Age of Uh... Part Five

A Review of "Age of Ultron"

Last Time in the Age of Ultron: Stuff went down! We found out that The Vision we've been seeing in the past few issues isn't actually in control of himself but is actually being controlled by Ultron … from THE FUTURE!!!!! We see Luke Cage being a B.A.M.F. but sadly he dies off panel at the end of the issue. This marking the second issue in a row to have a black guy die in it. The 3 pockets of heroes around the the U.S. (New York, Chicago & San Francisco) have all made their way down to The Savage Land in Antartica. The journey to the Savage Land is summed up in a text box that for some reason took 1 whole page to tell us about.

Let's see how the last issue before the major redirection the series takes goes…

On the cover we see our heroes all rushing towards something. Can't really tell where they are. The background isn't well defined. Sort of looks like they are in an urban area but they all left the urban areas last issue. 

4 odd things about how people are dressed on this cover: 

- Wolverine is not wearing the costume he's been wearing in the series, it's is similar to the one he wears in other books Marvel puts out currently.

- Iron Man has his suit on. He hasn't had on at all in the series but the coloring remind me of Mainframe from the book A-Next but I doubt that's who it is. :C

- Moon Knight has his full costume, something he hasn't had on in the series. This costume is different from the costume he was wearing on the cover of Issue 2.

- Black Widow's suit is the color purple & not the normal black. I can get beyond that it's a coloring error but this is the second cover with Black Widow on that does not have the scar tissue around her eye that she has in the series. The other cover has the suit color purple but it was a darker shade of purple.

Did Bryan Hitch, the artist for the series up to this point, just forget what people looked like in the series or did he just put them in their recognizable costumes for the cover to help "sell" the book?

Another thing the guy at the center of the cover: The Red Hulk. Why is he here? Not that he can't be in the series but why him & not… oh… I don't know…. The Hulk? He's not in the series anywhere. She-Hulk is but Red She-Hulk is not. It seems a bit odd to include one & not the other. I sort of prefer the Red She-Hulk over the normal green She-Hulk but I don't mind seeing either. But with the Red Hulk it seems like you'd "sell" more books with the green Hulk, he does have the bigger fan base & is the one in The Avengers movie.

Enough about the cover, on to the recap page:

Years ago, founding Avenger Henry Pym invented the artificial intelligence known as Ultron. Once Ultron became sentient, he dedicated his existence to destroying humanity. The Avengers foiled his every attempt, but some predicted that with his continuous evolution, Ultron would one day overcome his foes.

Many are dead. Latest to fall were Luke Cage and She-Hulk, whose mission to infiltrate Ultron's operation went horribly wrong. Before his death, Cage flew to the Savage Land, where the Earth's surviving heroes have gathered. As Emma Frost read his dying thoughts he revealed what he had learned: Ultron is overseeing this destruction from the future using The Vision as his conduit. Black Widow, Moon Knight and Red Hulk have also come to the Savage Land with a plan of their own, a hail mary play care of Nick Fury.

The first paragraph is similar to the one from issue 4 & my comments about that one still stands. I am still bummed about the change from "human condition" to "humanity". Also Ultron "dedicated his existence to destroying humanity" could have been avoided. How? Hank Pym could not have freaked the hell out when Ultron became sentient but then I probably would have done that also if I hadn't expected the robot I was working on to call me "daddy".

The phrase "Earth's surviving heroes" is contradicted by the tie in issues for this series. I will be getting to the tie in issues. I have them all & have some thoughts on them. I might review a few of them next time since it will be a good stopping point for the series. Also, they are a bit more vague on how many have died in this recap (last time they said millions had died).

We flip the page & start the issue a few "months ago" as the caption box tells us. Here in issue 5 we get the first appearance of Hank Pym (in his Wasp costume) & maybe the only appearance of Reed Richards (wearing the suit he did when Hitch was the artist during Mark Millar's run on Fantastic Four). This isn't a few months ago, it's a few years ago. 

We find Pym, Richards & Tony Stark all in a lab somewhere with a sleeping/dead Vision on a table. This seen takes place sometime after the Avengers Dissembled storyline (a storyline written by Age of Ultron writer Brian Michael Bendis. The Vision had "died" in that storyline & was ripped in half by the Scarlet Witch).  Hank is looking over the body of The Vision in amazement. He comments he's never been able to recreate anything like The Vision. Pym goes on to say that everyone thinks he "created" Ultron but he "only planted the seed" but much of what Ultron became was of Ultron's own creation.

The conversation goes back to The Vision & how to get him back up and running. They talk about how he should have repaired himself. That he should be back & running but he isn't. There is a comment made by Pym that foreshadows where we going with the rest of the series "Sometimes I fantasize about going back in time and telling myself to never create Ultron."

Richards comments about fantasizing about going back & being nicer to Victor Von Doom when they were in college together. Pym continues that if Ultron wasn't created then Vision wouldn't have been created. They wonder what the world would look like if Ultron had not been created (wait a few issues & see). As the three of them ponder about what ifs, The Vision sits up, then stands up. He then says the three of them are all looking well.

There is a nice panel change. One of a smiling happy Tony Stark in the past & a more sad Tony Stark in the "present". Also of note: the colors in the past are brighter then in the "present". So far that flashback sequence has been the best, most interesting part of the series. Too bad it's just 4 pages in Issue 5.

We see a single file line of our heroes in the Savage Land. All 16 of them. I keep bringing up the number since it changes from appearance to appearance sometimes there is a dozen, sometimes there is two dozen. This number is the same number as those who left New York (12) last issue with the four heroes they met up in the Savage Land.  I do wonder what happened to those other heroes from New York. Did they just not want to come? Were they captured off panel so they couldn't come? What happened to them?

