Avengers Westcoast: Vision Quest

Marvel Comics
Avengers Westcoast: Vision Quest
By Hervé St-Louis
December 26, 2005 - 10:01

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): John Byrne
Penciller(s): John Byrne
Inker(s): Mike Machlan

Vision Quest reprints Avengers West Coast #42-50 where John Byrne began his memorable run on the West Coast team. While the West Coast version of the Avengers was popular and entertaining, it was considered the junior team, compared with the East Coast Avengers. In this collected edition, Byrne destroys the idyllic life of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision, while planting the seeds that would return in the Avengers’ Disassembled epic.

Byrne’s pacing is effective. He starts the story slowly and introduces several subplots all at once. It’s a story filled with treachery and tragedy as Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch struggles to contain her pain. This story has a too much narration for my taste, but it’s in line with comics of its era. It’s amazing, or perhaps not so, that this very story is what current author Michael Bendis used as the springboard for his current Avengers’ saga. It would be fun if he could do more like Byrne and forge new paths and epics for his stories instead of reusing old classics with modern touches.

This is pure Byrne artwork. If you love it, you’ll be pleased. If you don’t, skip ahead. All the guys and the girls have the same face. If it weren’t for their hair colour, one could not differentiate them. However, Byrne masters facial expressions and one can appreciate that his characters, although all sporting the same face, feels real. Of note, all of his females look like Dallas’ Sue Ellen! It doesn’t matter. It’s still great stuff.