In all event books, good or bad, there is an issue where nothing happens except our heroes turn a corner and begin down the final road of the arc. Age Of Ultron #5 is just such a book. While not as thrilling as the last four, issue five is a necessary evil. The heroes are rising, the enemy is in view and the conclusion of this ten-issue story begins to gain momentum. Writer Brian Michael Bendis manages to keep Age Of Ultron #5 interesting by adding a wrinkle. A deadly wrinkle that’s most recognizable by “snikt snikt.”
Let’s start at the beginning shall we? Age Of Ultron #5 opens in the past, with Tony Stark, Reed Richards and Hank Pym examining Vision. Seems the spectacular biomechanism has stopped healing himself and the three most gifted minds in the Marvel Universe are stumped as to why. Jump to the present, where the few remaining X-Men and Avengers are making their way through the Savage Land in hopes of finding a hidden Nick Fury lair.
Upon finding the lair and Fury, part of the team decides to jump forward in time to stop Ultron in the future, where he’s laying low. Meanwhile, Wolverine, our friend of the snikt snikt, has other plans. He wants to be sent back in time to kill Hank Pym and wipe out Ultron’s existence. Naturally, the team is not big on slicing up an Avenger so they nix Wolverine’s idea and head into the future. Wolverine ends the issue explaining that he’s heading back in time to kill Pym and he’s not asking permission.
Plotwise, Age Of Ultron #5 is nothing to get excited about, but it does have some great points. Bendis allows the plot to remain straightforward so he can bring value to the book in another way. What really matters here are the emotions from our heroes. We’ve never seen the Avengers this broken, this unable to cope with their situation. Tony Stark’s nervous conspiracy theory ramblings about Ultron, the unsure nature that Captain America displays, even the “kill Pym” plan of Wolverine, it’s all showing how quickly the threads of our heroes are unraveling. You care about what’s happening in issue 5 because of the human element Bendis weaves in, not the arc or the action.
Bryan Hitch’s art, while not bad, is a little less impressive than it has been. The main problem are the faces, which seem rushed. For instance, in the opening spread, Reed Richards looks alarmingly like John Cena. Then, in another shot on the same page, Richards face has one eye open and one closed, giving the FF leader an air of being completely smashed. Most of issue 5 seems rushed, though the two-page splash of Ultron’s servant robots destroying a town is awesome.
Paul Neary’s inks are clean. The way he highlights Nick Fury’s scruff is impressive, the inks give it a real texture. Nothing Neary is doing is standout work, but he also has much less to work with. This holds true with Paul Mounts’ colors. They are passable, they tell the story, but nothing that would command you to take notice.
Age Of Ultron #5 is a decent issue made better by the emotions Bendis writes into an otherwise uneventful script.
(3 Story, 2.5 Art)
