Age of Uh.. Part One

a review of "Age of Ultron"

The 10 part (and then some) "epic" has come to a close. I think from the title I've given this review you can maybe guess how I feel about this series. Did I think it was bad? no. Did I think it good? parts were. But over all it could have been so much better. These series by now mean drifted into Brightest Day territory of suckiness. Of all the ages Marvel has had over the years this one isn't so great. Will it be fondly remember years on down the road? Who knows! We are not here to decide that. We are here to have this thing reviewed!

But before we get into the series it's self let's talk a bit about why did I even buy the darn thing & all it's tie in issues (there are about as many tie in issues as their issues of the series it's self). I like alternate universes. The first series I really ever got into was What If, Marvel's anthology series that started way back in the 70's. It has been going on & off since then (it's coming back this year for a 4 issue alternate look of Avengers Vs. X-Men)!  I own every issue of Exiles (that's about 130 issues which you put all the issues from the 3 series together). 

SIDE NOTE: Exiles is the only series I've sent a letter to & it even got it printed! :)

I'll pretty much buy/at least look most things that involve alternate timelines, alternate histories, alternate whatever. It's one of my things. Age of Ultron also ties into another thing I like in my comics: time travel, something I did not know was going to be a part of this age until a few issues in. I have boxes upon boxes filled with comics that share a basic premiss to Age of Ultron. Some of done better. Some are not. Some are done just as well. 

Enough backstory, let's get this review going!

The year is 2011, It's November: Marvel puts out an over priced "anthology" book hoping to hype you up about a few different things coming to a comic book store near you! When I reviewed said book on my blog almost 2 years ago one of the things that I actually though looked cool was the preview for Age of Ultron. It seemed right in my wheelhouse. I was onboard. Then we get a whole year of pretty much nothing but I was till onboard! 

It's now 2013, It's March & the 1st issue of Age of Ultron finally arrives. It's arrives in all its shiny cover glory. I think that this was much the first time I've seen a "metallic" cover since that type of covers' heyday back in the mid 90's.  It is of a higher quality then the ones from the 90's. But yeah it's a gimmick. They want you to buy the comic so they make it stand out from the other comics on the shelf. So they make it shiny, people like shiny objects. One good thing: It's a gimmick you don't have to pay extra. The scene shown does not happen in the issue or anywhere in the series. It heavily hinted that such a scene may have happened before the events of Issue #1 but we never get to see it. You have to wait until the end of the series to get anything near that scene to happen.

We open the book up & you get a slightly altered, not so shiny version of the cover. So… a seemingly wasted page. We flip past a car ad (1 of the 4 ads in the issue) to read:

Hank Pym of The Avengers created the artificial intelligence known as Ultron. 

It hates humanity… and It has returned…

Yes. For like the 12th, 25th, 100th, 1000th time! I'm not sure how many times Ultron has returned but he's done that before. It's kind of his thing. Maybe it's in his programing to do so. 

Run Program: C://settings/my documents/Destroy_Humanity.doc. Program Fail. Abort. Retry.

One of my favorite times Ultron that returned was when he took over the body & armor of Iron Man. After doing that, he remade Iron Man to look like a silver colored naked lady. A naked version of his father's ex-wife. yeah… that was awesome.

We flip the page & we have an establishing 2 page piece of art that showing us that everything sucks! There is a large techno-dome thingy built up over/on top of Manhattan island. I actually tried to explain this scene to someone when the issue came out & I couldn't figure out the right words so here in this review you get "techno-dome thingy" which I think is better then what I used when I tried to explain it. In the foreground we have a partially destroyed Statue of Liberty. I guess the Cloverfeild monster must of come by earlier.

We get another 2 page spread of nicely detailed destruction (I will say this about Bryan Hitch's art: he does do detail nicely).  After establishing the hell out of how sucky things are in New York, we meet up with Hawkeye for the first action scene & six pages into the comic: our first page with speech balloons.  Hawkeye breaks his way into a building. Once inside he comes upon a room of drug dealers. 

What are they dealing? Mutant Growth Hormones. They only say MGH in the book. I know this might be a nerdy nit pick but they could had an asterisk by MGH & have an small editor's box box telling what that stood for. They don't need to go into what it is since people might be able to tell from the name it's a drug & how it's being used. But then they might of assumed that since your reading this event comic that you already know what it is so they bypassed all that "explain" stuff. Something that seems to happen a lot in this series. 

Hawkeye being who he is breaks up the deal going down. We get a few panels of action. Then we find out why he's there: He's on a mission. What kind of mission? A rescue mission! 

