Sunday, December 1, 2024

I Enjoyed but Also Have One Quibble with, "West Coast Avengers," #1

I read the latest iteration of, "West Coast Avengers," by Gerry Duggan and Danny Kim, and quite enjoyed it! The debut issue features Tony Stark and an assortment of heroes (and reformed villains) working to help the Western end of the United States stay safe from danger. The West Coast Avengers comics have always had an interesting mish-mash of a cast from the days when it was Hawkeye's team in California, and this new series contains bigger names (Iron Man, Spider-Woman, War Machine) and random characters (Firestar, new addition Blue Bolt, a reformed Ultron). One thing slightly bugged me, however. You see, a potential villain is revealed at the issue's end, and...Ultron is up to no good.

The idea of taking a monster like Ultron and having him be a good guy now (due to events in some other mini-series) is a cool change to the usual formula, for real! The extra twist that he's still plotting destruction with, "The Gospel of Ultron," being advertised as coming in 2025 at the issue's end kind of ruins things. I mean, it is zero surprise for Ultron to be doing evil again--even if it is slightly different in the sense he seems to be fusing humans with machines (kind of like he used to be with Hank Pym) instead of outright wanting to kill all humans.

I don't mind Ultron being a baddie, but why would you solicit him as reformed and make a big deal out of it only to do an immediate rug-pull and declare, "Nope, he's going to be a problem!" It is my one quibble with the new series even if it leads to a cool story from this new, "Gospel," of that mischievous machine. It just could've been less obvious this was going to happen.

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