30 Things of Stuff I Like: #5 -- West Coast Avengers / Avengers: West Coast

The team is founded by the Avenger Hawkeye in response to a suggestion by fellow Avenger, Vision, who at the time wished to expand Avengers' influence. Hawkeye recruits Mockingbird, Wonder Man, Tigra, and Iron Man, with the last actually being Jim Rhodes as opposed to Tony Stark, a fact initially unknown to the team. Together the team defeat a petty criminal called the Blank and later the Avengers foe Graviton.

The team would later take on Henry Pym as a scientific advisor and compound manager and battle a range of both old foes – including the Grim Reaper, Ultron, Graviton, and Zodiac – and new opponents such as Master Pandemonium. Former Fantastic Four member Thing and the heroine Firebird briefly allied themselves with the team. Henry Pym, who is saved by Firebird from a suicide attempt, and the adventurer Moon Knight formally join, while Iron Man is expelled for his actions during the Armor Wars. The "Lost in Space-Time" storyline began in issue #17 (February 1987) when Dominus sent the team back in time. The marriage of Hawkeye and Mockingbird is placed in jeopardy when, during this arc, she allows the Old West hero the Phantom Rider to die in a fall for deceiving and raping her.

After a trip to Hungary to investigate a report on Pym's second wife, the Wasp, the Scarlet Witch, and the Vision assist the team. Mockingbird, Tigra and Moon Knight leave the team together as a new short lived team called the Ex-WACOs over the Avengers rule of not killing in regards to Mockingbird's encounter with Phantom Rider. The Vision and the Scarlet Witch join the team as to not leave it short handed. Former Avenger ally Mantis makes a brief appearance.

That was only the tip of the iceberg. I loved the West Coast Avengers, or rather the Avengers West Coast as they would be called down the road more than the main ensemble roster of the Avengers' line-up as this group had issues. A lot of them for that matter. It was my first taste of everything not being peaches and sunshine on these various superhero teams. These characters had normal human, yet very relatable issues. Hank Pym dealt with chronic bouts of depression. Not to mention being friend zoned by Tigra...

Tigra struggled with an identity crisis after losing control of her cat-like powers at one point and being reverted back to her human state. She feared becoming Tigra as she was losing herself the more she stayed in that form so she sought out to reclaim her identity as The Cat, but Patsy Walker had taken up that mantle and costume as Hellcat in her adventures with her husband Helstrom. Mockingbird and Hawkeye had numerous ups and downs in their relationship. They were set to be married but the previously mentioned incident between Phantom Rider deceiving and raping Mockingbird that led her allowing him to die caused their marriage plans to be put on hold. There was some deep shit in these comics and it got more intense as the years went on.

The love triangle between Wonder Man, Vision, and Scarlet Witch is juggled in this series as well as hinting at Scarlet Witch's mental instability after her "children" are revealed to be fragments of the soul of the demon Mephisto. This drove her insane briefly, which led to both Vision and Scarlet Witch to separate. For crying out loud, this comic even brought back the original Human Torch (Yeah, that was a thing before the Fantastic Four came around in the 1950s) into Marvel Comics' canon. Over the decades, the team's roster would constantly change with a who's who cast of heroes being a part of the team's roster. Eventually, the constant in-fighting and drama between the heroes proved to be to it's detriment as Captain America stepped in to formally disband the team.

Most of the original line-up would live on in the short-lived Force Works team, but that's where my fondness with the West Coast Avengers would end. Force Works wasn't the same. They tried to rehash what was great about West Coast Avengers with a new coat of paint, but it was ultimately plagued by a ton of the tropes and bullshit that littered a lot of comic books in the '90s. The only thing good that came out of Force Works were their appearances in both seasons of the Ironman animated series as part of the Marvel Power Hour.

In the animated series, Hawkeye fills the void that US Agent played in the comics.

For the series, Hawkeye appeared in place of U.S. Agent (though he did appear in the eight issue adaptation of the cartoon). Shortly after the characters were written out of the series, Force Works was canceled at issue #22 (April 1996).

Off-topic, but who actually fucking remembers who the hell Century was? He definitely has to be one of the most obscure and easily forgotten characters out of Marvel Comics' ensemble of new additions in the '90s.

The West Coast Avengers remain as a fond reminder for me that these heroes aren't perfect and they are as flawed as me or you reading this, but they strove to continue making the world a better place regardless. This corner of the Marvel Comics Universe served as my introductions to a lot of these lesser known characters (at the time) that I would come to continue to admire to this day, especially after they would "graduate" from this team and move onto the main Avengers team or onto their own solo adventures. 

