Deadpool tells people to just claim damages were from a Hulk attack on the damage claim form on the Tony Stark website.

Tony doesn’t even check. He just wants to do what he can to help his ol’ tenuous buddy Bruce Banner.

Anyway.

Simon and Eric’s mom still lives at the ol’ homestead and she invites the Avengers in. She figures that if the Avengers are here its to discuss Simon and Eric so she offers to EXPLAIN THEIR ENTIRE BACKSTORY.

Which, okay, to be fair, this isn’t material we’ve had before.

So back in the youth days, Simon Williams was the bookworm son and Eric was the sports son. And their father Sanford was abuse dad and nothing either of the sons did satisfied him.

Maybe as a result, Eric started stealing things. And Simon started tying all of his self-worth into his grades. And then when he took over Williams Manufacturing, into his company’s success.

So when Stark Industries started beating him, Simon entered into a despair spiral, became convinced that he was useless, and turned to his brother Eric for help.

Eric had at this point joined the Maggia but the important thing is that he was successful at crime.

But he was not successful at business because its harder to twist arms and ‘nice place you have here’ the government for defense contracts.

When things didn’t work, Eric stole the money he could from Williams Manufacturing and ran.

Simon wound up blamed for it because the buck stopped there and since he felt like even more of a worthless failure (and was the one that brought Eric into embezzling range), he just accepted this fate.

Mom Williams: “I’m certain that’s why he accepted the offer to become Wonder Man! It must have seemed like a light at the end of a very dark tunnel!”

Hello, yes, I see it’s whitewash o’ clock.

This is an interesting path to take with the character.

For one thing, Simon Williams’ backstory was introduced in 1964! Was anyone thinking ‘that man can’t be a hero, for he embezzled once in the past!’

Simon Williams embezzling and then falling in with a literal Nazi but doing the right thing when the chips were down was his charm I thought.

The man is insecure, a former white collar criminal, he’s terrified to be doing the hero thing even though he’s far less squishy than most of his teammates, he’s not a paragon who always does everything right, but at the end of the day, he’ll do the right thing.

That’s a decent character concept.

Bringing his backstory back up to go ‘actually he was good all along’ is an odd decision to make.

So keep that in mind.

Anyway, Hawkeye asks what happened to Eric after Simon was arrested and she says that the Maggia transferred him to Las Vegas where he stayed until he became the Grim Reaper.

Hm. Did Eric cut off his own arm to implant a scythe? Or is there a story there?

So Last Vegas gives Hawkeye a place to start looking and its even west of the Rockies so he doesn’t have to worry about quibbling with Wasp over jurisdiction.

Which I’m still baffled is an issue.

Mom Williams says she won’t blame the Avengers but she just wants her sons back.

And Vision, who has been speechless since learning Simon Williams had a mom finally chimes in and calls her mother.

He has to explain that his brain was based on Simon’s so that he, Vision, is basically what Simon would have been had he been transformed into a synthezoid instead of Wonder Man. Although that’s not entirely true because Vision didn’t consciously have Simon’s memories or anything.

But the point BEING he admits to being kinda sorta a subgenre of her son.

She’s into it.

I mean, one of her sons spent several years dead and never calls or writes, another one is a supervillain, and now this synthezoid shows up saying he’s a sorta son sorta. She’s not going to look a gift son in the mouth.

As for Vision, I don’t know if he’s going to visit or call or write Ma Williams very much. But its a good move for him to start leaning into the human ties that come with his human brain patterns now that he’s starting humaning more.

Plus, its good for Wanda to have some family she can invite to Thanksgiving who she doesn’t hate.

Speaking of hate, dot dot dot

Grim Reaper and Nekra are lounging around having hate pillow talk right after presumably doing a sex at each other.

They love how much the other hates stuff. Like the Avengers. Fuck those guys, opines Nekra.

Nekra asks why Eric doesn’t hate Ultron since he made Vision who Eric does hate. Eric just says that Ultron is useful for now.

