A Fan-Favorite Hero Is Leaving the Avengers for the Best Reason Ever

One of Marvel's greatest heroes is leaving the rest of her team, and the reason couldn't possibly be better.

Following an explosive encounter with the latest Flag-Smasher, Grant Rogers, the eponymous heroes of West Coast Avengers #5 take the time to regroup and recuperate from the fight. Unfortunately, the battle did more than leave Firestar with a few new bruises, it opened her eyes to the fact that she simply cannot continue on in her current condition. With that, the iconic mutant hero is finally willing to admit that she is indeed an alcoholic, and the only way she will ever get better is to check herself into rehab.

West Coast Avengers #4

• Written by GERRY DUGGAN
• Art by DANNY KIM
• Colors by ARTHUR HESLI
• Letters by VC's JOE CARAMAGNA
• Design by JAY BOWEN and KAT WALKINGTON
• Main cover art by BEN HARVEY
• Variant covers by LUCIANO VECCHIO, JAN BAZALDUA & EDGAR DELGADO, and TODD NAUCK & RACHELLE ROSENBERG

Created by John Romita Sr., Rick Hoberg, and Dennis Marks for the 1981 Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends animated series, Angelica Jones, aka Firestar, is one of Marvel's most underrated mutant heroes by far. Over the course of her comic book career, which kicked off in 1985's Uncanny X-Men #193 by Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr., Firestar has been a prominent member of numerous superhero teams. Among the most important of these was her time with the X-Men, or rather Orchis, the latter of whom she served under as a double-agent for the former during the war for the future of Krakoa and mutantkind.

While Firestar played a key role in the war against Orchis, her experience left her with some truly deep-seated emotional and mental scars. Apart from being treated as a traitor by the rest of mutantkind for the majority of Marvel Comics' Fall of X, the torment she suffered under Orchis' watch very nearly broke Firestar completely. As such, she turned to drinking as a coping mechanism, which quickly snowballed into a case of full-blown alcoholism.

Luckily for Firestar, she has plenty of teammates who are more than willing to accommodate and support her however they can. The most obvious of these might be Blue Bolt, formerly Killerwatt, a reformed villain who has found a fast and fiery romance with Firestar. Even better than that, Firestar also has Tony Stark looking out for her, whose own experiences with alcoholism have come to be one of the most indelible and defining aspects of his character.

West Coast Avengers #5 is available now from Marvel Comics.

Source: Marvel Comics