What If? West Coast Avengers #1

I had a fun day of family,  food and comics for Christmas today.

But, my celebration started a few weeks ago, when I popped down to Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find for a holiday sale. And, to what did my wondering eyes then appear? $1 boxes galore and some real treats … among them West Coast Avengers #1 -4.

And, that got me to thinking about covers like this one and Avengers #221, where we’re invited to wonder about what an Avengers line-up will be. UPDATE: Just found this tribute to Avengers #221 on the tremendous blog, “Covered.”

What if Mockingbird,Iron Man, Wonder Man and Tigra hadn’t answered Hawkeye’s call? What if it were others pictured — all representing a different part of the American Experience:

– Hawkeye – The American Dream — a “Horatio Alger” hero who pulled himself up by his seven-league bootstraps from less than modest beginnings to stand with the world’s greatest heroes.

– Puck – Representing Canada (Eh?) and the mutant population.

– Red Wolf – The bastion of Native American heroism.

– Thundra – A Femizonian citizen of the future United States — the “‘United Sisterhood Republic.”

– Rom, Spaceknight – Illegal alien. (Come on, you know he didn’t fill out any paperwork.) He earned it. He was teased as a potential Avenger TWICE!

I know I have an affinity for D-List characters and this series would only sell, like six copies (at least three of which would have gone to me, @mockingnerd and @JimMcCann), but I would have  loved to see it.