The sweet somethings pillow talk is interrupted when Man-Ape comes in to inform Grim Reaper that Wonder Man woke up.

Grim Reaper gets mad that Man-Ape thought something and yells a bunch of racism at him.

Man-Ape leaves, echoing Ultron by calling Eric a madman.

Nekra goes ‘uh you hate black people but I’m black (this week)’ and Grim Reaper goes ‘nuh uh you have chalk white skin therefore you’re white.’

This line of argument evidently convinces her because they start making out again.

Eric is a very superficial racist, I guess.

Meanwhile, Man-Ape stomps away kicking himself for getting involved with Grim Reaper and for thinking that the racist would get less racist. And dammit, he’s going to go talk to Black Talon about it!

M’Baku: “Black Talon, my Creole brother -- I can no longer work for a man who hates black skins! You and I must talk!”

Black Talon: “What has he done, M’Baku?”

M’Baku: “It was his tone -- there was no doubt! He is using us, not as allies or even hirelings -- but as slaves -- !”

Black Talon: “Who does he think he is? No amount of money is worth a man’s honor! Let him try to get along without my zombie -- !”

Unionize your workplace, supervillains.

I was vaguely wondering why Grim Reaper hired two black supervillains if he’s going to burst out in fits of rage at them all the time but I guess he just likes to boss them around.

Anyway, Hank Pym thinks that this discord in the ranks might be the opportunity they need to escape but Wonder Man is spiraling into a funk. A terrified of death funk.

Hank Pym: “But -- the Avengers said you got over that!”

Wonder Man: “I thought I had! Fighting Michael, when everything depended on me -- I came through! But then, I had no time to think -- and when I do have time, I think about -- oblivion -- !”

And now Wonder Man recaps his ENTIRE BACKSTORY for Hank.

Who was there for some of it.

At least its a recaps his ENTIRE BACKSTORY themed around his fear of death.

Y’know, he died in Avengers #9, was buried, was dug up by Grim Reaper, was resurrected as a zombie to attack the Avengers, and finally came back alive but not in the way he’d been before.

Wonder Man: “Eric wanted me to be his brother, but even he rejected what I’d become! In my own way, I was -- I am -- as synthetic as the Vision now! I’m here, but I’m still so close to the darkness -- the terrible, terrible darkness! Becoming an Avenger at long last didn’t change that!”

Also

Wonder Man: “You know what they say at Alcoholics Anonymous? ‘You never get cured -- you just don’t take another drink!’ Fighting Michael, I forgot my fear -- anyone can do that for a while -- but it didn’t forget me! If you want to know, I kept leaving the Avengers so I wouldn’t have to face the fact that I wasn’t cured! There is no cure! I’m deathly afraid of death!”

The first time I read this comic, back when I read this big West Coast Avengers omnibus, I was annoyed because it seemed like we’re just repeating a character beat for Wonder Man, like Englehart didn’t have a new thing for him.

I see it a different way now.

As highlighted by his alcoholism reference, you don’t just get over some mental illness by fighting a space god. Its something you keep dealing with and managing.

I don’t know that Wonder Man is going to be written as a guy with PTSD or whatever from now on but I’m not bothered that dying trauma is something he keeps having to deal with.

Not to mention retroactive childhood trauma that puts him on an insecurity spiral as soon as one (1) thing goes wrong.

Simon has a lot going on.

Hank Pym, veteran of insecurity and undiagnosed neurodivergence addresses this with uh tough love?

Hank Pym: “Now you listen to me, Simon! Forget your powers! I had powers once! I had all sorts of power! But what counts is the man who has the power! No power, and no other person, can fix your life for you! I know! If you want to die, I can’t stop you -- but if you don’t want to die, I can’t help you, either! It’s up to you, so don’t cry on my shoulder! You say you’re not a real man, but neither are you a boy! So whatever kind of man you are -- be one!”

