West Coast Avengers #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWest Coast Avengers #4 (Vol. 4, cover-dated April 2025) is a pivotal character study within Gerry Duggan's redemption-focused relaunch of the franchise, using a single issue to reframe two of its most volatile personalities — Firestar and Blue Bolt — through unexpected emotional intimacy. The issue introduces the first romantic connection between Firestar (Angelica Jones) and Blue Bolt (Tommy Watt, a.k.a. Killerwatt), a pairing that functions as both interpersonal drama and a structural stress-test for a team already strained by the presence of a supposedly benevolent Ultron. For Firestar, it represents the most sustained exploration of her post-Orchis psychological fallout since Duggan first seeded that arc in his X-Men run, cementing his tenure on the character as the most spotlight-heavy she has received in decades. The issue also includes a major expository flashback detailing Iron Man and War Machine's first encounter with this redemption-arc iteration of Ultron, filling in a key gap in the series' larger 'Gospel of Ultron' mythology.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The fourth volume of West Coast Avengers was launched in November 2024 by writer Gerry Duggan and artist Danny Kim, growing directly out of Duggan's preceding run on Invincible Iron Man, where the seed of a villain-rehabilitation program was first planted by Jim Rhodes. The series was edited by Alanna Smith under editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski, and lettered by Joe Caramagna, with Arthur Hesli on colors. Issue #4 arrived in shops on February 26, 2025, and notably also functions as a thematic sequel to Duggan's X-Men work — Firestar's trauma at the hands of the anti-mutant organization Orchis, established during the Krakoa era, is the emotional engine of her arc in this volume.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written by Gerry Duggan, art by Danny Kim, colors by Arthur Hesli, letters by VC's Joe Caramagna; main cover by Ben Harvey. Released February 26, 2025 (cover-dated April 2025).
- First appearance of Shradram the Breaker, an alien antagonist who appears only in flashback and dies within this single issue, per the Marvel Database character index.
- The issue's central flashback depicts the first in-continuity encounter between Iron Man, War Machine, and the benevolent iteration of Ultron, providing the narrative backstory for how this version of Ultron came to join the West Coast Avengers.
- Firestar and Blue Bolt share their first romantic moment — an impulsive, half-drunk kiss — during an aerial conversation about Firestar's Orchis-related PTSD, establishing the 'volatile romance' that becomes a recurring subplot through the series.
- Blue Bolt's real name is Tommy Watt; his former villain alias is Killerwatt. The name 'Blue Bolt' was assigned to him by Tony Stark as a condition of his prison work-release program — a detail confirmed by Duggan in a pre-series interview.
- Firestar's characterization in this issue — depicting her as struggling with alcoholism and post-traumatic distress — is a direct continuation of her trajectory in Duggan's X-Men run, where she served as a double agent against Orchis.
- The issue shipped with five cover variants: a main cover by Ben Harvey, variants by Anand Ramcheron, Nao Fuji (themed 'Torch!'), and two Mark Brooks 'Animated-Style' covers (standard and virgin 1:50 retailer incentive), plus a 1:25 Marco Mastrazzo variant.
- West Coast Avengers Vol. 4 ran for ten issues total (January–October 2025), concluding as a finished volume; issues 1–4 were collected in the first trade paperback, West Coast Avengers Vol. 1: The Gospel of Ultron.
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Reprinted in West Coast Avengers #1 (2025)
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