This is Post 290: Year of Anniversaries!

It's 2017 everybody & it's the Year of Anniversaries! Get Hyped!

*throws handfuls of confetti & glitter everywhere*

I bet 2 questions:
1. What is the Year of Anniversaries?
2. Why is is starting on the 15th of January?

I'll answer Question 2 first & the answer is: Because!

The answer to Question 1 is that there is a number of different things that all have anniversaries this year that are near & dear to my heart. There are 4 main things that are having anniversaries this year. I say 4 main ones because I keep finding out about more & more things that reach milestones this year that I'm not sure if i'll cover.

The Main Reason 25 years ago in 1992 I started to read Comic Books. I'll be turning 34 this year so there is a greater chunk of my life that I've devoted some engird to reading comic to then I have not. That is a lot of time. So... over the course of the rest of this year there will be a bunch of special posts (read as: there will actually be posts here on the blog) that will be devoted to things I've read over the last 25 years. Along with a bunch of new topics, I'll be revisiting a few older topics I've covered here on the Blog. I have not run out things to talk about in relation to Age of Ultron & Zero Hour!

The next 2 reasons are related to that first reason because without that first reason I wouldn't care about one of the other reasons & one reason wouldn't exist. 10 years ago, I started a blog. This blog in fact. Almost 300 post, a handful of them actually good & worth reading! What am I going to do for Post 300? I don't know, it's coming up really soon.

Reason 3? 20 years ago was 1997. That my dear readers was an awesome year for comics. Most people have a favorite time period of comics. a favorite age of comics: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Platinum, Dark, Other! But I've managed to pinpoint it down to about a year (I sometimes lump in the years on either side of it) & one company. I really like DC Comics circa 1997. Why? You'll have to wait for that post to find out why!

What is the fourth reason?   This a thing I've never talked about here on the blog: VHS. The year I started my blog is also the year that VHS died. At least the home video market died & I really liked VHS so to mark the 10th anniversary of it's passing I'm going to be talking about some of favorite tapes from my collection. A collection I started in 2009.

So... once again: it's the Year of Anniversaries! Get Hyped! Be back here later this month for the fist official post in this year long event!

Until then: Stay Jazzy Everybody!

- Brian

This is Entry 287: Brian on the Aisle #14

That Other Age of Uh:

A "Review" of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron.

Welcome to another installment of Brian on the Aisle, where I take a look at a movie that most everyone else has months after people have. The Movie this time is one that I think most people saw coming. It’s Avengers 2: Age of Ultron!

Before I get to my "review" of the movie I'll say this: what you are about  to read is in no way a full review of the movie just my feelings & there might be spoilers if you haven't seen the movie yet. But I think the movie came out a few months ago so the movie has already been spoiled awhile ago but I just thought I'd put that warning out there.

Onto my talking about the movie! Now it’s not like I haven’t spent a few dozen posts talking about Age of Ultron. But this isn’t that Age of Ultron, this is a different. I knew it was going to be different going in. There was no way they were going even attempt to do the comic on the silver screen.

Now, is different good or bad? Both. My feelings towards the Avengers movies are not all that great. If I were to rank the Marvel Studios films, The Avengers is either near the bottom or at the bottom. What’s at the top? The Captain America movies with probably Guardians of the Galaxy next on the list.  This film did one thing better then it’s predecessor: it did not lag in the middle. I felt first film did way too much set up to then lag along in the middle before slamming into a over long fight scene for an ending.  There might be too much & not enough going on at the same time in this movie (one thing it it shares with the unrelated comic of the same name). I did like parts of the film, but these are small parts. A line here, a line there. A small interaction there, a small scene over there.

Of the new characters: Scarlet Witch comes off the best. Her official Avengers costume looks stupid. Quicksilver has a pointless death (he can move a truck quick enough to protect Hawkeye & Child but he couldn’t move behind the truck himself?) My choice for Quicksilver’s on the silver screen is the one from X-Men: Days of Future Past. He could have had move screen time then he got. Just one mission to break out his maybe dad? He can’t go with Xavier & friends to stop Mystique from killing the president? No? oh… ok. If you say so, Movie.

I guess my biggest problem with the movie is how connected it all was. No, I don’t mean the various cameos from characters from other Marvel movies. I’m talking how everything was too damn connected. Of course Hydra had Loki’s staff & had a bunch of half built robots laying around that Ultron could use later. Of course Iron Man had built his own mini army of robots that Ultron could use quite easily later. Of course he already had the idea & name for an super duper mega cool robot. They don’t explain where the name Ultron came from. Banner & Stark just know the name. Ultron just excepts it. 

“Yup. That’s my name. I hate everything else about Stark but I’ll still call myself the name he gave me. I might not call myself that BUT I will respond to it when people call me it.”

Another thing: WHY DID STARK HAVE TO MAKE ULTRON? Why make such a big alteration to the comics. Hank Pym has 3 things he’s known for in the comics. The movies already wrote him out a founding Avenger. Why not take the most interesting of things away from him, too!

My List goes as follows:

1. Created Ultron.

2. Founding member of the Avengers.

3. Is Ant-Man/Giant-Man.

They could have brought him in.

“Hey! This staff thingy Loki was using seems to have a computer in it. I need to call in someone who knows a lot of about this stuff. No, not Banner. Jarvis?”

“Yes?”

“Get me Hank Pym!”

“Yes. Right away.”

There you go. Pym is added in to your already overstuffed movie & he partly keeps his place in Marvel history. BUT NO: Banner & Stark have to be Ultron’s baby daddy. Ultron doesn’t even create The Vision. He has to get a only established in this film character to help him. WHY WOULD ULTRON HAVE A HUMAN HELP HIM CREATE HIS NEW BODY/VISION? ULTRON HATES ALL HUMAN LIFE! I DON’T CARE THAT SHE HAD SOMETHING HE NEEDED. ULTRON HATES HUMANS! HE’S HATED THEM FOR DECADES! ULTRON DOES NOT WORK WITH HUMAN FILTH!

I’m fine with Jarvis becoming the basis of The Vision, much more then I’m with Jarvis being an automated assistant & not a real person.

The cool, worked for decades backstories for Ultron & The Vision were tossed out in favor of… I don’t know what. Something less cool. Yeah… to do it right would have taken more time. But they could have at least attempted to do it. The Avengers movies have a timeline that stretches back to the 1940’s. They couldn’t have pulled something out of their collective butts & given them proper, not so connected origins.

One thing I noticed thing was how much James Spader, the voice of Ultron, sounds like Robert Downey Jr? That’s some good casting if they had thought that when he was chosen. One thing I disliked: Ultron being so chatty, I guess he gets that from Stark.  But it’s something I really disliked. It seemed to be off-putting to me. I don’t need my robotic death machine to be all jokey. Seems like a very Human thing to be doing. You know the thing you hate & want to kill off?

There is also so much heavy handed hinting at “Hey! Gotta make everyone hate each other! There has to be some sort of conflict! We are doing Civil War next time!” Might as well just called the movie Avengers 2: Prelude to Civil War co-starring Ultron. That makes more sense.

“I can’t trust anyone! I gotta do things behind your backs! I gotta protect the world with an Iron Sheild!” 

“Trying to stop wars that have not even happened have always started more wars!”

Another thing why can’t Black Widow & Banner just be friends? Close Friends? Why do you gotta hint that they are in a sexual relationship? “Don’t be playing hide the pickle!” Smooth move, Iron Man! Way to demeaning the possible relationship two of your fellow teammates might be having. Speking of relationships: Not sure about Hawkeye’s family. They seem an odd addition to the movie. They didn’t really add much to the movie. I did like seeing Linda Cardellini. She did her small part well.

I have 1 question: Why does Captain America keep taking off his helmet while out on missions? Helmets are there for a reason! They are there to protect you! Wearing them save lives! Your life maybe? WEAR YOUR HELMET! We know it's you, Chris Evans! You don't need to keep showing us your face!

