Iron Man has been on almost every Avengers roster, but his newest team stretches the concept of Earth's Mightiest Heroes further than ever. Featuring not just surprise heroes but unexpected villains old and new, this new team promises to continue not just the lineage of the Avengers, but also the multi-series stories being told by their most recent writers.

Via ‘Marvel's Biggest Jerk’ Blue Bolt. Duggan also provides the first look at Danny Kim's unlettered art. As Duggan explains

Ultron's past is an obvious concern, and Blue Bolt's future seems a mess. He's got all the makings of a great Spider-Man rogue - not an Avenger. The concept of the team is going to put redemption and rehabilitation to the test.

The West Coast Avengers are a classic team, and as the typical ‘b-team’ often include even more misfits than the main Avengers roster. Alongside the villainous cohort, this new incarnation of the team includes Iron Man, War Machine, Spider-Woman and Firestar, all of various Avengers teams in the past.

The New West Coast Avengers Debut Roster Including Ultron

West Coast Avengers #1 by Gerry Duggan and Danny Kim

Ultron’s role on this team is especially fascinating, as the character has gone through some major changes in the last decade. 2015’s Avengers: Rage of Ultron saw the villain merge with his creator, Hank Pym, becoming a new version still committed to evil. This Ultron battled various heroes for the next several years, including in Duggan’s Infinity Countdown event, before being shunted into the future in several stories by writer Al Ewing. Ewing then secretly brought Ultron back in the miniseries Avengers Inc., where he became the amnesiac Victor Shade, unaware he was Ultron.

Luckily, Hank Pym had prepared for Ultron’s reemergence, basing the 'Victor' personality on Mark-12, a heroic Ultron from the original West Coast Avengers in the 1980s. This personality overpowered the evil Ultron, purging the villain from his system. It seems likely then that this is the heroic Ultron of Duggan’s new West Coast team. The other team villain is newcomer ‘Blue Bolt’, a former villain henchman who’s likely named after the original Blue Bolt, a character introduced by Captain America co-creator Joe Simon in 1940.

West Coast Avengers Hand-Picks Duggan's Past Characters

The Writer Gets to Continue Torturing Tony Stark & X-Men's Firestar

This roster is also a chance for Duggan to return to characters that he’s helped to define over the last several years such as Iron Man, War Machine and Firestar. Duggan wrote Invincible Iron Man (2023), which intersected with his other major series of the time, X-Men (2021), which heavily featured Firestar. The issue's preview shows Firestar drinking despondently at a bar, suggesting that Duggan’s not done putting her through the emotional ringer just yet. What Duggan has left to say about Tony Stark though will be interesting to see now that Tony’s not in the X-Men's orbit anymore.

West Coast Avengers has long been a way for Marvel to take a radically different approach to Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and Iron Man's decision to recruit a team of former villains and damaged heroes speaks to this goal. While West Coast Avengers will undeniably tell a new story that welcomes new readers, it will also be rewarding for longtime fans to see Duggan revisit characters like Iron Man and Firestar who he's done so much to define in recent years.

West Coast Avengers #1 releases November 27 from Marvel Comics

Source: CBR