Marvel’s New Avengers Team Assembles With a Major Villain in Their Ranks

The West Coast Avengers are getting a major upgrade. 40 years after the Vision spun off the Avengers with a California-based expansion team in 1984’s West Coast Avengers #1, Earth’s mightiest heroes are reassembling in a new series by Gerry Duggan (X-Men) and Danny Kim (Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance). The new West Coast division of the Avengers — Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Tigra, Wonder Man, and Iron Man II (secretly Jim Rhodes) — eventually expanded their ranks with Tony Stark (in his Silver Centurion armor) and Hank Pym, a founding Avenger and the creator of one of Avengers’ archfoes: Ultron.

Now, in the team’s first series since 2019, Iron Man and War Machine will form the new West Coast Avengers: with Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), the mutant Firestar (Angelica Jones), the lightning-charged Blue Bolt (Chad Braxton), and the mysteriously reformed supervillain Ultron in their ranks as they offer former villains a path toward redemption.

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But just as the new hero Ultron is born, a new evil Ultron will battle the West Coast Avengers in the first arc (previewed below).

“Redemption has been on my mind this year, and we’ll see who can be redeemed on the West Coast. It’s a fun action story, but it’s also an Ultron tale —and one of my biggest Marvel swings yet,” Duggan said. “I previously had the pleasure of writing a pretty great horror story about Ultron wearing Pym’s face, and this is a very different tale with one of my favorite Marvel characters, in one of my favorite legacy titles in the city that has been my home for so long. Wait until you see what Danny Kim is cooking up. Find redemption in November in the city of Angels.”

On sale Nov. 27, West Coast Avengers (Volume 4) #1 sees Ultron saving civilians from the Sovereign Sons terrorist group. When a woman mistakes the former killer robot for Iron Man, Ultron says: “I recently have changed my ways.”

“It’s not the usual roster, and if it works, maybe we’ll have fewer villains to fight down the line,” says Stark, who revealed he was secretly forming the new West Coast Avengers with Rhodey in the Duggan-penned Invincible Iron Man #20. “Our newest recruit is out there saving lives. And he’s not anybody I ever imagined I’d be fighting alongside.”

Meanwhile, drones attack Stark as he rummages through a storage unit from his last stint in Los Angeles. He finds a briefcase containing the silver-and-red Silver Centurion armor (which he famously wore during the Armor Wars storyline in the ’80s), but fans will have to wait until the issue hits stands to see Stark suit up in the throwback to Iron Man’s West Coast Avengers era.

The preview pages reference the events of Spencer Ackerman and Julius Ohta’s Iron Man #1, where Justine Hammer took control of Stark’s antimagic metal mysterium armor as the new Iron Monger. Seizing control of his company with Roxxon and A.I.M., Stark’s enemies infected his armor with magical A.I.M. malware to kick off the Stark-Roxxon War in which the armored Avenger dons the new Improvised Iron Man Armor.

West Coast Avengers #1

ULTRON RETURNS…REDEEMED? Iron Man and War Machine have put together a new team of Avengers – one that includes villains seeking a path to redemption. Their case study? Ultron – who, against all odds, seems to be walking the straight and narrow…for now. But does the success of one guarantee the success of all? Spider-Woman and Firestar have their doubts. And can any amount of heroics really absolve Ultron of his past?

On sale: Nov. 27, 2024

West Coast Avengers #2

NEW MEMBER: FIRESTAR FLAMES OUT! Firestar officially joins the West Coast Avengers! But the plan for her to mentor redeemed villains like Ultron and newcomer Blue Bolt collapses when it becomes clear she’s seeking redemption of her own. Her time undercover with ORCHIS left scars and made her a pariah. Can the West Coast Avengers stop her downward spiral?

On sale: Dec. 25, 2024

West Coast Avengers #3

As a second Ultron appears and declares himself leader of a terrifying new religion, Iron Man and War Machine reveal at last how their Ultron became a hero!

On sale: Jan. 29, 2025

West Coast Avengers #4

SPARKS FLY! A troubled Firestar and the newest and least-tested member of the West Coast Avengers, Blue Bolt, make an unexpected connection – but will this volatile romance strengthen the team or burn it down?