Quote Originally Posted by gurkle View Post
Even though USAgent was added to the West Coast Avengers by editorial order (specifically, Mark Gruenwald's order), I thought he was a good addition to the team just because most of the other characters didn't know or like him, which created some real tension in the team. It was almost as if Henry Gyrich was a superhero. Plus it's rare for a political conservative to be a superhero, and that added some tension too, sort of like when Hawkman was the JLA's resident conservative.
While I'm not politically conservative, I've long wished for some good (non-strawman) representation of that among the superhero community (just as I like representation of other groups I'm not a part of, like racial minorities, or women, or religious groups). I did like USAgents friction with the rest of the team (particularly Hawkeye), since it can add some fun drama when not everyone gets along, or thinks the world of (or is sleeping with / married to) their teammates.

The point where he really outstayed his welcome was after War Machine joined the WCA. Having the ersatz versions of both Captain America and Iron Man just made the team seem like a B-list team, which it wasn't before (if only because the East Coast Avengers had such weak casts during that period). But by then it was clearly already headed for cancellation.
Yeah, ersatz teams really have a hard row to hoe, IMO. If a team has War Machine, Winter Soldier and Thunderstrike on it, for instance, that's not going to draw the Iron Man, Captain America and Thor fans, and it's *certainly* not going to draw the fans of *other* Avengers (like Clint or Simon or Hank or Wanda or Jennifer or Monica), who get to see backup Iron Man, second-stringer Thor and Captain America's sidekick-all-grown-up instead. They benefitted a lot from the East Coast Avengers consisting of folk like Wasp, Black Knight, Sersi, Crystal and some losers I don't remember (Gilgamesh? Proctor? Magdalene? Warcry? Whatever. Any 'Avenger' less memorable than Dr. frikkin' Druid needs to go away...), at the time, with the Wasp being the only 'real Avenger' in that line up, but still...