Review: Age of Ultron #10

Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Alex Maleev, Bryan Hitch, Butch Guice, Brandon Peterson, Carlos Pacheco, David Marquez, Joe Quesada and others
Published by Marvel Comics

With Wolverine's plot to assassinate Hank Pym averted, the Marvel Universe is allowed to unfold unaltered. Unfortunately, there's still the matter of a killer robot to deal with and the consequences of abusing the timeline. In saving his own world, has Wolverine damned others?

I'd like to say this was a triumphant conclusion to both the Age of Ultron and Brian Michael Bendis' time with the Avengers, but I can't. At least not in good conscience. As sad as it is to report, the man who turned around the entire franchise with his New Avengers relaunch back in 2004, has turned in one of the worst event comics of all-time. Remember how jumbled, confusing and unsatisfying Grant Morrison's Final Crisis was? Well it's got nothing on Age of Ultron, which is lazily plotted, disappointingly resolved, schizophrenically-drawn and far more concerned with what comes next than what's happening in the present.

The issue opens with a brief sequence of Heroic Age Hank Pym working in his lab, being gifted with the knowledge to avert the Age of Ultron, literally delivered to his doorstep. Apparently, he'd developed the relevant programs to put down Ultron years earlier, during Wolverine and Sue Storm's visit, but had the information wiped from his memory so to allow the Marvel Universe to develop undisturbed. It's a wonderfully drawn sequence by Alex Maleev, who could draw two people sharing a cup of coffee and it'd hold my attention. However, it's hard to escape the fact he's had the story's Deus Ex Machina placed in his hands, ready for use. It robs the entire event of all tension and may as well have been a big red button reading "ULTRON ON/OFF SWITCH".

Sufficed to say, there's a prolonged fight scene between the Avengers and the reawakened Ultron, but knowing Pym has the answer stashed in his back pocket, I spent the majority of the issue screaming "GET ON WITH IT!". Bendis tries his best to make us believe that the virus won't work and Ultron will still end up taking over the Earth, but at issue 10 of a series, who is he trying to fool. Pym uploads the virus in the nick of time and the robot falls out of the sky like a tin can. This scene can only be described as going through the motions. Certain things are expected of an event finale and a giant battle is one of them. Taking down Ultron was a foregone conclusion, but the structure of comic books dictated we needed a few extra pages of Thor swinging his hammer to go home happy. If I had to guess, even Bendis himself was disinterested by this point of the story and wanted to move on to juicier subjects i.e. the cliffhangers.

With Ultron defeated and the world saved, Wolverine and Sue Storm are back in the present day, patting each other on the back for a job well done. Or at least they thought it well done. Just when it couldn't get worse, the entire time space continuum shatters panel by panel, causing everyone to convulse in pain. Despite time travel being a long-time trope of superhero comics, this was one time too many. Wolverine's abuse of the timeline has sent tears careening through the Multiverse, even being felt as far away as the Ultimate Universe (who now have 616 Galactus to deal with!). This was clearly Bendis' endgame for the series (and several others if All-New X-Men is anything to go by) and he couldn't get there fast enough. I'm all for wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey shenanigans (I'm a fan of Doctor Who after all), but I'll be damned if these hiccups have any rhyme or reason. It's far more akin to the writer throwing all his toys in the air and seeing where they land. Especially, the bizzare random addition to the Marvel Universe on the final page.

While time travel stories can be a lot of fun when done right, when done poorly they can be utterly disastrous. This genre is a double-edged sword and Bendis' Age of Ultron came down on the wrong side. No real lesson has been learned, no characters can remember it, hell, besides a few upcoming crossovers between realities, this may as well have never happened. That is the biggest sin a time travel story can ever commit - making the journey utterly pointless.

3 out of 10

Weekly Round-Up 25/09/2012

NIGHTWING #0 (DC)

Epitomising the notion of DC's "Zero Month", we're taken all the way back to Dick Grayson's origin as Robin. It's pretty much beat for beat everything you'd expect from such a story. No radical reinventions on display here. But even so, a solid retelling of the tale none the less. The only true alterations come in the form of furthering writer Kyle Higgins' running theme of Dick always looking forward, never back. There's a particularly clever scene depicting this, with Dick and a childhood friend racing a train and saving an endangered innocent in the process. The only possible downside is the ghastly revisionist Robin costume. What was once a tunic and pixie boots has become a godawful suit of armour with so many details it must take the artist an hour to simply remember what it looked like in the last panel. The New 52 has been rife with such outfits and sometimes they could do with taking a step back and realising - simpler is better.

8 out of 10

SPIDER-MEN #5 (MARVEL)

In the final issue of this landmark crossover between 616 and Ultimate universes, Peter Parker and Miles Morales team up one last time to take down the dimension-hopping threat of Mysterio. So why does it feel like nothing much actually happened in this mini-series? Over the course of these five issues, conflict has been kept to a minimum, instead being more of a polite meet and greet between the two Spider-Men. Mysterio is so easily defeated in this issue that you can't help but wonder why it took so long in the first place. However, it's not all bad, as the bonding between the two arachnid-themed heroes has been genuinely funny and compelling. While it's not really the 616 Peter's place to give Miles his blessing (what with being in the wrong universe and all), the advice he was relaying was heartfelt and meaningful. Miles has always been lacking in any endorsement from his universe's dead Peter Parker, so it's quite fitting he receives it here. The issue ends on a hell of a cliffhanger, with Peter looking into whether or not the 616 universe has a Miles Morales of it's own. I don't know what it is that he found on that Google search, but I'm sure I'd buy another mini-series to find out!

9 out of 10

 STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - HIVE #1 (IDW)

As a life-long Star Trek fan, the initial news of this mini-series captivated my interest. Unfortunately, the implementation has failed to deliver on every conceivable level. Beginning five hundred years in the future, it's revealed that the Borg have achieved their goal of assimilating the entire galaxy. Yet their quest for perfection has yielded no answers, no resolution, no peace - they're actually quite bored by it. The reassimilated Locutus sets into motion a plan to restore the region to it's former glory and like all good Trek stories - uses time travel to do it. The issue itself features a horrifying scene which can only be described as Picard calling old flame Vash for a booty call, a frankly laughable Data substitute and manages to undo four seasons of character development for a major Voyager cast member (it shouldn't be too hard to guess who - she's on the cover!). Also, if the plot hinges on travelling back in time to stop the total assimilation of the galaxy, who are these new inter-dimensional beings acting as the villain and why should we care about them when all signs point to them being a wild goose chase. When Brannon Braga left the Star Trek franchise behind, that was the best decision anyone could ever have made. Why undo that all these years later?

3 out of 10

THE WALKING DEAD #102 (IMAGE)

Still reeling from the shocking events from issue 100, Rick's group have made their way back home to the Washington compound. Last issue's cliffhanger reveal of Andrea having captured a prisoner would have typically been taken as a rallying cry, especially with this group of characters. However, writer Robert Kirkman expertly turns the dynamic on it's head. Sure having a prisoner is a tactical advantage, but they're up against overwhelming numbers and one man held in a cupboard isn't going to change that. Previously, we would've expected lead character Rick Grimes to take his sweet revenge on the prisoner and set out looking for the villain, but recent events have shaken this once proud man into apathy. Where mere issues before he was offering his military support to a neighbouring community, he's now backed down and is actually conceding to the rebel's demands (or at least we think he is). For a hundred issues, these characters have proudly taken on the world all by themselves. This issue intelligently explores the option of cowardice under such circumstances, as worrying as that may be.

10 out of 10