Brandon Peterson

I had very low expectations for Age of Ultron. The reviews were mostly middling to negative and, honestly, I hate the character. He is the most boring, one-dimensional villain ever. So unlike may others, I was delighted to find that he is mostly absent from the story.

As a crossover, AoU is probably the weakest of all. Everything is reset at the end, so there are no long-term consequences for the Marvel Universe, like in Civil War or Siege, which is what makes a crossover. However, AoU is an show more excellent stand alone story. While reading, I couldn't but see how much like X-Men: Days of Future Past this is (at least the film, as I haven't read the comics). The future ends up horrible and someone has to go back in time to try and change that. And it just so happens to be Wolverine in both cases. The story isn't exactly original, but the action and individual character beats make it a great read.

The book opens with some amazing heroics by Hawkeye, the wise-cracking Casanova of the Avengers, who single-handedly rescues Spider-man from a dire situation. It was a powerful opening to the story - one which makes me hope that the next film will showcase him better, more like his comic version. He is seriously badass. Black Widow, another Avenger without "powers," has a remarkable adventure during this bleak future as well. I know very little about the "British" heroes, but their story with Captain Marvel was also engaging. It was all these small elements that made the overall tale so good.

Overall, I still don't like Ultron, but this event is much better than I ever expected. I intend to reads the Age of Ultron Companion collection as well. Highly recommended. show less

Horrible.

I read this when I heard the title of the new Avengers movie. Whedon has said that he would be giving Ultron a new origin, so it would deviate from this storyline. I hope it deviates all the way, because Age of Ultron is probably the worst comic book miniseries I've ever read.

I barely know where to start. It's an interesting idea, start the story off with Ultron having taken over the world, and the Avengers having lost. See how these characters cope with their loss, and the loss of show more their teammates. The "epic battle" to save the world already happened, and the good guys failed. It's a neat idea, and Ultron is an awesome villain, what with being able to insta-vaporize pretty much anyone. Unfortunately, Bendis completely squanders this idea, weaving a story that is so godawful that it's almost worth reading just to see the trainwreck unfold.

First of all, every issue is padded considerably. The first two issues, in which we establish the post-apocalyptic New York, has Captain America literally sitting in a corner being sad, and he doesn't start a plan until issue 3. This could have easily been one issue, or even the start of one issue. This trend continues through the series, 2 or 3 issues at a time could easily just be one.

Every character is a braindead version of a character you know and love. She-Hulk and Luke Cage, arguably two of the strongest heroes left alive, hatch a plan to basically go visit Ultron under the guise of bartering with him. And then do what, exactly? Well, master strategist Captain America's plan is for them to basically see, once they get there, if there is anything useful they can learn. Great plan. They die, obviously, leaving the team without super-strength.

They retreat to the Savage Land, which Ultron hasn't taken over for some reason, and come across other superheroes who... somehow, knew to come here. Then they hatch another plan. See, it turns out Ultron is actually in the future, and he's using Vision to take over the present time via time conduit or some shit. So they go to the future to defeat him. What? Why would he have any less protection in the future, when there is nothing but more time to build his Army? And you guys got your asses handed to you when you had 10x the number of superheroes, why the hell would you be any more equipped here? Great plan. They die, obviously, leaving the team without leadership.

So then Wolverine and Invisible Woman decide to go to the past to stop Ultron from ever coming into existence. So naturally they go tell a younger Hank Pym that he creates Ultron, in a scene reminiscent of Terminator 2 when Miles Dyson is told he's responsible for the destruction of humanity. Hank, like Miles, joins up with his time-traveling friends to stop this from ever happening. No, I'm actually just kidding about all of this, what happens is that Wolverine decides he needs to KILL Pym (of course) and Invisible Woman basically agrees, after mild protest.

So then they travel back to the present and discover that everything is different and now Tony Stark is evil and controls everything. Also Cable and Cyclops are one person, and Captain America and Nick Fury are one person? I don't know, it's bananas. Of course, they've now thoroughly altered the course of history, so literally everything that has happened, including the travel into the future to stop Ultron, is dropped on the floor. Tons and tons of plot threads and character arcs, vanished instantly.

Anyway, the new present sucks too, so they go back in time, and Wolverine tries to stop Wolverine from killing Pym. They decide to tell Pym after all, but tell Pym not to remember and to instead just put a fail-safe into Ultron so that he can be deleted at a later date, the exact date before Ultron takes over the world. This shit is fucking insane.

This entire story should have a three or four-issue miniseries, at best. Oh, by the way, are you wondering how many of the 10 terribly-written issues of "Age of Ultron" actually see an appearance by Ultron? Yeah, its one. The last one.

Seriously, fuck this miniseries, it's terrible. show less

The first half of the arc is a solid post-apocalyptic "what if Ultron won" future dystopia. The stakes are high, the characters feel like themselves (albeit in more dire straits than usual), the sacrifices feel like they matter and have weight. The second half is a bit more run of the mill, as they split off in two groups to attempt two different solves (simplified, they are time travelling to the future, and time travelling to the past), but there are still some good story moments and a show more satisfying end and Wolverine's final moment with his own double is particularly memorable. Miniseries approved. show less

This was pretty insane. Everybody was dying, the whole world was being destroyed. They did an amazing job of instilling a sense of dread and I love the strange assortment of heroes who ended up hanging out together. Of course, the good guys won (they always do) in the end, but I'm super curious how they move forward from here. Going to read Avengers AI soon to find out.