WEST COAST AVENGERS 111

NOV. YEAR 3	MV1 Presents ... Earth's Mightiest Heroes!!!	AVENGERS
		And there came a day ... a day when the foes became too great for even Earth's Mightiest Heroes to handle alone! On that day was born ... the West Coast Avengers!
# 111	NORTHERN BEAR PRODUCTIONS	# 111
Hawkeye! Wonder Man! Tigra! USAgent! Cannonball! Quicksilver! Falcon! Lady Merveille!

Previously … Beta Ray Bill crashed onto the grounds of the Avengers Compound with the tale of Dr. Doom conquering planets inside the Shi'ar Empire. Horrified at Doom's actions, Hawkeye ordered the Avengers into space. Not all the Avengers shared his enthusiasm and concern and USAgent stayed behind to further the drug investigation that led to the arrest of Councilman Michael Proctor, a friend of the high-flying Falcon's! Returning to active duty just in time for the journey to the stars were Quicksilver and Monica Rambeau, the newly named Lady Merveille! Hawkeye and Beta Ray Bill split the Avengers into teams to carry out different missions on worlds under Doom's control. Hawkeye and Bill rescued Lord Kofi Whitemane from a jail on one of Doom's planets.

Some maverick was "conquering" planets that belonged to the Shi'ar, readying for an assault on Hollandinia of all planets. Like there'd be anyone foolish enough to even attempt such a thing.

Despite his certainty that there was nothing serious going on - even if there was someone "conquering" planets, it was only because the Shi'ar only cared about these planets at tax time. As soon as they sent a single starship back to them, they'd cave like the dogs they were.

Admiral Phyken reached to his left, to the master control board of his ship, the Eliteness. "Away team, prepare for descent. We will launch when I reach the shuttle. Admiral out."

Phyken showed no anger on his face, but lashed out with his left hand, slapping Captain Y'tha across the face.

"You question your Admiral." Statement, not question. "Lock yourself in your quarters, Captain." He nodded to two female ensigns on the bridge. "Take her away and prepare her for her punishment. I shall administer it myself when I return." He smiled at Y'tha who said nothing in response. He paid her no mind as he left the bridge and headed down the hall of the Eliteness towards the shuttle that would bring them to the surface.

To descend like doom from the sky onto a planet in a starship the locals couldn't fathom. To exit in full regalia, cape sweeping in the breeze, to see the dirt soaked faces looking up at him in fear …

When he got back, Captain Y'tha would help him make it even better. Whether she liked it or not.

"Hawkeye, Chairman of the Avengers. From, uh, Earth," Hawkeye rubbed his head through the back of his mask. He looked around again at the sight. They were in a small jail on a distant planet that looked just like Latveria.

"I know," Kofi Whitemane smiled up at him. "I was on Earth for a bit. With Power Pack."*

* Hey, everyone read POWER PACK, right? -- Uh, I had three issues but lost them in a poker game Biscuit…

"Power Pack? The kids? I loved those guys! I wished I was doing that at 13. Small universe, I guess," Hawkeye smiled at the creature he thought looked like a small white seahorse with legs and arms, turning to Bill. "So what do we do now?"

"We get Kofi back safely to his father," Bill answered, trying hard to look like he wasn't in pain. "Once Kofi has been returned, his father will give his people the okay to attack Doom."

"It'll never work!" scoffed one of the five guards that Hawkeye had ensnared with various trick arrows.* "Emperor Doom can not be stopped. The will of the people are behind him!"

"Do not be so sure, Hawkeye," Kofi replied softly. "Those who have been to Earth know the kind of man that Doom is, but there is little doubting that while he may be despicable to us, he treats the people under his rule well. Did you notice how he rebuilt this place to look like Latveria? The same thing happens on every planet he comes across. For some of the planets, it is a tragedy. But for planets like Thomas X2, the conditions Doom leaves a planet in are a thousand times better than they were before. There is no crime in the streets any more. There is taxes to be certain, but they are not what they were under the rule of the oppressive Shi'ar."

"The criminal speaks the truth, strangers," the guard with an arrow stuck in the sleeve of his shirt answered, pulling himself free but not making any moves of aggression. "Emperor Doom may be the lesser of two evils, but isn't that all you can ask for out of life? To not have the worst that life has to offer?"

Hawkeye looked at these people dumbfounded. This was Victor Von Doom. They were talking about him like he was Braveheart or something.