Tony Stark starts to laugh about The Vision & gives a somewhat mocking version of Vision's history with The Avengers. Captain America gets Stark to calm down a bit so he never finishes his story. Might we have found out how Ultron took over the world if he had continued? Where are they going? 

some cave but a cave foretold on some of Nick Fury's papers which Black Widow has (but she said he never wrote anything down? Yes, I will continue to bring this up). Widow also seems to be leading the group.  The group does a bit of recon & sets perimeter. Wolverine can't smell anything but jungle & Emma Frost can't sense anything so Cap send Sue Richards into check out the cave. 

She thinks she has reached a dead end but scrapes away some of the wall to find a key pad. Then makes the wall turn invisible (she can do that?) to reveal a massive bank vault like door. Maybe the door will open if she types in 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 & 42?

In the next panel is one of the better jokes of the whole series.

Captain America: How's your Spider-Sense?

Spider-Man: Pretty good, How's yours?

Cap asks if he can sense any danger, Spidey says it doesn't work that way. So, Cap asks the Red Hulk (who he just calls Hulk) to help out. The Red Hulk punches the vault door. The sound of punching a vault door makes is FOOM, when the door falls off it's makes a BOOM sound.  After the door falls, Cap ask the Red Hulk what he sees.  What he is is some guy shooting him in the face so Ka-Zar, Lord of the Savage Land, throws a spear at the shooter. The Shooter catches the spear.  We turn the page to find out the guy in Nick Fury's secret vault is…. Nick Fury!!!!!!

What Nick Fury says in the panel that reveals who he is: "Settle down there, Ka-Zar. You see what this did to your discolored Hulk? I imagine it'll blow your loin cloth to Wakanda."  I got a chuckle out of that. So… that's 2 good jokes for the issue so far. Cap asks if it's really him, Wolverine confirms it's him by smelling him from across the room (eeeewwwww). Fury scans the group like how Stark did Hawkeye & Spider-Man in Issue 1 but I don't think this method will give the group cancer (no skeletons glowing through their skins). After the scan, Fury welcomes the group to the end of the world (another chuckle worthy joke).

For some reason we head off to Austin, Texas. We have a black couple, Phillip & his wife. They are in the process of leaving. Well… Wife (no name given) wants to leave. We see their is a National Alert on the TV telling everyone to leave. But Phillip doesn't, He says the Avengers will fix the problem. We cut to the outside of their house & explosions everywhere! We flip the page to see a two page spread of a whole bunch of Ultron Bots flying around blowing stuff up!

And that's it. We flip back to The Savage Land on the next page. WHAT? HUH? Who are those people? As far as I can remember we never see them again. Why are they just now being attacked by the Ultron Bots? Given what little we know about the time scale in the series: At least a week or more ago, maybe a few months ago New York, Chicago & San Francisco have all been taken over by Ultron which I had taken to mean he had taken over the rest of the country. The WHOLE country. But a few weeks into the takeover he's just now getting to Texas?

Did he just take over major population centers & was going down a list? Was Austin just lower on the list then Chicago? Does this mean that there are still other place in the country unaffected by Ultron? Is Iowa safe? What about Kansas? Has Ultron taken over Montana?

If there are still "free" unaffected places in the country: where the hell is the U.S. Army? Why aren't they doing anything? You'd think once Ultron had taken over New York they would have done something! If not then most likely after he took over San Francisco or Chicago, right? Or… is the Army like Philip & they thinks the Avengers will take care of it? If so then the Army is stupid. The book has stated that MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE DEAD! Why hasn't the Army done anything?

We known that SHEILD's hellicarrier has crashed so was that the Army's response. SHEILD is sort of an arm of the US armed forces.  "SHEILD, go handle this thing!" As we saw SHEILD failed, what was Plan B? The Avengers? NO! Try again. I guess they didn't but then I guess I'm thinking about this too much in a comic book which has a giant red colored man, people who can fly, a jungle in Antartica & a robot who took over the country.

So….. back to the story at hand. Fury's Bunker. Cap asks how long Fury has been there, he replies he's been there "a week" which if we take what little we know about the timeline of the series that is when everyone left for the Savage Land. He ask what took them so long? Sue Richards replies that they didn't know this place existed & wouldn't have unless they had met up with Black Widow who had access to one of Fury's other bunkers which just happen to have the location of this bunker written down on a piece of paper. That seems a bit complicated.

They ask Fury what's his plan is. He "jokes" about staying in the bunker, them all having sex & then rebuilding the world with a race of super humans. Then waiting for them to grow up & then taking down Ultron. Uh… there are only 7 women to 10 men. That's not a great ratio. Fury's real plan is to use Doctor Doom's time platform to travel to the future to take out Ultron. It's not explained how he got it, he just has it. How did Fury know Ultron was in the future? Well… when Ultron crashed a Hellicarrier (different then the one that crashed in Central Park) into the Kremlin the "transmissions" were time stream based. What the hell does that mean? What transmissions? How are they "time stream based"?  This was shortly after as Fury calls it "all went to hell". He says he only got a glimpse of what was going on in NYC & Washington before he headed on down to The Savage Land. If we take Fury's comments as a "time stamp": 2 weeks before this conversation: Ultron started his attack by crashing a Hellicarrier in Russia.  This is the most concrete piece of info we are given to the start of this "age" in the whole series.

Yes. 2 weeks. The "Age of Ultron" is just 2 weeks old! I know I've brought this up before but WHAT THE HELL? Why did this one plan of attack so catch the Avengers & ever other hero off guard that he was able to takeover, seemingly killing the whole population of at least 4 major population centers in the U.S.: New York, Washington D.C., Chicago & San Francisco. Their have been comments in past issues that have made it seem like this "age" has been going on for months. I even joked that it seemed like the "age" had started earlier that week. I didn't think that my joke was actually the truth!

