West Coast Avengers' "Lost in Space and Time" arc: What did you think of it?

[Joker Venom]

I think this was one of the better WCA story arcs. I just wish the art had been on par with the story.

[Lee Stone]

I didn't really mind the art at the time.
But I do remember not liking Firebird's outfit.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

To be fair to Al Milgrom, I don't think he was considered a sloppy-second choice. He and Joe Sinnott had been the art team on Avengers for years before they were transferred to WCA, and Milgrom had worked with Englehart before (on "Captain Marvel").

I think Mark Gruenwald, as an editor, seemed to have a preference for rather old-school art, which explains his choice of Milgrom/Sinnott and Buscema/Palmer replacing them on the main Avengers book. But while John Buscema's art was also old-fashioned it had a timeless feel to it that Milgrom's didn't.

It's not from this storyline but I did like the one issue Kyle Baker inked over Milgrom's breakdowns, because it was so different from the usual Avengers style at the time. Maybe the book would have been better off with a less traditional inking style to contrast with the traditional layouts.

I don't mind "old school" either, but I don't like unimaginative and boring, and that's what Milgrom's art was at the time. I thought he was somewhat better in the 70s on Captain Marvel and Firestorm, but on WCA, his art was serviceable, but didn't really pop or elevate the story to cinematic levels the way the best Marvel artists did. Maybe Milgrom was better suited to a solo-hero book rather than a team book where everyone is in costume all the time and things need to be more melodramatically heightened.

John Buscema was just a better and more dynamic artist that Milgrom. His art had a sense of energy and drama that Milgrom's just didn't. Much of Engelhart's original run on Avengers was done by Bob Brown -- not a superstar by any means, but still a good, solid Marvel artist.

A team book does have different demands than a solo-hero book, and the editor has to determine whether the artist can convey the "all-super-all-the-time" feel of a team book. For example, as much as I like Curt Swan's art (one of the best in comics history on a technical level), I think he would have been all wrong for, say, Justice League.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

It was fun.
I'm in the minority of liking Al Milgrom's artwork, and Joe Sinnott's inking made his stuff better.
The Iron Man/Wonder Man tension was great too.