Guardians of the Galaxy #5

Guardians of the Galaxy #5 – Introduces a Neil Gaiman / Todd McFarlane character Angela from the pages of Spawn.  This comic is one that is experiencing the aftermath of the Age of Ultron and the disruption of the Marvel Comic timeline.  Peter Quill goes looking for answers to his vision of the break in the universe while the rest of the team heads off to protect Earth from Angela.  Angela has no known record of existing according to the Guardians.  The dialog for this story was interesting and well written.  I like what has happened so far. 

Indestructible Hulk Agent of T.I.M.E. #11

Indestructible Hulk Agent of T.I.M.E. #11 – alright that was a very fun read.  The story continues the trend of Hulk / Banner stories being smart.  The timeline / universe has been broken for a number of reasons related in no small part to the Age of Ultron storyline.  S.H.I.E.L.D was trying to make a fix but failed.  It turns out that only the Hulk can survive this journey through time.  We are introduced to Zarrko a time traveling villain who wants to help in no small part because this is the Zarrko before he became a bad guy fighting the Hulk and Thor.  Zarrko has provided technology from the future to try and help fix the timeline.  While I agree sending the Hulk out to fix something as breakable as time is a bad idea this would not be a Hulk comic without him.  So there was some smart sounding dialog along with some nifty art.  The issue ends with the Hulk entering the time stream with a robot version of Bruce Banner along for the ride.  They emerge from the timeline at the feet of some cowboys who do the only smart thing when faced with the Hulk, RUN!  But when the camera shifts we see that it was not the Hulk who scared the cowboys but it was a T-rex.  If I was not clear I enjoyed this comic and thought it was not just entertaining but good.

Hunger #1 - Age of Ultron Aftermath

Hunger  #1 – Age of Ultron Aftermath.  It figures that Rick Jones would have something to do with the end of a Universe.  I just kind of expected it to be the end of our universe – but I kid - I always liked Rick Jones.  The problem is he was just in way to many other comics as the side kick for way to many years so what to do with him now?  Apparently he has been working for a group of Watchers as a Guardian of the Universe and it looks like the Ultimates Universe is where this story takes place.  Rick is visiting Earth to get a burger but gets grabbed by his Watcher and taken to a battle in space between the Kree and Chitauri to observe and not be seen apparently.  They watch the fighting until that Universes version of Galactus shows up (apparently just a giant robot swarm in that universe) and then something weirder happens.  Then another Galactus shows up from our Universe because of how Wolverine and others broke time in the Age of Ultron comic.  So our Galactus attacks the Ultimate Galactus and instead of absorbing (eating) each other they merge into a Super Glactus.  I said things got weird; the story was interesting so I hope the rest of the story is good.  To be continued….

Age of Ultron #10 A.I.

Age of Ultron Book 10 AI was a retelling of Hank Pym’s life at the end of the Age of Ultron book.  I do not know if this is just an advertisement for the Ant-Man movie in production.  It could just be a prologue to the Avengers A.I. comic coming up next.  But the creative team sure wanted to re-tell the origin story of Hank Pym in a bad way.  I am sure there is a good reason here, but as a long time comic book reader I have to say there was no reason for this comic book.  Really it was a waste of effort to create and read.  But if you know nothing about Hank Pym and all his alter egos this might be worth your time to read.

Avengers A.I. #1

Avengers A.I. #1 is a new comic spinning off from the Age of Ultron mega super cross over comic series of the moment.  In this comic Hank Pym uses his genius to fight against an A.I. he accidentally created when he helped defeat Ultron.  This new fast replicating A.I. is apparently like Ultron and is out to kill all humans.  Being the first issue of a team book most of the story revolves around bringing the team together.  So far I think I like the Doombot (a robot built by Doctor Doom that is used as a stand in when the writers do not want Doom captures or blown up dramatically – there are a lot of them) the best at least it is honest with itself and others on the team.  A team consisting of Hank Pym, Monica Chang (director of S.H.I.E.L.D. A.I.), Victor Mancha (Ultron’s Son IE Ultron built him), the Vision (Victor’s older brother), and the Doombot could just be a very entertaining comic.  If for no other reason than Hank Pym is overly enthusiastic and positive about the whole adventure.  Good Stuff!

Age of Ultron #10

Age of Ultron Book 10 was very interesting.  The time travel, the secret messages and the fight with Ultron was well done.  But after 10 issues of the main book, a number of “tie-in” stories that actually had nothing to do with fighting Ultron or the main story at all.  After literally shaking up the Marvel Universe and making massive changes by killing off major characters.  All we end up with is teasers for new comic books.  I find this very disappointing.  Ultron is a cool comic book villain yet in the end nothing changes.  Not only does nothing actually change in the Marvel Universe but the last few pages are splash page advertisements for other comic books.  This is the kind of crap that makes me grumpy.

The Fearless Defenders #4AU (Age of Ultron)!!