Ring of Honor Presents Final Battle 2017 (December 15, 2017) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Ring of Honor: Final Battle (2017) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by Ring of Honor (ROH). It took place on December 15, 2017, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York.

Since I'm reviewing this at least a month after the fact after Wrestle Kingdom 12 has come and gone, I'm going to be pretty short and sweet on these results as the big title changes are already out in the open.

I thought that the opener between The Kingdom's Matt Taven and Will Ospreay was pretty solid. I still think that The Kingdom's new music that they debuted last year rocks and takes them up a notch collectively. Taven was set to be a star before his injuries sidelined him back when he won the TV title a few years ago, but I'm glad he's getting the chance to shine now on his own in a sense instead of being the 3rd man in Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis' shadows. Ospreay is one of those guys who does a lot of "flippy shit" as Jim Cornette would say but I can tell that he has the right guys mentoring him or feeding him knowledge as the guy can easily transition to spots (that make sense instead just doing flips to do flips) and working smart within the ring. I loved the finish here that saw Taven counter the OsCutter into what looked like EC3's One Percenter (Snapmare Driver?) for the win.

War Machine def. The Addiction in a match that I honestly didn't really care for. While I like all of the guys involved here but I just couldn't help but feel that something was missing here. Besides aren't War Machine on their way out the door? Seemed odd to see them win here but job out like it was nothing on WK12. Then again, this show was a few weeks out from that event and I watching this in retrospect, but whatever.

Motor City Machineguns def. The Best Friends to retain the ROH Tag Titles in a match I honestly would say was the worst thing on this show just from the finish alone. The Best Friends spike Sabin into a Piledriver, who no sells it into a Jacknife pin for the win. I watched that spot at least 3-5 times and still didn't understand that.

Lethal vs. Marty Scurll had to be my favorite match of the show just from the double Eddie Guerrero chair fake-out spot. Both of these guys have great natural chemistry with each other with the match. The narrative here was that Marty was trying to bring out the "villain" in Lethal, but that merely spelled out doom for Marty in the end as Lethal took the win after a low blow that allowed him to hit the Lethal Injection.

Silas Young pulled off the upset of the evening winning the TV title in that 4-Way elimination match. Shane Taylor (who has slimmed down a lot from the last few times I've seen him work matches on ROH TV a few months ago) went out first, Kenny King (the champion going into this match who even impressed me with some of his matches during this reign) out second after Silas broke a beer bottle over the back of his head, and Punishment Martinez (who I jokingly said to myself while watching that he is everything that WWE wishes Baron Corbin would be) was eliminated last by Silas. Definitely one of the better matches on this card, especially from the first few opening moments of the match. I thought Punishment Martinez was pretty bland when they first introduced him but he's definitely impressed me with his performance here.

Dem Boys (The Briscoes) def. Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer in a Street Fight. To say that this whole storyline/feud stemmed from Ray's possible head injury/concussion(s), there sure were a LOT of shots to the head in this match to the point is was in really bad taste. We all know the trauma to the head isn't anything to play around with but this match went out of their way to barrage in a lot of them for Christ's sake. To be honest, I was completely fine with the Briscoes picking up the win here.

ROH presents the Women of Honor (WOH) Championship and announces a tournament to crown it's first champion. About F'N time I say. Took them long enough to do this to say that their women's division has been around for a good while now since it's "revival", just that it's been limited to being mostly shown off on their YouTube channel weekly. TBH I wouldn't be surprised if either Mandy Leon or Kelly Klein picks it up first in terms of mainstays who have stuck around this long.

Hung Bucks (Young Bucks & Adam "Hangman" Page) def. Flip Gordon and two guys from CMLL was another fun match. This was my first time seeing one of Flip's matches and I'm thoroughly impressed with his work. I can see why he's on a lot of the "who to watch in 2018" in ROH lists. Dragon Lee's performance wasn't a surprise here as I've seen him work earlier this past year in the hunt for the TV title. Flip's team got some nice spots in but there wasn't any doubt in my mind that the Bucks weren't walking away as the winners. It just seemed like they were jobbing Flip's team out with the DOUBLE Indytaker on them for the win. Made them look like a group of collective jobbers to me off that. Don't ask me who was the third man for Flip Gordon's team as I didn't catch that for the duration of that match.

Main Event: Cody Rhodes w/ Brandi Rhodes defending his World Title against Dalton Castle. This was the first appearance Cody's new look with the blonde/white hair and sporting that ring that he has Brandi kissing all the time. I spoiled the finish to this match for myself by watching WK12 first, so I knew he was losing the title here, but I still thought that this was a match worth watching. Not as great as everything else on this card, but a fine way to close out the show. Maybe it was just me or did the crowd didn't seem too passionate about Castle's win here? I dunno maybe it was different live in the arena.