What Hawkeye has been doing on the ground floor has brought him to the attention of the other people in the building. A few people who run by a hidden Hawkeye to check out what's going on. As they run by, one thinks it might be Thor. Another says it can't be Thor since he's not around anymore (which could mean he's dead or just chilling out in Asgard: never really established). Also in the building are 2 super villains: Hammerhead & The Owl. They might be the only 2 villains besides Ultron to even be in the whole series. Hammerhead brings up that "if it's one of them we can sell him to the big guy" & that an Avenger gets him a lot of "free passes". We find out what he means by that later on.

So the villains & their gang load up their oversized guns to go see who is in the building. We get another action scene with Hawkeye taking out a few more people as he make his way down to the basement where he finds a beaten, battered & bruised Spider-Man. He's unmasked, tied to a chair & his costume is ripped (why rip only his shirt? His pants & boots are completely unripped. I don't know). Hawkeye unties him & gives him a pill (which is never explain what it is, Spidey does question it shortly before ingesting it. The pill is red so maybe he's helping Spidey escape The Matrix).

The villains find them in the basement & start firing their massive guns down at them. Then everything starts to shake & we cut to outside with a bunch of Ultron looking robots flying in doing their best Sentinel impressions. The Owl comments about that Ultron had been paid off or so he though. The shaking & general confusion on why it's happening give Spider-Man & Hawkeye enough of a distraction to get out of the building. 

In regards about the shaking: it's never really explained why it's happening. Yes it's from the Ultron Bots but given their size they shouldn't be making that much noise to make everything shake like you see. Maybe they just like playing Dubstep as they fly in? Maybe the contruction of the building is just really poor?

The Owl goes outside to yell at the incoming robots. He claims that he paid & that they had an understanding. The heroes get out of the building as The Owl is still yelling about the deal that they had set up but the bots don't seem to care. The Ultrons surround the building & do their best Care Bear Stare by shooting some kind of energy beam at the building. There is a 1 minute countdown clock & then BOOM! No more building. The heroes managed to get away unexploded. The villains probably not (Hammerhead is last seen inside & the Owl is just outside). 

Why the Ultron bots showed up & blew the building up is not explained. The Ultrons do make a statement that "all humanoid lifeforms are to exit the premises. Immediately." That is all they say. They say it once, they don't repeat it. They don't say why they are. The Sentinels at least tell you why they are their. Most times at least twice. Sometimes the Sentinels won't shut up! But no these robots just fly in, tell you leave. Then go about their business of shooting lasers at your house & blowing it up. I guess they fly away afterwards since we don't see them leave & they don't follow the heroes.

Back to our heroes, Spider-Man thanks Hawkeye for the rescue. He then asks about if there are any others. Hawkeye says their isn't enough & the heroes runs off. To where? The downed SHEILD Hellicarrier which has "landed" in Central Park. The heroes make their way in & then are attacked by She-Hulk & Luke Cage. Hawkeye is told that he should have not come back because "if you left, you left" Then Iron Man in the finest in Tron: Legacy fashion walks out to administer a test. He places a techno gizmo over their bodies to see if they have been "infected" by Ultron. The test makes your skeleton glow through your skin for a few seconds. They are not infected anything but might have the early stages of cancer now. 

We go further into the Hellicarrier & see more of who is left. Mostly Avengers (most of the characters in Age of Ultron are Avengers of some kind), some X-Men & half of the Fantastic Four. There is conversation between Iron Man & Hawkeye about what is going on. Hawkeye brings up if they have a plan, Iron Man says they don't have one yet. Hawkeye asks if someone has come up with one yet. Iron Man replies "he's working on it" then we turn the page to see a sad Captain America. His suit is all torn up, he is sitting in a corner & head is down. A shattered piece of his shield is beside him (the exactly same piece of shield he is shown having on the cover).

This is where we end the issue & what do we have? Not much.

But that is ok for a first issue: It has set the stage (a stage that won't be used much but we'll get to that later). The look of the place is established & some of the other characters are established. I'm not sure I really like the final page. Why is it Captain America? Yeah. He's a major hero & would most likely be distraught over what has happened as we have seen in times past. But why him? I think it would have made more sense for it to be Hank Pym. The book starts with telling us that Hank made Ultron. Then it shows us that Ultron taken over the world (at least New York City). So… it's Hank's "fault" that Ultron exists. Without him no Ultron, no Ultron no situation they find themselves in (something that is brought up later in the series). Also having Hank there at the end of Issue 1 makes more since given how he is used in the later part of the series. And would at least bring him into the series early on & not just have him show up part of the way through.

We go further down the rabbit hole next issue with the introduction of one of the major unexplained plot points that even after 10 issue I still don't full understand. Mostly because they never fully explain it which is something that will only get worse as the series progresses. I may need to make charts.

Until next time: Stay Jazzy Everyone!

- Brian