The Thanos during credits cameo makes no sense being there. He didn’t play any part in the movie I just saw. Why are you there, Thanos?

If I can compare this movie to the unrelated comic for a moment: Way better ending to their story. Didn’t tell me that everything I had just seen didn’t actually happen due to some Deus Ex Machina BS.

That’s all I got at the moment. I might come up with more & if i do I’m make another post.

Until then: Stay Jazzy Everybody!

This is Entry 286: Return of the Age of Uh...

You thought I was done with the Age of Ultron? No. If Marvel keeps putting this stuff, I'll continue to talk about it. What are we talking about today? The recently concluded 4 issue Secret Wars tie-in mini-series Age of Ultron VS. Marvel Zombies.


First things first: I am not going to try & explain what is going in the current Secret Wars to you all. If you wanna know: look elsewhere. For our purposes: There is a planet called Battleworld on this planet there are various "countries" that are pretty much all based off of previous comics. If this sounds like what DC did during Convergence? It is but Marvel has done a whole lot better.

In Battleworld's southern hemisphere there are two countries that border each other: The Deadlands, where the Marvel Zombies reside & Perfection, the land of Ultron. What does Perfection have to do with Age of Ultron? ALMOST NOTHING AT ALL!

The "Age of Ultron" in the title is only there to help sell the book. I guess Battleworld: Robots VS. Zombies doesn't work as a title. But then the two groups don't really face off against each other. In fact they team up together in the book to fight a third group that broke off from the Ultron group which is lead by Wonder Man, The Vision & Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch from the 1940's. I am not going to give an issue by issue break down of the series because: A. I don't feel like it & B. It's not that great of a story.

It's an ok mini-series with an kind of cool premise. I'd say it's mid range of the tie-in books I have read as part of the current Secret Wars. If you are looking for a book involving the Marvel Zombies, I would check out their self titled series. It's pretty good. I wasn't planning on reading it but I picked up issue 1 & liked it enough to read the rest of the series.

If the series is not that great, why am I talking about? They do one thing that the original series did not do & it's a major thing. At least for me. It's something I kept on bringing up in my original review of Age of Ultron. Age of Ultron VS. Marvel Zombies explains how & why the land of Perfection exists. In Issue 1, on Pages 8-14.

7 Pages of a 21 page (minus ads) book! That's a third of the book!

Now, 4 of those pages are splash pages but that is a lot more pages then the original series ever got to explaining why their "age" exists. I am all for not having every little detail explained to me in a comic BUT there are somethings that need to be explained so I buy into your story.  Age of Ultron had an inconsistent timeline, at least to my reading of the book. I was never really sure when the Age started, or how long it had been going on. The altered timeline that Wolverine created when he went mucking around by ignoring the butterfly effect has a more consistent timeline then the "original" timeline we were presented. They can easily do this. They relate it to the reader in a text box, a few line of dialogue between characters. Something. BUT NO! I got nothing. A big old steaming pile of nothing!

Here in Age of Ultron VS. Marvel Zombies I get a 7 page flashback to how Ultron set up his land known as Perfection. How did he do that? Shortly after, Ultron is created & what does he do? Kill Hank Pym! This is another thing this mini-series does that the original didn't: It tells us if Hank Pym is dead or not.

Further on in the flashback, after updating himself a bit Ultron's lead Master of Evil straight up murder most of the The Avengers which then leads to an Ultron which was a combined version of updates 5 & 6 to go about killing all the rest of those pesky Super heroes with the help of his Ultron Drones. Then in a text box, it says that 14 months later he created "Perfection". You are to read that as "All none robotic live has been killed".  In 7 pages, one of my biggest problems with the original series has been explained & is further elaborated in a short 13 word text box. Also in those 7 pages another problem I had with the series was explained away in 1 panel.

Now would the original series be saved by explaining away these two problems? NO! There are tons of other things wrong with it. But they would have two less things that were wrong with it!

Is Age of Ultron VS. Marvel Zombie on the whole better then Age of Ultron? Yes. Neither are all that great, they both have good points & have a number of problems with them. This mini-series continues the theme of "anything called Age of Ultron will be better the series that originally bared that name."

And with that said we bid adieu to the Age of Ultron for now because I know we'll be back sometime. Until then: Stay Jazzy everybody!

- Brian

This is Entry 285: The Non-Review of Superior Spider-Man!

This started out differently but I’m trying something else. To be mememetic for a moment: I can’t. I just can’t.

Recently I got the idea in my head to read Superior Spider-Man to see what it was all about. Was it bad as I had heard? So… I picked up the first trade paperback. Before reading it I also picked up the last trade paperback for Amazing Spider-Man, just to see how they closed out that chapter of the Spider-Man mythos before going into the “bold, exciting new direction” with the character. I read them.

I formed some thoughts, started to write out a “review” similar to the style I used for my look at Age of Ultron. Got a few paragraphs into it & then left alone for a few days. This was only after writing for a half hour or so. I went on to other things but kept it in my thoughts. This is why I’m doing this instead of that. My thought eventually end up with this: Why am I doing this? What does it matter? and Who cares?

As I have stated in the past: I don’t much care for Spider-Man. I find him boring for the most part. I went & counted how many comics I actually own that star the webcrawler & I barely got past over a 100 issues. For a character that has been around for over 50 years that’s basically nothing. Looking over the issues, most of those issues were either because of guest stars in appearing that month or who he’s facing off against. I have a few milestone/anniversary issues because I’m a sucker for those things, especially if I can find them cheap. I could easily get to 150, maybe a bit past that if I included all my Spider-Man adjacent books BUT a number of those don’t star Spider-Man himself.

Also, there isn’t all that much to say about the issues I read. Yeah, there are a bunch of things to nit pick about & was going to do in the original form of this post. There were a few paragraphs devoted to just the text on that back of trade paperback of Amazing Spider-Man trade. I came with a few jokes that I could have made. I’m sure as I went back over the issues as I doing the review I would have come up with a few more.  But what’s the point?

I really don’t see much to give a flying flip about in the comic. I don’t care about Spider-Man so why should I care about what is going in the book? Yes, there is some stuff that was kind of interesting presented to me but was just it: it was “kind of interesting”. Not good, not great, just kind of interesting. If what I was reading was horrible, rage inducing, down right bad: then I would have something to write about. Maybe it is? I just don’t know but that’s because as I’ve said: I don’t care about Spider-Man.

I don’t mind trudging through issue upon issue of “bad” comics. I read all of Brightest Day: 26 issues long & only about every 7 issues of that series did something kind of interesting happen. I read all of Futures End, that was 48 issues long! Most of it was not good. It had “good” bits but could have been so much better. Why was I willing to push on through those series but I can’t get through 8 issues of Spider-Man. Might be 9 issues, one issue was Issue 700, so it had some more content then the other issues. I guess it’s because I cared about Brightest Day & Futures End where as I don’t about Spider-Man. All three aren’t that great of books but I at least cared for BD & FE in some small way. Superior Spider-Man? not so much.

To answer my questions:

Why am I doing this? I thought I'd try something new. Try out a series I hadn’t read before & see for myself if I’d like it or not. I came out ambivalent on it. There were thinks to dislike about it but not enough for me to actively devote time & energy to.

What does it matter? It matters, just not to me. In reading those issues there were things that I could easily see that were “wrong” with it.

Who cares? This was more about my posting of my review of the book.I could have easily let this pass on by, as I have let other books I could have reviewed. But I did announce elsewhere online that I was going to be “reviewing” the series & I felt that I at least owned those interested a post of some kind. It’s not much of a post but a post none the less.

One last thing: I might not care for Spider-Man, Superior or otherwise. But I would suggest to search out The Superior Foes of Spider-Man by Nick Spenser & Steve Lieber. It’s not very long, only 17 issues but well worth your time. It was one of the better Marvel books I was reading when it was coming out. It almost alway near the top of my “good comics I read this month”. It also doesn’t feature Spider-Man in it, just Villains doing villain things! If you want a fun team book, Superior Foes is a good choice! I’ve also met artist Steve Lieber a few times, nice guy.

