West Coast Avengers (2025 series) #7

Last issue, after a confrontation with the Avengers over the Ultrons currently in Los Angeles, ended with Iron Man Tony Stark refusing to let Blue Bolt go back to his villain name Killerwatt so he publicly opted for Wonder Man instead. And then Wonder Man (Simon Williams) turned up demanding his name back. Now Bolt says it was just the 1st name he thought of ...

... and we learn why in flashback. His drunk and abusive dad's favourite hero was Wondy and he didn't appreciate his young son Tommy breaking his expensive action figure of him. He threw the kid out of their trailer into pouring rain. Which is when the boy' mutant superpower 1st manifested and called down lightning to strike the trailer and set it on fire. Mr Watt came out blaming God and slapped his son again. Tommy Watt told him to back off or he might get hit by lightning again.

Blue Bolt relates some of this background, and the movie star is mollified somewhat to learn of Watt senior's fan worship. But not so much that he's a mutie-hating abusive drunk. War Machine (James Rhodes) is glad to see him and asks him to stick around. Simon admits that (like the Avengers) he's worried about the multiple Ultrons here. (Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) is in the background in this scene, completing the current lineup. Alcoholic Firestar (Angelica Jones) is in rehab and the 'good' Ultron quit last issue when he found out that Stark had arranged a 'killswitch' in case he turned rogue.)

But now we look in on the 'cathedral' of the other LA-resident Ultron who is heading a cult of humans dying of uncurable diseases who he has given cyborg bodies. It's visited by yet another Ultron, this 1 with soot black armour wreathed in flames, who's not at all pleased with this development. He stalks through the building calling out his brother to face him. And en route he rips pieces off cyborgs he encounters and moulds the bits into links in a chain he carries.

Meanwhile Blue Bolt phones Angel in rehab to update her with news. She says "Hi" to Simon who appears at his shoulder and asks him for a 'chat'. As Tony and Rhodey work on their armours, Jessica heads out on a sky-cycle to find out why her undercover agent in Ultron's church isn't responding.

Meanotherwhile Ultron's acolytes are fleeing from the fire-spewing new Ultron who handily summarises his position. After the multiple Ultrons were created on the Moon and decided to go their own ways, he chose to fly *very* close to the Sun and has returned as Ultron The Scorched. Like the other new Ultrons he thinks that the continual war against humans was wrong. But unlike the other 2 we've met he hasn't decided to help or save them. He just thinks they're insignificant and irrelevant, but he objects to them being made metal in his image. However they're obviously not that irrelevant because every 1 he kills and adds to his chain makes him more powerful.

The silver-winged Ultron known as The One now attacks him and urges his followers to flee. They battle and a wing slashes the ebon Ultron's throat open, but he repairs it. He blasts back and an explosion rips through the side of the building ...

... which Spider-Woman sees as she approaches. Leaving the cycle on hover she asks her team for backup before entering the cathedral. Inside she's met by her cyborg agent Meredith Love who tells her what's going on. They move in to discover a now-giant black Ultron tearing the god-Ultron to pieces. And a blast sends them flying backwards.

Blue Bolt, Iron Man and Wonder Man are flying under their own powers to get rehabilitating villain BB back to prison before curfew. IM gets SW's message and heads off to investigate, and the other 2 decide there's time to drop in on Tommy's dad. It makes Watt senior's day to meet his hero. Simon tells him he's got a good son, and the seemingly-reformed father admits that he wasn't a good dad but hopes they can patch things up. Tommy's not ready for that yet.

As they fly away Simon asks him how he qualified for the WCA rehabilitation program. Tommy says he was a follower of Steve Rogers in the Secret Empire event, but he stood against him when he realised he was an evil copy. Wondy admits that he was part of the Masters Of Evil once (original Avengers #9) before joining the good team. Then he drops him off at the prison.

Inside the prison Watt discovers he has a new cell-mate Flag-Smasher (the evil Steve Rogers) who he helped put away (#5). FS takes revenge with a gut-punch and tells him he's going to have to decide which side he's really on.