A narrative caption points out that Hank is using psychology. Thanks, caption!

Meanwhile over at la casa de Williams, Ma Williams is still thrilled at gaining a third son (second superhero son) and a daughter-in-law.

The Avengers made an old woman’s day! Good for them!

Of course, they still need to go thwart the villains and rescue Wonder Man and Hank Pym. Especially before Wasp finds out.

Vision marvels that after all this time he knew about his link to Simon Williams, he never thought to ask if Simon had a family.

You two need to talk more often.

Scarlet Witch: “I think our family trees must be the most convoluted in history, Vision!”

Vision: “It does seem that way -- but I welcome each new revelation!”

You guys haven’t seen anything until you see the Summers family tree.

There’s a woman on there with two moms and one of the moms is a bird.

So the Avengers take off for Vegas to look for leads on Grim Reaper.

Hawkeye takes some of the flight time to call Mockingbird to see how things are going for her.

The good news is that she’s cleaned almost the entire compound out of sheer boredom and that Ultron hasn’t poked his head up.

The bad news is that Ultron has been waiting outside the Quinjet for an ironic line to poke his head up on.

You know what? I’m glad Ultron punched through the windshield of the Quinjet. This has been an awfully talky issue with lots and lots of words words words. I need a change of pace toward the action packed.

Show me what you’ve got, last part of the crossover!

So if you scroll up slightly to a little earlier in the post, you’ll remember that the previous issue in the crossover ended with Ultron punching his way into the Quinjet midflight.

That’s still happening.

Also, we’re on BROTHERS now.

So we’ve gone from Teammates to Lovers to Sons to Brothers.

As ya do.

Ultron announces that really he’s just here for Vision but he’s perfectly happy to punch Iron Man in the face again.

Vision takes the opportunity to declare that sure Ultron built him so he’s kinda his dad but it was all borrowed parts so really its more like he assembled a baby kit. This is an important distinction to Vision.

Vision: “My body was the android Human Torch’s, and my mind was Simon Williams’ -- the youngest son of Martha Williams! I’m no relation to you!”

You tell him, Vizh.

I mean, maybe tell him while multitasking and trying to stop the Quinjet from crashing from all the holes in it. But you tell him.

(And its fine, while you have your cathartic moment, Scarlet Witch runs around using probability to plug up holes).

Hawkeye takes charge and tells Iron Man to stop punching Ultron for a second because Ultron’s robots are outside the Quinjet tearing it to pieces and that maybe takes precedence.

While he rockets outside. Through I guess a hatch. I see the hatch slam closed behind him. So while Iron Man goes outside to fight those gremlin-acting robots, Tigra wonders what the hell she’s supposed to do.

Hawkeye is flying. Vision is grappling Ultron. Wanda is keeping the place from falling apart. Iron Man is dealing with the robots outside.

And Tigra? Her claws are made for flesh, not metal. She can’t really fight Ultron.

So she decides to go outside on the wing of the Quinjet in full speed flight to fight Ultron’s robots.

Well.

Good job, Tigra.

You wanted to be useful and you did it.

Although, she comments that a tail would be useful to have while trying to balance on the wing of a Quinjet in flight and I know she has a tail in the present. Wonder when she’ll grow that.

If its sometime soon, it’s going to be a ‘be careful what you wish for’ scenario.

Tigra actually kicks a robot so hard that it explodes into its component pieces.

Iron Man does that too, except with a shoulder check, but despite Tigra wishing that she had power like Iron Man, I think it’s a little more impressive when someone does it with their bare foot compared to a suit of cutting edge power armor.

Vision tries to intangible his hand into Ultron but Ultron gloats that he’s evolved past that weakness. Except when you fight Vision, you fight Scarlet Witch and her power is the win-button.

Can’t evolve past probability bullshit.

So she makes it probably that Vision can stick his hand into Ultron and then Vision rips Ultron’s whole arm off.

And Hawkeye shoots the exposed wiring.