Also, I guess Ultron's takeover of the Capitol is why the Army wasn't doing anything: they are most likely dead. But… there is a chain of command to the Army with outposts all over the country & set protocols for if the head of the Army is taken out. This means that the Army, no matter who & how much were left would still be doing something. But then I am again thinking about this too much. This is also a book about Super Heroes & not the American armed forces.

Nick Fury says that the secret bunker that he didn't tell anyone about He was going to give whichever Super Heroes showed up 3 more days to get there or we was going to the future to take down Ultron by himself. wow. Look at the balls on Nick Fury. He is either really sure of himself & the other heroes around him or he's crazy. There needed to be a very specific chain of events to happen to have what he had planned to go down or he'd just go by himself? 

Was that the only alternative?

What if the only heroes he got were Captain Ultra, Demolition Man, Squirrel Girl, Slapstick & Butterball: would Fury still have gone to the future to take down Ultron?

**WRITER'S NOTE: I would so read that book**  

What if instead of heroes he got villains? Would he have still taken them with him?

sorry. I keep getting off on tangents, getting off on questions that will never be answered. 

Need... to… stay… on… track.

Fury's plan is to travel to the future to take down Ultron. He's brought this up a few times but what will he do there when he gets there? (He doesn't say & we'll never find out.)  A few volunteer to go on the mission. Stark says they shouldn't go since Ultron will know they are coming (that's a good point, he is in THE FUTURE). He brings up that Ultron might be tricking them into going to a specific time (I don't think they ever mention a specific place Ultron is other then IN THE FUTURE) just so he can trap them.

Wolverine brings up a counterpoint: don't go FORWARD in time to take down Ultron go BACK in time to cut off Hank Pym's hands or his head. Wolverine seems fine with both. People bring up just going back to ask him to not make the robot but Wolverine doesn't like that plan. He is all stabby stabby, cutty cutty! He does bring up a good point: If you just ask him to not make the robot, he'll just take it as a challenge & he'll just make the robot anyways!

I did not that Sue Richards could see the future but she does bring up that by going back in time could "completely obliterate the space-time continuum". Spider-Man brings up the Butterfly Effect of killing a founding Avenger.

Nick Fury doesn't have time for this debate, no pun intended, he's going to go ahead with his plan so he shows the heroes his armory which besides a bunch of guns includes:

- a set of Spider-Man's web-shooters

- Magneto's & Nova's Helmets

- a bow & arrows most likely belonging to Hawkeye

- one of Green Goblin's Gliders

The main thing we see is an old Iron Man suit which Stark calls a Mark II but I think it looks like more like a Mark V. I looked up the various suits Iron Man has worn over the years. His suits didn't not come in Red & Gold as this suit does until Mark III. The Mark II was just a gold version of the original grey armor he worn in his first appearance. Maybe it's a printing error & they meant Mark III & not Mark II.  In looking about how this suit is drawn & how the Mark III suit was drawn: it looks a lot more like the Mark V then the Mark III does. But maybe I'm once again over thinking things but you'd think that if I can do a simple Google search for what the names of Iron Man's suits of armor are then the guy who actually works for the company should be able to get the names correct. Or  maybe Bryan Hitch just got the wrong reference material & just drew the suit wrong for the rest of the issue?

Another funny Joke: 

Iron Man: I'm so happy to see it I'm not even going to yell at you for stealing it in the first place.

Nick Fury: Didn't steal it, you gave it to me.

Iron Man: I did?

Nick Fury: Back in your more… cocktailish days.

Captain America is shown with one of the photonic shields that he used during the mid 90's. The Red Hulk is seen weilding Ares' axe.

Yet another funny joke:

Spider-Man: Uh, excuse me, My web-shooters?

Nick Fury: You're the only guy who can have web-shooters?

yeah. Spider-Man is not the only one to have web-shooters. There have been at least a half dozen people who are running around the main Marvel universe with web-shooters.

Most of the people just grab guns & Fury says they are leaving. Ka-Zar say he'll stay behind, he & his people will set up a camp around the bunker to stop anyone from coming in (it sure would be nice if they had a door or something to keep people from coming in).

On the next page we have a couple of "count the people" panels. So we started out the issue with 16 people plus Nick Fury which makes it 17. The top panel shows 15 people with 5 just silhouettes. Where are the 2 other people?

The time platform is turned on. The first group of 9 steps on it (which include Fury, Captain America, Iron Man & others). They travel through time. At the bottom we are left with 7 people. 7 + 9 = 16. Where is the 17th person? We will find out next issue where they went off too but it's nice to know that we didn't add like 3 people or have 3 people disappear like in some panels before.

Wolverine then asks Hawkeye if he knows how to run the platform. Spider-Man asks if it's to chase after them, Moon Knight brings up that it's so he can travel back in time to "take care" of Pym. We end the issue with Wolverine showing off one set of his claws talking about how he's seen everyone die at the hands of Ultron. He's seen Thor, The Thing, Luke Cage die (uh… unless you saw that off panel we didn't see you see Luke Cage die). It's interesting who he names are all guys & are all Avengers. He just names 3 people off the top of his head & none of them are X-Men, the team he is most associated with. None of them are women either. No mention of any of the women he's formed relationships over the years. Luke Cage went out thinking of his wife & daughter! Does Wolverine just name Avengers because he happened to just be with that group when it all went down?

Wolverine doesn't think Fury & his group is going to make it back. So he's going to take things into his own hands (into his own claws?) & travel back in time!  That's how Issue 5 ends & it's the last issue with Bryan Hitch as the artist for the book. Why didn't he do the other 5 issues? I don't know. This is also where the series takes a major turn. What we have seen up to this point changes, not just in art but in the direction of the story.

