Iron Man returns.
Remember, he was in the original iteration of the West Coast Avengers, only it was James Rhodes and not Tony Stark. That really cheesed off Hawkeye. So this time, the team—especially USAgent (who is a government-planted spy)—want to make sure who is under the helmit. And Tony doesn’t want to tell.
The main story in these issues changes everything we knew about Vision and his, and Wanda’s, kids.
Last issue, Byrne began the Vision origin retcon by telling us that Vision’s body is not, in fact, that of the original Human Torch (as we had been told for many years). There’s a lot of contorting and going back over prior issues of The Avengers to explain how every time we were told about Vision being the original Human Torch, it was a false narrative that was intentionally created by Immortus.
Why? I dunno. Not really worth going into it, but it’s worth noting: These issues are an example of an extremely thorough retcon.
In the process, we have to look back at the old Legion of the Unliving stories, where Immortus resurrected the actional original Human Torch, and that brings us to Torch being resurrected again, in this story, and joining the West Coasters.
Along with…
Agatha Harkness. She’s back from the dead (actually, she can’t die because of…magic). And she’s worried about Wanda and Vision’s kids—who keep having interludes where they appear and disappear.
So, two new members, Agatha is back ,the twins are still an issue…It’s pandemonium.
Correction…It’s Master Pandemonium!
Yeah, he’s got his hands up the twins’ butts and he’s working them like puppets.
Because they aren’t real—they’re magic babies.
As Harkness explains, Scarlet Witch’s reality-altering powers created the kids taking pieces Master Pandemonium’s soul.
Master P reclaims them, with the help of his partner Mephisto, and by the end the babies are gone.
So…Original Torch is back. Vision is…Not Original Torch. Scarlet Witch is still married to him, but Vision is not in any way his old self. And the babies are gone. Oh, and Iron Man is on the team again.
In the very last panel, Llyra appears to set up the WCA (or I mean AWC) tie-in to the Acts of Vengeance event.
One thing you can’t say about Byrne: He doesn’t waste any space on nonsense in this book. It’s like the exact opposite of his She-Hulk book. And both are great runs!