The Fearless Defenders #4AU (Age of Ultron) was interesting.  Unlike the other comics based in this alternative timeline the creative team did something interesting with the setting.  The story is based on Hippolyta getting revenge on the person who killed her and her people the Amazons.  We get to see Latveria in this timeline and it is interesting.  I especially liked seeing the Destroyer (the Asgardian super weapon) laid out dead across part of the capitol.  The story goes that for some reason Doom has been holding gladiatorial games since the end of the magic technology war.  It turns out this was a distraction as the real power behind the thrown was Aries God of War.  Lots of interesting otherworld stuff happens and the good god wins and rallies her Amazons to fight.  Though I don’t know what will become of this since these issues tend to be one shot stories.  I am starting to think this Age of Ultron minus Pym is going to be the next world / timeline that will dump characters onto the main marvel timeline.  Oh I should mention that Wolverine, the Hulk and Colonel America have interesting Cameos along with other characters from the regular Defenders story line.  So I give this comic a good rating.

Age of Ultron Book 8!

Age of Ultron Book 8 was a bit of a letdown.  I thought I had bought a book continuing the Age of Ultron storyline.  Instead all I found was another X-man with guest stars from a variant universe.  This was an entire issue that did nothing but introduces another timeline / universe and somehow hopes we care about character we had never seen before.  I know I said I was looking forward to the next issue but that was with the expectation that this new word and characters would advance the Ultron plot.  I was rather disappointed with the focus on Tony Stark / Iron Man ruling the future because if I wanted to read that comic book all I have to do is go buy the Civil War storyline and after.  I was hoping to see the Wolverines meet or Sue Storm meet her family, or Doctor Strange does something cool or any of the other variant heroes do something.  It is bad when one of the tie in comics is better than the core book.  This was a disappointing issue.

Avengers Assemble #15AU (Age of Ultron)!!!

Avengers Assemble #15AU (Age of Ultron) was interesting but in the end it felt more like a checklist or inventory of what happened to the super powered people in the United Kingdom – especially in London.  I enjoyed the Doctor Who reference coming from the Ultrons arguing with a civilian.  We had Captain Britain, Excalibur, the Black Knight, a second rate Hero called Computer Graham and a young lady with magic soccer shoes.   After introducing all the players the Heroes except for the Black Knight and Excalibur head off to fight Ultron.  It turns out that Computer Graham’s power is to interface with computer games and Captain Marvel and Captain Britain and the kid fight to get Graham close to Ultron.  They hope Graham’s power will help them defeat Ultron.  But they manage to only shut down an Ultron node while getting everyone killed.  It was rather a downer and while I am sure the creative group was hoping for some “triumph of the human spirit” feel, but all we really got was all the fighting heroes died.   These were the heroes that could hold off Ultron and gather not just survivors but supplies to keep the survivors alive.

Age of Ultron #6!

Age of Ultron Book Six was interesting.  The heroes were broken into two teams in this issue one went to the future and the other went to the recent past.  The two heroes who went to the past were Wolverine and Sue Storm.  They went into the past to kill Hank Pym in an attempt to prevent Ultron from ever being created.  The other larger team went to the future in some stupid plan to attack Ultron in his future where he dominates the world.  In the past Wolverine and Sue Storm steal a flying car from a youngish Nick Fury and fly to Manhattan in search of Pym.  Considering the importance of the situation there was a lot of talking.  The group in the future did not fare well because well they were trying to sneak up on a world controlling robot that had had forever to prepare. 

Age of Ultron #5

Age of Ultron Book Five was good.  There was very little action beyond the Red Hulk getting zapped by the original Nick Furry.  The story starts out with a flashback to a few months ago when Hank Pym Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Reed Richards fixed the Vision.  We then flash to current events where we find Austin Texas had not yet been destroyed for some reason, until now.  We then get to see the planning and arming session of the Good Guys in Nick Fury’s secret bunker.  The Red Hulk gets Ares God of War’s axe and Tony gets his old not networked or hackable by Ultron armor.   The plan turns out to be part of the group using Doctor Doom’s time platform to attack Ultron in the future.  Once they are gone Wolverine decides to power up the platform to go back into time to kill Hank Pym before Pym builds Ultron. 

Ultron #1AU (Age of Ultron)!

Ultron #1AU or how Ultron’s child deals with the end of the world.  Ultron’s child is a cyborg named Victor Mancha he was a member of the teen super group the Runaways – they were all children of super villains.  This is Victor’s story of how he tries to save any humans he could find and how that did not work out so well.  I’m not really sure what the point of this comic was to be as it appears to be a one shot comic.  In the end people live and people die and the comic ends with Victor fighting an overwhelming number of Ultrons.

