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!

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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!

This is Entry 272: Why not both?

I like Earth 2/Earth-2/Earth-Two (how ever you wanna write it), the DC Comics alternate universe. A concept (yes, concept) that has been around for 50+ years.

I like the original version. 

I like the other versions that have come out (which most of them were sadly under explored). 

I even like the current version that is out in your local/online comic book store (it’s one of the bright spots in the New 52 for me).

But I feel like that with a number of things in comics: you aren’t suppose to like them all. You are to take a side & with Earth 2, the side you are to take is the side of the Original. There is no taking the other side(s) because if you do: your wrong!

But why? 

“Because it’s not Earth 2!" 

Sure it is. It’s right there on the cover! It’s just not the one you want.

“NO! It’s not Earth 2! It’s not the Justice Society!" 

And this is a bad thing? They can’t take a concept, rework it & do something "new" with it. The current Earth 2 book certainly is "not your father’s Earth 2" but I think that was sort of the point. Wasn’t that point of the entire New 52 relaunch? Take a concept you already know & do something else with it, something that might appeal to the comic book reader of today? They haven’t completely changed it all into something else then DC would be printing Tangent Comics again (which I'd be ok with, I liked Tangent).

I see the “It’s not the Justice Society” comment a lot when people are talking about the Earth 2 book & that comment is understandable since that team is the one that is most closely associated with the Earth (Them & Infinity Inc.). Earth 2 is 20+ issues into it’s run & still no Justice Society in sight, there hasn’t even been a reference to such a thing. There has only been passing references to even having the heroes running about Earth 2 all band together into 1 team. Yes, the heroes have banned together but that was to combat a threat they couldn't fight by themselves, there has been no talk of if they'll stay together afterwards.

An Earth 2 without a Justice Society? I for one am ok with this. I came into the book not thinking this would be a return to the Earth 2 of old because I knew this would not happen. That concept would not work in the New 52. I had faith in writer James Robinson that he would do something interesting with the book & he had (He has since left the book to do other things, like the Fantastic Four for Marvel & 2 issues in: it looks to be an interesting run on the book).

I have been enjoying seeing who shows up in the book & seeing how they have changed. I wanted to see what this new world held for us. Sure, there has been some stupid things sprinkled through out. This is the New 52 after all! I want to see where this trip takes us. If we do eventually get a Justice Society somewhere down the road: cool! If not: I’m fine with that too.

If want to see the Earth 2 of old have a bunch of comics to tide me over & I can always buy a bunch more back issues if I want too also. This new Earth 2 in no way invalidates the Earth 2 of old, they are just 2 worlds vibrating different frequencies :)

Age of Uh.. Recap

In the first five issues of Age of Ultron….

They establish the hell out of this age by showing us how really crappy yet nicely rendered it is for a few pages. Hawkeye goes all commando to go save Spider-Man from like the only super viilains well see for the entire series. We get a fight scene before a pack of Ultron bots come on down & destroy the villain brownstone by Care Bear Staring it to pieces. Hawkeye & Spidey make there way over to 1 of 2 downed SHEILD Hellicarriers to where the remaining 2 dozen or so NYC based heroes are just chilling. Hawkeye & Spidey might of have gotten cancer by being scanned by Tony Stark (Skeletons are not made to glow through your skin). We see a sad Captain America mopping about. 

Black Widow & Moon Knight are just hanging out, hanging out in San Francisco in one of Nick Fury's bunkers. San Fran has a ton more dead bodies littered about then NYC does. The Tagline for the series is mentioned for maybe the only time. Back in NYC, Spidey has story time & tells of how the age all stated out. Well… no… Spidey slept through the beginning (He didn't even show up late with coffee!). He told of the end of the beginning & even that wasn't much. Cap does stand up, stops being mopey & says something heroic.