"You don't know the guy you're dealing with," Hawkeye informed the guards, but he could tell by the looks on their faces that they didn't care.

Jack Walker, aka USAgent, hung quietly in the shadows of the alley behind Councilman Mike Proctor's office at his community outreach center, Helping Hands. Agent had busted the Councilman, finding him with crates of smuggled cocaine, a few days ago.*

Others may have been happy that Proctor was behind bars, but Agent wasn't. It bothered him that the people who had tipped him off hadn't called him back, yet. Jack wasn't upset that they didn't so much as tell him 'Thank you' (there was no need to thank someone for doing their duty) but that they hadn't called with more tips.

Jack didn't think of himself as an overly complicated man. That's not to say that Jack was a stupid man by any means. He knew what he believed in and he believed in it strongly.

As far as drugs were concerned, Jack saw no need to think of them as anything but bad.

That anyone would sell drugs bothered Jack, but when that person was a City Councilman, a man of the community, a man who had built a large and growing political base … it made Jack sick and he was determined to find every last person responsible.

Besides, he needed to get out in the open air for a bit. Jolt and Lightning could handle watching the monitors, Agent needed to act.

It was a hot night in Los Angeles, typical and for once, Jack thought as he wiped sweat from his face, welcome.

"--damn air conditioner isn't working. We need to get this fixed!" came a voice from the window.

"How are we going to pay for it, Jonesy? Geez-US, with Michael in jail all our assets are frozen. We can't afford to do anything. If he doesn't get out soon, we won't even have money for phones!"

"Course not, Jonesy. Geez, cut it out with that talk. That's just what them government agents want us saying."

"Yeah, it's not like we're floating in cash here. We could barely afford phones before this. If it wasn't for … hell, we wouldn't have even been able to buy the warehouse that he was busted in. Thank heavens for large anonymous donations …"

Agent squeezed his hands in anger. They were thinking something, but what? Here were two people who worked for the Councilman standing in his office and thinking bad thoughts. Was it just the fantasized thinking of someone who saw a friend in jail, charged with an unbelievable crime and then tried to make that fit with their prior image of a saintly man? The sight of Michael Proctor in jail for possession and intent to sell of cocaine was a shock to everyone, a thought so jarring to what people had come to believe that their minds were searching for any possible past events to hang conspiracy on.

Agent was determined to get to the bottom of this before the Whackos returned from space.

Reports from Chambeezer indicated that one thousand new Doombots were fully functional and ready for the Assault on Hollandinia.

Reports from Mil'gromal indicated that fifty new starships were in final preparations. The foolish factory managers had tried to convince him that they needed more time to ready the ships. They had begged for another two weeks so they could properly furnish the crafts with pleasantries to make life inside the ship easier on it's crews.

Doom exploded at them. "Warships have no need to comfort it's crews, soft fools! An enemy is not defeated by trinkets, it is defeated by might! There will be time for comfort after I have achieved my goal!"

The savages had no mind for war, Doom knew. It was no wonder the Shi'ar had oppressed them for centuries. Mil'gromalans were soft drones with dreams of scented pillows before freedom. They relied on transplanted Shi'ar slaves to do the physical labor on the ships, to build the machines that the Mil'gromalans created on paper.

But they were good at the one thing Doom needed them for: getting warships built.

Samuel Gurhrie, Cannonball, blasted through the large factory that produced Doom's warships. It was fun to cut loose, even with the gravity of the situation. To not worry about anything at all, save for how fast could he fly and how much damage could he enact.

"We can hunt around for some explosives, maybe?" he had offered as a suggestion to Simon Williams, Wonder Man.

"Look at the size of these factories, Sam," Wonder Man had answered. "There isn't enough weaponry on the planet, I bet, that can destroy this any better than we can. Man, I wish Photo- err, Lady Merveille was here. She could really cut loose inside these factories."

As Sam smashed through a collection of gun turrets ready to be fitted onto warships - inside a room, he noted, that was probably twice the size of Professor Xavier's entire estate in Westchester County - he remembered that he was going to question Simon's plan. It seemed that even though these factories stretched to the horizon, there was no need to call undue attention onto themselves. But then he saw the look on Simon's face, the smile that let it be known that this was exactly what he needed.

Wonder Man had practically been a walking zombie since Sam had started staying up with the Avengers.*

Apparently he was pining over the Scarlet Witch. From what he had gathered from Tigra, Simon had confessed his deep love for Wanda Maximoff or was going to or something* … Sam had to admit it was kinda hard to pay close attention to anything when Tigra was around.

