Age of Ultron

Spidey, Wolvie, X-men, Captain America, The Hulk, Fantastic Four... you get the idea.

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Stocky Boy
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Age of Ultron

Post by Stocky Boy »

AGE OF ULTRON #1

I quite enjoyed this.

From the story it appears that the events take part several months into a recent future where Ultron has come back and re-modded New York a bit. I'm also guessing that the story is hinting that on top of the infrastructure changes, Ultron has most of the population under computerised control. We don't see any civilians, but the idea of parasitic control is implied during an interaction between what appears to be the remaining few active heroes.
We get some fantastic action scenes in this first issue to set the tone of how different this world is to what we're used to and Hitch's big cinematic art does a fantastic job of selling to us the scene and the world.
The end of the issue uses what is a standard Marvel trope, I feel, but does do it well. This trope is to do with a certain character who embodies an attitude of 'can do' and 'don't give up' and the trope is when you demonstrate that this character has lost all hope. The story of course, in part, will be about how this character lifts their head up again and wins the day.

I really enjoyed this. I think you can come into it without any prior knowledge of any of the cast. Obviously, with that trope thing, it relies on you knowing the character a bit to get the full impact, but it still makes its point even if you aren't familiar with the characters.


I'm really looking forward to the next issue. I'm hoping the whole story will be relatively self contained. I see there are a few spin-offs, but AOU is a weekly title I think, so I'm hoping the story will play out entirely in AOU and the spin-offs will not be essential.


One tiny gripe with an art moment!
How can Hawkeye fire this arrow without the explovies catching on the bow? On top of which, the sticky stuff will stick to the bow as well.
http://ifanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2 ... terior.jpg

Oh and why does Bryan Hitch love those cycling gloves so much?

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Tragic Angelus
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Post by Tragic Angelus »

I didn't mind it. It was nice seeing who all was and wasn't free, and I like the mystery of trying to figure out how Ultron came to be in power and what it is all the heroes are worried about.

Overall though, and I chalk this up to the Hitch artwork (which was really amazing, I must say), it felt like I was reading the Ultimates. I had a hard time reminding myself that this was in the main Marvel Universes and not the Ultimate one. The story felt somewhat like the Ultimate Universe in that the heroes did things in an 'in any means necessary' to survive, and the look to all the heroes just resembled it, but again I chalk that up to Hitch's work.

I like that this will be coming out rapid fire, similar to how Avengers Vs X-Men did. In four months, we're going to get 10 issues, which to me really moves an event book along. It won't take a year to finish this, which would just null and void any of those 'big major changes' because the next event is about to start as it finishes.

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wolf_2099
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Post by wolf_2099 »

I, also, felt like this was Ultimate Comics: Age of Ultron.

I really enjoyed it, but by no means did it seem like 616 Marvel.
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MGM
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Post by MGM »

Well, Peter was an adult.

But yes, especially with the death Hawkeye was throwing around, this felt like an Ultimate Comics issue. Other than that, it was pretty good.

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Stocky Boy
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Post by Stocky Boy »

Yeah, that's funny actually. You've all just reminded me that, when I picked up the book, I thought it felt like an Ultimates story. I guess Hitch is just so synonymous with Ultimates volumes 1 and 2. He hasn't done anything else as big, since then... has he? Millar on the other hand has done so much since then that he's no uniquely synonymous with Ultimates.

Makes you wonder if a simple artist change, like a Coipel or a Yu would not have made you feel this way.

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wolf_2099
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Post by wolf_2099 »

No, not really.
Just some Cap, and 1-shots.

It, to me, even with a different artist would have felt like the Ult. Universe. It felt very similar to Ultimate Fallout, also written by BMB.
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Post by jedispyder »

Finally got around to reading it. While I normally like in-medias-res, this time it didn't really work. Since a lot of pages were no dialogue (are we sure Bendis is writing this?!?), the read went by fast without explaining stuff. It felt like half an issue expanded to a full issue. It was a good read, just didn't explain anything at all. I do love the art so that's why I wasn't completely annoyed by major lack of writing.

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Tragic Angelus
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Post by Tragic Angelus »

I think the Ultimates feel is two fold. Yes, the Hitch is the primary factor, but the story itself does lend some of it to an Ultimates story. However, Hitch's art really pushes that even more so.

