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.
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