Synopsis
West Coast Avengers Vol.4 #6 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
There are multiple Ultrons around. 1 of them wants to do good and has joined the West Coast Avengers as 1 of their villains being rehabilitated. Another has started a cult which is giving people who want them cyborg bodies. The main Avengers team aren't happy about either of them, and they've abandoned complaining from a distance in favour of a personal visit.
But we begin by seeing more of what happened when Ultron applied for membership (building on what we were told in #4). The robot initially declined membership, saying he only wanted to register like heroes did in Civil War I, because the public would be afraid of him. Tony Stark persuaded him to join and make his operating system totally visible to him, including the ability for Tony to remotely monitor his activities via his sensors. Ultron suggested adding a kill switch but Stark said that wouldn't be necessary.
Some time later Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) popped in to see Stark sunbathing on his yacht off Catalina Island because he'd just informed her of the decision to induct Ultron. She knew she couldn't change his mind but wanted to register a protest. She thought this was 1 of his harebrained schemes (like Superhero Registration?) that would tear the Avengers apart. (But it will turn out he had a reason for running it past her.)
Now the West Coast and space-based Avengers teams are meeting (Iron Man is of course on both teams but he's siding with his WCA here). The visiting team are Captain America (Sam Wilson), Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Storm and Vision (Black Panther is still away since Av#20 helping the inhabitants of Meridian Diadem). Apart from IM and Ultron the WCA are Spider-Woman, War Machine and the rehabilitating supervillain Killerwatt/Blue Bolt/Wonder Man.
Vision repeats their opinion that working with (an) Ultron is dangerous. Stark repeats that Ultron has made his system fully open to examination, and he invites Vision to take a look. Vizh says they suspect the robot may have infected them, and now they want *him* to get infected too. Founders of this team Iron Man and War Machine remind them that this team is about redemption and Ultron wants to end the cycle of violence. And they have safeguards. Ulty adds that this is why he initially declined membership and he repeats the offer to let Vision examine his source code. Scarlet Witch vehemently rejects the offer of corrupting her ex-husband. SamCap suggests that he surrender and come with them, and Ultron agrees. But the armoured Tony Stark and James Rhodes object.
Chad Braxton leaps at the chance to start fighting and throws lightning at the Avengers. Storm of course steps in to counter Killerwatt/Wonder Man. He's ready to face the other lightning maker but she says she *is* the lightning, and he backs down. Vision asks Ultron to see things from his POV, and Ultron says he agrees with him. IM & WM are still ready with repulsor blasts until CA throws his shield at them. Ulty catches the shield and hands it back to him. Stark wants any examination of Ultron to be done here. Spider-Woman ends up facing Wanda Maximoff and admits she's outclassed when the Witch conjures paired portals which make Jessica Drew's hand fire a blast at herself. CM propels WM into the sky and Rhodey asks his ex-lover Carol Danvers how he can prove to her he's not controlled by Ultron. IM vs Cap completes the opposing pairs.
Ultron tells Vision he's reconsidered and thinks Tony Stark is right about any testing being done here. Vizh counters by wondering if Ulty needs to stay in Los Angeles to be near his brother-Ultron's cult. KW claims to Storm that they're evenly-matched in lightning and they should switch to a fist-fight. Without conceding his 1st point she agrees. He punches her in the mouth drawing blood, and then she double-punches him and knocks him out. Everybody else stops fighting as Vision agrees to merge with Ultron. We see a montage of memories because the robot hasn't airbrushed out any of *his* past misdeeds. Wanda's worried but V assures her that he's OK and in fact he's taken control of Ultron and could 'kill' him. Stark protests that the robot can be redeemed. Ulty tells him that he doesn't believe the synthezoid will harm him. But Vizh points out that if *he* can hack the robot's system then some villain could. Supposedly he demonstrates by making Ultron try to crush his windpipe while the robot begs him to stop. Of course the other Avengers can't tell whether it's really Ultron in control. But Vision reveals his underlying motive - he challenges Stark to show how he would stop such a hacked Ultron. Cursing Iron Man prepares to fire 1 of his weapons.
But we cut to a fashion gala where Janet Van Dyne apologises because she's about to be teleported away. She arrives at the destination shrunk to Wasp-size and pulls out a fancy gun ...
... and emerges flying from the muzzle of IM's 'gun' and zaps Ultron with *her* gun. Ultron collapses and she enlarges to tell Tony "I told you so" and prepares to fire again. But he hurriedly explains that Ultron hasn't gone rogue, he just needed to demonstrate his 'safeguard' to the Avengers. Stark explains that the 1st sting from the gun stunned the robot but the 2nd would have killed it. The robot in question complains that Tony had said a kill switch was unnecessary. Rhodes helps him up and admits that they lied, but tries to soften it by saying Tony has a history of lying to Avengers. Jan adds that it only worked as a fail-safe if the target didn't know about it. And Tony completes the thought by saying that now he *does*. Vision now agrees that this Ultron isn't the problem. The other Ultron *is* a problem, but so is Stark's wilful arrogance. The Avengers leave.
Spider-Woman helps Braxton back to awareness and soothes his ego by claiming that he hit Storm so hard that the other team gave up. But she also mentions that Tony has a gun that fires wasps with little guns. Tony apologises to Ulty but the robot flies off in a huff to meditate on this betrayal. Jan says she'll hang on to the gun and is then teleported away. Our team think it's all over ...
... but then Wonder Man (Simon Williams) *drops* in to complain about Chad Braxton changing his super-id (last issue) from Blue Bolt to Wonder Man.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Blue Bolt.