Tigra was … well, Sam supposed, she was almost like an adult version of Tab.* Except she was furry … and didn't swear as much. And well, she had a tail. But they were both moody creatures who loved to flirt when in the mood and had no shame about their bodies.

* Sam's ex-girlfriend, the member of X-Force known as Meltdown - Boom Boom Biscuit …

But man, there was just something about Tigra that Sam was really taken with. She was amazingly athletic and fast (and furry), but still really vulnerable. Tab would often try to hide her hurt under a tough attitude, but with Tigra there was none of that. She was completely open with her feelings.

Sam rocketed into another room, this one larger than the one he had just exited, to find what he gathered were rocket thrusters. He didn't give it much more thought. Whatever they were, they were inside the factory and thus an open target to be hit. He smashed through them, knowing that he didn't need to level the place, just damage it.

Below him, Simon Williams looked up and smiled. For almost the first time since he returned from the "dead",* Simon felt completely happy and free. Wanda was gone from his thoughts as he took almost childlike joy in being able to smash things.

"WONDER MAN SMASH!" he yelled, the ionic energy that swirled where his eye-balls should have been dancing energetically. He stomped across the factory, walking like a Fankenstein monster - a Frankenstin monster that stopped every few feet and layed into a piece of equipment with a roundhouse right. "My fists hit as hard as Thor's hammer!" he screamed, not knowing if it was true these days - or if it ever really was. He didn't care - it was his catch slogan and it felt good to let it burst forth from his lungs.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, his unreturned love for Wanda Maximoff nagged at him, but another voice, a voice that was getting louder, a voice that fed Simon's ego, was letting him know that maybe, just maybe, if he could return to acting … maybe … just maybe …

He knew Wanda based her emotions towards men around the Vision, the man that was Simon's "brother". He needed to be as different from Vizh as he could.

Above, Cannonball looked down and shrugged. Whatever Wonder Man was thinking, he was certainly having a good time.

Cannonball and Wonder Man both looked at each other and shrugged. If they could bash their way through a square mile of machinery and not cause any alarms to ring out, what exactly could?

"Jolt, how can you watch this stuff?" Miguel Santos asked as MARVEL FANFARE, the nightly news show on the Super Channel Network, played on the big screen in front of them, slumping further into the couch. "It's superheroes treated as entertainment."

Jolt squished her nose and tossed a cheese puff at the hero known as Living Lightning. "Please, call me Hallie. I'm not surprised you don't like this, Miguel, you just don't know how to have fun."

"Shape knows how to have fun!" Shape yelled enthusiastically from the chair on the other side of the room. "Watch!" The rotund ex-member of the Squadron Supreme that could contort his elastic body into other shapes grabed the cheese puff bowl off the table and tossed it high into the air.

"Shape!" Jolt and Lightning yelled, laughing as Shape pushed his two hands together, making a large funnel out of them. He placed the small end at his mouth and the large end above him, catching about half the cheese puffs as they fell. He paid the ones he missed no mind as he muched loudly on the ones that funnelled down towards his mouth.

Jolt and Lightning laughed comfortably together, enjoying the company and allowing themselves to forget everything.

"It's odd," Hallie said quietly, turning to watch Fanfare, "how quickly all the bad stuff can just disappear."

"Odd, but beautiful, Hallie," Miguel said quietly as Shape continued to munch away on the cheese puffs. "It's a way of keeping sane. Listen to me, I sound like an old pro. You've probably done as much as I have." He shook his head, smiling. "We have to enjoy the moments that life gives us that are enjoyable, no matter how bad the rest may be. If we don't, we go crazy."

"We make an od couple, Miguel," Hallie forced a smile. "You can be an Avenger and don't want to. I want to be an Avenger and can't because I'm too young, but as you said, I've probably got just as much experience as you do. Weird."

Whatever Miguel was going to answer, Hallie wouldn't find out as the television screen changed from highlights of an empty East Coast Avengers Mansion* to that of USAgent staring them in the face.

* Where are the Avengers? If saying ROM and ULTRON doesn't get you to check out AVENGERS 429, then I don't know what will. -- Biscuit-Mark 2

"Lightning! I need you down at the Whiskey immediately! A group of Moloids are crawling out of a whole in the ground and the crowd is starting to panic!"