Until next Stay Jazzy everybody!

- Brian

This is Entry 284: Ultron Five-Ever

A Brief look at "Ultron Forever"

Once again I'll be looking at a mini-series from Marvel that has the Ultron in the title that includes a time travel element to it. Is this series as bad as Age of Ultron?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: No. It's actually kind of fun. It's only 3 issues long & doesn't overstay it's welcome. There really isn't much to the plot of the story so I'm not sure if it would worked in a longer format. You have a form beginning middle & end. There are some twist & turns. You do get some nicer cliffhangers at the end of 1st & 2nd issues.

This story is a semi sequel to 1998's Avengers Forever at least in concept: Avengers from a few different points in the team's history are pulled together to do something. Both books ever have the 2 different versions of the same character where AF had 2 versions of Hank Pym (a at the present 1998 version of Giant Man & a past version of himself during his original run as Yellowjackets), UF has "sometime in the near future" female Thor & male Thor from the 1980's.

The other members of the group are 60's era Hulk, James Rhodes during his run as being Iron Man during the 1980's. Present Day Vision & Black Widow. The only *new* character from the book is the Captain America they use. She is from the future & is Danielle Cage, the daughter of Luke Cage & Jessica Jones. Danielle has grown up & taken on the mantle of the Captain. At the end of Issue 3, we get to see the version of the Avenger is a member of. Not sure we'll see her or her team in the anything else.

The group has been drawn together by "Doctor Doom". I put that in quote since you find out in Issue 3 that it is Doctor Doom but isn't at the same time. I'm just going to leave it at that. Doom has drawn these Avengers together when in THE FUTURE where Ultron has taken over the world. He has turned the world populous into mindless drones & has "converted" the Avengers of 2420 into his own personal group of enforcers. This reminds me partly of Futures End but these converted heroes look a whole lot better. 

This mini series has elements of Age of Ultron, Futures End & Avengers Forever. It take some of the better parts of the first 2 & some similar elements of the third to make their story. 

Another big selling point of this mini series is the art. I don't think I've found an book by Alan Davis that was disappointed by. The art is consistant through out & doesn't change midway like some other Ultron mini series did.

Only 1 thing that I found confusing was the titling of the books. Instead of just calling each issue Ultron Forever. They are titled: Ultron Forever: Avengers #1, Ultron Forever: The New Avengers #1 & Ultron Forever: Uncanny Avengers #1. The story doesn't change because the title did. Since they are all listed #1, it can be hard to know where to start. Once you open the book, it says which it is but until you do or if you skip of that page, you might be lost since you could be coming into the story mid way or end up reading the issues out of order.

Some of the elements of the story rely on knowledge of the Avengers history but they do attempt to explain why things are how they are (especially with The Hulk & what happens to him).

Over all a fun little mini-series. Not required reading by any means, just some fun fluff. Check it out if you liked Avengers Forever, team up stories or just want a fun easy read.

Until next time: Stay Jazzy!

-Brian

This is Entry 283: Age of Uh FINALE, part 2

Oh… Age of Ultron, what are we doing to do with you?

Welcome back to the final part of the chapter to my review of the “Age of Ultron” comic. It’s been a long time coming but we made it. Not as originally planned but we are here. The end of an Age.

Issue 10

The cover: Various characters we have not seen for a few issue fight a weird looking Ultron. Not sure what it is about this cover but it looks weird. I thinks it’s Ultron himself. He looks weird. Not looking the look of his body. His head looks odd but then his head has always looked weird. I've looked at the cover a dozen or more times & I'm still not sure who's head that is at the bottom.

The Short Review of the Issue: WHAT THE HELL?

Longer Review of the Issue:

We start “some Months ago”  which may or may not be the “months ago” as mentioned & seen in Issue 5. We are in Hank Pym’s lab. He’s doing science stuff. A message pops on his screen telling to “follow the white rabbit”. No… He’s told open his door. He thinks it’s Janet, his wife. Might be ex-wife, depending on when this happened. But really it couldn’t have been Janet since if this was really a few months before Issue 1 had come out, Janet had been dead for awhile. So… Hank thinking it’s his dead wife playing a joke on him is a bit strange.

He open the door to find no one but a package. Down the hallway a bit is Sue Richards in Invisible mode. Hank closes the door to find a tablet computer with a note that reads “play me” on it. He presses play to find a message for himself!

*DUN DUN DUN DUUUUUNNNNNNN*

1 Question: Did they have tablet computer in the 1970’s when He most likely made that message for himself? That could be explained away as Sue put the message on the tablet. Another question: Did he have a “home video camera” to make the video?

Another thing I noticed: Video Hank looks like he’s dressed in the latest fashions of the 1980’s. And yes I’m off on yet another tangent: that’s what this comic make me do. I have spent so much time reading, re-reading, looking it over that I can’t help be question it all!

The Message basically goes like this:

“Hi Hank! It’s Hank! You don’t remember making this video & that’s because that’s how it happened to be BUT if your seeing this it means that we still got a chance to stop Ultron from doing a massive no no. We have scrwed up a lot of things so let’s not screw this one up!”

We flip the page to see reused art! I didn’t notice when the book first came & hadn’t in the few times I had looked through the issue BUT today I did. It was all because I happened to look at another related book. One that I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before.  In May 2012, for Free Comic Book Day, Marvel came out with a book, Avengers: Age of Ultron! It’s the prequel that I had forgotten about until I go to this point in my first reading of the book. There was a little over a 1 year in between books (the FCBD book & Issue 1). My forgetting of the book might because it didn’t seem all that memorable of a book (it’s still not).

I guess that’s ok since everthing you need to know about the old comic is ok with it since Marvel pretty REPRINTS 8 PAGES from the original FCBD comic as is in Issue 10. Those 8 pages are the later half of the FCBD book. The only changes in Age of Ultron #10 are a few speech & text bubbles. The rest is EXACTLY THE SAME!

What happens in both books:  A group of Avengers all rush into a secret base run by the Intelligencia (a group of “super smart” super villains). They had kidnapped Spider-Woman as she was checking out something in a jungle somewhere (the earlier book doesn't say where so let's just say The Savage Lands). The thing that is found was a Space Knight (from the 80’s comic ROM Space Knight). You remember them from earlier in Age of Ultron, don't you? Of course you do! They aren't reference ANYWHERE by name but there is one vaguely Space Knight looking guy on Nick Fury's wall of photos back in Issue 2!

Back to the reprinted pages: The Bad Guy want it & didn’t want the Good Guys to have it so they kidnapped her which of course means the Good Guys are going to go to rescue her. Yeah... real smart!

We have a multi-page fight scene. The Bad Guys give up but not before finding a way to turn back on the Space Knight (some are robots, most are cyborgs). But OH NO! This Space Knight is holding a secret, It transforms & is really ULTRON! Ultron had been out in space the past few years so that wasn't that much of a stretch.

Thor decides to do something stupid by hitting Ultron in the chest with his hammer, BIG EXPLOSION happens. This is the point where the 2 comics change. In the FCBD comic, lots of destruction. Bad Guys look like they are dead & the heroes try to regroup. They think about tracking Ultron down BUT Iron Man says that pointless since “He has seen the Future” & it’s crappy. That’s where the FCBD comic ends. A year long cliff hanger!

Where it changes in Issue 10, just before Thor does the stupid thing, Iron Man gets a call from Hank. Iron Man takes the call but tries to brush him off since “He’s busy” But Hank continues to talk & is “sending” Iron Man something. Maybe it’s an E-Mail? tonystark@IMsuit.org! Hank has sent Iron Man “Highly Evolved Calculations” & Iron Man isn’t sure they’ll work but Hank says they will. Iron Man “launches the code” over Wi-Fi i guess since Iron Man never touches Ultron or get near him. Is the Iron Man suit Wi-Fi enabled? If not then how did Hank send Iron Man the stuff? All while Hank is chatting with Iron Man to do the thing, Thor hits Ultron with his hammer. BIG EXPLOSION!

