Marvel’s West Coast Avengers relaunch announcement came with a surprise addition to the line-up in Ultron, one of the Avengers greatest foes. He’ll be joined by one of their not-so-greatest foes in Blue Bolt, a new character created by Gerry Duggan and Danny Kim.
Chad Braxton, a.k.a. Blue Bolt, is a former henchman with “unrefined lightning-based abilities” who joins the team as part of a prison release program. “Reckless, undisciplined, and downright rude, Blue Bolt may just be the biggest jerk in the entire Marvel Universe,” Marvel.com says. Blue Bolt joins a long list of former villains who have joined the team, including Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Black Widow and Sandman, among others.
“The Avengers have seen a lot of rough customers over the years,” Duggan said. “Hell, even Deadpool and Wolverine have been Avengers at different points. But the Avengers haven’t seen a bigger @$!&^% than Blue Bolt. He’s mean, he’s self-centered, narcissistic, and he’s only on the Avengers West Coast squad to shave time off his sentence. And wait until you find out what he’s in jail for. Yeesh.”
Here’s a look at Kim’s design sheet for the character, which is also a variant cover for the first issue:
West Coast Avengers #1 will arrive in stores on Nov. 27.