REVIEW: “Age of Ultron” #1

(Marvel Comics, 2013)

Review by Chris Ambrosio

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrator: Bryan Hitch
Colors: Paul Mounts
Letters: Cory Petit
Editor: Tom Brevoort

I’m new to Bag and Board so go easy on me now guys, this is also my first review, you can say I’m a nooby. I’ve been looking forward to reading Age of Ultron for quite some time now, ever since I’ve read “Age of Ultron coming soon” in the back of The Avengers, AU free comic in May of 2011 issue #0.1, yeah I’ve been kinda sitting on the edge of my seat waiting or this block buster of a miniseries. The publishers over at Marvel Comics wanted this thing to seem HUGE, and when it finally came out for most, it wasn’t so huge. People were expecting the Hulk and they got the Ant Man. For me on the other hand I couldn’t get my jaw up off the pizzeria table when I first opened AU. Simply outstanding in my opinion (if I had one).

Concerning Brian Michael Bendis it seems that he is the actual Ultron of Marvel comics. Everywhere I look his name is there; Avengers Assemble, Uncanny X-men, The Avengers versus the X-men and many other big titles. He is Odin to Marvel comics to me and the rest of his readers out there, he brings storytelling to a whole new level. Character development is always on my mind and something I demand for while reading something new, or old for that matter. I like to see characters progress, change, adapt and face new challenges over time, Bendis never seems to fail and delivers just that. He always leaves me hanging over a cliff with a broken latch, just eagerly waiting to pick up next month’s issue, in this case only a few more days until Age of Ultron #2.

Enough about Bendis I’m sure you all know plenty about him, moving along to the actual comic review. Some history on Ultron: Ultron was created by Henry Pym (Ant Man, also created the “Pym particles”). Pym created Ultron using his own brainwaves, giving Ultron humanoid characteristics, which in most cases isn’t too good of an idea because human nature is initially of evil descent. Ultron made his first cameo in The Avengers #54 (July of 1968) he wasn’t named in the issue just glimpsed at. He made his first appearance in issue #55 of The Avengers (August of 1968). This issue starts off with a two page spread of Manhattan destroyed, nothing is intact. The point of this is to establish the setting and feeling of the first issue and the entire series for that matter.

Moving along we see old worn out beaten down houses, filled with gangs of apocalyptic murderous thugs, when an arrow goes flying through one of the thugs necks we know this issue is going to be based around Hawkeye. Now being that this issue is mainly printed to acquire the setting and feeling of post-apocalyptic Manhattan this issue is perfect for a rescue mission, since there doesn’t have to be any character build up between one another. We do see how happy “Spidey” is to be rescued by Hawkeye though. As Hawkeye and Spider-Man are fleeing from the bad guys, we see the genocidal Ultron robots, for the first time. This is all we really see of them though, they request all human life forms to exit the building. The Ultrons then lay waste to the building the bad guys were holding up in. We go to Hawkeye and Spider-Man now traveling through post-apocalyptic New York City. This adds onto the mood and setting of the book, which is the main focus for the readers. We reach the vantage point where what’s left of the super human and mutant population remain, not many of them now. Hawkeye and Spider-Man walk in only to be harassed by Tony Stark. Hawkeye and Spider-Man are held down and tested by Stark, to see if Ultron planted them with anything. This is significant in ways to show how stressful and tough it is to be surviving during the AU. Our remaining survivors are; Hawkeye, Hammerhead, The Owl, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, She Hulk, Iron Man, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Beast, Sue Storm and Captain America. Which brings me to the next point, the very last panel leads us to believe all of this mess is “Caps” fault? Then the last page is Captain America sitting down hands in his knees. Could it be? Captain America has brought upon the apocalypse? Now being a bit of a comic buff I try to keep up with new and ongoing series. I was under the impression that Peter Parker was no longer Spider-Man, is this supposed to be an alternate universe. I for one am puzzled at the particular event. Maybe it is just me. What do you guys know about this? Well, there you go my review for the Age of Ultron #1.

Let’s talk about the visuals of the book now. Bryan Hitch does beautiful work with this book, as he always does. He changed up some of the features on our usual heroes, making them look more on edge and worried, even scared for their lives. Which is a very interesting take on some of our favorite characters. The art in this book takes up most of the plate, usually in books written by Bendis there are more words then action which is awesome for me. Here he had little to work with, but the comic still came out suspenseful and kick$&@!  With the shock and awe pages when the Ultron robots attacked it was kind of hard to cope with. When I first saw the shaken up pages I was completely taken away from the story and focused on just the blurry images for quite some time, nonetheless it was still cool to see that incorporated into the pages of a comic book. Out of a 5 I give this comic a 4. Why the missing point well as I stated I love character development, even though this issue wasn’t for it they did touch base on it while meeting the other survivors. If you aren’t going to go in depth with it might as well just left it out. Have any of you read this issue? Let me know what your opinions in it are. I’d love to hear how you think it should progress from here on. What should the main focus of AU? What are your thoughts on the CCO Joe Quesada taking on the last issue? Good or bad?

Thanks guys hope you enjoyed my review for Age of Ultron issue #1.  I should be back Wednesday with a review for issue #2.

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Follow Chris Ambrosio on Twitter: @grivpls for his personal thoughts on comics, video games, movies and more.