Age of Ultron #4(of 10):
Summary: This issue gets started with Vision telling Luke Cage that Ultron wasn't actually around, that he was controlling Vision(and his Ultron droids) from the future. For spilling the beans, Vision is jolted as punishment. She-Hulk, who was conscious the whole time, hops off of Luke's shoulders and chucks Luke out of Ultron's ship, telling him to inform the others of what he had learned. She-Hulk is soon killed by a blast in the ear. As for Luke, a horde of Ultron droids follow him and detonate in a nuclear explosion. Meanwhile, Black Widow and Moon Knight learn of Nick Fury's top secret, "What to do if the world ends due to Ultron" plans... The plans apparently say to head to the Savage Land. Rulk kills Taskmaster and takes the Ultron tech Tasky had gotten, and also heads to the Savage Land... For some reason... As for the main group of heroes, they too head for the Savage Land. Upon arriving, Cap's group is met by Ka-zar, who takes them to his village. When they get there, Emma senses Luke Cage(really?!), and Luke mentally informs Emma of what he was told by Vision. Luke then dies. From there, Cap's group meets up with Widow, Moon Knight and Rulk, and they begin to talk strategy.
Thoughts: Wow, this was pretty bad! For me, this was a HUGE step back from the last issue. I mean, come on, She-Hulk dies from a blast to the ear, but Luke Cage survives a NUCLEAR EXPLOSION, flies from New York to the Savage Land(in a Quinjet!), and hangs on to life until Cap's group arrives? And THEN he dies!? I know Bendis has always had a soft spot for Luke, but this was all sorts of ridiculous. From there, Widow and MK find Nick Fury's "In case of the end of the world!" plans, which seem to be, "Go back in time and obliterate the threat!" If Nick dreamed up these plans, and had a way of enacting them(which it seems, or why else would Widow and MK head to the Savage Land), then why wouldn't Nick himself have done this himself years ago?! And why the hell did Rulk head to the Savage Land?? I'll even overlook how Rulk got to the Savage Land, but why would he go there? And if three separate groups of heroes figured to go to the Savage Land, why wouldn't Ultron be keeping an eye on that place? Especially if he's hanging out in the future? Yeah, I didn't like this issue at all. I'm going to hope this was a one issue blip, and things go back to normal next issue.
Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.
If Luke Cage was blasted like that, you know he would have shrugged it off!
They made some big deal that this wasn't an alternate universe but we all know there was some gimmick. Guess we now know they are going to rewrite history. But, if they do that won't that make this story an alternate universe?
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Jermox. I don't even have anything else to add! You're 100% right.
DeleteYes, exactly. Like, if they wipe out Ultron, won't a lot change? I remember reading somewhere that there's some sort of mid-series event that changes the tone, but I can't figure out what that would be at this point.
DeleteTotally agree. The Red Hulk randomly killing Taskmaster (despite having no other allies and Taskmaster doing exactly what they agreed that he should do) and then somehow intuitively knowing that he should go to the Savage Land was the moment where I was like, "Editor? Anyone? Is anyone reading these before they go to the printer?"
ReplyDeleteThe Nick Fury bit was also ridiculous. Even if I'm willing to concede that he probably had that plan, Marc and Natasha find it just in time to make it to the Savage Land with all the other heroes. Plus, like you said, isn't Ultron watching? How the Hell did they make it to Antarctica?
But, I'm willing to just view this as a transition issue if Bendis recovers. He really seems to be building to the fight in "Avengers" #6, with Kang leading the forces. Since Kang appears on the cover of "Uncanny Avengers" #8 AU, I'm starting to get excited. Fingers crossed that this issue was bad just because Bendis had to rush to get everyone together.
Ugh, this issue was so bad... It actually made me remember why I hated Bendis on Avengers... He needs to get away the Avengers line of books for a very, VERY long time. The Taskmaster bit was ridiculous, if Fury had this grand plan, I don't get why he wouldn't enact it himself, everybody magically getting to the Savage Land so Luke could die, it was all so bad!
DeleteI'm also hoping this was just a transition/move the pieces type of issue, but with Bendis's track record, I'm starting to worry...
I totally had the same response. After how awesome "All-New X-Men" and "Uncanny X-Men" have been, I was wondering if we hadn't been too harsh on him. Then, I read this and was like, "Oh, right. No, he really does suck writing the Avengers." [Sigh.]
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