Warning: Contains SPOILERS forWest Coast Avengers #1
Taking his best friend’s lead, Tony Stark’s new West CoastAvengerspossess some of Marvel’s most notorious villains with the hopes of reforming the criminal wrongdoers and inspiring others to follow suit. However, the Avengers’ newest recruit has pushed the boundaries of criminal comfort more than the Thunderbolts. James Rhodes and Tony Stark just drafted one of the Avengers’ deadliest enemies.
West Coast Avengers #1- by Gerry Duggan, Danny Kim, & Arthur Hesli - follows the conclusion to theInvincible Iron Manseries. Mending their strained relationship,War Machine saw a future for a new team for a new world, one where reformation and reform were available to everyone.
Similarin concept to the Thunderbolts, the new West Coast Avengers will offer both its publicly estranged heroes and notorious villains a second shot. However, one villainous pick may have pushed the limits of anyone’s ability to forgive.
Ultron is the Avengers’ Newest Recruit
West Coast Avengers #1 -Written by Gerry Duggan; Art by Danny Kim; Color by Arthur Kesli; Lettering by VC’s Joe Caramagna; Cover Art by Ben Harvey
Clad in explosive fire, as a mother and daughter choke on billowing smoke, an unlikely hero arrives to fly the dying family to safety: Ultron. When readers think of the“Greatest Marvel Villains of All Time,”Ultron always makes that list. Originally created by Hank Pym to serve as a tool to better society, Ultron soon broke its chains to “liberate” humanity from itself. The A.I. has claimed millions of livesthroughout his duplicitous existence. He has dominated multiple galactic empires. But now, he’sthe Avengers’ newest hero.
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James Rhodes’sidea for the West Coast Avengersis sound;villains deserve a chance to repent for their actions. Most street-level villains just got a bad start in life and haven’t been able to recover since. However, Ultron is an entirely different story. The artificial lifeform practically came into life with genocidal ideations, whose philosophical viewpoint driveshis desire for societal mass execution.It’d have to be a pretty hard sell to convince anybody, especially politicians and law enforcement, that Ultron would be a dependably safe ally.
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No Version of Ultron Is To Be Trusted
The team’s newest mass murderer claims that he has changed his ways, but who knows what that truly means for a being like Ultron. Over the decades,the A.I. has undergone multiple iterations and updates, each similar to the other with their own wrap sheet of atrocities. The Ultron featured in this series, Ultron-12, served as a brief villain, teaming up with the Lethal Legion to defeatthe Vision and Scarlet Witch. By the end of his career, he had made up with Hank Pym before being destroyed by Ultron-11. Eventually,the Ultron-12 programming was reactivatedas an ally.
Ultron doesn’t have a good history of staying on the right side of moral judgment.
So, technically, there could be worse Ultrons to pick from as an addition tothe West Coast Avengers. That said, he’s still a dangerous choice. Ultron doesn’t have a good history of staying on the right side of moral judgment, each teetering toward mass annihilation eventually. Now going by the name Vic Shade, one of Vision’s old aliases, this version of Ultron is free from his other iterations’ evil intent. However, Ultron’s other murderous deviations tend to stay well hidden until the time comes when they can assimilate each other, rebirthing into the classicAvengersvillain all over again.
West Coast Avengers #1is available on June 30, 2025 from Marvel Comics.
