West Coast Avengers (2024 run) # 2

By Mark Rodriguez

Tony and Rhodey decided to form a new West Coast Avengers team, this time with the idea of reforming former villains. Of the new recruits, Ultron is having a tough time convincing the world he's a good guy now, while Blue Bolt is just too reckless. Tony seeks out Firestorm, not knowing she has her own baggage. Elsewhere, another version of Ultron is forming his own cult, turning people into cyborgs.

The story opens west of Los Angeles as some bad guys fly a helicopter carrying a huge storage unit. Spider- Woman narrates that those guys are moving enough weapons to start a war. The bad guys notice that two things are following them. Spider-Woman has attached herself to the bottom of the storage unit for the last hour. She tells the Avengers that it was them following her that alerted the helicopter, not her. Iron Man he was worried.

Spider-Woman boards the chopper and fight with the men, as she asks them who the weapons are for. She approaches the pilots and aims her fingers at them. She tells them to land or she'll zap them both, which will knock them out and leave the chopper to its own devices. One of the men says she's bluffing, and tells the men waiting on deck that there's a single woman there and she can't take them all out. The helicopter lands and armed gunmen run towards it. Spider-Woman zaps the pilots and prepares to face the 'greeting party'.

 

 

Spider-Woman kicks one of the men out of the chopper and Iron Man catches him. Spider-Woman socks out one of the gunmen and uses him a human shield against the other, telling them to surrender. The men start to open fire, but Blue Bolt blasts them. Blue Bolt calls Spider-Woman sweetheart, which makes her sick.

War Machine studies the ship and says it was most likely stolen and re-purposed. Ultron says he detects several weapons and a superhuman. A voice calls out saying that Ultron and the rest are all trespassing. The voice says that they're on international waters and not welcome on his ship. Iron Man and War Machine recognize him as Flag Smasher. Iron Man calls him 'Stevil' and warns the crew that he might look like Captain America but he nearly handed HYDRA the keys to the country (during the Secret Empire story). Blue Bolt in particular is surprised to see him.

Flag Smasher tells his men to get the rats off his ship. The former HYDRA Cap leaps at the heroes, telling them that their old friends left a lot of andamantium skeletons lying around and he forged his batons out of the indestructible metal. He leaps into action and smacks War Machine back with his baton and backflips out of the way of one of Spider-Woman's blasts.

Iron Man warns the team that Flag Smasher can use those batons as well as Captain America can use his shield, as he gets hit by one of the batons too. The other baton flies out and hits Blue Bolt across the face. Both weapons return to the villain's hands as he says he now knows that his supply chain has been compromised.

Spider-Woman charges up her fist and says she doesn't need to pull her punches against Stevil Rogers, as she socks him across the face. Flag Smasher takes the hit well and says he goes by Grant Rogers these guys, and he loved a girl with some fight. Spider-Woman calls Blue Bolt 'the living taser' and tells him to help. Blue Bolt fires off a blast at Grant and says he doesn't know why she doesn't like him. Spider-Woman says she gets to talk to his parole board. Blue Bolt cusses her out.

Spider-Woman kicks Flag Smasher against a wall. The villain says this is a waste of time since he was exonerated in a court of law after victory over Krakoa Day. Spider-Woman doesn't want to heat it. Flag Smasher says he's also on the clock so he orders his Sovereign Sons to hit the Avengers where it hurts. One of his men fires off a bazooka towards a nearby cruise ship full of innocents.

Flag Smasher thanks the Avengers for showing him where his network was compromised. He says he things to do, while they have taxpayers to save. War Machine goes off to save the innocents but he says he will disable the ship engines so Flag Smasher can't get away. Flag Smasher looks at Blue Bolt and says he remembers him.

Blue Bolt used to follow Grant, until he pushed a bunch of good people off a cliff. He lost a tooth during a fight with Winter Soldier. Blue Bolt says he owes him a molar, but since the Ferretland Cruise is in trouble, they will settle the score another day. He warns him to sleep with one eye open.

Later on at the San Pedro port in LA, the ship is docked and the people are safe. Tony is angry that Blue Bolt called Flash Smasher 'Mr. Rogers'. Blue Bolt tells Tony that he's sick of him. Blue Bolt gives his card to one of the people he saved and tells him to make sure his parole board knows. Tony says it's too bad he didn't grow up being a fan of Iron Man. Blue Bolt says he was, until he found out he was more like Doctor Doom. He flies off saying he has to go return to jail while Tony can go eat sushi in Santa Monica. 