Next time I'll be going over the first couple tie-in issues. Until then: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

Age of Uh... Part Four

A Review of "Age of Ultron"

Last Time in Age of Ultron: We found out there is 3 pockets of heroes around the country (New York, Chicago & San Francisco). The Non-New York pockets seem to be doing a whole lot more then the biggest group in NYC. In the NYC pocket we see after many pages of talking Luke Cage taking a playing dead She-Hulk to the Ultron Bots to find out what is goes on. We see that Ultron doesn't seem to be behind it all but The Vision is! Well.. the upper torso, arms & head of The Vision was.

Let's see how they screw this up in Issue 4…

On the cover we have Luke Cage going on all CAGE SMASH on a few Ultron Bots. That's about it, not much else to say about it. It's one of the least cluttered covers of the whole series.

On to the recap page: 

Years ago, founding Avenger Henry Pym invented the artificial intelligence known as Ultron. Once Ultron became sentient, he dedicated his life to ridding the Earth of Humankind. The Avengers foiled his every attempt, but some predicted that with his continuously increasing intelligence, Ultron would eventually find a way to defeat them. That day has come.

Untold millions died. The surviving heroes were driven underground by Ultron's patrols. After discovering Ultron was purchasing super-powered individuals, Captain America hatched a risky plan to get an agent on the inside. Luke Cage set out with an unconscious She-Hulk on his shoulder to sell. However, Ultron's robot patrols brought them not to Ultron himself, but a horrifying Vision.

This might be the most wordy recap so far. I guess that means that stuff is actually finally happening three issues into the series.

A couple things of note: 

- They say "Humankind" & not the "Human Condition" in this recap. Not sure why the change. Human Condition sounds more menacing.

- A nitpick but if they "foiled his every attempt" wouldn't this story not be taking place? They have foiled almost every attempt. Also doesn't Ultron have a really high kill count? Didn't he like kill a whole country once? So he is still ridding the world of people just not as quickly as he'd like.

- The "way" Ultron found out how to defeat the Avengers we never see in this series.  It all happens before issue 1 & is only vaguely referred to. It was so good that we'll never know what it was. I suspect Puppies. No one ever suspects puppies.

- Bringing up that millions have died makes me wonder more about why the heroes so massively dropped the ball this time. Your the Earth's Mightiest Heroes! Why didn't you live up to that name?

- They say Cap hatched a risky scheme but in the last issue it seemed like it was a group discission. Why does Cap get all the credit? Is this what he was thinking about as he sat in the corner & moped for 2 issues? It couldn't have been he doesn't find out about the selling of heroes until issue 3.

Getting to the issue proper, we pick up where we left off from last issue in the Blue Ball structure built up over Times Square. Luke is talking to the upper half of The Vision & wants to talk to Ultron. Vision stutters as he asks what Luke has to offer. Luke wonders who he is actually talking to. He also asks who ripped in in half (guessing it's not the Scarlet Witch this time). Luke asks who he is talking to again.

Vision says "Ultron can hear you. Ultron can see you." So… he's Big Brother now?

Luke asks where Ultron is. Vision goes silent & then screams "HE CONTROLS FROM THE FUTURE! HE WATCHES AND CONTROLS US ALL FROM THE FUAGGGH!"

Vision controls to scream in the next panel. In just that 1 panel we have gotten more plot clues then we have gotten in the past few issues. Also if he's controlling from the Future isn't he kind of ripping off Kang? Maybe that's it! Ultron finally figured out that if all his plans fail he'll just rip off another Avengers villains' plan! At least he went with someone cool like Kang & not someone like Egghead.

Also, It looks like Ultron is using Vision as a puppet here. This is a cool idea. How did Ultron gain control of Vision once more? Why do we only see half of Vision & not the whole person? Was there a fight? We don't know. These questions are never answered & Vision isn't seen for the rest of the series.

Luke comments that Ultron isn't even "here" & Puppet Vision goes back to stuttering about what does he offer. She-Hulk has had enough & get up off Luke's shoulder. He must be strong since he has been just standing there holding her on his shoulder. This is after walking with her across town. I looked this up from the edge of Central Park to Times Square is 17 blocks, just under a mile. The crashed SHEILD Hellicarrier looks to be pretty deep into the park so say it's about a mile or more. Plus with all the destruction you'd have to climb over/get around that is not an easy walk.

She-Hulk tells Luke to tell Iron Man all that he has seen. I keep calling him "Iron Man" but every issue has called him "Tony" or "Tony Stark", never "Iron Man". Maybe it's because he's not wearing his suit? Maybe it's because they are all friends? Not sure, just something that I've noticed.

She-Hulk pushes Luke back away from the Ultron Bots (The panel looks like She-Hulk sent him flying backwards). In the next panel, which is drawn from blocks away (why?): it looks like he actually sent him flying out of the top blue ball. The small person that I assume is Luke is flying up & not down. Also that is one massive push if all in one swift motion she sent him flying across that large of a room & out through the outer walls of the building.

Back to the fight inside between She-Hulk & the Ultron Bots, she is trying to get to the Puppet Vision. Then 2 almost silent pages. One of the Ultron Bots with a ZZXXTT straight up shoots her in head. We see her fall to the ground with blood coming out. We see a sleeping Puppet Vision, then a panel of Luke Cage falling. We see he is being followed by a few Ultron Bots, he is shot at & then another panel of Luke Cage faling, this time he's on fire!

Next page an Ultron Bot has him by his legs, Luke is still on fire. He starts to fight back. As he punches the bot he says that they killed his wife & child. A fight between Luke & the bots ensue for a few pages before the bots start to float & are surrounded by kirby crackle. Then a silent, glowy ball of death which causes a tidal wave to happen. We also see the ball has now left a crater in the island of Manhattan, most likely many many miles long. Luke Cage is most likely dead.

We cut over to San Francisco to where Moon Knight & Black Widow are still hanging out in Nick Fury's bunker. Black Widow is going over some files she found in a "black box". But wait? But didn't Black Widow say a few issues ago that Nick Fury never wrote anything down?!?!?!?!?!?

