Was the West Coast Avengers relaunch a wasted opportunity?

[Frontier]

The premise for a modern WCA series needs to be different because the premise of the original WCA wasn't very good and makes much less sense today. As for the actual attempt, the first trade getting delayed to hell because KT fucked up the arc structure on the first two stories needs to be considered as one of the reasons it died. I also thought it was just okay. It looked very nice. I remember not loving her Gwenpool, but hindsight compared to what we have now makes me realize it wasn't how she was written, it was the Quentin plot. A man who's only love should be torturing Logan. The group's best story was the Superior Spider-Man adventure. Overall, I'm glad the book existed even if I don't understand why you need to be from another planet to be a second Avengers title in Cebulski-land.

The OG!WCA made sense during it's time and with the version of The Avengers they were made to be a contrast too. Now, in a world where we can't get a legit secondary Avengers team, it would be harder to pull off.

But least Brevoort finally let them use the name.

The Gwenpool and Quire thing was probably just a riff on the spontaneous hookups that happen in these kinds of reality TV setting. I thought it was amusing enough.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, and it didn't last - Quentin dumped Gwen off-panel before her solo book started... probably because he's gone to Krakoa, though he didn't tell her that.

[Sutekh]

On the one hand, I do wish we'd gotten to see She-Hulk and more of Tigra in this 'West Coast Avengers.' Perhaps a few other odd choices reminiscent of the original WCA, like Mockingbird (wouldn't that be a fun reunion, her and Clint, with Kate in tow?), or USAgent, or Spider-Woman 2 / Julia Carpenter or characters we never see anymore, like the Shroud or Firebird.

On the other hand, I like Noh-Varr, and enjoyed Fuse and Alloy (and Jeff!), and I'm a fan of Clint, Kate and America, so the team was okay, apart from the annoying Quentin and Gwenpool interludes (since I dislike both of them, for different reasons). New and fresh can be fun in a different way than catering to the nostalgia of those of us who were around for the original West Coast Avengers.

[Mary Jay]

I can't say if the book itself was a missed opportunity since I didn't read it in its entirety. What I read really did not hook me though. Not my cup of tea.

I can say though that the "West Coast Avengers" title was wasted on this book. As a big fan of the original WCA, this was far from anything I would have expected from the title being revived. I just never understood the use of the name. Was it to attrack old fans? It wouldn't have been smart considering the tone, the characters, the spirit and the target audience were drastically different from one book to the other.

The new book itself could have had fans, and that's fine. I just never understood the justification for taking up the title. To me that's the only part that was "wasted" since now, we'll most likely never have a real WCA revival.

[Desmark]

The series just didn't have enough of the zanny factor nor the whimsical adventurous factor of Young Justice so ultimately it didn't do anything for me and I stopped reading it.

[Mike_Murdock]

I thought the roster was a ton of fun and Kelly Thompson handled it well. I also thought the reality TV aspect was used unobtrusively but effectively. However, it was so widely complained about ahead of time that it likely hurt pre-orders so, in that sense, it probably wasn't the best idea.

I thought the book was great and it's a shame it didn't work out. I don't know if I would go so far as to call it a wasted opportunity.

[Digifiend]

Maybe it would've done better if it was called something else? Weren't most of the complaints pre issue 1 about it being nothing like the original series?

[Sutekh]

I can say though that the "West Coast Avengers" title was wasted on this book. As a big fan of the original WCA, this was far from anything I would have expected from the title being revived. I just never understood the use of the name. Was it to attract old fans? It wouldn't have been smart considering the tone, the characters, the spirit and the target audience were drastically different from one book to the other.

This I agree with, and not just for the West Coast Avengers, but also for the Champions and New Mutants and Defenders and Agents of Atlas. If you are going to make a snazzy new pan-Asian team, then just ****ing do it, and give it a snazzy new pan-Asian name. Don't annoy the six fans of the original Agents of Atlas, because you happen to have the one Asian guy from that group on this team, and decided to trade on a familiar name.

I *like* the 'Fearless Defenders,' and the new Champions, and 60% of the new West Coast Avengers, but I do not love that they are using names from the eighties that don't really have anything at all to do with them.

Protectors, Crusaders, Guardians, Sentinels, Wardens, whatever. There a bazillion potential team names out there, why annoy the fans of a mostly abandoned team by teasing their return in a new book, only to find out that, no, this new 'Champions' in fact has nothing to do with Black Widow, Hercules, Angel, Iceman. Ghost Rider or Darkstar.

