Despite her longevity in the Avengers, it's difficult to picture the Scarlet Witch in a team leader role, given that she's seldom been shown in the forefront of battle during the Avengers' missions--perhaps due to the fact that the nature of her power forces her into a more reserved stance rather than wading into her foes. When the Avengers West Coast were forced to disband, she'd only held the Chairmanship of the team for barely five issues before the title was cancelled; but a little over two years later, when Tony Stark gathered the remnants of the AWC to form Force Works, he makes an offer to Wanda to reclaim the gavel she'd only briefly held.
Unfortunately, Stark wouldn't be able to leave it at that. As a charter member of the Avengers' west coast franchise, Stark, as Iron Man, appeared to be very comfortable with deferring to the decisions of that group's Chairman, Hawkeye; but perhaps because he'd founded Force Works and was very much its architect as an organization that would take the Avengers concept a step further, he often found it difficult to dial back his assertiveness and allow Wanda to do her job.
Nor did it take very long for him to cross the line, in only the team's second mission.
To Wanda's credit, though, she wasn't about to let this behavior become the norm. And a few issues later, she found she had to put her foot down.
But while team morale was upbeat during Wanda's tenure, Stark continued to have his own concerns. Even an objective third party from the east coast team--and an old friend, at that--couldn't make headway with him on the issue.
From here, it's difficult to connect the dots to when Stark was still his own man, so to speak, and when he began being influenced by Kang the Conqueror in the pages of The Avengers during "the Crossing" storyline and started to become unhinged (not to mention homicidal). Whatever the point he began to break down, it was probably a given that his situation with Wanda wasn't about to see less friction between them.
Finally, though, Stark's behavior begins to take its toll on Force Works, as he begins to assert what he still believes to be his "executive" authority by invoking unilateral decisions designed to shape the team more to his liking.
Iron Man goes on to present startling evidence that incriminates Hawkeye in the murders of Marilla and the Wasp--an outrageous charge in Wanda's assessment, considering how long both she and Iron Man have known him. Fortunately, she's able to rein in Stark and regain some control over the situation--but for how long?
By this time, however, Stark has gone completely over the edge. Acting on his own accord, he enlists his hand-picked new Force Works member, Cybermancer, to subdue and bring in Hawkeye--putting a halt to USAgent's mission under Wanda's authority to more peacefully confer with the archer on the murders. It's the final straw for the Scarlet Witch, and the catalyst for serving Iron Man his walking papers.
In the middle of the dispute, a crisis rears its head in Cambodia, spurring Force Works to scramble--but the damage to their internal situation is done, and it's a mission that Iron Man won't be joining them on.
Things don't end well for Iron Man, who perishes toward the end of the run of The Avengers. For the members of Force Works, he'd prepared a recording in the event of his death, one made only an hour after its charter members agreed to be part of the new team--mostly thanking them for following through with the project, and wishing them well for the future. But following one more mission, the team decides to take a sabbatical--which, coinciding with poor sales of the mag, proves to be permanent. As for the Scarlet Witch, her term as Chairwoman comes to an end as a success, even though she's going down with the ship.
3 comments:
I had honestly forgotten about Force Works until it went on MU a couple of weeks ago. It seems pretty desperate and over the top. I am thinking Marvel thought of the luck they had had with the X-Men spinoffs. They got several more years out of stale characters by changing New Mutants to X-Force. They had managed to completely change directions of X-Factor and Excalibur at that point. I think they thought redesigning the characters and changing things up would work at least put the title on par with the lesser X-books. It can't have been too long after this we got Onslaught, Heroes Reborn, and the interesting characters from Force Works returning to the main Avengers.
You make some excellent observations on the "makeovers" of these various titles, Jared. I wasn't all that impressed with Force Works when I collected the book, even when the odd duck Century came aboard; but with a second reading they started to grow on me. I enjoyed seeing USAgent becoming more of a team player (while losing none of his rough edges)--and even Spider-Woman, who for whatever reason never grabbed me, started to fit in. I thought Wonder Man would have added well to the mix, but he was killed off almost immediately--perhaps as a statement to the reader that they weren't holding a copy of a revamped AWC. Strangely enough, the book's final issue ended on a very optimistic note for the team, even with Iron Man no longer a part of it--perhaps because they were all finally stepping out from his shadow, albeit too late.
Even though they all ended with some pretty terrible work, I think it is remarkable that the spinoff team books from the 80s all lasted past 100 issues. Alpha Flight, West Coast Avengers/Force Works, New Mutants/X-Force, X-Factor/Mutant X, and Excalibur all had memorable runs, and they all managed to hang on well into the 90s. I think they all lasted way too long and exhausted all interesting story ideas for them, but that's neither here nor there.
Post a Comment