West Coast Avengers [2024] #9 - Marvel Comics

WEST COAST AVENGERS No. 9, September 2025

Containing an enthralling and rather convincing fight back from the very brink of disaster by its titular characters, few fans would debatably believe that Issue Nine of “West Coast Avengers” would surprisingly prove to be the comic’s penultimate instalment. True, Gerry Duggan’s twenty-page plot does admittedly contain a few moments which probably didn’t land all that well with his audience – such as Simon Williams donning the ill-fitting attire of a local car valet after his own costume was literally fried to pieces. But overall this book contains a number of well-written moments which show just how much the roster has grown into a super-team.

Foremost of these ‘arcs’ is most certainly that of the Blue Bolt, who despite being repeatedly shot and risking the cold-blooded murder of his father, still desperately attempts to live up to the words (and expectations) of War Machine. The reformed villain is shown to repeatedly demonstrate the Whackos’ core values, and even finds the time to remind the reader of his criminal past by making the odd joke about now needing to “get to a non-extradition country” following his recent prison break.

Similarly as persuasive though has to be how Spider-Woman quite wonderfully manages to hold things together just long enough to give (good) Ultron a chance to challenge his utterly mad, mechanical brother. So many lesser writers would probably have had Jessica Drew somehow shift the large concrete slab away from her injured comrades-in-arms. However, in this publication it’s clear the “former unofficial member of Heroes for Hire” is already at the very limit of her super-strength, and needs additional help if she is to successfully extract herself from a mountain of rubble; “Spider-Woman to the Avengers broadcasting blind -- I need help! Can anyone hear me?”

Sadly, Danny Kim’s layouts don’t do all that good a job in selling parts of this comic’s adrenaline-fuelled action sequences. Jessica’s aforementioned plight is very well pencilled, with the illustrator really capturing both the physical and emotional strain on the face of poor Drew. Yet by the time this book ends, the artist appears to be rushing through each panel at tremendous speed, disappointingly providing the likes of Jim Rhodes and Tony Stark with some disconcertingly amateurish facial features.

The regular cover art of "WEST COAST AVENGERS" #9 by Josemaria Casanovas