Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Age Of Ultron #1
Marvel Comics
Bendis, Hitch, Neary & Mounts
You can't judge a book by its cover. Age of Ultron has everything going for it: plenty of hype; big name creators; beautiful, heavy stock, raised cover and a compelling opening between the covers. However, the comic book fails to establish anything that anchors this book into the Marvel Universe proper and it is a big failing point if it hopes to hook a reader in that isn't tuned in to Ultron or the Avengers franchise. If this book didn't have the banner of an event and was a random Marvel book it would be a very good read. Carrying the heavy burden of being labeled the next big thing it reads as a lost story that gives the reader the nagging feeling that they missed something. A good read, but an editorial failure.
The book fails in the first three pages and never recovers. The opening describes only what Ultron is and whom created him. That's it. From there we are told this story takes place "now" and then we get glimpses of a destroyed society like something out of Terminator. The comic never explains anything further than this. Sure, the payoff is to come later on the series but this comic book doesn't give me a reason to come back if I'm left wondering about whom Ultron is and how this book fits into the Marvel Universe or feeling I need to go back and find some other comic to connect the dots. Perhaps it's because it reminds me of another Marvel mini-series that just wrapped up a couple of months ago.
Jonathan Maberry wrote a four issue story called, "Marvel Universe vs The Avengers" that followed Hawkeye through the burned out society of the Marvel Universe. Hawkeye struggles to hold the Avengers together while running around behind the scenes hoping to remain undetected. It's fantastic. The difference was the Maberry story was super-hero cannibals chasing him and this one is artificial intelligence robots apparently. The books feel identical, but the key difference is the reader easily assumes upfront that the Maberry book is futuristic or even alternate universe whereas the Ultron one is clearly not based on the "now" tag.
As I mentioned the contents of the book are very good. The artwork is lovely and it tells a really nice story. Bendis goes light on the dialogue and the art supports that storytelling direction very well. Overall, a nicely drawn book that gives an epic feel as if it were the opening to a big budget movie.
It's way too early to tell what this book really is going to become. For now, it feels like a dystopian future book that you've probably read a different flavor of a dozen times. Somehow this book jams itself into existing, NOW!, continuity but that really isn't explored at all here. It seems like this book caters to the diehard Ultron or Avengers fans. Perhaps I am put off because I already read the Maberry story, but this book really left me cold. The comic has an awesome cover though.
2 out of 5 Geek Goggles
