The chaos continues in West Coast Avengers #3 as the most dysfunctional team in Marvel’s roster faces mounting challenges and unresolved tensions. After their shaky debut and a disastrous mission in the previous issue, the team’s dynamics are as explosive as ever, with Firestar’s fresh trauma and no-nonsense attitude adding fuel to the fire. With a rival Ultron appearing to have created a new religion and cyborg followers, can the team get on the same page for once and beat such a formidable threat?
If you’re at all interested in Ultron or his origins, you’ll need to read West Coast Avengers #3. The issue opens with a great montage flashback of Ultron’s creation, which leads to new information regarding how Ultron went from one robot to many. This effectively explains how there’s an Ultron on the team and a rival Ultron creating a new religion.
From there, the story picks up where we left off with the religious Ultron, who goes by The One and offers humanity a new way of living. He’s promptly blasted by Blue Bolt with tons of electricity. Great teamwork, Blue Bolt! After Tony quips about Blue Bolt getting blasted back being not such a big deal, we get an action shot of War Machine, Iron Man, Firestar, Ultron, and Spider-Woman readying for battle.
Great opening page.
Credit: Marvel
Overall, there’s clever, nuanced character work going on in this action scene, showing how Gerry Duggan has a great handle on superhero storytelling. From Firestar burning The One’s goons to Blue Bolt acting as the bonehead, you can see this team needs a lot of work. The team also parts ways in interesting ways, making the next issue primed for each member to show up.
From there, we get an intriguing scene with the new Illuminati. That includes Emma Frost, Mr. Fantastic, and Blue Marvel, to name a few. Simply having this team meet shows how serious it is The One is recruiting new members. It also sets up the fact that a lesser team like the West Coast Avengers may be our only hope.
As far as art, Danny Kim is up and down, though it’s mostly way up. There are great bits of action, the opening montage and Ultron backstory are clean and easy to follow, and when The One takes out his own goon, it’s pretty awful to look at. On the other hand, the full-page splash of the West Coast Avengers lacks detail and is quite rough, as if it were rushed. Some panels feel awkwardly placed in layouts here and there as well. It’s odd, since the book can look great one second but then throw you off the next.
West Coast Avengers #3 keeps the series’ offbeat charm alive with engaging character work, solid humor, and an intriguing setup for the rival Ultron conflict. While the inconsistent artwork occasionally distracts from the narrative, the issue effectively blends action and drama, keeping readers invested in this chaotic team’s journey. With higher stakes and a fractured team, the series sets up an exciting future, even if the West Coast Avengers remain far from polished heroes.
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