"No, Hallie," Miguel said softly. "If you want to be an Avenger, you have to learn when to follow orders and when to speak your mind. This isn't the time for an argument. I'll be back soon."

Tigra and Lady Merveille stood on the side of a hill, overlooking 250 Doombots marching in formation across a brick courtyard. This was the second battallion of 250 that they had watched run through drills. The first group had been here when they arrived, marching in the same formations, running through the same drills.

Then they had gone inside a large castle (this planet's Castle Doom), only to be replaced by a different set of 250 Doombots.

Tigra and Lady Merveille had been watching the formations trying to decide on a plan of action. Merveille shook her head.

'Wonderful,' Tigra thought, 'first I was having confidence issues and now Merveille is.' She looked at the former Avengers Chairman carefully. "What's wrong? Second thoughts about coming all the way out here?"

"I shouldn't be here, on Chambeezer. I should be over on Mil'gromal, taking out the warships and Wonder Man should be here."

Tigra bristled, thinking that Merveille was giving her a slam by saying that this mission was too easy, but that wasn't the case and Greer was glad that she hadn't said anything when Merveille spoke again.

"You see, Tigra," Monica started, pointing at the Doombots, "if these are Doom class suits of armor, then I don't think any of my energy forms will be able to do much good against them. They're bound to have all kinds of, for lack of a better term, surge protectors built into them. But if I was over on Mil'gromal taking out the warships, then I could zap through there at my highest speed, causing enough damage to the ships to keep them grounded. These aren't search and destroy missions so much as 'let's cause Doom to delay his attack' missions."

"But could Simon have an easier time with the Doombots than you could. Wouldn't he be in just as much danger of failing this mission?"

"Probably," Monica shrugged, "but stopping the warships seems to me to be the more important of the two missions. The Doombots control the planets after the warships have taken them under Doom's control. Certainly they help with the battles, but if the ships can't get to a planet then Doom can't conquer it."

"So you think Hawkeye's full of crackers?" Tigra asked, curious. "You think he made a bad call?"

Merveille turned to look at Tigra, speaking quickly, "I'm sure he's got his reasons and this isn't a bad plan. I'm just not sure if it's the best one."

Tigra nodded and turned back to the marching Doombots in the distance. "So what do we do now?"

"I'm going to head to the south of the castle and put on a light display to see if there's any reaction. You're going to go north and see if you can sneak inside the castle and see what's what. Hopefully you can find a big red off button that will shut these machines down."

"Yes, we know," Quicksilver tried to not let his agitation through as he looked around the small cave that Ioeya lived in.

"Do not mock us, stranger!" Ja'lana, leader of the Ba'na'ay stepped forward, an act almost impossible in the cramped quarters. "We did not ask for Victor to come here and take away everything we had!"

"Why is that you call him Victor?" Falcon asked, trying to stop an escalating argument.

"We didn't ask for you to come either, stranger," Ja'lana accused, "so don't act like we should be trying to make you stay."

"I told you we would find nothing of value here!" Quicksilver snapped to the Falcon. "We have seen defeated Doom a hundred times on our world, what could we possibly hope to gain here? That Doom had amnesia?" Pietro snorted. "Memory makes no difference for a man like Doom. Evil is evil no matter what one calls himself."

Quicksilver burst out of the cave and into the desert, disappearing quickly onto the horizon.

"Then you shouldn't open your mouth," Falcon stared at her hard. "On our world, Pietro's father is a man that many consider to be the equal of Victor. A man that many consider to be a savior, but most consider to be one of the most dangerous men alive." He turned to leave, "So before you write him off take into account what you see on your world and then think of how you'd feel if it was your father who had caused the destruction." Falcon turned back one last time, his body a silhouette in the fading light of Ak'yen'ja's day. "Because just like Victor, Magneto can cause a planet to shudder with but a glance."

Ja'lana said nothing, but scoffed at the ground. It was clear to Falcon that she did not like to be talked to in this manner.

"Take this, Falcon," Ioeya said quietly, his head continuing to nod and his eyes never leaving the small fire in front of him. He reached into his robes and produced a small red ruby that could be completely covered by his frail hand.

Ioeya looked up from the fire, but the flames continued to dance in his eyes. "It is the Heart of Ak'yen'ja."

Shape started to speak again, but thought better of it and shut his mouth to watch television.