Ultron shows off, which scares off one of the people. War Machine asks if he's seen any signs of Flag Smasher. Ultron says the coast guard secured the ship but Flag Smasher and the weapons are gone. Iron Man asks if their team is even working. Ultron reminds him that that the point of doing good isn't to be rewarded for the attempt, but for the noble act of helping. War Machine says that was very good. Tony says he's glad they'll be getting some A-List hero back up soon. He says Firestar will be flying in any time now. However, we see that Firestar was sleeping as her car gets towed all the way to the West Coast Avengers building. She tells the driver to send the bill to Tony Stark. She will be getting into her work clothes.

Rhodes is reporting to the warden, who asks how Killerwatt is doing. Rhodes says that Tony forbade him from using that name as an Avenger, so he goes by Blue Bolt now. He says that he's rough around the edges but he's been effective. The warden says as the rate he's going, Blue Bolt won't be his problem anymore in half a year as he will have earned his parole. The warden says to keep up the good work but he says there are better candidates than Tommy Watt. Rhodes says they will get to them too.

Firestar arrives and says she wanted to bring her car to California with her, but it didn't want to cooperate. Tony shakes her hand and says it's good to see her. He notices something off with her handshake and asks if everything is ok. She says it is. Ultron re-introduces himself to her, which shocks Angelica. Angelica remembers when she was also recruited by Nimrod. Angelica angrily swats Ultron's hand away, telling him not to touch her. Ultron says he did not mean any distress. Angelica says he did as she bursts into flames. Tony tells her to calm down.

 

 

Angelica tells Tony not to tell her to calm down. She admits she has a thing against robots lately but she asks why they trust Ultron. Tony and Rhodes look at each other and say it's complicated but they do trust him. Angelica asks why she isn't trusted with that 'complicated story'. Spider-Woman says they all want to know, including Blue Bolt. Just then there is an earthquake and another Ultron appears on TV. 

The second Ultron apologizes for the earthquake but says sometimes to remake the world, one has to jostle it from its slumber. He offers prayer to the world and asks if they want to hear the Gospel of Ultron. He asks if humans and machines can accept each other. He says he looks forward to finding out together.

 

The West Coast Ultron says he doesn't know this other Ultron on the TV. Tony facepalms upon seeing this. Firestar flies off and says she quits. Spider-Woman is just dumbfounded. What will happen now?

My Thoughts-

So, I was not expecting to see Flag Smasher in this, or rather... HYDRA Cap. I heard some details of the Secret Empire storyline, mostly the tragic death of Black Widow (it still bugs me she's still dead and we're basically following a clone now). I didn't know the evil Captain America survived and continued causing trouble as a new super villain. He was quite the threat in this issue, and he got away as well. We also find out that the Sovereign Sons were working for him. We also find out that Blue Bolt followed him until he saw his true colors. Blue Bolt so far doesn't seem like a completely bad person, just overly violent. I mean, it shows something to his character that he felt Flag Smasher went too far and he stopped following him.

As for the team, the most noticeable thing is how Spider-Woman can't stand Blue Bolt. I'm assuming he's called her worse things than 'sweetheart' off-panel since she's even talking smack about him when he's not around. Due to Ultron's history with the Avengers, as well as being recently used by Nimrod, it make sense that Firestar would have trust issues. She just got there and already quit the team.

Of course, the Gospel Ultron making his appearance will make it even more difficult for Tony and Rhodes to convince the world that West Coast Ultron is a good guy. Speaking of which, we still need to find out where Tony and Rhodes got this version of Ultron. It's clear that those two are hiding something shady. It's just confusing since this Ultron does acknowledge his previous crimes.

Overall a good issue with good fight scenes, while showing that the team still needs a lot of work. Speaking of Blue Bolt comparing Iron Man to Doctor Doom.... that might happen a few years down the line when it comes to the MCU.

One thing that stood out was Spider-Woman using the term incel when fighting the bad guys. I'm not sure if this is the first time it's been mentioned in a Marvel comic, or DC comics while we're at it, but I do wish it was one of those internet buzzwords that would just stay on Twitter and Reddit. But then again, I assume Marvel and DC also used other internet buzzwords like 'w00t' and whatnot back during their heyday.