Good teamwork, West Coast Avengers and guests!

Ultron ragequits the fight, screaming NO! as he tackles through one of the holes Wanda probability shut with a chair. Wanda almost gets sucked out the hole after him but Vision “moves with the speed of the intangible.”

I would like to know what the speed of the intangible is. Are we talking wind? Wind can be pretty speedy. Or are we talking light? Because that’s a lot more impressive but would be leaning into Monica Rambeau’s territory.

Iron Man tackles Ultron (still just screaming NO!) and slams him into the Quinjet.

Which uh why did you do that, Tony?

Tony, that wasn’t the best move for your teammates.

Hawkeye is even about to pass out since the cabin is depressurized but Scarlet Witch comes up behind him and puts an oxygen mask on him.

Again: good teamwork!

Less good: Hawkeye put the Quinjet on fastest speed to try to blow the robots loose and now they’ve way overshot their destination, are out of control, and about to run into the Rocky Mountains.

Iron Man grabs onto the broken wing of the Quinjet to try to stabilize it and Scarlet Witch blasts the entire top of a mountain off so the Quinjet doesn’t crash into it.

This helps. What also helps is that Hawkeye is a bit of a jack of many trades.

Many Avengers do one thing very well, and that garners them great publicity! Hawkeye doesn’t get that kind of press -- because he does many things well! In the end, they crash, yes -- but with anyone else piloting, they’d be dead!

That’s all well and good but why didn’t they just bail?

Do Quinjets not have parachutes?

Just because some of y’all Avengers can fly doesn’t mean you all can!

Anyway, since the West Coast Avengers plus guests crashed and knocked themselves the hell out, Ultron can call Grim Reaper to send some guys to capture them.

And just think, if only Iron Man hadn’t slammed Ultron against the Quinjet, an act that didn’t stop Ultron at all but couldn’t have helped the Quinjet.

Also, all that digging up leads on Grim Reaper sure didn’t matter. Got some good backstory out of it but Ultron would have attacked no matter where the (West Coast) Avengers were headed.

We’ll never get to find how Hawkeye was going to search the entire Las Vegas area.

Since Vision wasn’t around when Grim Reaper explained his plan last time, he explains it again, for Vision’s benefit.

And explains that the scrawny Simon Williams body is really a corpse that looked super close to Simon so Grim Reaper could bridge the gap with plastic surgery. Then he had Black Talon turn the Simonesque body into a zombie and now he’s going to put Wonder Man and Vision’s brains in a blender and pour the common denominators in the Simonesque zombie.

It’s a little creepy to be this obsessed with your brother, I’m going to say.

I think the cutoff was definitely when he did plastic surgery to a corpse.

Anyway, Vision puts out that its a solid plan even if the motivation is bad. But Grim Reaper gets mad that Vision is first-name-basising him and gets even madder when Vision mentions that he went to visit Martha Williams.

Vision: “I am not Simon Williams, no -- nor do I need to be! I’m the Vision, that’s enough! But I’m related to you, Eric!”

Grim Reaper: “NOOO!”

Family reunions are going to be fun.

Wonder Man is also shocked that Vision went and saw Ma Williams. And he comes onto an epiphany that he and Vision, they’re like twins! He didn’t want to consider it before, thinking of Vision as more of a copy, an inferior replica. He used Vision’s robotic traits to ignore how much of him was really in Vision.

Because he does see himself in Vision. And Vision isn’t afraid of death. Which makes Wonder Man decide that he’s the inferior copy of Simon Williams, not Vision.

Hank Pym, not being privy to this internal monologue, decides the speech he gave Simon is sinking in and whispers to him to be a man.

Ultron decides to put Wonder Man’s brain in the blender first, because he wants to watch Vision watch that happen.

As Wonder Man steps out of the energy cage, he admits to Vision he didn’t tell him about Ma Williams because he wanted to keep her all to himself but that he’s glad Vision got to meet her.