Hallie steamed. Everything about this place was turning bad for her. There wasn't anything she could do except enroll in school, but how was that supposed to do her any good. She'd seen things with the Thunderbolts that the schools couldn't teach her. "Ack." She could hear Hawkeye now, "You go to school to learn, so you can discover why things work, why certain situations are more blah blah blah blah …"

Jolt wanted to be an Avenger and saw no reason why she shouldn't be allowed to be one. She deserved her shot.

She reached for a cheese puff, only to discover an empty bowl. In anger she slapped the bowl off the table, causing Shape to retreat into his seat in fear. Desperate to take any kind of action she reached for the remote control to change the channel, but thought better of it.

If SCN was any good, they'd cut to a live feed of what was going on in the city with Agent and Lightning.

" … and in other news," Craig Winters segued into another topic, "there's rumors that the superfreak that puts Rick James to shame has been spotted in northern Colorado. Yes, Mr. No Neck himself, Arnim Zola, has reportedly been captured on videotape by amatuer photographers hunting for a glimpse of Bigfoot. But they didn't find Bigfoot. If they did, we'd call this segment Wookie Fever, but they didn't, so you get the Superfreak joke."

She was going after Zola, the man who had kept her as a captive in some secret laboratory.*

She should wait for the Avengers, she knew, but to hell with them, she thought. They didn't want to help her before, why would they want to help her now? No, this was something Jolt had to do on her own.

* What happens next to Jolt? Check out NEW WARRIORS # 80 for the shocking answer! - A Plug for Lander Biscuit …

As Hallie Takahama was vanishing into the dark night, Shape watched on from the back doorway, confused and worried about his friend Jolt.

A group of twenty Moloids shrieked in panic as the blaring sirens and shouts from a growing crowd closed in on them. Shouts of "Freak!" and "Bug Eyes!" poured down on them, but they took no meaning from the words, only the feelings of the insults.

Living Lightning flashed down next to USAgent, startling the Moloids. "What's the situation, Agent?" he shouted over the crowd, who was desperately trying to shield the Moloids.

Agent thought it was obvious, but he relayed the answer as if Miguel was a superior officer. "Moloids came through the crack in the pavement by the Whiskey's front entrance, there!" he pointed to a large hole in the ground. "Crowd is getting out of control. Apparently some big shot rock group was about to perform in the club and now they refuse to because of the Moloids."

"By themselves, they don't," Agent confirmed. "But just their appearance has the crowd worked up and since they're the unwitting cause of the concert's delay, it's not long before something bad happens." Agent flashed his shield up just in time to deflect a tossed beer bottle. "Do something about this crowd, Lightning!"

Miguel nodded, flashing into lightning form and taking to the air. He hung there for a second, glowing bright, drawing the attention of a part of the crowd upwards and then flashed brilliantly causing everyone but Agent, who was waiting for it, to cover their eyes and back away.

"Everyone down!" Agent roared, but many had already stumbled over themselves in an attempt to shield their eyes and were on the ground as it was.

Lightning put the Moloids between him and the fissure in the pavement and kept slowly moving towards them, flashing over and over again. The Moloids backed away in fear, all the way into the fissure and then back down under the earth.

"What's not?" Agent replied, uncharacteristically answering a question with a question. "Councilman Proctor's either been played for a fool for a long time, or he's more rotten than I imagined."

Kofi looked back at Hawkeye and Beta Ray Bill from the other side of a viewscreen. A large Kymelian stood behind him.

"We thank you for rescuing and returning young Kofi," he announced formally. Hawkeye figured the transmission was probably being taped for some kind of political use back in Kymelian society. Some things are all the same.

"Hey, no problem," Hawkeye announced. "But what was a teen-aged kid doing out here in the middle of space?" Hell, Clint thought, if this guy was going to use this for their own political benefit, Clint was going to make him earn it.

"Ah, okay, I won't pry," Hawkeye smiled back, as smugly as he could. Like hell he was on a secret mission.

"Are you sure that was the right thing to do?" Hawkeye asked Beta Ray Bill, glad to be back aboard the Scuttlebutt.

They were on the way to Hollandinia, the tenth most advanced planet in the Shi'ar Empire. It was the planet that Doom had next on his list to conquer. Where Mil'gromal - the planet with Wonder Man and Cannonball - built warships, Hollandinia built War Cruisers. The warships that Sam and Simon were trying to stop held crews of 1000. The War Cruisers held crews of 50,000.

