#dansen macabre

Mockingbird: "Ahh! This is what I live for... Throwing myself into a situation where the slightest misstep means disability or death. ... Pushing myself to the limit... and gambling that my all is enough to handle whatever I'm up against."

And what she's up against is a Frankenstein looking dude called the Digger who likes 1) digging, 2) telling scary stories to captive audiences, 3) and apparently being a zombie.

He's really annoyed when Mockingbird shows up and interrupts story time and tries to wallop her with his shovel.

She ultimately beats him with slapstick.

And takes him and the dudes he had buried in the road to the police to sort out.

Outside of LA, the rest of the Night Shift gang meets in a spooky Victorian manor called the Tower of Shadows. I don't think a manor is a tower but the house does have a tower.

Tower of Shadows is also the name of a Marvel horror mag. Digger was a horror host.

I know Marvel loves recycling its not superhero characters into the superhero context. Archie-ripoff Patsy Walker becomes Hellcat and so on.

But a horror host winding up on a supervillain team but still taking opportunities to force people to hear his spooky stories is a step above.

Its apparently later established that in-universe Digger was the horror host for a TV show called, yup, Tower of Shadows.

Fun minutiae.

Lets go around the table really quick.

The guy with the giant needle is named Needle. He has a paralyzing gaze. I have no idea what this has to do with needles but he also likes to sew people's mouths shut.

Dancing lady is Dansen Macabre. She has the power to dansen, in a macabre way. Also she can hypnotize or kill people who watch her dance.

Guy with the towering blond hair is Misfit. He's big 'n tough.

The guys with the high red collars and yet no corresponding capes are the Brothers Grim. They conjure items that are kinda sorta like things from fairy tales.

The guy that DOES have a cape is Tatterdemalion. He can rot paper and cloth with a touch thanks to gloves soaked in chemicals.

Behind him is Jack Russell terror, Werewolf-by-Night. Bad doggo.

And rounding out the table is Tick Tock. He's basically Destiny. Mystique's wife who can read ahead in the script? Yeah, Tick Tock is that but not as good.

And arriving is Gypsy Moth, who has an awkward name and POWER OVER FIBERS. Also, she later changes her name to Skein, probably because her first one was awkward but Lymantria Dispar Dispar doesn't roll off the tongue and Spongy Moth (the new Entomological Society of America approved name) doesn't strike fear in her enemies. So I'll roll with the name Skein.

West Coast Avengers acquaintance the Shroud runs this group of lower case-m misfits but he's not here right now.

Skein flies in and reports that she's heard rumor that when Digger was shaking down the Calamari Brothers, Mockingbird the Avenger beat the crap out of him and arrested him!

Clearly, such an insult can't stand!

Night Shift debates finding out where Digger is being held and busting him out but Shroud told them not to cause fuss with the cops when he's not around.

Tatterdemalion proposes they all go beat the shit out of the Avengers. Sure, Shroud told them not to mess with the Avengers either. But he's not here right now, is he?

Dansen Macabre: "I agree, Tatterdemalion! And as deputy leader in the Shroud's absence, I say it is high time we taught those daylight glory-grabbers the lesson that all of the Los Angeles underworld has learned -- don't mess with the Night Shift!"

This is amazing, for really dumb reasons.

It will later be retconned in that Well Actually, Evil Parent Gang the Pride controlled the West Coast but that they laid low to not get grief from superheroes before they (the Pride) could destroy the world (which they didn't actually manage).

That means they were lying low while jokers like Night Shift were swaggering around claiming to own this town.

Big, serious no nonsense supervillains like the Pride having to hold their tongues in the face of these goobers! Its amazing.

Anyway, since Night Shift are clearly people who hold to Aesthetic over all else, they of course drive everywhere in hearses. The whole team piles into two hearses and drives to the West Coast Avengers Compound.

Since Tick Tock is reading ahead in the script, he directs Night Shift how to use their powers to confound the security system. Including having Skein disassemble the fiber optics. Power over fiber is scary.