Overall, this was your run of the mill ROH card (with more time of course), but I'm glad I didn't drop PPV money to watch this live despite the solid performances up and down the card. I don't want to bury the show, but it just seemed like your run of the mill ROH card, just with a lot more time for matches than they typically do for their weekly broadcast.

REVIEW -- Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Avengers: Age of Ultron is a 2015 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2012's The Avengers and the eleventh installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was written and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, Anthony Mackie, Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, James Spader, and Samuel L. Jackson. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Avengers must work together to defeat Ultron, a mechanical artificial intelligence bent on human extinction.

Cast:

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man
Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine
Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch
Paul Bettany as J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision
Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Idris Elba as Heimdall
Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig
James Spader as Ultron
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury

Thomas Kretschmann and Henry Goodman return as Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and Dr. List

Linda Cardellini portrays Laura Barton, Hawkeye's wife.

Claudia Kim portrays Helen Cho

Andy Serkis portrays Ulysses Klaue

Julie Delpy appears as Madame B., who mentors Black Widow into becoming an assassin.

Kerry Condon voices the artificial intelligence F.R.I.D.A.Y.

Josh Brolin makes an uncredited appearance during the mid-credits scene as Thanos.

Avengers co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in the film as a military veteran who attends the Avengers' victory party.

Plot:

In the Eastern European country of Sokovia, the Avengers — Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton — raid a Hydra outpost led by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, who has been experimenting on humans using the scepter previously wielded by Loki. They encounter two of Strucker's experiments—twins Pietro, who has superhuman speed, and Wanda Maximoff, who can manipulate minds and project energy—and apprehend Strucker, while Stark retrieves Loki's scepter.

Stark and Banner discover an artificial intelligence within the scepter's gem, and secretly use it to complete Stark's "Ultron" global defense program. The unexpectedly sentient Ultron, believing he must eradicate humanity to save Earth, eliminates Stark's A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S. and attacks the Avengers at their headquarters. Escaping with the scepter, Ultron uses the resources in Strucker's Sokovia base to upgrade his rudimentary body and build an army of robot drones. Having killed Strucker, he recruits the Maximoffs, who hold Stark responsible for their parents' deaths by his weapons. Together, they investigate the base of arms dealer Ulysses Klaue in an African shipyard to obtain vibranium. The Avengers pursue them, but Wanda subdues the heroes with haunting visions, causing the Hulk to rampage until Stark stops him with his "Veronica" weaponry.

A worldwide backlash over the resulting destruction, and the fears Wanda's hallucinations incited, send the team into hiding at Barton's safehouse. Thor departs to consult with Dr. Erik Selvig on the meaning of the apocalyptic future he saw in his hallucination, while Romanoff and Banner plan to flee together after realizing a mutual attraction. However, Nick Fury arrives and encourages the team to form a plan to stop Ultron. In Seoul, Ultron forces the team's friend Dr. Helen Cho to use her synthetic tissue technology, vibranium, and the scepter's gem to perfect a body for him. When Ultron begins uploading himself into the body, Wanda is able to read his mind; discovering his plan for human extinction, the Maximoffs turn on Ultron. Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton find Ultron and retrieve the synthetic body, but Ultron captures Romanoff.

The Avengers fight amongst themselves when Stark secretly uploads J.A.R.V.I.S. — who is still operational after hiding from Ultron inside the Internet — into the synthetic body. Thor returns to help activate the body with lightning, explaining that the gem on its brow – one of the six Infinity Stones, the most powerful objects in existence – was part of his vision. This "Vision" and the Maximoffs accompany the Avengers to Sokovia, where Ultron has used the remaining vibranium to build a machine to lift a large part of the same-name city skyward, intending to crash it into the ground to cause global extinction. As the city begins to lift, Banner rescues Romanoff, who awakens the Hulk for the battle. The Avengers fight Ultron's army while Fury arrives in a Helicarrier with Maria Hill, James Rhodes and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to assist in evacuating civilians. Pietro dies when he shields Barton from a barrage of fire, and a grieving Wanda abandons her post to destroy Ultron's primary body in revenge, inadvertently allowing one of his drones to activate the machine. The landmass plummets, but Stark and Thor overload the machine and shatter the city into pieces. In the aftermath, the Hulk, unwilling to endanger Romanoff by being with her, departs in a Quinjet, while the Vision confronts Ultron's last remaining body.

