JUST KIDDING!!!
That should be the secondary title of Age of Ultron #9. For the last three issues, writer Brian Michael Bendis has forced us to follow him down a convoluted path. The story where Ultron enslaves and lays waste to most of humanity is bypassed for a story involving a world that sprang up after Wolverine killed Hank Pym. Confused? Okay, let me explain. No, there is no time, let me sum up.
Ultron rises in the normal Marvel Timeline and destroys everything. He kills superheroes, drives the remaining ones underground and forces humans to live in secret. In order to stop this, Wolverine goes back in time and kills Hank Pym before Pym can create Ultron. When Wolverine gets back, he finds a new future that’s just as bad – one where the Avengers are gone, Thor is dead, magic and science are at war and a deformed Tony Stark controls everything.
Age of Ultron’s last three issues have taken a strong original story and soiled it with an unnecessary sidetrack. Now, mired in that storyline, Bendis decides it’s time to go back to his original idea. Wolverine travels back to when he’s about to kill Hank Pym and attempts to stop himself from doing it. The conversation, coupled with a confused Hank Pym dealing with dual clawed heroes he’s yet to meet, is clever and entertaining, I’ll give Bendis that. Sadly, any entertainment value is largely lost by more convoluted plot ideas. By the end of issue #9, the laundry list of what Pym has to do is a bit excessive, as is the ease by which Pym accepts his fate.
Those are really just nitpicks. My overall problem is the lack of cohesion within the story. Age of Ultron started out very powerful, a look at heroes who have lost their will and feel truly beaten. Then, suddenly, we’re dealing with another world after Wolverine slaughters Hank Pym. It would have taken one issue to show how screwed up that timeline is. Wolverine could have seen it, and gone back to fix the mistake. The excessive nature by which Bendis slams this post-Pym world on us, smacks more of his dedication to uplifting the legacy of Hank Pym, than what works for Age of Ultron.
I have been met with resistance over my idea that Hank Pym is a peripheral character, one whose passing would not lead to such fall out. I can see how the first part of that statement could be in error, but I stand by the last part. Bendis turned Age of Ultron into “Hank Pym Is Awesome,” and that kills the power of the original story. Some have spent a lengthy amount of time connecting dots for me and explaining how this might have led to that, which really just proves my point. When you have to over-explain a story, it usually means it doesn’t work. Pym’s death would have been tragic, but I still feel the destruction Bendis had it cause was more for his personal desire to build Pym up, than anything that had to do with Age of Ultron.
Two people, again, handle art duties. Brandon Peterson takes care of the present day action. His work is solid as ever. Peterson has an eye for detail, especially in destruction. He pencils are thinner than most, so he can cram more detail into what he does. The fall out of Morgana Le Fey’s attack is wonderful, especially the small details like The Thing with huge holes in him. At times, Peterson’s faces – especially with Wolverine – are a little off, but overall his work stands tall.
Carlos Pacheco is in charge of all “past” artwork. In other words, everything when Wolverine travels back to confront Pym, is Pacheco. This is the stuff I enjoy the most. Not because it’s better than what Peterson is doing, it’s just work I like seeing. There’s a subtlety to comic book art that’s been lost over the years. Artists have become so involved with presenting hyper-reality that they don’t let comics be comics. Pacheco does that with his “past” work and it really helps give a time frame to what’s going on.
Age of Ultron has become a cleverly disguised re-launch of Hank Pym via Brian Michael Bendis. While I have no problem with that, it’s disappointing that the powerful story started early on will never be fully fleshed out.
(4.5 Art, 3 Story)