Avengers Assemble #14AU (Age of Ultron)

Avengers Assemble #14AU is where the Black Widow has a very very bad day.  This is also one of the comics that contradict the main storyline where Ultron takes over in the night and everyone just wakes up with Ultron in control.  Anyway lots of people die and Ultron uses way too many different ways to kill people when just sending out bots would have worked.  The comic ends when the Black Widow meats up with Moon Knight at the S.H.I.E.L.D slash Nick Furry bunker.

Age of Ultron #4

Age of Ultron Book Four was interesting.  The Luke Cage and She-Hulk plan failed badly with the She-Hulk throwing Luke Cage out of the building hoping he would get what they learned about Ultron to the other heroes.  The other survivors made their way to the Savage Lands.  The Red Hulk and Taskmaster disagreed and the Red Hulk kills the Taskmaster and then the Red Hulk exits Chicago.  The Moon Knight and Black Widow were hiding in a Nick Furry bolt hole and found that Nick Furry had a plan for when Ultron took over the world or at the very least the end of the world.  When the group of Heroes from the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier reaches the Savage Lands they find that the Savage Lands had also been attacked by Ultron and as in other parts of the world there were survivors; they also find the remains of an Avengers Quinjet.  Almost immediately they meet up with Ka-Zar: Lord of the Savage Lands who leads them to his village.  Here they find a dying Luke Cage whom relays the information from when the She-Hulk and he met with the Vision.  It turns out that Ultron is attacking the world from the future and that is why no one has been able to find where Ultron was hiding.   With that information provided the three groups of heroes meet up with the Red Hulk, Moon Knight and Black Widow make themselves known.  It is now time to go get Ultron the Black Widow says.

Age of Ultron #3!!

Age of Ultron #3 was good.  This issue moved the story along as the Heroes have finally set on a plan.  She-Hulk and Luke Cage are going to try and infiltrate Ultron’s Headquarters and try to learn something about what Ultron wants and why there are survivors.  That plan has Luke Cage “Selling” or trading She-Hulk to Ultron.  They got the idea from Hammerhead and the Owl who until killed claimed to have bought safety from Ultron by trading (selling) it Heroes.  We then cut to Chicago where we see the Red Hulk, the Taskmaster and Black Panther trying to capture part of an Ultron Unit to examine.  This gives us a chance to see the Red Hulk have a big fight trying to buy time for the others to escape, unfortunately the Black Panther dies; it appears that the Taskmaster does escape.  We then return to Luke Cage and She-Hulk whom are brought to see not Ultron but The Vision (dun dun dun… cue dramatic music).  This issue was a great improvement over issue two as something happened. 

Superior Spider-Man #6AU

The Superior Spider-Man #6AU (Age of Ultron) was interesting.  I am still not a fan of the Superior Spider-Man and could rant about how evil the people whom allowed Doctor Octopus to kill Peter Parker and replace Parker’s mind with his own.  This story starts right at the start of events in Age of Ultron #3 before the She-Hulk and Luke Cage plan can start.  Spider-Man is plotting a way to escape from his helpers and destroy Ultron on his own.  Tony Stark (Iron Man) tells Spider-Man that the Horizon Labs survived and Tony had a way to destroy Ultron if he could get a hold of some tech from the labs.  Spider-Man agreed to help but as soon as Quicksilver dropped him off Spider-Man betrayed the other survivors and tried to take down Ultron on his own using his own robot control powers.  Spider-Man almost succeeds but was tricked into a false fight and is almost killed.  He attempts to carry out Tony Stark’s plan but fails at that as well.  Spider-Man barely escapes and returns to give the bad news to the other remaining Heroes.  The story ends with Doctor Octopus realizing how good it is to have friends (queue the G.I. Joe “And knowing is half the Battle” music) just as the She-Hulk and Luke Cage are getting ready for their mission.

Fantastic Four #5AU (Age of Ultron)

Fantastic Four #5AU (Age of Ultron) or we get to kill off the Fantastic Four.  This is the story of how Sue Storm is one of the survivors hiding in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier in the main Age of Ultron comic book.  So the story starts sometime in the past or future and the Fantastic Four – The Thing, Human Torch, Reid Richards and Sue Storm leave their children behind to go help defend Earth.  They arrive too late and they are all killed off one by one in very dramatic fashion.  Sue somehow survives even though she was being hunted by a pack of Ultrons.  She was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building by the She-Hulk.  The story ends with the kids back on the ship wondering what are they going to do now.  Considering who they are and the powers they have shown in the past there is little they cannot do to fix the timeline.  The question is if the writers will allow them to be more than another sideshow in the Age of Ultron story arc.

I hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July!

Age of Ultron #2 !!!

Age of Ultron #2 was just a long and uninformative monolog by Spider-Man.  We got to see the Black Widow and Moon Knight in the ruins of San Francisco but that was just more set up of the main story.  We do get to see Moon Knight kill a guy that looks a lot like Paul Giamatti before the guy could steal from the Black Widow.   This issue seemed to just be a holding spot and stalling until Captain America finally says something.  The cover art is completely and totally false and misleading.