Wonder Man: “Yes, I’ve thought about how awful it would be for me to die, and how awful it would be if you died -- but now I’m thinking what our deaths would mean to her!”

And then he does Grim Reaper a punch.

You loves to see it.

Wonder Man: “It takes strength to lay down your life for your friends. But it takes more to stand up and live!”

You loves to see it because I still don’t like Grim Reaper as a villain.

Anyway, while being punched, Grim Reaper calls for his Lethal Legion to maybe help him out and not just stand around watching him get punched.

Because two punches in, they’ve just watched him get his ass beat.

And they will continue to do so a little longer because suddenly Mockingbird shows up and kicks Grim Reaper’s ass.

Then she runs over and turns off the energy cages to let out the West Coast Avengers plus guests.

Actually. She probably should have opened with that.

Kicking Grim Reaper in the face is a worthy pursuit and one everyone can enjoy but Wonder Man had that in hand.

It’s not like doing that first really impeded her in any way but she should have gone for the cage first.

Mockingbird explains that since Hawkeye left the Quinjet’s radio on, she was able to get SHIELD to trace the signal for her. And then she found where Grim Reaper had taken the team. Somehow. Look, now’s not the time to explain it. There’s fights to be done.

Grim Reaper boasts that the Lethal Legion still outnumbers the West Coast Avengers and guests, what with the zombies.

Buuuut

Man-Ape and Black Talon have decided now is a good time to express dissatisfaction with Grim Reaper’s racist management style by up and ditching him.

Good for them.

So fights.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird tangle with Grim Reaper. Iron Man and Wonder Man as the punchiest fight Ultron. Vision and Scarlet Witch square off against Goliath. And Tigra narrowly avoids a designated girl fight against Nekra because Hank Pym jumps in to help.

Grim Reaper blasts the roof with his stupid arm scythe to cause a landslide and takes advantage of the distraction to have him and Nekra run the heck away.

Vision declares that This Is Something He Has To Do By Himself, With Wonder Man, and leaves the rest of the West Coast Avengers plus Scarlet Witch to deal with Ultron and Goliath while he and Simon chase Grim Reaper and Nekra.

Off in the cave, Vision and Wonder Man compare notes that they both can see in the dark. Vision because his ELECTRONIC eyes and Wonder Man because of his ionic ones. But: Vision’s hearing is only slightly better than a human’s and Wonder Man has super hearing.

He super hears that Grim Reaper and Nekra split up.

Instead of splitting up to cover more ground, gang, Vision decides that they should stick together. Brothers.

Wonder Man: “Vizh, listen, I’m sorry I -- took so long to get going back there -- !”

Vision: “It doesn’t matter, Simon -- not between you and me! I know what it means for us to be brothers, now!”

Wonder Man: “Vizh, you should know, I -- I’m still scared! I mean, I’m mad, and I’m happy because of you, but I’m -- afraid of the dark! Afraid of what might happen!”

Vision: “But you won’t let either of us down, Simon! That’s the important point! We stick up for each other! And all of us are afraid sometimes!”

Aww!

This is a really sweet moment!

And will become in hindsight a very bitter moment when later Vision gets his emotions wiped and Simon decides that he actually didn’t like Vision as his brain brother.

Then I’ll get aggravated.

Anyway, the two brain brothers go after Grim Reaper.

Meanwhile, Grim Reaper is thinking smugly to himself that no way is anyone coming after him because “Ultron is giving his all for me, as a stupid machine should!”

Do you like ANYONE, Grim Reaper?

I’m not saying you should like Ultron because Ultron doesn’t have likeable characteristics.

Apparently he likes Nekra because his very next thought is that he hopes that if anyone does come after the escaping villains, he hopes they come after him instead of Nekra.

Wish granted, dipshit.

Wonder Man makes heavy boom booms noises to make Grim Reaper bolt and Vision intangibles through the cave wall and then diamonds right in Grim Reaper’s path.