And what happens? It still destroys the Intelligencia’s hideout but after the explosion, Ultron isn’t gone & he’s confused. The “kill code” as Hank calls it which “is very specific to a backdoor code portal program” that is in the “deepest recesses of his program”. 

All while Ultron is confused, the Avengers attack. Ultra says that they are “adding buffering code to my infrastructure”. He wonders how they were prepared. He suspects Iron Man & his “father” Hank Pym. Thor zaps Ultron with a bolt of lightning. The fight between the Avengers & Ultron is all distraction so Hank can completely uploading the “kill code” to Ultron. 

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Load! Load! Load!

Ultron starts to crackle with energy. The program loads, Ultron shuts down & once more Thor smacks Ultron with his hammer. Pieces fly everywhere!

Iron Man ask exactly what happened. Hank replies:

“We sent him what looked like an average backdoor trojan horse code, but the trick of it was — When Ultron tired to defend himself and re-code it an shut it down… It triggered a self replicating virus that was implanted in at his creation. By the time he could process what was happening… There was nothing left of him.”

Iron Man asks a very good question: Why didn’t we try this before? Hank Replied: I didn’t have it before.

Before we got into the ending. Let’s chat about the “kill code” for a bit. I'm crying all kinds of BULL SHIT on that working. That’s some “access port on the Death Star” Deus Ex Machina level of tying up a loose end that they didn't bother having in the main book. It has been clearly stated that Ultron had upgraded, updated, recreated himself dozen of times since he was created. To me it would seems rather stupid of the robot to not close up a fatal back door in his programing. WHY LEAVE IT OPEN LIKE THAT? Sure, He might of thought “no one could get into my programing that far in for that to be a problem?” If that’s so, why leave it open? WHY?

With Ultron defeated you know what? The past 9 issues & the 8 tie-in issues NEVER HAPPENED! THE AGE OF ULTRON NEVER HAPPENED! They also never told us how Ultron got from blowing up a building to taking over the whole world! Or how long it took for him to do that? Those are 2 questions I have been asking since Issue 1 & they still aren’t answered or even hinted at. Also, we never find out what happened to the Future Group! They simply drop out of the series at issue 6! But what does it matter what they did or even if they ever accomplished anything since THE AGE OF ULTRON NEVER HAPPENED! They had no need to go to the future to stop Ultron from taking over the world since he never did! Also, they say that Ultron was controlling the world from THE FUTURE! But how did he get there? He was there in the present, blew up & then waited years of time to get to the future so he could change the past? But if he did that wouldn’t that cause a time paradox?

TOO MANY QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANY ANSWERS!

Now on to the ending of the series. Wolverine & Sue fly away from somewhere (maybe Pym’s lab). They land on a roof top & say their goodbyes. Then time literally breaks.

Then we see the Earth in a black void for a panel & then it’s back out in space with the sun, moon & stars. Tony Stark, The Beast & a blonde guy (might be Captain America) are looking at a holographic monitor. They ask what happens & the answers straight from the book is “Wolverine repeatedly abused the space-time continuum” and They broke it.

The group says they’ve time traveled before this time might of been one time too many. The last 8 pages of the book are all preview bits showing some of the breaks: Galactus has crossed over to the Ultimate Universe & Angela (originally an Image Comics character) is now in the main universe.

That’s it. That’s the end.

There were 7 artist on this book. Bryan Hitch (the artist for the 1st half of the series) get credited for his reused art from the FCBD book. The Angela pages were done by Joe Quesada. The Parts with Sue, Wolverine & the breaking of time look to be by Carlos Pacheco. The other artist from the past issues (Brandon Peterson) is back.

This issue is a mismash of things. The Last 9 pages are just “ads” for other books. There is the reused 8 pages of art from a past book. That’s half of the book. There is 5 pages of the breaking of time. That's 22 pages. Most comics are that long! The amount of pages that aren't ads for other comics, reused art or breakage is 11 pages (minus all the ads). 11 pages that finish up the series but then this issue throws out the first 9 issues to tie up the plot threads from the Free Comic Book Day comics (which on sale for money under a different name).

——————

There was an epilogue book: Age of Ultron #10 A.I. which was to be a bridging point between Age of Ultron & Avengers A.I. It’s a good book. It’s written by Mark Waid & is devoted to Hank Pym. It gives you an overview of his early life & career leading up to the events of the series. I read Avengers A.I., it was an enjoyable series. Neither Avengers A.I. or this epilogue have much to do with the main series. I’d more call this issue Avengers A.I. #0 then Age of Ultron #10 A.I.

There was also a 5 issue “What If” mini series revolving around Age of Ultron vaguely. It’s also pretty good.

And that’s it. The Age is over. We can all now move on with our lives!

But what about the Movie? Or the Age of Ultron related book that’s coming out as part of this summer’s Secret Wars?

Then I guess I'm not done. *sigh* Well... you can all now move on with your lives.

This is Entry 282: Age of Uh FINALE, Part 1

Welcome back to the Age of Uh! The on again, but mostly off again review of the “Age of Ultron” comic book series. I now have to say it’s the comic series & not the movie. I can say this: the movie will mostly be better then the series. It seems everything that bares the name of “Age of Ultron” that is not the main series is better then the main series. This will be the final part of my review of the series. So… Let’s finish this thing!

———

Last Time in the Age of Ultron: I made a whole recap post of the 1st 5 issues of the series last March. I also made a post about the Age of Ultron tie-in issues for Superior Spider-Man & The Fantastic Four last March. Now that we have that out of the way, Let’s briefly talk about the rest of the tie-in books!

If it had the word “Avengers” in the title it was a good tie-in book (Avengers Assemble #14AU, Avengers Assemble #15AU & Uncanny Avengers #8AU). It seems that Uncanny Avengers actually tied into both series (it’s own series & Age of Ultron).This probably due to the fact that Kang was there in the issue. And of course Kang would be aware of a change in timelines because Kang is cool like that! The Ultron one shot (which does not have Ultron in it) dealt with his biological son, Victor Mancha & how he got involved in this Age.  It didn’t tie into the main events of the series all that much. I’m guessing it was just there to remind people that Victor existed & the prep them for Avengers A.I. The last 2 tie in Issues (Wolverine and The X-Men #27AU & Fearless Defenders #4AU) I’ll get to when they tie into the main series.

On to the series…

ISSUE 6

They fight floating Ultron heads in a blue void on the cover. That is a theme with a number of the covers. Issue 4, 5, 6, 7 & 10 all have a solid color as the background. Issue #2 & 9 almost has a solid color for the background but has minimal detail laid over a single color.

Brief Recap: In Issue 5, 2 plans where suggested on how to deal with a problem like Ultron. Plan A: Go TO THE FUTURE to stop Ultron from doing stuff. Plan B (suggested by Wolverine): Go back to the past & stop Hank Pym from creating Ultron. And by “stop” he means “kill”. At the end of Issue 5, the group went with Plan A & most of group headed off to the future. Wolverine stayed behind & asks any of those left if they know how to use the time machine.

We start Issue 6 Wolverine having already traveled TO THE PAST! The comic says “years ago” & they are right. It’s the 1970’s! But due to the sliding scale that super hero comic use they can’t say that since most super heroes have only been active for a “few years”. Normally 5 to 10 years. Wolverine sniffs out that he was followed. How? Neither of the 2 people had showered “in at least a week at least”. That is another vague reference to this Age’s timeline. Wolverine could be referring to the time that it took to travel to the Savage Land (which took a week) or he could be referring to the Age it’s self. It’s the first reason that still make me angry. How did Ultron take over the world in few days? If it was even a few days, there is never any firm established timeline to when Ultron took over the world or even if he did. Large parts of the world were unmentioned in the series.