There now 3 pockets of heroes around the country: NYC, Chicago & San Fran (screw you, southern states!). The Non-New York pockets do a bunch more then stuff but are smaller in number (must be because the lack of Hellicarrier to hang out in). After many, many, many, pages of talking the NYC heroes do something. Luke Cage takes a playing dead She-Hulk to the Ultron Bots to find what's going on! We find that Ultron isn't behind this all but the upper torso, arms & head of The Vision is! But that is wrong! Ultron is still behind this all but is controlling Vision like a puppet from THE FUTURE!  We see Luke Cage being a B.A.M.F. but he sadly dies off panel. The pocket of heroes are coming together by making their way down to the Savage Land in the Antarctic. This journey is told to us by way of a text box that took up an entire page.

In Issue 5, we get a flashback with some foreshadowing. In the Savage Land, the heroes meet up with Ka-Zar & head off to another Nick Fury bunker where they meet up with the super spy to discuss what to do about a problem like Ultron. There is some more talk which makes he continue to wonder how in the heck Ultron conquered the entire country. 

There are a few plans thrown out & a bunch of pages of talking happen. There are 2 main plans on the table: 1. use a time machine to go back in time cut of Hank Pym's hands so he go about creating Ultron in they first plan (this plan was suggested by Wolverine) & 2. go to THE VAGUELY DEFINED FUTURE to find Ultron to fight him on his home turf. Plan 1 is turned down & half of the heroes all gear up & head on off THE FUTURE!  One of the heroes left behind is Wolverine & asks if anyone left there knowhow to work the time machine because he wants to try out his plan.

And that was the first half of the Age of Ultron. What does the later half in store us? Wolverine royally  screws over all of time & space by thinking with his claws. There is also the actually interesting yet sadly under developed part of the series. Plus, Tie-in Issues! Some were good, some were ok & some were pointless!

come back next time for the tie-in issues for Superior Spider-Man, Fantastic Four & find out how Victor Mancha (of Runways fame) ties into this whole thing.

Until then: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 270: 90'S COMICS SUCK!!!!!!

I feel personally hurt when I see this blanket phrase used & it gets used a lot on the the internet.

This happens mostly when someone happen to point out something (look at this costume design, see this cover, what is going on in this panel, etc.) from the 90’s comics. If the person pointing out this thing doesn’t say it, someone in the comments will most likely say that “this is why 90’s comics suck”. Oddly enough most if not all of these things pointed out are from the first half of the decade & not the later half. There are things to be hating on past ‘95 too! Heroes Reborn was around until ‘97!

Why do I get hurt over a comment like this? You are attacking a period of comics that I particularly like. This is the decade that I “came of age” & is also the one where I started to read comics (does this mean that I also suck?). I started to read comics in the thick of what some would call a “dark time” in comic if they wanted to get all dramatic about it. I started to read comics in summer 1991 & over the next few years: I saw Batman being broken & be replaced by the most 90’s of replacements. I saw Superman die. I saw the reign of his replacements. I saw Superman return from the dead & sport a mullet! I saw him become electric & blue! I saw the X-Men be overcome by Leifelding proportions! And Pouches: every X-Men had pouches sometime during the 90’s! I saw The Invisible Woman wear a glorified one piece swimsuit with various cutouts so she might as well have been a bikini as her approved uniform!

I was there!

Were there things that “sucked”? yeah. There will always be sucky things in comics. It’s part of it’s foundation. Right up there with belted undies & “science mishaps = super powers”.

Were there various problems with the comics of the time? Yes! But then present day comics have all sort of problems, too. Comics will always have problems no matter the time period they come out in. Some of the same problems are coming back into comics 20 years later.

Should people hold back on using the S word when discussing 90’s comics? Sure. It would be nice. I doubt it’ll happen. The Internet survives on a unhealthy diet of hate & one of the major parts of the comic book pyramid of discussion is “hating on 90’s comics”. It’s right up there with “unexplained hatred of Aquaman”, “Sexism in Comics” & “Deadpool is so awesome!”

I wish more people would give more thought to why something might suck & why it was allowed to exist (money? poor creative choice? unholy pacts with the devil? drug habits? misunderstanding popular trends?). We all know the jokes but can’t we come up with new ones that haven’t already been run into the ground?

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.