Overall: This issue starts off with Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine(of course...)and Protector meeting up with Ultron in the near future. The same Ultron who will be responsible for the utter destruction of the Avengers down the road. Iron Man explains to Ultron that Kang the Conqueror will soon attack Ultron in order to defeat the being who defeated the Avengers, and that Kang would lose. Repeatedly. And in these losses, Kang would end up fracturing the timestream due to his continued abuse of it, destroying all of reality, which obviously would suck for the Avengers, but would suck for Ultron as well. Ultron is skeptical of Iron Man's story, and demands the time travel device Protector had created, so he could witness what the Avengers were talking about first hand. The Avengers refuse to let Ultron into the timestream, which causes Ultron to believe that the Avengers were trying to trick him, leading to Ultron attacking the team. The team goes purely on the defensive, with Iron Man literally begging Ultron to deliberately lose the war with Kang in order to save all of reality before leaving Ultron alone with his thoughts. A few moments later, Kang and a small army of heroes and villains appear out of the timestream and launch an attack on Ultron. Ultron easily shrugs off the combined might of Kang's forces, but suddenly decides to stop fighting, giving Kang the win and ending the war. Back in the present, the Avengers(Thor, Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Spider-Woman)watch in shock as all of the time related shockwaves cease and reality rights itself. The Avengers who spoke to Ultron return to Immortus, old Tony Stark and the Maestro where they learn that their chat with Ultron worked, and that the timestream had been saved. Old Tony pulls Iron Man aside and gives him some kind of device, warning him that when the time comes he must do whatever he can to stop Ultron, lest he wants to wind up a lonely old man. With that the Avengers leave, and Immortus turns on Old Tony and the Maestro, killing them both, before he himself is killed by the children of the Avengers, starting the chain of events that begun in Avengers #1... Man is time travel confusing...
Not bad, not bad at all. THIS is what the Avengers are supposed to be all about. Ultron, Kang, Iron Man, Thor, etc. THESE are the Avengers to me, not that weird bastardized version that's been running around the Marvel Universe for the past several years. Now if only Wolverine and Spider-Man would leave the team everything would be perfect and I'd be the happiest man alive! Story-wise, I have no complaints. Ultron is my favorite Avengers villain, and he was as bad-ass as I'd expect to see him here. His loss to Kang also didn't bother me because in the end Ultron made the only decision he COULD make, since if he won the battle, he would lose the war when reality imploded, something not even Ultron could survive. So not only was this story good, the seeds have been sown towards a future storyline in which Ultron will return and kill the Avengers. Sounds like good reading to me!
Score: 8 out of 10.
And here's reason #574 why you shouldn't mess with Ultron...
And here's reason #574 why you shouldn't mess with Ultron...
Wow, I can't wrap my head around that plot at all.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's my bad... This storyline isn't that hard to follow, which means I did a crumby job trying to explain it!
ReplyDeleteThe short form is that in the near future Ultron manages to kill all of the Avengers and destroy most of NYC as well. Kang, being an egotistical maniac, is miffed that it was Ultron who killed the Avengers and not him, and challenges Ultron to a battle. Kang loses and returns to the timestream, where he collects various heroes and villains and tells them that Ultron's threat is so great that they have to work together to defeat the mad robot.
Kang returns to the exact point in time where he challenged Ultron the first time and his forces lose again, leading to Kang heading back into the timestream to gather more heroes and villains. Kang loses. Again and again. But he continues trying and after a while he screws all of time up. Old Tony Stark(who was the lone Avenger to survive Ultron), the Maestro(future Hulk)and Immortus(future Kang)decide that they have to figure out a way to stop Kang, knowing that the only way Kang would cease his attacks on Ultron would be if Kang won. Old Tony, Maestro and Immortus get a few Avengers from the present, tell them of their plight and the Avengers are able to convince Ultron to throw the fight with Kang before all of reality was destroyed...
Whew! I hope that clears things up a little. Knowing me though, I probably left you even more confused now than you were before! :D
You did well both times my friend. I think it was the Kang/Immortus thing that got me. I hate the fact that they're the same being, and they're always messing themselves through the timeline.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like an interesting story, but I wish they had not started this Avengers series with a time travel type story.
Plus, "Protector"? I still can't get over that codename. Why not have Wolverine become "Fighter", and Tigra become "Hot Cat"?
Yeah, nothing is worse than when Kang and Immortus begin to battle each other, especially since they're the SAME PERSON!!! I mean, how does that make sense? Shouldn't Immortus know the outcome of any battle he has with his younger self since it already happened to him? Man does time travel hurt my brain... And Kello, I couldn't agree MORE about what a horrible name Protector is... As you may know, I'm a HUGE fan of Noh-Varr, and I'd much rather call him by his Kree name than by that dumb Protector name... I don't get why they don't just call him Capt. Marvel. The original isn't coming back, and niether of his kids are using the name. It's available, why not use it?
ReplyDelete