The person who followed him is Sue Richards, The Invisible Woman. She came along to keep an eye on him. Shortly there after, Wolverine has her cloak both of them since younger Nick Fury shows up in one of SHEILD’s flying cars. He gets out his car & walks into the cave. There is mention why Fury was there, it wasn’t to set of the cave bunker. We clearly see it already made later on. He also doesn’t stay long since we flip the page, Fury comes out of the cave to see the car is gone! Wolverine & Sue have stolen it! OMG!

We now join the future party in THE FUTURE! Ultron still hasn’t taken over the Savage Land apparently.  I guess he’ll let organic life remain alive just as long as it’s in a jungle in the Antarctic. The Future Party then realize that Sue isn’t with them (she was to go with them but decided to go with Wolverine because of “the look in his eye”). So… without Sue to keep them invisible they still decide to go ahead with the Mission. Quicksilver is to run ahead of them really, really fast so he’s “invisible”. I still think the plan to go to the future is stupid. Ultron is in the future & somehow figured out a way to control the past (their present) from there. Ultra could easily have known that the Future Party was coming & could have easily set a trap for them. But we never find that out since after this issue, we never check in to see what is going on with the Future Party due to stuff Wolverine will do at the end of this issue.

Another thing, Issue 6 marks the 1st issue with new artists. Brandon Peterson takes over for Bryan Hitch in the “Present” which I guess is for the group that went to the Future & Carlos Pacheco does the art for Wolverine & Sue in the Past.

Wolverine flies back to New York. They land Wolverine goes to talk to Hank Pam & he knows where he is because he can smell him!  Hank is in his lab & is examining a dead/unconscious/turned off Dragon Man, which is an “Artificial Intelligence”. Dragon Man looks like giant purple half dragon, half man creature but is a robot of some sort. Hank is thinking out loud. His speak balloons are a taupe colors which I guess to give the look of “paper” old comics were printed on. Hank rambles on about robots that can think for themselves. How he hasn’t made anything meaningful since The Pym Particle. (How to do create a particle? I always assumed he just discovered it, named it after himself & not created it.) As he looks at the creature, he says the next breakthrough in AI should be his! This is where Wolverine (with white speech balloons) comes in. 

Basically it goes like this…

“I’m here to stop you from screwing over the world!”

“Who are you?”

“A guy from the future! The future you screwed over by creating a robot!”

“You picked the wrong place to break into!”

“I don’t care! Don’t do the thing I know your thinking of doing!”

“Who are you?”

“I’m from the future! Don’t do the thing!”

“Do you know who I am?”

*Wolverine pops his claws out*

“yeah. Don’t do the thing!”

FIGHT SCENE!

Back to the Future & the Future Group has arrived in Ultron control New York.  It’s a lot more brightly colored then in past issues. What we saw on the cover (a fight with Ultron heads) happens. There are a lot more heads & more then 3 people in this fight.

We cut back to the past fight. Sue comes out to try & reason with Wolverine.

“Don’t do the thing your thinking of doing!”

“I gotta! it’s the only way!”

In between that, we cut back & forth between the past & the future. 

“Don’t do the thing your thinking of doing!”

“I gotta! it’s the only way!”

“Don’t!”

“He allowed your family to die! He allowed all of your friends to die!”

“Don’t do it!”

*Sue starts to cry*

*STAB*

And Hank is dead with a crying Sue just standing by. She turns away so she doesn’t see him die but she still let’s it happen. She asks what happens now. Wolverine walks away & says they go home back to “whatever is waiting’ for us… Hell, we know it’s got to be better than what we left.”  Let’s flashback to issue 5 to when Sue said that traveling back in time & doing Wolverine’s plan might “completely obliterate the space-time continuum”. The tie-in Issue for Wolverine and The X-Men #27AU takes place after stealing the SHEILD car & before they get to New York. it’s a skippable story. Doesn’t truly add anything to the over all story. None of the tie-in books do really, some of are just better side stories then others.

ISSUE 7

The cover is once more in a blue void, We see a group of heroes & the results of Wolverine’s trip back in time. 

Starting here in Issue 7 & going to Issue 9 (along with 1 tie in book: Fearless Defenders #4AU) is the “good” part of the series. At least for me. It’s was something I enjoyed reading. It is sadly buried here in the later half of the series & is under developed. Too bad they spent the first half doing much of nothing!  Wolverine & Sue fly back to the Savage Land. They talk about what has been done. I just noticed the flying car vaguely resembles a Delorean. They land & Wolverine pushes the car into a bush. Why? They’ll need it IN THE FUTURE! Because no one is going to look under that bush that has tire tracks leading into it for the next 30 some odd years! They then fight a T-Rex. After fighting it off, they head back to the cave. Wolverine notes that the young Nick Fury has left. How? they don’t say. Maybe in this altered timeline, he was never there. BUT he was since Wolverine still smells him. Maybe Wolverine is smelling Fury’s scent from before Wolverine altered the timeline? There many, many, many, many, many, times in my reading & rereading that I could easily spends minutes (over)thinking of what is going on in the series. Most times I come up with no answers, only more questions.

Sue & Wolverine go into the bunker in the cave, use the time platform to travel BACK TO THE FUTURE!

*cue the Huey Lewis*

They exit the cave & the Savage land is now ittered with a bunch of junk. Looks like a Airplane graveyard. Sue even says “looks like the Savage Land is now an Alien Spacecraft junkyard” when they get closer to the junk. They find a Skrull skull. Wolverine comments the Secret Invasion must of ended differently. Sue brings up that there are Kree ships there & she says The Kree/Skrull War (an Avengers storyline from the 70’s) must of ended differently.  They go invisible as a trio Starkguards come by.  This is the second sign that Wolverine done screwed up real good! They go back to the cave, amazingly the car is still there & it still works after sitting there for years! 

They fly back to New York. The car must be really fast since the 1st trip from New York to the Savage Land in Antartica took 8 days. This was without the help of any flying machine because Ultron could sense their usage of a airplane FROM THE FUTURE!  With them using a flying car it’s apparently no big thing to just pop on down to the Savage Land. The Manhattan skyline is surrounded by 6 mini SHEILD Hellicarriers. Sue starts to freak out a bit. Wolverine basically tells her to “calm your tits. The world is still here. It might be one that I totally screwed up & might be a different kind of bad then what he left but at least people are alive!”

The car is then hit by a laser which make them bail out. As they touch down, they are meet up by The Defenders! They are Doctor Strange, Captain America (who has an eye patch), The Thing, The Hulk, Cyclops (sporting a visor like the one from Age of Apocalypse), Starlord, Wolverine & someone who could be Captain Marvel (who we find out on the next page is Janet Van Dyne but isn’t called The Wasp).  Some of the Defenders think that Wolverine & Sue are Skrulls. But The Thing thinks that it might be the real sue (who is “back” from somewhere) & the Defenders verion of Wolverine says other Wolverine smells like him. There is a lot about Wolverine being able to smell stuff in this series. Brian Micheal Bendis does know that Wolverine has other powers, right? 

Original recipe Wolverine & Sue get way but not for long because smells. Doc Strange using his powers to disrupt Sue’s powers during a fight. OG Wolverine throws a trash can lib at Doc Strange which cause him to stop spell casting. More fighting is going on. The Wolverine’s fight each other. It looks like Wolverine might of killed himself (and that won’t be the last time he’ll do that in this series). Actual Wolverine is taken down by a punch by The Thing. We find out on the next page, Wolverine did not kill himself. We end the issue on a cool image of what Iron Man looks like in his altered timeline. Or more altered timeline. I still not sure if the 1st 6 issues take place in an altered present timeline or in the future. Also, according to this page: the Mini-Hellicarriers belong to Iron Man. He also has his own Iron Man drones but they don’t look exactly like he does as Ultron does/did.

