West Coast Avengers #3
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWest Coast Avengers Vol. 4 #3 is the narrative pivot of Gerry Duggan's 'Gospel of Ultron' arc, delivering the first in-continuity origin explanation for how one instance of the Ultron life-form became genuinely heroic — a storytelling conceit with no clear precedent in the character's six-decade history. The issue also marks the first appearance of the reformed Illuminati iteration composed of Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Mister Fantastic, Blue Marvel, and Emma Frost, a line-up that would carry weight across multiple 2025 Marvel titles. By putting a ragtag, morally compromised team of Avengers — including a convicted henchman and a mass-murdering robot — as Earth's best hope against a techno-religious cult, Duggan uses the issue to push the franchise's long-running redemption theme into genuinely uncomfortable territory.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Volume 4 of West Coast Avengers grew directly out of Gerry Duggan's preceding Iron Man run, where the idea of Tony Stark and Jim Rhodes using a super-team as a villain rehabilitation program was first floated. Duggan and artist Danny Kim — whose design for Blue Bolt was previewed publicly in September 2024 ahead of the series' November 2024 launch — built the series around the 'Gospel of Ultron' storyline from issue one, with #3 serving as part three of that opening arc. Editor Alanna Smith and associate editor Danny Khazem oversaw the issue, with Arthur Hesli on colors and Joe Caramagna lettering, under editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published January 29, 2025 (cover-dated March 2025); written by Gerry Duggan, penciled and inked by Danny Kim, colored by Arthur Hesli, lettered by Joe Caramagna.
- Third chapter of the 'Gospel of Ultron' arc (West Coast Avengers Vol. 4), which ran across the series' first five issues.
- First appearance of the new Illuminati configuration in this series: Iron Man convenes Doctor Strange, Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), Blue Marvel (Adam Brashear), and Emma Frost to address the threat posed by the rival Ultron cult leader known as 'The One' — all of whom reject his plan.
- Issue delivers the first extended in-universe origin account of how the team's heroic Ultron diverged from the broader Ultron life-form, explaining the existence of multiple simultaneous Ultron entities as the result of Ultron continuously splitting itself after separating from Hank Pym.
- The antagonist 'The One' — a rogue Ultron variant who leads a techno-religious movement called the Gospel of Ultron and offers humanity 'metamorphosis' through cybernetic conversion — is a central figure introduced in this arc.
- Blue Bolt (real name listed as Thomas/Tommy Watt in Marvel Database character credits for this issue), a brand-new Marvel character debuted in West Coast Avengers #1 as a work-release prisoner with unrefined electricity-based powers, plays an active role in the battle against The One's forces.
- Carries multiple variant covers: a standard cover by Ben Harvey, a 1:25 incentive George Pérez variant, a Matteo Lolli variant, a Paco Diaz Captain America/Sam Wilson Homage variant, and a Paco Medina Fantastic Four Homage variant.
- The first five issues of Vol. 4 — including this issue — were collected in the trade paperback West Coast Avengers Vol. 1: The Gospel of Ultron (ISBN 9781302960339).
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Reprinted in West Coast Avengers #1 (2025)
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