What is in the box? Fury's end of the world scenarios. Maybe he's one of the people the recap keeps hinting at that were warning the Avengers about Ultron's possible world take over. In the files it says in case of end of the world to head to one of the emergency bunkers. The nearest one to them? The Savage Land! Hey! Isn't That where Cap & friends are going to be go!

We also get a shot of Fury's board (not much different then last time we saw it) & much like last time Moon Knight's hair color changes in-between panels.

We cut back to New York & all the heroes are in the air some how. From the text apparently Storm is making everyone fly (she can do that?) The group is flying shortly after the glowly ball of death which is mentioned as being a nuclear blast (kind of think everyone would be dead in the NYC if one actually went off).  The Invisible Woman then makes everyone invisible until they are "out of the city limits" which is I guess where the Ultron Bot patrols stop.

Before head over to the next place the comic takes us I just want to say that apparently everyone has had time to change into their costumes since no one is wearing a ripped costume anymore. We do not see if Cap has a spare shield or not. Also half of the group is not there. In the past the group has been drawn to be around 20 people. There are only 12 people pictured in the group.

We leave New York City for Chicago to meet up with the Taskmaster & the Red Hulk where they are having a disagreement over what exactly the plan was. The Red Hulk then kills the Taskmaster or at least punches him in the face & maybe breaks his neck in the process. I don't know it's not explained/drawn very well.

Then comes up one of my least favorite pages in the whole series. It's a page with 6 panels on that tells us some very important info: 8 DAYS HAVE PAST!!!!!!!!

Yes. They spent a whole page to tell us it's 8 days later. 3 of the panels were 1 word each: Eight. Days. Later. They wasted a whole page to say what a caption box would have done! We do see that Black Widow & Moon Knight came by boat & the Red Hulk jumped his way to the Savage Land. The NYC crew flew there (boy, Storm's arms must be tired!)

We see in the next page the Savage land with a bunch of craters & a crashed Avengers Quinjet. Why the Avengers couldn't use one of those to fly to the Savage Land? The Ultron Bots would have attacked them? I think they could have found a way around that. Someone else did!

One person makes a comment that the the Savage Land is "worse then new York". Uh… No. There is just a bunch of craters around. New York is worse then that & San Francisco is worse then that since it has piles of dead bodies just lying around. They also comment on the Quinjet being an old version. They also wonder who flew it there. They talk about what to do next before noticing some on the next ridge. We turn to the page to see that it is…

Ka-Zar, the "Lord of the Savage Land" as Hawkeye calls him. Ka-Zar is wearing way more clothes then I've ever seen him wear. He leads them to what is left of his village & people. We find out that Luke Cage survived the explosion in New York but he's dying. How did he get to the Savage Land?  He flew the Quinjet there. Luke Cage is a bad ass! He survives a nuclear blast from basically ground zero then flies a plane all the way to the Savage Land which is at least a few days journey & then crawls from the crashed ship to Ka-Zar's village. Why does he do all this? Just to relay what he saw in New York. Now we don't see Luke Cage in all this. We are told this by Emma Frost.

As the group wonders what to do next. We read from someone off panel "we go get Ultron."  Who is it? It's The Red Hulk! He wants to go wipe him and "even the idea of him out of existence". He is there with Moon Knight & Black Widow. Black Widow has a backpack which most likely holds some of Fury's Files since we close out the issue with her saying she knows how to stop Ultron.

That's Issue 4. Even though it has my least favorite page it's probably one of the better issues so far. It is at least action pack which is more then I can say for a few other issues.

Next time is a turning point in the series where they group decides how do you solve a problem like Maria… uh.. Ultron. This leads to the some of the better yet under explored parts of the series & leads up to the confusing end to this series.

Until next time.

Age of Uh... Part Three

A Review of "Age of Ultron"

Last Time in the Age of Ultron: We saw Black Widow & Moon Knight hanging out in San Francisco with way more dead bodies then what we saw in NYC. We got the first time the series tag line was said in the series. We had story time with Spider-Man where he told where he was during the Ultron's attack on New York, the only person to give such account. What does it tell us? Not much. We did get Cap standing up & saying something heroic on the last page.

Now on to Issue 3…

On the cover we have Luke Cage striking an often used pose for comic book covers: Holding someone who is (most likely) dead sideways in your arms as there arms & legs lay limb on either side. One of most famous examples of this pose are the Crisis on Infinite Earths #7. Who is Luke holding? She-Hulk. A number of times this cover image is used it's a man holding a woman. A few it's it's been a Man holding a child. I doubt I've ever seen as woman holding a child or a Man in her arms.

Also on the cover, a pack of Ultron Bots play ring around the Luke Cage & for some reason their eyes all look to be shaped like the eyes on Spider-Man's mask.

Let's look at the "recap" text on the first page:

Years ago, founding Avenger Henry Pym invented the artificial intelligence known as Ultron.

Once Ultron became self-aware he dedicated his life to purifying the earth of the human condition. Although The Avengers always found a way to defeat Ultron, there were those who warned that his continuous evolution, he would eventually find a way to destroy us.

That day has come.

Many were killed, the heroes who survived have moved underground to avoid Ultron's patrols. While on a patrol mission, Hawkeye rescued Spider-Man, who revealed that criminals Hammerhead and The Owl had planned to sell him to Ultron.

The first 3 paragraphs were similar to those from issue 2. The only one that was changed was the second paragraph it has more text in it while still conveying the same information. The third paragraph I think is the first time that the villains from issue 1 have been named. I don't remember them being named in that issue. I just knew who they were. 

The phrase "many were killed" is a bit of an understatement. They mention there was 7,000 heroes in New York before Ultron attacked & so far we have seen under 30 heroes in the comic so yeah: Many have been killed.  Like over 3/4th's of the heroes!  That doesn't account for the the various villains that New York had running around (almost all of them are now dead).

