West Coast Avengers has been a fun take on a dysfunctional Avengers team with one of the most eclectic lineups, including Ultron as a team member. His inclusion becomes a major problem in West Coast Avengers #6 as the official Avengers take issue with him being on the team. It’s a good-guys-vs.-good-guys issue fight comic with plenty of talk about dysfunction thrown in.
West Coast Avengers #6 opens with Ultron testing out swearing to fit in with humans. It’s awkward and strange, which War Machine and Iron Man fully admit. The idea is that Ultron is fully open with Tony to the point where his own code can be shut down, which is a major factor throughout the issue. Writer Gerry Duggan then cleverly throws in a flashback page, which pays off near the end of the issue.
From there, the issue takes us to the present with the Avengers (Captain Marvel, Captain America, Storm, Scarlet Witch, and Vision) confronting Iron Man and his West Coast Avengers. Their main issue is obvious, even to Ultron, since the villain has been capable of so much damage in the past. That includes Vision losing control of himself, which immediately comes up, and Scarlet Witch nips it in the bud.
I love how Spider-Woman is riding Ultron.
Credit: Marvel
What’s so compelling about the confrontation isn’t the fight scenes, though they’re super fun thanks to the use of Spider-Woman and solid art by Ton Lima. It’s that Ultron is completely transparent and clearly wants to prove he’s a good guy now, but still, the Avengers won’t accept it. You feel for Ultron, especially when something big is revealed that Tony did. We’re six issues in, and the complexity of Ultron and his inability to win over hearts continues to be interesting.
Lima and color artist Arthur Hesli keep things interesting for fight comic fans. Storm fans won’t want to miss this issue, for instance, and props to a major Avenger popping in with streaky color choices to stop the fight dead in its tracks. It’s always impressive when characters like Ultron, who can’t really express themselves, do so in a comic. Lima does a great job with Iron Man, who is mostly in his suit, yet his mask says so much.
As for gripes, the usual hero vs. hero tropes are in full effect here. The confrontation with Vision and Ultron boiling over is also a bit confusing, possibly on purpose. Ultron is gripping him by the throat, but there isn’t enough information to know if Ultron is glitching, angry, or what. It’s likely a hint that he can break bad, but there isn’t enough there to really know for sure.
West Coast Avengers #6 delivers a mix of action and emotional stakes, using Ultron’s ongoing quest for redemption to ground a bombastic superhero brawl. It has moments of being a flashy fight comic with familiar tropes at work, with some narrative ambiguity that holds it back a touch.
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