Review: Age of Ultron

Quick Summary

Pros: The majority of the narrative is extremely exciting and is made even more exciting by the high-stakes nature of the event. The concepts driving the story forward are wonderfully creative. The artwork is positive, especially in the book’s first half.

Cons: The narrative doesn’t elaborate on some topics that could use elaboration. The comic tries to make a moral statement but poorly executes it.

Overall: This is an action-packed and intense event. The comic places a ton of emphasis on creating epic battles and drama that remains compelling all the way through. Unfortunately, less attention is paid to developing the comic’s theme or explaining how some aspects of this drama occur. Readers looking for some over-the-top heroics may enjoy this event, as long as they recognize that it might not hold up well against scrutiny.

Story

Age of Ultron, by Brian Michael Bendis, is an event that delivers tons of fun on the surface but also delivers a bit of frustration beneath the surface. This comic revolves around a fight between all of the world’s heroes and Ultron. This fight is intense, requires smart maneuvering, and has the entire planet up for grabs. It also takes place across a variety of creative battlefields. However, the fight often leaves a bit too much to the imagination and ends up not explaining some questions that most readers probably would have liked to have explained. In addition, the comic’s overall theme is really unclear and even trips over itself at points. In this way, Age of Ultron works well as an apocalyptic display of action across the Marvel universe but not necessarily as a deep and thought-provoking read.

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The most easily recognizable positives in Age of Ultron come from the dramatic action and high-stakes drama. This event has the entire world fall victim to Ultron and his nearly-indestructible army of killer robots. A genocide against humanity is started almost immediately and the heroes are constantly on the verge of collapse. Then, it looks like they have a chance at victory, albeit at great cost, but this puts them in just as bad of a situation. Along the way, heavy-hitters, like She-Hulk and Luke Cage, are dealing out impressive blows and other heroes are just managing to get by. All of this makes for an incredibly exciting read.

Additional positives can be found in the creativity of the comic’s alternate timelines. First, the collection essentially imagines a world where Ultron has “won”. This world is as cold and oppressive as one would expect from a robot looking to stamp out humanity. However, it also comes with an unexpected, yet still in-character, touch of hatred and sheer malevolence, an illogical failing of Ultron’s that helps him stand out from other villainous AIs.

Then, the collection imagines a world without Hank Pym. This world directly addresses Marvel history, quickly referencing the origin of the Avengers and the Kree/Skrull War. It also features a creative take on the world’s power landscape, all of which stems from a battle between science and magic where magic “won”. Both of these worlds are interesting and their exploration is compelling.

The problems in Age of Ultron start to become more apparent as soon as readers look past the intense displays of drama and action, with a main problem coming from a lack of explanation. The disparity of Ultron’s dominance over all of Marvel’s heroes is explained by the fact that he is launching his attack from the future. However, by the event’s conclusion, it is not clear how he was able to build up his forces in the future, why he chose to attack at that specific time, or what is preventing him from simply relaunching this attack again. Additional unexplained questions pop up from the inconsistencies in the heroes’ power levels, Spider-Man’s personality seemingly not reacting to the changes from the Superior Spider-Man series, and the question of why the time-paradox Wolverine had to be killed. These problems prevent any sort of in-depth look at this comic’s events.

In addition, the volume’s moral message comes across poorly and even trips over itself. It starts out rather clear: changing the past is wrong. However, at the comic’s conclusion, changing the past is the only way the entire planet is saved. This conclusion tries to show that some consequences have occurred, as a result of changes to the timestream, but none of these are expanded upon, here, enough to have an impact on this story. In the end, it feels like the event is trying to make some sort of commentary, but this commentary is rather weak.

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Art

Age of Ultron kicks off with several chapters of awesome artwork. Bryan Hitch makes the over-the-top events of this comic feel as real and intense as possible. Characters look great, the battles occurring between them are epic, and several full-page spreads help to perfectly punctuate key moments. However, the visual highpoints here come from Hitch’s cityscapes. Whether they are from above New York, look over the Savage Land, or anywhere else around the world, the amazing views in this comic help to provide a visual reminder that this is a story with high-stakes. All in all, Hitch’s work here is great and looks wonderful.

Then, the collection shifts to artwork mostly provided by Brandon Peterson. These chapters do not look quite as nice and are a noticeable dip in quality after the collection’s killer start. There are also more moments here where characters have strange facial expressions or where a lack of detail makes a scene look a bit strange. However, the artwork is still structured well and there are a few pages that are undeniably impressive. Though Age of Ultron‘s second half is not as visually pleasing as its first, it ends up looking alright. 

Continuity

Age of Ultron technically spins out of the Avengers series but is mostly a standalone event.

Age of Ultron crosses over with a number of different comic titles, all of which are collected in the Age of Ultron Companion. For more information about exactly how these comics connect see our Age of Ultron Reading Order. These include:

• Fantastic Four #5AU
• The Superior Spider-Man #6AU
• Avengers Assemble #14AU-15AU
• Wolverine & the X-Men #27AU
• Ultron #1AU
• Uncanny Avengers #8AU
• Fearless Defenders #4AU
• Age of Ultron #10AI

The conclusion of Age of Ultron causes changes that go on to directly impact a number of different comics. This includes:

• The appearance of Angela in Guardians of the Galaxy #5, collected in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Angela (Review).
• The source of problems in Indestructible Hulk #11-15, collected in Indestructible Hulk Vol. 3: S.M.A.S.H. Time (Review).
• The basis for the Avengers A.I. series, starting with Avengers A.I. Vol. 1: Human After All.
• Galactus’ role in Hunger, collected in Cataclysm: The Ultimates’ Last Stand.

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• A number of references are made to the creation of Ultron. This was originally shown back in Avengers #58, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 6 (Review).
• A number of references are made to the Skrull invasion of Earth. This came to a head in Secret Invasion.
• Ultron’s last known whereabouts are mentioned. This is a direct reference to his role in Annihilation: Conquest (Review) (Reading Order).
• Vision’s origins, originally detailed across Avengers #57-58, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 6 (Review), are mentioned several times.
• Vision’s marriage to Scarlett Witch occurred in Giant-Size Avengers #4, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 14 (Review).
• Vision was destroyed back in Chaos War: Dead Avengers, collected in Chaos War: Avengers. 
• The Kree/Skrull War (Review) (Reading Order) is brought up.
• The Avenger’s encounter with Dragon Man is brought up. This encounter occurred in Avengers #42, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 5.