Also, the heroes have not gone "underground" they are in the SHEILD Hellicarrier which has crashed in Central Park. Now if a part of it is submerged, I guess that's now "underground" but a large part of it is still above ground. Also, if they are trying to hide from Ultron it might help to not hide out with a easily spotted item from the sky!

We turn the page to see a splash page with two people, the same two people from the cover! They are about to set in motion some sort of plan that involves Luke punching She-Hulk in the face. The expression on his face when he does it looks a bit odd. We turn the page to see what looks to be an earthquake going on (is that because of Cage's punch? Is it a aftershock?). He then picks up She-Hulk over his shoulder & walks off.

We then flashback an hour to as the caption tells us "underground". Spider-Man brings up getting up off their butts & back into the fight.  Emma Frost brings up that it's not that easy with everyone they have lost (as we have seen in other parts of the country with small groups of heroes: yes it is). In the next panel we see I think for the first time Wolverine's new costume. He is one of the few people who got a different costume for the series. Everyone else is basically wearing their same costume from the "normal" line of Marvel Comics but he got a brand new costume. He also get a confirmation that Thor is dead. We also find out that Luke Cage's wife & kid are dead.

We flashback to a panel of Luke carrying She-Hulk as he sheds a tear (Is the flashback him thinking back to an hour ago?). We then go back to the flashback & return to the discussion from Issue 2 on what to do now. We then get five pages of them talking over what to do. Talking about why Spider-Man was being bartered by the Owl & Hammerhead to Ultron (for what? they don't know. It's never said). They continue to wonder why he's doing that, how Ultron was able to take over the world (something the series never gives a firm answer to).

Hawkeye blames Hank Pym from screwing them all over because he was the one who created Ultron. This is the first time Pym's name has been mentioned in the series it's self & not just on the recap pages. Captain America brings up a plan: If Ultron is buying Super Heroes then they bring him one & once they get inside use them to get information on what Ultron is exactly doing (That's not exactly how it goes down as we see in the next issue).

They bring up that they'll need "somebody who can take punishment. Sturdy. Indestructible." Luke Cage & She-Hulk both volunteer. They argue a bit on who should go. Iron Man doesn't think it's worth another life since right now they only have half a plan. It's then brought up that She-Hulk will be the bait & Luke with be the seller.

Wolverine says he wants to be the seller. Captain America says that's a bad idea since Wolverine's bones are laced with the same thing that Ultron's frame is made of: Adamantium!  So, the plan would fail since Ultron would most likely just kill him for his bones (maybe burn the flesh off like how the Sentinels did in Days of Future's Past?).  They also mention that Wolverine has regrown a leg (that would have been cool to see how he lost it and/or why).

So…. after five pages of talking they have come to a plan: Luke Cage takes She-Hulk to Ultron & they see whatever they can find out about what Ultron is up to. They'll then meet up with the rest of the heroes in The Savage Land. Question: How is Luke & She-Hulk going to get from New York City to Antarctica (where the Savage Land is located)? How is Cap & the rest of the heroes going to get there? I think the Ultron Bots that are patrolling the area would notice a plane, boat, flying car or two leaving the city!

Also, we see Cap still carrying around the broken piece of his shield. Why is he still carrying it around? It is of no use to him at this point unless he wants to stab someone with it! He has left the other pieces behind, why keep this piece? We clearly see each time that the piece he has left has a strap attached so wear the shield fragment & have two free hands?

We then go to the "present" & have a full page panel of Luke Cage walking tall with She-Hulk slung over his shoulder. This was truly a needed page since we had not fully establish this fact & it's not like we have seen it a few times already. We flip the page to a 2 page spread where Luke meets up with a few Ultron Bots & tells them that he's got a Hulk he wants to trade. For what? I doubt he knows.

Speaking of Hulk's we turn the page & are taken to Chicago. Not sure if we see a dried up lake in the establishing panel for the windy city or it's just a massive crater. Again the destruction is nicely detailed & drawn.

We see The Red Hulk, Taskmaster & The Black Panther on a roof top.  I'm not counting Taskmaster as a villain like Hammerhead of The Owl since for the last few years Taskmaster has been an Anti-Hero at best so the villain count is still at 2.  The Heroes are on a stake out, Taskmaster is looking through some binoculars. They are looking for Ultron Bots. He sees one as they kill someone much like they had killed a group of people in Issue 2. Taskmaster (who I think is wearing a different mask then his normal one) tells the Red Hulk (who he's calling Dave) where to find it. We get a panel that take up half the page of the Dave jumping towards us & apparently the Ultron Bot.

Dave lands on the bot & rips off it's head. He then jumps back to the group (which is stated as being over a mile and a half which Taskmaster has seen). When Dave gets back, they are surrounded by a small pack of Ultron Bots. Taskmaster & Black Panther run off, Dave throws Panther the head just before he blasted by the Bots. A fight insures. Dave fights off the bots as Taskmaster & Black Panther attempt to get away. Black Panther gets hurts & dies (That is the last time we see him in the series). Taskmaster gets the head & continues on without him.

We then head back to New York & Times Square. Luke Cage is lead to structure of some kind (it's 2 blue balls & some support  beams that are connected to the main Techno-Dome over the city). He is then lead inside. It's all blue, green, clean, futuristic & minimal. Nothing like it's outside.

Luke Cage is lead to where he can make his trade. When he gets there he says "Oh, No… It's -- It's not Ultron."

you turn the page to see….. The top half of The Vision floating there. He looks to be ripped in half. He asks what Luke has to trade.

OMG everybody! What will come of this?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

NOTHING! WE GET NOTHING!