ISSUE 8

On the cover, Wolverine & Sue are in an alley way. Iron Man is hovering before them.

We open on Iron Man, which I don’t think he’s called that in this timeline. He’s just Tony Stark & I doubt he can take off his suit. He has taken the captured Wolverine & Sue. He has also gained access to to their memories somehow. Images are floating all around him. 2 Images are covers from past comics (Age of Ultron #1 & Secret Wars #1). Another is the image of Scarlet Witch’s face breaking apart into puzzle pieces from House of M.

In the room with him is Emma Frost & Charles Xavier. They are discussing if what they are seeing is true. Emma & Charles confirm that those 2 are who they say they are, just the versions from their timeline. It is brought of that in this timeline, it’s not Captain America. He’s come up in the world & is Colonel America!

Tony says “We’re saying these two lunatics have broken the timeline. They went back in time and broke it."

Yes, Tony. That’s what they are saying & what I’ve continued to say since this series has come out.

Tony goes to interrogate Wolverine.

What we find out:

1. Tony can’t leave his suit. He is the suit. He doesn’t have a lower body. He lost it in the “Latveria/Asgard War”. He tried to stop Morgana Le Fey from taking over Europe & the World.

2. It seems like Jarvis is a computer program. Keeps talking to a Jarvis but a Jarvis is heard & never actually seen.

2. Hank Lab’s has a security camera in it (something Wolverine didn’t think was in place at the time).

3. The Skrulls had been blamed for Hank’s Death & The Avengers had broken up shortly after that.

4. They were abandoned by Asgard. Doesn’t say who exactly “they” are (The Avengers or Earth in general) or if it was before or after the war.

5. The “Mini-Hellicarriers” are called Starkguard Carriers which I guess makes Starkguard the SHEILD of that timeline.

I want a book, 10 issues, of this timeline. There is a lot of cool sounding/looking things in it! Where is my Latveria/Asgard war book?

During the Interrogation, The Defenders are just hanging out awaiting further word on the dopplegangers. Frost & Xavier tell them to go away & leave Stark to his business. They says “Screw that!” and a fight breaks out.

Alt-Tony brings up one possible way Wolverine could have gone about solving the Ultron problem: Have Pym create Ultron but have him install something hidden in the programing. Let time run it’s course. Before Tony can finish off his thought, he’s told their is a security breach. It’s the Defenders!  Before Tony goes off to deal with it, Wolverine says it’s a nice theory (it’s more then a theory in a few issues).

The Thing, Cyclops & Alt-Wolverine get to Sue’s cell & open it. She’s gone. Or she turned invisible & when they opened the door, she ran out. She is found by Tony who can “see all spectrums”. The Starkguard carrier is then attacked by Morgan Le Fey & her army. She flies in a fire breathing flying creature. Her army flies in with her wearing very Doctor Doom looking armor (the Doom/Le Fey connection is gone into a bit more detail in the Fearless Defenders tie-in).

MULTI-PAGE FIGHT SCENE!

The issue ends with at least 2 of the 6 Starkgaurd Carrier’s crashing down onto New York.

ISSUE 9

Wolverine stabs Wolverine in a void composed of speed lines on the cover.

Issue 9 picked up where Issue 8 left off with a massive 2 page EXPLOSION! We then get another 2 page spread, this time showing the destruction. Still not as worse looking as the OG timeline. But there are more dead bodies scattered about NYC then in the OG timeline. Wolverine climbs out of the destruction. He’s missing his leg below the knee, only his bones remain. Tries to walk on it, can’t. Lays there on the ground for 5 days (according to the comic) as the leg regenerates. Shortly after it, He is attacked by one of Le Fey’s Doomesque army guys. Fight Scene! Wolverine wins.

Wolverine walks off, finds Stark laying on the ground trapped under some rubble. Stark talks about how one man (Hank Pym) could make such a difference. Stark knows that Wolverine will try & go back & fix things. He says that Wolverine can’t do that because “Time is an Organism” & every time someone travels through it Time rips & tears. The more you travel through it, the more you hurt it & actually kill time. Stark begs Wolverine to no do the thing he’s thinking of. That’s a theme of this later of the book: asking Wolverine to no do stuff but he does it anyways.

I think the book implies that Stark dies (the lights of Stark’s armor have turned off) & Wolverine walks on. We flip the page & Wolverine is once more in Pym’s lab in the 1970’s. But this is “flashback” to 1st trip back in time. Wolverine tries to reason with Pym, doesn’t go all that well & a fight scene break out.

We cut to Sue Richards waiting by the flying car. She is approached by someone, says “are you done so quickly?” The mystery person knocks her out. We cut back into fight & another Wolverine has appeared on the scene in 1970’s appropriate costume. The fight stops.

The reason 2nd Wolverine is wearing the costume is that “it’s all Fury had in his secret bunker”. Not only Fury paranoid but he’s also a kleptomanic. There is a discussion between the 3. Mainly between the 2 Wolverines’. Newer Wolverine proves he is Wolverine. They have to move on to “Plan B”! I thought stabbing Pym was Plan B, Plan A being talking to him. We are technically on Plan C. Pym just sits there amazed at what he’s seeing (2 people at different times in their life? Time travel? How does that work?)

The “Plan B” they are going with is the plan that Alt-Tony brought up last issue. Wolverine says that *he* can’t do it, Pym has to do it. Pym says he doesn’t make robots, he’s just been “tinkering” around with some A.I. stuff. The newer Wolverine says that it’ll be Ultron, Pym says he won’t make it. BUT Wolverine says he has too. Everything has to go as it once did before he came back & killed him. Wolverine only wants to avoid the last part where Ultron takes over THE WORLD!

Pym isn’t sure how to do that, New Wolverine explains about implanting a virus or a code into Ultron so that “when the thing is about to go full-blown — it just can’t”. Yes, “The Thing”! That’s how Ultron takes over the world! He uses The Thing! Why not use The Stuff? I hear it’s twice as powerful!

Pym brings up a good point: If he creates Ultron & the world has to go on as it did, what is to stop him from using this fail safe the 1st time Ultron becomes to much of threat? How could he let Ultron do what he did/will do known that he has the “kill switch”?

Future Sue comes in to say that Pym has to forget that he put in the kill code. Pym is still unsure about all that he is asked to do:

“So all I have to do is create an artificial intelligence that doesn’t exist yet… Put a time release program inside of it that doesn’t exist yet… Make my self forget about it and go about my life… How do I do this exactly?”

Good question, Dr. Pym. He don’t get an answer since we flip the page & are in the Savage Land. Sue asks what they are going to do with 2 Wolverines. Newer Wolverine asks for a minute alone with his other self. They walk off & talk about which one is not going back. Newer Wolverine says he is not since “he saw stuff”. Original timeline Wolverine pops his claws, We turn the page & Wolverine has blood on his claws. He killed himself: is that homicide or suicide?

This is intercut with flashbacks to Pym in his lab in the 70’s, he’s working on something. We turn the page to see the creation of ULTRON! Last page of issue 9 & it’s the 1st time he’s been seen in the whole series! That is if you don’t count anytime he is seen on the covers of the series.

This is it! 1 More issue to go & this is where it all goes off the rails.

Next Time: Issue 10!

Age of Uh... Tie-In Issues, Part 1

An "Age of Ultron" review

Since the last post in this review series was a recap of the entire 1st half of the series there will be no "last time" recap for this entry. Plus, this is the 1st part in a 2 or 3 part review of the tie in issues.

With The Age of Ultron, there are 8 tie-in issues. 7 of them "tied into" on going series & was was a one off comic. The interesting thing with the AoU tie in issues is that they didn't directly tie into the events of the on going series. When the AoU tie in issues came out there re 2 different issues of that series that came out. 1 marked with the normal numbering & a second with the number & an added 2 letters: AU.  Get it?AU meaning Age of Ultron but it could also mean Alternate Universe! This was kind of nice since if you had no interest in reading Age of Ultron, you didn't have too! BUT…. I did & picked up all the tie in issues so I might not sure if what I liked about the tie in issues has as barring on the main series.