But more importantly, Hollandinia was one of the Shi'ar's State Centers, training those that would serve in her military. The War Cruisers would give Doom the might to make a strike against the Shi'ar Throneworld, but the recruits from the State Center would give him the means to make that strike effective.

"Saving young Kofi?" Beta Ray Bill asked in response. "Yes. Of course. Or did you mean spitting in the face of the Kymelian ambassador?"

Hawkeye waved his hand in disgust, ignoring Bill's comment. "He didn't look like he was in too much trouble. You don't think it would've been better to stop Doom and then go back and rescue Kofi?"

Beta Ray Bill turned to look at Hawkeye, taking full measure of the Avengers Chairman.

Hawkeye frowned as he turned to look out a window. "I thought I remember hearing from someone that your ship was sentient. Isn't it supposed to talk to us?"

Hawkeye kicked at the ground, "Are we sure Kofi's people will give us some kind of military support?"

"Kofi's father will do what he can. As will we." Bill paused, sliding slowly into his next question, "A question for you Hawkeye, if you don't mind. Why did you send Wonder Man to-?"

"You mean, why did I put Merveille on the mission to stop the Doombots and Wonder Man to stop the warships when it looks like the other way would be best?"

"Simple, I didn't want Wonder Man and Tigra together. They're both in down periods emotionally and I didn't want them leaning onto each other and get sidetracked from the mission. I put Tigra with Merveille because I figured she could get Tigra to be the most effective out of anyone. She was Chairman of the East Coast team for awhile a few years back and did a damn good job from what I hear."

"So what happened to you, anyway?" Hawkeye asked. "You try to hide it, but you're in need of medical attention."

Beta Ray Bill's expression grew darker. "I was travelling through space, in search of the Silver Surfer when I came across Doom's War Cruiser. I didn't have Scuttlebutt with me, so I had to take on the War Cruiser alone."

"No," Bill answered seriously. "I saved the planet from falling into Doom's hands … for a time being, at least. Since returning to the Scuttlebutt, I have radioed the planet constantly, but I have yet to get a response."

"I won a battle, if not the war," Bill answered solemnly, punching at the controls of his ship. "We're here, at Hollandinia. Let us lay a trap for Doctor Doom."

Dr. Doom stood listening to the reports, his rage beginning to grow to dangerous levels.

He stood in his warship a hyperspace jump from his assault on Hollandinia, waiting only for the warships from Mil'gromal to rendezvous with the Doombots from Chambeezer. The Doombots would serve as the ships' crews for this assault.

A report had just come in, however, that something was damaging ships at the Mil'gromalan factories and that not all the ships would make the trip to--

"Emperor," a young technician spoke nervously, "a-another report possibly d-damagning to the victory at Hollandinia h-has come in." T-this one fr-from Chambeezer."

Doom watched the large viewscreen in front of him at a live feed from the Castle Doom on Chambeezer. A wide display of lights was flashing across the night time sky, causing all the Doombots to look above them. None of them made any action against the light display.

Saying nothing more, Dr. Doom walked to a large controlboard to the left on the bridge. A tech standing at the console immediately lept to the side, eager to avoid confrontation with her new Emperor.

Doom punched at the controlboard in precise motions. On the screen, all the Doombots standing outside the Castle watching Merveille moved again. They spread out in a large circle, extending their arms to either side of them, touching knuckles to knuckles.

The flashing lights above them slowed a bit revealing a female form and Doom saw just what he expected to see. "The former Captain Marvel," he said to no one in particular, but all those on the bridge had heard of another Captain Marvel and if this one was anything like the one they knew, they knew her to be a formidable opponent.

The Doombots hummed to life suddenly and when Merveille moved her powers into the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that was radio waves, she was instantly sucked down into the circle of Doombots, screaming in pain. The Doombots brought their arms forward, pointing their knuckles at a howling Merveille.

They spread their fingers in a sharp motion and Monica Rambeau was ripped apart, her form splitting into 25,000 separate entities, one for each finger on the Doombot's gauntlets.

Tigra had been drawn to the window when she heard the clanking of Doombot heels.

Tigra stood at the window of Castle Doom, her mouth agape. She was all alone on a planet with 1000 Doombots and it was up to her and her alone to stop them.

Simon Williams and Sam Guthrie ran outside and flew into the air to look out across the roof tops of the factories.

A Shi'ar warship had dropped into the atmosphere and was blasting the factories of Mil'gromal to pieces with photon canons. The ship was massive, Cannonball and Wonder Man both glad that the ship was focusing it's attack on the rim of the horizon. Blast after blast reigned down onto the surface, everyone setting off an explosion.