Later, with the Avengers having established a new base run by Fury, Hill, Cho, and Selvig, Thor returns to Asgard to learn more about the forces he suspects have manipulated recent events. As Stark and Barton also leave, Rogers and Romanoff prepare to train new Avengers: Rhodes, Vision, Sam Wilson, and Wanda.

In a mid-credits scene, Thanos, dissatisfied by the failures of his pawns, dons a gauntlet and vows to personally retrieve the Infinity Stones.

The Verdict: 

Watch it, rent it, or don't bother?

Who am I kidding? You have to be crazy NOT to watch this one - DEFINITELY watch this one, folks.

Now that's out of the way, I'll weigh in a lot of things I loved about this film along with my own personal analysis since you guys tend to love to hear what I have to say on this Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

The number one complaint that I have heard from a LOT of people is about how Ultron is yet another throw-away villain for the MCU. If you want to be black and white about it in terms of comics, that was the role that Ultron was given in comics until recent years. Ultron was a major villain but he was used mainly as a distraction to build towards bigger storylines. That is EXACTLY what part he serves here in his introduction in the MCU. Ultron is yet another "disposable" villain for the Marvel Cinematic Universe but he serves a plot device more than a threatening antagonist, who merely plants the seeds for further conflicts and drama in more upcoming films, namely Captain America: Civil War. 

Interesting points established for the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward: 

Thor knew what the Stones are for - even went as far as mentioning that FOUR (instead of THREE) have appeared in the last few years, meaning that he is aware with what goes on in the Guardians of the Galaxy's end of Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Mind Stone was in Loki's scepter all along, despite people have been arguing with me since the original Avengers film that Loki's scepter was NOT one of the Stones. Look who's wrong now, hmm?

JARVIS bonds with the Mind Stone to become the Vision = embodiment of life. I personally believe that with the Mind Stone, JARVIS/The Vision will play the part of Adam Warlock in the Infinity War. If you don't know what that is then I suggest you do some research. I won't spoil that for you guys.

Hawkeye has a family and children, so we (old school Marvel fanboys like myself) can forget about Hawkeye hooking up with Mockingbird from Agents of SHIELD in this continuity. Seems like Marvel is going a completely different direction with those two characters' development entirety..

Notice that BOTH Captain America and Ironman were clearly targeted by Scarlet Witch's powers - which opens the door on what will have those two Avengers butting heads down the road in Captain America: Civil War.

Ulysses Klaw was introduced in this film, hence sparing the lengthy explanation and backstory in the opening moments of the upcoming Black Panther solo film. Speaking of Black Panther, his home nation of Wakanda was referenced as well as the source of the world's most powerful metal substance, vibranium. Marvel fans should remember that Captain America's shield is composed of this substance, thanks to Howard Stark in Captain America: First Avenger.

Almost all of the Avengers were sporting various StarkTech upgades and gadgets - Cap with a magnetic adapter for his shield, Black Widow with a multitude of new gadgets, etc.

It was ironic that Hawkeye plays the role of Batman and Green Arrow in Justice League: Unlimited in this film as the mere mortal among gods and monsters who keeps the team "honest" and level headed. 

The Maximoff twins' origin is changed drastically from the comics - no ties to Magneto nor the Inhumans.

Tony Stark still dreams of a world encased in armor for protection, but still forgets that keeps everyone cold and forever in the dark from within.

New Avengers (or rather Secret Avengers) team established at the end of the film, consisting of Falcon, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Black Widow, and Captain America. The latter two members serving as mentors to the new recruits as the new SHIELD facility backs this new team.

Hulk is possibly written out of the story to return as back-upp during the Infinity War Part 2 when the Avengers need more heavy-hitters against the pending threat of Thanos.

Dr. Helen Cho was introduced in this film - it makes me wonder if her genius-level son, Amaddeus Cho will be introduced in the MCU continuity sooner more than later.

In the mid-credits teaser, Thanos grabs an Infinity Guantlet (Kevin Feige has stated that there are more than one in the MCU) and says that he'll take care of it himself, teasing that he's going to get involved sooner more than later. If I were to speculate, I would guess he would have a bigger role in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

This was a minor Easter egg, but one of the alternate operating systems that Tony was thumbing through before the film's climax was JOCASTA. In the comics, Jocasta was the name of the wife that Ultron built for himself who ended up destroying him instead and siding with the Avengers.

Strong Points of the film as a whole

Not quite as good as Captain America: The Winter Soldier in terms of being my personal favorite MCU film but we get a LOT more character development here than we did in the original Avengers.

Overall theme of destroying "monsters" of the world goes full circle in this film - both Avengers and Ultron tip the scales to see who is truly the "real" monster in this war to "save" the world from the other.