Since the West Coast Avengers Compound is a bunch of buildings, Night Shift just picks the closest one to storm.

Unfortunately, it's the bungalow for the support staff and a returning Joachin Mendez and a newly introduced Yolanda Russo get taken hostage.

Yolanda hears the ruckus and manages to hit the alarm before the Werewolf OH YEAHS through her door.

The intruder alarm alarms, alarming Hawkeye who was napping on a couch, presumably in the monitor room.

Hawkeye puts out an AVENGERS ASSEMBLE on the intercom.

It wakes up Scarlet Witch and Vision. Vision goes off to see what's wrong, leaving Wanda with the children.

She worries that if there's actually a real problem, the West Coast Avengers might be in trouble. There's only four people on the team right now. Wonder Man isn't even at the compound because he had a Hollywood social function. Presumably to promote his movie. Which changed names apparently. There's a poster for Arkon IV: Barbarian Berserkers. But it was subtitled the Goblin Pit last time we got a title for it. Probably because the writer change.

So four person team. Wonder Man not here. Scarlet Witch left with the babies. That only leaves Hawkeye and Vision. A two-person... well team feels like the wrong word. A dynamic duo maybe.

Tick-Tock uses his clock powers to predict Vision is approaching and will beat up the Brothers Grimm if they use wacky weapons funny foam or exploding eggs.

The brothers user the twinkie-dust which somehow can congeal intangible Vision and force him to the ground.

Hawkeye tries to shoot flare arrow (flarrows) to light up the Brothers Grimm so he can shoot them with different arrows. But Skein unravels Hawkeye's bowstring.

The two heroes become surrounded by the entire Night Shift (minus Shroud and Digger, but, eh, semantics). Plus, Needle has Yolanda as a hostage!

Night Shift having a hostage doesn't seem to faze Hawkeye though. He hucks a adhesive arrowhead at Skein, gunking up her wings.

Unfortunately, Skein doesn't use her moth wings to actually fly. Its just Aesthetic.

She's holding herself up with her fabric telekinesis. And she demonstrates by yoinking Hawkeye up into the air by his costume. Which I have to imagine has wedgy-like characteristics.

Vision still can't intangible because of the twinkie-dust. And is soon set upon by Werewolf, Tatterdemalion, and Misft. And Hawkeye is being menaced by the Brothers Grimm.

So Vision uses SOLAR BEAM to evaporate the Brothers' magic clouds. They fall and WHUMMMP on the floor. And Hawkeye throws an explosive arrow to knock Misfit off Vision.

Teamwork! Or, hmm, duowork.

MEANWHILE, back at L.A., Mockingbird rejoins Moon Knight and Tigra in Moon Knight's Moonwing.

Mockingbird reports her Digger arrest to her two fellow Notvengers. And then starts thinking aloud.

Digger supposedly works on Night Shift for the Shroud. And Mockingbird can't figure that guy out.

Hawkeye offered membership to the Shroud once but the guy seems like a criminal. Mockingbird always told Hawkeye they needed to arrest the guy or help him clear his name. She just doesn't get why the West Coast Avengers never busted him!

I'm not sure why Hawkeye didn't tell the other Avengers what the deal is with Shroud. Seems a weird omission.

Anyway, Moon Knight knows that Night Shift operates out of the Tower of Shadows so he decides the Notvengers should find out what Shroud's deal is once and for all.

And its his Moonwing so....

Back at the fight, Skein threatens to drop Hawkeye from a hundred feet off the ground. And Dansen Macabre sexy dances at Vision despite his protestations that sexy-based attacks don't work on him because he's an artificial human.

BUT: HERE SHE COMES TO SAVE THE DAY!

Scarlet Witch: "Sure would be improbable if gravity went wild -- and one person were suddenly pulled to Earth at great speed -- while another floated down like a leaf! But improbabilities become realities when the Scarlet Witch is around!"

