When Vision was the chairman of the Avengers he petitioned the U.S. government to approve the establishment of a second team of active Avengers to be based on the West Coast. Getting official clearance, the Vision appointed Hawkeye to be the new team's chairman and sent him to Los Angeles, California, to set up a base of operations. The Avengers opened the second headquarters at Avengers Compound, manned by both Avengers veterans and new recruits. The western roster was led first and longest by Hawkeye, but the expansion team gradually deteriorated under later leaders and was shut down after major losses of resources and personnel.
Early adventures established the West Coast team as slightly more irreverent than their East Coast counterparts, taking upon themselves the nickname 'Wackos'. This period saw the mental deterioration of Henry Pym, who was helping the team as a scientific adviser. Pym suffered a nervous breakdown and became suicidal.
The team became stranded in the past, its members separated in various historic eras within the Marvel Universe. While most of the team was caught in ancient Egypt, Mockingbird was held captive in the Wild West by the Phantom Rider, who used amnesiac drugs to convince her that she was his lover. Parallel to this adventure ran the salvation of Henry Pym, and his return to heroics. Moon Knight helped rescue the team, and he and Pym accepted invitations to join the team.
The adventure in time left repercussions for the team to deal with. Mockingbird and Hawkeye separated after he discovered she had allowed the Phantom Rider to fall to his death because of personal reasons, and the rift was exacerbated when she proved instrumental in a plot by several world governments to abduct and dismantle the Vision for his near takeover of the world. The Vision was reassembled, but his personality was largely a blank, emotionless state. Wonder Man, who as the Vision's "twin" also harbored feelings for the Scarlet Witch, refused to serve as a template for his brother's thoughts again. The original Human Torch was also revived, leading to doubts as to what the Vision actually was. The Human Torch later joined the Team. Later recruits included Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) and Living Lightning.
After the events of "Operation: Galactic Storm" Hawkeye reassumed his Goliath identity temporarily, during which time he and Mockingbird managed to reconcile. Iron Man and Wonder Man left the team, and War Machine and Darkhawk joined, the latter as a reservist.
Shortly after an attack on the base by Ultron the East Coast team convened a meeting with the West Coast branch to discuss the future of the team. It was voted on and decided that due to an ever-changing membership, in-fighting among the members and attacks on the Compound it had proven too costly to maintain a separate branch of Avengers and the team was to be folded back into the East Coast branch. However, several members of the West Coast team, including Iron Man, were unhappy with this decision, and resigned from the Avengers entirely. They went on to form the new Force Works.