Except for opening bit at the beginning of the next issue, The Vision is never seen again & his appearance here is never fully explained (like so many things in this series). One would think that his appearance in the "spin off" series Avengers AI would help provide some issues but with only have one issue out & what they say he's been doing before that series happens is hanging out near the sun literally recharging his batteries. That & gaining new abilities.

That's where the issue leaves us: On one of the better cliffhangers for the whole series which they never resolve.

But what have we learned from this issue: It's almost a retread/continuation of Issue 2. There now 3 different pockets of heroes around the U.S. (San Francisco, Chicago & New York), that the Heroes from New York have spent most of their time trying to figure out what the heck to do now while the other groups at least attempt to do something. That's it. Not much.

It only gets worse from here as we go to the Savage Land where the focus of the series changes.

Age of Uh.. Part Two

a "Age of Ultron" review

Last Time in The Age of Ultron: The age is established as being really crappy for everyone but really nicely drawn. Hawkeye goes off to save Spider-Man from like the only 2 villains in the whole series. We see a small band of Ultron looking robots destroy a building with their Care Bear Stare. Hawkeye & Spider-Man meet up with rest of the remaining New York based heroes is the downed SHEILD Hellicarrier. We end the issue on a shot of Captain America being all sad & stuff.

Now on to Part Two….

When I first saw the cover for issue 2 I thought that Black Widow had teamed up with Doctor Doom (who at the time was wearing a white version of his normal green costume) to fight off Ultron Bots, more bots then I think we ever see in the whole series. This would have been pretty cool: the last few remaining heroes & villains teaming up to take down a common threat. But alas that was not good ol' Doc Doom but Moon Knight. At least I think that is who that is suppose to be (it's hard to tell).

The 1st page of Issue 2 is not a slightly reworked version of the cover (I still don't understand why Issue 1 did that) but we do have a opening paragraph like in Issue 1:

Years ago, founding Avenger Henry Pym invented the artificial intelligence known as Ultron.

Once Ultron became self-aware He dedicated His life to purifying the Earth of the human condition. Every time Ultron created a plan to strike out humanity, every time Ultron attempted to destroy the Avengers. He was defeated.

Tony Stark warned that if Ultron was to continue to evolve He would find a way to destroy us.

That day has come.

Again we have a mention that Hank Pym created Ultron but Hank has yet to show up (was he one of the first to fall in this new age?). The second line seems to bring up what I brought up last time that Ultron seems to have some faulting programing (Run Program: C://settings/my documents/Destroy_Humanity.doc. Program Fail. Abort. Retry). But then that's kind of the status quo for most villains: They aren't suppose to win. They are the villain, not the hero. The Heroes are to win out in the end. Also, when did Iron man warn them? My knowledge of Iron Man is not complete so he might of done this but it seem odd to put that there. I don't think he really warns us in the series beyond some general comments but then other people make them too so I don't understand what makes him so special.

We flip a page & are presented with the how San Francisco is fairing in the Age of Ultron. The answer: not well. They don't have have a huge techno-dome built up over the city like Manhattan has but the sky is yellow (the few times we do see the sky in Issue 1 it's not yellow). Once again Bryan Hitch brings the detail to the destruction & to make sure we know it's San Francisco we see a Street Car full of dead people. They really pack to streetcars full with people. They must be piled 2 or 3  deep. On page 2 we see a hooded, cloaked woman walking the streets (this is the full 4 pages earlier then when we saw anyone in Issue 1). She looks up & see a trio of Ultron Bots (Ultrobots?). I need a better name for those things. They aren't Ultron exactly but do resemble him & are robots so at this time I'm just going to have to go with the name I got at the moment since we don't see them after a few issues.

The Bots seem to be on patrols scanning the city. We get an extreme close up on one of the Bot's faces for some reason. The hooded woman is seen sitting on a pile of dead bodies. There are a lot more dead bodies about in San Fran then there were in NYC. Not sure why she is sitting on them. Did she play dead so the Bots wouldn't hassle her? I guess they can't tell life signs, they seem to only react to movement. The woman, who we find out is Black Widow (you mean the woman on the cover is the woman we've been following this whole time?!?!?!?!) held up by gun point by a man in a business suit asking what she has. He's looking for anything. She ask where he got the gun. The man makes a comment that she needs to drop her blanket, the item I've been calling a cape (The way it's been drawn it looks more like a cape). He claims if she doesn't put her hands on her hand he's going to shoot her. She says she won't because if he was a "real man" he would have done it already. Black Widow takes off her hood to reveal her face. She has a scar tissue around her eye, something not seen on the cover (did Hitch just forget to add that on the cover?).  The mugger asks her to be stop & give him what ever she has. Then in a close up of his face, he is shot. 

We zoom out to see on a near by roof by is Grifter from WildC.A.T.S. no… wait… It's The Cluemaster from Batman!  no. We get a clear look at him & it's Moon Knight! The only reason we'd know that is the comic zooms in on his chest & we see the Moon Knight logo on his chest. You'd only know it was Moon Knight if you recognized the logo. That is until they tell you that is who he is a few pages later.

Black Widow searches the mugger's body & finds what looks to be be a Twix candy bar (Widow eats the right bar first). She also gets a bottle of water from him. She signals to Moon Knight to meet up at a safe house. The next page we see Widow trip to the safe house & already in the seven pages of Issue 2 we have had more happen then in issue 1. On Page 8 we see the return of the Ultron Bots & I think the 1st time the tag line of the series said:  Submit or Perish.  We see some people who don't submit & they are blasted by the bots. This time not via a Care Bear Stare but via some sort of death beam coming out of the Bot's face. Widow manages to avoid the bots as she gets into the safe house which looks to be barber shop. A barber shop that appears to be untouched by the destruction outside. Widow enters the actual safe house via a pull of lever on the barber's chair & it opens a hole in the floor. The chair then lowers into the hole.