But since Hitch isn't the only artist on the book, it'll be interesting to see if that feeling will hold over when it switches after issue 4 (I believe, isn't it?).

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Stocky Boy
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Post by Stocky Boy »

Anyone else feel they needed to know when the last time Ultron appeared was?
I'm comfortable not knowing, or having it all revealed later.

I also think the absence of knowing how it all happened and getting straight into it is another factor that lets us think of this as a book set in another world.

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Post by jedispyder »

Last big Ultron appearance was in Annihilation: Conquest where he worked/merged with the Phalanx and fucked shit up. Then a future version of him appeared in the first arc of the last volume of Avengers. Then a discontinued body of him was the primary focus of Bendis' Moon Knight maxi-series from 2011-2012 (which was pretty damn good, very surprised by it).

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Stocky Boy
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Post by Stocky Boy »

Thanks Chris!

It's funny, because I've read all those books and couldn't remember jack shit. I too thought the Moon Knight series was really good.

So...

AGE OF ULTRON #2


More great, cinematic art from Bryan Hitch on display. Another part of the US shown to us to be occupied by Ultron's hostile take over. Presumably this is global in scale.
The despair and horror felt by the world's superhero defense is touched upon again in this issue with a scene with Blackwidow. With two heroes on the other side of America, I'm curious to see how they get tied up with the Central Park A-team.

Back at Central Park Spidey explains how he got captured and gives the readers some plot to bite on and Captain America an idea. So, issue 2 ends by drawing a direct comparison to issue 1's ending. Despair ending followed by a glimmer of optimism ending. Quite nice.

The book is moving along slowly. Nothing much has happened. We've learnt pretty much nothing about Ultron's plan - other than the obvious world domination - but, no explanation of how it came to be. Since this is a weekly book though, I think the pace is fine. It has me interested in the next issue, where I expect to see Cap's plan put into action due in part to the ending of this issue and the cover to issue 3. http://assets2.ignimgs.com/2013/02/25/a ... 48017c.jpg
This cover is presumably informing us that the plan is to offer up a hero as bait to get someone into the base of Ultron. While speculating about this, it occurs to me that it's okay at this point not to understand why Ultron is trading with other villains and what and why Cap feels he has a plan with limited intell feeding this plan. However, if the plan gets executed without informing the reader of why they think it will work and really what it is in the first place, it's unlikely to be executed well. So, this will be interesting to see.


When is this story taking place and in what universe?
I feel that the different costumes is either telling us this is set in the near future or an alternative earth. I kind of remember the first panel of issue 1 saying, "Today". So, I'm guessing different universe.

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Post by wolf_2099 »

This is regular marvel U, but a little in the future.
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Post by jedispyder »

I felt like issue #2 went by too fast and didn't give any information at all besides "Nicky Fury is missing, all this happened over night, and there is some caped person who took down Spider-Man". Again, just like the first issue, it felt like half an issue spread out over 1 full issue just for the sake of art.

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Post by Tragic Angelus »

Issue one was definitely better than two, but overall it still was a fun read. However, I had NO clue that was Black Widow at all. In fact, I still wasn't sure after I read the entire issue until I flipped to the cover. So she's been disfigured by something, is that right? Or was it someone else?

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Post by Stocky Boy »

On House to Astonish's most recent podcast they made a joke that Hitch's art was like a National Geographic of rubble. :D
They really criticise the pace and they make the point that ironically a lot has technically happened despite the slow pace i.e. Ultron has taken over the world - but we didn't get to see it.
These are all good points, but I am enjoying it.

Roll on issue 3!

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Post by Stocky Boy »

AGE OF ULTRON #4
Writer: Brian Micheal Bendis
Artist: Bryan 'Gravel' Hitch :)


So, the plot moves on and we discover that Ultron will be harder to get to than we possibly could have known already. I think we're seen preview art of Kang already, so I guess the 'future' aspect of the plot will involve Kang.

The three/four groups of heros' stories who we've been following all meet up in the Savage Land and we move on a little bit more. The pace would be unacceptable in a monthly book, but it's okay on this weekly/bi-weekly schedule.

I'm enjoying it, but I feel like it's not very well written. It's hitting some good beats, actions exciting, but it feels like the future thing wasn't set up very well.

I also expected to see Cage. I kind of felt it was odd that they didn't let you see him to ram home the devastation of Ultron's takeover.