"Huh?" Wonder Man asked. "Why? The Shi'ar are doing a better job at this than we could do in weeks."

They watched in silence for a few moments longer, only half-believing what they were seeing. The weight of their mission grabbed them by their throats and didn't let go. The laughter and joy they had been feeling about being able to cut loose were gone.

"Just think," Cannonball finally said, "think about what would happen if we don't stop Doom." He shook his head, again thinking of his family back home in Kentucky. "This could be Earth …"

"Aaaarrgghh!" Cannonball and Wonder Man screamed into the night air as they were hit with a beam fom above that ensnared them in a coccoon of energy.

They could nothing but scream as they were pulled upwrds towards a small craft that had come up from gehind them.

"Excellent," Phyken grinned at the destruction of the factories of Mil'gromal. He had found, much to his surprise upon entering Mil'gromal's atmosphere that the factories were busy producing and storing warships that hadn't been reported to the Shi'ar Empire.

Not to mention, as was apparent from the planet's devestation and partially rebuilt cities in a style that was decidedly non-Shi'ar in origin, that they were being produced for whomever this new Emperor was.

Phyken grudgingly had to admit that he was impressed at whoever it was that had managed to turn this planet against the Shi'ar. Such a man might be useful in Phyken's own quest for power.

The door behind them opened and Cannonball and Wonder Man were led in, their handles manacled in front of them, kept aloft by a bar that was connected to the collar around their necks, making sure they couldn't move them. Their feet were manacled together, as well, allowing them only the ability to shuffle along.

Admiral Phyken walked slowly to them and slapped Cannonball across the face, but the blow did nothing. He had been drugged and was beyond this world at the moment. "Insolent pigs," Phyken spoke down to them, his seven foot tall frame towering over all around him. "How dare you take a Shi'ar planet."

"Is that so?" Phyken asked, snapping his fingers to the right of him three times.

"Yeah, that's so," Wonder Man forced through his teeth, straining against the bonds which to his disappointment he had discovered were kinetic. The more he fought against them, the stronger they became. "So why don't you let us out of these dog collars and chains and let us get back to doing the same thing you're here for."

"I don't think so, defiler," Phyken smiled as one of the crew members brought him a thin gold wire. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, lifting the thin wire into the air.

Simon didn't answer and Sam couldn't. His head rolled around in the bonds, drool falling from his mouth.

"It's a Grellian Assassin Wire," Phyken flashed it in front of their faces. "It's quite remarkable. An assassin slips it around her victim's throat - all Grellin Assassin's are female, lovely creatures, really - and bring the ends together behind the person's neck. When the wire ends are crossed," Phyken demonstrated the act in the air, "the wires flash alive with energy, easily slicing through almost any object. And if that object is flesh, the wire automatically cateurizes the wound behind it, leaving no mess. Would you like a demonstration?" Phyken asked, taking a step towards Sam.

"Ah, I can see that you're a strong one," Phyken nodded in respect to Wonder Man. "I bet I could slice this boy into a thousand pieces and you wouldn't give up what you know. I wonder how you could deal with pain when it's being inflicted upon yourself."

Simon struggled against his bonds as Phyken walked towards him, stopping before Simon's arms.

Wonder Man said nothing, but stared directly into Phyken's eyes from behind his sunglasses. The Shi'are Admiral removed the glasses from Simon's face, starting in surprise at the ionic energy that floated where eyes should have been. "What are you?" he asked, then answered his own question. "It matters not! You are clearly the enemy of the Shi'ar. You're torture begins!"

"I'll try to do this as slowly as possible," he grinned, draping the Grellian wire around Simon's left arm, connecting the ends together in the back. Energy slithered across the wire's surface. "It's almost alive," Phyken smiled, locking eyes with Wonder Man.

I'm at the point now where I know where all these characters are going, so hopefully you'll see an improvement in the characterizations from here on out.

Incredible.

That's the word that springs to mind as I read your West Coast Avengers run. I've been a fan of the WCA since their inception into the Marvel Universe, and I'm glad to see them restored to greatness (as you've mentioned, there wasn't much to sing the praises of after Englehart left.).