One more thing before I get into the tie in's themselves, here are my feelings regarding Tie-In issues: you should never, ever, ever have to read the tie in issues to an Event comic. You should not have to read every issue that has the event's logo plasters on the cover to fully understand the story they are trying to tell. All major plot points should happen in the main book (sadly this does not always happen). If a major plot point happens in a tie-in book then it's not a "major" plot point. The tie-in issues are just side dishes to the main book's main course.

This is not the case with of Age of Ultron but if an ongoing title does have tie-in issue(s) to any event: they should not drop all their personal story lines, plot points, cast of characters to tie into the event. That is a major pet peeve of mine. Want me to loose interest in a book real quick? Drop everything you had been doing for the last few months to do some drastically different. A writer should be able to weave in the tie-in story points with what they are already doing in their books so they please the readers they already have & maybe gain new readers who are only reading the book because it's a tie-in issue to something else they are reading. Also, if I'm not reading the event the writer of the book should be able to tell in a few text boxes, some exposition dump or lines of dialogue all I need to know to understand why things are happening.

Now… onto the Tie in's!

--------------------

First off: Fantastic Four #5 AU, the only ongoing title that I was following that had an Age of Ultron tie in issue.  The events from the AU issue & the "normal" issue kind of crossed over. Both take place IN SPACE! During the recently concluded Matt Fraction run on the series most of it took place IN SPACE! It's also sadly one of the less good runs I've read of the Four. Something was just off about it with me. I've noticed that with a lot of stuff that I read by Mr Fraction: It's either really good, ok or just not for me. The Hawkeye series that everyone seems to say is really, really good just didn't do much for me. I read the 1st collection (which collects the 1st 5 issues). I haven't bought the 2nd collection & not sure I will. Nothing really grabbed me in the first collection so why read the 2nd? Also, I've noticed that in a few series mr. Fraction doesn't do ending all that well (His Defenders run was a good book with a lack luster ending). His run on the Fantastic Four suffers from the same problem. It's also a bit confusing. BUT… the issue it self leaves with some questions: mainly what happens to Franklin & Valerie Richards? In this tie in issue is the only time were see the kids in the series. As shown here & in the main series it self: Sue Richards (the Invisible Woman) is the only surveying member of her team. Nowhere in the main series does she comment about going back up into space to get her kids. Maybe she feels it's safer up there? But they are eventually going to run out of food, air, something! Does she leave them to die?

The issue starts out sometime after the Four have left the ship. It gives as a specific timestamp on the 1st page: 288 hundred thousand light-years from Earth. 634 years, 8 months, 3 weeks, 4 days ago. The main series has the six of them (The four & 2 kids) traveling time & space but what does this timestamp really mean?

As I've brought up in my review of the main series the time scale isn't exactly stated for us the reader. I'm not even sure if the series takes place in the future or an alternate present? Then we get this massive time stamp dropped on us. So… the ship is in the past but has does it match up to the event at hand? They do countdown the 4 days in the first couple of pages & after those 4 days the Four arrive after Ultron has taken over (it does take 4 days to get there from where they are in space/time). BUT 4 DAYS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Ultron takes over the world in 4 days?

In our first flashback of the main series (which takes place in issue 2 & this tie in came out after Issue 2) to how the Age started Spider-Man gives us some of the events of the take over & then was captured. When the Four reach earth it looks like how we see in the series. So… in the space of 4 days Ultron took over? This still bring up the questions: Why & How? Why was this time so different? Also, How did he do it? The series never fully answers this. You only get glimpses of how the Age started. Plus Ultron never fully shows up to give as his grand "villain explains everything" speech.

The next day (it looks like they leave during the night) the Four leave, Franklin & Valerie find the holographic "note"  her parents, uncle & other "uncle" left them. They all loom sad & mopey (Franklin is wearing Human Torch pajamas). The rest of the issue intercuts between the kids getting the holonote & the Four trip back to earth.

We see the four leave the ship & using what The Thing calls a "Chronostellar Whatchamadoodle" they leave for Earth. If their mini-ship has what probably amounts to a flux capacitor then why didn't they arrive earlier? They got a message from earth to come back because it's "the end of the world" as Black Panther tells in a distress call. Use your science to travel to the time he sent it, not 4 days later!

They get back to Earth in a much more brightly colored ruined New York City then the one Bryan Hitch presents to sin the main series. They find a dead(?) Medusa on the ground & they go looking for the rest of the Future Foundation.

In the main series they have a companion book called FF which follows the exploits of the Future Foundation, the school Reed Richards has setup for really smart kids. While out IN SPACE,the four appointed an interim Fantastic Four: Medusa (of the Inhumans is Sue Richards' replacement), Ant-Man (Scott Lang is Reed Richards replacement as leader), She-Hulk (is The Thing's replacement) & Miss Thing (Darla Deering, Johnny Storm's "girlfriend" & last time replacement). The Four go to see if "The Omega Room" had been actives. It's like some super science panic room & it has not been. So… since we never seen anyone of them else where in the series what they are saying is: Everybody's dead, Reed. They are all dead. Leech, Artie Maddicks, Bentley-23: their dead. Ahura, Luna, Onome: Dead. Vil & Wu: Their are Dead. Mik, Korr, Turg, Tong: Dead. Dragon Man? Dead. Everybody is dead. 

Then before they really mourn the loss, The Ultron Bots attack.  I will say this : the bots here seem to be more "lively". That they have more personality then the other bots we've seen.

Then we cut back to the ship, Johnny says goodbye to the kids. Then, we go back to Earth & the Four are fighting the Bots. Johnny flies to take on the bots & explodes! Bots: dead. Johnny? probably dead. He isn't seen for the rest of the series.

We cut back to the ship & "Unca Ben" says goodbye. I'm skipping over most of the goodbye parts since I don't got much to say about them then it's nicely done & sad. In a narrative panel. Yup, 1 whole rectangle (white text on a black background) to tell use the read the fight is still going on 17 hours later.This might be the longest fight in the series. The Thing  spies a man in a hooded green cloak walking around with some Ultron bots. He jumps up from his hiding spot, says his catch & pounds the ground. When he looks up, it's not Doom but an Ultron Bot wear his cap & mask. Why? This is the only bot I've seen in the whole series to personalize it's self.  After the bot taunts  him a bit (something the other Bots don't do): "you were expecting someone else? Doom Fell. They All Fell."  The Thing then promptly knocks his block off & then he swarmed by a massive amount of Ultron Bots. The only other times I see that many Bots is on the covers. We are then to assume that The Thing has fallen.

 We cut back to the ship & get Reed's goodbye to his kids. He is silent for most of it. He writes it out on a notepad & shows it to them. We cut back to Earth where Reed & Sue are being chased by Ultron Bots. Reed tries to stop the boots by rolling them in a ball, they then start their self-destruction function & EXPLOSION!!!!!! Reed is dead & the only thing that save Sue is her force field.

Sue is found sometime later (what? no waste a panel to tell us something that could have been told in a small text panel). She is found by She-Hulk, the sole surviving member of the interim Fantastic Four & nothing about this is ever said! They do talk about how they "lost everything". Sue says "No… Not Everything…" As she looks up to the sky.

As cut back to the ship where Franklin comments there wasn't a goodbye from his mom but then he thinks to something I skipped that was earlier the comic when she said said good night to him before they left. Then Valerie questions her brother if they are going to see their parents again. He doesn't answer her. The comic ends with a zoom out on the ship & as I mentioned earlier are never mentioned in the the rest of the series. So… the kids are stuck back in time & out in space. Now it has been stated that the kids are smart (They are members of the Future Foundation after all) but do they know how to fly the ship? I know a whole bunch of the ship seems to be automated but can they override that stuff? All these questions & more from the series are left unanswered which is general theme to Age of Ultron.

