Secret Avengers #25:
Summary: Huh, I JUST read this comic and barely remember what happened at the beginning... That's the definition of a forgettable story! Anyway, I'll just go through this issue page by page in order to do a quick review... The original Human Torch manages to catch up to robot Miss America, who tells him the (supposed) origin of Robotland. Basically, three scientists wanted to recreate the original Torch. With some magic they succeeded in creating 20 human/robot hybrids. However, one of the scientists(the Father) wanted to create hundreds(thousands?) of these hybrids. The magic scientist(the Son) doesn't think that's wise, as the hybrids would compete with humanity(like mutantkind) and leaves. The third scientist(the Mother... Rick Remender wasn't feeling very creative here, was he?) decides to free the hybrids, at which time they head into the world with no clue they were half robot. The Father creates a bunch of robots, and bides his time, capturing the hybrids and any offspring they managed to have. Having some understanding of things now, the Torch heads for the Father's base, and is joined by Capt. Britain. Meanwhile, Venom joins the battle to assist Valkyrie, who is inexplicably playing the “damsel in distress” role here... Really? Eventually Hawkeye, Black Widow(who was still safeguarding the child the Secret Avengers went to Robotland to rescue), Beast and Ant-Man manage to meet up while the Torch and Capt. Britain are confronted by a Master Mold robot. The Torch flies into the sentinel's head and tells it to self-destruct in five minutes. With that, the Avengers all meet up and are about to leave when a robot stabs through the Torch's chest. The Secret Avengers take the Torch back to
Thoughts: Ugh, I hated that reveal at the end of this one... I'm not using the word “dislike” or saying I “wasn't fond of it”, I'm using the word HATE. Ant-Man as a secret robot(on the Secret Avengers... heh...) means a) Ant-Man is really dead(for now) and b) this storyline will continue... Yeah, since the Avengers never even bumped into the Father, it was obvious this story was going to pop up again... Still, if robot Ant-Man wasn't here MAYBE this storyline could have simply been dropped, never to see the light of day again. Ah well. On the plus side, while this comic was SUPER-forgettable, it wasn't horrible!
Score: 6 out of 10.
BOOOOOOO!!!
You know that this Father is the same Father Deapool killed in Uncanny X-Force wen they went into the World with Deatlock ant Fantomex?
ReplyDeleteI'm just curios to know why he is alive? Is a Robot Or what?
Yup, he actually mentions that in this issue, Alien. That it's the same guy. He says something about having been killed by Deadpool, but I don't remember if he goes into greater detail... See, again, I remember next to NOTHING about this issue! :D If you want I can pull this issue back out and reread that scene for you.
ReplyDeleteHAha Dont worry good X, since you didn't like this issue I'm not goint to force you to reread it (and if I remmember correctly from your reviews you did not enjoy that storyline in Uncanny X-Force either)
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised I like this storyline so much more than you do X! The alliance of all the myriad robots in the MarvelU has a very Matrix/Terminator feel to it that I really dig.
ReplyDeleteHA! Thanks, Alien. I wasn't looking forward to going through this one again! :D
ReplyDeleteYeah, but it's not really an alliance between the different robots/cyborgs/androids, TRobb... It's a bunch of second-hand knock-offs created by the Father to do his bidding. If the real Ultron, a real Doombot, the real Lady Deathstrike, etc, were joining forces, that would be an awesome story! Especially if they were all banded together and following Ultron as their leader(since that would make sense in an Avengers book). But as it is, they're all following a villain from X-Force, one that I barely remember, from a storyline that I originally didn't like... I def WANT to like this series(it has HAWKEYE!!), but so far no good...
...and I betray the fact that I haven't read either SA 24 or 25, alas. Did not know that the robots weren't the originals, but does that really matter if they're robots? It didn't seem like they were all subservient to "father," but again I'm not current. Maybe I'm missing out on some key elements, but hey, I liked the buildup at least in issues 21-23!
ReplyDeleteI thought this issue was better than the rest of the issues in this arc, which helped. But, I think you hit the nail on the head here, which, I think, is that it's still unclear to me what Remender wants us to think about Father. I mean, we're supposed to believe that he created the adaptoids, deathloks, and descendants, but what about the Doombots, Reavers, and Sentinels? Are we supposed to believe they're just copies of them, or are we supposed to believe that Father was somehow involved in their creation? I mean, that's a pretty huge retcon, particularly for the Doombots and the Sentinels. If they're really just replicas, then, like you say, X, it really reduces the impact of the story. I'm pretty sure, for example, Doom wouldn't take too kindly to the idea that Father has created himself a whole network of Doombots. Ditto the real Lady Deathstrike. So, although I thought the reveal about the descendants walking among us was interesting, the fact that he overreached and tries to include every mechanical "race" in the Marvel Universe really negated most of the cool of this arc for me.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was my main gripe with this story, and the Father in general, JW. He couldn't have been involved with the creation of the Sentinels(okay, maybe he could...), but there's NO WAY Dr. Doom wasn't the original creator of the Doombots. The Sentinels I can accept, but Doom is like 1b out of the smartest people in the Marvel U. He created a working time machine(!), I'm sure he was the first to create the Doombots, which makes me think all of the robots the Father was with were just a bunch of second rate knock-offs. If he has a knock-off Doombot there, it makes me think(fairly or not) all of his robots are just copies of the work of others.
ReplyDeleteI think this issue in particular had the robots more subservient to the Father, TRobb. The Miss America robot was openly feeding the original Torch misinformation(as per the Father's orders), and there was another robot(I don't want to say who if you didn't read it) was definitely following orders. The past two issues definitely showed that the robots may bicker amongst themselves, but the Father is definitely the guy with the final say.
My current take (having just read SA 24), is that the Emperor Doombot leads a rogue group of doombots (operating independently from doom), just as the sentinaught probably is doing the same for the sentinels. Winter Soldier shows that rogue doombots do exist and can be reprogrammed/manipulated. Their motives for obeying/following Father are unclear, hopefully it will be explained as Father's master plan is unveiled.
ReplyDeleteAh, okay. So the Father took in other robots(that he didn't make) and probably reprogrammed them to do his bidding. I'd buy into that. It makes more sense than the Father creating Doombots on his own.
ReplyDeleteYep. Looks like he's reprogramming the boy's mother too now, which could lead to an interesting encounter down the line.
ReplyDelete