Avengers West Coast #58

Sep 18

Sep 18 Avengers West Coast #58

Why?

After a recent earthquake in San Francisco, the villain known as Vibro waited to see if humanity learned a valuable lesson. To make sure people have learned, Vibro attacks the city planning office in Los Angeles. He is furious to discover that the city has green lit construction projects that are not using materials that are resistant to seismic activity. Angered that his warnings have not been taken seriously, Vibro decides to teach the state of California a hard lesson on emergency preparedness. To this end he heads outside the city and opens a fissure in the ground so that he can burrow underground and gain access to the local fault lines. From here he is able to use his powers to instigate an earthquake that registers 8.2 on Richter Scale, causing massive devastation across the city.

This happens just moments before the Avengers West Coast are returned to Earth in a sphere of metal ejected from Asteroid M by Magneto.[1] They arrive just as tremors are subsiding and learn from Ramon, the groundskeeper at Avengers Compound, about the devastating earthquake. While Hank and Ramon deal with the injured US Agent and Human Torch, Wonder Man and the Wasp head off to help with the rescue efforts in the city.

At that same moment, Iron Man is recharging his armor after it was shut down by the Scarlet Witch. Once his charging is complete, he thanks the couple who he crashed in on for letting him use their electricity and heads out to help with the relief effort as well. He catches up with Wonder Man and the Wasp and assists in destroying falling debris from damaged buildings. Soon, Hank Pym arrives on the scene in his Rover craft to assist with the relief efforts. Seeing a group of people trapped in a damaged building on the brink of toppling. Unfortunately, there is not enough room in the Rover to take anybody and Hank tells the people to carefully go down the stairs and avoid the elevators. As he and Wonder Man fly off, the stranded people shout at them to come back. Along the highway they come upon a school bus that is on the brink of toppling over the edge of an overpass. Wonder Man heads down to help the children trapped inside while Hank heads off to respond to a police alert.

A short distance away, the Wasp comes upon the scene where a building has collapsed onto the road. Flying in between the debris at insect size, Janet begins looking for survivors. She is deeply traumatized when she finds dead bodies instead. Fleeing the rubble, she catches up with Hank and tells her what she saw. Although she wants to recover their bodies, Hank reminds her that there are people that are still alive that need their help. Remembering what’s important, Janet gets her head back in the game and begins buzzing the ruins to search for survivors.

Meanwhile, Iron Man spots an office building on fire and puts it out by pulling a water tower off another structure to douse the flames. While back on the highway, Wonder Man is able to reinforce the overpass with a car that he crushes with his bare hands. This stabilizes the structure so that the bus driver can safely drive off the scene without any injuries. Simon desperately wants to get back to Asteroid M to rescue the Scarlet Witch, but seeing more trouble in the city realizes he can’t leave innocent people in need of help.

At that same moment, the Wasp finds a car trapped under rubble. Looking inside she is relieved to see that the woman driving and her daughter are still alive. Telling them to remain calm, Janet uses her wasp sting to blast a hole through the roof so they can safely climb out of the trapped vehicle.

As Hank Pym continues monitoring emergency channels to see where his team can help, he gets a call from Ramon. He tells Hank that US Agent is stable, but it appears that the Human Torch might be dead.[2] He then puts Pym in touch with Jack Williams, a geologist stationed outside of Cuyamaca Park. He tells the Avenger that the earthquake originated from this location, however the build up of tectonic pressure was completely unnatural. He also tells Pym that the villain known as Vibra was seen in the location just prior to the earthquake. Remembering Vibro from the Avengers files, Hank contacts Iron Man and asks for all the information he has on the villain since he has had the most experience with him.

Iron Man explains that Vibro was once a seismologist named Francis Vibreaux, who had himself lowered into a fault line with an experimental device. This machine caused his body to absorb the vibrations from the tectonic plates transforming. This drive him mad and he became Vibro.[3][4] Pym tells Iron Man to stay in the city to help Wonder Man with the relief efforts while he and Jan go after Vibro. As Hank and Janet head off to Cuyamaca Park, Wonder Man stops to help aid a young boy whose brother was trapped in a collapsing building while going back to rescue the family cat. He is relieved when he finds both the boy and the feline unharmed.

Soon, Hank and Janet arrive at the fissure created by Vibro in Cuyamaca Park. Outfitting the Wasp with a special suit to withstand the geological pressures below, she is sent down to confront Vibro along. When she finds the villain and explains all the carnage and destruction he has caused, the villain explains that it was necessary to convince people that they need to build more durable buildings. She pleads with him to stop or more lives will be claimed, but he refuses to listen. The Wasp returns to the surface and explains everything to Hank. With no other choice, Hank uses his Pym Particles to shrink the fissure, sealing the ground and trapping Vibro underground. Vibro tries to fight back, but he is eventually crushed between the contracting rock and seemingly killed.[5]

The strain on Hank’s endurance is incredible and he collapses after completing the job. However, he quickly recovers and when he and Janet return to the city they learn that the tremors have stopped. Reuniting with Wonder Man and Iron Man, the team looks out at the city and determine that it will take months before Los Angeles recovers from this earthquake. Still, despite all the death and carnage, Wonder Man feels a sense of hope seeing how people have been selflessly helping those in need. That’s when Iron Man picks up a report about a gas main fire in Inglewood. Realizing that their job is far from over, the Avengers West Coast head out to help the city they call home.

Recurring Characters

Avengers West Coast (Iron Man, Hank Pym, Wasp, Wonder Man, US Agent, Human Torch), Vibro

Continuity Notes

The AWC stormed Magneto’s asteroid last issue only to be summarily ejected by the Masters of Magnetism.
The Scarlet Witch used her hex powers to shut down the Human Torch last issue. He won’t be revived until Avengers West Coast #63.
Iron Man recounts Vibro’s origins from Iron Man #186-187. He also fought the villain in issues #191-192 of that series. He states here that Vibro managed to escape from the Vault “a few break outs ago”, he is referring to the events of Captain America #340.
Here, Hank remarks that this “new” Iron Man seems to know a lot of details about his “predecessor”. At the time of this story, Iron Man got into a lot of hot water when he went around shutting down all stolen pieces of Iron Man tech, including those used by the government. Since Tony Stark’s double identity was secret at the time, Tony faked Iron Man’s death and convinced the public that he has hired a replacement, as seen in Iron Man #225-232. He has also been trying to maintain this ruse with his fellow Avengers, many of whom know his secret, and is doing a bad job at it. He’ll give up all pretenses in Avengers West Coast #72.
Vibro survives this somehow and will be seen again in Iron Man #267.