Ultron, a villain, is one of the West Coast Avengers’ heroes. They should have seen a hero as one of their villains coming. Your Major Spoilers review of West Coast Avengers #5 from Marvel Comics awaits!

WEST COAST AVENGERS #5

Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Danny Kim
Colorist: Arthur Hesu
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Editor: Alanna Smith
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 12, 2025

Previously in West Coast Avengers: It’s the return of Flag-Smasher! (But nobody’s happy about it.) Steve Rogers’ dark double takes on the West Coast Avengers, and he’s out for blood.

Can Iron Man and War Machine’s ragtag team survive a villain who nearly conquered the whole world?

THE CHURCH OF WHO, NOW?

Tony Stark’s latest experiment isn’t going all that well. Blue Bolt is an arrogant jerk, Spider-Woman isn’t sure the team is going to work out, and the prime Avengers squad thinks he’s out of his mind. Oh, and his newest Avenger, Ultron, has a counterpart who has literally created a church in his name, converting the sick and the lost into converts of his message. When the team gets an anonymous tip that Flag-Smasher (the evil Steve Rogers created by a renegade cosmic cube for Secret Empire a few years ago) is targeting a government weapons convoy, they think they’re finally getting a break. The battle goes well for the team, so well that they capture the ersatz Captain America and send him off to prison easily. Maybe even too easily, Iron Man worries. Before he can worry about that, though, Firestar reveals that she has been abusing alcohol and needs to go to a rehab facility. When Blue Bolt argues that he wants to use his preferred super cognomen, Killerwatt, Iron Man is so overwhelmed that he tells the new guy to just pick something that doesn’t include “killer,” leading the new kid to announce to the assembled press his new hero name: WONDER MAN!

THIS BODES BADLY

Simon Williams, the established Wonder Man, appears in these pages, indicating that he’s going to come and deal with that problem. Of course, the arrival of the other Avengers to deal with the Ultron-compromised Iron Man is a bigger problem. From my point of view, this issue actually tries to do TOO much, trying to give us moments with as many characters as possible, which makes even the successful ones feel less significant. Firestar’s maybe-romance with Blue Bolt/Killerwatt/Wonder Man II is fun, as is the running gag where Iron Man hangs up on The Avengers, refusing to explain what’s up with Ultron.

From an art perspective, Danny Kim gives this issue a lot of heart and handles the action quite well. The cinematic aspects of Flag-Smasher’s attack are undeniable, and he does good technology, which is a must in a team that features Iron Man, War Machine, and Ultron. On the downside, his human faces also feel a little square and chunky, which can be an issue.

BOTTOM LINE: A FUN LITTLE BOOK

The biggest plus for West Coast Avengers #5 is that it feels like a classic Avengers story, with multiple plots simmering in multiple places, but the transitions between them aren’t entirely pulled off, with the final product earning a better-than-average 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. The common problem with Marvel’s team books, the feeling that none of this will matter in five or twelve issues, is still in play here, especially given that the last West Coast Avengers mini-series was barely a year and a half ago, and Ultron got an entirely different new status quo in Avengers Inc. just last year.

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