She & Moon Knight have a conversation similar to the one Hawkeye had with Iron Man in Issue 1: wondering about the outside world & if anyone else survived (BW & MK assume they are the only ones left). We do find out that the safe house belongs to Nick Fury, one of the main safe houses he has. We are then presented with a cork board filled with polaroid photos & post-it's notes. 

A couple things about the board:

1. Among the photos is one of Squirrel Girl, a former member of the Great Lakes Avengers. Probably one of the most obscure/niche people on the board.

2. In the center of the board is a picture of someone noted as "Ikon", under the photo is the note that says "Check on All Sp… Knig…". This most likely said Space Knights since Ikon resembled the most famous of the Space Knights: Rom. This is the only reference to the Space Knights before this plot thread is picked up in Issue 10.

3.  "Who c.. you TRUS.. NOT Pym" reads a note on the wall. Black Widow mentions this is safe house that Fury spent during "the Skrull Invasion" where Pym has be replaced by a Skrull. & the tag line for Seceret Invasion was: Who Can You Trust?

4. "Check with Xavier!!! - Might be too Late" reads another a note & it is too late since Xavier died at the end of Avengers Vs. X-Men.

5. Half of the people are listed by their last name & the other half are listed by their last name. Not sure why, maybe that's how that person is associated in Fury's mind.

Moon Knight (whose hair color has changed to at least 3 different colors in the issue) makes a comment that the people Fury can trust are in Blue & the ones he can't are in Red but everyone's name you see on the Board are in Black. He makes this comment while looking at a piece of paper & not the wall so may that piece of paper has the name written differently.  They wonder if "he made it out of the other side of this" & if he is going to kill them for using his stuff. Widow says he will & we find out in a few issues from then that Fury did make it out. Moon Knight asks where they go from their. Widow says that they aren't going anywhere, that they are in "the safest place in the universe".

An odd comment: Black Widow says that Nick Fury "never wrote anything down" then what the heck is with that cork board with photos & post-it notes about? What is on those pieces of paper Moon Knight has been looking at for the last few pages? She makes says this after Moon Knight asks if Ultron could find this place & I think she meant that nothing about this place in a computer so Ultron couldn't find out about it but as proven by the safe house Nick Fury does write things down.

We have some final comments from the duo about not going down without a fight before we head back across the country to Spider-Man in the downed SHEILD hellicarrier. He's giving this big monologue about how he missed the end of the world because he slept through it. On the next 2 pages we see what Spidey saw: He's asleep on his couch, in full costume (minus the mask).  He wakes up, sees smoke outside his window. Gets on his mask, web slings around to see the start of the Techno-Dome.

On the next page we see everyone standing around listening to Spidey's story. He brings up that there was "7,000 super heroes in New York.. this is all that's left of us?" In that panel, including him, are 20 people. Captain America is not shown (he's mopping in a different area of the ship).

We go back to what Spider-man saw he was web-slinging along & then above him is some caped mystery man who vaguely looks like Vision, the "son" of Ultron. We get a close of Spider-Man's eye of his mask which reflects the mystery man & a bright light either coming from or behind the mystery man. That's the last thing he remembers before being where he was seen in Issue 1.  The reason Cap wasn't in the earlier panel is because he's still where we saw him in Issue 1: He was sitting in his corner with his head down.

The Heroes find out that Spidey was going to be sold to Ultron. They heroes don't understand why:

A. Spider-Man would be sold to Ultron

B. Why he would need Hammerhead & The Owl to do it.

Another thing I don't get why he would be sold back to Ultron if it looks like he was the one who captured him. Did Hammerhead & The Owl steal Spidey? Were they ransoming Spider-Man back to Ultron?

We get a close up on Captain America being all sad. This issue has a lot of close ups.  Almost every page at least one close up panel on it for pretty much no reason. The conversation continues. The group wonders why Ultron would need heroes sold to him & what is in it for him (what is in it for him? That means 1 less hero out there to stop him?). After more talking they still don't understand why Ultron would be doing this (we won't know, after a few issues this topic will be dropped from the series).

The group wonders what to do now. That they have to do something. Iron Man brings up surviving. Spider-Man says "surviving is not something". Then a voice says "No, it's not."

We turn the page & find out that Cap has stood up (or is in the process of standing up, he's drawn in a pose)! He continues on & says "But we didn't have a plan…. until now."

Que the CSI: MIAMI yell!

That's the end of the issue.

What do we have at the end of Issue 2: we've seen a bit more of world (it's just not crappy in New York, it's also crappy in California). We have a bit more set up to what is going on. In this issue, one thing that is brought up is something that I still don't understand with the series: it's timeline. When did it exactly start & how long has this been going on? It seems to change from mention to mention. Sometimes it seems like it's been going on for months & other times it seems like it's been going for days. If it's only been going for only days: what the hell? 

How did Ultron take all 7,000 of those super-heroes that they mentioned to be in New York by surprise? They couldn't all be asleep? The way it's seems to be told through the series (before we are diverted to other topics) is Monday is ok, Tuesday is ok, Wednesday the world goes to hell & it's now Friday. That is one crappy week. What made this one different then the other times Ultron has tried to take over the world? We never know. We never see Ultron's takeover except for those brief glimpses in Spider-Man's flashback. We don't see how 7,000 heroes are brought down to just under 2 dozen heroes. We don't even see what the hell happened to all of SHEILD! (We only see 2 SHEILD agents in the whole series & one is Nick Fury).

We don't see a bunch of things in Age of Ultron. We might get hints, brief glimpses or references to things but we actually see how the Age starts. It's just there. That's a problem with this Age: We rarely are shown things & are told very little. This can be ok if you give out enough info for the reader to connect the dots. But when your only give what seems like a third of the dots, it's hard to figure out what the final picture is meant to be.

Next time we go further into the age & I'll most likely cover the first couple tie in issues.

until next time, Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

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