West Coast Avengers #19 Lost in
Space-Time, Part 3: The Times of Their Lives!
Published:
April 1987
Writer: Steve
Englehart Penciler: Al Milgrom Cover Artist: Al Milgrom
Hawkeye, Iron Man, Tigra, and Wonder Man end up in the
Arizona region of 1776 and Clint is in the midst of panic at Phantom Rider
grabbing Mockingbird away at the last second, stranding her 100 years in the
future. The others calm him down reminding him that Bobbi can take care of
herself and that their best hope is reaching their destination to get a
properly functioning time machine and then rescue her without time as an issue.
Before they can worry about that, they're ambushed by a cavalry of Spanish soldiers.
During the ensuing battle, Wonder Man pulls a stunt of
grabbing a bunch of the soldiers' guns and crushing them in his invulnerable
arms, but this causes an explosion that the not-so-invulnerable Hawkeye gets
caught up in, injuring him badly.
The Avengers flee to a nearby cave, but not unseen. A
Spanish missionary named Carlotta Valdez follows them and offers them medicine,
bearing no ill will to them despite the assumption that they represent English
spies. Hawkeye starts to recognize Carlotta and her stories as the woman from
Firebird's vision, and upon questioning she reveals she has had similar visions
of Firebird/Espirita and of people that looked much like the Avengers. Hawkeye
doesn't want to tell her everything he knows, particularly about how Firebird's
vision suggests she's going to die, but he gets an idea of how to take
advantage of meeting with Bonita's ancestor. He breaks off the head of an
inkjet arrow to write a message on a shred of cloth: "Bonita -- We are
lost in time. Contact FF. Tell them we're trying for Rama-Tut's Egypt.
--Hawkeye", and has Carlotta keep the message somewhere safe.
In 1876, as chance would have it in the same cave, Phantom
Rider brews a special Comanche herbal potion to administer to the unconscious
Mockingbird, so when she awakes, she forgets all about who she was and only
knows that she loves the Rider as much as he loves her. Rawhide Kid and Two-Gun
Kid are tracking him down to bring him to justice, but now with Mockingbird on
his side, Phantom Rider defeats them.
As Slade and Bobbi prepare to head out to a new hiding
place, Bobbi trips on the discarded old inkjet arrowhead in the cave and feels
something is familiar about it. She decides to keep it as a souvenir.
And back in the present, Espirita gets Hank to work through
his depression by having him demonstrate the use of his Pym Particles, which
starts to remind him of the stimulation he finds in science.
As they call it a day, they walk by Bonita's family bible,
which she brought with her from home on her visit to the WCA compound. As they
pass by, they fail to notice the cloth sticking out of the pages with a certain
message written in English.
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