Yeah, since the West Coast Avengers have an actual staff, Wanda got Jorge to watch the kids so she could come help Vision and Hawkeye.

And then five seconds later, the Brothers Grimm throw magic beans which explode into giant cotton balls. Wanda gets trapped in the cotton with Skein manipulating the fibers so her arms are stuck at her side.

And Needle uses Paralyze Gaze to freeze Hawkeye from running to help Scarlet Witch.

Womp womp.

With the West Coast Avengers defeated, Dansen Macabre states Night Shift's demands.

They want:

Digger to be released by the police and all charges dropped.

That's it.

And if the WCA do this, then Night Shift will release their Yolanda hostage.

Hawkeye now has no idea what this is about. He has no idea who Digger is or why Night Shift would think the Avengers have anything to do with him.

A Brother Grimm tells Werewolf by Night to try to sniff out more Avengers. I mean, only three Avengers? That's not much of a team!

Meanwhile, with the Notvengers breaking into the Tower of Shadows.

They get a net dropped on them.

I mean, Tigra and Moon Knight can rip through it because its meant for more mundane intruders.

Also: apparently: Khonshu being in the driver's seat is not a secret anymore? Tigra references to him as "an Egyptian God in a man's bod" so.

After escaping the net, the Notvengers head down the spiral staircase towards the hideout.

Tigra comments that it doesn't smell like anyone's been here for about two hours.

Mockingbird says it figures that a group called the Night Shift would be working at night.

The Notvengers finds Night Shift's meeting room which helpfully has all their stolen loot on the table as well as a note from Dansen Macabre to the Shroud.

Basically just saying 'hey, we've gone to pick a fight with the West Coast Avengers, feel free to pitch in.'

Tigra suggests going to help the West Coast Avengers or at least calling and giving a heads-up.

Mockingbird suggests an alternate plan.

The Notvengers lay in wait for Night Shift to come back and Hawkeye can go fuck himself.

If he was happy leaving the gang alone to do their thing, then he can enjoy having a play date with them.

Also, this creepy mansion doesn't have a phone and cell phones aren't in wide use yet.

But one gets the sense that its mostly spite.

Back at the West Coast Avengers Compound, Hawkeye still has no fucking idea what Night Shift is talking about.

Of course, he's too paralyzed to say so.

Dansen Macabre tells Hawkeye that Night Shift is going to take off with their hostage so make sure to tell his wife to keep her nose out of Night Shift business.

And NOW Hawkeye understands.

Anyway, Wonder Man suddenly shows up to save the day.

Just plows through the entire Night Shift and saves Yolanda.

Tick Tock didn't predict this because... I guess his powers are based on eyesight?

Whatever, precog powers are broken anyway.

Wonder Man and Vision tear apart the cotton balls, freeing Scarlet Witch.

Misfit attacks Wonder Man both physically and emotionally by telling him his last movie sucked. Wonder Man ends up just punching the dude because he's strong but not Wonder Man strong.

That's the pattern. Wonder Man lets himself get beaten up for a while and then goes 'bee tee dubs, I've been sandbagging.'

Hawkeye throws some smoke arrowheads to blind Tick Tock and Werewolf-by-Night.

Vision punches out Needle and Tatterdemalion. They're basically normal dudes, in terms of their ability to take a punch. But Dansen Macabre dances and mesmerizes him. Despite his claims of immunity to sexy-based mind control.

Scarlet Witch locks down the Brothers Grimm and Skein by magicing their tricks back at them.

And for an encore, she goes and punches Dansen Macabre in the back of the head for sexy dancing at her husband.

That's her job, dammit!

Meanwhile, the Shroud arrives at the tower of Shadows and goes dammit the West Coast Avengers have broken into my sanctum and are touching my stuff! >=[

Tigra is specifically touching his itemized list of loot, which carefully spells out what criminals the loot was stolen from and how much.

Mockingbird quips that Night Shift is a "mob of monsters with M.B.A.'s."

Tigra then smells Shroud which means he can't just keep lurking watching them touch his stuff. So he switches right to spooky mode.