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Post by Stocky Boy »

So, we're now on issue 7.

Quick mental recap of issues 5 and 6 then.
Fury arrives, he has a plan. He takes a group of people into the future. Cannot remember what happens to this group other than them getting swarmed by Ultron heads.
Wolverine had voiced another plan. Invisible Woman is supposed to go with the future strike team, but instead hangs back. She goes with Wolverine into the past to kill Hank Pym. At the start, it's a little unclear whether she's there to stop Wolverine or aid him. At the final moment, she is persuaded that killing Pym is the better of two evils. Obviously Sue and Logan are counting on their actions producing far more favorable results for the future than the current timeline has produced.
Issue 7 has arrived.

AGE OF ULTRON #7
Writer: Brian Micheal Bendis
Artist: Bryan Hitch

In this issue, an introduction to the consequences of killing Hank Pym. Wolverine and Sue discover a world that is still standing, but one where the Avengers/Defenders clearly wear the scars of battles that went a victorious but damaging way seemingly because of Pym's death.
Stark, is introduced at the end as clearly the Mr Big of this new time line. It's left unclear whether he's a monster or simply Mr Big.

I reckon we'll learn some unfortunate news like Johnny Storm and the entire X.Men died in the Kree Skrull war that came to Earth, so that Wolveine and Sue can look back at their actions and think, "bugger". Maybe we'll also discover that Stark unchained and responsible for global security is a real bastard. There will presumably be a 'best of' time jump action that will New 52 the Marvel universe at the end of this, featuring Neil Gaiman's Spawn character and possibly Marvel Man.

It seems clear to me now that this story is merely a vehicle for resetting the Marvel Universe. Telling a story about Ultron conquering the Earth does not actually appear to be the goal of the saga called, 'Age of Ultron'. The goal is to tell a time travel story where the heroes use time travel to correct a horrific future, mess up, and use one final attempt to change the future for the better changing the status quo forever.

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Tragic Angelus
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Post by Tragic Angelus »

This has gone downhill very fast for me. I was enjoying it at the start but now it's like Fear Itself all over again. I just want it to end so we can move on.

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Post by Stocky Boy »

How many issues in total? 10?

So, #8 comes out this week. As a quick aside, anyone else feel Newsarama's new preview function is a bit shit? I can't figure out how you see the whole page enlarged.

I was just wondering, since it seems like the reset button will be hit at the end of Age of Ultron, what do you feel will be the new Marvel?

The things that seem on the cards are:
- Introduction of Angela (definitely on the cards)
- Introduction of MarvelMan

What else?

I suspect some the following:
- New Nick Fury becomes the Nick Fury. I think they'll meld the two together and say that in the new universe, they were always the same. I think it may be the perfect time to get this non movie synced nuisance for Marvel sorted.

Depending on what manner of reset we get, I think the whole Mephisto deal for Spiderman will get washed away and with any luck all of Jeph Loeb's Wolverine will be retconned.

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Post by Stocky Boy »

AGE OF ULTRON #8
Writer: Brian Micheal Bendis
Artist: Not Bryan Hitch

So, Sue and Wolverine discover that the world they gambled on being better than their world is in fact better, but only kind of slightly. If you believed in determinism, then you might conclude that the Marvel Earth was always destined to reach a point of total domination no matter where the threat came from.
Personally, I feel that it hasn't been acknowledged by characters like Xavier and Stark that although Wovlerine and Sue's decision wasn't flawlessly moral, it was the most a far better outcome for the Earth than doing nothing.

So, the assasination of Pym has replaced the Ultron led takeover with an imminent one from Morgane Le Fey.
Anyone familiar with Morgane Le Fey from the Marvel continuity? Is she from an Avengers storyline where Pym was pivotal?

From preview/cover art, it looks like one partial solution to the current problem will be Wolverine from AOU killing his slightly younger self before he kills Pym. Presumably Age of LeFey Stark will provide him a further solution for course correcting Pym whilst at the same time saving the Earth from both hostile future take overs.

This issue is kind of fun because it's always fun to see different takes on established characters. The 'What If' always appeals.

I have a bit of a problem with the potential course-correction. If Age of Le Fey Stark comes up with a solution... I'm not convinced AOU Stark couldn't have come up with the plan as well and initiated that plan instead of going into the future.

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