READING THE CLASSICS: THE WEST COAST AVENGERS #43

 Published on April 1st, 1989

     While reading this issue, part 2 of "Vision Quest," I kept thinking: did Marvel realize that comic books were supposed to be for kids in 1989? The book isn't "adult" or "mature" or anything, it's just pretty complex. Currently, the only complex mainstream superhero books I can think of are the ones Jonathan Hickman writes, like X-Men now and his Avengers run a few years ago. Most superhero books are typically just heroes beating up villains, right? Kids don't really read comic books now, anyway. Was my generation the last one that did? I was reading comic books at age 10 or so, though I never picked up this book. I was more a Spider-Man and Image fan. I also read Darkhawk and Sleepwalker from Marvel, so I certainly didn't care about quality. I suppose I could go into how this book is complex...but even I'm pretty lost. The basic plot is kind of standard. We learn that Mockingjay, Hawkeye's former wife, was duped into helping a secret group capture Vision. She thought she was helping a group from S.H.I.E.L.D. How did she escape? "It took nearly three weeks of biding my time before I was able to sucker my guard into my cell with a yoga breathing exercise that simulated my own death." Nice. So eventually the West Coast Avengers fly to that evil base where they find that Vision has been pretty much ripped apart and destroyed. I'm not sure how this plays into the book, but Wanda reminisces about her history with Vision and during their courtship they ended up involved in the "search for the Celestial Madonna. Three women were candidates for that cosmic role." What the hell is going on in this book? "The living ghost of the Swordsman had declared Mantis the Celestial Madonna because of her humility and physical perfection." Hmmm. I guess...maybe I needed to read the first 40 issues of this book to understand it? The book is fucking weird. I doubt children read or enjoyed it back then, but who knows? At least it held my interest. And, hey, great climax with the Vision destroyed. **1/2