Shroud: "You have violated the inner sanctum of the Shroud! Speak your business at once!"

Mockingbird tells him to come out of the shadows because she doesn't like conversations with people she can't see. So Shroud just tells her to enjoy talking to herself and fucks off.

He managed to sense the note from Dansen Macabre so he's going to go bail out his team instead of talking to the people getting fingerprints on his things.

Back at the West Coast Avengers Compound, having turned the tables on Night Shift, the West Coast Avengers have sat them down in chairs and lectured them about how Mockingbird left the team and what she does doesn't reflect on them.

Seriously. Sat them down in a sullen little classroom setting.

This is amazing.

Wonder Man is confused by Hawkeye's tone of trying to reason with them when they attacked the Avengers. They're crooks. Aren't we going to send them to jail?

But the room is suddenly engulfed in darkness and Shroud tells Night Shift to skedaddle.

Hawkeye manages to pin Shroud with an arrow and get a moment to talk with him during the run away. But Shroud says they'll talk in the usual place in ten minutes.

So Hawkeye lets Night Shift get away. And tells the West Coast Avengers to not try to pursue. To their bafflement and annoyance.

The usual place is apparently the cliffs overlooking the ocean in the West Coast Avengers Compound. Make-Out Cliffs, since that's where Tigra and Moon Knight used to go to make out.

Hawkeye and Shroud don't make out though.

Shroud starts the conversation by going 'okay, none of this was my idea.'

And Hawkeye believes that but he suggests that maybe Shroud can't handle this fake crime-boss game he's playing and can't keep his dangerous gang under control. And if not, maybe he should quit.

Shroud escalates in kind going 'yeah, well you can't keep your wife in line AND she took half the team in the divorce.'

Hawkeye is just surprised that Shroud talked to Mockingbird. Shroud tells him that she's probably still at the Tower of Shadows and gives him the phone number.

BECAUSE THE SPOOKY MANSION HAD A PHONE, MOCKINGBIRD JUST DIDN'T LOOK HARD ENOUGH.

Anyway, contact her. Tell her to stop messing with Night Shift. And this nonsense won't happen again.

Hawkeye: "Know something, Shroudy? That criminal facade of ours is getting pretty shop-worn. I take it you're still not letting your gang know your true colors." Shroud: "Most of them. I still find my cover useful. You fight evil your way, I'll fight it mine. Agreed?" Hawkeye: "Yeah. I'm gonna have to let my troops know the truth about you and your operation, you know." Shroud: "I trust your judgement. Now... farewell."

Okay.

Shroud is pulling a Green Hornet. Infiltrating the underworld to undermine it from within.

Specifically, he's taken a bunch of villains that would otherwise be causing problems and redirected them to target other criminals.

It looks like a gang robbing other gangs but it keeps the real gangs from getting too powerful.

(And somehow the Shroud never learned about the Pride. I suspect the Pride weren't as influential as they claimed, honestly. Claiming they kept the West Coast free of overt villainy to superheroes would lose interest in it kinda ignores everything that ever happened on the West Coast in Marvel.)

Hawkeye has been enabling the Shroud by keeping the West Coast Avengers from going after him. And its not like they didn't have other stuff to occupy their time.

FOR SOME REASON, Hawkeye decided not to tell any of his team that Shroud was pulling a Green Hornet.

Not even his wife, Mockingbird.

When Hawkeye's claimed problem with cowboy manslaughter was that Mockingbird didn't trust him with it.

And he's keeping the Shroud's true motives secret from her for no fucking reason.

Fuck Hawkeye.

But also: probably because of the change in writer.

The Shroud batmans away from the conversation, to Hawkeye's annoyance.

To sync up with Avengers and to bring us right up to the Byrne era, next time is another West Coast Avengers. Let's tie off that dangling cowboy ghost plot thread.

When West Coast Avengers started, I never thought vengeful cowboy ghost would be one of the more long-lasting subplots but here we are.