One last thing: Sue plays a major part in the later part of Age of Ultron but as far as I can remember she doesn't mention anything about her kids in the series. Anywhere. They could of dropped in a line of dialogue here or there about her wanting to get back to her kids but no. They are not such lines in the series. They might as well be dead.

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The next tie in issue that was released was Superior Spider-Man #6 AU. What to really say about this issue? not much. I frankly think it's one of the weaker ones of the bunch. It's not that it's written by a bad writer. I have many issues of comics written by Christos Gage (who is not the normal writer for the book, Dan Slott is). It's not that the art is bad. It's my favorite art style but Dexter Soy does a good job (not sure if he is the artist for the "main" title but I doubt it). The cover by Marco Checchetto looks cool. It's that nothing of any real importance happens. One could easily skip over this book & be none the worse for wear. Frankly, one could skip over all the Age of Ultron tie-in books & not be missing out on anything. BUT I didn't since I have I'm reviewing them! :)

Before I get into the book it's self. Let's talk about the Wall Crawler for a moment. I've brought up my feeling in regards to him in a past post but I feel that Spider-Man to be boring. I have a general apathy towards him. Nothing about him really grabs me like other characters do. This does not mean I don't own Spider-Man comics. It's kind of hard to not own any but most of the comics that I have of his were bought for other reasons. Mostly it's either I heard the story was good & it features a character or characters that I enjoy. I have a whole swath of Spider-Man comics from the 80's. Why? Black Cat was featured prominently in them. I've liked things that feature Spider-Man. The 90's cartoon: awesome! The Sam Raimi movies: those were good (yes, Even the 3rd one. It wasn't that bad). I caught a bit of the Andrew Garfield helmed Spider-Man movie on TV & thought was pretty good. But in the comics I'm just apathetic on the character. I'll flip through the comics at the coif book store every so often but I'll rarely pick it up.

It's also a weird time in the Spider-Man comics at the moment. Spider-Man isn't really Spider-Man, He's Doctor Octopus!

Yeah!

He was dying of something & as a way to cheat death he went all Freaky Friday on his foe. They swapped bodies & "Doc Ock" died. But the mind of Peter Parker was still around some how. Otto has tried to purge it from the body which looked to have worked. But then there is a soon to be relaunched Amazing Spider-Man which looks to have Peter Parker back in control but I'm not sure if Superior Spider-Man is being cancelled. As I've said I don't follow the book. It's confusing.

BUT… getting to the issue it's self.  This tie in takes place after Issue 2. The sort of confusing part is that in the main series it's never established or hinted if the events of Superior Spider-Man (the body swap) has happened. Maybe Otto is really good at playing along & fooling everybody OR the writer of the series just didn't feel like doing all that stuff. He used "classic" Spider-Man. In this issue you actually get Octo-Spidey's inner monologue so you know it's Otto in there.

We start off with him being mopey. Why? Everybodys dead. He thinks he should happy since all people who hated him are also dead but then so is his at one time wife Aunt May (yeah, Doctor Octopus was married to Aunt May for awhile) & Mary Jane are dead. As mentioned in the main series, Octo-Spider-Man slept through the start of this age. He felt he should have been able to avoid this since it was Ultron who did this. Why? Because Ultron is a Robot & he's "a Master of Machines!" Uh… no. I think that's another guy.

Iron Man comes by in a armor less Tron inspired suit & tells him that he might be able to help out. Tony Stark doesn't have much hope in the plan Luke Cage is planning (the plan they come within & use in Issue 3). So… he bring up that while he was head of SHEILD he had planned out various countermeasures. One being a bomb thingy which when turned on would open a portal & would push a whole area into the Negative Zone!

1 Problem: They don't have a controller to the one they have. Why not? You think the controller would be near the device so you could pick both up & run with it. Maybe that's why they don;t have a controller? So you just can't run off with it? What Stark need is some "negative zone tech" & says that that stuff is hard to come by since the Fantastic Four's HQ is gone. No… I'm pretty sure it's still there. There is a building in Issue 1 that looks a lot like the lower half of the Baxter Building. I'm sure you could scrounge up some tech from that. Plus, this is a post apocalyptic Marvel story! The Baxter Building has got to still be around! It's an at least 30+ year transition to have it factor into your story!

Stark has "heard" that a guy at Horizon Labs (Octo-Spider-Man's day job) has some of that stuff. Stark wants Octo-Spider-Man to:

A. Go to the Lab

B. Find the pieces for bomb thingy's controller

C. Put it together

 Then Quicksilver will run around Ultron's base, place a bunch of the bomb things around it. They push Ultron's base into the Negative Zone & hope he in there at the time. Which as revealed later on in the series: He's not even in this time period. Octo-Spider-Man things this a risky plan but goes along with it anyways!

Octo-Spider-Man goes off to Horizon. Thinks he'll be hard to get in but since we can see the building has massive holes in it: That shouldn't be a problem. We also few skeletons skittered around. This would be the first time we've seen any dead bodies about in New York. On the next page we get a nice close up on one!

We also find out that Octo-Spider-Man only went with the plan so he could get to his lab. He then starts to going about how he'll turn Ultron's forces against him since as has been brought up: HE IS THE MASTER OF MACHINES!

What's the first thing he does when he gets to his lab? Turn on stuff which of course alerts 3 floating Ultron bots. This of course has the bots come into the Lab & they says the series tagline which leads us to a fight scene. He takes down 1 bot which cause them to bring in more Bots. With those bots there he attaches a… uh… thingy. It's some Spider-Man themed bot that attached to the Ultron bot chest & overrides it to be come a Ultron Bot with Octopus arms sticking out of their back. The "infected" Ultron Bots start to the other Ultron Bots. In a text box it says that he is mentally controlling the infected Bots with HIS MIND! I will say this: they do look kind of cool but don't appear anywhere else in the series.

He then sends one of the Octo-Ultron Bots to Ultron's base. The bots basically walks into the base & almost reaches who we find out later to be the top of Vision (controlled by Ultron from the Future) but is stopped. By what? Ultron of course! This stop cause pain to Octo-Spider-Man. Vision must have better anti-virus software then the Bots do. This also cause Octo-Spider-Man to release control of the Ultron Bots.

Since he has been defeaten He goes back to the original plan of getting the controller for Stark. This a mid of Ultron Bots shooting lasers at him. He run over to a cabinet. He either finds a part of a controller, or the controller it self just sitting there. BUT then it blows up after being hit by a blast from the bots. Then like in Issue 1 everything starts to shake & we cut to outside with a bunch of Ultron Bots doing their best Sentinel impressions agian. They once again do their best Care Bear Stares which cause the building to blow up!

And he dead right? No. Not sure how he surveyed that explosion. Last time it clearly showed him outside when it happen. This time he was clearly shown as being inside. He gets outside (somehow) and sadly walks back to tell Stark that he didn't get the controller. BUT he could have if he wasn't being self centered.

He lies to Stark about there "not being enough time" . Stark tries to tell him that it was a longshot & wouldn't have worked anyways. Octo-Spider-Man said that it would have. But didn't say "it would have worked if I wasn't be a self centered jerk". There is some final thoughts by Octo-Spider-Man about that friendship is magic & can over come death.

Where does this issue leave us? Where we were at the beginning. Not was gained with this issue. At least with Fantastic Four we got to see what they were doing before the age started & saw where the kids are. But this issue I'm not sure what to make of it. I have no "good" take away from it. All the the other tie in books I can thing of at least 1 good take away or a way to make it batter but with this one I don't.

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That's the first 2 tie in issues before we jump back into the main series next time I'll be review the 1st actually enjoyable tie in issue. We also see what Ultron's older son is doing in this age. Until then: Stay Jazzy!