Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Age Of Ultron #2
Marvel Comics
Bendis, Hitch, Neary & Mounts
Age of Ultron continues to read as an epic in the making that simply has no grounding or back story to give the reader even the faintest of context to the greater Marvel Universe continuity. Taking this as a singular issue very little occurs in it, as Bendis milks the cliffhanger from the first book all the way through this book. The artwork leaves a lot to be desired in this issue creating a very sub par book overall. I'm sensing this event is for the die-hard fan and not the casual passerby.
The opening eight pages or so helps to introduce a pair of characters that are apparently still making sense of the new world order. These pages have very little dialogue and represent the best of the artwork and story in the entire comic book. The wasteland scenes are powerful and extremely effective in terms of telling a part of the larger story. The characters seem realistically confused and disoriented as they try to get traction in the destroyed world.
When the book picks up the Spider-Man thread the book falls completely apart. Spider-Man attempts to tell the story of how the Earth ended up under Ultron's thumb and how he came to be a prisoner. However, Bendis continues to tease the true story and really leaves something to be desired in the characterizations of the greater cast. Not only does the book come across as an elseworlds story, but it also feels like its not even written with any character's personalities in mind. The dialogue could be switched to any other character's face and it would read the same. When you couple this with little story you have a big problem.
The artwork is a mess in the second half of the book. The most troubling aspect of the art is the anatomy of the characters. Necks are too long, arms are twisted in unnatural positions, faces blot and shrink panel to panel. The details simply lack in the second half of the book and really make for a distracting read.
Age of Ultron is billed as an epic. It reads like an epic with big scenes and powerful dialogue to punctuate the end of scenes. However, the story feels overrun with hollow characters and ill-timed mysteries where opportunities present itself to inform the reader of something useful. When you write for the collection the single issue suffers and this is a prime example of that.
2 out of 5 Geek Goggles
