It's a special Wednesday night review tonight! X here with the first issue of Marvel's latest event, the Age of Ultron. So a few facts before we get started. My all-time favorite comic storyline was the Age of Apocalypse. One of my favorite villains in all of comics is Ultron. In theory, blending the AOA with Ultron SHOULD be a dream storyline for me... Here's hoping that's exactly what we get here.
Age of Ultron #1(of 10):
Summary: This issue gets started right in the thick of a decimated Manhattan, with Hawkeye killing his way through a rundown building being run by some thugs whose numbers include the Owl and Hammerhead. After a mess of arrows through the throats of goons, Hawkeye comes across what he was looking for, Spider-Man. Hawkeye goes to rescue Spidey, but is pinned down by Owl and Hammerhead. To make matters worse, a battalion of Ultrons arrive on the scene and prepare to purge it of all human life. Owl goes outside to rant to the Ultrons that they had a deal, while Hawkeye and Spidey get as far away from the building as they can. Ultron blows the building and it's inhabitants up, while Hawkeye and Spidey use the cover to slink back to the downed SHIELD helicarrier. Once inside the two are attacked by Luke Cage and She-Hulk, while Tony Stark analyzes them to make sure Ultron hadn't infected them with any nanites or the like. Once the two are proven clean, Hawkeye rants about how the heroes had quit and let Ultron win. Iron Man says that's because they didn't have a plan yet, but that their leader was coming up with one. Their leader? Captain America, who was sitting slumped and defeated in the corner.
Thoughts: Ehhh... As I said in the intro, I really, REALLY want to like this storyline... This issue was okay, but not great. And I'm REALLY want great here. The heroes who were here were a bunch of Bendis's favorites(Luke Cage, Spider-Man) and I can't stand the way Bendis writes those characters... So yeah, that bugged me. On top of that, Bendis broke out his patented inane dialogue for this one. You know, when a bunch of characters are talking but not really saying anything at all. I was hoping we'd get the good Bendis who has been killing it with the X-books, but instead we got the Bendis who made the Avengers books such a chore to read. Again, I have to stress that I have very high hopes for this series, so I'm going to be a bit more nit-picky than usual. No explanation from anybody about how Ultron won, no appearance by a main Ultron Prime, no real Ultron action at all, which was a bit of a letdown. This was an okay start to this series, but I can't help but want better...
Score: 7 out of 10.
Since I'm not near my scanner yet, I don't have a picture ready to go... But I WILL have one in a few hours!
I was confused by this issue, for obvious reasons, but i expect answers soon. One thing was Peter seemed like Peter...and not like Dr. Peter, which was...interesting. Also, I figured you'd be upset about Hawkeye killing but hell, in a world like that It's kind of expected. I didn't expect to see a defeated Captain America though, that was something... so was seeing She-Hulk with short hair and Cage with hair period.
ReplyDeleteYes, thought the same thing about Peter. Which is interesting since Superior ties in to this storyline(and I think it's written by Gage!!!), so it HAS to be Doc Peter... Maybe Bendis didn't get the memo? I'm sure we'll talk a lot about this one later, mi amigo.
DeleteYeah, I was thinking that when Bendis started writing this, he may not have known about the Superior thing, so they'll probably explain it as Doc just doing his best impression of Pete or something, you can easily gloss over that. And yes, Gage IS doing Superior Spidey for AOU.
DeleteI am so happy that Gage is getting that issue... You don't even know! Or maybe you do... But yeah, that guy deserves something to write!
DeleteYeah, he definitely deserves a series, Avengers Academy proved that, I mean... it's kinda insane he doesn't have one and Hopeless and Bunn have a few each. But whatever, as long as we get some work from Gage, much like how DC only gives some work to Miller, It's better than nothing.
DeleteI totally had the same reaction. Like, OK, fine, but we need to get somewhere quickly here. I had the same response about Peter and also noted that Emma is no longer a wanted terrorist, given the magnitude of the devastation. I'm not entirely sure it was the right decision to just drop us in the story, given that a lot of stuff has clearly happened to get us to this point. But, we'll see. I also thought, to be honest, the action sequence was a little slow. Like, it should've been amazing, but I was just sort of "Meh" on it.
ReplyDeleteThis issue didn't even really have an event feel to it. For me anyway. It doesn't have the same feel of... unpredictability, I guess, that Fear Itself, AvX and Siege had. It kind of feels like just another story, which is not what I expected. Plus, no Ultron(a prime one!) OR Pym! On the plus side though, we still have a ways to go.
DeleteExcellent point on unpredictability. I totally agree and I think it's in part because it's not like we're really going to see New York devastated at the end of this series. Everything in this issue is somewhat built on the idea that you're going to be wowed by that, but, given that I automatically assume it'll be forgotten immediately at the conclusion of the event, wowed I was not.
DeleteExactly! The story is too big for it's own good. We all know this isn't going to stand. Like half the heroes are(presumably) dead, and (at the very least) New York is destroyed with thousands(millions?) dead... We all know that's going to get undone! House of M was grand in it's scale too, but, to me anyway, it felt more unpredictable. I mean, we knew the world would eventually get righted, but what about Wanda? Or Pietro and Magneto? Or characters like Hawkeye? For me, at this point(and I hope this changes), anytime something "big" happens, or somebody dies, I'm just gonna roll my eyes and wait for the retcon that almost definitely will be coming at the end of this story. I'm still hopeful here(it's Ultron!! and shades of AoA!), but I'm definitely dubious...
DeleteRight. I actually thought Remender's stuff with the Descendants in "Secret Avengers" was the perfect epic. I mean, you knew that not all of humanity was going to turn into robots, but it was unclear what sort of moral compromises the heroes were going to have to make to prevent it. Plus, it was a story whose effects were able to fade into the background, since no city was destroyed. Plus, a hero didn't die, but he did become (an actually much cooler) villainous version of himself. It made for great stuff. But, here, with the destroyed cities and the dead heroes, you know someone is just going to wave his hand and make it better. Plus, the only moral issue addressed is leaving heroes behind, but even that didn't really speak to me. We'll see where we go, I guess.
ReplyDelete