James Spader as the voice of Ultron resembles Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr.'s natural wit and charm, but his arrogance and humor bleeds through the character as well as a mirror image of his rather flawed creator.

JARVIS/Vision becomes the light in the Avengers' darkest hour - reminiscent of the Matrix of Leadership in Transformers: The Movie, especially after Thor's vision and prophecy.

The film gave a simple, yet effective reasoning for fan-service of pitting Ironman vs. Hulk.

Civilian safety was the Avengers' #1 priority in every battle. DC Comics/Warner Bros. need to take notes for their films - their heroes need to take responsibility for their actions.

Black Widow and Hulk have to be the most unlikely romance pairing ever on this team, but somehow it works.

The film takes place immediately following the previous week's Agents of SHIELD tie-in episode after Coulson clued in Maria Hill on the whereabouts of Baron von Strucker. Speaking of Strucker, I think he faked his death or his son would take over HYDRA if Baron Zemo doesn't fill that role in Civil War - either way I don't see Strucker out of the equation so easily.

NEW Helicarrier and NEW Avengers facilities - this means that SHIELD can properly train powered people: i.e. Sky (Daisy Johnson/Quake and the other Inhumans) I personally can't wait to see how this factors into future seasons of Agents of SHIELD.

Iron Legion were a clever reference to Henry Pym's peacekeeper sentries in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and to follow-up Stark's "house party protocol" from Ironman 3.

Personal Criticism on film's narrative

There's one HUGE plothole between this film and Ironman 3. Tony Stark destroy his home and all of his armors. Did he start over at the Avengers tower? Did he do so before or after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier?

Exactly why was Maria Hill working for Tony Stark after the "end" of SHIELD when she was clearly still answering to Nick Fury off the grid?

Black Widow seemed to bond with Captain America during Captain America: The Winter Soldier, much like how she bonded with Tony Stark and Pepper Potts in Ironman 2, so why the sudden geek crush on Bruce Banner/Hulk now? I'm not really complaining but Black Widow is making that "slut" label hard to ignore for nit-picky critics. To be quite honest, Widow has been simply reduced to the role of a surrogate/filler Betty Ross in Ultimate Avengers. To be fair, I did appreciate that after her three appearances in the MCU, she has finally shed some light into her backstory that held ties to the Red Room that was introduced into Agent Carter.

The film spent a little TOO much time trying to "fool" the audience that Hawkeye was going to die that the film feels more about Hawkeye and Black Widow proving that they belong among these gods and supermen instead of more focus on the threat of Ultron. Ultron does NOT feel like a threat to the Avengers until maybe the latter half of the film and even then, Vision makes him seem pathetic in comparison.

To say that he was an advanced artificial intelligence, Ultron wasn't smart at all to be quite honest:

1. He allows Black Widow to call the Avengers via Morse code. 
2. He trusted the Maximoff twins when they could have destroyed him whenever they pleased, 
3. Ultron was controlling StarkTech (namely the Iron Legion) so who said he couldn't have controlled ALL of Tony Stark's armors the same way? That being said, as much as I loved the sequence between Hulk versus Ironman, the setup was piss-poor. It would have made more sense to have Hulk fighting Stark as Ultron-controlled the Hulkbuster armor. Sue me, that's just my two cents as a comic book nerd.

Banner shouldn't be too shaken up about collateral damage if the Eric Bana Incredible Hulk film is still canon to the MCU.

Ultron stole ALL of Stark's sensitive files on the Avengers and SHIELD database (well, whatever's not in Fury's "toolbox" that Coulson has...). This makes you wonder who got a hold of that information by the time Ultron was destroyed and if he backed it up or passed that information along.

I know most people won't agree with me but the cinematography in this film compared to the original Avengers makes the action sequences look confusing and messy compared to the streamlined view of the original film.

Last but not least, it's rather ironic that this film recycles a lot of the same traveled ground as the as the original film - Nick Fury gives the Avengers the pep talk to when their spirits are crushed, Captain America calls the plan for battle in the climax, Captain America fights and holds his own against the film's main antagonist (like he has ANYTHING else to prove to skeptics? Like REALLY?), someone close to the team dies (in the original film it was Phil Coulson, in this film it's Quicksilver), and the team puts their differences aside for the greater good to save the day when it matters most.

Closing Thoughts

Age of Ultron is another blockbuster success for Marvel Studios in terms of box office ticket sales while simultaneously planting the seeds to further the expansion of their Cinematic Universe for the years to come. Much like it's predecessor, the Avengers, it's a bit rough around the edges but it's a wild ride for all ages from start to finish.