Force Works .any fans?

[XandertheWise]

Anyone else back then read the original Force Works comic series when it came out during the mid 1990s? I'm still buying back issues for it once in awhile.

Members were Tony Stark, Spider Woman, Wanda Scarlet Witch, US Agent, Hawkeye too I think, Century and little bit of Wonder Man.

Tony built a super computer to predict disasters which they had to go and stop before they happened

this was way before Civil War II where Civil War II had a character that had visions of things that were to happen or whatever. little bit of Force Works and little bit of Minority Report in there too

[marhawkman]

They had a TV show, it was GREAT!

[Aarkus]

in my eyes it was basically a continuation/spin-off of West Coast Avengers, with one of the better line-ups of characters who had cycled through that team.

the way they were portrayed in the Iron Man cartoon was a bit infantile unfortunately... back then, animators really had to pander to conservative suburban housewife moms, who were populous enough and had accumulated enough of a "voice" in these things, that they could shut down entire projects if they complained hard enough. dialogue always had to be geared toward kids and seem purposefully unrealistic, regardless of how "grounded" the concept was.

still, hokey dialogue and writing notwithstanding, it was a cool team that never seemed to flex their full capabilities for some reason

[Gaastra]

Wonder man kind of got the shaft however.

[gurkle]

I thought Abnett and Lanning's writing of the Scarlet Witch was mostly great. It's hard to take an old-fashioned, girly-girl heroine like Wanda and make her a tough early '90s character but I think they succeeded, granted there were some cheesy moments like her holding her finger to a guy's head as if it were a gun, but in general it felt like the same character we'd been reading before, just angrier.

They were obviously hoping to do for "West Coast Avengers" was "X-Force" (temporarily) did for "New Mutants," retool the B-team that didn't really have a purpose into a proactive team that will make the tough calls the Avengers/X-Men won't. It didn't work as well for a bunch of reasons -- like a lack of good personal stories for the cast, inability to find a good full-time artist. Then "The Crossing" happened, all Abnett & Lanning's planned storylines were abandoned and the book quietly collapsed.

[XandertheWise]

well that's nice and all but what did you think of the main story arc when Force Works first started? the thing with the Super computer that was doing Minority Report types on disasters etc?

This was way before Civil War II stuff

I thought Abnett and Lanning's writing of the Scarlet Witch was mostly great. It's hard to take an old-fashioned, girly-girl heroine like Wanda and make her a tough early '90s character but I think they succeeded, granted there were some cheesy moments like her holding her finger to a guy's head as if it were a gun, but in general it felt like the same character we'd been reading before, just angrier.

They were obviously hoping to do for "West Coast Avengers" was "X-Force" (temporarily) did for "New Mutants," retool the B-team that didn't really have a purpose into a proactive team that will make the tough calls the Avengers/X-Men won't. It didn't work as well for a bunch of reasons -- like a lack of good personal stories for the cast, inability to find a good full-time artist. Then "The Crossing" happened, all Abnett & Lanning's planned storylines were abandoned and the book quietly collapsed.

[gurkle]

well that's nice and all but what did you think of the main story arc when Force Works first started? the thing with the Super computer that was doing Minority Report types on disasters etc?

This was way before Civil War II stuff

I didn't really think it went anywhere, like a lot of story ideas in the comic. The idea of fusing Tony's tech with Wanda's probability powers to figure out where the next problem would be was fun, but I don't think they did anything with the moral implications of it. Civil War II did (badly). Though James Robinson's Scarlet Witch tie-in, where Wanda refuses to get involved in the crossover, did have her mention that she and Tony used to do something like that.

[Hypestyle]

renew the team with a different lineup.

[Nomads1]

I was a HUGE WCA fan, so, Force Works was a must for me. Hated that they cancelled WCA, and thought that the book still had a lot of potential to go on, even with Tony starting his own team (Heck, the ECA disbanded the team without Hawkeye, the guy that started it all, even being present. That's cold. And I'm sure Clint would have had some choice words to say, and, as much as Roy Thomas wanted to write the old hotheaded and rebellious Hawkeye of the 70's, he could have rebuilt the team). However, I had no choice but to follow the team into the new book, just to see my favorite character of all, and probably the second most popular character in the book, Wonder Man, being offed right in the first issue. What a dumb move! Still, IMHO, the book had a lot going for them. Of all the many proactive teams we've seen in comics, I think this was the one that actually got the better explanation for why they could act like this, with Wanda and the Chaos Computer predicting hotspots of activity. It had an interesting supporting staff, and a different approach to the story than more traditional team books such as Avengers and Fantastic Four (DnA were really bringing that British wierdness to American comics). And Century was an interesting character, even if I think he deserved a better look and that he wasn't as well developed as he could have been. Those were the good points of the book. Now, let's see the bad. The lack of a solid art team. Many great artists passed through the pages of Force Works (Paul Ryan, Dave Ross, Jim Cheung, etc...) however, none of them commited on the long run to the book, and, IMHO, it suffered a lot fo this. A solid art team might have drawn more readers to the book, eventually saving it from cancellation. The lack of recognizable villains. Sure, FW wanted to establish it's own rogue gallery, however, I do think the book could have benefited from more recognizable villains and threats. Even the guest stars were mostly original characters. Aside from War Machine and the Avengers, we had Dream Weaver, Cybermancer and Moonraker. Who, you might ask. Exactly! And Tony more and more was being portrayed as an unlikable character (you had already killed of your second most popular character. Have your most popular character being shown as a dick, just to elevate your, arguably, third most popular character, Wanda, as a perfect leader was not, IMHO, a smart move. It made for some intresting conflict, at first, however, IMHO, they took it too far).
All in all, taking all that into consideration, I mostly liked the book, and thought it still had a lot of potential to go on, even losing Wanda and Tony to the Avengers. However, editorial had other plans, and they didn't include and Avengers spin-off book set on the American west coast.

Peace

[danielsan52]

I remember buying it because it had Julia.

I hated Century.

They should have done more with Cybermancer.

Moonraker was confusing.

[Captain Craig]

I also thought it was a glorified extension of Avengers West Coast. I didn't buy it all the way through. I had cut back in those late HS years/early college for gas/insurance/date money.
If they did an Omni I'd give it consideration.

[kcekada]

Wonder man kind of got the shaft however.

Right. And replaced by Century. What a downgrade. I didn't stick long thereafter.

[Triniking1234]

We barely see USAgent once this book disappeared.

[stingray]

Loved the concept and Abnett and Lanning as writers, but they lost me almost immediately by killing off Wonder Man.

[DigiCom]

They had a TV show, it was GREAT!

the way they were portrayed in the Iron Man cartoon was a bit infantile unfortunately... back then, animators really had to pander to conservative suburban housewife moms, who were populous enough and had accumulated enough of a "voice" in these things, that they could shut down entire projects if they complained hard enough. dialogue always had to be geared toward kids and seem purposefully unrealistic, regardless of how "grounded" the concept was.

The second season theme song rocked, though (even with Tony's unfortunate mullet):