I'm not exactly sure what to focus on, since I'm loving it all, but here's some various compliments: I love seeing Hawkeye as leader, a role I haven't seen him in for a long time. The addition of the Shape has made for some hilarious scenes. Cannonball is a welcome addition as well. I've always been a fan of the USAgent, and I'm enjoying your take on him. Pietro's return would be a joy to read. And, following your excellent Fantastic Four run, I'm glad to see that you've picked up the Doom storyline, as Doom is definitely comics' greatest villain.

As ever, I'm finding myself enjoying whatever title you take the reins of. I suppose there's nothing left to say but "keep up the good work." Obviously, you will.

Thanks, Manuel. As I've said elsehwere, I felt bad that I left Doom hanging out in the middle of space where no one else could write him unless they went into space and ran into him, so I've designed this storyline to allow a writer to use him on Earth.

WEST COAST AVENGERS #109--Cool opening scene in this one. Way to keep a reader's attention, not that I would leave halfway through anyway. After all, there's the Agent/Falcon confrontation to worry about! It's good to see Tigra being more mature under Biscuit, but I wonder if there is a story behind it;
she's so much more human that can in this issue that there must be a reason for it I personally like a combination of both personalities. And Doom? I never saw that coming! Can I take a guess at the three new Avengers? Quicksilver (Kooky Quartet), Photon (new name) and Cannonball (never been an Avenger before)!

Thanks, Sam. As for your guesses, as you can see, you were correct on all accounts! There's some fun stuff coming from Agent and Falcon, both here and elsewhere.

Hi Mark,
Just read the newest issue and I have to say -- I'm loving this series. This was the best one yet and I'm pleased to see you returning to the 'Doom in Space' stuff. I figured out who it was from the opening scene but it was still a blast.

I like the tight interplay going on between this book and Hawkeye. I wish real Marvel used this kind of continuity -- I'm trying to do the same sort of thing with Black Knight and Crusaders, though it's not as
much fun since the Crusaders stories have been posted for months.

*Loved* the Falcon/USAgent moments. Sam will make a great addition to the group if he stays around -- Pietro too. But man, with Pietro and USAgent on the same team, these guys could be real grumps. Good thing Jolt and Shape are around to lighten the mood. I love the large cast you're assembling -- my favorite Avengers period was the Englehart 70s run when everybody and their brother would hang out with the team for awhile and the membership was very fluid.

Nice intro for the Lighthouse -- very interesting. I can't wait to see more of this.

And now, a fanboy moment as I hit you with some requests :

1) Any chance of a crossover with the FF? I'd love to see you write them one more time.

2) Let's see the WCA head overseas. Mainly even run into some Euro heroes while they're at it. I've never thought the Avengers travelled to other countries enough. Maybe a trip to Japan, since the WCA own the Pacific?

3) Hope to see some appearances by the Night Shift and their former leader, the Shroud.

4) Finally, keep Tigra! She's one of the links to the original Whackos (along with Hawk and Simon), and I'd like to see her stay.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the letter, Barry. Lonni and I are trying really hard to keep HAWKEYE and WCA together contunuity-wise without having to make anyone read both titles if they don't want to. Basically we try to be consistent with what's going on, so if I have Hawkeye complaining about the lack of teamwork here, over in HAWKEYE he's thinking the same thoughts or doing something about it. It's fun.

Roster - yeah, I like the large cast, too. It wasn't intentional in the sense that I sat down and said, "I want x number of characters" but after I took a look around to see who was available, I figured to get them all involved if I could. The membership will be fluid throughout the book's run, I think. As for the Falcon/Agent scenes, I'm glad people seem to like them. We'll see more of them in the future. Jolt takes her leave from the cast with this issue, but the book isn't going to turn into a crank fest. There's plenty of fun in the Whackos future.

LIGHTHOUSE will appear in this title from time to time in the near future and take a bow in it's own maxi-series sometime during Year Four of MV1. I'm really excited about that particular project.

Also This Month: HAWKEYE # 15 by Lonni Holland! - The Old West Saga continues! Join Hawkeye and Two-Gun Kid for some all out MV1 Western action!

NEXT ISSUE: WEST COAST AVENGERS 112 - WORLD WITHOUT continues … Hawkeye and Bill face off against Doom! Tigra vs. 1,000 Doombots! Lady Merveille makes an appearance … or is that 25,000 appearances? Simon Williams sans a left hand! Just what is the Heart of Ak'yen'ja and why does Ioeya think it can help the WCA? Crystal, Bova and Luna move into the Compound, but is anyone there to greet them? The Whackos go all out in their missions to stop Dr. Doom!