[Desmark]

Can you make a successor to the West Coast title using the same characters? I don't think so as they have come far ahead from the persons they were at that period of time like Julia and Wanda have moved into esoteric spheres beyond the avengers, Hawkeye and U.S. Agent and Wonder Man have been radically altered, Mockingbird and Hank were probably skrull or something at the time and were probably both. unavailable at the time.(Hank cuz of pymtron and Bobby due to the controversy).So it seems unlikely a series with the original members will ever be revived.

[Digifiend]

This I agree with, and not just for the West Coast Avengers, but also for the Champions and New Mutants and Defenders and Agents of Atlas. If you are going to make a snazzy new pan-Asian team, then just ****ing do it, and give it a snazzy new pan-Asian name. Don't annoy the six fans of the original Agents of Atlas, because you happen to have the one Asian guy from that group on this team, and decided to trade on a familiar name.

I *like* the 'Fearless Defenders,' and the new Champions, and 60% of the new West Coast Avengers, but I do not love that they are using names from the eighties that don't really have anything at all to do with them.

Protectors, Crusaders, Guardians, Sentinels, Wardens, whatever. There a bazillion potential team names out there, why annoy the fans of a mostly abandoned team by teasing their return in a new book, only to find out that, no, this new 'Champions' in fact has nothing to do with Black Widow, Hercules, Angel, Iceman. Ghost Rider or Darkstar.

Agents of Atlas logically should've been Protectors as that name was already established in Totally Awesome Hulk. Marvel even own the name, as while there was already a Protectors book, it's a Malibu title, and Marvel owns Malibu. Undoubtedly, the Asian team is called Agents of Atlas instead purely for marketing reasons.

If Bleeding Cool is to be believed, then the Champions will be absorbed into the Young Avengers. That would actually be pre-emptive movie synergy, as we know the team's MCU counterpart probably includes Kate Bishop, Cassie Lang, and Kamala Khan.

Guardians would just get confused with GOTG, so they'll never use that name. Marvel already has a Crusaders team - they're the British counterpart to the Invaders, while DC also has a Crusaders team who are an ersatz of the Invaders!

[Snoop Dogg]

Protectors is a really bad and generic name while Agents of Atlas is both not being used and is still led by the same character running the same Atlas Foundation. It's mutually beneficial to all iterations of a team to revive titles that don't work anymore and tweak them to be new and maybe successful instead of letting them gather more dust. I mean, X-Men. Come on. If this WCA was super successful and ran for multiple years, fans of classic WCA would've gotten a net gain in content that appealed to them by referring back to that book than they will now. It is also better to try new things than to try and force old things that faded away back together again just as they were.

[Midnight_v]

Maybe it would've done better if it was called something else? Weren't most of the complaints pre issue 1 about it being nothing like the original series?

I thought to complaints the 1st being what you saying there, The 2nd being I don't like this lineup... Something about Quentin quire...
The tone of the book probably wasn't what fans of the original West Coast Avengers were looking for...
And if they wanted to make a book that was just a collected version of those characters to get all the fans on one title to make space or whatever... IDK
I think they should have come up with their own name.
Um....

The Renegades West.

... Quentin quire as a renegade mutant and Kate Bishop paying homage to her father's team.
It could even be an on going thing about well who are the renegades East?
"...shut up"
"No. I told you it was a stupid name"

But I'd like to see a team like this played not for laughs.
And if you brought back to West Coast Avengers as being something like
Hawkeyes team. ... That's not a terrible idea either but it's a vastly different book

[Frontier]

Protectors is a really bad and generic name while Agents of Atlas is both not being used and is still led by the same character running the same Atlas Foundation. It's mutually beneficial to all iterations of a team to revive titles that don't work anymore and tweak them to be new and maybe successful instead of letting them gather more dust. I mean, X-Men. Come on. If this WCA was super successful and ran for multiple years, fans of classic WCA would've gotten a net gain in content that appealed to them by referring back to that book than they will now. It is also better to try new things than to try and force old things that faded away back together again just as they were.

I don't know if that would be quite how it works unless it led Marvel to reprint more of the old run.

[Snoop Dogg]

New WCA only lasted 10 issues and printed the most Tigra content in the paaaaaaast... 7 years?

[Frontier]

New WCA only lasted 10 issues and printed the most Tigra content in the paaaaaaast... 7 years?

Which is nice, although they didn't really do much of note with her.