West Coast Avengers - Girl Power!

One interesting thing about West Coast Avengers is that you can see Marvel attempting to increase the number of female characters on the roster.  Out of the 5 founding members of the West Coast team 2 were females.  Now this may not seem like much but when you consider the initial Avengers team had only 1 out of 6, then this is a very significant increase.

Avengers  -  1 Female (Wasp) out of 6 members = 16%
West Coast Avengers - 2 Females (Mockingbird and Tigra) out of 5 members = 40%

 I think this was a deliberate move by Marvel to give more exposure to its female characters.  Traditionally, its been very difficult for female characters to carry a solo title comic book for very long.  DC's Wonder Woman has the best track record at maintaining a long running solo title.  For Marvel the female heroes have gone in out of publication in solo books with very little long-term success.  Female heroes however been more successful with the teams books like Avengers and X-Men.  Within these books Marvel successfully launched many female characters and they also created some unique and interesting characters.  In West Coast Avengers we get a lot of focus on two of these interesting females, Tigra and Mockingbird.

The West Coast Avengers did not just add these girls to the roster though.  They also were the primary focus of much of the team's early adventures.  Tigra's two soul problems are sorted out and she battles the demon based villain Master Pandemonium.  Tigra's story of self doubt is also one of the primary focuses of the first arc.   Meanwhile, Mockingbird and her relationship with Hawkeye is also a huge focus.  The story arc concerning Mockingbird killing Phantom Rider is also a major part of the stories.

Another female driven story is love story between Scarlet Witch and Vision and eventually the death of Vision and their children.  That crazy story sees all the important people in Scarlet Witch's life torn away from her and powerful mutant in mental shambles.  Eventually, this leads Scarlet Witch to alter the entire Marvel Universe in the House of M.

I think the stories for both of these female characters were significant enough that when you look back at them, the West Coast series was one of the primary, lime light moments in each of their publication histories.


Mockingbird 
Mockingbird joins her husband on the team and becomes his most stalwart support, and bitter foe.
 

Tigra
Tigra joins reluctantly.  She really did not feel that she had what it took to be an Avenger.   She also must deal with her attraction to men, who also tend to be attracted to her.  Iron Man notices early on that Tigra wears a lot less clothes than any other Avenger he has been around before.
 


West Coast Avengers Sound Track  
Katey Perry - California Gurls - Its not a girl power anthem perse but it works.




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Avengers who served on the West Coast Team include:

• Vision
• Iron Man 
• War Machine
• Hawkeye 
• Scarlet Witch
• Quicksilver 
• Wonder Man
• Hank Pym
• Wasp AKA Janet van Dyne
• Tigra
• Black Knight
• Moon Knight
• Mockingbird
• Human Torch
• Ben Grimm / The Thing

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