Wonder Man makes a comment about the Williams boys, together again, and Grim Reaper says Simon better kill him in this cave because otherwise Grim will just keep coming after him with zany schemes until he kills Simon.

Vision: “But why, Eric? Let’s face facts! Whatever you think happened to Simon after he became Wonder Man, you are the one who drove him to that point! You stole the money that put him in court and drove his company under!”

Grim Reaper: “That’s right! I stole the money! But that’s not --”

Wonder Man: “Oh, stuff it, Eric!”

Grim Reaper: “What -- ?”

Wonder Man: “You didn’t steal the money! I did!”

Plot twist!

Grim Reaper tries to claim that Wonder Man is insane but Wonder Man tells him he’s tired of everyone treating him like he’s some saint.

Wonder Man: “No! All my life, people told me how good I was -- especially compared to you -- but I wasn’t good enough in the end! I wasn’t good enough to keep the company alive! I wasn’t good enough to turn Zemo down! And I wasn’t good enough not to steal! The only good thing I ever did -- because I chose it over evil -- was to die for the Avengers!”

“But when I came back and tried to tell people how strange -- how wrong -- I felt to be cast as a hero, they just patted me on the back and smiled! ‘You’re good,’ they said! ‘You’re smart! You’re strong! You’re handsome! And you’re an Avenger! So you’ll work it out!’”

“But that was because I never told them the truth -- that I was guilty! They all thought you stole the money, even if the official verdict was otherwise -- so after a while, even I stopped thinking about that part! I started looking not at my disease, but at the symptoms -- like the fear that retribution might be coming for me out of the dark! And my guilt just festered, poisoning me -- until tonight! Until I finally saw the Vision clearly and saw what Simon Williams might have been if he hadn’t known what he’d done before he became Wonder Man and died! Until I saw -- my better twin!”

“So now I can cleanse myself -- now I must cleanse myself! Now I can try to change!”

Wow.

That’s a massive epiphany, Simon. Good job.

Also, funny to pretend to whitewash the character in the previous issue so you can turn it into a character beat about the effect that whitewashing has on a character.

Simon points out that Eric must have loved him to do so many zany schemes in his memory and Eric agrees because he swore to get the people who killed Simon. But now Eric would have killed Simon and he freaks out and runs off.

Grim Reaper: “No -- you two are twins! I’m the one whose different! I can no longer be your --”

And then he runs off a cliff and plummets into the dark void.

I don’t know if the idea is that he didn’t see where he was running. The cave is supposed to be dark but it’s colored pretty brightly.

Ah well. He’ll be back. He’s always be back.

And he’ll probably learn nothing from this.

Later, Wonder Man and Vision return to the rest of the West Coast Avengers plus Scarlet Witch.

They’ve managed to defeat Goliath off-panel! Good job, guys! But Ultron managed to escape. Tigra kicked him into a computer and that just made him stronger. Robots, amirite?

And Vision searched as much of the crevasse Eric plummeted into but he couldn’t find the guy. And Nekra managed to vanish because nobody went after her.

So they mostly just caught Goliath. And possibly caused Grim Reaper to die but they Didn’t Find The Body so eh.

Overall not a great outcome but nobody got their brains blended. So lets call it a B+.

Anyway, this IS a Vision and Scarlet Witch book so they get the last word.

And the last word is:

Vision: “Wanda, this may seem a strange place to say this, but with everything that’s happened, well... I’ve been thinking... thinking about death, and about life... about my mother, and her sons...! What would you say to our, uh... having a baby...?”

So if I were following the Vision and Scarlet Witch book, we’d go on to Vision dry-humping a pair of babies into Wanda, magically. But alas, we’re not.

We’re following West Coast Avengers. But first we’re switching back to Avengers returning to Earth after all that Skrull biz. Also more Secret Wars II biz.

Well. I might be happier if I was following Wanda and Vision.

Follow @essential-avengers because... I’m too tired to think of a because. Something something like and reblog.

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