Colourist: Arthur Hesli, Letterer: Joe Caramagna
West Coast Avengers has been a delightful surprise since it began, with it's unique set-up of heroes trying to rehabilitate villains, and it's interesting team roster. This latest issue expands on two of these teammates in particular as we finally get an explanation as to why Tony and Rhoedy trust the apparently reformed Ultron, and we see more of the PTSD that Firestar is going through after the events of her time with Orchis.
Last issue we learned about 'The One', one of the four different Ultron's that exist now that Ultron has split his personality. The One has started a cult, a Church of Ultron, in which he's transforming humans into cyborgs with super powers. The West Coast Avengers are figuring out how to deal with that threat this issue, as well as internal conflict. And that's the main thrust of this issue, how this situation is affecting the team, and what it might mean for them going forwards. There's no real physical conflict to be found inside these pages, other than a small flashback, yet the book manages to be more entertaining than some of Marvel's recent 'blockbuster' books.
The first half of the issue reveals how Ultron gained the trust of the team's leaders, in a flashback that does seem to make this version of the villain trustworthy. You could argue that this is all a trick, that he played the odds and gambled on Tony deciding to trust him and believe his claims, but for the most part I do want this to be on the level. I'd like for this Ultron be actually want to be a hero, and whilst I know that even if that is the case it'll eventually get undone, I think him honestly trying to reform himself would be a much more interesting and rewarding story than it all being a villain plot.
Firestar, on the other hand, doesn't trust him, even after learning the truth. And for those that read the Krakoa saga that's absolutely understandable. Firestar was put in an awful situation, where she had to go undercover with a group that was actively causing the genocide of her people. A group that was being helmed by an evil AI. It's not hard to see why she can't trust Ultron here, and her reactions of drinking alcohol, lashing out at her teammates, and refusing to see things their way makes a lot of sense when you consider the fact that she's been through trauma.
This isn't just a meta reading of the text though, as Blue Bolt outright states this to her, telling her that she's going through PTSD. She denies this at first, but after he pushes the point she starts to see that perhaps he's right, that she may need to work through the trauma that she's still carrying before putting herself into a position where she's expected to go out and save the world; especially if that means having to work alongside, and fight, AI's. This was my favourite part of the book, I adored seeing how Angelica's journey post-Krakoa has been going, and her scenes with Blue Bolt might be the best moments in West Coast Avengers since the first issue. It feels like it's going to be a long journey for her to get to a place of healing, but when comics often ignore older stories in order to tell new ones the fact that it's been carried across this way is a delight; but considering that Gerry Duggan told that previous story it's not that surprising that he's still interested in exploring it here.
The book looks great too, and the art team of Danny Kim and Arthur Hesli do some great stuff throughout. The small action beats in the flashback look superb, and you get a great sense of the scale of destruction that happened in that moment. The new look for the heroic Ultron is pretty cool too, and has some very classic comic sensibilities to it that go well with Tony and Rhodey's armours at the moment. They also do a great job at humanising Firestar and Blue Bolt, both in showing her pain as well as his weirdly infectious joy in moments where you genuinely believe he's a decent guy underneath his gruff exterior.
I've said it before, but West Coast Avengers is a book that took me by surprise, but is by far my favourite Marvel team book at the moment, and I hope that it gets the attention that it deserves.
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