West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #39
Upset!
The West Coast Avengers were on their way east to find out what caused Mantis to lose most of her recent memories.[1] Suddenly, their plane jerks out of control and goes into a tailspin. Hawkeye quickly gets the plane under control and apologizes because he had just heard news from the eastern team about how his wife, Mockingbird, recently stopped the High Evolutionary on her own after quitting the team.[2] This reminds everyone how Mockingbird, Tigra, and Moon Knight left the group after disagreeing about letting a villain die. Short staffed, and with the Scarlet Witch returning to their New Jersey home to pick up their children, the Vision asks if the east coast team will be helping them out on their current mission. Hawkeye doesn’t want to, as he wants to prove that his team is still viable, despite the recent walkouts.
They make a quick stop at the home of Martha Williams — mother to Wonder Man and the Vision — to tell her of the Vision and Scarlet Witch’s move. She is happy to hear that they are moving to California. Seeing how happy the Vision and the Scarlet Witch makes Hawkeye depressed. Seeing this, Mantis pulls him outside for a pep-talk. She tells him that her natural empathy allows her to feel his pain and being able to realize what he has lost is an important part of the healing process. She also tells him that pain shared is pain halved. This manages to cheer Clint up a bit.
Meanwhile, Mockingbird and her team are forced to land their borrowed Quinjet at Newark Airport instead of the east coast team’s Hydrobase headquarters. Their new ally, Bill Foster — aka Giant-Man — is glad to be able to get out and stretch as it was cramped in the jet at his enhanced height. When Bobbi asks if he wants to join them he politely declines, telling them that he wants to check in with Hank Pym and see if his restored growth powers are healing the cancer that once ravaged his body.[3] Moon Knight is happy to see him go, as Giant-Man is not vengeful like they are and wouldn’t be suited for their upcoming battle with the Phantom Rider. As if on cure, the Rider’s spectral form appears before them. His supernatural powers are too powerful for the Avengers to deal with. Luckily, the Rider is chased off by the spirit of Khonshu, which is freed after Moon Knight is knocked out. As the Phantom Rider flees, Khonshu returns to Moon Knight’s body and he wakes up with a solution to their problem.
Back at Martha Williams home, the Scarlet Witch senses a great evil in the area but doesn’t know that appeared in the Newark area.
By this time, the rest of the West Coast Avengers arrive at that house that Mantis had found herself in when she awoke with amnesia. Searching the place top to bottom they discover that it has been lived in for months by a woman named Mandy Celestine. However, they can’t find anything that explains her lost memories. That’s when the mailman arrives to deliver a package. When Mantis answers the door, the mailman recognizes her as Mandy Celestine, but this doesn’t reveal much else.
Since this avenue has turned up nothing, Hawkeye suggests that they go back to the Temple of the Priests of Pama in Vietnam, the last place the Avengers saw her. They go to the spot where Mantis was married to the Prime Cotati and Hawkeye recalls how the plant spirit took possession of the Swordsman’s corpse.[4] The local plant life has since overgrown and covered the Swordsman’s grave and after the group clears it away, Mantis recounts how she went into space with the Prime Cotati to sire a child. That’s when the Prime Cotati — once again possessing the body of the Swordsman — suddenly bursts from his grave and attacks the Avengers.
The reanimated Swordsman is able to hold his own against Mantis and the others thanks to his trademark weapon, which had been modified with projectile weapons by the Mandarin many years earlier.[5] In the ensuing clash, Wonder Man gets faceplanted on top of the Swordsman’s grave and once again struggles to keep his own fear of mortality in check.[6] The battle comes to an abrupt end when the Supreme Cotati uses his control over plant life to restrain Mantis with some tree branches and then gores her with his sword.
Moments after Mantis dies, everyone is shocked when another Mantis emerges from the Swordsman’s grave. She explains that when she and the Supreme Cotati went into space, it was their spirits that left Earth, not their physical bodies. After, the Priests of Pama buried her physical body in the same grave as the Swordsman. Once she and the Cotati successfully conceived. While the Cotati returned to his rightful form, Mantis returned to Earth where she grew a plant form for herself that would carry the hybrid child she was now carrying. Eventually, she gave birth and the Cotati took her child away as the child.[7] She then ventured off into space where she found companionship and adventure with the Silver Surfer until she sacrificed her life to save him.
That’s when the Supreme Cotati chimes in, explaining that upon her death, the accumulated memories were transferred to Mantis’ physical body while a new plant simulacrum was spawned on Earth. That the reintegration of her spirit to her physical body was the only way to restore her full memories. When Mantis asks if she is no longer the Celestial Madonna, the Cotati assures her that she always will be, but assures her that their offspring does not need a mother anymore. Needing to vacate this physical body, the Cotati entrusts the Swordsman’s sword to Hawkeye. Upon leaving this physical form, the Swordsman’s body crumbles to dust.
With the mystery now over, Hawkeye says it is time to return home. However, Mantis opts to stay behind. As the rest of the team leaves in their Quinjet, Mantis begins to meditate on her former lovers grave.
Recurring Characters
West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Tigra, Moon Knight, Mantis), Phantom Rider, Swordsman, Martha Williams, Black Goliath, Khonshu, Billy Maximoff, Tommy Maximoff
Continuity Notes
Mantis came to the Avengers in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #37. What she doesn’t know is that her memory loss happened after she was seemingly killed in an explosion in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #9 and popped up on Earth with no memory of any event following Giant-Size Avengers #4 in Silver Surfer Annual #1.
Not long ago, in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #23, Mockingbird let the Phantom Rider fall to his death because he basically raped her. The team all found out in issue #34-35. When confronted about it in issue #37, Mockingbird quit the team with Tigra and Moon Knight. They later defated the High Evolutionary in West Coast Avengers Annual #3.
Bill Foster was given radiation poisoning in Black Goliath #1. He was ultimately cured in Marvel Two-in-One #85, but at the expense of his powers. He had just restored them in West Coast Avengers Annual #3.
Mantis was trained by the Priests of Pama to become the Celestial Madonna. Her past was detailed in Avengers #123. The Swordsman was her lover from Avenges #112 until he sacrificed his life to save her from Kang the Conqueror in Giant-Size Avengers #2. Later, in Giant-Size Avengers #4, the Swordsman’s body was reanimated by the Prime Cotati so it could marry Mantis. The two went into space to birth the Celestial Massiah, the perfect fusion of organic and plant life.
The Swordsman had his sword gimmicked by the Mandarin in Avengers #20.
Wonder Man ended up in a death-like state from Avengers #9 through 151. This gave him a fear of his mortality that he has overcome on two different occasions: Avengers #177 and West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #2.
If you want more detail on this sexy, sexy human on plant action, check out Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #4 and Avengers: Celestial Quest #2.
Topical References
One of the commercial airliners at the Newark Airport is decorated with the American Airlines logo. This should be considered topical as this is a real world company. Moreover, they stopped using this logo in 2013.
The mailman is delivering a package of CDs that Mandy ordered. While CDs are still a thing, they are not as ubiquitous as they were when this comic was published and should eventually be considered topical. So should Hawkeye’s joke about the Stevie Wonder album “The Secret Life of Plants".
